Noah scooped me up, helping me hang ornaments on the higher parts of the Christmas tree due to my short height.
We were decorating the choir room just in time for the Christmas season and decorating is never complete without Christmas music, 'The Most Wonderful Day of the Year' is heard throughout the choir room.
We're on the Island of Misfit Toys. Here we don't want to stay
We want to travel with Santa Claus in his magic sleigh!
We sing as we finish the tree. As Artie starts to sing I laugh and help Finn wrap the presents.
A pack full of toys
Means a sack full of joys
For millions of girls, and for millions of boys
When Christmas Day is here...
The most wonderful day of the year.
A jack-in-the-box waits for children to shout
"Wake up! Don't you know that it's time to come out?"
When Christmas Day is here...
The most wonderful day of the year.
Toys galore, scattered on the floor
There's no room for more,
and it's all because of Santa Claus.
I start handing the presents to other glee kids to put under the tree.
A scooter for Jimmy
Sam sings.
A dolly for Sue
I cut in, tapping his shoulder to hand him another present.
The kind that will even say,
"How do you do?"
When Christmas Day is here...
The most wonderful day of the year.
[Speech not heard on the album version]
"How would you like to be a Spotted Elephant?"
"Or a Choo-Choo with square wheels on your caboose?"
I look at Noah.
Or a water pistol that shoots... jelly?"
We both smile as everyone shouts.
We're all misfits!
We all get up and stand around the tree, giving it, its final touches. I go to stand with Santana, Brittany, and Artie.
If we're on the Island of Unwanted Toys
We'll miss all the fun with the girls and the boys
When Christmas Day is here...
the most wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day of the year!
We finish the song just as Mr. She walks in.
"Hey Guys, What's this?" He asks.
"Oh, we're trying to get into the Christmas spirit, Mr. Shue. Christmas is totally my favorite holiday. And check out this awesome tree! I found it on the side of the road. It must have fell off some guys car." Finn explained kinda awkwardly. You couldn't blame us with how many times Mr. Shue's "yelled" at us.
"And the ornaments?" He asks. I frown at some of the more broken ones.
"The guy who lives next door finally killed off his elderly mother. And when they carted him off, they left the house, like, wide open, so... I think she was a holiday hoarder." Santana explained.
"Uh... a-and the presents?" Mr. She asks confused.
"I lifted them from a display at the mall. But don't worry. They're empty." Noah assures him.
"Guys, look, I appreciate the effort, but this isn't what Christmas is suppose to be like." Mr. Shue says.
"For us, it is. This tree is like a mascot for glee club. We won sectionals two years in a row, and according to everyone at this school, we still suck." Mercedes says while she then explains how her, Tina, and Mike got slusheed.
"I'm pretty sure they just added food coloring to real slush from the parking lot." Mike sighed.
"You can eat that, you know." Lauren replies. I grimace.
"No, no. I am not gonna let you guys throw yourselves a pity party. Look, I'm the first one to say that things haven't turned out exactly how I would have liked them to this year, but Christmas is all about being grateful for the things that did." Mr. Shue starts off his inspirational speech.
"I thought that was thanksgiving." Noah mutters.
"And this year, glee club is going to lend a hand to the mckinney-vento homeless children and youth program right here I'm Lima." Mr. Shue informs us.
"How are we going to go that?" Rachel asks quietly.
"The only way we know how- by singing about it. We're going classroom to classroom." Mr. Shue adds.
"Wait, classrooms like in this school? With like, students in them?" Tina asks hesitant about this.
"Well if there are no students in them, there will be no one to put money in the collection box while we sing." Mr. Shue laughs as if the question was just silly.
"We're gonna get killed." Quinn says.
"Of course we are! Instead of giving us figgy pudding they're going to be giving us slushees; in the face." I shout in distress. People nod in agreement but I hear Noah chuckle and place his hand over my mouth, pulling me to him.
"No, guys, it's christmas... a time for miracles. We got to try this." Finn says growing determined. I knock Noah's hand away.
"Finns right. So let's start rehearing. This year, glee clubs going full Santa.
We start singing in our first classroom the next day and they start throwing insults at us. The teacher even throws her shoe at us. We book it back into the safety of our choir room. I sit next to Mercedes and eat the popcorn she and Mike are suppose to be putting on a string. I laugh as Lauren grabs some too.
