It's a 90's Thing - Chapter 9
NB: The intended arrangement of this song is here (please listen whilst/ before reading)
Finn POV
Finding the orchestra had been more difficult than I thought, for some reason I auto pilot-ed straight to the auditorium again, I meant to go to the other rehearsal room. I sprinted across the school and found them rehearsing like I’d asked, they sounded perfect. That’s one problem solved, now Kurt and I have got to put the performance of our lives in to prove to everyone we fit, and that I’m not going to just let things wash over me anymore, I'm taking control of my life again.
We headed back into the choir room and I noticed Kurt had sat back down like we planned, another problem solved. The McKinley orchestra is a small one, only seven people but it fitted exactly what we wanted to do, so it didn’t take very long for them to get set up. As I looked around the room I saw that everyone was kinda looking confused about what was going on, usually I stick to a guitar and drums set up, the change must have got everyone thinking, except for Kurt obviously, he was just sat with his legs crossed with a huge smile on his face. I really hope all the work we put into this pays off, it took us a few hours just to get it into the right key for both of us.
‘Mr Schue’ I had to quiet everyone down and get their attention on me. ‘I'm ready to start’.
‘Excellent Finn, take it away’ He smiled at me and nodded.
I signalled the orchestra to start whilst I introduced the song.
‘Right, erm, yeah, this song… is a really special one to me, I identify with it a lot… ‘cus of my dad and everything that’s gone on after he was killed in Iraq the first time.’
I didn’t think I’d be so nervous, but Jesus, I really was.
‘I realised when I was practicing that I wasn’t the only one…. in the group….who this song applied to, so I’ve asked someone really special to me to help me out with it…so yeah… this is my song choice’
The orchestra finished their intro with the cymbal hit and the harps entered, as I took a huge breath.
A hand above the water
An angel reaching for the sky
Is it raining in Heaven
Do you want us to cry
There were far too many thoughts swirling around in my head, my dad, my mom being left to look after me alone, about Kurt, Kurt losing his mom, him struggling with his dad, him struggling with people accepting him being gay, and a whole bunch of other things, I was finding it difficult to concentrate on the song but I used all strength that I could to sing it.
And everywhere the broken-hearted
On every lonely avenue
No one could reach them
No one but you
I didn’t know what to do with my hands so I just kinda rested them on my belt, that way I wouldn’t have to think about them.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying to close to the sun
And life goes on
Without you
Everyone looked straight over to Kurt as he stood up from his chair and started his verse; I could hear he was already pretty choked up. Don’t cry, don’t cry, I couldn’t stand seeing him cry.
Another tricky situation
I get to drowning in the blues
And I find myself thinking
What would you do?
It was my turn to back him up and I filled in the harmonies and backing as we’d rehearsed.
Yes, it was such an operation
Forever paying every due
Hell, you made a sensation
You found a way through
Wow his voice was never this strong when we practiced, that ‘hell’ was practically a growl. We were just standing next to each other, both singing our hardest, both clearly trying not to be the first to cry… I failed.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying too close to the sun
Kurt took his line on cue, seeing me crying must’ve set him off because now we were both at it.
And we'll remember, forever
I felt Kurt’s hand softly touching mine as we stood next to each other; he gently grasped it and looked at me with glassy eyes. He gave me a slow nod as I started to sing on my own again.
And now the party must be over
I guess we'll never understand
The sense of your leaving
Was it the way it was planned
I’m so glad we arrange that he’d join me again now, I don’t think I could’ve sang any more on my own without becoming a quivering mess.
And so we grace another table
And raise our glasses one more time
C’mon voice don’t fail me, we can do this.
There's a face at the window
And I ain't never, never saying goodbye
There wasn’t anyone else in the room right then as far as I was concerned, just Kurt and I. This was our time, we were singing from the heart about something meaningful, and what anyone else thought of us, for that small moment, didn’t matter. This was us, and nothing was gonna change that.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying too close to the sun
Crying for nothing
Crying for no one
I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks. I looked at Kurt I wiped a tear off of his face with my thumb as I sang the last line. Barely getting it out melodically.
