The grounds were laced with a layer of fresh powdered snow and brisk wins leaked through their jackets, as the boy with curly hair wished that he had brought a winter coat to put on over his uniform one. He had overslept his alarm and forgot his coat in his rush to school.

He wondered if he looked anxious. He couldn’t look anxious. He had to keep his cool- he had to make sure that everyone knew he was the calm, collected male soloist of his Glee club, The Dalton Academy Warblers.
The bus pulled up and released pressure as it lowered to the ground. The door opened with a gasp.

"Single file in everyone!" Wes, one of the Warbler's co-captains shouted with an authoritative voice that said he was comfortable with public speaking.

The curly haired boy with too much product took his place in line- behind Wes and David, the Warbler's co- captains, and in front of Taylor and John, the freshman recruits.

"File in right to left, front to back!" Wes ordered.

The boy tried to keep his eyes on the co-captain, but they inevitably glanced left at the bus. It was candy apple red with the school’s name written in white cursive across the side. The interior seats were black leather and equipped with seatbelts. The Dalton Academy had only the best.

The boy took the front seat behind the driver, across from where Wes and David would sit after they finished taking a headcount of all of the boys getting on the bus.

Their teachers and chaperones, Dr. Bobby and Dr. Daniels were sitting in the seat behind Wes and David doing their own headcounts, but allowing the co- captains to take charge and practice their leadership skills, something Dalton Academy prided it's students in having.

Wes and David introduced the bus driver, who went over the rules, and told the group to be awake for when they called a Warbler meeting with the details when they were close to their destination.

The boy opened his messenger bag and pulled out a notebook. It was old and tearing apart at the binding. The cover had doodles and lyrics written in sharpie and stickers of everything from Katy Perry to Ohio State Football.
The boy opened the notebook up to a page near the end and pulled a pen out from behind his ear. He had a half-finished set of lyrics from the night before, which he had fallen asleep working on, that he wanted to finish.
"Are you studying the sheet music, Blaine?"

The curly haired boy looked up and tried jump at a scrawny, freckled, red- head looking at him expectantly. "What? No, I'm working on some lyrics."
"You're not studying your music?" The boy signaled to a standard black binder filled with all of the sheet music that the Warbler's used on a regular basis.

"No, I studied last night." The curly haired boy named Blaine said.

"I don't understand- how you remember all of the lyrics and notes and steps all of the time- it's so much information." The freshman looked up at Blaine for advice.

"Theatre kid trick?" Blaine asked rhetorically, but the freshman replied anyway.

The freshman practically shook in his pants at the frequent- soloist, third- in- command of his show choir talking to him. "A-anything."

"Try doing something physical while studying. I like to go to the treadmill at the gym or do sit-ups. I know some kids who can only learn their lines while in a moving vehicle. The older boy offered.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Blaine looked back down at his notebook, as the freshman looked back down at his Warbler's sheet music binder.

"Hey, can we get everyone's attention please?" Wes called to the group of kids, turning around in his seat and sitting up on his knees. It was not proper, but it was convenient- something odd for a boy- man usually so formal.

All of the Warbler's eyes were on Wes.

"So we're about 20 minutes from Green Meadow's Psychiatric Hospital and I want to remind you of proper etiquette for the location. I know that you will all be on your best behavior, but please remember that the Warblers represent the Dalton Academy when we perform. Especially to people in need of cheer." Wes said.

"Yes," David agreed. "Remember that we are going to a psychiatric hospital- it is different than a regular hospital. I ask that you be respectful to the patients, the staff, and each other, as always. We will be performing for Level Ones and Level Twos in the 13- 21-year-old age group, which Green Meadows told me, are people who are relatively stable and most of them are near to being released. Our 'sit out' policy remains the same- if the situation or location becomes too intense for you to handle, please let Dr. Bob or Dr. Daniels know and one of them will come out to the bus with you to wait out the visit." David signaled to a teacher with silver hair and balding scalp and an intelligent demeanor and a caramel colored haired man with silver rimmed glasses and bright eyes. "Now, if you'll turn your attention back to Wes, he'll be going over the set list."

Blaine turned his attention to Wes, who opened his Warbler's binder and began to go over what order the group had to have their songs in and what order they were going to sing their songs.

