• MARINA • Hunter Clarington-BOOK TWO✔

f i f t y - t w o

Sitting in the choir room, Jamie, Kara, and Arabella were rambling about wedding ideas to Marina and Hunter. "Venue?" Arabella asked.

"Dalton." They chorused.

"Dalton's providing nearly everything. We'll get married outside and move into the ballroom for the reception." Marina informed.

"Music. Who will be singing?" Jamie wondered.

"Any of you guys who are willing." Hunter smiled.

"Best man and Maid of honour." Kara stated.

"Sebastian." Hunter told them, the boy in question smirking and placing a hand over his heart.

"Bella." Marina decided, grinning to the shorter blonde who had an excited look on her face.

"I want the rest of you guys to be on that aisle with me," Marina told them, "Kara paired with Thad, Jamie and Trent, and naturally Nick and Jeff." The girl smiled wide.

"Edward will be walking her down the aisle." Hunter added.

Mr. Schue entered the room, alarmed. "Guys, we got a problem. Her name is Frida Romero. With regionals only a few weeks away, I went to scout out the competition. The Hoosierdaddies have a secret weapon. She's a tiny little sophomore, never competed before, but her voice could fill an arena. I mean, it's big. And the only way to beat them is to be huge. I'm talking stadium huge. Epic songs that will blow the heads off of 100,000 people at a time."

And then the lights all cut out, Sam yelling an alarmed: "Zombie apocalypse."

"Or Beyonce's halftime show." Unique sassed.

Figgins' voice rang throughout the school using the pa. "Children, this power outage is not an emergency. Nor is it an excuse to go wilding through the hallways. While we're investigating the root of this near calamity, classes will continue, and your brains are to remain in the on positions. If the darkness persists, candles and flashlights will be distributed based on grade point average. I now have to turn off the P.A. system so I can save our precious generator resources for the coffee machine and my plug-in lower back vibrator."

"Okay, that puts a damper on our stadium songs. Time for a new appropriate lesson. Ladies and gentlemen, it's unplugged week." Mr. Schue announced.

After gaining many lanterns and flashlights, Mr. Schue handed them out to the students as he spoke. "All right, I know these conditions aren't ideal, but I want to thank you guys for toughing it out. And we have our first volunteer, who is going to show us how to get back to basics and really strip it down. So, let's give it up for Sam. Right. Uh, take it away." He gestured for Sam to move and sit on the stool, some clapping as he moved.

"Thanks. Um, well, when Mr. Shue started talking about being big, I started thinking about Phil Spector's legendary Wall of Sound, and how he would use, like, thousands of instruments so his songs could really fill a stadium. And then I started thinking about stripping, um, out all that extra noise to get to the essence of the song. Plus, my mom said that I was conceived to this song, so I kind of literally owe my existence to the Righteous Brothers. Anyways, uh, here it goes." As Sam continued, faces began to turn strained.

"Out of all songs to be conceived to...." Trent muttered sassily.

Everyone sang along, Ryder singing some lines too. When Sam finished, everyone clapped happily at his performance. "Wow, you see that, guys? That's the kind of power and passion that we need for regionals. Good job, Sam. Um, next up, uh, Artie. Show us what you got." Artie rolled over to the piano, pressing a note.

He frowned, pulling a face of distaste. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shue. I can't do Miguel without my synth. I needs my synth!" He then threw his face into the piano after complaining.

"No, you needs to man up." Sam scoffed.

"Excuse me?" Artie raised a brow to Sam.

"You know how often the power went off at my house, how many times my dad couldn't afford to pay the stupid bill?" Sam stood.

"Relax, dude." Artie said casually.

"I had to entertain my brother and sister with just my guitar and my voice, and we didn't have any synth. I mean, like, I saw you texting during my song, and it's not just you; It's all of us. We're so focused on being plugged in to the Twitterverse and the Blogosphere that we don't appreciate what's actually right in front of us. And I think that that's just sad and lame."

They all re-entered the room as Ryder had chosen his song to sing. "I know these songs are supposed to be unplugged, but I asked Mr. Shue permission to do a full orchestration." He said slowly.

"Which I gladly agreed to, because Ryder eloquently told me that what he wanted to unplug were his feelings." Mr. Schue responded with a sympathetic smile.

"I want to really reveal myself through this song. And frankly, I think I kind of need the support to get there. I'd like to dedicate this song to all of us, and for all the slushies... real and proverbial... that we've all taken to the face over the years."

Everybody applauded when the boy finished, smiling. "That was amazing, Ryder. You certainly unplugged whatever you were looking to let out." Mr. Schue grinned.

"I didn't want to just get them out. I wanted to get in touch with them so I could maybe have the balls to tell you guys something. Something that's pretty hard to talk about." Ryder spoke hastily, his voice not wavering.

"It's cool, bro. You can let it out." Jake smiled supportively to his friend.

"I've actually only told one person this. Not even my parents know. But... I'm not sure if I could trust that person to keep it secret. So, before this gets out, I want to be the one to open the box. When I was 11, I was molested by my babysitter." At Ryder's words, Marina stood, giving him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, but I might have to go and hit something at my hatred of shitty people in the world."