New Directions goes to Orlando and has to sleep in a classroom. Dean and Castiel never gets a chance to pick up where they left off at John's party. When Sam decides to confront his dad about his wishes for the future, he gets more than one surprise. There's an awkward momet in the showers. The dress rehearsal goes disturbingly well.
Songs in this chapter
Eye of the tiger - Survivor - M/L: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Petrek
Up - Olly Murs ft Demi Levato - M/L: W. Hector, D. Davidson, M. Cottone, P. Wallevik, Cutfather
The tickets to Orlando had already been purchased. Sam Evans and Will Schuester had decided to do it, hoping that the choir would raise enough money to pay them back. When Unique handed over the money from the beauty-salon, it started to look good.
Dean's boss made good on his promise, and after the final count they were only a couple of hundred dollars short. Will and Sam were satisfied with that, and were ready to take their loss, when a check arrived at the principal's desk the morning of their departure.
"Two hundred and two dollars and thirty four cents. Who knew that exact amount?" Sam Evans was showing them the check as they entered the bus that would take them to the airport. "I mean, it's awesome, but I really would like to thank the person responsible."
Unique threw her hands out and rolled her eyes. "We all knew. You told us on Monday." She shook her head as she climbed onboard. John came up right behind her. "It wasn't me. I know that you could think it was, but if my mom sent it, she did it without my knowledge."
It was a puzzle, but everybody was too excited to really care.
They couldn't afford a hotel or anything, so they had to camp in a classroom at the high school. That didn't matter for them either. Being a part of this was so big that they had all agreed that they would sleep standing up if that had been the case.
Arriving late afternoon, there wouldn't be much time for anything but to dump their bags at the school before they went to check out the venue and meet the local orchestra. Brad and the band had decided to take the van, and wouldn't arrive until the next day. They would show up at the venue for the dress rehearsal.
It was set up so that each choir would get a half hour alone just to keep their setlist a secret for their competitors. Tonight they would only be checking out the stage and make sure that their choreography would fit.
The two and a half hour flight went well, although a couple of the members in the choir had never been on a plane before. For them it was an adventure in itself. Dean told them that he he had actually been in the air at one point in time, but he was too little to remember. Garth and Jo hadn't even been near a big airport before, and had no clue what to expect.
The seating arrangement was quite random, and it didn't take long before some of them started negotiating a swap. Dean and Jo were placed together with a random guy, but she would rather sit wit a more experienced flyer from the choir. John, Gwen and Ianto shared a three-seater, and Ianto volunteered to let her have his seat.
It was obvious that he wanted to sit with Jack, but Unique refused to move, so when Garth offered him the seat right across the aisle from Jack, he took it, and was satisfied sharing with the twins. Garth was about to sit down next to Dean when Castiel tapped his shoulder and pointed over to Kevin. "Won't you rather sit with him?"
Jane, Charlie and their two chaperones were sitting all the way in the back, and didn't even know that there were some changes going on row 16 through 19.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
After the kiss in John's back garden, the rest of the guests had suddenly swarmed out of the house. Dean and Castiel had hurriedly pulled apart, and nobody seemed to have noticed anything
They never got a chance to be alone after that, but the small touches and the clandestine looks they shared was sufficient at the moment. They both kind of knew that they had broken a barrier, and that the awkwardness and fear between them were something of the past.
Keeping it a secret from the rest of their friends was a mutual agreement, determined by not so many words. "A movie maybe." Dean whispered into Castiel's ear as they at one point stood next to each other a little bit away from the rest of the crowd. Cas reached his pinky out to touch the back of Dean's hand. "Sure, or something."
Dean got picked up by his brother at the agreed time. The Party was technically over anyway, but he didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Cas. The handshake didn't feel right, but there was nothing else he could do without raising suspicion amongst his friends. He could see that Cas felt the same, but he managed to blow him a kiss before he had to take off.
Castiel was busy with church and family matters the whole Sunday, and the two school days they had before they left for Florida were too crazy to even try to make time to hang out. It didn't really matter. The excitement of sharing a secret was good though.
They had at one point ran into each other in the restroom during lunch, but they wasted that stolen moment. None of them had expected it, so they just stood there smiling at each other before Cas dared to go in for a quick kiss. Their lips barely touched before someone walked in on them. Dean tried to make it look like he was helping Cas pick a lash out of his eye, but the guy walking over to the urinal didn't seem to pay attention to them anyway.
