Hey guys! I'm on a roll! Here's another chapter. I personally loved this chapter a lot because so much is introduced in this chapter that will be important later on!
Random note because I don't have much else to say other than Review Replies: there was a glitch in the program that tells us about the story traffic, so I, along with other FF writers, was unable to see the hits for my past two chapters. If you didn't know before, I rely on both hits and reviews to give me inspiration to write, so this "blackout" period forced me to only hope that people were reading the story. Thankfully, your reviews kept me going!
Now, it's Review Reply time!
AllIWantForChristmasIsKlaine - Yeah, I miss Matt. I can't help but hope he might come back to the show. Wouldn't it be cool if we learn he was transferred to Carmel High School with Vocal Adrenaline and they Glee club sees him at Regionals or something? Well, I hope it's cool, because it's an idea for my next story ;)
CoolTrainerTerry - Thanks for your review! Fun fact: Reginald was originally going to be a one time event, but I think he might appear throughout the entire story, depending on how I like writing about him. Also, I miss Between The Lions, too... :((
TopHatGirl - Violence is not the answer...okay I can't say that honestly! I've wanted to do that a lot while watching Glee. Also, I know how you feel with the studying. It's a problem I've been fighting for years now.
lost-in-the-lyrics - Thanks! This update wasn't as quick as the last one, but it was kind of quicker than the one before that. :P I don't want to look it up, so I'm going to base this off of my memory: Brittany says "I think the cricket that reads to me at night is stealing my jewelry" in, I THINK, Season 2's Sectional episode. I just gave that cricket a name. Thanks for reading!
Thank you to all of you awesome people who have been reading this story so far! This is your reward: a new chapter!
Disclaimer - I own nothing!
Chapter 9 - Talent
"Someone…stole…the money?" Mercedes repeated in shock.
"…Yeah, probably." Rachel said apologetically.
"We…have…no money?" Mercedes glared at Rachel.
"Well we still have money for food because we carry that on us all the time!" Rachel laughed awkwardly.
She received the look of death from Artie and Mercedes. Matt was pretty sure he heard the sound of growling before Mercedes jumped like a leopard toward Rachel.
Rachel fled, but Mercedes gave chase around the car and eventually around the entire gas station's parking lot.
Artie laughed, whereas Matt just watched in horror.
Quinn returned to the car during the event. She walked toward Artie's seat in the car.
"What's going on?" she asked, watching the chase going on in front of her.
"Rachel got all our money stolen," Artie answered.
"What!" Quinn screamed.
Rachel ran behind Matt, seeking shelter.
"If you hurt me, I will sue!" Rachel screamed over his shoulder.
"What if I kill you?" Mercedes asked.
"Okay, let's be rational here." Matt said, trying to ease Mercedes. "Killing Rachel won't help the situation."
Finn, Puck, Quinn, Kurt and Santana all returned.
"Why were you guys playing tag?" Finn asked.
"We weren't!" Mercedes said, annoyed. "Rachel got our money stolen!"
"What! How?" Puck wondered.
"I left the doors to the car unlocked and now the money isn't there…"
This prompted Santana, Puck, and Finn also proceed to scream with Rachel.
Time passed. Matt and Artie just watched the argument. Tina, Brittany, and Mike joined them.
"Reginald doesn't like arguing…" Brittany whined. Artie and Tina looked at her confusedly. Mike patted her on the back reassuringly.
By then, the argument was very heated. Everyone was screaming at everyone and blaming everyone for everything, except Brittany, Artie, Tina, Mike, and Matt, who didn't want to or know how to deal with this.
"This wouldn't have happened if you decided to get lost, Hudson!" Santana yelled at Finn.
"Well you wouldn't have left me if you hadn't decided yelling at Rachel was so much more important!"
Mercedes was still screaming at Rachel for what happened, and Quinn was trying to convince everyone that they should be focusing on the matter at hand. Any other side arguments had evolved to something completely unrelated.
"They sure can yell…" Tina admitted. "What do you think we should do, Artie?" Tina looked over. Artie had been busy getting his wheelchair set up and was now rolling away, toward the sidewalk.
Tina followed him worriedly, drawing the attention of Matt and Mike. They decided to see what was up, while Brittany just skipped along with them happily.
"Artie, what are you doing?" Tina asked, jogging to catch up with him. By now they were on the sidewalk, heading back the way they drove.
"I'm tired of them," he admitted. "They fight and argue and don't come up with any solutions."
"So where are you planning to go by yourself without a car and money?" Tina's question forced Artie to stop dead in his tracks. Artie turned around to look up at Tina.
