Chapter 9

I've been getting lessons from Kurt now for about a couple of days, and personally, I don't believe I'm all that good. Or at least not Santana good. Even though I doubt myself a bit on singing, I am fully confident that Santana will have a bit of a harder time on whatever instrument she chose. I just hope for her sake that she didn't choose a clarinet. I shiver, that'd be awful with the squeaking and such.

"And that's it." Kurt says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Really? Already?" I ask.

"Yep."

I feel a sudden wave of nerves as I think about singing in front of everyone. "Ugh. I'm going to make a fool out of myself." I mutter.

Kurt must have heard me. "You are going to do just fine." He assures me.

"I know I said singing was just talking with a tune Kurt but this is just-" I sigh "I don't know."

"You'll be fine Ella!" Kurt sighs in exasperation. "You're better than you think."
I give him an unsure look. "Kurt, I sound like a dying potato."
He pauses. "Why a dying potato?"
"What other potato would I be?"

"You need to chill. You sound like Ben."

"I can't help it."

"Look Ella, I'm completely confident that on Friday, you're going to walk into the music room and blow them away. All there is left to do is pick a song that fits your voice. If you want I can help you with that but I think you will be just fine by yourself." He encourages.

¨I hope you're right." Is all I say before I show him out. Although I'm nervous I push my fear aside. I have a few more days to figure everything out before I have to perform. No use in worrying, not when there's no getting out of it.

As I make my way down the halls of McKinley High I search for Ben. Where on Earth is that boy? I need his help with picking out a song. While I'm walking down the hall, searching for Ben, someone rams into me. The impact causing me to drop my books. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry!" The person apologizes. I look up to find it to be Mitch. He quickly kneels down and grabs my books for me, like the gentleman he is. "Here you go Ella." He says, handing them to me.

"Th-thanks." I stutter. Oh my God… I stuttered. Why did I stutter? Who stutters? Well people with a stutter stutter but- … Just kill me now.

"No problem." He smiles. "You aren't hurt, are you?" He says, now concerned.

"Why would I be hurt?" I ask, confused.

He looks at me awkwardly. "Well, I did just kinda bulldoze into you."

"Oh yeah… Um no… I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Good." There's an awkward pause. "Well I'll see you in 6th period." He says, then leaves.

"Yeah." I said but he was already gone. I quickly bring my books to my face, hiding how bad I'm cringing. My cringe being so severe that my neck and shoulders scrunch together, making me look like an actual turtle. Out of nowhere however, someone bursts out laughing. I turn to find, Tyler.

"Oh my God Ella." He laughs.

Horror washes over me. "Oh no. Did you see that?" I ask, hoping he was just laughing at something on my face.

"I saw all of it! You're both so awkward!" He says, still laughing. I groan. "Damn, you're whipped."

"Is it that obvious?" I ask.

"Well yeah. To everyone but Mitch that is. He's the most oblivious child I've ever met."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Truth is Ella, he won't know you like him unless you flat out tell him."

I sigh. "You're probably right… But I don't have time to think about that. Class starts in five minutes."

Now it's his turn to groan. "Why do you get to class so early? You literally have five minutes to talk and chill."

"But what if I'm late?" I ask.

"You won't be late! The art room is literally five feet away."

I pause. "How do you know what class I have?" I ask.

Silence. "Umm ... well, you see." He scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment.

I could tell he was about to go on but the minute bell cuts him off. "I've got to go Tyler, but I'll talk to you later. K?"

"Umm. Yup sounds cool!" And off to art I go.

It is now currently lunch and I'm sitting with Ben, Thaddeus, and Autumn, explaining to them the incident with Mitch. "You're so lame Ella." Ben supportively tells me.

"Gee thanks Ben. You do know how to make a girl feel better about herself." I grumble.

"It's not that bad Ella." Autumn says, attempting to cheer me but.

"Not that bad? That still means it's bad!" I sigh.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up so much about it. Mitch is just as awkward as you are. He probably hardly noticed." Thaddeus reassures.

"You think so?" I ask.

"Yup." He nods.

"So what song are you singing Ella?" Ben asks.

"I have no idea. Like should I try to be all meaningful like the glee kids or should I just phone it in?"

"Good question." Ben answers. "Ha! How about you nonchalantly confess your love to Mitch?"

"How about no?" I tell him flatly.

