It was 5 a.m when Blaine's alarm on his phone began to ring. Today was the day…Nationals. Blaine sleepily reached over and shut off the alarm. He rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms high into the air. He looked around his room. His suitcase was already packed. All he had to do was shower and get dressed. Then he and the rest of the New Directions would be off to Chicago...after a nearly six hour bus drive though. After lying in his bed for a few minutes, Blaine pushed himself up from under his warm covers and ambled into the bathroom and got into the shower. Afterwards, he got out and got dressed and gelled his hair into place. It was finally time to leave. He walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Kim was waiting for him in her pink fuzzy bathrobe sipping a cup of coffee. She smiled her infectious smile as he walked over to her.
"Are you excited?" She asked.
"Yeah…" Blaine said hesitantly. It wasn't like he wasn't excited, he really was, but he really hated being away from home. As a foster kid, it takes a really long time before you can actually call a place home and once you find that place, it's very distressing to leave that place.
"Hey, I know you. Tell me what's bothering you." Kim said as she placed her hand on top of his.
"I just really don't like being away from home…"Blaine mumbled. Kim sighed.
"Well honey, it'll still be here when you get back. I promise." Kim told him. "Plus with all that help you've been giving me, you really deserve a fun weekend with you friends." Blaine took a deep breath. She was right. Home wasn't going anywhere. Not this time anyway. He smiled back at Kim and then grabbed his car keys from the basket. "Oh wait no." Kim says. "Tom is going to drive you. I don't want your car sitting in Mckinley's parking lot all weekend."
"Oh okay." Blaine replied. He set his key back in the basket and waited for the sound of Tom's footsteps to come rumbling down the stairs. After about five minutes, the sound that Blaine had been waiting for appeared. Tom came downstairs dressed in his typical suit and tie with his briefcase in hand.
"You ready?" he asked. Blaine nodded and grabbed his suitcase and followed his foster father out to his car. They both got in the car and at first the silence was awkward. Thoughts from the other day when Kim and Tom had been talking alone kept popping into Blaine's mind.
"Is something wrong?" Blaine asked before he could stop himself.
"What do you mean?" Tom asked.
"The other day...when you were talking to Kim and you had me take the little kids...is something wrong?" Blaine asked again.
"No, nothing's wrong." Tom replied. "When you get back, Kim and I will talk to all you kids about what we talked about."
"Oh...okay." Blaine replied. He still didn't feel any better, just more suspicious. He didn't have the bond with Tom that he did with Kim and was not very inclined to believe him. Tom pulled into Mckinley's parking lot and unlocked the door.s
"Well, here we are, bud. Hope you have a good time and good luck with your competition." Tom said.
"Thanks for driving me." Blaine said as he pulled his suitcase from the trunk. "I'll see you on Sunday night."
"See you then." Tom replied before pulling out of the parking lot. Blaine took a deep breath and saw Kurt waiting over Finn and Rachel. He walked over to them and Kurt smiled.
"Hey, you ready? It's finally the day." Kurt said. Blaine nodded. He looked around. Pretty much everyone from the glee club was there, everyone except for the bus driver. When the bus did pull up, everyone just gaped at the sight before them. A school bus! Really? They were taking a school bus on a six hour drive.
"Mr. Shue, I thought we were taking a charter bus." Rachel said.
"No, sorry guys. This was all we could afford." Mr. Shue replied. They were even more shocked when the doors opened and Coach Sue was the one driving the bus. IT was going to be a long day. The glee club filed onto the bus, each one of them depositing their suitcases in the seats in the front of the bus, so they could all sit together in the back. After everyone and everything was loaded, Coach Sue closed the door and began to drive the bus. Throughout the first hour, everyone was energized and talking with one another, but as they hit hour three everyone was getting pretty uncomfortable and hungry.
"Mr. Shue, when are we stopping at a rest stop?" Mercedes asked.
"In about a half an hour." Mr Shue replied. Everyone on the bus collectively groaned. Blaine was just trying to zone everything out, by listening to his music. He still couldn't stop thinking about what Kim and Tom had been talking about and his anxiety about being away from home. Unexpectedly, he felt Kurt's head drop down onto his shoulder. Blaine looked over at his boyfriend, who was looking very pale. He pulled out an earphone and turned to Kurt.
"Hey, you okay?" Blaine asked.
"I'm just not feeling so good. My head is throbbing." Kurt confessed.
