―

―

"Um, all right, I have one final announcement before we all leave," Mr. Schuester said to the Glee club, "We can't use the auditorium for the next week."

Hunter's head snapped up from where he was sat, doodling on Brittany's leg, "What?"

"But that's garbage," Finn exclaimed, "How are we supposed to practice for regionals without the auditorium?"

"The Cheerios need it to practice in," Mr. Schuester shrugged, "There's nothing I can do."

Rachel stood up, "I recommend a sit-in."

"I recommend we torch the place." Puck countered, earning some mumbles of agreement and fist bumps.

"No," Mr. Schue sighed, "Look, we've all faced adversity before and come out stronger on the other end. I'm gonna check out a few off-site locations for us to use just for the week. I promise I'll find us a new home."

The Glee Club sighed as the bell rang and everybody packed up their stuff, leaving the room.

―

Hunter and Quinn looked over at Mercedes with frowns after what they had been witnessing for the past couple of days as Mr. Schuester filled the club in on his plan for them to rehearse in a roller rink.

Tina raised an eyebrow, "A roller rink?"

"Weren't those outlawed in, like, 1981 for being totally lame?" Santana scoffed.

"Come on, guys. Where's your sense of adventure?" Mr. Schue asked them, "The space is great and April is giving it to us to practice in for free."

"We do like free stuff." Hunter nodded, earning a fist bump from Tina.

"Mr. Schue? If I may?" Kurt put his hand up, the teacher nodding as Kurt stood in front of the club and Mr. Schue sat down with them.

"The New Directions is clearly a club with a dearth of direction. Rachel and Jesse refuse to accept that all of us would rather die before we allow them to become the next Beyoncé and Jay-Z..."

"True." Hunter nodded.

"And Finn's mother's romance with my father is sending him into a wholly unnecessary tailspin of despair," Kurt continued, "What we all need right now is to explore the idea of a sense of place and how if we find that place within we will get that happy ending," He turned to the pianist, "Brad, B-flat."

[ a house is not a home, sung by kurt (and finn) ]

―

The clock hit midnight as Hunter sat on the floor of his living room, across from his mother's.

It was a simple chair, but it was elegant in its own way and held years of stories, much like his mother.

It was cream with brown stripes making checked pattern and had her favourite cushion - mustard yellow one - placed on it.

It hadn't been sat on in nearly a year.

Footsteps made the boy turn his head, seeing a tired Jonathan enter the room.

"Hey." The boy muttered with a small smile.

"Hi," Jonathan frowned, sitting next to his son on the floor, "Why're you still up?"

"Just thinking," Hunter shrugged, not intending to delve further into his mind until his brain stopped him, "Thinking about some stuff Kurt said in Glee Club today."

"And it got you thinking about your mother." Jonathan nodded, a statement not a question.

Hunter smiled slightly, tears starting to form in his eyes, "I'm never not thinking about her."

His father nodded, "Me neither."

The boy wiped away a stray tear, his shaky voice mustering up the courage to sing, "A chair is still a chair, even when there's no one sitting there." His voice broke.

"But a chair is not a house and a house is not a home when there's no one there to hold you tight and no one there you can kiss good night." Jonathan finished the verse, now crying too.

"Is she ever gonna sit in that chair again?" Hunter asked, staring at the piece of furniture.

Jonathan Larklee, a strong man who always knew what to say stared down at his broken son, for once not being able to find any words.

So instead, he shrugged, "I don't know, Hunter," He admitted, wrapping his arms around his weeping son, who gripped onto him tightly as if he was going to disappear, "For once, I really don't know."

―

Hunter and Quinn sat on chairs in the nurse's office as the nurse took Mercedes' - who had just passed out from her trying to lose weight - blood pressure.

The nurse hummed, "Your blood pressure's low. Maybe that's why you fainted. Your mom will be here soon. I'll go and get you some ginger ale." The woman said, before leaving the room.

Quinn sent Mercedes a kind smile, walking over to the girl and holding a granola bar out towards her.

"Thanks. I'm not hungry." Mercedes frowned, looking away from the food.

"Yes, you are," The blonde girl said softly, sitting on the medical bed, "You're starving. I know. I've been there."

Mercedes frowned, looking down and playing with her fingers.

"Did all the other kids start looking like food right before you fainted?"

Mercedes looked up, "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Been there," Quinn softly repeated with a nod and a smile, "Eat the granola bar."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Mercedes asked the former Cheerios captain, "I can't remember the last time you said two words to me that weren't 'you' and 'suck'."

"'Cause I was you," Quinn admitted, "Scared. Hating myself for eating a cookie. But I got over it."

