One Perfect Year at Stevenson High

Chapter 41

Adora was staring out the bus window when she felt Bow ease into the seat beside her.

"I thought you said you were going to sleep on the bus," he whispered.

"I know," she groaned, scrubbing a hand across her tired eyes. "I tried, but..." She trailed off.

Bow nodded. "Still thinking about yesterday?"

Adora huffed a halfhearted laugh. "Yup."

"I get it," Bow said. The other members of Vocal Rebellion were dozing in their seats, so he kept his voice soft and low. "It was a lot to process. How are you feeling? Aside from tired, obviously."

Tired was an understatement. Every moment of the previous evening had been a whirlwind. After scrambling into Bow's waiting car, Adora had relayed what happened in Coach Weaver's office. Bow and Glimmer, in their usual seats up front, and Scorpia and Perfuma in the back, were all righteously furious on Adora's behalf. It had helped ebb some of the sting left by her former mentor's betrayal.

But there had been no time to obsess over the details — Scorpia's defection from the Valkyries meant Vocal Rebellion would be going to regionals after all, and that left the team with a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

Thankfully, Mrs. Moon hadn't cancelled the bus rental that was now carrying the team to the state capital. But all other preparations had ground to a halt earlier in the week when every member of the glee club turned their efforts to the doomed last minute recruitment campaign. Now that the show was back on, the team was left scrambling to pull together the finishing touches on their costumes, pack their bags, and do whatever last minute practicing they could muster.

It had been a long and busy night, which had left Adora without a moment to think about everything that had happened until she was in bed without anything else to distract her. She was tucked in on one side of Glimmer's massive bed. In the dark, she heard Glimmer's soft and shallow breathing from the other side, as well as Bow's deep snores from where he was laid out on Glimmer's futon. The two of them had probably passed out as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

But Adora was wide awake. Exhausted, yes, but how was she supposed to sleep after what had happened in Coach Weaver's office? How could she possibly be expected to quiet her mind with all the things Scorpia said running through it?

She was still awake when Glimmer's alarm went off that morning. And, even though she'd promised her friends to make up for her lack of sleep during the drive to the city, Adora's mind was still churning.

The sun hadn't even begun its ascent, and the world outside the bus was dark save for the occasional flash of headlights from oncoming traffic on the highway. Adora's weary reflection blinked back at her from the window. Bow watched over her shoulder, waiting politely for her to answer him.

Adora sighed.

"I don't know," she said. "Kind of numb, I guess. And stupid. I knew Coach Weaver was up to something, I should have—"

Bow took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Don't do that to yourself, Adora. Sure, you knew Coach Weaver was shady, but there's no way you could have known this was what she was up to. It's genuinely messed up, especially for someone in her position." He caught her bleary eyes with his and held her stare. "None of this is your fault."

"I know, I know," she replied, even though she didn't believe it herself. "It's just... a lot."

"You know that Glimmer and I are going to help you through this, no matter what that ends up looking like," Bow said, wrapping her in a one-armed hug. "But there's nothing any of us can do about it right now. Don't let her take this day from you, Adora. You deserve to get up on that stage, sing your heart out, and have a great time."