Hey everyone! Geez it's been WAY too long since I last updated. Oh well, here's to hoping that this brand new chapter will be more than worth the wait! ^_^ In this long awaited new addition to my latest GWAFU story, Charlotte has decided that she's waited long enough to voice her thoughts on Daniel's current efforts at befriending his fellow savory gleeks; thoughts that she's managed to keep to herself with considerable difficulty all the way up till now following her first catching sight of him in the act all the way back at the end of chapter 6. And at the same time this little bit of drama is going on, our favorite fearless director of the glee club, Mr. William Schuester himself, is having some thoughts of his own about both his current generation of gleeks, and other generations that have long since moved on with the passage of time, with one generation in particular weighing especially heavily on his mind. Sound like something worth reading after all this waiting? I certainly hope so! (And for that matter, happy belated Valentine's Day to all my fans!)

A/N: But first, I'd best remind you all once more that I do not own Glee or any of the 'canonical elements' associated with it (or, for that matter, the song I include in this chapter). All I own are my OCs. That being said, onward with the fic people!

Chapter 8:

Family in All But Blood

Charlotte saw how quickly Daniel exited the choir room after the bell rang. She also saw how Diana, Susan, Calvin, and Hobbes followed close behind him . . . very close behind him. And she was not happy with either of these details. She clenched her fists as she carefully followed the small group of four out of the choir room from a good couple feet behind. "And I thought he couldn't possibly stoop any lower than he already has just by associating with that unworthy little wench." She raised her right fist with a wide-eyed look of rage on her face. "Yet here he is today trying to befriend even more of his social inferiors?" Her eyes then narrowed as she briefly directed her focus on Calvin. "Even going so far as to try to willingly associate with that ungodly thing? What is this world coming to?!"

Charlotte came to a stop, shook her head side to side, and then snapped her face back in the direction of her four fellow juniors and the dog. "I don't know what Daniel's thinking," she thought to herself as she proceeded to remove her backpack from her shoulders. She placed it on the floor in front of her, unzipped it, and started digging through it as if trying to draw something out. "But I am not going to let Daniel ruin his life like this. I'm going to stop this madness right this day before it can progress any further then this morning."

In that instant, the angry head cheerleader drew out a large megaphone from her backpack, cranked it to its 50% volume point, and lifted it to her face. "DANIEL TAYMOR!" she practically shrieked through the megaphone. "STOP RIGHT NOW!"

The effect that resulted from her shouting through the megaphone began before she'd even finished shouting Daniel's name, with Calvin noticeably tensing up, stopping in his tracks, and slamming his hands upon his ears before rearing his head back and howling with his eyes closed from the discomfortingly loud noise. Calvin's three fellow high ranking gleeks, plus Hobbes, already surprised into stopping by the unexpected loud noise, became especially more concerned when they heard and saw how Calvin was reacting.

After what seemed like a painfully long amount of time following Charlotte's finishing her shouting, Calvin appeared to recover; albeit, still noticeably groaning and shaking his head. He opened his eyes, a still somewhat pained wince on his face as the lingering echoes slowly continued to fade from his ears. The autistic eventually shook his head side to side rigorously, allowing himself to snap into full recovery, and he turned his head with a very wide-eyed and aggrieved 'WTF' look on his face. Daniel, Diana, and Susan also turned their heads to look behind them. Naturally, so did Hobbes, who promptly snarled menacingly at the sight of the girl he'd pounced on the previous day who was now holding an incriminating megaphone in her hands.

The four gleeks standing alongside Hobbes also noticed Charlotte and the megaphone, and narrowed their eyes in annoyance. "Seriously?" they all thought.

Charlotte snarled and lifted the megaphone to her mouth once more. "YOU HEARD ME! GET OVER HERE NOW!"

Calvin snarled in discomfort with his eyes closed and hands over his ears once more. His four companions likewise seemed strongly affected by the noise, and they all shook their heads and rolled their eyes to recover. "Jesus Christ," Calvin muttered under his breath when he'd sufficiently recovered. "What is with this girl?"

Daniel narrowed his eyes, and shook his head side to side. "And here I was thinking I'd gotten a free pass for the week in her regard."

