Glee: A Brand New Direction (first book of Glee series)

Chapter 35: Love, Love, Love

Two more weeks passed. Rory transferred again. Sugar left the club. Joe went on a trip to Israel for some religious retreat. Brittany went to MIT. And Coach Sylvester was now Principal Sylvester. So many changes. We were officially Regional champions. And now we were on our way to Nationals with not enough members to compete. Mr. Schue was definitely in it to win it, giving us the biggest assignment yet. BEATLES, he wrote on the board. For two weeks. 

"The Beatles are so epic that we need two weeks to do them justice," he explained. We would be doing the first week on the early years of the Beatles, when all they had was a "belief."

"Ugh," Kitty complained. "The school year seems like it's never ending and now we're wasting two whole weeks on a band from the 1940s? Seriously, can anyone still relate to the Beatles?"

"Pretty much the entire world," said Blaine. 

"Yeah, I can definitely still relate," Ryder said. I looked back at him and saw him glance over at me. Ugh! He had come back to glee club after our win. And after I told him I wouldn't be going out with Sam again anytime soon. That got him to stick around. But who knew for how long.

"Why?" asked Kitty. "Were the Beatles dyslexic and in love with two girls, neither of whom loved them back?"

"And you wonder why everybody hates you," Tina responded to her comment. Thank you Tina. Since she'd broken up with John, she and I had definitely been on the outs. In fact, I was almost sure she didn't really talk to anyone in the club now. I never really saw her around.

Marley informed Kitty that George Harrison was bullied because of his father's job, much like she was—by Kitty, ironically. Jake brought up the fact that John Lennon's dad walked out on him at an early age, just like Jake's dad did to him. Then Artie pointed out that Ringo Starr was "a sickly little kid" so he probably sat around a lot like him in his wheelchair.

"Still find no way to relate to them, Kitty?" I said. She ignored me. And Mr. Schue went on with his speech about us challenging ourselves. Even Kitty seemed excited about the prospect of being awesome.

After we were dismissed, I walked to my locker with Ryder and saw that Kitty was riding around in Artie's wheelchair. I wondered how much she was paying him to be her driver.

"So are you going with us to the carnival tonight?" asked Ryder. 

"Yeah," I said. "John doesn't want to go, sadly, but I'll still be headed there directly after school."

"Great," he said with a smile. "I've got to go to class but I'll see you there."

***

At the carnival, Kitty was spending an awful amount of time with Artie. There was nothing wrong with them being friends but... it was weird. Sam was hanging around with Blaine, Tina and Unique were glued together, and of course Jake and Marley were a pair. So that left me with Ryder.

"Ok, so we've done bumper cars, you hate roller-coasters, and you've already whooped me at ski ball," he was saying as we walked. "Seven times. Anything else you'd like to do?"

"Um, well, we could—" I started. But Cheerio Bree caught my attention as she chatted with Kitty and then walked away from her and Artie. Unfortunately, she spotted me and headed our way.

"Hi Juliet!" exclaimed Bree. She was with two other cheerleaders, Jordan and Carrie, the first whom had a huge crush on Ryder. Who knows if she still does?

"Bree," I said coldly. Ryder wiggled his fingers in a hesitant wave.

"Wow, you two looked so cute when he was winning you that giant unicorn," she said. "And you kind of look like the girl from Despicable Me. How adorkable!" She grinned and then walked away.