Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. All original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

Didn't think I was going to do it did ya? Gonna just drift away like smoke rings in the dark. JK, well I have to say, I had this written more than two months ago but I hated it. I couldn't hit that post button. But I don't know, I guess I'll see what you guys say about it. It's a long one but that's it...maybe I'd change it one day?

"Whoa...Torri, is that the exit for 53C?" McKenna glanced down at the paper she had written the directions on. Why did she write so irritatingly small!?

There was no reply from her brother who was driving now. He had his hoodie up because the heater was putting out strange smells and he beat his thumbs against the arc of the wheel.

"I just want yo extra time and your *kissy sounds* Kiss…" He sang in a horribly off-pitched falsetto.

McKenna reached over and pulled his hoodie back to see he had his earbuds in and he glanced over at her in mild surprise.

"Torri! That's our exit and we're in the wrong lane!" She looked back to see the turn off fly by.

"Hey! You suck at this road direction stuff. Aren't you supposed to say 'Recalculating' in a british accent?" He defended himself with a sniff.

"Oh my gosh, we're already like 20 minutes late cause you had to stop to get hash browns! Are your brains made of dried up pillbugs?!" She glanced at her fatty watch, feeling the pressure. They were supposed to be there by now.

Torri pushed his eyebrows together in a contemplation that would have made Plato proud, "Dried...up…"

"Look! We needed that exit cause the next one is under construction and the one after will be totally busy! We're in morning traffic! I can't even call them to tell them! Why don't you have a cell phone you pillbug head!?" She let the panic build and erupt.

On que, the traffic slowed and soon they were at a crawl along the freeway. McKee put her head to the dashboard watching the asphalt under her feet through the rusted out hole in the floor.

"Sorry." She murmured.

Her brother didn't say anything as if he could sense she was ready to snap.

Who knew how long it would take to find the next turn off and now she had to figure how to get to the concert hall from a different direction. If she could just call them…

Straightening up suddenly she looked out her window. Of course, the guy next to them was doing something on his phone and she rolled down her window and began waving frantically at him. When he looked over he gave her a disturbed look but she put her hands together begging him to roll his window down. Finally he did and she called out to him.

"Hey so so so so sorry, could I use your phone?" She asked with her best, augmented, shakey, glisteny anime eyes.

The cars were stopping then creeping along and she was only about four feet away from the window of his suv.

Hesitantly the guy shook his head, "Uh I don't think so…"

"Please! I'm not going anywhere! I just need to call someone super fast!" She pleaded. "I'm amish!"

Finally he nodded and handed the phone over to her and she quickly dialed in Sam's number.

It rang and rang. He was probably practicing or wouldn't pick up a number he didn't recognise. The only other numbers she knew by heart was her parent's. So she left a message and returned the phone to the man. All she could do now was hope to get there before the performance.

At the auditorium, Sam glanced at his lit and buzzing phone. The number was from Pennsylvania or something and Sam wasn't sure if he'd be charged for international calls. He'd gotten another call from an unrecognised number too, both left messages and it was only now that they had taken a break from rehearsing.

She...McKenna, should have been here by now and Mr. Scheu looked like he was having an out of body experience of the worst kind. They had been told there were so many participants this year that only two numbers would be allowed and so they had chosen one with the guitar accentuations and their 'show stopper' that did without. Rachel had completely dumbfounded them all and come up with vocals to cover the missing guitar and they were all scrambling to memorize, harmonize and epoxidize their performance.

If it was bristling nerves anticipating the upcoming performance, smothering anticipation at seeing McKenna again or grinding pre-disappointment at her being a no-show, Sam paced the crowded backstage looking up and any short, furry, super hot chicks that passed by. Not one had met all three requirements yet. Somewhere not far away he could hear Santana raging about Schuester's completely embarrassing choice of lame songs that obviously stemmed from his lack of faith in their ability to sing anything remotely cool and his boy crush on Enrique Iglesias. Brittany, they only cure for mount saint Lopez was saying, "Nobody likes cauliflower anymore." to sooth her as only Brittany could. Mercedes and Kurt, the 'unshaken ones', were completely chilled out, watching last night's 'Dancing in the Stars' or whatever it was on their iPhones. Puckerman was using every inappropriate pick-up line he'd ever read in the tube slide at the middle school where he was tutored by 7th graders on 30 year old lady choir teachers. Everyone seemed to be in their element.