Charlotte waited for a full minute, and not once did Daniel so much as move a single step in any direction, let alone towards her. She grumbled irritably at this development, and lifted her megaphone yet again. "I SAID . . ."

She was then forced to duck when a baseball suddenly hurtled straight towards her face. She lifted her head, now seething with rage as she looked back towards the four students she'd just been shouting at through her megaphone . . . particularly at Calvin. "Hey!" she yelled, thankfully without using the megaphone this time, shaking her left fist at him at the same time. "Don't throw things at people when they're trying to talk you uncivilized jerk!"

"We heard you the first time you pig!" Calvin shouted back, clearly unrepentant at his throwing a baseball at Charlotte.

In the world of a cartoon, Charlotte would have grown a noticeable tick mark on her forehead. She was that angry now. "Why I oughta," she began.

"You will do no such thing!"

Charlotte snapped into a shocked state, rearing back slightly at the same time. And from her perspective, for quite good reason, as none other than Daniel had just now said these words, and he was now directing an iron glare towards her with his gray eyes narrowed and burning angrily. The black-haired boy snarled, and shook his head side to side. "You heard me," he grunted coldly. "Leave my friend alone."

For a brief moment, Daniel's three human companions and the dog alongside them gaped at him with just as much surprise on their faces as was on Charlotte's face. Then the shock gave way to happy smiles. Even Diana was quite pleased, just as touched as Susan, Calvin, and Hobbes that Daniel had come to consider the autistic boy his friend so quickly. "And with that in mind," she thought to herself, her green eyes agleam in admiration, "He's probably almost definitely considering the same to be true of Susan and Hobbes." Her smile widened. "Heck, I know we talked about this earlier, but I actually feel pretty good myself calling Calvin and Hobbes my friends."

Charlotte finally regained her voice. "Friend?!" she yelled. "Already?!" She pointed her finger at the autistic boy. "You just got to know him today!"

"And yet, I've still managed to become good friends with him, Susan, and Hobbes before the end of this morning." Daniel nodded his head up and down, sighing in content. "Yep," he said. "Such is the joy."

At that point, Charlotte narrowed her eyes once more. "Well never mind that," she hissed. She pointed at his three friends. "Just tell them to go away; we need to talk!"

To her shock, Daniel only laughed. "I think not," he said. He folded his arms across his chest, a smug smile on his face. "They're my friends, and they're staying here with me."

"You heard him," said Diana, folding her own arms across her chest in the process in a not entirely subtle mirroring of Daniel's position. "Whatever it is you want to tell him, you can say it in front of us."

"Damn right," said Susan.

"What they said," Calvin added.

Hobbes snarled and nodded his head in clear agreement.

Charlotte glared at the group, practically steaming with rage at how things were still not going her way. She took a deep breath, exhaled tensely, and proceeded to storm her way towards her four fellow gleeks and the dog. Once she was about a foot away from the small group, she came to a stop and placed the megaphone on the floor next to her feet. She glared straight at Daniel. "What is wrong with you?" she hissed.

Daniel narrowed his own eyes. "Who says there's anything wrong with me?"

Charlotte growled. "Isn't it obvious?" She gestured her hand dismissively towards Diana. "Granted, I already knew that there was some substantial work that needed to be done with you considering how much you actively associate with this little piece of trash." She then pointed in Calvin, Susan, and Hobbes's direction. "But them to?!" She facepalmed, groaning irritably. "Seriously," she continued, "can you not see how beneath you all these people are that you're trying to befriend? You're the quarterback! You could be the freaking king of this place if you just got your head straight. You deserve better company then all these unworthy lowlifes." She pointed at Calvin once more. "And you especially deserve better company then animals like him!"

"Well technically," said Calvin, "we're all animals here." He folded his arms across his chest. "Scientifically speaking, humans are just as much animals as any nonhuman animal like Hobbes." The German Shepherd barked once and nodded his head in agreement. "Honestly," the autistic boy continued, "humans being really all that different from animals, let alone above them in any way, shape, or form? That's really more of a mentally ingrained concept then a 100% legitimate fact."

