The Gleeful Return [Q. F.]

- 11 - And They All Didn't Live Happily Ever After

Recap: Mr. Schuester and Coach Beiste make a plan to combine the Glee Club and the football team for the championship halftime show and  Wicked. This, however, does not go over well as both sides refuse to cooperate with each other. When the deal goes south and the football team is left with too few players to play, the rest of the Glee Club steps in to play. Juliet convinces Quinn, Santana, and Brittany to quit the Cheerios for Glee. Kurt confesses to Juliet that he is thinking about transferring to Dalton. 

The football game could have been a lot worse on Friday. We could have actually been hurt. We got dirty, don't get me wrong, but no one was really hurt. When it came time for the musical on Saturday, though, plenty of us were a little sore.

"My entire body hurts," Tina complained.

"I'm glad gymnastics gave me a leg up on some of those guys."

"A leg up? Yeah, I'd say," Mercedes replied.

"We really appreciate what you all did for us," Finn started. "It means a lot, really."

"We're teammates, Finn. Don't mention it."

"I wish we could have convinced the other guys to come back for the musical," Mike said.

"I bet lots of people wish they could change outcomes, but this is what we have to work with," Artie announced. "We've put in the work, now it's time to show everyone in the audience the great show we've put together."

"Artie's right," Quinn added. "This will be fun." I looked up at Quinn, somewhat surprised by her comment, but smiled nevertheless.

"Tonight is going to be great!" Mr. Schue exclaimed. "I'm so excited to see all of your hard work come to fruition."

"We're having fruit?" Brittany asked. Santana leaned over and whispered to her quietly.

"Is everyone ready? Do you all feel good?"

"I am in full Elphaba mode," Rachel boldly said. I rolled my eyes.

"We're ready, Mr. Schuester," Artie replied.

Wicked went very well. Sure, it would have been nice to have the football extras, but doing the show with just us Glee kids was kind of nice. We spent a lot of time together, for better or for worse. Mr. Schue was right to be excited about this. It was nice to see all of our hard work come to fruition. It was also nice to take a break from competition or even thinking about competition coming off of our Sectionals win. Well, tie, but still.

I realized how much I really do love being on stage and performing. There's something special about those pre-performance nerves and that post-performance high. Showing off something that you've been preparing for a long time feels so good.

And even though I didn't get Elphaba, I had a lot of fun with the others singing and dancing and acting on stage. As usual, Rachel's voice carried beautifully through the auditorium. She really does have a gift for singing, and no one can doubt it. Mercedes is usually an underrated voice in the group, but Glinda allowed her to shine. Her voice reverberated off the walls, praising our ears. We made a good group. We had a lot of fun. I even enjoyed working with Quinn, despite her rather confusing actions towards me.

"You all did very well tonight! You should be proud of yourselves," Mr. Schue congratulated.

"We hit it out of the park!" Finn added.

Puck threw his fists up in the air. "Hell yeah we did!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually going to miss singing on stage next to Stubbles." Sam shot Quinn a look as to say, "be nice."