"Now, we're nearing Green Meadows and we'll be arriving shortly." Wes said, as many of the Warbler's turned to their friends sitting next to them and began to talk about football or hockey or fashion designers or pop culture- all was open and accepted topic for the Dalton Academy boys.

The bus pulled up to a security gate and the driver opened his window and began to talk. He was handed a sticker, which he put in the front window and drove down a long, winding road. Blaine looked out his window- the bus drove through thick trees and long, green grass that had been cut fairly recently. Finally, the forestry thinned out and the bus slowed down as they drove through a meadow with brightly colored flowers. Blaine even spotted a couple of rabbits. It looked like spring inside the walls more than it did at Dalton.

Finally, the curly haired boy spotted a modern building, but looked more like multiple buildings. The main building was the tallest at four or five stories. All of the other buildings were attached to the main building and sprawled out like rays to a sun. The first building only has a set of windows at the very top, but with each of the next four buildings, the windows got lower and there were more windows.

The bus winded around the road circling the building and finally stopped. The curly haired boy realized that they must have been entering through the main entrance. The bus slowed to a stop and released pressure as it sunk closer to the ground. The doors gasped open and Wes stepped off the bus first. Tyler exited and Blaine followed the freshman out.

Blaine took in the smell of fresh, but moist, and naturally dirty air overpowered by the scent of drying laundry and too many chemicals. His senses were torn over the natural and unnatural, as his eyes tried to look everywhere at once. He noticed that a lot of the other boys were overwhelmed, as well.

Soon, they were all lined up. Wes led the group to the front entrance and a man with brown hair, a beard, and a bleach- white doctor's coat stepped out. "Welcome to Green Meadows." He said.

"Thank you for having us, Dr. Blue," Wes replied and then turned back to the Warblers. "Dalton Academy Warbler's, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Blue, he is in charge of patient activities and artistic therapy here. I think that I will turn it over to you, Doctor."

"First of all, thank you for coming. The staff and patients always appreciate these kinds of things. When you walk in, you will have to sign your name, the date, your entrance time, and group that you are in on our guest sheet. Then, you will have to go through a metal detector.

Once through the metal detectors, Dr. Blue swiped his ID card on a door and pushed it open. He lead the Warbler's up a flight of stairs and swiped his card again before pushing another door open. "This is the art and theatre room," Mr. Blue said holding the door open.

The boy followed the co-captains and the doctor into the room and took in the room. The first thing that the boy noticed was how squishy the floor was. It was odd, he thought. It felt like foam under a tumbling floor at a gymnastics place, minus the springs, he thought. He was amazed that he did not sink into it and that it was not hard to walk on.

The floor was covered with a soft blue carpet. One end of the room had a white board with tons of colored white board markers. There was a stage of sorts with a giant white wall behind it. Turning to his other side, he could see a projector hanging from the ceiling with tons of foam chairs in different colors around round plastic tables below it.

"The stage is over there. I just ask for you to notify me if you're using any props, as we have to make sure that they are safe for the patients to be around. We filled up some paper cups filled with water over there for you to drink. The teens should be here in a few minutes- they're just finishing up their academic work for the day. If you have any questions, I'll be around."

"Everyone line up in your rows, then sit down." Wes instructed. Blaine took his spot at the front row in the center, just as the door on the other side of the room opened.

In walked a frail chestnut haired boy. His strides were long and graceful, yet somehow sullen. Even from across the room, Blaine could see the other boy's blue eyes and the dark circles under them. Even with frown lines on the chestnut haired boy's face, Blaine found the other boy mesmerizing.

Blaine thought about sinking into his cross- legged position even more, but then he remembered that he attended the Dalton Academy, where he was not persecuted for being gay. But just because Blaine was gay did not mean that the other boy was, too. After all, the brown haired boy was talking to a blonde bombshell.

Blaine frowned.

"Stand up, everyone." Wes instructed. "We're about to start."

"Are you ready?" Dr. Blue asked the a cappella as the room filled with 40 or 50 patients.

The curly, black haired boy focused on keeping his performance butterflies out and the music that he was about to sing, temporarily forgetting the chestnut haired boy who walked into the room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your hands together for the Dalton Academy Warblers!”