Running a finger along the collar of the maroon shirt that Rachel had insisted all the boys button all the way to the top Sam sat down on an amp, looking at his phone again. He might as well listen to the messages. The first message came up, unsettling heavy breathing then a snort and Sam put his hand over his other ear to try to block out all the sound around him.

"Hello? Sorry, I fell asleep through your really stupid answering message…I know your name isn't Rufus and I don't know any dude named Sephiroth or his chick Jenny." Came the familiar but unplaceable voice. "Look I have to tell you something about McKenna…"

Then Sam realized who it was, Karofsky!

"Sure she's dated me and that's probably set the standards impossibly high, especially for a geeky poser like you, but the thing between me and her...it was all a…"

"Sam?" Quinn's brushy voice glided over the words of the weird message and Sam was still trying to figure out how Dave had gotten his number.

Looking up at her he grunted, "Huh?"

"Can I talk to you?" She spread her fingers in uncharacteristic nervousness over the grey tulle fabric of her puffy dress, the girls were all wearing the same style.

Karofsky's voice was now barely audible in the background, "Pretty much whipped over you."

Knitting his eyebrows together in worry about what he perceived as Dave's love confession of some kind, Sam pulled the phone away from his ear and hung up on the voice mail.

The calm, collected, calculating, killer Fabray he had always known suddenly looked vulnerable and even frightened. He had never seen her suffer from stage fright and wondered if she would be able to handle everything tonight. Their duet had been kept in the New Direction's two song set. Somehow, despite the breakup, they had kept the energy and chemistry to a believable level which Sam had dreaded performing in front of McKenna.

"Yeah. You ok?" He scooted over on the double wide combo so she could sit down, "You need a water or something? I've got a nutter butter in my backpack if…"

"No. Thanks." She gave a faint, sweet smile, "I just wanted to tell you I'm really glad we're still doing our duet...that you'll still do that with me."

Sam studied her. Never while they were dating had she seemed so sincere and let's face it, humble. He wondered if she was sick.

Shrugging he gave her a careful smile, "No matter what we're a team, people are counting on us."

Blinking her almond eyes at him she nodded, "Well, after seeing Vocal Adrenaline's rehearsal, we're probably going to lose big time."

Everyone seemed to be lacking optimism right now.

Sam pushed a smile though, "Hey, they might have like crazy awesome choreography and sound but Rachel's right, we got the feeling and I think people will connect with us over the VA machine."

Quinn gave a soft smile, "How you say it, I almost believe it. But what I wanted to say was, I've thought a lot about us and I miss you. I should have never...gave in and I'm willing to admit that."

Yeah he wasn't expecting that. The whole last week or so they'd been broken up she had kept radio silence except when they had practiced, then she seemed to tolerate him with an undercurrent of resentfulness. But he'd never seen her be so human than she was right now, like a normal girl.

"Uh, Quinn. I'm gonna always think you're amazing and stuff but don't screw up like I did. Don't pick the wrong person."

Sam never was very eloquent with words and from the deflated look on her face he was pretty sure the duet was going to be even more of a challenge now. But she finally nodded, got up and melted into the crowd of people.

The New Directions practiced for their remaining 15 minutes and then had to give up the stage. Audience seating was beginning and they all were herded into a little waiting room to await their turn to perform.

Tense. It was painfully tense as everyone sat around listening to the distant applause, obscure announcer's voice and dull thud of the other group's bass.

"Why is it…" grumbled Santana, "That nothing can ever go smoothly for this show choir?"

"Lord Tubbington is pretty sure we're cursed, we have all the tell-tail signs: financial troubles, bad luck, increase in peripheral entity-detection…" babbled Brittany as she munched on a vienna sausage.

The group as a collective raised their eyebrows at her but then the door opened and Mr. Schuster stuck his head in with a smile.

"Guess who I found." he swung the door open and stepped out of the way to reveal the Bringhurst's standing in the hallway dripping wet and gasping for air.

The room erupted. Some jumping up and down in excitement, some groaning at the whiplash of what this meant for the set and others rushing to meet them.

Mercedes cleared a lane like a bowling ball, knocking down helpless pins like Rachel and Tina in her quest for a strike that would end in Torri face time. Sam followed behind her helping up the trampled to crowd around the doorway.

