Authors note:

When I watched S02E09 Special Education, I wasn't exactly happy with them replacing Kurt with Lauren Zizes. So I started writing my own. I decided to change it to a romance story as I noticed that quiet a few of the couples in this episode were having trouble so I hope you enjoy.

Special Thanks to Kurtrina Hummel for Beta Reading for me.

Puck huddled into the corner of the upturned porta-potty. He had been stuck inside it since yesterday morning. His recruitment drive for the glee club with the football team in the locker room hadn't gone quiet as he had expected. And now he regretted opening his mouth. He had been screaming for help for most of the night but after a while he'd just given up. He didn't wear a watch and his phone was in his locker so he didn't know what time it was and he couldn't call for help. There was a rustle of sound from outside as he heard someone pulling the bar out from the handle of the door. There was a burst of light as the door was pulled open. Suddenly a face appeared blocking out the light. All Puck could see for a second was a silhouette in the mid-day sun. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a guy staring back at him.

"You alright dude?" said the guy. Puck stared at him for a few moments more.

"Are you an angel?" asked Puck. The guy laughed and outstretched his hand.

"Kinda doubt it dude," Puck grabbed his hand and the guy pulled him out of the porta-potty. As soon as his feet were on flat ground Puck heaved a sigh of relief.

"Might want to think about a shower dude," He laughed. Puck looked up but didn't recognise the guy. He was tall with brown hair and brown eyes. He was built like a footballer but Puck had never seen him at practice.

"Who are you?" Puck asked as he straightened out his own clothes.

"James," He answered. "What were you doing in there?"

"Football team locked me in there,"

"Ouch dude," He looked off into the distance before checking his watch. "Damn I'm late, I'd better get going to class, cya" He turned and began to walk away. Puck watched him for a second before he disappeared. Thinking for a minute, he decided to ditch school today and go get a shower and some much needed sleep.

Rachel walked down the corridor towards glee club. She was still pretty upset about Finn and Santana but she didn't really know how to deal with it. She still wore the necklace with Finns name on it round her neck. She still really loved Finn but she was angry with him too for lying to her. Rachel fingers fumbled with the gold chain as she walked, not really paying attention to where she was walking. Suddenly she slammed against something big and hard and she fell backwards to the floor a little dazed.

"Hey you ok?" asked a voice from beside her. She shook her head to get her vision to focus. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at its owner. He had medium length brown hair and brown eyes. He was well-built like a footballer.

"What happened?" She asked him dizzily.

"Well you kind of walked straight into a wall," He let out a little laugh. "What's your name?"

"Rachel," She smiled at him.

"Wow, anyone told you how beautiful your smile is Rachel," his voice had a strong English accent. This was light and soft and made her smile even wider. "I'm James, think you can walk?" He outstretched his hand to her and she immediately took it. He pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks James" She said. He let go of her and she swayed a little on her feet and James instantly grabbed her shoulder so she didn't fall.

"I think I'd better take you to the nurse," He said as he wrapped an arm around her waist to support her weight, walking her to the nurse's office.

"How come I've never seen you around school before?" She asked as they walked.

"I started school here just a couple of days ago. I had to move to the US to live with my Aunt,"

"Where did you used to live?"

"Just outside of Sheffield in England," He seemed to lose his smile when he mentioned his home. However it was only for a moment before he began smiling again. "What about you?" Rachel answered almost immediately.

"Oh I've always lived here. I live with my two dads who adopted me," She expected James to ask about it but he never did. They turned the corner and saw the nurse's office. James, still holding onto Rachel, opened the door and led her in. The nurse looked up from her desk at the two teenagers.

"Hi, she walked into a wall and she's a little shaken," James said.

"I feel a lot better now though," Rachel said. The nurse still insisted on her lying down for a while just to be sure. James didn't leave either. He sat down on the chair next to the bed. After a few minutes of silence he spoke.

"So you want to tell me what's on your mind?" He asked with that great smile of his.

"Nothing's bothering me," She answered as the nurse handed her a wet towel to place on her forehead. She heard him laugh slightly.

"Well you walked full whack into a wall," James said. "I'd say something was bothering you," Rachel waiting a few moments before she sighed.

"I found out my boyfriend has been lying to me,"

"And you're punishing yourself by walking into walls?" James said with a laugh. Rachel laughed too. There was a moments silence between them until the nurse's phone rang. She answered it and Rachel looked over at James.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Rachel asked. It was James' turn to sigh.

"No, I was back home but it was nothing serious and then I had to move here so," He answered. The room went silent again for a few minutes. Rachel began to think about Finn and Santana and the motel room. Before she knew it a small tear ran down her cheek. She wiped her eye and sat up on the bed.

"I'm ok now," She said. The nurse gave her a quick look over to make sure she didn't have any bumps or anything but she was fine. They both left together and walked down the corridor back towards the different classrooms. "Thanks for helping me, that was very sweet of you,"

"Anything for a damsel in distress," He said with a smile. "Oh and I hope you and your guy sort things out, I'm sure he just didn't want to hurt your feelings,"

"Thanks," Rachel said with a big smile. James looked down at his watch.

