Time for the 10th chapter! And I know, the Troubletones are supposed to sing a song too, but this is just the first part of the competition. There's a second part where they have to sing again, and the Troubletones will sing there, I promise!
Enjoy!
Rachel and Finn took their places in the group, and the music for their second song began.
Well it's a sad picture
The final blow hits you
Somebody else gets what you wanted
It can't end
You know it's all the same
Another time and place
Repeating history and
You're getting sick of it
But I believe in whatever you do
And I'll do anything to see it through
Because these things will change
Can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up
to hold us back will fall down
It's a revolution
The time will come for us to finally win
And we'll sing hallelujah
We'll sing hallelujah
So we've been outnumbered
Raided and now cornered
It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair
We're getting stronger now
Find things they've never found
They might be bigger
But we're faster and never scared
You can walk away
Say we don't need this
But there's something in your eyes
Says we can beat this
Because these things will change
Can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up
to hold us back will fall down
It's a revolution
The time will come for us to finally win
And we'll sing hallelujah
We'll sing hallelujah
Hallelujah
Tonight we'll stand
And get off our knees
Fight for what we've worked for all these years
And the battle was long
It's the fight of our lives
But we'll stand up
Champions tonight
It was the night things changed
Can you feel it now
The walls that they put to throw us back
Fell down
It's a revolution
Throw your hands up
Cuz we never gave in
And we sang hallelujah
We sang hallelujah
Hallelujah
Oh, oh yeah
As New Directions stood there, reveling in the applause and the awesome performance they had just given, Finn glanced over and saw someone stealing onto the stage. He caught the glint of metal as that person streaked across the stage, leaping towards Rachel. Finn lunged for Rachel just as she screamed and then literally all of New Directions were leaping onto the someone, who turned out to be Sebastian. They subdued him as the members of the BAU ran onto the stage.
Rachel had stumbled backwards and was shaking, one hand over her mouth and on arm wrapped around her stomach. Mr. Schue ran out on stage and touched her arm gently. "Are you okay?" He asked in concern, and she shook her head.
"He'll never give up. Not 'til I'm dead."
Mr. Schue took the trembling girl in his arms and escorted her off the stage, supporting nearly all of her weight because she could barely walk. Eventually the rest of New Directions followed, and Mr. Schue relinquished Rachel to Finn. He held her tightly as Kurt came jogging up with a can of Sprite.
"Here!" Kurt said, shoving the can into Rachel's shaky hands. She sipped at it gratefully and everyone was relieved to see some color return to her bone-white face.
"The carbonation can help settle her stomach," Kurt explained to Finn, and Rachel kept drinking it as they walked back to their room.
After a few minutes, they all went to watch the rest of the groups perform. Pretty soon the list was posted, the list that held the names of the groups that would be moving onto the last round of competition.
Together they all walked to the board, and they all wanted Mr. Schue to go and look again. He came back with a strange look on his face.
"What?" Rachel begged, and he looked at her.
"We didn't make Top 10, guys…" Everyone's faces fell, but then Mr. Schue grinned broadly and said, "We made the Top 5!"
"Oh my God!" Kurt squealed, hugging Blaine tightly and kissing him before moving onto Mercedes and Rachel, all of them jumping up and down and squealing and crying in happiness. The entire Glee group was currently doing what would be defined as freaking out, including Mr. Schue.
"Party time!" Puck yelled, and Mr. Schue held up his hands.
"All right, guys, we'll go out for some pizza and ice cream, but after that we need to hit the rehearsing and song writing hard, we've only got one day to figure our routine out for the final round of competition,"
"Did Vocal Adrenaline make it?" Rachel asked, and Mr. Schue nodded.
"They were two spots ahead of us."
"Which means we're going to blow you out of the water," A familiar voice said from behind them, and Rachel spun around to see Jesse St. James standing there.
"Jesse," Rachel said quietly, and Jesse looked her over.
"It's good to see you, Rachel, especially on stage. You were a talented actress up there, I'm almost surprised,"
"I wasn't acting, Jesse," Rachel replied as Finn came up to her and took her hand.
"Ah, yes, I hear you're still dating the oaf over here," Jesse said with a nod, looking Finn over.
"If you don't mind, Jesse, my fiancée and I are going with our friends to rehearse," Finn said in a hard voice and Jesse's eyes widened.
"You don't mean to tell me that…you two are engaged?"
"Yes. We're getting married this summer." Rachel said, smiling up at Finn.
