Chapter 12: Birthday Surprise

                                    

                                          
"What are you doing after school?" I ask Jake as he gets his books for our next class.
                          
"Just hanging out with Puck. Why?" He asks with an eyebrow up.
                          
"Just wondering," I said as I walk off. He closes his locker and runs over to me.
                          
"Why are you wondering?" He asks.
                          
"Because it is my mum's birthday and I thought you could bring your mum over to surprise her."
                          
"Wow. What are you doing for her party?" I stop and look at him crazily.
                          
"I wasn't gonna throw a party. She doesn't like parties that much."
                          
"Well, we should do something for her." I think really hard.
                          
"We could get the Glee Club to sing...no, nevermind."
                          
"Sing what?" He asks. I take a deep breath.
                          
"We could sing...ABBA."
                          
"Is that your mum's favourite?" I nod.
                          
"She's been wanting me to sing it to her for years, but I didn't know who ABBA was back then. My mum then gave me is huge speech about them being the best group in history...yada yada yada."
                          
"Cool. We can do that. What else should we do?" He asks with a smile. I think harder.
                          
"If she could pay off her bills. I know it's not much, but it would be great to get all of the bills out of the way before she pasts away. I've been saving for ages and I've only got the amount to pay half of it. She would love that as well," I said and I sigh. "By the way, if you see any jobs, call me." He cracks a smile.
                          
"Sure," he said and he follows me into the classroom.
                          
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"Okay everyone. Let's get straight into practise," Mr Shue said.
                          
"Umm...Mr Shue, can I say something?" I said and he politely nods.
                          
"Today is my mum's birthday and I was wondering if you could help me perform a song for her," I ask. Everyone nods.
                          
Tina then asks, "What song?"
                          
"It's...umm...the ABBA Medley." Everyone starts complaining and I'm thinking that they don't want to sing this song at all.
                          
"Come on guys. It's her birthday and she would love it." I look up and see Ryder talking. I mouth the words 'thank you' and he nods. Everyone else then starts agreeing and I smile.
                          
"Okay then. Let's practise the song," Finn said as he gets the sheet music and gives it to everyone.
                          
After we go through the song a few times perfectly, the bell rings. I run over to Ryder and I hug him.
                          
"Thank you for agreeing with me, otherwise we wouldn't be doing this," I said, still hugging him.
                          
"Anytime Em," he said as he hugs me tighter. I let go when it got a bit awkward. He did too.
                          
"Yeah. I've gotta go," I said but a hand grabs my wrist before I could leave.
                          
"Wait, I need to ask you something. What did you mean about your life is too messy?" He asks.
                          
Damn it. I forgot about that.
                          
I turn around to face him.
                          
"It's just that my mum is in Hospital and I'm still trying to handle a death that happened a few years ago, but..."
                          
Before I could say anything else, he said, "Oh, I'm sorry for your loss." I smile at him.
                          
What a sweet guy. That is probably one of the reasons that I like him more than a friend.