Glee: Back to the Top (the third book in the Glee series)

Chapter 28: Spring Awakening

For those of you who haven't seen Spring Awakening, I tried to add as many summaries of what was going on in the musical so that it wouldn't seem completely weird and nonsensical but a girl can only do so much without writing in the entire play! Anyway, it's showtime so let us commence.
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"Ready for tonight?" Kitty asked Dan as he walked her to one of her classes.

"Are you?" he raised an eyebrow. "After everything, do you think you can watch your life be told in the form of a dark play?"

Kitty rolled her eyes. "I am not Wendla," she made very clear. "Besides, you're the one who's about to go out and commit fake suicide in front your loved ones and a couple hundred others. That's pretty intense. You going to get through it alright?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Or no... I don't know... I don't exactly do well with pressure. That's why getting the supporting roles never bothered me. But now with a lead I—"

"Hey, you did awesome as Corny Collins in Hairspray, Dan," Kitty assured him. "And from the few practices I've actually seen, you were kicking ass as Moritz, too. Now come on, we should probably get you to class. Just know that if I could show up here today... So can you."

***

As Shana applied make-up before the show, Ryder walked into the dressing room and stood behind her. She didn't turn, glaring at his reflection instead.

He sighed and said, "Look, I'm sorry... For you know, getting us into trouble with Principal Hallman. It was a stupid pride thing."

"You know, Ryder, that's what makes you so unsexy," she told him, turning around. "That stupid pride thing. What you did to Julie, all the mean things you said about Unique and her sexuality. You just seem like a homophobic jerk and that's a huge turn off."

"Yeah, well the Julie thing I'm paying for every day," he sighed. "Watching her be with my best... my ex best friend is punishment enough, don't you think?"

"See that's another thing," she added. "Because of your stupid pride thing, you don't get to apologize to your best friend for being a douche to him."

"Ok, how do you know so much about my personal life?" he asked.

She gave him a look. "Seriously?" she said. "Ryder, your business is not private when you're in glee club. Besides, riding back seat to your class has made the rest of us very keen to seeing what goes on behind the scenes and, uh, it ain't pretty, the view from back here. Trust me. That's how I know you were a jerk to Unique."

"I didn't mean to come off that way," he shook his head. "When I made some of those comments I was just in a bad place, you know. I've kind of been through a lot of heartache since joining New Directions and I said some things but—"

"Ok, let's not turn this into a sob fest," she told him. "I don't honestly hate you. You just sort of annoy me. But since you apologized, then I'm sorry for being so rude to you. I have to get into my costume on go help Amity run some lines, but let's just say we're even now, ok?"

"Ok," he nodded, a forced smile on his face. As she was leaving, he stopped her and said, "But can you just admit that I did, in fact, bring sexy back?"

Shana turned to him, a smug look on her face as she scoffed, "Honey, you're the reason it left."

As she walked away, he chuckled to himself and watched her go, then headed to one of the vanity tables to get started on his Georg hair.

***

Bree's hands were shaking as she went through some vocal exercises by herself in the bathroom before the show. She drank some water to calm down, but she couldn't. She needed her power-up or she was going to be a mess on that stage.