Charlotte groaned, rearing her head back to face the ceiling. She repositioned her head to face Calvin directly, a clear look of annoyance on her face. "Must you be so smart you damn know-it-all?"

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Calvin responded with a smirk on his face.

Susan and Diana promptly did a synchronized spit take, and then burst out laughing at Calvin's unexpected response to what Charlotte couldn't have more clearly meant to frame as an insult. Daniel chuckled, and pounded his fist against his left side to keep himself together. Even Hobbes couldn't help but let out his distinctive gurgling snorts that served as his unique form of laughter.

Charlotte, with great effort, managed to avoid exploding in anger from the humiliation of her attempted insult towards Calvin had just now epically backfired. She sighed, shook her head side to side, and made a helpless gesture with her hands. "Well never mind that!" she practically shrieked. "The point is," she pointed at Daniel, "you, buddy, are making too strong of an effort at befriending the wrong sort. And quite frankly, it's high time someone put a stop to it. You've already gone far enough off the ranch with having this ugly thing," she pointed at Diana when she said those last three words. "But now you're going too far. This craziness you're up to right now? It ends today!"

"Sorry." Daniel folded his arms across his chest, a smug look on his face that indicated that he was far from sorry. "Wrong. That's not gonna happen."

Charlotte damn near growled. "And why the Hell not?"

"Simple." Daniel pointed his finger at Charlotte. "You're not the boss of me. This is my life, this is a free country, and I have a mind of my own that I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions with." The quarterback stretched his arms upward, a confident gleam still in his gray eyes. "And I daresay, as far as you need to know, all the life decisions I've made so far leading up to and including today are ones that I'm perfectly ok with. And not only that, but my family and friends, old and new, are likewise perfectly fine with the decisions I've made. In fact, the amount of people who are ok with my life decisions far outweighs the amount of people who aren't." He looked back at Charlotte once more. "And furthermore, even if that weren't the case, I don't like you anyway. So frankly, I don't give a shit what you think about my life decisions."

Immediately after saying all this, Daniel gestured to indicate Diana, Susan, Calvin, and Hobbes. "My friends." He lifted his right index finger. "My choice." He pointed at himself. "I'm right." He pointed at Charlotte. "You're wrong." He placed his hands on his hips. "Simple as that."

Charlotte found herself sputtering and struggling to think up a response. Daniel grinned smugly at the sight, for he could tell that he now had undeniable 100% control over the whole conversation. "Just give it up Lady Macbeth," said Daniel. "You lost all hope in this inane crusade of yours before it even began. Stop lying to yourself. The only success you've ever gotten in this, or ever will get in this, is making a complete and utter idiot of yourself; and believe me, that doesn't take very much effort."

Charlotte's eyes narrowed at the last part, but Daniel wasn't finished speaking. "Face it," he continued. "You've lost, and there sure as Hell ain't a damn thing you can do about it." He extended his left hand and started making a silent counting motion with his fingers and right hand. "I am going to befriend all the other members of the glee club apart from you. I am going to stay in this club and be damn proud of it. I am going to follow in Finn Hudson's footsteps one way or another. I am going to live my life the way I see fit. And finally, . . ."

Daniel paused, and took a deep breath, all for dramatic effect. "I will never; and I repeat, never; allow myself to be so damned as to become romantically linked with you. I'd sooner stab myself in the balls, use a urinating elephant as a shower, and eat nothing but horse manure for a week; and those are things you couldn't convince me to do even if it meant I'd get to be the President of the United States, which I don't even want to be anyhow." He folded his arms across his chest. "So there, that's how it's gonna be. Plain and simple. 100% fact."

Charlotte was now practically quaking with rage at how Daniel had once again played her for a complete and utter chump and caused her to once again still be left with absolutely nothing going her way that day. Then, with a supreme effort, she managed to take a deep breath, exhale, and noticeably relinquish in her tension level. "Fine," she hissed. "You win this time." She leaned her head forward, fists clenched and at her sides. "But know this," she snarled. "Actions speak louder than words."

"AND THIS SPEAKS LOUDER THAN ACTIONS!"