"Well looks like I've missed most of my literature class," He said.

"Sorry about that," Rachel said softly.

"No its fine, I hate literature anyway," He laughed. "Besides this way I'll be early for Chemistry and I love chemistry," His smile got wider and Rachel laughed. "What do you have?"

"Well I'm supposed to be in Spanish right now and this afternoon I have Biology and then Glee Club,"

"Cool, well I'll see you around Rach," James gave her a quick wink and began to walk off towards the science classrooms. "Oh and keep an eye out for walls," Rachel watched him till he vanished round the corner.

"What a sweet guy" She thought. She grabbed the stuff she needed from her locker and headed off to what remained of her Spanish class.

The next day, Puck closed his locker and began to walk towards Glee club. He still hadn't found a new recruit for the club. They needed twelve members to go to sectionals and since Kurt left to be a Warbler, they had been left with just eleven. Mr. Schue had asked him to become glee clubs am-badass-ador and find someone but he didn't know who to ask. He certainly didn't want to risk ending up stuck in the porta-potty again.

The hallways were pretty empty as it was the end of the day and most students had already gone home. As Puck walked along the corridor he saw James putting books into his locker.

James was wearing a black leather jacket with a plain blue t-shirt underneath and a pair of simple black trousers. Around his neck was a simple silver chain with two rings on it which hung down onto his chest.

"Hey man," Puck said as he walked up to James who looked up and smiled.

"Hey dude, you look a lot better," He said as he picked out a cream coloured messenger bag from his locker and closed it.

"I never got a chance to thank you for yesterday dude," Punk said.

"No problem man, happy to help,"

"No man I mean it," Puck said as he looked around the corridor to see who else was around. "You saved my life; I've got your back," James looked at Puck with puzzled look on his face.

"Erm, Ok," James said after a few seconds. "What was your name again?"

"Noah Puckerman, but people round here call me Puck," Puck outstretched his hand and James shook it.

"James Phoenix," They shook hands for just a moment. "So what were you doing in that porta-potty yesterday?" Puck sighed at the question.

"I was trying to recruit a new member for the Glee Club after football practice and the other guys on the football team decided to make an example of me,"

"Hold on a second," James said with a puzzled look on his face. "You're on the football team and the in the Glee Club?"

"Yeah quite a few football players are in the Glee Club," Puck answered. "Also some of the Cheerios,"

"So why were you trying to recruit a new member?"

"We need 12 members to compete at Sectionals and one of our guys recently transferred because some guy was wailing on him and threatened to kill him," James suddenly had a very strange look on his face.

"Because he was in the Glee Club?"

"No it was because he was gay,"

"Oh well that sucks, when are sectionals?"

"In a week," Puck sighed. James simply nodded.

"Well good luck dude, hope you find someone," James said as he turned towards the school exit. Puck watched for a moment as James began to walk away. Then suddenly an idea popped in his head.

"Dude?" Puck shouted after James. "Can you dance?" James stopped and turned. He seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Yeah sure, as much as the next guy can I guess," James answered back. Puck walked up to him while he spoke.

"Why don't you join the Glee Club?" Puck asked him.

"Whoa dude that's a lot of responsibility," James answered. "I mean you guys have a competition in a week, you don't know if I'm even any good. I don't want to let anyone down,"

"Dude trust me no pressure," Puck answered. "We can't compete without a twelve person and we're still sorting out our set list so we don't even know the moves yet," It was silent for a moment. James blew out a few breaths as he thought about it.

"All right man," He answered. "Where is it?"

"I'm on my way there now," Puck said as he pointed over his shoulder. "It's in the choir room,"

"Alright let me put my stuff in my car and I'll meet you there," James quickly turned and walked out of the school doors. Puck smiled and walked towards Glee Club.

Puck was the last one to arrive in the club. There was a loud voice which wasn't someone singing. Their teacher, Will Schuester seemed to be upset about something.

"There's an awful lot of me talk going around," He said. "What's in it for me? What solo am I gonna sing," He took in a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Now when we go to Sectionals, were gonna be good sports. We'll cheer on the Hipsters, We'll cheer on Kurt and the Worblers and if they win, we will congratulate them because that's who we are," Puck rounded the corner into the room. Artie spotted him first.

"Dude, where have you been?" He asked. Puck just shrugged his shoulders at him. Puck then turned to Mr. Schuester.

"Mr. Schue?" Puck said.

"Yes Puck?"

"I found us a twelfth member," Everyone seemed to smile at that point. "He's just putting some gear in his car and then he'll be right in,"

"Nice work Puck," Will outstretched his hand and Puck shook it. "We owe you one," After that Will pointed for Puck to go and sit with the others. "Well you guys take a break while we wait for our new member," Mr. Schue then turned towards the piano and began looking over some song sheets.

