a/n: It was a bit surreal for me writing this chapter and listening to different Christmas songs in the middle of summer. After a couple of hours sifting through multiple carols, a was surprised to look out the window to discover that there were no snow on the ground. The sun is shining, the bees are humming and the grass is green, while I'm doing my best to get into Christmas mode.

Things are going back to normal over the next few weeks. As normal as it gets with all the work that has to be done. Exams and rehearsals are taking it's toll, but the events from the party is almost forgotten. They decide to do a Christmas show to raise money for Regionals. Not everybody is happy about it, but it is a success. The kids are celebrating the holidays in different ways, but two of them have no reason to celebrate at all.

Music in this Chapter:

Winter wonderland - M: Felix Bernard, L: Richard B. Smith

Rockin' around the Christmas tree - M/L: Johnny Marks

Fairytale of New York - The Pogues - M/L: Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan

Driving home for Christmas - Chris Rea - M/L: Chris Rea

Deck the halls - M: Welsh Traditional, L: (English) Thomas Oliphant

Music mentioned:

Waltz of the Flowers, Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, Oh Holy Night, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Christmas rehearsal

They worked really hard the next few weeks. Ianto barely had time for regular schoolwork the way Mr Evans constantly pushed them to do better. The guy had briefly mentioned that they only needed twelve of them to compete. It was a joke, but even if everybody kind of knew that, they also knew that it could easily change if they didn't stay focused.

Gwen was especially nervous. She was perfectly aware of the fact that if any of the girls had to sit one out it would be her. Ianto tried to comfort her, although he wasn't too sure about his own position if Mr Evans decided to make good on his threat.

With a couple of exams coming up, and then the weekly assignments they had for Glee-club, Ianto didn't have much time for socializing either. It was true for a lot of the students in the choir, and it was actually the one topic that was discussed the most between them when they had a spare moment.

Even if the party they had ended a little sour, they all wanted to try to get together again. With everything going on at the moment, it didn't look like it was going to happen any time soon. It was even hard to find time to plan a party.

Dean and John's little fight wasn't an issue anymore. After the two of them promised that they had made up, the rest of the choir had accepted that. Garth kept ranting about the punishment he'd subject them to if they slipped up, but nobody took him seriously.

The twins had been on the fence on the subject for another week, but then it just faded away.

Dean had finally found a job, and worked almost every weekend at a garage not to far from their little apartment. In between football and choir practice, he struggled through the curriculum, and if it hadn't been for Sam helping him, he would have been screwed.

There was no denying the fact that the younger Winchester was a little genius compared to Dean. After midterms, Sam had been placed in advanced English and Math, but even with the extra workload, he still found time to tutor his big brother.

Charlie kept going like the Energizer bunny. She was the leader of computer club; she worked on the school newspaper as some kind of 'researcher', and if she had a spare moment, she rehearsed with the girls in the string ensemble. Everybody thought she was done with that when she joined New Directions, but she couldn't stay away.

After joining Glee-club, almost all the students in there had improved their grades. Jo and Unique were not among those. On the contrary; both of them had failed on a couple of tests during the fall. Their parents and their teachers had met up to discuss it, and one option had been to withdraw them from Glee Club.

Mr Evans didn't want to lose any of them, and he fought tooth and nail to prevent that from happening. With two straight-A students in club, he begged them to help out.

Castiel didn't hesitate for a second. His church choir was going to have a Christmas concert, and he was pretty much tied up, but he still promised to make time for Jo. He even offered to help Unique, but Mr Evans wanted her to be tutored by a Senior. Jane was a little more on the fence. Everybody wondered if it was because she was afraid of the competition from Unique, but when she caught wind of their concerns, she caved in and promised to help raise Unique's grades.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack had been working hard through the fall, and he didn't have to worry about his GPA anymore. He was still struggling with his Spanish, but with mostly B's in his other classes, he was safe in the choir.

The Spanish teacher, Mrs Lopez was tough, and she didn't take any crap from anybody. Jack had a feeling that she didn't like him much, so he'd tried to flirt his way into her heart. That had not gone around well.

He'd always known how to draw them; ever since he was a little boy, he had relied on his charm to get what he wanted. Over the years, he had often managed to sweet talk his teachers into raising his grades.

When he started high school, he had to change his game somewhat. The innocent batting of his eyes and his sometimes lame excuses for not doing his homework didn't cut it any longer.

