I lifted my head and opened my eyes, then sat up, and tried to remember… I had had a panic attack, I had been eating with Mr. Schue, then… he was driving towards the school… Uh- oh. I checked my watch. Half past six.
"SHIT." I more or less jumped out of the sofa, and got my cellphone. Quickly I dialed Mr. Schue´s number.
"Will Schuester!"
"Icantrememberanythingfromgettinginyourcartowaking uphomepleasetellmeitsjustablackout" I said.
"Wait what? Who is this?"
"Lex, I can´t remember anything from getting in your car to waking up home… please tell me it´s just a blackout." I heard Mr. Schue chuckle in the other end.
"No… you fell asleep in my car. I drove you home…."
"But what about my lessons... Now Miss Frond, Mr. Trey and Miss Cunningham are all gonna kill me. I should have had a lesson with you as well, but I don´t think you´d kill me!" Mr. Schue chuckled again.
"I´ve already taken care of it. Don´t worry."
"Okay… see you tomorrow."
"See you." I hung up and put the phone down, then I walked into the kitchen where the other´s sat.
"Morning!" Burt greeted me.
"Morn´" I answered him and sat down. "I… I should probably apologize for my behavior the last few days."
"Oh you don´t have to do that!"
"I want to… I need to… so… I´m sorry for… being so ungrateful… and Kurt and Blaine…. I´ll pay you back for those stuff."
"Seriously Lex" Blaine began. "It cost me like two dollars. I can live without that."
"I know it cost you forty dollars. The tag was left on it when I got it."
"With who´s money?" Burt joked.
"Mine… I´ll get a job or something." I could see Blaine and Kurt were trying had no to laugh at this point.
"How? Where?"
"I´ll figure something out."
"Lex?" Burt spoke up. "Which times are you at school on weekdays?"
"From eight fifteen every morning, to four on Mondays and Wednesdays, five on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and half past two on Fridays."
"And when´s the winter holidays?"
"In two and a half weeks."
"Would you like to help out at the gas station?"
"Well… sure."
"So… we´ll say this. You can come there at Mondays and Wednesdays, and then you can work two or three days during the holidays. And you can have enough money to both pay Kurt and Blaine back, and have some money for yourself. Have we got a deal?"
"Deal." I reached my hand forward, and shook Burt´s. Kurt and Blaine were now even trying not to laugh, they laughed so hard it was a miracle they didn´t fall of their chairs.
"What are you laughing at?" I asked. But they just kept on laughing, and I decided to let it go, and then I yawned.
"How can you still be tired," Blaine gasped. "You must have been sleeping really hard, you laid over my and Kurt´s legs, and you didn´t even seemed to notice when we stood up." I smiled, stood up and walked upstairs.
The next day, it was time for glee- club, we would probably go through a couple of songs today, the others had probably decided what song to do yesterday, and we´d probably rehearse it today, and then we´d preform it on Danny Gordon´s funeral tomorrow.
"Hey glee- clubbers" Mr. Schue came into the choir room. "We´re gonna rehearse today, but first," he waved with a paper. "I know where, when, and who we´re going to be competing with for regionals." He cleared his throat.
"It´s gonna be held Friday, March the seventeenth in Sidney, at Stonewall high, against their glee club, singing stones, and vocal adrenalines from Carmel high"
"Vocal adrenalines Ugh." Johnny exclaimed and stroke his face.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"We lost against them on regionals last year." Tyler explained to me. "They won at nationals for like the tenth time."
"We´re never gonna beat them." Jasper complained.
"Come on, what´s with you guys?" Mr. Schue said. "This isn't like you, and yeah I know, winning is great, but the most important thing is whatever we do, we do it together. And that we have fun. An…"
"Hey." Hayley came walking, Mr. Schue stopped talking in the middle of a word, and also all of us silent.
"Hey." Mr. Schue patted Hayley´s shoulder, she walked past him.
"Mr. Schue, can you sit down please." Hayley said, he nodded and sat down between me and Aiden.
"I suppose you´ve already chosen a song for tomorrow… but I would like to tell you something anyway." She took a deep breath, Mr. Schue stood up, walked over to her, and laid his arm around her shoulders.
"The usual songs to sing at funerals are the ballads, very sad, very beautiful…. But you know… there were loads of things that dad liked, and… sad ballads were not one of those things. My dad liked soccer, football, basketball, things like that. And he liked when people got together, as with Olympics. Every time there was the world championship, and there was a song made for it, he was like…. This is my favorite song. Until in 2010. This was always his favorite song after that… you choose… but I hope you´ll do it." She put a bunch of papers on the piano. "See you tomorrow."
"See you." Hayley was already on her way out the door, but stopped, and turned around.
"You should probably know this as well, during the holidays in two weeks, I´m moving to Atlanta." With this, she turned around, and walked out in the corridor.
"Atlanta," it was barely a whisper, but I moved my lips to the word. Atlanta? Atlanta! Away from me!
