Sorry this took so long. Real life kicked in. Really quick though, I just want to say thank you to everyone who reads this story and especially to those have reviewed, favorited, or added this story to their alerts. Virtual hugs and butterfly kisses! Now, on to the chapter!

Aborland's student body erupted into cheers, joined by the McKinley Glee Club in their enthusiasm. Duder, Sami, and Jim were grinning widely as they stepped down the stairs towards the crowd, obviously elated. Kevin and Tanya, however, both had a paucity of expression on their faces as they joined their band members, only regaining any emotion when they started interacting with the other students.

"Wow," Rachel said; her eyes still wide from the performance. "She's not on the same level as me vocally, but her song writing skills are exceptional. Should we go congratulate them?"

Toby started backing up immediately, shaking his head. "No, we're not students. We wouldn't want to obtrude."

Kurt looked at his boyfriend, an eyebrow raised at the obvious attempt to alienate the group. "Look, we don't have to go over there. But we will be meeting with their glee club later, which will contain people who know who you are. Wouldn't it be better to go ahead and get everyone's initial shock of seeing you out of the way?"

"Hey guys, stop acting so lackadaisical!" Mr. Schue shouted from where he had weaved himself into the mass of students. "Talk to some people!" He finally managed to extract himself from the larger group, bringing Zack along with him. "And Santana, Kurt, and Mercedes, please refrain from making any snide comments. We don't want to offend anyone." All three mentioned students rolled their eyes. It wasn't their fault no one else found the humor in their epigrams. Mr. Schuester looked around the group, frowning slightly. "Where'd Puck and Lauren go?"

"Oh, the guy with the Mohawk and the girl… with glasses?" Zack asked, carefully choosing his words. "I thought I saw them heading back toward the bus you guys came on." The McKinley kids just shook their heads, already used to Puck's licentious behavior. "Oh, Toby, by the way, I went ahead and told the band you were here. No need to thank me." With that, he darted off to start packing up the band's equipment.

Toby stared after him, his mouth dropped open in horror. He had never been a fatalistic thinker, but he was pretty sure destiny was screwing with him right now. Before anyone could comment though, Duder had made his way over to them and wrapped the former guitarist into a hug.

"Toby! How've you been, man?" He gushed in typical Duder fashion, still keeping one of Toby's hands clasped in his, his free hand on his shoulder. "You vanished on us." Duder's cheerful smile slid off his lips, a frown replacing it. "We were worried about you."

"Sorry, Duder," Toby replied, sincerity ringing in his words. "Just a lot of stuff came up."

A miniscule half-smile played across Duder's lips. "Yeah, I kinda figured that. But with everything that happened at the party…" He trailed off, his eyebrows furrowing. He looked over his shoulder before his eyes locked on Toby's. "Man, what happened at that party last year? That's the only thing I think could have caused this. When you left, Sami was upset for weeks and Tanya barely stopped crying for months."

Toby's eyebrows shot up at Duder's explanation. He had never thought of Duder as someone who picked up on things and put the pieces together like that. "Why didn't you just ask Sami what happened?"

The taller boy shrugged. "I tried. She just yelled at me whenever I brought it up. I tried talking to Tanya about it too." Toby blinked when he noticed the pensive look that crossed his friend's face when he mentioned Tanya. "She would just start sobbing and I would freak out and hug her and tell her it'd be okay. I hated when that happened, so I stopped asking." Duder frowned, obviously not fond of the memory. He looked around, jumping back slightly when he noticed the group around Toby. "Who're these guys?"

Grateful for any reason to change the subject at this point, Toby swiftly answered, "They're my friends from the school I'm at now. We're all in glee club." One by one, he went around, introducing each member. They all took quickly to the boy, praising him on the band and his bass skills in turn. Duder just flushed slightly and turned away laughing at the compliments.

Toby grinned, happy to see his friends from the two parts of his life getting along so well. He glanced into the crowd. It had separated momentarily, giving him an unimpeded view of Kevin Bushwald. "Hey, Duder, what's the deal with Kevin? When did he wake up?"

"Right after you left, actually," Duder said. "We needed a guitar player and he came and auditioned and he joined." There was something off about the story. Toby and Kurt both noticed it. Like the way he shifted his way from one foot to the other and brushed his bangs out of his eye. Before either boy could call him on it though, Duder had started leading them through the crowd, which parted to let them through. Duder called back to them. "You should meet him. I don't get why no one talked to him before. He's actually really cool. He's aunt's the weird one." Duder shuddered. "She holds meditation sessions and Sami called her a 'numismatist', I think. I just know that the walls were covered in funky looking coins."

"Wait, when did you go to his house?" Toby asked.

Duder's shoulder tensed slightly before he replied. "Sami and I found him unconscious and called the ambulance that took him to the hospital. His aunt saw us there and invited us to a meditation session for him at her house. It was creepy."

"They still haven't found the person who hit him?" Toby asked in shock. It had been over a year. That just seemed like an excessive amount of time to catch a hit and run driver.

Duder just shook his head sadly as they approached the middle of the group, where the rest of the band still was, Jim towering over all of them. "Oh, just a quick heads up," Duder said as the last pod of people shifted out of their way. New Directions let out a collective gasp of shock. Kevin and Sami's hands were linked together, fingers laced through one another's. "Kevin and Sami are dating now."

Yeah, it's all for the sake of plot. I'm not a fan of Kevin/Sami, but Toby and Kurt are together in this, so, meh. Reviews are always lovely. ~C.Y.R.