"I can't believe that, that teacher let those students speak to us like that." Rachel complains.
"I can't believe she threw her shoe at us." Noah adds making me snort.
"I guess we're done caroling." Tina she says with conviction.
"No, we're not guys." Finn says. I scoff.
"Would you like me to throw more shoes at your head so maybe you'll get the message?!" I argue with him. Finn sighs.
"Well, we cant let what just happened ruin our Christmas spirit. Mr. Shue got us this beautiful tree to inspire us. We're gonna practice now, and gear up for round two tomorrow." Finn says in a no arguing kind of tone.
"Pretty soon, no one will bully us. Santa clause can do anything, and this year, I asked for the flee club to stop getting picked on." Brittany says.
"She's kidding right?" Lauren asks. I shrug.
"Guys, this is serious. Listen up." Artie says. We all move slightly more away from Brit and huddle around Artie.
"Brittany still believes in Santa clause." Artie confesses. We all kind of stifle our laughter.
"You cannot be serious." Mercedes speaks up.
"Last week, Brittany beloved a comb had magic powers." Sam added to show this was in-fact serious.
"This is kind of a pattern." Artie says.
"She's gonna find out sooner or later." Quinn says softly.
"Okay, somebody needs to break the news to her." Lauren decides.
"Uh-uh. Don't look at me. I mean, I'm cruel and all, but that's just hardcore." Noah says.
"Right?! That's my point! Hear me out. Remember when you were a kid, how excited you would get when you would think about Santa clause? How awesome it was? Christmas was the highlight of the year. Why wouldn't you want to keep someone's world magical for a little while longer?" Artie says.
"How?" Mike asks.
"I've got it all figured out." Artie says and we all look at Brittany who smiles back at us.
After school we all head to the mall and wait in line with Brittany to see Santa.
"I'm not sitting on that guys lap. Santa's laps are always really warm, and it's creepy." Quinn whines.
"We all have to sit on Santa's lap. If Brittany sees that we all still believe, it will make her strong enough to withstand all the Santa naysayers in the world." Artie pleads.
"Which is everyone I've the age of six." Sam argues. I give sam a look.
"Don't make me hit you too Sam." I whisper. I visibly see Sam swallow and subtly nod.
"I'm pretty sure this isn't going to work. That guy doesn't even look like Santa." Tina examines the dark skinned Santa clause.
"Trust me, all Brittany's gonna see is the suit. She wants to believe in him. Mercedes, get up there." He demands kindly.
"Go, Mercedes, go, Mercedes." Brittany cheers.
I eventually get up and sit on Santa's lap.
"And what would you like for Christmas?" The obviously fake Santa asks. I look at all my glee club members; my family.
"I want the glee club to have a good year. I want things to get better for us... oh and a tablet and some art supplies would be nice too." I smile and hop off his lap to go to the friends that aren't still inline.
We watch as Brittany gets on Santa's lap and we all look at her in shock as she asks for Artie to be able to walk.
"Now we're screwed." Artie says defeated.
I walk around the mall with Artie after the glee club spread out to do some Christmas shopping.
"I'm looking for the perfect thing to buy Coach Sylvester." I inform him. He looks at me from where I'm pushing his chair.
"Just get her some protein powder or something." He says simply. I shrug in distaste.
"Everybody's going to get her that. I need to find something that's different, something that really means something to her." I express.
"Well, I'm sure she'll love whatever you get her." He responds with uncertainty. I laugh.
"Right. And then she'll give up some of her Cheerios budget and give it to glee club!" I say in mock cheer. We both laugh and continue on looking through the mall.
The next day at school I stand at my locker and grab Coach's present to give to her later.
"Who's that for?" Tina asks as she and Mike walk up to my locker.
"Coach Sue. No matter how cruel she is, everyone deserves a Christmas present." I say.
We walk into the choir room and gasp as everything's completely ruined. As more people start to come in Santana and Quinn move to stand by me. We're all waiting in the room as Mr. Shue's the last one to make an appearance.
"They took everything." Mercedes says.
"Including all of Sue's secret Santa gifts we were gonna give to the homeless kids." Tina adds.
"Only further proof that everyone in this school hates us no matter what we do." Rachel argues her point.
"It's not the school. It's Sue. She did this." Mr. Shue says surprisingly calm. I look at the gift in my bag sadly.