"So Puck, who's this new guy?" Santana asked.

"Some new guy in school called James with an English accent," Puck answered. Rachel's face lit up.

"Oh I met him yesterday, he was really sweet,"

"I was trying to recruit a new member for sectionals so I asked the football team and they decided to make an example of me. So they locked me in one of the porta-potties and tipped it over. I was locked in that porta-potty for 24 hours," The other members of the Glee club looked at each other. "James saved me so I thought I'd ask him if he wanted to join,"

Faint sounds of footsteps began to echo down the hallway outside the room. Everyone looked up at the door as the footsteps became louder. A few seconds later and James nervously walked into the room to be greeted by everyone staring at him.

"Hey," He said after a few moments of awkward silence. Mr. Schuester walked up to him.

"You must be James," Will held out his hand and James shook it with a smile. "I'm Will Schuester,"

"It's nice to meet you sir, I'm James Phoenix,"

"Well were glad to have you here James," William turned to his students. "Ok guys; give a round of applause to welcome our newest member. James Phoenix," The other students all clapped, some with very little enthusiasm.

"Sir?" James asked. "Don't I have to audition or something?" A smile simply spread across Will's face.

"Not normally as we believe that anyone should be able to join Glee club, but with a vital competition so close I wouldn't mind seeing what you can do so we know what to work on if that's ok?" Will asked. James looked at the floor for a minute before he answered.

"That's ok with me Mr. Schuester,"

"Ahh, I might have just the thing as well," Mr Schue walked towards his office and a few minutes later came out with two midsized wrapped boxes. "I came up with this idea over the last few weeks and I think it may be useful here. We have a week until Sectionals and I've noticed how tense some people are so this might make the next week a little more fun for you guys," He placed the boxes on the piano next to each other. "This is called the random challenge," He pointed to the boxes.

"The first one is 'What?' this refers to what type of song; sometimes this will be ballad or pop or maybe even a specific song…" He moved to the next box. "And this one refers to 'Who?'. This is who you will perform with such as with a partner or on your own. I will add more boxes in the future but for now it's just these two. So one person will pick from these boxes and that will be the assignment for the week. The idea is to give you something else to concentrate on besides sectionals. Not that we won't be working on our set list this week but I want you guys to relax and I think this will be a good way for us to welcome James into our group and to see what he's capable of," Will turned to James who was still stood next to him.

"Alright James when you're ready," Will moved the picked up and offered the first box to him which was the 'What?' box. The glee members gently hit their hands against their thighs to create a drum roll. James sighed and nervously reached in to the box. He moved his hand round and pulled out a small piece of folded paper. The drum roll stopped and James unfolded the paper.

"Country," James said aloud. Immediately there was some whispering from the other glee club members.

"Ok so the song you must perform must be a country song," Mr Schue said as he held out the next box to him which was the 'Who?' box. Another drum roll emanated from the other kids as James reached into the box. He pulled out another piece of folded paper. He opened up the paper and the drum roll stopped.

"Quinn," James said once again aloud. Mr. Schue smiled.

"Alright so James will be singing the song with Quinn. So I'll give you till Monday to sort out your performance and the rest of us will be your audience," Will gestured for James to go and join the rest of other students on the chairs. James smiled and sat in the one spare seat next to Sam and Quinn on the second row. "Right so let's get started on the routines for Sectionals, now they've changed the rules again this year and we now have to perform between 8 and 10 minutes, It cannot be anymore or any less so this means were going to need any extra song,"

"Ok guys, great work today," Will said as Glee practice came to an end. "We'll work on our second song tomorrow," Everyone began to clear out of the room. "Hey James can I have a quick word with you?" James looked up as he grabbed his jacket.

"Sure, Mr. Schue," James had picked up the nickname as the other glee members had used it. Tina and Mike walked passed him towards the door.

"Great work James. You were great," Tina said.

"Yeah looks like I've finally got some competition dance wise," Mike said. James laughed.

"Thanks guys," James said. Will waited until they were alone before he spoke.

"I want to thank you for joining," He said. James simply smiled.

"No problem Mr. Schue, I really enjoyed it,"

"You seemed to fit in with the routines very quickly; I was very impressed at how quickly you picked things up,"

"I've been like that all my life," James answered with a laugh. "My Dad always said I had a knack for just picking something up instantly,"

"Sounds like a very wise man," Mr. Schue said. James sighed before he answered.

"He was," James looked at the floor. Will knew instantly that he had said something wrong.

"Are you ok?" He asked. James looked up and gave a half smile.

"Yeah I'm fine. Am I ok to go Mr. Schue?" James asked.

"Of course, cya tomorrow," James gave him a smile before he walked out the door. Will watched him leave.

"What a nice kid," thought Will as he walked into his office to finish off his paperwork for the classes tomorrow.

Please Review. I have more of this already written so I'll post more tomorrow.