The ending was marvelous, how she struggles through all of her days to fall back into a remembered, now imagined happiness, I love that.
My favorite words in all this are "unbearably oblivious happiness". They just fit so wonderfully wrong togther, it feels perfectly right.
What I maybe love most though about this story is how you keep the focus on Rachel entirely and how you find a way to capture her so completely by allowing us to experience all her senses' response to all this with her. Wonderful work.
Thank you.
xo M

I like this. I can't put my fingers on why, exactly. Maybe the simplicity of it? They all just seem so in character, and you've managed to sneak some humour in there, and it... well it's not quite Lord of the Flies, but it does remind me of a similar story. I think it was a smaller group of kids and there was a hatchet... anyway. It's really cool how you can just bring those images all to mind straight away.

I think I like how accepting they are, and how cool it all is. It's literally New Directions stuck on a beach. No reactions, just how they function. ... And this image of Mercedes and Finn doing their rain dances to The Beatles. :D

Oh wow.

I can't believe that I've been reading your drabbles for how long now? And you can still blow me away.

This is amazing. It's so... heavy and tragic and just gorgeous to read - sort of stodgy, I guess - but then, when you're expecting all this bitterness to just swell... it sort of doesn't, it's alleviated. I mean, the Finn and him going and all that is tragic, but when you pair that with your quote it's... almost hopeful. Or maybe that's just my naive little mind wanting to believe that somewhere out there, those that have gone are looking down on us.

It's just perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Wow, this was really powerful. Your amazing descriptions made it seem like a dream and I adore how this was approached. By the way, is this the new prompt because I didn't get an email saying I'd been mentioned in any tweet about it...although I can't tweet myself, I can still receive notifications when I am mentioned

Annnnnd, now I'm crying.

God, this is terrible. And by terrible, I hope you know I mean gut-wrenchingly painful, but a perfect picture of what I imagine Rachel's grief is like. Forgoing the shower, which breaks her down, and favoring Santana's perfume. The saltines and that darn thermos of tea that mimics human touch and what are you DOING to me?! Sad day. How she walls off her grief to just get through classes and her day. The donning of her uniform which feels wrong and right, and passing the flower cart and coming into work crying, but not even knowing it? :( And finally her going home and taking care of herself and letting herself grieve. The shower. The shirt. The pressure of every blanket in the loft. And her falling asleep, finally, and being able to connect with Finn...it's no wonder waking up is so hard on her... :(

Ooooooh, I really like the way that you did it! This was an interesting way of handling the prompt and I liked how crazy the NDs seemed to be. Great job!

Who cares if I have reviewed already, I LOVE LOVE LOOVE reading this.
And I loved reading it again, and seeing new things all over:)
You know what I too had loved already the first time around? How we have no idea how old Rachel and Kurt are in that very first scene here. It gives it a really comedic moment in the beginning, and then, after reading all of the story, we as readers, going back to the beginning, are able to see the first lines in a whole new light.
It's brilliant writing, the structure you create.
This, and the story about Sam's family living at 'Cedes's place are real high up on my favorite stories of yours list. And then there is of course that very first story you wrote about Blaine who tries to enjoy the little life he has left.
Yes, Love, I have been head over heels for your writing from the very start:)
I so love the part here where Kurt and Rachel argue about who could be Peter and then Kurt's mom steps in, being Peter Pan in that way, a child at heart, but fiercly protective of the other children in his/her care and that no harm comes to them, from others, or each other.
Of course the "The show must go on moment" here with the Berrys stepping in made me think of Cory, of Finn this time. It had not, first reading this. But now ...
Just as great a read as I remembered it. Thank you for bringing me back here tonight.
xo M

This is such a trip reading:) In all the best ways.
In the beginning it felt a bit disjointed, but that's just the style, diary like, I think? It took some getting into. For me at least, since I don't read a lot of online blogs, twitter or anything of the kind. I think it was really just that.
There are all these sad little moments piling up as I read along, like I am walking around with them on the beach, slowly soaking up the atmosphere, and I absolutely loved that. Although the moment bout Sam not looking up to see the others reactions anymore made me real sad for some reason. Probably because he always seems happiest being able to make others smile too.
The part about "Damn Schuester" and themes made me smile real wide.
Very gracefully done. Was it in the end a big struggle to write?
xo M

I love that the rain dance worked! And I have missed your writing so much! Thank you for the wonderful image of Quinn on this island too. Love that all of them have a job to do and no one is slacking. And the songs were amazing!

This is so intense, I was in tears towards the end. Yep, I could not even finish it without starting to cry.
Sorry it took me so very long to read and review. With so much work these days it is sometimes hard to find the right time to read, because I really want to be able to fully take your words in when I read them.
I am so so glad I prompted this. Otherwise I might probably never have gotten to read this wonderful piece. I absolutely love what you did with it. And especially that you wrote Carole. I dearly hope she will be at the center of the next episode because she so should be, and I am afraid they will forget about her and make it all about Rachel and the glee club.
My absolutely favorite part in this is when you have Carole mention how Burt tries his very best ... but it can all just never be like it was ever again. So heartbreaking, and beautiful in its thoughtfullness.
I really absolutely love this.
THANK YOU! xoM

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Okay. There's... I really can't say much. You know how much I love what you write. But this is... It's incredibly rare for a piece of writing to move me to tears - much less something short like this - but you've managed it. It's completely heartbreaking and you've taken some of those images that, well, we're all going to go through at some point in time, and it's been made completely your own. You've got the usual ND family in it, and that's sweet too, but it's just... I don't have words, I really don't.

Amazing.

Wow...this was really sweet and poignant. I love you did this, a fitting way to write the prompt and I like the blog and text message style this blog is in.

This was so sweet and amazing. Love the feeling that all the kids are on the periphery and Carole's blog (and by extension, Carole) is at the center of the story. I love her memories of little Finn, and him asking if Santa lived at the Christmas tree lot. So cute. Oh, and his green coffee mug that Coach Beiste dropped off? Precious and sad. No wonder Carole was struggling through Christmas. I love the thought of Marley being the one to have kept up with Carole's blog, and her bringing Jake's attention to it. I love that he takes that and reaches out to the Glee club to somehow help Carole through the time of year. My favorite though is the comment on her blog from the entire Glee club. So beautiful and precious and appropriate. That Rachel comments, too, is fitting, and ending it with Puckasaurus is just perfect. Because he can't be there, but he doesn't forget, either. Love this. I've really missed your writing.

The ending especially was really surprising to me, that Blaine wants Trent to stay, when all he wanted before was quiet and apparently to be alone. But wanting quiet, NEEDING quiet does not mean you want to be alone, and I really so appreciate you pointing that out with this story, that those two are not one and the same. Because I feel that people too often think these are the same thing.
I started crying when Trent was there for Blaine. He is trapped in that current and then it is broken by Trent, that was powerful, Blaine reaching out by asking for help.
Great work!