The room erupted. There was cheering and catcalls (Mike and Rachel), screamed threats in English and Spanish (Santana), and a thousand questions all being asked at the same time.
"The most important person in my life, huh?" She says when he pulls back just far enough to rest his forehead against hers, "Pretty sure thats the cheesiest thing you've ever said to me."
"S'true, though, right?" He says, laughing when she rolls her eyes. Pulling back the rest of the way, he shrugs his bag from his shoulder and reaching into the back, pulls out a gray McKinley football sweatshirt, "I remembered to bring it like you asked." She snatches it from his out stretched hand and holds it up to her face, inhaling deeply .
"It smells like you again," smiling she pulls it over head and pushes her hands through the sleeves.
"Woah, hey! What is going on in here?" Mr. Shuester asks, concerned with all the shouting still taking place in the room. Everyone quiets down for the most part, half of the club not able to answer his question with more than a finger pointed in Aly and Puck's direction.
"Mr. Shuester, I'm Aly Grey, I'm new." She says when the teacher turns to give her with a questioning look.
"We know you're new. How about you answer a more pressing question like, what the hell is going?" Santana cuts in before Shue has a chance to respond.
"Right. Okay, maybe I should just start at the beginning and then if you all still have questions I'll try to answer them when I'm done." She looks to Mr. Shue for permission, and he nods, still looking thoroughly confused. Taking a deep breath, she opens her mouth to start when she feels Puck leave her side and turns to see him taking a step back to lean against the piano, leaving her to stand alone in the middle of the room. "Coward," she mutters to him, turning back around. "Alright, here goes. I've known Puck my whole life, we were next door neighbors and our moms took turns babysitting so they both had a little time to themselves. We've been best friends since before we could crawl. Mike moved into a house down the street when we were four; he used to come play with us a lot. Finn lived a couple streets over, so we didn't meet him until we were five maybe, and our moms started taking us to the local playground so Puck would stop destroying my backyard. And Rachel, do you remember when Rachel showed up?" She turns back to ask Puck.
"Hell if I remember, I try to block that shit out," he cocks his head to the left a little to think, ignoring the indignant look Rachel was giving him. "Six or seven maybe."
"Right, so, we met Rachel at the JCC when we were six or seven. She was the only other little girl there that didn't seem afraid of all the havoc he caused," she says hooking her thumb over her shoulder to point at Puck.
"You're jewish too?" Sam asks.
"Messianic Jew, yes," she nods.
"Means she's a Jew for Jesus," Pucks informs them when he notices several blank faces.
"Anyway, my dad got a promotion at work that meant he also got transferred right before we started third grade. So I moved to Iowa, but I still have family here, and friends, so we always came back for Thanksgiving and Christmas break, and I spent at least a month here every summer. And I made sure I was here for anything important, like your invitational last fall, and all of your competitions since, well, except Regionals last year. I had a school thing in Chicago I couldn't get out of going to. When Dad got promoted again in December his job became like 60% traveling and everything else can be done through video conference and email, so we moved back." Finished she looks around at all of them, waiting for the inevitable questions.
"So, what was with the kissing?" Mercedes throws out.
Puck steps up to her side then and squeezes her hand once. "We're together," they say at the same time.
"Since when?" Someone else asks.
Before either of them can answer Rachel speaks up, "That question has a very complicated answer, and I, personally, feel we could be using our time here in a much more productive manner than quizzing Puck and Aly on their relationship status. Let's just welcome Aly into the club and move on."
"No," Santana cuts in again before Shue has a chance, "I want proof she can sing."
"Santana, that really isn't necessary," Shue starts.
"No, Mr. Shuester, it's fine, I don't mind," she assures him, then turning around to see Brad sitting at the piano she asks, "May I?" Brad nods and stands, walking to stand against the wall, out of the way. Handing her bag to Puck she sits at the piano and begins to play. Tentative at first, just getting a feel for the keys. Every instrument is a little different and she wants to make sure she knows this one before she starts. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and lets go.
Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long
No matter what I say or do, I still feel you here 'till the moment I'm gone
You hold me without touch
You keep me without chains
I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love and not feel your rain
Set me free, leave me be. I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me
You loved me 'cause I'm fragile
When I thought that I was strong
But you touch me for a little while and all my fragile strength is gone
Set me free, leave me be. I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me
I live here on my knees as I
Try to make you see that you're
Everything I think I need here on the ground
But you're neither friend nor foe though I
Can't seem to let you go
The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down
You're keeping me down, yeah, yeah, yeah
You're onto me, onto me and all over
Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long
Opening her eyes, she looks around at mostly dumbfounded faces, with the exception of Rachel, who is beaming at her in understanding, and Puck, who looks slightly confused.
"That was fantastic, Aly, but I've never heard that song before," Shuester praises looking a little lost.
"That's because no one's heard it before, Shue, she wrote it. Didn't you?" Puck says knowingly. When she nods in response he asks, "When?"
"I finished it a little before Christmas," She inclines her head a little toward the other side of the room where Rachel and Finn, two rows behind her, are sitting. The confusion that was on Puck's face at the end of her song clears as he realizes she wrote it for Rachel. She stands and walks over to take the seat next to Puck as Shuester starts rambling on about the half-time show they're doing for the big game that night.
AN: So, I took a little creative license there. The song that Aly sings is really Gravity by Sara Bareilles.