"It wasn't Sue, it was Santa. He said a light was out on the tree, he's fix everything. We just need to let him do his thing." Brittany explains. Artie gives a nod to Mr. Shue.
"... O-kay. Are you sure Santa was a boy and not a girl, Brittany?" Mr. Shue double-checks.
"I swear on my life. Santa's a boy; everybody knows that." Brittany smiles.
"It was probably one of the boys on the football team." Rachel whispers.
"I guess it wasn't Sue." Mr. Shue says as if he's disappointed.
"So our tree is gone. So our presents are missing." Finn starts.
"Santa's probably fixing any dents or chips as we speak." Brittany reassures us.
"All around the world today, way worse things have happened to people than this. Sorry, but I'm not going to let this get us down. 'Tis the season." Finn speaks out.
"I agree. Come on, guys, let's get this cleaned up." Mr. Shue responds as we get to work.
After dinner we turned on the Christmas tree lights and my family and I sat down to watch Christmas movies.
In the middle of Elf my phone began to ring.
"Danielle!" My mother shouted for interrupting the movie. I saw the contact name, apologized and quickly walked into my sisters play room.
Neither of us spoke.
"Hey." He spoke softly. I smiled.
"Hey Jesse." I didn't know what to say. It had been a few weeks since we had talked last.
"Merry Christmas." I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke just as softly as before. Most likely nervous. I laughed lightly at the thought.
"What?" He asked teasingly as he knew i could hear it in his voice. To me, he was an open book.
"Nothing... Merry Christmas Jesse." I responded. Neither of us spoke and I went to hang up.
"Wait!" I heard. I brought the phone back to my ear.
"I hate this... awkwardness between us Dani. I want to fix it." He pleads. I sigh in relief.
"I do to." I say quickly back to him.
"Alright, alright, tell me what's been going on in glee club." Jesse asks.
For the next two hours or so we talk back and forth about random things. It felt nice to talk to him like this again.
"I have to go Jesse." I say looking at the late hour. Once again we both become quiet.
"Goodnight Dani." Jesse once again goes back to speaking in a softer tone then usual.
"Goodnight." I say quietly and hang up the phone. I sigh and open the door to the play room to see my mother standing right outside.
"You okay hun?" She asks concerned. Let's just say that summer was rough for me and I wasn't great on hiding it. I nod.
"It's getting better." I mutter. My mom brings me into a hug.
"But is it getting easier?" She asks quietly.
The next day Mike holds out a hat that we all have to put one thing in for the homeless children. I watch next to Noah as he puts his Knick knack in.
"This was my uncles. It's the first thing I ever stole, actually." Noah says throwing it in.
I hold an expensive heart shaped necklace.
"My mom gave this to me after I got my tonsils taken out." I mumble sadly. Sam throws his thing in and next is Quinn.
"I'm going to look terrible." Quinn complains over what she's giving up.
"Shut up. With your bone structure, you could rock the rosemary's baby look and still look good. I'm going to look like Jackie Chan." Tina complains.
"If Barbara can pull off a bob, so can I." Rachel says to herself.
"Enough yapping, lets do this." Santana says.
"I am so glad I'm not cutting my hair." I say while tightly holding my precious brown yet frizzy hair.
"Whoa! Whoa! What are you guys going?" Mr. Shue shouts as he walks in.
"We're going all 'gifts of the magi' to raise money to buy homeless kids those school supplies." Mercedes says.
"The guys are gonna sell their watches. Danielle's selling her necklace, and the rest of the girls are gonna sell off their hair." Sam explains.
"You can't do that." Mr. Shue sighs.
"Oh, no, it's cool. Most of this isn't mine anyways." Santana shrugs it off.
"No, I mean, that's not the answer. There are other ways to raise money at Christmas time." Mr. Shue argues.
"No, but we tried caroling, and it didn't work." Rachel says.
"Wait, I thought you and Finn were getting us a new tree." Artie speaks out.
"We went but Finn bailed before we could get one." Rachel grumbled.
"Nice Christmas spirit, Finn." Brittany says childishly.
"Wait! Guys, no more fighting. Have any of you ever actually read 'gift of the magi'? None of you?" Mr. Shue asks after none of us speak up.
"You don't have to read it; everybody knows what it's about." Quinn says defensively.
"Well, if u actually read it, you'd know what it's about." Mr. Shue says in a patronizing tone.
"Yeah, I know what it's about- life frickin' sucks." Santana says.
