Sin

Beth

"All right, well, uh, let's get started. Thank you for coming to the first annual New Directions' Regionals' set list nominations party." 

"What's the point, Mr. Shue? Coach Sylvester's one of the judges. She's gonna crush us." Artie looked at everyone already defeated.

Mr. Shue attempted to encourage him, "Artie, you don't know that."

"Yes, we do. She told us at Cheerios practice." Santana frowned.

Puck slumped back, "A whole fucking year. All that hard work for nothing."

Tina smiled sadly, "I'm sorry. I just really love you guys. You know how many Facebook friends I had before I joined Glee Club? Two. My parents. Rachel was right. Being a part of something special– it made me special. I just can't believe it's going to be over in a week."

"Wait. Who says it's going to be over?" Finn looked at her confused.

"Please." Mercedes sighed, "You think Puck and Santana are going to even acknowledge my existence once we're not in Glee Club together anymore?"

"She has a point." Puck agreed.

I punched his arm, "You're such a dick."

"Mr. Schuester?" Rachel looked at him hopefully, "Do you think instead of nominating songs, we can just... all go around the room and talk about things that we loved about Glee Club this year?"

The last month was a haze, and as I looked around at the other tired faces I could tell I wasn't the only one that felt that day. It was like we were marching down a disassembly line. Of course we all knew how it would end. But Mr. Shue's optimism was so fucking contagious.

"Mr. Schuester, y/n and I have something we want to say to you." Rachel stood up ready to take over this meeting.

Mr. Shue shook his head making Rachel sit down. "Me first. Have a seat. Nine months ago, there were five of you in here. And we sucked. I mean, we really sucked. Bad. One day, all of you are going to be gone. And all of this, all of us will be nothing but a hazy memory. It will take you a second to remember everyone's name. Someone will have to remind you of the songs we sung, the solos you got or didn't get. Life only really has one beginning and one end, and the rest is just a whole lot of middle. And I love you guys too much to let you not make the most of it. Now, I was going to quit once, but you guys brought me back with "Don't Stop Believing." It was a nine, but we are going to make it a ten."

"We're doing "Don't Stop" at Regionals?" I asked him.

Mr. Shue nodded, "And then some. We are doing a Journey medley. Because who cares what happens when we get there when the getting there has been so much fun? So you had something you wanted to say?"

"Just that we're all really glad you didn't become an accountant." She smiled.

Mr. Shue grinned, "Regionals, here we come!"

I paced around the green room chewing on a piece of gum Quinn gave me. Everyone was tense, but Puck was downright losing his mind. He bit his nails as he paced on the other side of the room.

Puck looked up at the speaker as it played Aural Intensity's performance, "A mash up of Olivia Newton-John and Josh Groban. Are you kidding me?! Somebody tipped them off about the judges." Puck groaned in annoyance. 

"Guys, we can't get distracted by what the other teams are doing." Rachel encouraged. 

"Rachel's right." I nodded, "We know we're good- we just have to show the judges and the audience what we already know." I sat beside Quinn who placed her hand to calm my bouncing leg.