McKenna pushed back the sticky, wet hair from her face and said in between deep breaths, "Sorry guys! I'm so sorry! The traffic and hashbrowns! We had to park at the museum of natural history...I think they think my truck is a prehistoric fossil. And it's raining."

"So are we doing this with the guitar now?" asked Quinn flatly.

With a considering chin rub, Mr. Schuster said, "It's up to you guys. What's the vote?"

"Well we didn't get to practice it with McKenna." Reasoned Finn thoughtfully. "Didn't we change a couple things too?"

After waiting for his turn, Sam didn't worry like the rest about trying to awkwardly hug McKee so that he wouldn't get wet and just pulled her against him, feeling her slight arms reach up to hug him back.

"Hey, my sister can improvise like Cannonball Adderley. Don't be worried on her account." Torri managed to say with half his lips still busy doing something else.

Quiet Mike spoke up from the corner, "I think we should just do it. It might be the only thing that really sets us apart from the usual stuff everyone else is doing!"

Sam was counting down in his head, knowing that he had to let her go cause they were getting to the acceptable 'friends' hug duration of five seconds or less. Was it weird that he was glad that her boyfriend might have a crush on him? Because that was obviously a relationship ender.

There was a slow but building agreement with Mike's statement and soon everyone had decided to include the guitar. It was a sort of 'Hail Mary' play, show choir style.

With a now water darkened shirt front, Sam grinned at McKee who looked like she may need to wear an oxygen mask for a little while but there really wasn't time for that now.

"You've got to get dressed!" Rachel said to her with sudden panic.

McKee blinked away from Sam to look at her, "Huh? Why? I'm just playing in the wing. Just give me a towel and I'm cool."

Rachel shook her head, "No! I had a dream last night and I've changed it! You'll be on stage the second half of the song. I'll explain everything."

"But I don't have a dress like you or anything…!" McKenna tried to discourage this drastic idea.

"That's perfect cause we want you to look like one of those scary old rocker guitarist guys. Like Flea or whoever." She began to push her out of the room.

Puckerman brought his head up, "Didn't he play naked?"

"We got like 18 minutes until it's our turn guys." Warned Mr. Schuster.

"...Like Slash." Sam frowned at Puckerman.

In the bathroom, McKenna was suddenly wondering where Rachel had found red tights with holes and runs all through them and the leather hotpants that she threw at her to put on.

"Keep the combat boots and that leather jacket, here I'm going to tear this neon pink shirt a bit...what color is your bra?" Rachel ranted like a crazy person who couldn't possibly be Rachel.

But this was their show and so McKenna dressed as fast as she could while Kurt was drying her hair, adding mousse and hairspray.

And ten minutes later they were back in the room as most of the other Glee members were filing out to get to the stage.

Sam was still there and McKenna wondered, for one of the first times in her life, if her outfit was a bit too much. There was eight minutes left and try as she might to practice the silly picking in her head all she could do was laugh at Sam who was working his tractor driving face.

Then he grabbed a bag from a table behind him and handed it to her, "Hey this is for your birthday."

Squinting an eye in confusion she tilted her head, "Uh, my birthday's not for like four months still…"

"Just open it Lightning." He urged and pushed it into her hands. "I saw it in a store window and I knew it was yours."

McKee pulled out a black top hat and had to bite her lip. This definitely was a new one to the wardrobe.

"Just like Slash." Sam said giddily.

"I'm going to look like the Mad Hatter." She plopped it on her head.

Tapping its round top Sam gave a half grin, "It's actually really sexy. You gotta wear that all the time k?"
McKenna didn't know if she wanted him to say something like that so much that she was actually hearing things or if she was just reading too much into a purely platonic complement.

"We gotta go!" Said Rachel as she went out the door leaving just Sam and McKee who started to follow. But Sam caught her arm and stopped her.

"Uh, McKenna, I gotta tell you this now." His sudden intensity shook off the struggling efforts of her trying to focus on the imminent performance. "Quinn, she wanted to get back together."

And that was it. Both detonation keys were in and McKenna pushed the big, red, springy button for her inner atom bomb. No longer was she going to be diplomatic and be a good friend, listening to his love life and how it never really had a place card for her. It was time for hydrogen splitting honesty.

