Hey there!! This is my first story in...well a REALLY long time, and my first Glee fan fiction. I wrote this just after the pilot had come out, for a prompt challenge on LiveJournal. I figured it's about time I used my account also and spread the love :) Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Glee. Which sucks. But oh well :)
"Me gusta la biblioteca, mi gato es muy blanco..." The strains of the "One Semester of Spanish Love Song" played through Finn's head as he walked to Glee Club. Mr. Schuster had decided it would be an fun way to end the semester before the winter holiday, but unfortunately the song had decided to stay in Finn's brain, which was fun at first, but had started to become annoying.
"Finn!" A familiar voice rang through the empty auditorium. "I'm so glad you're here early! We can rehearse for the talent show now!" Rachel said as she peeked out from behind the curtain. "What do you think of my outfit?"
She came out wearing a modified Santa dress with red, green, and white stripes and gold tinsel to replace the traditional fur on the ends, all with red tights and gold shoes. Finn thought she looked like a candy cane, but he figured those probably weren't the exact words he should use. "You look...delicious?" he told her with a winning smile and a thumbs up.
"You hate it, don't you?"
"No! I just think it's a bit over the top."
"Performing is all about standing out, Finn. Anonymity is worse than being known for looking ostentatious."
"Alright." Finn knew there was no convincing Rachel that there was any other possible outfit they could wear. "I just want to know what I'm going to be wearing."
"Oh, of course!" She ran off stage to grab his outfit just as Mr. Schuster walked into the auditorium.
"You're here a bit early, aren't you Finn?" Will asked his now star Spanish student and stunning male lead.
"Yeah, Rachel wanted to practice our stuff for the talent show on Saturday."
Rachel walked back onto the stage with Finn's outfit, which to his surprise, was only a vest made of the same materials her dress was. "Just wear a red sweater and black pants with it and we'll look really smart."
Finn breathed a sigh of relief as he placed the vest in his backpack.
"She likes you, kid." Mr. Schuster patted Finn on the back.
The quarterback gave his teacher a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"You think she would have given something that tame to Kurt?" Will said as he hopped on stage to join the rest of the choir as they strolled in. "Hey guys, why don't you all take seats in the house? Since we've already had our final performance before regionals, I have decided to give you all a bit of a well deserved break. I know many of you have numbers you'd like to rehearse before the town's talent show this weekend, so I'm giving you the time to do that or anything else you need to do. If you guys have any questions, I'll be around, but if there's nothing you guys need from me, I'll let you get to work."
Finn and Rachel took to the stage to practice their number, "Sleigh Ride". Rachel began counting off, but got distracted when she heard a resounding "Yoo-hoo!" from the back of the house.
"Emma! What a nice surprise!" Mr. Schuster greeted Miss Pillsbury. "What brings you to Glee Club today?"
"Just to...see if you all wanted an audience," she said hesitantly, although she had purposely cleared her schedule in order to be able to see Will every Friday since he had taken over Glee Club. "It's just so nice to listen to you guys every week. You've all come so far this semester."
Rachel looked back and forth between the two teachers, noticing the look in Miss Pillsbury's eyes, conveying the same longing her eyes did when she spoke to Finn. "Finn, do you think there's possibly...a secret romance in our midst?" she whispered.
"Who had a bro-mance with a fish?"
"No one, Finn." She pulled him off stage. "Do you think that Miss Pillsbury and Mr. Schuster are an item?"
"That's crazy. What are you talking about?"
"Look at Miss Pillsbury's expression. Have you ever noticed how she looks at him?"
Finn peered from behind the curtain. The two teachers were deep in conversation, smiling and laughing, but Finn saw that Miss Pillsbury's laughter couldn't disguise the sadness in her eyes.
"I can't believe I never saw that before! You may be right, but I think Miss Pillsbury may have a thing for Mr. S, and he doesn't know it."
"How can he not know it? She's been acting like this for ages." Rachel said, flustered and annoyed.
"Men are pretty oblivious to when girls like them. We just kind of assume you're being nice until you say something about it."
"Oh..." The color disappeared from Rachel's face, but quickly came back as she realized Finn wasn't talking about her. "Well, I still think it's pretty obvious that she's madly in love with him. And you've heard the way he talks about his wife. We must fix this."
"I don't think we should meddle, Rach." Finn warned. He knew Rachel had a tendency to get a bit carried away with things like this. "Wrecking a marriage? And isn't his wife pregnant or something? That's none of our business."
"Fine. Let's rehearse." The two took center stage once more and rehearsed the rest of the hour.
Rachel sat at her desk perusing BroadwaySpace to figure out what song she should post on her MySpace profile. "I've already done all of Le Mis...done all of Wicked...What's this?" She had stumbled upon a song from Aida called "Written in the Stars". It even had Adam Pascal, who was her second favorite male lead (after Jonathan Groff of course). She decided to give it a listen and was instantly marvelled.
Is it written in the stars
Are we paying for some crime
Is that all that we are good for
Just a stretch of mortal time
Or some God's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day
Rachel's heart sank as the words went through her ears. She thought of Finn, and how hard she had fell for him, how hard she had worked for him these past few months, and yet it was never enough. Quinn would always outshine this gold star. Then she thought of Miss Pillsbury's situation with Mr. Schuster, and realized how similar the two really were. She knew she had to do something, if not for Miss Pillsbury, then for herself, but what? Rachel looked around, and then she saw her video camera and knew immediately what to do.
"Hello, Miss Hudson...is Finn there?"
As Finn biked to Rachel's house, he thought of Quinn, but not in the way he usually did. Ever since joining Glee Club, Quinn had been very unsupportive and jealous, especially of Rachel.
"All you ever do anymore is spend time with that trannie diva, Rachel and her band of no talent hacks," Quinn would say. "When are you going to make more time for more important things, like me?"
Quinn was right. Finn did spend more time with Rachel now, but it was because singing with her made him feel happier than ever. There was nothing like it in the world, the satisfaction of knowing he could create something bigger than himself, and the fact that he could do it with someone so immensely talented was even more special. He had also gotten to know Rachel pretty well over the past few months and had grown fond of being around her. Finn was shocked when Rachel invited him to sing on one of her videos since he knew that was a very personal thing for her. He rang the doorbell, all the while thinking about how wonderful it felt to know how highly Rachel thought of him to share this experience.
"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" said Rachel. "After all, it is your internet debut."
"I think I'll manage," replied a calm, collected Finn.
Rachel turned on her camera and counted off. "1...2...1, 2, 3, 4."
The two sang the duet, and both could feel there was something more in the lyrics than just words.
Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide
No escape, no change of heart, nor anyplace to hide
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned
After the video was completed, the two went downstairs and bid each other farewell.
"Thank you for helping me tonight, Finn."
"No problem. I really enjoyed it. You know, it almost felt...."
"Yes?" Rachel hung on his every word.
"Forget it, I forgot what I was going to say," sighed Finn, when in fact the word was on the very tip of his tongue. Magical.
"Oh...well, good night. And have a good holiday if I don't see you."
"You too." Finn got on his bike and as he rode home, instead of thinking of Quinn, Finn thought of Rachel and nothing else.