Castiel had sent a few texts. Nothing elaborate - one of them contained only xxx - but it was nice. Dean answered promptly in the same abbreviated way. It was as if they both had agreed that they wouldn't 'talk' about this until they got a chance to be together alone.
When they suddenly ended up next to each other on the plane, it was perfect, but they didn't get much time to talk there either. The guy in the window seat tried to involve Dean in a conversation about these cheap flights that didn't even serve a decent cup of coffee. Dean couldn't care less, but the man was ranting on until the stewardess came through the aisle with the cart. He bought the crappy coffee and five muffins. The chewing kept him busy for a while.
An hour into the flight, Gwen was leaning over to tell Castiel about the flat Rhys had found for them. She handed him her phone so he could look at the pictures, and he tried to look interested.
The flight was over before they knew it, and they hadn't really had time to exchange many words up in the air. On the rented bus from the airport, Dean and Cas didn't get to sit together, and there was no time for anything until they arrived at the venue two hours later.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Unique was such a busybody. Ianto didn't really expect that the plane ride would give him much time to talk with Jack about what was on his mind, but if he could have sat with him it would have been good.
After what happened in the restroom at prom, they had barely spent a moment alone, and Ianto was starting to think that Jack was avoiding him. It was two ways to interpret it. For one: Jack was over it. The thing in the restroom was just a thing in the restroom, and Jack wasn't interested anymore. For two: Jack worried that hooking up with Ianto would screw up his plans for the future, and he shied away to protect himself.
Ianto didn't like any of those scenarios. He knew that Jack would leave no matter what, If Jack was over him it would be too sad. If Jack thought that Ianto would make a drama out of him leaving, he was so wrong. Ianto wanted Jack to make it. He was pretty sure that the guy had what it took to become a Broadway star.
One single night together was the only thing Ianto wished for at the moment. If that could lead to something it would be awesome. Ianto really hoped that it would, but he was perfectly aware of what he was competing with.
In his head he had this dream that Jack would go to New York and make it big. Ianto would come there after graduation next year to continue his education, and the two of them would live happily ever after.
It was far fetched; Ianto knew that, but in order to make this a semi-plausible scenario, he had to make Jack understand that whatever happened, Ianto would never do anything to jeopardize Jack's chances to shine.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Sam was pissed off. He was stuck at home with his dad and was bored already. Having the guy around gave him mixed feelings. He really wanted to spend time with him. Every time their father abandoned them, Sam got sad, but when he was there he behaved as if he was the one who was abandoned.
John Winchester claimed that he cared for his boys, and that he missed them every day when he was on the road. It definitely didn't feel that way.
After dinner, at the time when Sam knew that he choir was half way to Orlando, he decided to take the confrontation he'd planned in his head for a long time.
"I want to stay here in Lima." He threw a peek at his dad. "I want to graduate here, and I don't want to go on the road again." John Winchester put the leftovers in the fridge before he turned to his youngest son. "Why? Why do you want to stay in this godforsaken place?"
Sam wasn't sure if he should pull out the big guns, but his dad's wishy-washy behavior pissed him off a little. "If you don't let me stay, I will call child services and and tell them everything." He trembled as he said the words. He also felt a little sick threatening his dad.
"You were left in the care of your big brother. He is of age, and… If you want to stay here so bad…" It took several minutes before his dad continued. Sam wasn't sure if he should say anything, but decided to keep quiet.
"Do you want to go to Florida?" His dad's words threw Sam off a little, and he had to take a moment before he could reply. "No dad. I want to stay here. I'm sure Florida is good, but no." He had been to too many different schools already, and he'd never got a chance to form friendships like he'd done here at McKinley. "Please. I can stay with a friend. He asked his parents and they said yes."
There was another awkward silence before his dad came back to the couch. "No, you misunderstood. Do you want to go to Florida right now to see your brother perform? If we leave now, we can be there for the competition."
Sam got totally thrown. He really wanted to go, but he wondered if his dad was suggesting it to avoid dealing with Sam's threat. "I, I, I want to, but I have school, and I…" John Winchester interrupted his son. "School? School is technically over. I'm sure you won't be missed. What can they do? Suspend you for the remaining three days?"