Unfortunately that wasn't something she had been very good at and she reverted to sarcasm, "Oh...MAN! Well! That's freak'n amazing! I'm so happy right now!"

She snatched the hat off her head and shoved it back into his completely startled face.

The door opened and Mr. Schuster stuck his head in looking frazzled, "Five minutes guys! Come on!"

"Hold on!" Sam said grabbing McKenna's arm again as she tried to follow their teacher out. "Wait McKee I'm not done!"

"You can tell me all about it later while I stick burning pine needles under my fingernails." She jerked away from him only to have him push the door shut in front of her.

"No, not later. Now." He stepped around to face her and looked mad. She had never seen him mad but he pressed his mouth into an almost perfect, straight line and his eyes darkened like the clouds before a hail storm. It was pretty hot.

"I keep waiting for this perfect time for stuff to work and there never is one so I'm just going to have to tell you now that we broke up because of you. I'm trying to say that I messed this up in the first place and thought I loved someone I really didn't. All that time I was with Quinn, I was looking for you. Hoping to hear you try to say 'churro' or go to the Speedy Mart with our hair in zillions of little braids to play tic-tac-toe on the glass fridge doors again. Heck even when I made out with Quinn I knew I'd rather be jammin beats with you. I don't know if you think that same way about me but I think you might….do you?"

The door swung open into him and Finn and Puck glared in at them.

"We are starting like RIGHT NOW. Are you coming or not?" Finn's tone was frigid and as thick as permafrost...and slightly panicked.

At that point McKenna was floating in a daze at what Sam had just said and all she could say was, "Yeah...I'd rather jam with you than make out with Quinn…"

If there were sound effects that went with this scene it would be that nylon-record needle dragging thing. But in the jumble of words, there was a perfect understanding between them for the first time. The same could not be said for Finn and Puck who snapped their heads to look at eachother in question of what they had just heard.

With a goofy half grin, Sam stepped toward her but Puck grabbed him and jerked him out of the door, "Not now Sam!"

McKenna followed, biting at her bottom lip and feeling like she was levitating, Slash-hat in hand.

The applause for Vocal Adrenaline had lingered depressingly long but it gave the New Directions the extra few seconds they needed to get into place. The announcer did his best to not sound prejudice as he mispronounced McKinley High's name and then tried to rectify it by shouting 'New Directions' overly enthusiastically.

Sam had been at the back of the auditorium, behind the curtain where he'd pass through the crowd to the stage. He had glanced over at Quinn who was just visible around the curve of the hall, her everlastingly placid expression present again. She looked back at him and for a flicker of a moment she nodded and smiled.

Sam took a deep breath as the applause went quiet and stepped through the curtains into complete darkness.

He started his intro, nerves threatening to shake his fingers from the frets. Somewhere from the stage someone sang and distant echo of the chorus. Then he heard McKee's electric guitar duet come in perfectly with his and the anxiety melted and he smiled.

A spotlight flashed on him and he started to sing.

"Here's how it goes. You and me, up and down but maybe this time we'll get it right. Worth the fight, cause love is something you can't shake, when it breaks. All it takes is some trying…"

Then the stage lit and all of the New Directions came into the chorus doing their fluid choreography. Bright footlights put their shadows up on the back wall of the stage like a jumbo kaleidoscope, Rachel was right, it looked pretty cool. Sam kept walking as he played and sang with them down the long aisle towards the stairs to the stage. McKenna's guitar still played invisibly from the back ground.

At the end of the chorus Quinn came in on her part, sauntering down the aisle as she sang her verse.

"So, here we go. You should know it's hard to just forget the past, so fast. It was good. It was bad but it was real and that's all you have. In the end our love mattered." She crooned, gliding down the row and facing him. They both ended up on the stage at the end of her verse and another group accompanied chorus started. When McKenna's part came this time, another spotlight fell on her and she appeared on the far side of the stage playing her riff. This was Rachel's new version to have her visible and she just kept her head down and her eyes at her picking as the others danced and sang around her.

Quinn had walked over to him, their choreography calling for them to sing and flirt, kinda difficult as he was still playing his guitar but right at that moment he just shook his head a Quinn. He could see she caught it, she was smart like that and her stage smile fell slightly. She turned and glanced at McKenna then back at him and gave him an understanding nod.

