"This is terrible," Harmony said, terrified. "Dan has diabetes you guys. What if he's somewhere stuck on the rooftop of a fancy hotel and can't get his blood sugar up?"
"We need to find them," Julie said, suddenly worried, too.
"Ok, so what happened after the random party?" Ryder asked. "We went to Sugar's and then?"
"I remember it was because you all wanted to sing and the Cheerios refused to allow it," Jake said.
Julie nodded. "Yeah, so Sugar invited the entire glee club over," she continued. "And then there, the last thing I remember is singing... 'Waking Up in Vegas' with John..."
"Right!" John chuckled. "And then when we started playing spin-the-bottle I joked about being your first kiss and Ryder threatened to punch me if I tried to kiss you this time around. But by that time you were already drunk, Jules. I didn't see how you started drinking."
"I don't even remember playing spin-the-bottle," Ryder admitted. "None of Sugar's house activities are clear to me."
"What else do you remember?" Kitty asked John. "Since apparently you held your sobriety the longest."
John shrugged. "I was having fun, watching what all of you are like drunk," he admitted. "I mean, I've seen you all drinking but never that drunk."
Harmony glanced up from her coffee mug and asked, "Oh my gosh, what am I like?"
"Really mad," John laughed. "Between you and Ryder, I wasn't sure who was going to beat someone up first."
"Why was I so mad?" asked Harmony, disregarding the fact that there were probably much more important issues at hand.
"Well," he began, "it turns out Dan is a particularly special type of drunk."
-----------
"Whoo!" Sugar exclaimed as she jumped on her bed.
"This is the biggest bedroom I've ever seen before!" Shana exclaimed, jumping with her. "Why do you have a karaoke system in here?"
"I don't know!" Sugar shouted with all her lung power. "I had it built when I found out I was amazing! But then someone was switching out my recordings with a screeching cat so I stopped using it!"
Shana stopped jumping for a moment, confused, and before she could resume Sugar's own hops made the bed move so much that she lost balance, bouncing off the bed and falling flat on her bottom on the ground. From across the large room, Rory laughed, pointing at her as she also burst into a fit of laughter.
"Oh my gosh..." Shana mumbled when she finally quit laughing. She grabbed a beer bottle from the floor and began drinking from it as she nudged over to what she was staring at. A few of the coherent members of New Directions turned over and saw that Dan was living out the life of a scrawny male stripper on Sugar's love-seat, and he was doing so for the amusement of Bree, who clapped and egged him on.
Harmony's blue eyes went dark as she saw what was happening and rushed over to pull him off the couch. "What is wrong with you?" she exclaimed. "Do you want me to gauge your eyes out with my own nails because so help me if you keep on shaking your ass in front of this cheering whore I will make sure it is the last thing you do!"
-----------
"There's no way I said any of that," Harmony stopped him, rubbing at her temples.
"I promise you it's the truth," John said.
"And what else?" asked Jake.
"Well, Little Miss I wasn't drinking decided that I was too designated to drive," he replied, looking over at Julie.
"I did what?" Julie said.
-----------
"You're being so lame!" Julie exclaimed through a fit of laughter. "Seriously, this is disgusting but it tastes like a fun time."
"Julie, do you realize what you just said?" John responded, laughing at how drunk his best friend was. "Besides, I am drinking. Just one bottle every one and a half hours so that I can stay sober and drive all you crazy kids home."
"Bree isn't drinking, you aren't drinking," Julie slurred. "It's like the world is upside down. Like--" She pushed Kitty, who was dancing around in circles, out of the way and did a handstand, which was impressive for about two seconds until she fell. "Whoa..." she mumbled as she lay flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling. "I don't like it upside down."
John helped her off the ground and said, "You really should stop drinking too much, don't you think?" he asked her.
"I've only had two beers," she said.
"That's enough for you, Jules," he reminded her. She stared at him for a second and then burst into laughter, nodding.
"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed through her giggles. "Here, chug this and I'll stop drinking!"
She handed him her cup, which she had put down next to the karaoke system, and he hesitantly took it.
-----------
"I make it a rule not to drink out of cups," John said. "Just bottles and occasionally cans; it's safer that way. And as soon as I drank from Julie's cup, I started getting dizzy. Everything from there is a blur."
"So you think it was something in the drinks?" asked Jake.
