It's Not Over Yet (the seventh book in the glee series)

Chapter 64: Drama and Singing About It, Part One

The day of the gala, Alex was having a hard time getting all his affairs in order. He was leaving on tour in a matter of days and didn't even want to go to the gala, but he figured that at least now he had a chance to say goodbye to the people that mattered before he disappeared for a few weeks.

But then, as he got back to his house from dropping off Rosie at his parents' house, and saw Bonnie and Tabitha already waiting out on the porch for his arrival, he realized there weren't really that many people he was sure mattered anymore.

"This is exciting," said Bonnie as she got in the backseat. "I fully expected to be here tonight taking care of Rosie. It's really nice that you wanted me to come along, Alex."

"It was actually my idea," Tabitha said from the passenger seat.

Alex ensured they were buckled in and started driving, saying, "An idea that I wholeheartedly agreed with. Besides, I don't really know what to expect at this party. Or who for that matter. You know? So I wanted to bring along people I can count on."

He smiled at Bonnie from the rear-view mirror and then turned to give his sister a smile. Tabitha smiled back and then preoccupied herself with carefully painting her nails. Maybe he wasn't ready to face everyone at the gala but the women coming along with him sure were.

***

"Marley, hi," said John, taking a seat in front of her at The Lima Bean. "How are you?"

"I'm good, thank you," she said. "Um, I know my call probably came as a surprise."

"Yeah, it kind of did," he nodded. "You're not going to the, uh... To the gala thing later?"

"Oh I am," she said. "I'm swinging by the house to change and then I'll head over there. I just knew that you were going because I saw the RSVP sheet the other day and, um, you were on there. And I figured that instead of doing the awkward run-in with each other there we should, um, talk beforehand. Just us without the pressure of everyone else being there."

"Sounds good to me," he said, getting comfortable in his chair as she began to fidget with the centerpiece. 

"And um, basically," Marley said, "at the gala we're, uh, asking for money to, uh, fund the establishment of a new private school. We've, uh, not settled on a name yet and we're—"

"Wait a minute," John stopped her. "You're starting a school? Who's 'we' in this..?"

"Finn and..." she trailed off. "There's a lot of people getting involved now. Um, but yeah it was sort of Finn who's been working on it for the last, like, four or five months."

"Oh," said John. "Wow. That's, I mean—wow. Congrats. I think?"

"No, yeah, this is, it's great," Marley nodded. "It's really going to be... good. I think. But, uh, we're building a committee right now for what still needs to be done. We're at a point where we want to open up in eighteen months. And everyone's going to hear this later at the gala but I didn't want to, like... I wanted to tell you myself, personally. Ask for support."

"What kind of support?" asked John, crossing his hands on the desk. "Is it..? Like, do you want a donation or..?"

"God," Marley pushed back her hair. "It's so weird. It's like—give me some money. But no, I mean. That's not the only thing we need. We need, um. We need a lot actually. Like, right now we're in the process of filling out all the, like, incorporation forms. It's like, the stuff we submit to the board of education and Finn's getting a lawyer to sort of help out with that and fill it all out and stuff. Just someone from the community. And then a couple weeks later hopefully we can get approved and then, um, Kitty already said that she would help us with like the city stuff and getting, like, a space to build the school and stuff and..."