His boyish charm that had been his best friend up until that point was perceived very differently when he, over the course of freshman year, suddenly grew into a man. The flirting that his elementary school and middle school teachers had found quite adorable, was now looked at as sexual innuendos.

As a sophomore, he got quite a reputation, and it was embarrassing to sit in the principal's office having to explain himself. His parents weren't any less embarrassed, and even if he swore that the rumors weren't true, he was forced to do things a little differently.

With a goal in life to end up on Broadway as a headliner, it wasn't easy to stay focused on the subjects in class, but he prevailed. He made a decision to get away from that school as soon as possible, even if it meant that he had to work twice as hard as he'd done so far.

He kept to himself and buried himself in school work in order to graduate early. It went quite well until Mrs Arby, the conductor of the school choir, went on her maternity leave. The substitute was a gorgeous twenty two year old guy, and Jack fell head over heels for him.

It wasn't a show choir; they pretty much only sang hymns and other boring stuff, but Jack had joined for the singing practice. He was better than most of them, so even if he skipped the sessions ever so often, Mrs Arby had let him stay.

His grades started to fail as he spent more time in the choir room than with his homework. He didn't care. He brushed the dust of his flirting skills and it didn't take long before Dan noticed. It still took three months before the two of them hooked up. The weekend they spent together wasn't as magical as Jack had expected it to be. He learned a lot that had nothing to do with the curriculum, but he also learned that love was a fleeting thing. Dan was not interested in him for any other reason than sex, and over the course of their limited time together, Jack got his heart broken.

When he met up for choir practice the next Monday, Mrs Arby was back, and he never saw Dan again.

More determined than ever, Jack did his best to pick up the pieces of himself and his failing grades. He didn't get that diploma, but he still left for New York and Broadway. He'd promised his parents to study on his spare time, and he lied out of his teeth when he told them that he would live with a friend that was a student as NYADA.

He did have a friend at that school, but he only promised to let him crash at his place for a week or so.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

John was still beating himself up after the little stunt he pulled after the party. He should not have let his emotions get the better of him. The fact that he was drunk did not excuse his actions, and now he'd gone and ruined the friendship he had with Ianto.

Even if they had agreed that it didn't mean anything, things had changed between them. They still hung out ever so often, but rarely alone. With everything going on at the moment, there wasn't really much time either, but John didn't find any comfort in that.

It didn't take a genius to understand that Ianto was avoiding him on purpose. The few times he'd been at the Jones' house after the infamous party, he had not been asked to spend the night. They hadn't even been in Ianto's room together, and Gwen was always with them in the basement.

"Sleigh bells ring

are you listening

In the lane

Snow is glistening…"

John was bored out of his mind with the carols they had to sing for the Christmas show. He was walking around that big tree on stage holding hands with the others, trying to look cheerful. The decision to arrange a concert to raise money for regionals had made it even harder to find time to mend things between him and Ianto.

Maybe it was too late anyway. Maybe he had to move on and forget about the Welshie. He looked over at Ianto and Jane as they ran backstage to get the styrofoam snowman.

"In the meadow we can build a snowman

and pretend that he's circus clown…"

Fake snow was falling from the ceiling as the rest of the choir pretended to have a snowball fight. John had to go and put the carrot-nose on the snowman, and then he had to take Ianto's and Jane's hands and dance around it with them.

It wasn't really choreographed, but it didn't matter. They were just supposed to look like happy kids enjoying the winter and the holidays. Ianto seemed happy, but then again, he could be faking it just as John did himself.

Mr Evans applauded as he came up on stage after the song was over. "I think this dress rehearsal went well. Are you all ready for tomorrow?" He knew that the choir hadn't been too thrilled about doing this show, but they were committed and had put in their best effort. He held up the little ticket book. "And we are almost sold out."

It hadn't been hard to sell this performance. The ticket price was ridiculously low, but with a packed venue, they had enough money for regionals. That was even after having to pay for the stage decorations themselves. They also had to share some of the proceeds with dance class and orchestra, but it was still sufficient funding. Since the school had promised to meet them halfway, they were pretty much set for the competition.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

A bittersweet end of the semester

Most of the songs they'd picked for the show weren't focusing on the biblical message of Christmas. With the different denominations and religious views of the student body, they didn't want to offend anybody, but they added a couple regardless.

Castiel would be the lead singer on 'Oh holy night', and all the girls were going to sing the upbeat 'Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah', just to even things a bit.