"Yeah, of course you did, Miss Pretty Blonde With the White Girl Ass." Mercedes frowned.

"When you start eating for somebody else, so that they can grow and be healthy, your relationship to food changes," Quinn told her, "What I realized is that if I'm so willing to eat right to take care of this baby, why am I not willing to do it for myself?" The blonde put her hand on top of Mercedes' as tears fell from the Cheerio's eyes, "You are so lucky. You've always been at home n your body. Don't let Ms. Sylvester take that away from you."

Hunter swallowed thickly, seeing the hesitant look on Mercedes' face, "Remember when my mom first got put in the hospital during freshman year?" He asked, moving to sit next to Quinn on the bed, "I barely ate for a month. Do you remember what you said to me?" Mercedes looking down made the boy put his hand over the one that wasn't covered by Quinn's, "You asked me if my mom would want me to wither away with worry whilst she was in that hospital room. You told me to keep going because of her, because her and I love each other and none of us want to see the other to get hurt," He said, tears now falling from all three of their eyes, "Well we love you, 'Cedes. And I don't want you to so far as to do something that none of us ever want."

Mercedes squeezed their hands, "I'm so embarrassed. This isn't me. How did I become this person?"

"You are beautiful." Quinn told her sincerely.

"So freaking beautiful." Hunter nodded in agreement.

"And you know that," Quinn added, making Mercedes finally meet their gaze with a small smile, "Hunter and I are gonna stay here with you until your mom comes, okay?" She smiled softly

―

Hunter held onto Mike with a vice-like grip, "This is not natural!" He exclaimed, "Give me my sneakers back!"

Mike and Matt only laughed, pushing the flailing boy between them to try and get him used to the roller-skates.

"Do you seriously not have even one ounce of athletic ability in your body that you can't stand up straight on roller-skates?" Santana laughed, her and Brittany skating around them.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss 'roller rinks are lame'." Hunter made a teasing face at her.

Santana smirked, "I'm here. I make everything cool."

The boy stared at her for a moment, "That is true." He nodded, before he lost his balance, falling back into Mike's arms.

"If you just wanted to be close to me, all you had to do was ask." Mike laughed, before pushing Hunter back over to Mike.

―

"Fumigating the rest of the school," Hunter nodded, looking around at the turnout for the pep rally as he was sat in between both Katie and Quinn on the floor, "Sneaky tactic. I respect it."

The girls chuckled softly at the boy as the lights dimmed and the Cheerios got into their formation, which was then broken by Mercedes stepping out of it and over to the microphone.

"Hey, guys. I'm Mercedes Jones," She let out a shaky breath, meeting the gazes of Hunter and Quinn, who sent her nods of assurance, "So most of you know Cheerios is about perfection and winning, looking hot and being popular. Well, I think that it should be about something different. How many of you at this school feel fat?"

People were looking around, still confused as Quinn raised her hand, Katie, a few other girls and some guys following after her.

Hunter smiled softly at the two blondes, reaching over and squeezing their unraised hands.

"How many of you feel like maybe you're not worth very much?"

Hunter's hand joined the rest of the raised arms.

"Or you're ugly, or you have too many pimples and not enough friends?" Mercedes continued, "Well, I felt all those things about myself at one time or another. Hell, I felt most of those things about myself today. And that just ain't right. And we've got something to say about it. And if you like what we have to say... come down here and sing it with us." She said, gesturing to the rest of the Cheerios as a soft tune started playing.

[ beautiful, sung by mercedes, with the cheerios and the new directions ]

―

"I'm going to take my hush money and I'm going to mount the first-ever all-white production of The Wiz," April grinned at Mr. Schuester as the Glee club entered the choir room, surrounding the piano, "And I've got you to thank."

"Did you tell him yet?" Rachel asked with a grin.

Me. Schue turned back to April, "Tell me what?"

"That I bought y'all the auditorium." April revealed, throwing her hands up in celebration, earning applause and cheering from the members of the club.

"What?" Mr. Schue asked with a laugh.

"I wrote ol' Figgins a check this morning," April told him, "It's now called the April Rhodes Civic Pavilion."

"I- I don't know what to say." Mr. Schue laughed, overwhelmed.

Rachel smiled, "We've got that covered."

[ home, performed by april, with the new directions ]

―

Elizabeth's face lit up with a smile at what her son had said to her, "You want to sing with me?"

Hunter shrugged, "It's been a while, so I thought, why not."

Jonathan smiled at the two most important people in his life, his guitar resting on his lap as he started to play a familiar melody to the family.

[ shallow, sung by hunter and elizabeth, with jonathan ]