Road To Nationals // Hunter Clarington

{Chapter 16} 5 : 11

Rose's POV

"They're here." I inform Mr. Shue as Carole and Burt walk into the choir room. We all sit down after greeting each other, Carole and Burt in front of us. "We just wanted to come in and say that, uh, Finn really cared about you guys. More than you know." Burt begins. I lean my head on Hunter's shoulder. He intertwines our fingers, then rests his head on top of mine. "Finn always said that winning Nationals was the greatest accomplishment of his life. But I honestly believe that coaching you guys to winning would have meant even more to him." Carole sadly smiles.

"Now, now we're not saying go out there and win it for Finn. That wasn't his style. Um, what Finn would have said was this is the time of your lives right now. You're never gonna forget it, and in a moment, it's all gonna be over." Burt says something Finn would have. I smile lightly. "So no sad faces. No regrets. Just go out there and have a blast, and, you know, it'll be okay if you won the damn thing." Carole chuckles, and we all join in laughing.

"And the best part about it is that Burt and Carole have agreed to come with us as chaperones." Mr. Shue announces and my jaw drops. We begin clapping and cheering. "But I think before we go, we need a little mood music to send us off. Brad?" Mr. Shue points at Brad the piano guy. 'I Love L.A.' by Randy Newman begins to sound throughout the choir room.

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Hunter, Blaine and I sit next to each other on the plane. "Are you excited?" Hunter asks me smiling. "No, I'm completely depressed." I answer frowning. "What? Why?" Blaine questions concerned. "I'm kidding." I tell them laughing. Blaine puts a hand over his heart. "You can't scare me like that!" He exclaims. "Oops." I smile.

"So, when are you going to Syco?" Hunter inquires. "Um, right after Nationals." I respond. "Yeah, I didn't want to earlier because it would be a lot, you know?" The boys both nod. We begin to take off, and once we're flying clear, we start to speak again. Night begins to fall, but Blaine is already asleep. "Bless him." I pat a piece of his hair down that became messy before he fell asleep. "Man, he's knocked out." Hunter jokes, then lightly pushes Blaine. He doesn't move.

The lights start to dim on the plane. "Looks like they're telling us it's bedtime." I look over at Hunter. "I don't care when I go to sleep, as long as you're by my side." Hunter kisses my temple. "You two are adorable." A woman comments from the next aisle over. "Thank you." I smile at her. She's around my mother's age, probably late 30's or early 40's. "You two remind me of my husband and I when we were in high school." She sighs. "Well, have a good night, then." She nods her head as if saying goodbye, then closes her eyes.

"I love you." Hunter looks down at me. "I love you, too." I kiss him. We pull away and I pull my blanket over all three of us. "Good night." I lean my head on his shoulder for the second time that day. "Good night, beautiful." Hunter kisses the top of my head before resting his head on top of mine. I smile before closing my eyes, drifting of into a peaceful sleep.

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"Sorry, sir, can't release the rooms." I hear the woman at the desk say to Mr. Shue. "Don't look now, but I think someone famous just came in!" Kitty exclaims. We all look over and see Mercedes. "Even better! It's Mercedes Jones!" Unique smiles. "I was hoping you'd make it!" Tina exclaims. "Are you crazy? I wouldn't miss this for the world." Mercedes hugs Tina, then looks at me. "How's my homegirl?" She pulls me into a hug and I laugh. "Good? How's my homegirl?" I repeat her question. She smiles at me. "Great."

"Ooh, I heard that you got a record contract because either Usher, Kelly Clarkson or Micheal Jackson's daddy bought your album in a 7-Eleven parking lot." Unique shares. "I was selling my CD Hell 2 the No in a parking lot. Now, I ain't gonna lie, business was wack. But then, this Mexican lady bought one. I think she felt sorry for me. Turns out, that Mexican angel on earth was the housekeeper to Kanye West. She gave it to Kanye, who gave it to Kim, and she gave it to Ryan Seacrest, who gave it to Sony Records- the Sony Records. Next thing I know, I'm sipping Perrier with a bunch of rich dudes." Mercedes explains.

"Hold up. Is that dog alive?" Artie asks. "Oh, it's a faux-huahua. A fake Chihuahua." Mercedes reveals. I nod slowly, confused as to why exactly she has it. "Mr. Shue, Mercedes is here!" Tina calls to Mr. Shue. "Oh, hey, Mercedes." Mr. Shue greets. "Hi!" She smiles, waving. "Oh, my God, that's them." Blaine says suddenly. "Who?" We all inquire. "Do you seriously have no idea who that is? Do none of you read the show choir blogs?" Blaine wonders. "No, Blaine, we don't. None of us read the show choir blogs. Just you." Kitty answers.

"That's Throat Explosion. And that's their leader, Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste was born in Quebec to acrobatic parents. He trained with Cirque du Soleil before emigrating to Fort Wayne where he used his French-Canadian circus stylings to turn the entire show choir world upside down." Blaine states. Jean-Baptiste walks up to us. "Bonjour! You must be the New Directions. And you..." He gets really close the Blaine's face. "must be Blaine."

"How did you know my name?" Blaine asks. "Show choir blogs." He responds. "I'm, you know, I'm Sam Evans, and I'm the leader of the New Directions." Sam bumps Blaine over. "When did we decide that?" I furrow my eyebrows and look up at Hunter. He just shrugs his shoulders. "And, you know, I know you guys are all really good and stuff, but that's just gonna get us out of our comfort zones and send us over the top." Sam tells him.

"Well, it was really great to meet you, Sam. Best of luck, New Directions. We really can't wait to see your set. And crush you like a bug. Bye!" He yells and pushes his way through us."That was tense." Blaine's eyes are wide. "Oh, how I missed this show choir high school drama." Mercedes rests her head on my shoulder. I scoff. "Come on, tell me all about it. Let's go." Mercedes wraps an arm around my shoulder and brings us to a seating area.

We're going to have a serious problem here.