Sorry, I didn't update sooner. I have been really hard at work on a play 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' with my drama group. :) We performed it a couple of days ago and it was awesome!

But anyway...


"Hi Jesse, take a seat," Mr Schuester said coldly – gesturing to where Tina and Mike were sitting, arm in arm – when I walked into the McKinley High choir room.

"No, I'm fine back here," I smirked at Mr Schue, resting against the piano, "By the way, Tina, what happened with you and Artie?"

She blushed and leant into Mike's chest, "That is none of your business"

Wow, that was the phrase of the day.

Slowly, more Glee club members entered the room and took a seat, jabbering about who-knows-what when one voice yelled out over the top.

"What is he doing here?"

No, that was the phrase of the day.

Everyone glanced up and looked at the door where Rachel was standing, wide-eyed, with her arm around Finn.

"Hi Rachel, have the baby chickens attacked you yet?" I asked – instantly regretting it after seeing the frightened look on her face.

Finn's eyes narrowed and before I knew it he was on top of me, desperately trying to get a punch in.

"Don't. Talk. To. Her. Like. That," He yelled, in between swings.

"Finn! Finn, stop!" Mr Schue yelled.

"Listen to him, Hudson," I spat, rolling over to dodge a punch, "Or I might actually start fighting back."

"Finn!" Rachel, cried, hysterically, "Just stop, he's not worth it!"

I bit on my lip to stop myself from breaking down… He's not worth it… That just made me want to punch Finn even more!

Sick of being on the defensive I curled my hand into a fist – preparing for a punch – when Finn looked up at Rachel's terrified face and backed away from me. He edged over to where Rachel was standing and whispered something into her hair then kissing the tears off her cheeks. Rachel nodded and kissed him gently, before leading him over to a seat.

"Well," Mr Schue said, anxiously, "As you have all probably figured out, Jesse St. James is here."

"We gathered that Mr Schue," Mercedes called out, "And we wanna know why."

"He's probably here to spy again. And then sabotage us!" Puck yelled, slamming his fist into his thigh, aggressively, "What were you thinking Mr Schue?"

"I don't think he's here to spy…" Quinn said quietly, giving me a small smile, "He said he was here for work experience."

"He said. He also said that he moved here last time because he loved Rachel and cared more about her than winning another National Title!" Puck argued, "I can't believe you're standing up for him!"

I couldn't believe that he could remember what I'd said last year, word-for-word.

"Guys!" Mr Schue said, trying to calm them down, "As much of a nuisance as this is, Figgins has accepted him and there's nothing we can do about it. Now can we get on with our practise?"

No one answered but Mr Schue ignored that and began to read out some posts from Jacob Ben Israel's blog.

"Glee is a giant ball of suck…"

"Yes we get it, Mr Schue, everybody still hates us. So what? So we're plankton on the high school food chain. The only difference now is, none of us really care," Kurt said.

"Yeah. We're a family," Mercedes agreed, "They can bring it all they want, none of it's gonna break us."

A family? What a laughable concept…

"Well, I'm really happy that you guys have all bonded, but the problem is that all this negative stuff is stopping other kids from auditioning."

"Good, why do we need new members?" Tina shrugged.

"Well since Matt transferred we only have eleven members."

That was my cue to look around the room and notice that the shy footballer – whom I hadn't gotten to know very well – was indeed missing from the group.

"And if we want to go to Nationals… If we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline," he glanced at me when he said that, "Then we have to go from a small rebel force to a giant wall of sound!"

Rachel stood up from her seat and walked over to stand besides Mr Schue, blocking my view, "Yeah, Mr Schuester's right, you guys. You didn't see Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals they were epic," she said, throwing a pissed-off glance at me whilst smoothing out her plaid skirt, "We're gonna need more voices in order to beat them."

Finn looked around the room, letting his gaze linger on me for a moment before standing up and wrapping his arm around Rachel, "Yeah, I'm with Rachel on this one."

"Gross," Brittany murmured.