"You don't have to come out and say it, Ella" Autumn explains. "But you can definitely do a love song. Maybe he might take the hint. "

I sigh. "According to Tyler, these type of things tend to go right over Mitch's head."

"Really?" Thaddeus asks surprised.

I simply nod. "Well that doesn't mean you can't do a love song." Autumn insists.

"You could do Like a Virgin by Madonna." Ben offers eagerly.

"What the duck. No way Ben." I snap.

"Duck? … Quack!"

"Quack quack!"

"What the hell are you two doing?" Katherine asks, genuinely confused. Their lunch table was only a bit away from ours.

"Pft, nothing." I reply.

"I was simply getting in touch with my inner duck." Ben reasons. "He isn't set free as often as he should."

Both Arnold and Katherine stare at us, completely dumbfounded. "You get used to it." Thaddeus sighs.

"Back to songs!" Ben bursts out.

"Oh yeah!" Autumn realizes.

"Umm… Maybe 'Can't Help Falling in Love' by Elvis?" I question.

"That's a great idea!" Autumn congratulates.

"Well, I guess that solves that problem." I say, relieved.

Skip ahead a few days in the future and I'm about to walk in and sing. Kill me now. My nerves are starting to kick in and I'm afraid I'll choke. Let's just hope Santana is way worse at playing an instrument then I am at singing cause the truth is, I'm probably not even all that good. I'm not saying I'm horrible or anything. No way am I that self-deprecating. I'm probably just 'meh'. Meh isn't at all a bad thing however. Meh is beautiful. I sigh. What the fudge am I thinking right now? … Probably how I don't want to sing.

"Why so glum chum?" Tyler chirps, walking towards me.

"I have to sing." I reply.

"Oh yeah, that's today. Isn't it?"

I sweat dropped. "Wow Tyler. I feel so loved."

"As you should." He smirks.

"Sarcasm is not welcomed here."

"Who are you to say where sarcasm is and is not welcomed?"

"I'm the queen of sarcasm." I state drily.

"Well, with an attitude like that I'd say you were an imposter."

"You have no proof."

"Well, seeing as I'm the king of all things sarcastic I'd say that I have a right to say such things."

"King?" I ask.

"King." He confirms.

"I don't know what's happening anymore…" I tell him, confused.

"Same… I kind of stopped following the conversation five seconds ago."

"Ugh."

"Ugh."

"... Well I got to go."

"See you in the band room!" He waves goodbye. A smile spreads across my face. That conversation was probably one of the most confusing I've had in awhile, which is saying a lot. And it barely even lasted a minute. Even so, that just made my day. Tyler had a way of making me feel better and I can't help but wonder if he has that impact on everyone. I feel like he does. With these thoughts in mind, I walk into the band/choir room with a grin on my face, ready to take this on wether it goes north or south.

Walking in I made my way over to Ben and everyone. ¨Sup.¨

"Hey!" They greet. "Omg! Ella, I just know you're gonna do great. Ek! I'm so excited!" Autumn gushes.

"Um thanks Autumn." I say. She just gives me a pleased nod. I then turn my head and see Santana walking in with a soprano recorder in her hand. I look at her flatly, out of all the instruments she chose a soprano recorder… Those are legit the easiest instruments to use! Kindergartners know how to play those. I think I just died a little bit on the inside, here I am, freaking out and taking this super seriously all the while she was playing the recorder… I sigh, causing Ben to look over at Santana. Once he saw her he began to snicker, looking at me. "Not a word Ben." I tell him.

"Of course." He replies.

I continue to glare at Santana, well more specifically her recorder. "Hey Barbie!" I hear her say from across the room, drawing my attention from the insufferable instrument to her. "Got a problem?" This ends up drawing attention of pretty much everyone in the room.

I look from the instrument to everyone in the band and then back to the instrument. Noticing that this was the instrument Santana chose to learn and play for today they all began to chuckle. I run a hand through my blonde hair, sighing for the hundredth time. "You chose a soprano recorder." I state flatly. "I just thought you'd take this seriously."

That statement seemed to irritate her because she mustered up a glare in response. "I'm not joking around." The band continues to laugh. "What is so damn funny?"

Ben walks forward, still laughing. "It's just that Ella here has never sang before in her entire life. So she was pretty stressed out about it and was taking it very seriously. Here she walks into school today, expecting this to be really intense, only to find out you've been playing the recorder. An instrument Kindergarteners are taught to play."