"I…I don't know. Maybe we could get lucky and find a miracle or something…"
"Like a cliché movie plot twist?" Brittany asked, having joined the duo just then. "Reginald thinks those are overrated."
"Yeah, I agree with Reginald…whoever he is," Matt said, catching up with them. "I think we should make our own 'miracles' happen." He finger-quoted the word "miracles."
"Matt, that's cheesy." Brittany said. "Hey…where's Mike?"
"He was just right behind me…" They turned around to look further down the sidewalk and noticed his figure.
"Oh, he's staring at a light pole!" Brittany pointed out. Mike was indeed staring at a light pole.
Matt curiously approached Mike to see what was up when he saw the flyer posted on the pole. Matt jogged up and read the paper over Mike's shoulder.
"Talent Show at the City Auditorium! You could win a prize of $5,000! Call to learn more!"
The phone number was posted under the message.
"Wow…talk about a cliché plot twist," Matt murmured.
"What?"
"Never mind…but I have a plan…" Matt smiled slyly.
Matt's plan wasn't as psychotic as Artie, Tina, Brittany, and Mike (understandably) thought.
Call for information.
Enter the talent show.
Get the car without the rest of the Gleeks finding out.
Use a portion of what was left of the gas to drive to the city auditorium.
Use their awesome yet severely underappreciated talent skills to prepare a piece of music.
Win the talent show.
Sit down and have a serious talk with the rest of the Gleeks.
So far, the first four steps of the plan were complete. The talent show was that night, starting at seven, and they had gotten lucky and filled the very last available slot.
Surprisingly, none of the other Gleeks noticed when they left. Matt, Mike, Artie, Tina, and Brittany all agreed that, although having the entire Glee club singing would help performance-wise, it would be virtually impossible to create a great show with twelve disagreeing members.
And now, they sat in the parking lot of the city auditorium, hours before show time and nothing prepared. All they knew is that the show boosters would provide what was necessary: instruments, microphones, etc. They just had to make a performance out of it all.
"So…any ideas on what to sing?" Matt began the discussion.
"Well, I say we make it fun and enjoyable, something like Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne!" Tina offered.
Artie disagreed. "I think, since it's a talent competition, we choose a much more difficult song that shows we have talent, like Seasons of Love from Rent. That way, we would be able to showcase the strength in our vocals, as well as utilize an easy-to-learn instrumental background. It also has pretty powerful lyrics."
"I don't even know that song…" Brittany confessed.
"…Wow." Artie said in disbelief. "Deprived child…well then…"
"We should probably pick something a little more popular and mainstream, but still has everything Artie just mentioned." Mike suggested. "Not that Seasons of Love is bad, I personally love it."
"Why not Firework by Katy Perry?" Brittany asked. "I like that song, it makes me feel happy. Reginald tells me that Katy Perry made it especially for me!" Brittany smiled bubbly.
"I like that song, but…" Tina started, "My favorite part about it is the instrumental background blending in with the voice. The strings are just beautiful in that piece, and they don't seem easy to reproduce."
"True, we could never pull that part off," Artie said, "although we could try an acoustic cover!"
Everyone winced at the thought of that. "Okay, never mind…" Artie took it back.
"I have a great idea!" Matt said, pulling out his iPhone. "You have to check this out." The five Gleeks gathered around Matt. After deleting the seven missed calls from Quinn, Mercedes, and Kurt, Matt went to the video section on his phone. He pulled up one titled "Just a Dream – Me and Mike" and let it play.
It wasn't great quality, but enough to hear what was going on. Mike was sitting at the piano, and started to play a complicated-sounding melody. It was beautiful, but in a sad way. It was just like the original song's guitar part, but in a piano form, thus making it seem a little more heartfelt and full of emotion.
The piano's musical phrase repeated, and Matt is shown at an electric keyboard. The instrument is heard to be set at strings, and he's playing chords and a harmony that compliments the melody brilliantly.
The singing began in the next phrase, with Mike singing the first half of the chorus, Matt singing the other, and the two harmonizing periodically.
Throughout the video, the two demonstrated phenomenal vocal talent as well as instrumental talent, all while pouring heartbroken emotion into every lyric and line. After a dynamic climactic bridge, the song ended as quietly as it began.
"Wow…"
"Wow…"
"Amazing…"
Brittany, Tina, and Artie were in awe.
"We had no idea you guys were such awesome singers!" Tina exclaimed.
"Yeah, you never try out for solos, so we assumed you guys couldn't sing!" Artie admitted.
"Thanks!" Mike said.
"Although I can't help but feel that it was missing something," Matt admitted. "Like…perhaps a bit of percussion? And background vocals would be amazing as well."
"Then that's where we come in!" Artie suggested.
