I still had one part of the third song in this story. I just loved it. Even though Finn is alive in this, I still loved it.

42. National's III

We practice for two hours, three hours before we were set to go on. Ryder and I barely talked other than during the dancing when we had to communicate together and work together to make the dance routine work. After that he went off with Blaine and Jake and I sat alone on one of the chairs. I wanted a cigarette so badly right now.

I finished applying the blue to my eye makeup and brushed my hair one more time. I took a glance in the mirror and smiled; I was beautiful. I loved it. I came out of the room and Unique was all set to go into the lobby and meet up with everyone for the shuttle bus to take us to National's.

Downstairs in the lobby everyone was already there except for Ryder. Either he was late or he was avoding me and hiding behind someone. I sat on the couch texting Lark and Minnie back and forth. Minnie said we passed the check-up, which was good. Lark said he was around the area and meet us at the performing arts center. I put my phone away and shut my eyes to sooth myself down, but felt someone tap me. I turned and faced a boquet of peonies, with someone hiding their face. "Peonies"

The flowers moved and Ryderwas there. "Your favorites." He said, handing them to me. "I left to go get them a while ago."

Thank you," I said as I took them. I smelled the flowers and grinned.

"I'm sorry for getting mad this morning," Ryder said as his hand rested on my shoulder and his thumb rubbed my shoulder skin. "I'm just a big, worry ass."

"I'm sorry for screaming and calling you mean names." I told him. "I know you just care. I'm just... I feel like when summer starts I can really focus more on getting better. I won't have school or Tina Cohen-Chang stress." I laughed.

He laughed too. "Alright, that's good. But try to start now too, okay?"

"Okay." I said. Then leaned in for a kiss on the lips. "I love you."

"Love you too."

We arrived at the performing arts center and got signed in. We were third in the lineup of singing. I feltmy nerves leveling up, but I stayed cool. I went outside to get some fresh air.

"Hi." I heard Lark come up to me. "You look pretty."

"Thanks." I said. "I'm so excited."

"And you just can't hide it." Lark laughed. "You okay?"

"Just nervous."

"Want to smoke a butt?" He asked. "Or joint? I'm gonna hit it up after you guys sings." He said.

"No, I have to be clean." I told him. Then thought about it. "Maybe one or two cigarettes and a lighter."

He nodded and handed me two cigarettes and a lighter. I placed them inside my dress, inside my bra, and hid them until I could get them in my bag in the New Directioin's dressing room. I left the room and joined the others on stage. I could see the audience and my nerves got filled up again, but Ryder held my hand and I calmed down a little bit.

The others sang. I have to say, the group that sang Mr. Roboto with that guy with the Frencn name did sound amazing. Blaine was right when it said it might be hard to beat them, espeically since they skip classes in order to do at least 200 hours of non-stop perfoming in order to join that Glee club. At least I think that is what Blaine told us. He reads the Show Choir Blogs a lot.

Our turn.

We got into our first dance positions. Soon the music began and and we danced and sang our parts of the song. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves with our proformance and soon enough we rolled into our second song, which made the audience cheer more as we danced and sang. It was that number that Ryder and i were mainly partners and I couldnt help but giggled when he had to lift me up and spin me around. Finally the third number came and I could see Finn lauging on the side of the stage. Sam wanted to do this for Finn, our leader, so we sang one his most favorite songs. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. At the end of the numbr we pulled out of dresses (or inside pockets for the guys) red drum sticks with sparkles on them and held them up on the last note. That made the audience roar with excitment.

We left the stage and we all jumped and cheered and hugged congradulation everyone together. There was a forth group that on now. Everyone was watching them, but I decided to head off to the side and cool down. I grabbed my cigarettes and lighter and left for outside. I lit one up and started smoking the cigarette. I felt myself cool down.

"Three minutes." A voice behind my back said.

I turned around, making sure the cigarette was still behind me, and saw it was Mercedes. "Excuse me?"

"Three minutes. Give yourself a three minute pity party then get back on your feet and keep working on your music." She told me. I dropped the cigarette behind me and took a step back so my shoes squished it. "Look, I've been submiting songs, declined, submiting, declined, submiting and declined and it hurts I know. But then you get back on your feet and keep working on it. Someone is going to listening to them and take them and the rest of those people who rejected you will feel terrible for not accepting you."

"How did you know?"

"Those guys told me. Ryder and Jake." She said to me. "Those guys care about you and Ryder espeically cares a lot about you a lot."

I smiled. That was true.

"Don't give up on your dreams Marley Rose, you're too good for that." She said to me.

We hugged after that. I felt a lot better after that.

As soon as she left though, offering to walk back in with me, I opted to stay outside for another ten minutes. As soon as she left though I pulled out my second cigarette and smoked.

We won.