No one but you
We just stood there as the orchestra finished and we slowly heard the room clap, we were still holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes getting our breath back, and I couldn’t care less to be honest.
As we finally registered the room I noticed Mercedes, Tina, Brittany and Rachel were crying as well as Kurt and me. Quinn had sat right forward resting her chin on her fists and Mercedes was fanning her face with her hands to stop herself crying. Everyone else either had their mouths gaping open on were fixated on us, I don’t even think Artie was blinking. Except for Puck, yet again he had his eyebrow raised, does that boy have any emotions?
This was the best chance I had to get this all out in the open. We’d just done something beautiful, and now it was time to show everyone that we were something beautiful. I looked at Kurt as the clapping started to quieten and he smiled back up at me through his tears. I leant down and kissed him softly, he was obviously shocked I did that ‘cus u heard a little squeal as our lips touched. Kurt let go of my hand and threw his arms around my neck.
All I heard from the audience was claps slowing down and little what’s and huh’s. But what everyone thought didn’t matter, not right now anyway. I was too busy basking.
We released from the kiss and turned to look at everyone, I took Kurt’s hand again and we both went and sat down.
‘Wow, well, thank you guys, that was a beautiful performance’ Mr Schue was obviously as shocked as everyone else.
As I expected Rachel was the first to storm out in her usual fashion. Then followed Puck with a ‘Fuck this’ under his breath. So predictable, I’d have to deal with him later. Mercedes was just looking at us both from across the room with the biggest smile I’d ever seen her wear. Did she know? Or was she just really happy for us? I could tell everyone else was kind of uneasy, but we could talk to them properly after practice.
The bell rang as Brittany put her hand up to volunteer to go next, Mr Schue said she and Artie & Tina could perform on Monday, when he’d give us our next assignment. Kurt and I sat where we were after he dismissed everyone, both pairs of our hands rested on my knee, we smiled at each other and waited for the questions…
Finn POV
Finding the orchestra had been more difficult than I thought, for some reason I auto pilot-ed straight to the auditorium again, I meant to go to the other rehearsal room. I sprinted across the school and found them rehearsing like I’d asked, they sounded perfect. That’s one problem solved, now Kurt and I have got to put the performance of our lives in to prove to everyone we fit, and that I’m not going to just let things wash over me anymore, I'm taking control of my life again.
We headed back into the choir room and I noticed Kurt had sat back down like we planned, another problem solved. The McKinley orchestra is a small one, only seven people but it fitted exactly what we wanted to do, so it didn’t take very long for them to get set up. As I looked around the room I saw that everyone was kinda looking confused about what was going on, usually I stick to a guitar and drums set up, the change must have got everyone thinking, except for Kurt obviously, he was just sat with his legs crossed with a huge smile on his face. I really hope all the work we put into this pays off, it took us a few hours just to get it into the right key for both of us.
‘Mr Schue’ I had to quiet everyone down and get their attention on me. ‘I'm ready to start’.
‘Excellent Finn, take it away’ He smiled at me and nodded.
I signalled the orchestra to start whilst I introduced the song.
‘Right, erm, yeah, this song… is a really special one to me, I identify with it a lot… ‘cus of my dad and everything that’s gone on after he was killed in Iraq the first time.’
I didn’t think I’d be so nervous, but Jesus, I really was.
‘I realised when I was practicing that I wasn’t the only one…. in the group….who this song applied to, so I’ve asked someone really special to me to help me out with it…so yeah… this is my song choice’
The orchestra finished their intro with the cymbal hit and the harps entered, as I took a huge breath.
A hand above the water
An angel reaching for the sky
Is it raining in Heaven
Do you want us to cry
There were far too many thoughts swirling around in my head, my dad, my mom being left to look after me alone, about Kurt, Kurt losing his mom, him struggling with his dad, him struggling with people accepting him being gay, and a whole bunch of other things, I was finding it difficult to concentrate on the song but I used all strength that I could to sing it.