'I bet you're just hungry." Blaine replied. "We'll be at the rest stop soon. Just rest your head on me and close your eyes. I wake you up when we're there." Kurt nodded and settled into Blaine's side. As it turns out, Mr Shue lied about the time. Not intentionally, but still. It was another two hours before they were even remotely near a rest stop. When they finally arrived, Mr. Shue could stop the flood of hungry teenagers that rushed towards him. They broke off into groups. All of girls and Kurt and Blaine went in one direction, while the rest of the boys went in another. The girls decided on Chipotle, except for Mercedes who saw this other place called Senora Salsation. They all at their meals happily and even had a few spare minutes to look around. Blaine and Kurt walked into a cute little gift shop next door. Blaine looked around. He decided that it would be nice to get his siblings some souvenirs.
"Kurt, do you think Annie would like this?" Blaine asked as he held up a keychain with her name on it.
"Don't you want to wait until we're actually in Chicago to get them souvenirs?" Kurt asked.
"No, they won't care and these are cheaper." Blaine replied. Kurt shrugged.
"I guess the keychain is cool. How about this for Sami?" Kurt asked holding up a cute rainbow colored teddy bear.
"That's perfect." Blaine replied. In the end, he ended up getting the keychain for Annie, the teddy bear for Sami, a book that came with small animal figures for Lucas, and for Charlie a lighter shaped like a heart. She had been asked for a new lighter anyway. In no way, shape or form did he agree with her smoking, but there wasn't anything better. After that, they all got back on the bus and began to drive. The traffic was awful so by dinner time they still weren't in Chicago and were forced to stop at another rest station. After that they had no choice but to drive until they got to their hotel. When they finally did, all of the glee club members were asleep in the hard plastic seats of the school bus. Mr. Shue actually had to go around and wake everyone up. Once they were all awake, they sleepily lumbered into the hotel. The school could only afford three rooms, so it was easy to figure out room arrangements. Sadly, Kurt did end up bunking with the girls more on preference than necessity. They all crowded into their rooms and pretty much fell over where ever and went to sleep. Tomorrow was a big day and they needed their energy.
Around eight the next morning, Blaine felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Kurt that said, "Get Mr. Shue! Mercedes is sick!" Blaine sighed. He pulled back the covers from the bed he was sleeping in and wandered into the hallway to the room next door and knocked. Mr Shue, who was clearly still half asleep opened the door.
"Blaine? What is it?" He asked.
"Kurt just texted me and said Mercedes is sick." Blaine told him.
"Shoot." Mr. Shue sighed. "Thanks for telling me Blaine. Go stay in the boys room. If what Mercedes has is contagious, we don't want to spread it anymore." Blaine nodded and headed back to his room. The other guys had started to wake up and wanted to know what was going on so Blaine told them and it's and it was an understatement to say that everyone was freaking out.
"She's one of our best singers!" Puck exclaimed.
"Dude, calm down." Finn said. "We can still win this." Then, they heard a knock on the door. It was Mr. Shue.
"Okay, guys…" Mr Shue said hesitantly. "Mercedes has food poisoning, so I arranged for a room for us to rehearse in. We need to readjust all the numbers just in case she isn't able to perform." All of the guys nodded and followed Mr. Shue down to the room where the girls were waiting. Rehearsal began and despite everyone's panic it was going well. Until...Puck decided to study for his geography final and Sam didn't take it to well.
"Dude, come on! We need to rehearse!" Sam yelled at Puck.
"I already know the dance! I need to study!" Puck yelled back.
"If we're going to win, we need everybody to actually try and that means you too." Sam yelled. Puck got angry and began to shove Sam. Finn, Sam, Joe, and Mike raced into break up the fight as Mr. Shue came back into the rehearsal room, followed by Miss Pillsbury and Coach Beiste.
"What's going on?" Mr Shue roared.
"He's studying for geography while we're trying to rehearse! It's bogus!" Sam yelled.
"Because I already know the dance! You dance like you've got your feet caught in beat traps." Puck retorted as Sam charged back in at him. Luckily, Finn cut him off.
"Mr. Shue, are you aware that while we're arguing about jazz squares, Unique is being given a key to the city by Rahm Emanuel." Kurt added.
"Plus my blanket and pillow fell in the pool! Disaster!" Brittany said as she looked out the window.