So his unplanned movement as he walked over towards McKenna caught a few of his group members by surprise but they continued their formations belting out the last of the chorus until he finally made it over to stand by the short little Bringhurst girl. She looked up to see him coming and, at first looked a little confused but then a warm smile teased at her mouth as she kept playing.

The full background music fell off to just McKenna playing and Sam swung his guitar on it's strap so that it hung from his back and started the break of the reprise, the words were just for her.

"Here's, how it goes. You and me let's just try it." He continued to close on her, standing toe to toe.

If a girl ever had a kissy face it was Shorty right then. Maybe he was reading it all wrong cause Quinn always had a kissy face but despite the whole of the audience watching and the fact they were in a regionals competition, he let his teenage hormones get the better of him and he leaned in to, yes, her awaiting lips and…

Some competent tech-person shut off the spotlight that had been on them and the rest of the bewildered New Directions continued their parts. Mercedes and Rachel doing descants and Quinn had smoothly slid into the group dance perfectly.

But Sam was perfectly happy where he was at; at the side of the stage in the dark, having some much needed and long awaited, un-faked and sure-lipped snog time with his best friend and hopefully his girlfriend.

What he, they didn't hear was the roar of the crowd at what they probably thought, but wondered if the unseen 'kiss' was planned or not. It was not quite as good as someone setting themselves on fire for the sake of showmanship but it definitely put a little entertainment and 'oooOOOooo' to the typical performance.

The song was at it's last breath when they finally broke apart and started back in with their guitar parts, the light braved to shine on them again, reflecting off both of their goofy grins.

And so the audience applauded, stood up and it might have been the loudest of the night, but it was hard to be sure when it was you on stage.

The transition into the next song gave Sam what he assumed was borrowed time to live before he was bashed to death with his own guitar by the rest of the New Directions for his little change in choreography. McKenna had disappeared from the stage for she was not playing in this one.

A grand piano had been pushed out onto the other side of the stage and as the audience quieted again Rachel sat down. Somehow, she had gotten a hold of McKee's top had and wore it as she played the melodic intro to Krewella's 'Alive'.

Some others of the New Directions lined up around the piano as Rachel started in.

"Let's make this fleeting moment last forever...so tell me what you're waiting for." She sang with her star-busting voice. The top hat was taken from her and sat on Kurt's head as he took the next line:

"I'm gonna keep it frozen here forever. There's no regretting anymore."

The hat was passed on.

"It's worth the wait even so far away."

"I'm making the night mine until the day I die!" Sang Puck.

"No lights to break when you're hanging by fate…"

Brittany spun her body in a whirling hurricane as she sang her part, "You know what it feels like when you're dancing blind!"

They all filled in on the chorus.

"All alone, just the beat inside my soul. Take me home where my dreams are made of gold. In the zone where the beat is uncontrolled. I know what it feels like come on make me feel alive!"

The dubstep song filled in perfectly with their vocal versions of the synthesizer and still kept the rave-like energy that pushed the audience to their feet.

The second verse gave each member their own line until it got to Sam to end and he sang.

"...Finally think I found what I'm chasing after." he looked directly off stage, pointing at McKenna who hadn't stopped grinning since the last song.

At the last note the applause was already loudly thundering in the building and the New Directions, breathing deeply and bowing quickly left the stage.

There was some colorful language supplied from each member to Sam who had moved off to McKenna, passing through a gauntlet of stiff palms to the back of his head, pushes and death-threats. But at that point he had completely forgotten where he was and what was going on besides a reprise on the kissing stuff.

McKenna had no regrets. Everything from the past months seemed like a small price to pay for what had just happened to her. The hot, shaggy-haired, big-mouthed blond kid kinda liked her she figured. Would she have fainted or run away like a chicken if she hadn't had to be on stage...maybe. But this time that kiss was for her. Not for anyone else or any ulterior motives.

Now she just clung to Sam's waist, that really nice waist and thought, 'It's all mine!' and giggled like an idiot.

There was some nervous raging as they waited in their room. Someone had to hold Santana back as she shouted at Sam in spanish. Rachel just sat and cried on Brittany's shoulder.

"I don't understand, something go wrong?" Asked Puck obliviously.

Mr. Schuster was pinching the bridge of his nose, fending off a headache and shrugged, "Look guys, we can't change anything now. Let's just hold ourselves together until the judging and then we'll kill Sam."