Charlotte barely even got the chance to register the jarringly abrupt appearance of the interior of the megaphone flashing up right in her face before she was comically sent stumbling backwards by the impossibly loud shouting that erupted from it, falling flat on her backside 10 seconds later. Daniel, Diana, and Susan also found themselves wincing, and smacking their hands over their ears. Then, after they'd all gotten their bearings back and the ringing in their ears stopped, they all directed their stunned gaze towards Calvin, who was even now still standing where he was, seemingly unaffected, but with Charlotte's megaphone still positioned in front of his mouth; and on maximum volume no less. Only Hobbes seemed even remotely nonplussed about the matter the way his master was, as he had been paying attention sufficiently enough to see his master pick up Charlotte's discarded megaphone that had still been lying on the floor next to her in time to sufficiently prepare himself before his master had cranked the device to maximum volume and shouted through it. Now, of course, he was fully upright once more and seemingly not at all affected thanks to his being able to get himself prepared in time to shield himself from the worst of the noise.

For a brief moment, Charlotte gaped at Calvin, stunned speechless at how he'd managed to get ahold of her megaphone and humiliate her further then she'd already been by Daniel with the same tactics she'd used earlier to get Daniel's attention; only LOUDER. Then Calvin took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if about to shout something else, and Charlotte hurriedly scrambled onto her feet and dashed off in the opposite direction screaming her head off. And as it turned out, she was frightened enough that she ran all the way to the point of exiting sight and hearing range of the four students she'd been attempting to harass.

Calvin kept the megaphone positioned for two more minutes, and then lowered it, a cheeky grin on his face. "Man," he said, "I wasn't even going to actually say anything." He shook his head, and then directed a smug smirk in the direction that Charlotte had fled from him. "Talk about jumpy."

Susan, now recovered fully from the unexpected blasting Calvin had unwittingly subjected her ears to, couldn't help but chuckle. "Well that's how all mean girls are Calvin." She placed her hands on her hips, a confident look directed in the same direction. "They talk all tough and mean and put on a big show; but the moment their victims bite back, they devolve into sniveling wrecks."

She turned her head towards Daniel and Diana, Calvin and Hobbes doing the same. "I will say this though." The dark-haired girl pointed at the megaphone still in Calvin's right hand. "Sorry about the noise."

Daniel chuckled, and shook his head side to side in amusement. "It's fine," he said. He smirked in the direction Charlotte had fled. "After all, it did get Charlotte to leave us alone didn't it?"

"You've got that right," said Diana. She chuckled. "I daresay I hope this will get her to stay out of our business for the rest of the day."

"I wouldn't get too comfortable in that regard," Susan muttered.

"Well whether she leaves us alone for the rest of the day or not," said Daniel. "She's out of our hair now. And that's all that matters for the current moment." He checked his watch. "And for that matter, I do believe we'd best be heading off to class."

"Now that, we can all definitely agree on," said Calvin. Hobbes barked twice to indicate his agreement. And at that, the four friends and the dog turned around and began to make their way to where their next class would be taking place.

. . . . .

At the exact same time that this tableau had unfolded in the hallway, Mr. Schuester had been sitting alone in the choir room, thinking to himself. The first lesson for today had gone pretty well despite Charlotte's late arrival if he did say so himself. Granted, this had been the second glee club session in a row that Charlotte had arrived so glaringly late. But regardless, he felt confident that the events that had unfolded following her finally arriving and making it possible for the session to be properly begun more than made up for this unsavory detail.

At the same time, the teacher had a particularly big topic on his mind that he somewhat guiltily felt was now actually just as important, if not more so, as the matter of how well the recent session had gone. The other matter in question? Surprisingly enough, a topic that had been innocently brought into his mind by an otherwise quite minor comment he'd made the previous day during the after-school session of the glee club.

He could remember clear as day how, not too long after Bailey's performance, he'd told her how very certain he'd been that her idol, Tina Cohen Chang, his former student from so many years prior, would have been proud of her and her performance. But now, after quite a bit of careful thinking, he now couldn't help but think about whether she truly would have been so proud, and in fact if any of the other students who'd been in the club alongside her would have felt the same way.