The dancers ran out on stage to get ready for the first number. The girls were wearing flowing long red dresses with white trim, and the boys had red pants and sparkling white jackets. They were dancing to 'Waltz of the Flowers' from 'Nutcracker'. Half way through, the beat changed and they'd start rocking.

Dean and Unique were nervously awaiting their cue. The rest of the choir was ready to go as soon as soon as the orchestra left Tchaikovsky behind. The two lead singers walked arm in arm out on stage.

"Rocking around the Christmas tree

at the Christmas party hop…"

Most of the dancers were swinging while a couple of them pushed the oversized fake fir onto the stage.

"Mistletoe hung where you can see

every couple tries to stop…"

Behind Dean and Unique, everybody on stage pretended to kiss before they continued with their thing. The dancers danced and the choir did their background humming. It was well done so far, and considering the fact that they only had two weeks to rehearse this, it was quite awesome.

"You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear

voices singing let's be jolly

deck the halls with boughs of holly…"

The dancers left one by one towards the end of the song, and as Dean and Unique sung the last few lines, they only had the choir behind them.

"...Everyone's dancing merrily in the new old fashioned waaaaay…"

The stage went completely dark. Soon, a lonely spotlight captured an old piano, and Brad hitting a few chords. Another spotlight caught Ianto as he walked up to the microphone.

"It was Christmas eve, babe

in the drunk tank.

An old man said to me

won't see another one…"

Ianto delivered. He must have been smoking heavily and had a few whiskeys, because his voice resembled that of Shane MacGowan. The string ensemble with Charlie on the violin came into view when another three spotlights were turned on. The rest of the stage was still quite dark, but those with good eyesight could see that there were more people hiding in the shadows.

"...I can see a better place

when all our dreams come true."

Lights came on revealing the band, and then Gwen came slowly walking across the stage. The overall picture was still somewhat gloomy, but the audience was now able to see everyone that was there.

As soon as the band upped the beat, Gwen grabbed a microphone and leaned on the piano.

"They've got cars big as bars

they've got rivers of gold…"

The contempt in her voice was very convincing. She stepped away from the piano and walked up to Ianto as she kept singing.

"When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas eve

You promised me Broadway was waiting for me…"

The two cousins looked at each other and continued to sing flawlessly. Gwen had really come a long way. Nobody ever doubted that Ianto was capable when the two of them wanted to do this song together. Mr Evans had suggested that he should sing with Jo instead, but Ianto had refused to do it without Gwen.

"The boys of the NYPD choir

were singing 'Galway bay'

and the bells were ringing out for Christmas day…"

The choir joined in as the song continued. Will was still worried about how this Christmas song would be received by the audience. It was a bit controversial, and they hadn't gotten to the 'good' part yet.

"You scumbag, you maggot

you cheap lousy faggot

Happy Christmas you ass

I pray God it's our last…."

Gwen's lines were delivered with confidence, and the way she looked at Ianto as she sang it made it totally believable. The rest of of the guys back there sang the chorus, and they did great as well.

"I could have been someone." It looked like Ianto practically spat on Gwen as he sang the line.

She replied very well, and pretended to lash out for him

"Well so could anyone

You took my dreams from me

when I first found you…"

During the end of the song, Will turned to look at the audience. Except for the first couple of rows, he couldn't see much, but it didn't look too bad. He knew that some of them could possibly find this song too offensive, and he braced himself for a confrontation on Monday. He was ready; he would defend these kids till the end if he had to.

They lightened up the mood with 'Rudolf the rednosed reindeer', and the 'Hanukkah song' before Castiel sang 'O holy night'. The whole choir was standing behind him holding lit candles in their hands. He sang almost the whole song alone with the choir humming softly in the background, but on the last verse, they all joined in. It was powerful and absolutely perfect. Maybe this would keep the parents in there happy.

They sang a couple of other traditional upbeat Christmas songs before they left the stage to the orchestra. They played another piece from The Nutcracker, 'The dance of the sugar plum fairy'. Dance class at McKinley didn't really focus on classical ballet, but one of the girls had volunteered to do this. She had been doing the ballet since she was four and looked at it as an opportunity to show off her skills.

The girl did very well, receiving standing ovations from the audience. She had to bow several times before the applause started to die out. As soon as it was quiet, the girl tiptoed to the side and grabbed Jack's hand leading him to the center of the stage. She did a little pirouette before she ran away earning another short applause.

The band shuffled in and grabbed their instruments that were sitting in the corner of the stage. A curtain was drawn behind them covering the orchestra, and even if they did their best to be quiet, it was possible to hear the sound of them leaving just before the band started playing covering their exit.