"Ok, that's enough guys." Mr. Dude says, walking into the room. "Let's keep this fair and without arguments alright?"

"Alright." Everyone murmurs.

"You'll both be playing your instruments then singing. The order will go Ella, Santana, Santana, then Ella."

"Why in that order?" Autumn asks.

"Yeah I don't get it." Brittany agrees.

"It's so they'll both go first in whatever area they're better at." Ben explains.

"Oh, That makes sense." Autumn chirps.

"Anyways. Ella." Mr. HairKindaLooksLikeRamen said, gesturing me to take my place in the middle of the room. Never thought I'd be in this area of the school. I had a better chance of being in the boys locker room than in the middle of the choir room.

Without any further delay I make my way over and set up. I plug a very much borrowed electric violin, that Shermone was kind enough to give me, into the school amp. After I did that I set up my loopy thing.

"Wait wait wait." Santana interrupted me. "What's that?"

I give her an odd look. "A loopy thing."

She raised an eyebrow. "A 'loopy thing'."

"Yeah, it records the sounds I make on my violin so I can add harmonies and things like that." I explain. "Just listen and you'll find out."

"But how on earth is that fair?" She asked rather loudly.

I respond with a flat look. "When you sing will the glee kids join in?"

"Well probably."

"Then yes, it is in fact fair." I then turn to everyone else, aka glee kids. "Now I'm going to need dead silence because if this picks any of you up we'll hear it throughout the whole song. Which is annoying." Then without any further explaining I begin playing my remix of Beyonce's Halo. It was awkward at first because of how I had to strum the background music. That and how uninterested some of the kids looked. But, once I began playing the melody and they recognised it, I had their full attention. As I played my last chord, silence began to fill the room once again. That is, until Ben began clapping, making everyone else clap. This doing nothing but make me blush and scratch the back of my neck. "Um… Thanks."

And without any delay Santana walks up to the area I was previously standing in. Let's just say that the song she chose was no Halo. Although, I will hand it to her. Her song full of whole notes was pretty. It just wasn't Beyonce.

After her performance Mr. Perm did a little good job thing and transitioned into the singing part. I feel like I'm in some sort of weird show… or beauty pageant… Gross.

I hardly pay attention to Santana as she sings. My thoughts too occupied with how awkward Thaddeus and I would be in a beauty pageant and how fabulous Ben and Autumn would be. I was so deep in thought that when she finished Ben had to wave his hand in front of me to grab my attention. However Santana gave a smug look, thinking that my stupid far off look was because of how nervous I was to be following her. "Scared?" She asked.

Yes. "Hardly."

She scoffs but takes her seat anyways. I however steal, aka borrow, Autumn's guitar and begin to strum the beginning of Elvis's 'Can't Help Falling in Love'. Now, I can't play guitar, I'm actually pretty bad, but sometimes playing and reciting are two different things. All I'm doing now is strumming a couple of chords with my eyes closed, as if to make myself feel like no one else is there. 'You're in your own room, Ella. You're in your room.' I recite to myself and, before I know it, it's over.

All of a sudden the bell rings. But in all actuality it not really that sudden because this stuff is scheduled people. Needless to say though, I thank the bell gods for saving the day once again. Without having to deal with any of the awkward cheering I quickly hand Autumn back her guitar. Rushing out of the room and to class, Flash style. Not even bothering to ask how I did to anyone. I just decide to pretend as if none of this happened… EVER.

Ella's violin solo: Halo violin cover: watch?v=u4r3PGLTN00

A/N

Hey guys! I'm back! I'm sorry this chapter took like a thousand years to publish! I swear I'm trying! Anyways, *clears throat* I hope you all enjoy this chapter and feel free to comment. I read them all and absolutely love your feedback. I can't promise fast updates now that school is starting back up again but I'll do my best. Junior year is definitely gonna be my hell year. *cries on the inside* … I hope you all are having a great summer! Stay safe! Make good choices! More chapters coming up! BYYYYYYYEEEEEE!

"The next chapter is going to be a great one. Plus I will bug her everyday to write new chapters because i am the OG fangirl." -Katie (the spell checker and the girl too emotionally invested in this book) ps micaw you better keep mine in

"Meow" -Taylor (friend that's just kinda here and the og Tyler) ps micaw don't actually keep this when you publish this lol

...I'm keeping it… -Michaela