The teacher sighed, and shook his head side to side. "Here I go again," he thought to himself. As of that moment, as a direct result of his wondering whether any of his past members of the New Directions would have truly felt as proud of his current students' performances as he felt they would have, he had now started reminiscing over them all yet again. He couldn't help but a half sentimental and half saddened smile come onto his face as he remembered all the many other students that he'd had the honor of teaching in the glee club over the course of the 25-26 years that had unfolded before this current year that had come with its own brand new generation of gleeks.

He could remember very freshly now how happy he'd been with the latest generation to come before his current one. He could remember how much fun it had been to be around all 17 of the students who'd comprised the New Directions the previous year; especially the two leads Riley Hansford and Tess Sewicky. And immediately after he thought about them and their 15 peers, he found himself thinking about the equally sizable number of other students that had been in the club's membership over the course of all the generations that had preceded them. But even with all the generations of gleeks that he'd had the pleasure of working with before the current 13 he had in the New Directions, Mr. Schuester couldn't help but let his smile widen as his thoughts inevitably reached the very first generation of gleeks he'd ever taught and successfully brought to a victory that had finally allowed the McKinley High glee club to regain the respect and glory it had bathed in during his own time as a student and member of it . . . if only for a good couple months or so.

He sighed once more as he thought about the 16 students that had made up his very first generation of New Directions. "Well," he thought to himself. "Technically 18; but still." He sighed again. "Man, it's been so long since I've seen them all." He thought to himself, and then promptly amended the thought. "Well ok, I saw Finn two months ago; but aside from him, I don't think I've really seen any of my former students from that time, let alone from any of the other generations that occurred before Tess and Riley." He hung his head. "Now that I think about it," he thought to himself. "I have a bad feeling that the last time I ever saw any of the other students from my very first generation of New Directions members in person was all the way at Rachel's debut on Broadway with the Funny Girl reawakening premiere, and that was 22 years ago."

Mr. Schuester's head abruptly reared back up, his eyes widened with shock as he remembered another important detail. He promptly cursed bitterly in his mind. "And what's worse," he thought to himself, "Until that time I saw him two months ago, I'd barely seen him at all either since the last time he was able to have enough time to drop by to help me out with the glee club." He gulped. "When was the last time I saw him in between Rachel's debut and the day I visited him in the hospital two months ago?" Much to his horror, he found that he couldn't even remember the exact date anymore.

"Have I really gotten that complacent and out of touch with everyone?" the teacher thought to himself. "Complacent enough to not even remember how long it's been since the last time I ever saw the only former student I've ever seen in person more than once following Rachel's Broadway debut to occur before the most recent date? Out of touch enough to barely even pay enough attention just to be aware of all the events that have occurred in the world involving all the others? Let alone talk to them or even try to find some way to see any of them in person?"

Then another thought popped into his mind, and he hung his head, facepalming and groaning in just barely contained despair. He'd just now remembered the exact context of the time he'd met up with Finn in person two months ago, and the memory of this detail was now making him feel even worse. The visit in question had occurred at the hospital . . . and with Finn as the patient. Exactly one week before the day of that visit, Finn had gotten grievously wounded in a dramatic situation that Mr. Schuester himself was surprised had occurred in real life, let alone to one of his own students. In a severe case of teen drama gone to incredulous heights, one of the students in the class Finn taught as the Lima Senior High Schools American Literature teacher had chosen to act on his rage at a romantic rejection from one of his fellow students in the class by tracking her down to a local Food Lion where she'd been hanging out with her new boyfriend (who had coincidentally been yet another one of Finn's students) and his mother and engaging in a shootout there with the intention of both killing the boyfriend to satisfy his need for justice as well as causing God knew how much damage and death just for the fun of it. While the boy in question had been successfully taken out and submitted to the custody of the authorities, and the attack had ended swiftly without any fatalities, Finn had been shot in the stomach soon after he'd gotten involved directly to attempt to stop the shooting. And as Mr. Schuester could remember all too well from when he'd been present alongside Emma, Finn's mother, and Finn's adoptive father to watch the operation, it had been a miracle that Finn had managed to survive long enough to make it through the operation and live to tell the tale.

