Glee: To the Next Level (the second book in the Glee series)

Chapter 8: Complicated

"Happy Wednesday," Kitty said as she joined me on my walk to my locker the following morning. She was carrying a giant basket with a teddy bear on it and lots of random chocolates and chips.

"I take it that's not for me," I joked as we came to a stop in front of my locker.

She made a face. "It's John's birthday today!" she exclaimed.

"I know..." I mumbled.

"And this is only the physical present," she went on. "As my other present, I'm going to give him what he wants most in the world right now. During lunch at glee club."

"Eww," I said. 

"Gross, no, not that," Kitty replied. "Just wait and see." She winked at me before strutting off to find John and give him his birth day present.

***

When we met up in the choir room, Mr. Schue wasn't there.

"I've called this meeting in celebration of John," she said, "who turned eighteen today, on the eighteenth day of the month... And I wanted to give him a present."

"Umm, what about this?" John said as he turned to the basket. He hated presents almost as much as he hated birthdays. If only Kitty had figured that out.

"That's nothing," she said. "I know what you really want is to be reconnected with someone who you love dearly--" she turned to me and I widened my eyes at her "so I've gotten a few awesome people so that we may sing a song to let you two know how, well, stupid you're being..."

Marley, Joe, and Ryder stood, joining her on the keyboard, guitar, and drums, respectively, as Kitty grabbed a tambourine. They didn't really hesitate as the music started and they started singing.

Kitty began with the spoken part, saying, "Uh-huh, life's like this. Uh-huh, uh-huh, that's the way it is..." Joe came in with the guitar and Kitty continued, "Cause life's like this. Uh-huh, uh-huh, that's the way it is."

Kitty: Chill out, what you yellin' for? Lay back, it's all been done before. And if you could only let it be. You will see.
Marley: I like you the way you are when we're drivin' in your car and you're talking to me one on one. But you've become... 
Ryder and Joe: Somebody else 'round everyone else. You're watching your back like you can't relax. You're tryin' to be cool. You look like a fool to me. Tell me.

I looked over at John, who was just watching them with his arms crossed and an expressionless face as they sang the chorus together, with Kitty leading. They sang the rest of the song and I didn't know whether I should feel offended or just assume the lyrics in the song were directed at John. When the song was over, it was obvious they had offended John.

"Is this some sort of joke?" asked John.

"What?" Kitty responded. "I thought maybe you'd--"

"This was incredibly stupid," he told them. He looked at Kitty and said, "Maybe you should stop meddling and finally get it through your head that I don't want anything to do with her anymore. I'm done." He walked out and everyone was looking at either Kitty or me. Kitty rushed out of the room and Ryder headed towards me.

"Sorry," he said. "It really did seem like a good idea."

I shook my head. "It isn't your fault," I told him. "I appreciate what you guys tried to do but I just honestly don't think John is going to change his mind about me at this point. I have to go now."

I grabbed my stuff and left the room.

After school, I felt flustered and tired. I grabbed a glass of iced tea and went up to my room, where I turned on my laptop and immediately received a swarm of messages. Sam. They all had different time stamps from the last two days but these were the top ones.

evans_hottie: I miss you!
evans_hottie: Quinn and Rachel say hello.
evans_hottie: Just ate a bad hotdog off a street vendor. Feeling sick.
evans_hottie: Artie's stopping by for the fall musical in a few weeks. Maybe I'll come by?
evans_hottie: Just did a shoot! Video chat when you get home?

I rolled my eyes as I giggled and rung him up. It took a few rings before he picked up and suddenly his face was on my screen.

"Julie!" he exclaimed with joy. I smiled at him and waved.

"Hi!" I replied.

"Did you get my messages?" he asked.

"All seventeen," I told him with a smile. "You know, you don't have to IM me every time you have something to say."

"Yeah," he said. "But if I don't, I'll forget and I want to share as many moments as I can with you."

I blushed. "So how was the shoot?" I asked him.

"It was my first official one," he said. "So it was alright. The models were all a lot more confident than I was though."

"Really?" I asked jokingly. "I didn't think anyone could be more confident than you."

He exhaled with exhaustion evident in his tone as he said, "You have no idea. These people are insane. I really do wish you'd come and visit, though."

"Maybe I will when I can," I told him. 

He smiled, satisfied with this answer, and said, "So what's your day been like? Yesterday you seemed overwhelmed."

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "John and I are in this fight and it's his birthday so... It's been weird. And my dad started seeing this new lady this week and he thinks he's in love already so I have to go to dinner with them and her kid this Friday."

"So you're pretty busy, huh?" he said. I nodded. "So what are you and John fighting about?" I told him everything that had happened so far, only to find that Santana was in the room and had an opinion, as she did about pretty much everything.

"You know what you should do?" asked Santana as she joined Sam on the couch and moved the screen to point the webcam at herself. Sam rolled his eyes and gave me an apologetic look as Santana said, "Stop letting your little friends try to fix things for you and fight back."

"I don't want to make things worse," I told her.

"Well you're going to have to if you want them to eventually get better," she pointed out. "Okay, say you and this John character make up and go back to being BFFs or whatever. Great. But who's to say he's started respecting you or learned anything from this fight? For all you know it'll just be fight after fight from now on. So you have to take a stand and show him you mean business."

"Hmm..." I said.

"No, no, no," Sam told me, shaking his head. "Listening to Santana is about the worst thing you can--"

"Sam here lost a bet and has to give me a foot rub," said Santana, "so he'll have to get back to you guys' kinky little webcam sex rituals some other time."

The call ended just as Sam tried to say goodbye. I closed down my screen and then gave some thought to what Santana had said. Maybe there was some truth to what she said.