Chapter 3

"Remember how you said you wanted to coach glee club?" I asked Uncle Will as the three of us ate dinner.

"Yeah, why?"

"When I was wandering the school I ran into this girl, a singer, and she said the old one got fired."

"Really?" He perked up as I said that. "I mean, that's terrible." He really was a bad liar.

"Will, I thought you were over this whole glee club idea." Aunt Terri added as she slurped her noodles.

"I just never thought I'd get the chance to actually do it. I'm going to talk to Mr. Figgins tomorrow." Uncle Will stated. The rest of dinner was filled with silence as Aunt Terri didn't want to talk to Will and she avoided talking to me, plus the fact that I didn't really feel like saying anything at all anymore.

The next day I slept in and when I woke up everyone else was gone. Uncle Will and Aunt Terri must have already left for work. Uncle Will had told me last night that I'd be able to start school tomorrow. Today was my last day of freedom. I know I told Uncle Will that I wanted to start school as soon as possible but now that it was actually happening I was nervous.

I didn't want to have to make new friends. I missed Lilly. I just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. I closed my eyes when I felt tears coming. If I started crying I wouldn't be able to stop.

Once I got myself under control, or at least stopped crying, I went to look for my book bag. When I found it I took a deep breath and opened it. I hadn't touched it since I packed up everything in my locker a few days ago. It felt like so much longer than it really was.

I didn't really care about my binders or anything else. I would have to start everything new anyways. I was scared of the bottom layer of my backpack. The pictures I kept on my locker wall.

The first one wasn't so bad, just a pic of Lilly and I laughing at something. The next few didn't affect me too much either, just Lilly and I plus some of our other friends. However, the last two pictures made me wish I hadn't even brought them. The first was a picture of Dad, Mom, and I at a picnic. I could still remember that weekend. Mom and Dad took time off and we all went out together. We only went to the park, nothing special, but I loved it.

The second picture was of my mom holding me when I was younger, maybe a toddler. It always made me laugh, because she had given me a sticker book and I had managed to cover every inch of my body with them.

I smiled as I looked at the pictures. I walked over to my new room, bag forgotten, and stopped at the wall across from my bed. A few pieces of scotch tape and five minutes later I had the beginnings of a mini collage.

I was sitting on my bed, newly emptied backpack sitting on my desk, when Uncle Will walked in that afternoon. I waited in silence as he looked at my pictures. He chuckled when he found the one of me covered in stickers. "Katie loved this picture." He told me as he joined me on the bed.

"I miss them." I whispered.

"I know you do. I think we always will, but they would want us to be happy." I knew that, somewhere in my heart, but it was so hard.

"C'mon Jessie, let's go get ice cream." And with that I knew that as long as I had Uncle Will, at least some part of my life would be okay.

"This is really good," I praised as I licked my ice cream cone.

"Told you I know the best place," Uncle Will told me from the other side of the picnic table that we were sitting at.

"I know, I know, I'll never doubt you again," I teased, "So what did Mr. Figgins say about you running Glee Club?"

I could tell it wasn't good from the way he sighed. "You can't tell Terri, but if I do agree to run Glee I'll have to pay $60 a month to keep the club up and running. At least until the glee club starts winning for the school again."

"But it's an extracurricular."

"They still need money and there's been a lot of budget cuts, plus the fact that Sue and her cheerios are getting pretty much all of the money." He shook his head. "I just don't know what we'll do. I really want to do this."

"Then do it," I declared, "If you want to do it I can get a job and help you pay the money."

He immediately declined that idea, "No. We'll just need to spend a little less money for a bit and I'll see if I can do any extra work at school to get some additional money." As he finished the thought he seemed to realize that he was talking as if he had already made the decision.

I grinned, "I guess McKinley has a new Glee director."

"We need a new name though, I don't want anyone to think Glee is going to stay the same with me as director. I want to make it better."

We sat there coming up with random names as we ate our ice cream. Mine were mostly jokes but Uncle Will came up with a few names. We had it narrowed down to blended harmonies and golden voices, but neither of them really felt right.

"I give up," I sighed exasperated. Who knew it was so hard to come up with a name for a glee club?

"Just sleep on it, maybe we can come up with some tomorrow. Oh, Jessie, before I forget. Do you want to ride the bus home after school or wait for me to finish up and just come home with me?" Crap, I completely forgot about having to start school tomorrow.

"I'll just stay after with you."

"Ok." He must've seen the look on my face. "It's going to be okay, I promise. McKinley's not that bad and everyone's really nice."

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a pointed look. "Ok, ok, maybe not everyone but I'm sure you'll make new friends. You're an amazing person."

"Thanks Uncle Will, but you're biased." I replied, sticking my tongue out at him.

"But it's true I swear. Plus I'm older so I can pull seniority. I'm right." He said with a laugh as I rolled my eyes. He acted so much like a kid sometimes.

"Come on, let's go home." He said as he pulled me up from the picnic table and started walking towards the car.

BEEP BEEP BEEP. Uggghhhhh. What is that?

BEEP BEEP BEEP. Whose alarm is that? Why aren't they turning it off, I'm trying to sleep.

BEEP BEEP BEEP. I groaned as I opened my eyes. Why can't people turn off thei- I shot out of bed when I realized it was my alarm. I quickly turned it off and sighed. I wanted to sleep.

After changing I grabbed my backpack and headed to the kitchen. My stomach grumbled when the delicious smell of food hit my nose. I didn't care what it was, I just wanted to devour it.

"Good morning, good morning." My Uncle sang imitating some commercial I had seen, I was too tired to figure out which one. I groaned in response and he laughed. "I made some sausage and eggs for your first day of school."

"As long as it's edible, that's all I care about."

"Well then you're in luck." He chuckled as he served me and I stumbled over to the table. It was a good thing he was carrying my plate over for me, because I managed to trip over myself and fall flat on my butt. I could tell Uncle Will was laughing at me, although he was covering it up pretty well.

"Shut up." I stated, half kidding half too tired to care.

I slowly climbed into the passenger side as Uncle Will grabbed his keys. Honestly, I was glad I didn't have to ride the bus like I did before since mom and d-. Nope not right now, I cannot cry on my first day.

I was glad I didn't have to ride the bus like I did before. It was always crowded and loud, plus I could never find a seat.

"Hey," Uncle Will said as he got in the car, "You want to help me hang up Glee audition posters around the school?"

"Sure, it's not like I have anything else to do." But not for long, I was already behind in school because I had missed the last two weeks or so, plus I didn't know what they were learning here. School was not going to be fun.

"I still think you should join Glee club. I think you would like it."

"I'm not really that great of a singer."

"Yes you are!" He argued. "Plus you're related to me, you have to be a good singer." He joked. "But, seriously, I think you'd have a lot of fun."

"Okay, how about this? I will help you run glee club and if I like it then I'll join."

"Deal."