"No way," Sugar shook her head, moving her sunglasses onto the top of her head so she could see them. "Shana, Bree and I prepared those drinks. Nobody touched them. It had to have been something else."
"Maybe you just needed that one cup to push you to the limit," Julie suggested.
John shrugged. "Whatever it was, it took effect then," he said.
"We played the game just after Dan started stripping," said Unique. "It's coming back, I mean, you don't get over an image as disturbing as that one very easily. And I remember the game now."
"What was it?" Shana asked.
"We were reenacting songs," Unique explained. "Something about it being a great acting exercise."
"Who's dumb idea was that?" Jake scoffed.
"Yours, I think," Unique told him. His face went slightly pink as the others made fun of him.
"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Julie. "Is that why we came here? John and I sang 'Waking Up in Vegas' so if we were reenacting those prom songs and were stupid enough to actually come and try to wake up in Vegas--"
"That's ridiculous," Ryder responded.
"Yet here we are," she motioned her hand above her to signal their surroundings.
"This is a good thing," Jake said suddenly. "We know what we were up to, so we can retrace the steps the songs would've taken us through and find out where the others are."
"True," Unique nodded, liking this idea. "Since we know we obviously didn't have any limits, getting ourselves all the way to Vegas, then we know there wasn't anything we didn't do, right?"
"How does the song go?" Ryder asked Julie and John, who looked at each other for a moment and then turned away.
"Umm..." Julie said, remembering what had happened when she woke up and feeling embarrassed. She cleared her throat and started tapping the table.
Julie: You gotta help me out. It's all a blur last night...We need a taxi 'cause you're hungover and I'm broke...
"Getting there," Jake shrugged, pulling out his nearly empty wallet and slamming it onto the table.
John: I lost my fake ID but you lost the motel key... Spare me your freakin' dirty looks. Now don't blame me...
"Who in here has a fake ID?" asked Ryder.
"Me," Kitty, Shanna, Jake, Unique and John said at the same time.
Sugar laughed. "You guys are so cool!" she exclaimed.
Harmony rolled her eyes. "Come on, this isn't helping," she hurried them along.
Julie: You want to cash out...
John: and get the hell out of town...
"Did that," Unique mumbled.
Julie: Don't be a baby.
Julie and John: Remember what you told me. Shut up and put your money where your mouth is. That's what you get for waking up in Vegas.
"Did we make a bet?" Julie asked John.
He shrugged. "Beats me," he told her.
"Can we skip to a useful part of the song, please?" Harmony begged, desperately wanting to find out where Dan was and whether he was okay.
"Alright, alright," said Julie. She thought about the song for a moment, speeding through the lyrics. "Oh," she said finally, making a beat on the table again.
Julie: Why are these lights so bright? Oh, did we get hitched last night... dressed up like Elvis? Why am I wearing your class ring?
She stopped singing automatically after looking down at her hand and shrieking. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, holding her palm up for John to see. "I'm wearing your ring!"
"That's where it went..." he said happily. "Thank god, I thought I'd lost it."
"Why would you give me your ring?" Julie asked, terrified now more than ever at whatever had gone down the previous night.
"Maybe I needed someone to hold it," he shrugged as she handed it to him. She looked to Ryder, not knowing what to tell him, and he looked away.
"Umm, okay, so the lyrics?" Unique said. "Someone got hitched?"
They looked around at each other for a moment, wondering whether this was the case. "Not it!" Sugar exclaimed, putting a finger to her nose.
"That's not how it works," Kitty told her. "It already happened."
"This is a disaster," Julie said, standing up. "I need to use the restroom."
She walked away and as soon as she was out of sight, John leaned into the others and said, "Okay, here's the deal. Julie hasn't taken her meds today. And she hasn't noticed yet because she's so distracted. Let's keep it that way."
"Shouldn't we let her know?" asked Shana.
John shook his head. "Not until she starts acting crazy," he answered. "Or at least, crazier than usual. If she knows she hasn't taken them she'll freak out about it so it's better to just let her keep acting normal."
"Right," Shana nodded as everyone agreed on this.
"Ok, so back to finding Dan," Harmony said.
"And Bree," Kitty reminded her.
"And Rory," Sugar added.
"Yeah, them too, sure," Harmony said quickly, as though they weren't as important. "I had literally nothing with me."