It was thirty minutes before the talent competition would start. Quinn, Mercedes, and the rest of the Gleeks had texted Mike, Matt, Tina, Artie, and Brittany numerous times, but Mike finally responded with a text saying "7:00. City Auditorium. Be there" as well as giving the address to their location. All the performers were backstage getting ready for the start. The Gleeks were in a circle, warming up vocally.
They had just finished when a teenage girl walked up to them.
"Hi, I just wanted to say, I've only heard you warm up, but you guys sound amazing!" she said. The girl looked about their age, and had short, black hair. She sort of looked like Tina, in fact.
"Oh, thanks!" Artie said.
"Where did you guys learn how to sing like that?" she wondered.
"Ohio! We're in a Glee club called New Directions," Mike explained.
"Interesting, I've never heard of them…I'm Rumiko, by the way!"
"Nice to meet you!" Tina said, shaking her hand. The girl proceeded to shake the rest of the Gleeks' hands.
"Are you in the talent show?" Brittany asked.
"No, but my grandmother is. She wants to win the prize because it would make life financially easier."
Another case of money problems, the Gleeks thought. But did they deserve the prize more?
Rachel, Finn, and the gang all arrived at the location Mike texted them, having used almost all of their gas as well.
"They better have a good reason for this," Santana said angrily. "It's not cool ditching us like that and making us waste gas."
"Whatever, let's just find them!" Mercedes said.
Annoyed, the entire group entered the building. They found themselves in a huge lobby, currently packed with people. Two sets of double doors were on either side of the far wall. A huge banner stretching from above one door to the next informed the Gleeks why they were here. It read: "23rd Annual Summer Talent Show!"
"Those guys entered a talent show!" Rachel exclaimed, "Without me! And they think they're going to win?"
"You have no idea how bad I want to pop your giant airhead, Berry." Santana said angrily.
Mercedes was looking around the huge room and past the crowd of people. "From all these posters, it looks like there's a grand prize of five grand!"
"No way!" The rest of the Gleeks looked around to verify the information.
"So…why didn't they tell us about it?" Quinn wondered. Before they could speculate, a familiar face walked up to greet them.
"Hey, look who it is!" she said. They recognized the face and the voice as the jovial waitress from Applebee's. "What are you folks doing here?"
"We're here to, uh…" Finn tried to figure out why they were here in the first place. "…to see our friends perform!"
"Is that so?" she said, "Well, I wish them the best of luck, but they have some big competition ahead of them."
"Like what?" Puck asked.
"Like Adalia, of course!"
The Gleeks looked puzzled.
"Oh, that's right; you guys must not be from here." The waitress explained; Adalia was a blind, elderly woman and a local to the town. She also happened to be homeless; she lost her husband and her home in a fire. Her granddaughter, who lived with her, is all she has left now. For years, she had been entering this competition to win money to get back on her feet, but every year, she would only get second place to someone else. "Gwyneth Paltrow," she told them.
"I love her!" Quinn exclaimed loudly. Santana shushed her.
"Yeah, she got her start in this little town, believe it or not. But now, she's gone and moved on to other things, so everyone is expecting and hoping for Adalia finally to win the prize she deserves. I'm here rooting her on!"
"Wow…that's an intense story…" Puck said.
The Gleeks all had the same thought: they needed the money to keep going on their road trip, but practically stealing it from someone who might deserve it more would be unfair. They didn't know what Mike, Matt, Tina, Artie, and Brittany had planned, but they knew about the talent of which they were capable. Once again, the Gleeks had absolutely no idea how to react to the situation at hand.
So, personally, I loved that chapter. Things heat up in the next chapter.
Disclaimer #2 - I don't own Adalia. AllIWantForChristmasIsKlaine, the winner of the contest, created the character! I just loved the idea for her, so she's going to play a pretty big role in this story. Thanks, AllIWantForChristmasIsKlaine! (Two things about your username. 1. It takes forever to type. 2. I got confused because I think you had it as something else a while ago xD )
Now, about that song. It's a great song. It's my favorite song. It's "Just a Dream", originally by Nelly, but the version I can't get enough of is a cover by Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie.
/watch?v=PT8gcZh_42w&feature=related. -It won't let me post the entire URL, so just put youtube, a dot, and com before that!
This is the version I imagined Matt and Mike singing. Also, Christina Grimmie is currently in a Youtube competition, and I really want her to win, so you should vote for her! Just watch her videos to learn about it.
I feel like I need another disclaimer after all that, so Disclaimer #3 - I don't own the song, the cover of the song, Youtube, Glee, Christina Grimmie, or anything else!
So review and tell me what you thought!