"Look, I think everybody is just a little tired." Artie said,trying to be the voice of reason. "We've been rehearsing for three straight hours."
"Yeah, and we'll rehearse all night if we have to! We can rest after we've won!" Finn interjected.
"Just because we lost Mercedes doesn't mean we can be anything but perfect." Rachel told all of them. "Perfect!" She added with a point of her finger. The whole glee club erupted in various shouts. It was chaos.
"Hey!" Santana yelled. "You know what? I don't want to hear anymore of this we can't do it without her crap because guess what? we don't have a choice. So, be warned if you all are not giving this everything you've got, I will go all Lima Height's on your sorry-asses."
"Listen to yourselves…" Mr. Shue said calmly.
"I know, I'm sorry, I always go to the yelling place." Santana confessed. "I have rage…" she mumbled.
"No," Mr. Shue said. "It's a good thing, a great thing. There is so much passion in this room. Even though you're arguing, it's about the work. You guys really want this. Okay so, let's take a half-hour break and then we'll run it from the top."
"Mr. Shue, can we just keep going? We've got the first slot which is like the death slot. We have to be amazing." Tina said.
"Yeah, "Edge of Glory" is a bitch. I said I'd be dancing by Nationals; I'll be damned if I don't." Quinn added.
"Okay, then let's keep going!" Mr Shue said. They formed lines and began rehearsing again. They rehearsed all night,, only stopping for lunch and dinner. The next day they got ready in their dressing room and then came together in a show circle, before their performance. Then, they heard an unexpected voice coming from the door.
"Now I know you weren't planning on doing a show circle without me." Mercedes said as she walked into the room with her costume on.
"Mercedes!" They all cheered. "You're alive."
"Yeah, thanks to Sue. She's a miracle worker." Mercedes said sarcastically as she made the crazy sign with her finger.
"It's amazing what a little TLC, some cortisone, and a witch doctor will do." Sue told them.
"Thank God you're okay." Quinn exclaimed. "That means I'm not going to fall on my face during that Trouble Tones number."
"Oh screw that!" Mercedes said. "This is our last time performing together. You're doing it and so are you Tina. I'm not taking no for an answer. Plus, I have so many steroids running through my body that I may turn into the incredible hulk if you piss me off!" They all laughed and then put their hands in for a show circle. It was finally time for them to perform. They took their spot on the stage and the curtain opened. The first number was "Edge of Glory" with just the Trouble Tones. Santana and Mercedes sang lead and sounded amazing. Next, was Rachel's solo which was "It's all Coming Back to Me Now" and Carmen Tibideaux actually showed up after all of her begging. Their final number was "Dashboard" which was the only number that everyone in the glee club was in. At the end of their final number, everyone stood up and clapped. They had done all they could do and now all they could was wait. After a day of performances, it was finally time for the results. The New Directions were on the stage with Vocal Adrenaline and another team named The Portland Scaleblazers who won third place. It was between the New Directions and Vocal Adrenaline now
"And now,ladies and gentlemen, quiet please." The judge said. "Congratulations to both teams with us standing on stage, but now it's time to announce a winner. The 2012 Nationals Show Choir Champtions are...The New Directions!" The New Directions erupted into cheers as the giant trophy was brought over to them. They had done it! They had really done it!
They all celebrated once they got off the stage. Everyone was just so happy. They packed up their things and got back on their bus. It was time to return to Lima as champions. This time, everyone on the bus was wide awake until the very end. They got back around midnight, but regardless of the time, both Kim and Tom were waiting for him in the parking lot. He got off the bus and then ran over to them.
"We won!" Blaine said excitedly.
"That's amazing honey!" Kim said as she pulled him into a hug. "You ready to go home?" Blaine nodded and joined his foster parents in the car. They rode home and Blaine talked endlessly about the competition until they were home. Once they were home, they all headed to bed. They could talk more in the morning.
The next morning was Saturday so everyone in Blaine's house took their time waking up. But once they were all up, Kim and Tom, who was never home on Saturdays called them into the living.
"Guys, we both have something that we need to talk to you about." Kim told them as they sat down on the couches. "It's something very important, so pay attention and have an open mind." The kids waited anxiously. This was a speech they had all heard before and though tthey would never hear again.
Ahhh cliffhanger! Hang in there. You'll find out by the next chapter, which is the last chapter of this fic! Don't worry I'm already planning out my next fic though!