"All I had were a bunch of crumpled up papers in my pockets," Sugar shrugged.
"What?" said Kitty as they all turned to her. "Why didn't you say something? Those could lead us somewhere."
"I doubt it," Sugar said, pulling them out and spreading them out.
"Let's see," said Unique as she took the papers from her. "We have a faded phone number, which is useless since you can't tell what the last three numbers are... Then there's random song lyrics on a torn sheet of paper, and a wrapper from a candy bar."
"Told you it was useless," Sugar said as Julie returned.
"That was fast," said Ryder.
"Uh, yeah..." she muttered. "What did you guys find out?"
"Nothing," said Kitty. "Just an incomplete number and random paper."
Julie looked at the three items and stared at the number. "Why does that look so familiar?" she said. She stared at it for a while then she had an epiphany. "John check on your left lower abdomen for pen marks!"
"What?" he said.
"Just-- here-- don't..." she struggled to pull him to her and lift up his arms as everyone else watched awkwardly. "Look, there it is," she said. "478."
"You think those are the missing numbers?" Kitty asked as John put his shirt back down with embarrassment.
"I knew you took a peek..." John muttered.
"Gross, no!" Julie told him. To Kitty she said, "It's worth a shot, right?"
"Ok, so we call," said Shana.
"How?" she asked. "It's been established we don't have cell phones and if we did find one we should use it to call Dan and check on him."
"Wait a minute," said Unique, getting up. "Jake, pay the check, will you?"
"Why me?" he asked.
"You're the only one with a wallet," Ryder shrugged as everyone else got up and followed Unique out.
***
"You'd think someone would stop a group of drunk teens from getting on a plane and flying out to Vegas," said Jake as he joined the group outside. "Unless someone brought us here on a private jet, I don't understand how we could've gotten here."
"I have a private jet," Sugar told him jovially.
Unique was shifting through a newsstand a few doors down from the place they'd eaten at. "I'm sure the yellow pages can help us out," she explained, flipping to the back of a booklet.
"Those things still exist?" Kitty asked, her brow furrowed.
"Thank the Lord they do..." Shana said, crossing her arms as John and Unique looked for the number.
"There it is," said John. He looked up at the others and cautiously announced, "An Elvis Wedding. It's a chapel."
"Oh no..." Julie said, putting her face in her hands. "No, no, no..."
"It couldn't have been you," Ryder assured him. "You don't even have a fake ID."
"Not to be a Debby Downer," Kitty told them, "but I don't think you need one around here."
"And it was our song John," Julie told him. "And I was wearing your ring and we, you know... It all makes sense now. This is an absolute disaster."
"It's not that bad," John said, trying to make her feel better. Jokingly, he added, "I'm pretty sure I'm good to have around."
"Sometimes," Sugar said.
"Never," Kitty scoffed.
"Ex-girlfriend opinions are biased against me," John said.
"This isn't funny," Julie told him.
"Alright, let's just go check out the place," said Ryder. "It looks like it's just around the block. Maybe someone there can tell us what happened." He turned quickly and gave Jake a stern look saying, "No jokes about marrying a stripper, please."
"Touchy..." Jake mumbled as they began walking.
***
"Still no word?" Will asked as he walked into the classroom where Principal Hallman had locked the kids with two boxes of pizza, a soda bottle, and cups.
They shook their heads and Amity said, "Mr. Schue, I'm really worried. Dan has diabetes and if they're lost somewhere or in trouble, his health could be at risk. Can't we call the cops or something?"
"I'll let Principal Hallman know immediately," Will said. "I hope this convinces her to finally let the parents know the situation is getting out of hand."
Amity nodded as Will headed out and she sighed, "I really hope he's okay."
"And everyone else," Marley added.
"Don't bother, Marley," Alex said grimly. "She only cares about her dear pal Dan."
"That's not true," Amity defended herself. "I care about all of them."
"But you didn't point out that Julie might be without her medication," Alex said. "Or that Shana is claustrophobic and could be in someone's trunk."
"Stop!" Marley exclaimed, her eyes watering at the thought of this.
"It's a possibility," Alex said gravely. "I'm only saying this because I'm actually worried. About everyone, not just Dan."
"You're unbelievable," Amity told him with a hint of repulsion.
"I just want to get out and go look for them myself..." Joe shook his head.
"How?" asked Marley. "For all we know they're half-way across the country."