I agree, Brittany.

"You're gonna have to trust me on this guys," Mr Schue said, with his arms folded.

I rolled my eyes.

"Now, here's the plan. Nationals are in New York this year… and we are going!"

Everyone exchanged excited looks and Mercedes fanned Kurt with her hand.

"Now let's go out there and show the school how cool it's gonna be. How cool we can be. If they're not gonna come to us let's go to them! They say we only sing Show tunes and 80s Pop, let's show them how down we are! Let's give them the song of the year... New Directions style," Mr Schuester smiled, posing like a rapper.

Finn grinned at him and mimicked his pose while the rest of the Glee club cheered and suggested songs and artists.

"What about Bad Romance? I think we did a good job of that last year," Quinn suggested.

Puck shook his head, "Now way am I singing Gaga!"

"Britney Spears!" Kurt piped in.

"Magic by B.o.B?"

"Misery by Maroon 5?"

I stepped out from behind Rachel and looked the Glee kids over, "What about Empire State of Mind?"

Everyone looked in my direction – they must've, somehow, forgotten I was there – but this time they were smiling.

"Yeah Jesse!" Quinn smiled, "That's an awesome idea!"

"Empire State of Mind it is then," Mr Schue said, "Now let's rehearse."

Well, singing Empire State of Mind didn't increase New Direction's popularity one bit. And although I'd never admit it to them, I was kind of sad for them. I think it actually decreased their popularity.

And they were all so pissed off that they decided to take their anger out on me.

"It's all his fault!" Santana snapped, "Him and his stupid song selection!"

Mr Schue hadn't entered the choir room yet so I was stuck with eleven annoyed glee-clubbers.

"We all agreed on that song," Quinn argued, "It wasn't his fault."

Hmm… Make that ten annoyed glee-clubbers.

I smiled gratefully at Quinn but she turned away from me. I guess there were eleven annoyed glee-clubbers after all.

"I don't care what you say Quinn," Mercedes interjected, "The only reason he came back was to sabotage us."

I scowled, "By the looks of things you don't need me to sabotage you. You're doing such a great job of it all by yourselves!"

Finn's mouth fell open, "Fine then. You show us how it's done, then."

I smiled, "I might need a lady's assistance."

I looked around the room for Rachel but she was nowhere in sight. I frowned. Where could that girl be?

"Quinn?" I asked, "Would you mind?"

"She wouldn't want to sing with you!" Puck said, "Would you Quinn?"

"Actually, Puckerman, I would," Quinn snapped, walking to my side, "What song?"

I pondered this, "Cruisin' by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow?"

Quinn whispered something to the band members and then all of a sudden the music started to play.

Baby let's cruise, away from here
Don't be confused, the way is clear
And if you want it you got it forever
This is not a one night stand, baby, yeah so

Quinn's voice was amazing. Not as amazing as mine or Rachel's but amazing all the same. She smiled at me as we sang.

Let the music take your mind, ooh
Just release and you will find
You're gonna fly away
Glad you're goin' my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is played for love,
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together…

And just as I was getting into the song, Rachel Berry stormed in.

"Hey everyone, I'm sure you're all wondering where I was and…"

That was when she realised she'd interrupted a song. A song between Quinn and myself. I'm not sure if I imagined it, but I thought I saw jealousy in her eyes…

"Jesse?" Rachel asked.

"He was showing us how to really sing," Mercedes smiled, glancing at Quinn, "But I'm not sure if that's the only reason why he wanted to sing for us."

"Whatever," Rachel shook her head, "I just had a sing-off in the girl's bathroom with that exchange student, Sunshine Corazon."

"And?" Santana urged.

"She has an amazing voice..."


Thanks for the reviews, everyone!

I don't know when I'll update next... But don't give up on me yet! :)

Song: Crusin' by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow... I'd never heard of this song until I wrote this chapter. :) I typed in '10 Most Popular Love Songs' into Google and this song came up. :)

Google is my friend.