Glee Club // Hunter Clarington

{Chapter 40} 4 : 20

Rose's Pov

I'm sitting with Hunter in the choir room waiting for Glee Club to start. "Guy, we got a problem." Mr. Shue rushes into the choir room.  "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 sophmore, 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 staduim huge. Epic songs that will blow the heads off of 100,000 people at a time." Mr. Shue explains.

Suddenly the lights go out. Every light. "Zombie apocolypse." Sam says. "Or Beyonce's halftime show." Unique states. "A girl could only wish." I state turning to Unique. "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." Mr. Figgins tells us over the loud speaker. He continues. "If the darkness persists, candles and flashlights will be distributed based 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." Mr. Figgins turns off the loud speaker. 

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

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"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 the basics and really strip it down. So, let's give it up for Sam." Mr. Shue announces. We begin to clap. "Right. Uh, take it away." Mr. Shue sits down. "Thanks. Um, well, when Mr. Shue started talking bout 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 think about stripping, um, out all that extra noise to get the essence of the song. Plus, my mom said that I was conceived to this songs, so I kind of literally owe my existence to the Righteous Brothers. Anyways, uh, here it goes." Sam begins to play the guitar.

Sam finishes his song and we clap. "Wow, you see that, guys? That's the kind of power and passion that we need for Regionals. Good job, Sam." Mr. Shue encourages. "Um, next up, uh, Artie. Show us what you got." Mr. Shue smiles at Artie. Artie rolls up to the piano. He plays a high note. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shue. I can't go Miguel without my synth. I needs my synth!" Artie slams his head down on the keys.

"No, you needs to man up." Sam states. "Excuse me?" Artie asks. "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 begins. "Relax, dude." Artie interrupts. Sam ignores him. "I had to entertain my brother and sister with just my guitar and my voice, we didn't have any synth." He pauses. "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 in front of us. And I think that that's just sad and lame." Sam states and the bell rings.

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"So what song are you going to sing tomorrow?" Hunter asks me. "No clue." I answer honestly. "I haven't had time to look for a song with Cheerios practice and volleyball." He looks over at me. "What if you sang one of your songs?" He looks in my notebook and flips around a few pages. "Crying in the Club?" He asks confused. "Oh, I forgot about that one. I wrote that about one of my friends. Don't worry, she's over 21." I reassure him. "It sounds like it's good. Seriously, you should perform it." He tells me. "But it's supposed to be songs that could fill a stadium." I laugh. "Yeah, this could." He smiles at me and walks over. Sitting down next to me, he wraps his arms around me, kissing my shoulder. "I love you." He kisses me. "I love you, too." I kiss him again.

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"Okay, Rose, you're up." Mr. Shue says to me. I nod and stand up. Walking over to a stool with my guitar, I sit down. "Okay, um, so this is the first song that I ever wrote, and I know this week is supposed to be like songs that are on iTunes and popular on YouTube, but someone convinced me to sing this song for you guys." I smile at Hunter and he smiles back.

[Rose (Girls)]

You think, that you'll die without him
You know, that's a lie that you tell yourself
You fear, that you'll lay alone forever now
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true, no

So put your arms around me tonight
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been so high
Open up your heart to me
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been this free
'Til you feel the sunrise
Let the music warm your body
Like the heat of a thousand fires
The heat of a thousand fires

Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
Let the beat carry away, your tears as they fall baby
Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
With a little faith, your tears turn to ecstasy
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
Ain't no crying in the club

You may think, that you'll die without her
But you know, that's a lie that you told yourself
You fear, that you'll never meet another so pure, but
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true, no

So put your arms around me tonight
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been so high
Open up your heart to me
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been this free
'Til you feel the sunrise
Let the music warm your body
Like the heat of a thousand fires
The heat of a thousand fires

Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
Let the beat carry away, your tears as they fall baby
Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
With a little faith, your tears turn to ecstasy
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
Ain't no crying in the club

You think, that you'll die without him
You know, that's a lie that you tell yourself
You fear, that you'll lay alone forever now
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true

I said ain't no
(Ain't no)
Ain't no crying
Ain't no crying in the club, no crying
I said ain't no
(Ain't no)
Ain't no crying
Ain't no crying in the club, no crying

Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
Let the beat carry away, your tears as they fall baby
Ain't no crying in the club
(Hey, hey)
With a little faith, your tears turn to ecstasy
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
Ain't no crying in the club
I won't, I won't, I
(Ain't no crying in the club)
Ain't no crying, no crying, no crying, no
I won't, I won't, I
(Ain't no crying in the club)
Ain't no crying, no crying, no crying, no
(I won't, I won't, I)
Ain't no crying in the club

I finish the song and everyone breaks into applause, cheering loudly. I smile. "Wow, Rose, that was incredible. That would hands down fill an entire stadium." Mr. Shue compliments. "Stadium? That would fill 20 of the biggest all at once." Unique gushes. I thank her quietly. I sit back down in my seat next to Hunter. He grabs my hand and kisses the back of it.

Yeah. I'm really lucky.