"Honey," I felt Tyler´s hand on my shoulder. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah." I lied, I surely didn´t need another round of dwelling, Mr. Schue stood up, got the papers, and handed them out. And then we started rehearsing.
Next day, funeral
"First, we take a listen to the bells ringing." The priest said, and silent as the bells started ringing. I looked around, New Directions sat on the second and third bench from the altar, dressed in the clothes from sectionals. Black converse, white buttons- up, and black jeans. Us girls had put our hair in pony- tails, holding up with an elastic band, with a black plastic- rose on it, and the boys had back- slick, with that even Aiden and Johnny.
"We´ve gathered here today," The priest began. "to honor the memory of Daniel Thomas Gordon. Daniel was a good friend, someone everyone could rely on, a hard- working colleague and not least, a very loving, and beloved husband to Molly Jane, and father to Hayley Adele and Daniel Phoenix…" I hate to say I didn´t pay much attention to what was said until.
"Now, Daniel´s daughter Hayley, is coming up to say a few well-chosen words." He sat down as Hayley stood up, she held a paper in her hand, as she stood in front of the microphone, the paper rustled as her hands were shaking.
"My father, he was a great man. I miss him very much. The way he laughed, the way his smile could always make things just a little bit better. I miss his smell, his hugs, his words of wisdom. My father, he was a great man, I miss him very much, I miss the sound of his voice, I miss playing games with him, always knowing that he would cheat. I miss how he used to tickle me, until I laughed so much it hurt, and I couldn´t breathe. My father, he was a great man. I miss his shouting when he watched some game echoing through the house, I miss how he could take in a homeless person every once in a while, give them food, a bath, and somewhere to stay over the night. My father, he was a great man, he treated everybody well, he always did his best, and never judged by what he saw. I miss the way he taught me that everyone´s the same, the way his snoring echoed through the house. The house is too quiet at night now. But most of all, I miss his person, his personality. Most of all, I miss my dad." Hayley cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "I asked my friends who are gonna sing today, that they were going to do his favorite song instead of some sad ballad, whether they are doing that or not, I don´t know, but I think they´re gonna do a great job anyways, and honor the memory of my dad, ladies and gentlemen, the New Directions." We stood up, walked up in the church to the altar, and turned towards the benches in the church. And then it started.
The song we had chosen was k´naan´s Wavin´ flag. The celebration mix, it was a great song, and very fun to sing- even though the reason we were doing it. I soon lost count of how many people were smiling through their tears when we had started.
The song wasn´t long, so soon it was time for all of us to sit down, the funeral went on for another while, and then Danny´s coffin was carried out of the church by four men I didn´t recognize.
We were the last ones to walk out of the church. When we came out Danny´s coffin had been lifted into a car, and they were about to close the back- doors of it, Hayley stood by the car, with her mum, and a boy, perhaps about nineteen or twenty years old. I guessed that this was Daniel Jr. Hayley saw us coming, and loosened herself from Daniel´s grip.
"Hey." She said. "I… there´s no way I can thank you enough. I think… that dad would have loved that."
"Sis´" Daniel came walking. "Hey… you´re the new Directions I guess. I´m Daniel. You did great in there. Hay… we´re leaving now." Hayley nodded, I hugged her tightly and then she turned around and stepped into a car. The car drove away with all the others, and first when we all stood there, waiting for Mr. Schue to come out again, so we could leave, I noticed something.
"Someone dropped a flower." I kneeled down and picked up a red rose from the ground.
"You should probably leave it there!" Teeghan said.
"Might as well have use for it. Wait here." I walked over to the graveyard next to the church, and over to a black stone, with golden letters, a short poem written on it, and an angel girl spreading out its way on the top of it. I kneeled down and laid the rose on the ground in front of it.
Mr. Schue pov
"So, everyone…. Where´s Lex." Tyler nodded towards the graveyard, and I saw Lex kneeling in front of a gravestone.
"Get in the bus everybody." I said and started walking towards Lex.
"Hey. You okay?" I asked when I was close enough, Lex looked up at me and nodded.
"Madelyn N. S. Ralston, 16.12.02- 28.11.10. Another child, another life ripped away way too soon. I love you for now and for always, please wait for me on the moon." Lex giggled.
"I´m not a very good writer." I chuckled. "I think I wrote it for some kind of essay."
"It´s beautiful." I said, and that was what I thought. She smiled to me, and then I reached her my hand.
"Come on now, the others are waiting." Lex stood up and together we walked to the bus.
Lex pov, Monday at the gas station
I stood under a high shelf in the gas station, when one of the worker´s, Charles came walking.
"Aren´t you working."
"I can´t reach what Burt asked me for. I´m trying to find a way to get up to it."
"Climb the shelves then." Charles sighed and walked into the lounge, I shrugged, then took a steady grip of the ingot holding the shelves together, I had climbed up one shelf when it suddenly loosened from the shelves
"Uh-oh." I whimpered, as all the shelves fell down, and with them, I fell. And boy, car- pieces are heavy.