Now, Mr. Schuester remembered all too well how lucky he'd been that he'd even gotten the chance to meet up with Finn alive and in person one week after the fateful day of the shooting and operation. And he now felt even guiltier at how little effort he'd put in to keeping in touch with him or any of his other prior students that he'd taught in between Finn's generation and his current one. "I should be better than this," he thought to himself guiltily. "What if he'd died that day? Hell, what if one of the others had similarly become unavailable for me to ever see or talk to again? What kind of teacher or friend would I have been to any of them then?" He sighed. "I really need to meet up with Finn and my other previous students again some time. I've got to."

Then Mr. Schuester remembered another detail that, while considerably more positive in the immediate light, was also one that he would have done well to remember right now, especially considering how he'd teased the possibility of it to his current students only the previous day. "Finn was planning on setting up a reunion here in Lima between him and as many of my other previous students he knew personally that he could successfully contact and invite."

As Mr. Schuester had this thought, he went over the details and the times in his head. "He said that he'd planned to wait until he was released from the hospital and had spent a few months getting settled back into his life outside the hospital before he got directly to work on setting up for the possible New Directions reunion. And it's been about two months since he was discharged from the hospital." He thought to himself some more. "Would that have been about the right amount of time he'd have needed before he felt ready to get started on that task? If not, then how much longer does he need to wait? How much longer can I wait? And if it was enough time, then why hasn't he called to let me here of any news or developments?"

The teacher sighed once more. All these thoughts and wonderings he was currently having were now starting to run the risk of putting a real damper on his mood. But even so, he couldn't help but feel like he truly needed to have these thoughts and wonder about all these matters. "What if I've missed something important?" he thought to himself. "What if some horrible negative development has unfolded and some cruel twist of fate has completely prevented me from having any idea about it? What if so much time goes by that I completely forget about the possibility of this reunion, or about Finn, or about any of my other previous students from this club that came before my current group?" What if . . .?" He lifted his head, sighed, and shook his head side to side. "What if I never see or talk to any of them ever again?"

He looked over at the area where the plaque with the picture and engraved quote of Lilian Adler was positioned alongside a picture and engraved quote of Finn's as well as several photos depicting group shots of the New Directions from various incarnations of its long, troubled, dramatic, but nonetheless wonderful and joyous existence. Then he sighed. "I've gotten so busy with making sure that I keep on allowing this club to have new students for me to teach and add to the collective 'family' of New Directioneers over all these years. Maybe I've truly lost sight of how I should be working just to hard not to lose sight of and connections with all the other members that I already have within this family."

The teacher hung his head yet again. At that moment, he now couldn't help but remember one particular topic that his erstwhile on-again, off-again rival, Coach Sue Sylvester had brought up in her crusade against him more than once over the course of their 25 or so years of tense conflict and temporary alliances. Usually, he was able to brush aside a large number of her negative comments about him; for a large majority of them he either knew for a fact or at least had strong confidence were not true. But some quotes, particularly the one he now had on his mind, were considerably easier to dismiss in the heat of the moment then they were to stay dismissed over time. This particular topic involved how he often seemed to lionize and give an unfairly large share of attention to some students while leaving others to fade into obscurity in the background and seem like little more than membership fodder that served little other purpose then to provide him with the required number of members needed to be allowed to compete. And as much as he hated to admit it aloud, especially within hearing range of Sue Sylvester herself, times like these were moments in which he couldn't help but privately admit to himself that there were times when the cheerio coach had a glaringly valid point.

