Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 64th cycle. Now cycle 65!

"Single Agreement"
Rachel/Puck, New Directions & Rent cast
Project No Day But Today series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

In an effort to appease the angry gods, or at least Rachel, it had been Tina and Brittany's initiative to call together the entire cast, primary or supporting, so that a solution might be reached. It hadn't been easy to convince all of them to this impromptu gathering, but then finally here they were, the twenty-five cast members of the Rent production as directed by Rachel and Puck. They hadn't brought in the non-cast crew members; this was a matter for the cast alone.

The supporting cast who'd lodged the complaints were easy to spot out, while the primary cast members would sit and look at them, wondering what was happening. They had no idea of the latest turns, but that was about to change.

"Hey, guys, so… we asked you to come here because, well… because…" Tina started, turning to Brittany for help.

"We did something bad," Brittany provided.

"It wasn't bad, not… exactly," Tina promised, "Not really, just… Well the thing is, that argument that we had in the hall the other day, it was staged."

"What?" Mercedes cut in.

"We thought it'd be funny, you know, for the vlog," Brittany explained.

"But then we found out that, because of that, some of you made some requests to Rachel and to Puck."

"Some of us?" Santana asked.

"What kind of request?" Kurt followed.

"We want to do some of the shows as primaries," Miranda volunteered to speak for them, which triggered a rise out of those who had been unaware up to now.

"Alright, hey, hey! Shut up!" Puck stood, raising his voice so they would listen. "All of you, now!" When they had finally stopped, he turned to Rachel. She had been watching this in silence, thinking, and now she stood.

"Look, the truth of it is, it's not in our budget. If we have to switch things around, it'll mean new costumes. And then there's the programs, I was going to show you, we got them, but now it would mean a new series… I'll admit, I really wasn't on board with this in the beginning, but… I don't know. And now the truth of it is that more than anything, the problem is money. We've been fortunate so far, with the school backing us up, but if I go to them with this turn, especially now when we're so close to the shows, what's it going to look like?"

"I'm sure we could find a way," Mike piped in, and the fact that no one started shouting again at this gave them hope maybe they were on the right track.

"Okay, let's put it to a vote," Rachel announced.

"Not another one," Mercedes groaned.

"Yes, another one," Rachel turned to her. "Hopefully the last one. I guess first I should turn to those of you on the primary side. If you're willing to give up some of your performances to our supporting cast, raise your hand." It had been slow to start, and some looked more reluctant than others, but in the end they had all raised their hands. "Alright, good, that's good. Now the supporting side, if it comes that we are not able to fund this performance split, and I swear to you we will do our best to make it happen, will you still stay with us?" The vote shaped up to be not unlike the first one, and it ended once again with complete agreement. "Alright," she breathed, relieved.

"We could have a fundraiser show," Lizzie spoke up first, and everyone turned to her. "Whatever extra we get, we could give it to a charity or something."

"Wow… that might actually be brilliant," Kurt replied.

"We could announce it on the vlog, then we'll reach more people," Blaine added.

"They might donate even if they can't make it," Sam followed.

It had been so much easier than they thought it would be, to get everyone on board. But then the idea had so fast, so ready to be used, that before they knew it, what had started as a meeting to try and mend bridges and get everyone back to being happy had quickly turned into a planning session for the fundraiser show. By the end of the day, they had all packed in together in front of the camera and put together an announcement for the show.

The fundraiser performance would also serve as their first performance ever in front of an audience, which was not lost on them. Rachel knew she wanted to have it recorded, so they could make adjustments before the official first curtain. The principal had agreed to give them the auditorium the moment the word charity had been floated to him, knowing he couldn't resist the good publicity for the school.

Within two weeks, between the donation account and the ticket sales, they had raised enough money for the new costumes, the new programs, and any other expenses required for this turn of events. But better than that, they'd also raised twice that amount to pass on to the two charities they had chosen. The night of the fundraiser, they would announce it to their audience, giving them thanks not only for themselves but for those others they had helped in the process.

They knew after this was done they would have little time left and a lot more work. The schedule would have to be made, to see how many performances would be done as they'd first intended, and how many would be done with the swapped out cast. This had also meant for them to figure out who would play who in these cast swap shows.

Puck could see Rachel was happy with how this had turned out. He'd seen how torn she'd been when the problems had first started, but he'd also seen her make this turn and realize how different things could be. She hadn't wanted to split the shows, he knew, but she had changed her mind, and now they were all getting ready for what would come next. It wouldn't be long now, not long at all.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!