"Wow. Really lowered your standards since me, huh Rachel?" Jesse said, and Finn's hands balled into fists. Rachel shook her head and said,
"Stop trying to antagonize Finn, Jesse,"
"But it's so much fun, and so easy," Jesse grinned, and Rachel pulled Finn away, saying,
"Let it go, Finn, he's just trying to get to you, to us,"
"Was that kid with a knife just an act, Rachel, or did you really break his heart that bad?" Jesse called, and Rachel dropped Finn's hand, walking back over to Jesse.
"That kid is a psychopath who very nearly killed me months back. And you saw yet another attack on my life. You think this is a game, Jesse? Well, in this game, one misstep and I'm dead. But maybe you'd like that,"
"Do you actually think I'd like that?" Jesse breathed, and Rachel shrugged.
"I'm not sure. All I am sure about is that tomorrow, New Directions is going to wipe the floor with Vocal Adrenaline. And then Finn and I are going to get married. Where does that leave you, Jesse? I don't frankly care."
Rachel turned on her heel and walked away, towards Finn and the rest of New Directions who had been watching the whole exchange with Jesse like hawks. "Oh, quit staring, I'll fill you all in when we get to the pizza place," Rachel said, rolling her eyes as she took Finn's hand.
They all walked out of the building, and Rachel didn't once look back at Jesse.
While New Directions was chomping down on some pizza, Rachel told them the story of Jesse, and then finished with her conversation with him. "Wow, he's still an ass," Santana commented, and Mr. Schue looked at her.
"Language, Santana,"
"Would you prefer I say it in Spanish?" She countered, and he considered that.
"Maybe."
They all started laughing and Rachel sipped at her water as she ate her vegan pizza slice. "Yes he is, and I'm done with him. For the rest of my life."
"She's finally seen the light," Kurt muttered, and everyone else agreed. They started talking about when Jesse had egged her, and then how she had gone to the Junior Prom with him, and Rachel glanced around at her team. Her friends. Her family.
She grabbed a pen from her purse and glanced around for a clean napkin. Kurt saw her frantic eyes and knew she was in songwriting mode. He shoved his napkin towards her and she started scribbling words down. Finn noticed what she was doing and he looked over, trying to read the words that she had written. Kurt caught his eyes and shook his head. "Never interrupt songwriting by trying to read it before it's finished," Kurt told him, and Finn nodded.
By the time New Directions was done eating, Rachel was putting the finishing touches on the song. "Rachel?" Mr. Schue asked as everyone was putting their coats on and Rachel was still sitting down, writing on that napkin.
"Done!" She exclaimed, sliding out of the booth with her napkin clutched tightly in her hands. Everyone gave her funny looks and she smiled, saying, "I just got into songwriting mode, you guys inspired me,"
"How did we do that?" Puck asked, and Rachel ducked her head, saying,
"You guys are my family, and I don't know what I would do without you,"
"Group hug!" Brittany yelled, and everyone started hugging everyone.
"How about you perform this song for us when we get back to the hotel?" Mr. Schue asked Rachel as they walked back to the hotel.
"Sure, but I'm not the one who'll be singing it tomorrow,"
"Who will?"
"The Troubletones," She said firmly, and Mr. Schue gave her a one-armed hug as they walked down the sidewalk. Kurt sidled up to Rachel and showed her a piece of paper with a song he had written on it.
"Will you rehearse this with me?" He asked in a whisper, and as she read the words, tears came to her eyes.
"Of course. It's beautiful. Are you going to sing it tomorrow with Blaine or…?"
"You silly girl," He said, shaking his head as they reached the hotel. "I want to sing it tomorrow with you! It can be a dress rehearsal for our NYADA auditions,"
"But I thought we were going to do Wicked or some other Broadway musical song," Rachel said in confusion, and Kurt shrugged.
"I thought maybe we could do an original song and blow their socks off, you know?"
"Sounds perfect. I love you, Kurt," She said, hugging him tightly.
"Love you too, Rachel,"
They reached their rooms and everyone piled into the girls room to see Rachel sing her song. She looked around at everyone and said, "This is the song I wrote, but I want the Troubletones to sing it, because they are just as good as New Directions,"
When she finished singing, everyone was clapping and Mr. Schue asked for a vote. "Who wants to do that song tomorrow?"
It was unanimous that that would be the Troubletones' song that would be performed, and as the girls set to work dividing up the parts and working on the choreography, Kurt pulled Rachel aside and they practiced their duet.
That second song was "Change" by Taylor Swift, just so you know, and I completely forgot that Troubletones got to sing one song at every competition, so pretend that you can only sing two songs in the first part of the competition, and then there's a second part where you can sing three songs. That's how I thought it went last year, when they posted the list of the top 20 or whatever, and then those groups had to sing again. Anyways, sorry for the confusion! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you're liking this story!