Already he could remember with a cruel clarity several students from past New Directions generations that he'd directed noticeably less attention to compared to others. In fact, he could now think of five immediate examples that had been present amongst what he considered to be the very first generation. He thought about Rory Flanagan, the awkward foreign exchange student from Ireland who'd only lived in America, let alone been a student at McKinley High and member of the New Directions, for a single year before being deported in the summer following the year of the club's very first Nationals victory. He thought about Sugar Motta, daughter of the former CEO of the Motta Pianos music store company franchise with a notoriously awful singing ability. He thought about Joe Hart, the ardent Christ crusader with hair that he'd always insisted be styled in dreadlocks. He thought about Lauren Zizes, the freakishly muscular and strong girl who'd to date been the only female member of the McKinley High wrestling club in the school's history and for a time dated Puck. He even thought about Matt Rutherford, the 12th student ever to become a full-on member of the club that had paradoxically never gotten the chance to leave too big of a lasting impact, not to mention had rarely ever even talked that much to any of the other gleeks of his time aside from a small group of individuals before ending up getting transferred in the summer between the club's first and second years of existence.

The teacher shook his head side to side. In the current situation, and with the current thoughts he was having, he was not ashamed to privately admit to himself that he was now once again unintentionally proving Sue Sylvester at least partially right. And to make matters worse, he'd now unwittingly allowed himself to reach the point that he was now starting to allow even the students he'd given the undeniable lion's share of attention, glory, and big ticket performances to during their respective tenures as New Directioneers to become at risk of suffering the ignominy of fading into obscurity deep within the deepest, darkest, and most difficult to reach corners of his mind in favor of all the fresh and brand new members of the younger, fresher, and hipper generations that he'd been allowing to consistently come into the picture and into their footsteps with hardly so much as a batting of an eye. And with those thoughts in mind, he now couldn't help but wonder, what if Finn himself had perhaps come to start considering and thinking about these matters himself and potentially decided that maybe his former teacher didn't even truly deserve the honor of being allowed to meet up with him or any of the other members of the considerably large number of former New Directioneers that had amassed over all these years.

Then Mr. Schuester remembered Finn's friendly and trusting smile, the gleam he'd always gotten in his amber-brown eyes when happy, and how honest, loyal, friendly, dependable, and trustworthy he'd always been. He remembered how Finn always gave it his all, no matter what, and how he refused to give up in the face of adversity, regardless of the odds, and not even if he reached the point that he had to be given a reminder and reassurance from others in the face of doubt before once again reverting to his usual confidence. But most of all, he now remembered how Finn had promised him during that visit in the hospital two months ago that he would find a way to make it possible for a reunion between himself, his former teacher, and as many former New Directioneers he knew personally that he could find and successfully invite possible. Furthermore, he remembered how this promise had been reaffirmed thrice now over the course of the days that had followed the hospital visit; the first time occurring when Finn had celebrated and attended that summer's 4th of July celebration alongside Mr. Schuester and both of their immediately available family members, the second time occurring when he had hung out at Finn's house exactly one week before the first day of school for both of them to help his former student make sure they were both well prepared for when that fateful day of new beginnings came, and the third time being the evening of the very first day of the school term when he had called Finn and informed him of the new generation of New Directions and how excited he was to get started on properly working with them as their teacher and glee club leader. And upon remembering all that, Mr. Schuester remembered, without a doubt, how Finn was not at all the type of person to engage in the behavior that he'd just now worried about him being capable of, and how the gentle giant that had served as the very first true male lead of the New Directions was a man of his word, and that he would fulfill his promise to make the reunion possible. Come Hell or Highwater, nothing short of death would have even the slightest chance of causing Finn to go back on his word. And with that knowledge, Mr. Schuester immediately felt better, confident, and happy once more; for he knew that he would wait for Finn and whatever other former New Directioneers managed to get involved to come to him for the reunion, no matter what happened or how long he had to wait. He would wait for them, simple as that.

The teacher turned around, an idea now on his mind, and resolutely marched over to the piano. He now knew just the song to perform right there in the choir room all to himself before the time came for him to leave the room and prepare for his next class to teach in American History. And perform it he did, right there at the piano with his usual flawless skill at both singing and piano playing, and all with a smile on his face. And even better, as he was playing and singing, he couldn't help but feel as if he were seeing and hearing phantom versions of all 16 of the gleeks who'd comprised the club's membership during the 2011-2012 school year singing alongside and dancing alongside him and his piano playing, not to mention of the three boys who'd served as the original drummer, guitarist, and bassist to work alongside the New Directions for the club's first four years of existence providing additional phantom accompaniment to his piano playing. The song in question went something like this:

I never felt nothing in the world like this before
Now I'm missing you and I'm wishing that you would come back through my door
Why did you have to go?
You could have let me know
So now I'm all alone.
Girl you could have stayed but you wouldn't give me a chance
With you not around it's a little bit more than I can stand
And all my tears they
Keep running down my face
Why did you turn away?
So why does your pride make you run and hide?
Are you that afraid of me?
But I know it's a lie what you keep inside
This is not how you want it to be
So baby I will wait for you
'Cause I don't know what else I can do
Don't tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life
Baby I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you
It's been a long time since you called me
(How could you forget about me)
You got me feeling crazy (crazy)
How can you walk away,
Everything stays the same
I just can't do it baby
What will it take to make you come back
Girl I told you what it is and it just ain't like that
Why can't you look at me,
You're still in love with me
Don't leave me crying.
Baby why can't we just start over again?
Get it back to the way it was
If you give me a chance I can love you right
But you're telling me it won't be enough
So baby I will wait for you
'Cause I don't know what else I can do
Don't tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life
Baby I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you
So why does your pride make you run and hide
Are you that afraid of me?
But I know it's a lie what you're keeping inside
That's not how you want it to be
Baby I will wait for you
Baby I will wait for you
If it's the last thing I do
Baby I will wait for you
'Cause I don't know what else I can do
Don't tell me I ran out of time
If it takes the rest of my life
Baby I will wait for you
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true
I really need you in my life
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you
I'll be waiting.

(Phantom!New Directions Alumni: For you.)

For what seemed like an eternity, Mr. Schuester remained tensed into the exact position he'd been in when he'd hit the final note for his performance. Then the teacher finally let a happy smile come on his face, and he relaxed out of the position. He took a deep breath, and then exhaled in content, still feeling happy. "The day will come," he thought to himself. "Sooner or later, one way or another, Finn will come through. The New Directions reunion he promised will happen. Because Finn is my friend, my student, my son in all but name, and most of all a man of his word." He got up from his seat at the piano and resolutely departed from the choir room to head to the room where he taught his American History lessons, either not noticing or just not caring about how the phantom clones of his 16 earliest successful former students and original jazz band affiliates had silently faded from existence not too long after the end of his performance.

"And I know that Finn will most certainly not be the only former student of mine from the earlier generations of New Directioneers to attend this reunion at some point or other," he thought to himself. And indeed, the teacher felt very much like he knew this possibility would, for a fact, be proven true. "Like Finn, they are my friends, my students, my children in all but name, men and women of their word, and most importantly, regardless of how much attention I gave them or how little I deserve to still be in their good graces in light of giving them lower levels of attention, true, loyal, and proud New Directioneers." He lifted his head high, fist raised in confidence, and a determined and proud look of joy on his face. "For through thick and thin," the teacher thought to himself. "We are all truly a family; a family in all but blood. And just like I said about the glee club itself during the New Directions' first year of existence, what truly defines family is what's in your heart, not what courses through your veins."

And just like that, another chapter done! Here's me hoping that you all read and enjoyed it! Especially after the Hell long wait I put you through since the last update. That being said, here's to also hoping you leave plenty of reviews (and be as concise, OR as detailed, as you wish). Remember, I require an exact MINIMUM of 2 reviews for this new chapter before I will allow for the posting of the next chapter. Get it? Got it? Good. Again, hope you all enjoyed and leave plenty of feedback ^_^.

Song Used:

Wait for You - Elliot Yamin - Performed by William Schuester.

Coming up Next: Daniel winds up meeting up with Zach in the hallway on the way to lunch . . . and the two supposed 'best friends' have some words to say to each other. Later on, not only does Daniel manage to make major leaps and bounds of progress in his work at befriending the other savory gleeks of the current generation of New Directioneers, but the entire group in question manages to successfully go through with Mr. Schuester's request from the previous chapter. Question is, just what sort of outcome will unfold for the gleeks as a result of this daring endeavor? Find out next time (whenever that may be) on GWAF - A New Generation is Born.