And everywhere the broken-hearted
On every lonely avenue
No one could reach them
No one but you
I didn’t know what to do with my hands so I just kinda rested them on my belt, that way I wouldn’t have to think about them.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying to close to the sun
And life goes on
Without you
Everyone looked straight over to Kurt as he stood up from his chair and started his verse; I could hear he was already pretty choked up. Don’t cry, don’t cry, I couldn’t stand seeing him cry.
Another tricky situation
I get to drowning in the blues
And I find myself thinking
What would you do?
It was my turn to back him up and I filled in the harmonies and backing as we’d rehearsed.
Yes, it was such an operation
Forever paying every due
Hell, you made a sensation
You found a way through
Wow his voice was never this strong when we practiced, that ‘hell’ was practically a growl. We were just standing next to each other, both singing our hardest, both clearly trying not to be the first to cry… I failed.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying too close to the sun
Kurt took his line on cue, seeing me crying must’ve set him off because now we were both at it.
And we'll remember, forever
I felt Kurt’s hand softly touching mine as we stood next to each other; he gently grasped it and looked at me with glassy eyes. He gave me a slow nod as I started to sing on my own again.
And now the party must be over
I guess we'll never understand
The sense of your leaving
Was it the way it was planned
I’m so glad we arrange that he’d join me again now, I don’t think I could’ve sang any more on my own without becoming a quivering mess.
And so we grace another table
And raise our glasses one more time
C’mon voice don’t fail me, we can do this.
There's a face at the window
And I ain't never, never saying goodbye
There wasn’t anyone else in the room right then as far as I was concerned, just Kurt and I. This was our time, we were singing from the heart about something meaningful, and what anyone else thought of us, for that small moment, didn’t matter. This was us, and nothing was gonna change that.
One by one
Only the good die young
They're only flying too close to the sun
Crying for nothing
Crying for no one
I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks. I looked at Kurt I wiped a tear off of his face with my thumb as I sang the last line. Barely getting it out melodically.
No one but you
We just stood there as the orchestra finished and we slowly heard the room clap, we were still holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes getting our breath back, and I couldn’t care less to be honest.
As we finally registered the room I noticed Mercedes, Tina, Brittany and Rachel were crying as well as Kurt and me. Quinn had sat right forward resting her chin on her fists and Mercedes was fanning her face with her hands to stop herself crying. Everyone else either had their mouths gaping open on were fixated on us, I don’t even think Artie was blinking. Except for Puck, yet again he had his eyebrow raised, does that boy have any emotions?
This was the best chance I had to get this all out in the open. We’d just done something beautiful, and now it was time to show everyone that we were something beautiful. I looked at Kurt as the clapping started to quieten and he smiled back up at me through his tears. I leant down and kissed him softly, he was obviously shocked I did that ‘cus u heard a little squeal as our lips touched. Kurt let go of my hand and threw his arms around my neck.
All I heard from the audience was claps slowing down and little what’s and huh’s. But what everyone thought didn’t matter, not right now anyway. I was too busy basking.
We released from the kiss and turned to look at everyone, I took Kurt’s hand again and we both went and sat down.
‘Wow, well, thank you guys, that was a beautiful performance’ Mr Schue was obviously as shocked as everyone else.
As I expected Rachel was the first to storm out in her usual fashion. Then followed Puck with a ‘Fuck this’ under his breath. So predictable, I’d have to deal with him later. Mercedes was just looking at us both from across the room with the biggest smile I’d ever seen her wear. Did she know? Or was she just really happy for us? I could tell everyone else was kind of uneasy, but we could talk to them properly after practice.
The bell rang as Brittany put her hand up to volunteer to go next, Mr Schue said she and Artie & Tina could perform on Monday, when he’d give us our next assignment. Kurt and I sat where we were after he dismissed everyone, both pairs of our hands rested on my knee, we smiled at each other and waited for the questions…