butterflies ⋮ sam evans

63 | "the quarterback"

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The New Directions were already excited over Mr. Shue allowing them to perform one of Marley's original songs after a week of refusal, but the return of Finn Hudson after several weeks of Mr. Shue swearing he would never forgive him had the New Directions living on top of the world.

Keilani, however, had much bigger things on her mind in that moment. As everyone began to walk off the stage after performing Marley's song, Keilani snuck over to her backpack and grabbed a folded piece of paper out of her backpack. She waited until everyone had left the stage to approach Finn, who had been focused on checking a message on his phone that he didn't notice her approaching. "Hey? Are you busy?"

"No, no, I'm not busy at all," He answered, still a little distracted by his phone screen. "Just a message from Rachel. She's got a big callback, but I can talk to her later." Finn shut off his phone and looked back up at her. "What's up?"

With the paper still held behind her back, Keilani took a step closer to Finn and said, "I have something to show you."

Finn still looked confused, even after Keilani gave him the folded up piece of paper. It wasn't until he opened up the paper and read the contents that he looked up at her with a huge beam on his face. "You got in?"

"I got in," Keilani confirmed, even though she was still in complete disbelief. "I haven't told anyone yet, but considering you wrote me one of my letters, I wanted to tell you and thank you. It means the world to me that you wrote that letter."

Finn didn't respond verbally at first. Instead, a proud and ecstatic Finn surged forward and enveloped Keilani in a tight hug. "I'm so excited for you," He gushed.

"I'm excited, too," She said, letting out a small giggle. "Like I said though, I haven't told anyone yet, so you're the first person to know. I'll tell people soon, but is it alright if you don't mention it to anyone yet?"

"Yeah, I can do that, but I don't really understand it. I feel like you should be running around, screaming to the world that you got into a freaking Ivy League. Makes me feel almost a little bad about being stuck at Lima University."

Keilani shook her head. "You're going to college and studying something you're passionate about. That's freaking awesome, no matter what the school is. I'm just as proud of you as you are of me right now."

"It is nice finally studying something and knowing what I want to do," Finn commented with a chuckle before looking back down at Keilani with a huge grin on his face. "We've both got it figured, don't we?"

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No one had quite believed it when they heard the news.

Over the past three weeks, the sadness and heartbreak over their beloved leader's passing hadn't lessened in the slightest. If anything, it had only worsened as the realization and pain set in. No one could really believe that Finn Hudson was gone.