It made sense. There was really not much to do at school these few days, but Sam wasn't ready to let his dad off the hook. "It's so easy for you. You just, you think that you can just take us away whenever you have a whim, but we have responsibilities. I can't… I don't want to just leave."
He wanted nothing else but go to Florida right now this moment, and he hoped that he wasn't jeopardizing it by being argumentative. Sam wanted his dad to understand that he would never again just cave in and go with him wherever he decided to seek his imaginary fortune. That this trip would be different didn't matter. He needed to put his foot down and show him that this game was over.
"Come on." John Winchester got up from the couch and grabbed his bag. After assessing the content, he went over to the little drying rack and picked two t-shirts and a pair of jeans from it. "Let's go to Florida. If you need to call someone to tell them where you're heading, do it now."
Sam shook his head. "Didn't you hear me? I can't just…" He sighed heavily before he met his dad's eyes. The man smiled. "You can, and you will. If you are going to stay here in Lima for another two years, let us have this one road-trip together. We can share the wheel, and we'll be there in good time before the show."
Did he just say that Sam could stay? Was this his dad's awkward way of saying that he caved in and would let him graduate at McKinley? Sam must have looked a little surprised and slightly dumbfounded, because it wasn't hard to see that his John Winchester found it mildly humorous. He chuckled a little before he turned to walk towards the door. "Pack light, we are not staying long. You can tell me about the family that promised to take you in, and what kind of deal I can make with them to keep you fed. Or maybe we can find another solution."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Two big blackboards were draped with big sheets of fabric, and served as a divider between the girls side and the boys side of the the room. All the chairs and the desks were stacked by the wall, and a few thin mattresses were spread around on the floor randomly.
They hadn't thought much about how their sleeping arrangements would be, but it looked kind of sad.
Gwen and Ianto had brought inflatable mattresses that were big enough for two each. The others were practically fighting over who'd get to share with them, but it was obviously already established. John and Jo had been promised the spots long before they left Lima.
Unique was thoroughly pissed off and uttered a few syllables that surprised a couple of the others. "I have one, but I didn't think of it. Fuck that." She did manage to grab one of the spare ones that Jo and Gwen wouldn't use, but she was still not satisfied.
Madison and Jane weren't too happy either, but after stealing a mattress from the boys' side they too got a double-decker each. Charlie took it in the stride and didn't make a fuss.
Most of the boys didn't seem to care. Dean and Jack had been slumming it before, and joked about how bad they had had it on some occasions. Castiel, Garth and Kevin had been to different camps in the past, and had to sleep on thinner mattresses then these.
Mason was really the only one who complained, but except for the obvious disgruntled expression on his face, he kept it civil.
A few of the other choirs were staying at the school as well, and some of them made a much bigger drama about it. As the guys in New Directions came to terms with their fate, they could hear some students yelling and bitching in the hall.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Dean slept like a baby; more so than he'd actually counted on. He and Castiel had shared a few looks before they put their mattresses down next to each other and as far away from the other boys as possible.
As Dean got himself comfortable in the sleeping-bag, Cas went to use the restroom, and before the boy was back, Dean fell asleep and didn't wake up until Sam Evans came to rouse them in the morning.
They had a couple of hours before they were due at the venue, but they didn't have time to socialize much. After a simple breakfast in the lunchroom at the school, where they met the other five choirs that had to sleep there, they only had about a half hour before it was their turn in the showers.
Dean was used to showering with a bunch of guys after football practice, but this was very different. He had never been so self-conscious in his life as he was when he entered the locker-room.
John stripped naked without hesitation. Jack wasn't far behind; Kevin and Garth looked at each other and shrugged before they too followed suit. Ianto was procrastinating and undressed very slowly. Dean knew that the guy had body issues, although they had no foundation in reality. So maybe the guy wasn't as slim and toned as John, and both Garth, Kevin and Mason were definitely skinnier, but Ianto had nothing to be ashamed of.
The last few weeks, Dean hadn't worked out so much, and he felt a little flabby himself at the moment. The others were probably not able to notice, and it had nothing to do with his reluctance to enter the shower room.
If he could have been there alone with Castiel, it would have been better, although it was Cas he was trying to avoid in there. Dean wanted to see him naked, but at the same time it didn't feel right. They hadn't come that far in their relationship yet.
