the girl with the guitar [glee/sam evans]

chapter 77: City of Angels pt. 1

"Now, we're not saying go out there and win it for Finn. That wasn't his style. Um, what Finn would have said was this is the time of your lives right now. You're never gonna forget it, and in a moment, it's all gonna be over."

Violet gripped Sam and Blaine's hands at those words. It was really their last competition together.

"So no sad faces. No regrets," Carol instructed. "Just go out there and have a blast, and, you know, it'll be okay if you won the damn thing."

The group laughed with her. Mr. Schue got up from his seat, "And the best part about it is that Burt and Carol have agreed to come with us as chaperones. But I think before we go, we need a little mood music to send us off. Brad?"

Violet chuckled, "Do we really have enough time for a number?"

But the band and Brad started to play Randy Newman's "I Love L.A" for the group to sing before they departed to the airport.

The flight from the Dayton International Airport to LAX was a long one, about 7 hours to be exact. There wasn't much to do on their cheap flight besides sleep or 'do their homework' or other miscellaneous tasks.

Because Sam was asleep and Blaine sat next to Tina, Violet took the opportunity to fill out some NYADA forms that she was holding off on. NYADA gave her a bunch of paperwork because Carmen Tibideaux knew Violet could test out of a significant amount of freshman classes because of her previous training. This meant that Violet had to look over and sign forms indicating that she'd test out of those classes before the fall semester started.

Violet hadn't thought much about being a student at NYADA. Frankly, she didn't care that much, which is why she's been avoiding these forms. A part of Violet was still hesitant about all of this because of how much trauma New York held, but she knew in her heart that New York would be different this time around. That didn't stop the sinking feeling in her stomach though.

Throughout the flight, Violet's mind kept wandering to different things and her eyes wandered to different people. She noticed how Kitty and Artie were cuddled up and how Unique was actually doing her schoolwork. Violet noticed the hostility between Jake and Ryder, which worried her, and she noticed how Blaine and Tina looked like they were gossiping about who knows what.

Violet also noticed that in the aisle seat next to her, Marley wasn't doing anything besides listening to music. The girl, who at every opportunity before, used to constantly write lyrics into her notebook and write song after song, was just sitting in her seat, listening to music.

Violet tapped her on the shoulder and got her attention, "You're not working on any songs?"

Marley stuttered, "Oh, I– I've been focusing on Nationals, and just trying to get in that mindset, so I put a pause on my songwriting. That's it."

"I mean, uh, that's good. Do you want to do a songwriting session after Nationals though? I leave pretty soon after graduation, so, ya know, before I go..."

Marley just nodded her head, "Yeah, definitely."

The sophomore girl just put her earbud back in and that left Violet feeling skeptical of the entire conversation. Marley seemed so detached from her songwriting. The fire that she once held for it was practically fully extinguished and Violet didn't know why. She didn't know how to help her either.

It was unlike Marley to not tell Violet what was going on. After the two became closer nearly 6 months ago, Marley told Violet practically everything. But Violet didn't know if she should pry. Maybe Marley did really want to focus on Nationals. It was her first Nationals after all, and ever since Sectionals, Marley's always felt wary of show choir competitions.