𝚃𝙰𝚂𝚃𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝚅𝙴𝙽 ➭ 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝗇 𝗁𝗎𝖽𝗌𝗈𝗇

forty-four; new york

New York was beautiful, and Winona was ecstatic to be there. She had plans to explore with Artie, Sam, and Quinn, but Mr. Schue pretty much had them on lock down. Finn and Winona were cuddling while staring blankly at their pads of paper. This whole songwriting thing clearly wasn't doing so good.

"If Mr. Schue would have let us rehearse and write songs at least a couple weeks before we went to New York, we wouldn't be so stressed— and maybe we'd be having fun," Winona whined, clicking her pen.

"We gotta get out of here," Quinn said with a sigh, grabbing her coat.

"Wait. No, no, no," Objected Rachel, "Mr. Schue gave us explicit instructions—"

"To write a song. And our problem is that our only inspiration are mattresses and cups."

"Yeah.  ." Winona slowly nodded, "and as catchy as it was, My Cup wasn't that good."

There were murmurs of both agreement and disagreement, students lazily closing their notepads.

"Quinn's right. We're in the artist capital of the world," Added Puck, "Poets, musicians, actors, playwrights. . every dreamer that's ever lived has passed through this city. If we want our dreams to come true, we need to be out there with them, not stuck in here."

"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, we still got those songs to write," Finn said reluctantly.

"We don't need to write songs for nationals. New York's gonna write them for us."

Winona agreed, grabbing her coat and slipping on her shoes.

"C'mon, lets go!" She exclaimed with a smile as started wheeling Artie out the door, everyone else following.

There was so much fun to be had running around New York. Getting bad hot dogs, taking as many selfies as possible, buying balloons— everything was fun to explore.

When they returned, Mr. Schue still wasn't there. That definitely concerned Winona, but she shrugged it off and joined the girls— minus Rachel, in an epic pillow fight. Hearing her phone go off, Winona dodged multiple swings from different people before reaching the device. It was a text from Finn— to meet him somewhere and get all dolled up. With her makeup already done, Winona opted to steal one of Quinn's dresses and leave as fast as possible.

"Wait, don't hit me!" Winona called through a laugh as she slipped on a pair of heels, "I have a date!"

Still laughing, Tina narrowly missed Winona with the pillow, prompting Rachel to look over.

"You can't leave, Winona, we have to write a song!"

"Lighten up, man hands. Winnie, go have fun on your date," Santana said, waving the blonde off as Quinn reeled back with the pillow and swung towards Rachel as hard as she could. Before the door closed behind her, Winona heard the pillow wacking against Rachel and the pained shriek that followed.

Winona rushed off to Central Park, meeting Finn. He was standing before her, holding a bouquet of pink flowers. Her favourite colour.

"You look beautiful," He breathed out with his half smile showing up on his face. She curtsied with light giggle and took the flowers.

"Thank you, Finn, you look beautiful too," Winona said with a small giggle, "so. . what's the plan?"

"Sardis. It's this fancy restaurant," He explained, "you . . you like fancy, right?"

"Well, that seems like a Rachel place, y'know? It's all broadway-ey. Not that I don't love broadway— but it's too fancy."

"Oh," He answered simply, before looking around for a backup plan, "how about. . the retro diner instead?"