Castiel was on the other side of a row of lockers, and hadn't emerged yet. Dean looked over at Ianto sitting there in his t-shirt and boxers. The poor guy seemed a little lost, as he threw a peek towards the entrance to the showers.
Dean didn't want to be that guy who didn't dare, and tried to imagine that this was just like a normal day after football practice. He hurried to undress and practically ran into the showers just as John, Jack and Kevin came out.
Garth was still there. He was humming a tune as he pretended to box against an invisible opponent. He didn't falter when Dean joined in on the chorus. On the contrary; they both sang out loud as Dean lathered his hair hurriedly.
"It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge
Of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin us all with the
Eye of the tiger."
Castiel had still not come in. Dean knew that Mason was also out there somewhere, but he couldn't care less.
"Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry."
Ianto had finally mustered up the courage, and came in singing along. Dean wanted to finish fast so he could get out of there, and he didn't dare to turn around when he in the corner of his eyes saw Cas and Mason coming in with towels around their waists.
"Risin' up straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance
Now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive."
After making sure he got all the shampoo out of his hair and the soap off his body, Dean grabbed his towel and exited without looking at anybody.
"The eye of the tiger
The eye of the tiger
The eye of the tiger…"
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
As usual, Sam Evans had made last minute changes, and they had to rehearse two whole new song only days before their departure. Even with limited time, they had all agreed. It was the first time since they got together last fall, that they had all liked the songs from the get go.
Nobody had complained about who would do the lead, and even if it was a bit of choreography involved, they had been happy about the pick.
The orchestra they had to work with had no problems adapting the few changes needed for it to fit a choir, and Brad was there to accompany them.
Jane and John both had a little bit of actor in them, and they fit perfectly as the broken up couple.
"I drew a broken heart
Right on your window pane
Waited for your reply
Here in the pouring rain
Just breathe against the glass."
The rest of the boys formed a straight line behind John and harmonized with him as he continued his part.
"Leave me some kind of sign
I know the hurt won't pass, yeah
Just tell me it's not the end of the line…"
The boys stepped aside to let Jane through the line and as she sang her verse, the other girls came up behind her forming and arrow with her as the point.
"I never meant to break your heart
Now I won't let this plane go down
I never meant to make you cry…"
The subtle harmony that they provided flowed flawlessly, and Gwen worried a little. Dress rehearsals were supposed to suck. John and the boys were back on, and Gwen didn't have time to ponder anymore.
"You drew a question mark
But you know what I want…"
The next part was a bit tricky. All of them - except for John and Jane obviously - had to form a line that was supposed to look a little like a bridge. The tallest ones were in the middle and the rest of them had to bend their knees more or less as they at the same time sang along.
"So let's build a bridge, yeah
From your side to mine
I'll be the one to cross over…"
Picking dance partners at random - everybody knew that it was not random - they had to pretend to slow dance to the somewhat upbeat song. Dean and Kevin didn't get a partner, but Dean grabbed a guitar and Kevin sat down with Brad on the piano stool and pretended to play with him.
"You gotta hold on
Hold on to what you're feeling
That feeling is the best thing
The best thing, alright."
They all froze in their positions as John stepped forward to sing alone again. Gwen was holding on to Jack for dear life, as he dipped her just as this moment arose.
"Girl, I know we could climb back to where we were then
Feel it here in my heart
Put my heart in your hand
Well, I hope and I pray that you do understand…"
She didn't really mind hanging on to Jack. He was intriguing to say the least. Gwen knew that she had a real crush on him in the past, but she would never ever have acted on it. She was happily engaged to Rhys, and she loved him deeply. Jack was an unwanted distraction, and she knew perfectly well that she would never be happy with a guy like that.
That Jack was a tad more into boys was also an issue, but nonetheless, Jack was off limits regardless. Gwen knew perfectly well that Ianto had the hots for him, and even without Rhys in the picture she would never go for it anyway.
"I never meant to break your heart
Now I won't let this plane go down (let this plane go down)
I never meant to make you cry
I'll do what it takes to make this fly, oh…"
The dance was back on before they soon pulled apart to act like a backdrop for Jane and John. The two of them did an amazing job, and Gwen supported Mr Evans choice for the lead on this.
"You gotta hold on
Hold on to what you're feeling
That feeling is the best thing
The best thing, alright…"
The moment with Jack was over, and looking at him from the other side of the stage, Gwen knew she was over it.