"Actually, your right. The first Christmas you remember having is the greatest day of your life. Your family's all together, there are loads of presents, cookies. The magic is alive and well. But before you know it, you grow up. Work, school, girlfriends take over and Christmas becomes more of an obligation, a reminder of what's lost instead of what's possible. And all of the trees and presents and even the mistletoe can't change that. And then when you get to my age... you're so desperate to get that magic back, you'd do anything to be able to feel how you did that first Christmas." Mr. Shue finishes his speech.
"So what should we do?" Finn asks.
"Put your scissors down, put your jewelry back on. We're gonna go out and find some people who really need some Christmas spirit. And we are gonna sing for them." Mr. Shue informs us encouragingly.
The next day Mr. Shue walks by my locker as I'm talking to Tina and Mercedes.
"Hey, we need you in the teachers lounge." He shouts and continues briskly walking through the school. We all shrug and walk in to find most of the club already here with all of our teachers. Once everyone's here Finn speaks up.
"Hey, uh, so we're your students. All year long you suffer through dealing with us. I imagine having some of us in your classes would slowly chip away at your hopes and dreams, until the whole world just felt like a never- ending nightmare of pain..." Finn started off not so great.
"Just get to the point, Finn." Mr. Shue says quietly.
"Right. Uh, anyway, we're here today to help raise money for children that have a lot less then we do. And I know some of us have had a hard Christmas, but what we've come to learn is that no matter how tough things get, there isn't anything that more Santa or a couple more jingle bells can't cure." Finn says. We soon start to sing 'Welcome Christmas' to all our teachers and we watch with smiles as they start to walk up and put money in the bucket.
Looking over the crowd I see Coach Sue and Becky in a dog costume, standing near the door. I internally sigh and look away before they notice my staring.
As we walk back to the glee club I stand next to Noah with Finn on the other side.
"So how much did we raise?" Finn asks.
"Two hundred and ten bucks. And thats after my cut." Noah says smoothly. I elbow his stomach while Finn just gives him a look.
"I'm kidding." Noah says, dropping the act.
We walk into the choir room and my mouth gapes as we look at Artie who stands up on his own with the help of mechanical crutches. Santana and I, and a few others walk over to them with wide smiles.
"It's called a ReWalk. Some guy in Israel invented it. I can't use it all the time, but... check me out." Artie explains as he starts walking slowly. Light tears fall from my eyes.
"Where'd you get it?" Quinn asks. Brittany goes into the story of how it was just under her tree.
"How the hell did you afford that thing?" Sam asks.
"I didn't buy it. I didn't know what it was. I thought it was a transformer." Brittany says.
"Don't tell me She thinks those are real too." I mutter. Santana chuckles, nudging me.
"I assumed her dad got it for me, but he has no idea where it came from. He went to take a long poop, and when he came back it was there." Artie says kind of quietly, leaning over to me and Santana.
"So if no one we know bought it for you, then..." Rachel trails off.
"Santa brought it." Brittany proclaims.
"Santa." Mercedes says smiling.
"Santa." Artie nods.
"A real Christmas miracle." Quinn adds. We watch Artie walk more.
After school I walk to Coaches office.
"Just put it with the stuff." Coach said monotonously. I gasped at all the stolen stuff.
"So you did steal Christmas?" I ask. She smirks at me.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did." She replies. I sigh knowing there's not really anything I can do to stop her. I walk up to her, holding out my gift.
"This is a gift from me to you Coach." She rips it from my hands and starts to open them.
"I know how much you like to read with your sister and I just thought... maybe a wider variety of books were in order." I tell her quietly as she looks through the multiple books. She places them on her desk and sits down.
"Well, thank you Morgan... I appreciate it." She says as if the words are hard to come out of her mouth. I nod. Looking back at the stolen stuff causes me to sigh.
"You should really give all this back Coach." I say softly and start to move to the door.
"Wait." She says as I'm about to walk out. I look back at her.
"How fast can you coral those glee kids." Sue asks.
Later, on Christmas Eve night we wait behind a hall as Coach is introducing us to Mr. Shue. She blows her whistle and we all walk out.
"No one should be alone on Christmas Eve, Mr. Shue." I hear Rachel say.
"Too much talking lady, not enough trimming. Come on, let's get some Christmas up in here." Sue orders and we all start working on the tree once again.