"Can I just like, put him on a lead and promise to keep him in the yard from here on out?" McKenna tried to mediate.

She kept herself between him and Santana's razor-sharp talons.

"I'm really sorry guys...well actually I'm not sorry I did it but um...sorry you're pissed about it." Sam offered, he slipped his hand into McKenna's.

The tension had doubled from before they had performed and the call that they had been chosen to be in the top three blew them all away. As the group walked out onto the stage, McKee waited behind the side curtains, a weird separation anxiety making her bit her lip and roll on her ankles as she kept her eyes on Sam.

Dalton Academy was named as the third place winner, earning disappointed sighs and groans from the blazered boys. Vocal Adrenaline, almost double the size of New Directions all looked semi-confident but still stole some glances at their underdog competition from McKinley.

"It was close folks! There was almost a slapping fight between our lady judges but the second place north-eastern regionals conference finals goes to…"

The pause stopped the turning of the earth until some dork in the audience yelled, "The Modal Nodes!"

And the announcer hurried to speak, "Vocal Adrenaline."

The unspoken first place was theirs. Despite the weird performance, the New Directions had won and they began to jump and hug each other in a frenzie. It meant so much for all their hard work and their hoping. It meant recognition and New York. But mostly it meant they had been there for each other and had achieved something together as a team. McKenna was proud and impressed. These guys were pretty special. Now if it had been the World Cup, she would have been going nuts.

Sam ran off the stage to her and picked her up, carrying her back on to the delight of the audience and she even got some hugs from the rest of the relieved group.

They partied that night in Chicago, as much as under 18 year olds can. Especially with Torri watching like a hawk.

Dating someone in high school can be in a range of different experiences. There's the lightweights that only get as far as the flirting and if they get a smile back, that's the whole relationship right there. On the other side of the spectrum, there's the full-on, no holding back, 'hope we don't get pregnant' couples. Sam and McKee were somewhere in between. A lot of places in between.

There was a soft timer ticking in the background, the summer would come and Sam would go to New York for Nationals and McKee to Spain. There would be a few weeks before she went to college and he'd stay for his senior year. They didn't talk about it. There was nothing to say cause they both knew what a jerk fate could be. At the same time they figured if it was meant to be they'd work out.

For prom they went as the Joker and Harley Quinn (No one told them it wasn't a costume party). And it fulfilled McKenna's kinky dream of putting lipstick on Sam's vast range of mouth...then kiss it…just for the smearing effect of course.

They had a lot of jello wars and traded the world champion title for hot chocolate guzzling almost every weekend until the doping scandal disqualified one of the contestants…(I'm just being silly now)

The hickies...man there was some major hickies.

When summer came there were tears in the airport.

Sitting on the pink beach in Barcelona, the sand still held the warmth of the day even as the sunset set the Mediterranean sea on fire. She had gotten a new swimming suit and hoped it wasn't as 'middle school' as her last. The past few weeks had been so amazing traveling Spain but she always turned to look west when the sun set, telling it in her mind to say "Hi" to Sam for her and keep him warm. The New Directions had won their nationals.

Torri and Xain were somewhere around embarrassing themselves trying to speak high-school spanish to the soft serve ice cream guy who only wanted to speak catalan.

McKee hugged her legs to her and dug her toes into the sand.

"And it takes my breath away, every time, what you do so naturally…"

The acoustic guitar and voice mixed perfectly as it always did and she froze.

"You are the thunder and I am the lightning…"

Throwing herself around she saw what she thought might have finally been her insanity boiling over and a sure ticket to a sanitorium. Sam was walking towards her on the beach with that stupid, amazing, sexy guitar. Oh, and his face...can't forget that face.

"SAMMY NOSE!?" She hopped up and barreled towards him as he hurriedly dropped the guitar to receive her.

The End...what.

So really quick note: I learned a lot from this. First, (for me) never post a story unless I have it all the way finished to my satisfaction cause I will just sulk and leave it for months. Secondly, I promised myself I'd never post for reviews but I really need and want to thank those who did. Seriously, it kept me going and excited to write this rubbish so you guys are partly to blame. THanks to Kioshi you sexay thang and review jedi. But thanks to everyone who left their rants, I appreciated them! (and as always, sorry for the spelling/grammar/etc)