"I'm driving home for Christmas

oh, I can't wait to see those faces…"

Jack started singing. The big Christmas tree got pushed out on stage again by a couple of stagehands, while the rest of the choir trickled in one by one. They were dressed up in winter clothes, and as Jack continued singing, Jo came up to him with a coat.

"…it's gonna take some time

but I'll get there…"

She helped him get the coat on before she joined the others putting decorations on the tree. Some went to get Christmas wrapped boxes and placed them under the tree.

"Driving home for Christmas

with a thousand memories

I take a look at the driver next to me

he's just the same, ...he's driving home

driving home, driving home for Christmas…"

As soon as Jack had finished the song he joined the others, and as the band changed the tune the tree got lit up by hundreds of tiny lights.

They ended the show with 'Winter wonderland', and when they all lined up to take a bow, the whole audience got out of their seats to cheer.

"Merry Christmas everybody." They shouted and waved to the crowd. As the curtain was drawn, they started hugging each other before they slipped out through the closing curtain and lined up for a last bow in front of it.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack was leaving to spend Christmas with his family. Jo and Garth also had some family things going on outside of town, and John and his mother were going to Hawaii for the holidays. The rest of Glee-club would stay in Lima and celebrate with their folks.

Dean and Sam hadn't hear a word from their dad for weeks, and the lease of their little apartment was up shortly. Dean made enough money at the garage to keep them fed and clothed, and with the latest check from their father, they had a little extra for the holidays. He had tried his best to save some more, but it still wasn't enough to pay the rent.

Sam was perfectly aware of the situation, although Dean had tried to keep the gritty truth from him. If he could only get a job himself, they could possibly have made it, but nobody wanted to hire a fifteen year old.

The only thing he could hope for, was that their dad by some miracle would manage to cough up the $2000 they needed to stay in this place until school was over. Time was running out because the rent was due on January first. They could of course pay for a week or a month at the time, but it would be more expensive. Even so, at the moment they only had enough for one week, and that was if they skipped a meal or three.

Sam remembered a few really crappy Christmases, but this one was probably going to be the worst one ever. The whore next door had invited them over for dinner on Christmas eve, but Sam was not comfortable with that. Dean had a totally different view on it. "Free food. How can you say no to free food?"

Their friend didn't know how bad it was, although Kevin probably had a hunch. He knew where they were living even if Sam had never taken him there. The 'rathole', as he so poetically named it, had a bad reputation which Kevin was totally aware of.

They did go for dinner next door. It was a free meal, and they couldn't really afford to turn it down. Rita's apartment was a bit bigger than theirs. The living room was about the same size, but she had a real bedroom and a regular kitchen.

It was kind of cramped around the small dining table, and she had to carve the turkey at the kitchen counter. "One of my regulars gets very generous at this time of year." She smiled as she put big slices of meat on their plates. "He brought the bird, and I can't possibly eat it all by myself."

They both knew that Rita was high on meth, and she could barely managed to sit still for more than a few minutes at the time. After the meal she offered them some weed, which Dean happily accepted. Sam did take a couple of hits from the pipe, but decided to stick with the beer.

Rita mellowed a little after that, and managed to stay put through the movie they decided to watch. At two o'clock in the morning she got a little antsy again, and provided with a good portion of turkey and roast potatoes piled on a plate, the two boys got practically pushed out in the hall.

They slept in. There were no reason to get up early on Christmas morning. Santa wouldn't come, so there wouldn't be any packages under the tree. They didn't even have a tree either, but Sam had drawn one on the wall, and they had had a bit of fun the other day pinning the few decorations they had on it.

After feasting on the leftovers from last night, they just sat there. Dean was strumming his guitar, and Sam was browsing the internet. The only good thing about this place was the free WiFi.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly…"

Suddenly they heard singing from the hall. "Carolers, here?" Dean stopped playing and looked at his brother.

"Fa la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

Tis the season to be jolly

Fa la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la…"

Seconds later there was a knock on the door. The singing continued, and as Sam ran over to open it, he recognized one of the voices.

The singing stopped abruptly as he unlocked the door and opened it. "We couldn't get away any earlier, but now we're here." Kevin smiled as he entered. Ianto and Gwen came up behind him. "Hiya, Sam… Dean. Merry Christmas." Dean resembled a stroke victim the way his mouth moved without a sound coming out. It didn't get any better when Castiel entered struggling with a big bag.