Hi! Sorry that it took me so long to update this! I didn't realize my last two updates were my other story, back to back. Anyway, thanks to everyone who made my third fanfic anniversary special (even though the site was down for part of it...) It's been a fun three years writing about Finchel! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter and review if you want me to keep going!
Chapter 25: Britney/ Brittany
Junior year wasn't starting off well for either Finn or Rachel.
A few weeks had gone by, and people had stopped giving Rachel a hard time about the incident with Sunshine, but Finn could tell that people were still being cold to Rachel. Additionally, he felt bad about not being on the football team. When he heard the other guys talk about it, he couldn't help but wish that he was there. As he stood at his locker, he felt a pull on his jacket. "Give me that jacket!" Karofsky shouted.
"Hey, give me that back! I earned that!" Finn snapped.
"This jacket belongs to people who are actually on the team," Azimio said. "But you know what? We're going to restyle it to represent the obvious duality in your sexuality."
Finn tried to grab the jacket as Azimio and Karofsky continued tormenting him. Luckily, Artie wheeled up.
"Sorry to interrupt," Artie said. He turned to Karofsky and Azimio. "I'm actually glad you're here to see this. Finn, I just wanted to apologize for getting you kicked off the football team. I just hope there's no hard feelings. So what are you guys talking about?"
Karofsky turned to Azimio. "Dude, take him."
"This wheelchair kid is in the way, man. What if I knock him over or something?" Azimio asked.
"There's something not right about hitting a kid in a wheelchair," Karofsky admitted.
"You know, the only thing that's saving you right now is my moral code. I don't hit crippled people. But I'll be back. We're gonna be back," Azimio said before he and Karofsky walked away.
This was going to be a long year.
x
"You all right?" Rachel asked Finn after school that day. "You seem a little down. Didn't you like the banana bread I baked you?"
"Yeah, it was awesome," Finn said. Maybe he should just make sure Rachel didn't think he wasn't cool. "It's just, how do you feel about me not being on the football team anymore?"
"I'm actually kind of happy about it," Rachel said. "Now I don't have to fantasize about what song I'd sing at your bedside if you were in a coma."
Well, his injury risks were lower now. "Yeah. I'm just so not cool now, you know."
"Well, it's just less of a chance of you running off with some cheerleader," Rachel said.
"Wait, so you want me to feel bad about myself?" Finn asked. Did Rachel really think he'd leave her?
"No, I just want to be the only thing that makes you feel good," Rachel said. "I'm just trying to be honest."
Finn felt bad that Rachel was so insecure. Before he had a chance to respond, Santana and Brittany passed them. "Hey, dwarf, anyone ever tell you that you dress like one of the bait girls on To Catch a Predator?" Santana asked.
"Also, I'm more talented than you," Brittany added.
Brittany, more talented than Rachel? Finn couldn't help but laugh at that.
Rachel didn't seem to think it was funny. "You could have defended me."
"Well, Santana has a point," Finn said. Oh crap. He shouldn't have said that. He liked Rachel's clothes. Just because they were unusual didn't mean they weren't cute, or they weren't Rachel.
x
Rachel had always known that her clothes were unusual, but she at least wanted to look the way Finn wanted her to. She thought he liked her clothes. Last year when she put on that catsuit, he'd told her that he liked the way she usually dressed. She had asked for Finn's approval before she cut a few inches off her hair and got bangs this summer... maybe she should ask him how he wanted her to dress, too.
While she was at the dentist and listening to the music, an idea came to her - Britney Spears. The dentist was playing Britney's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and Rachel was familiar with that video. Her dads had told her to never even think about dressing like that the first time she saw it. Mr. Schue had told them not to perform Britney Spears music in glee, but he hadn't said anything against dressing like Britney.
Rachel wore clothes similar to Britney's in the Baby One More Time video when she left for school, but so her dads wouldn't see, she waited until she was at the coffee shop across the street from her school to finish up the look. When she entered the school, she saw some boys looking at her. Wouldn't Finn be proud to have her on his arm?
Finn looked shocked when he saw Rachel and came running up to her with his hooded sweatshirt. "Hey, take my hoodie. You look cold."
Rachel giggled. "It's okay." Then she saw how upset Finn looked. "Wait, you mean you don't like my new look?"
"Don't you think it's a bit much?" Finn asked. "I mean, I think that guy just broke up with his girlfriend just so he could stare at you."
Rachel thought back to their talk yesterday. "I'm just doing what you told me. Besides, it's not like when I went all sad clown hooker and put on that ridiculous Grease cat suit. This is just like my regular look with the volume turned up."
Karofsky and Azimio passed them. "Ooh, baby, you can hit me as many times as you want as long as you got that on," Azimio called out.
"How come all the gay guys always get the hottest chicks?" Karofsky added.
"You see what I'm talking about? They're personifying you," Finn said.
"Objectifying," Rachel corrected.
"Whatever!" Finn said. "Just tell me why it's okay for you to feel safer with me not on the football team, but it's not okay for me to feel safer with you in your old reindeer sweater?"
Rachel thought for a minute. He had a point. "Look, I see your point. In order for this relationship to work, we can't control each other. So you have my blessing to rejoin the football team if you can."
x
Finn would have never expected Rachel to show up at school dressed like - that. He hoped maybe she would have brought a change of clothes or something, but no such luck. When it was time for glee practice, Rachel was still wearing that outfit. Unfortunalely, no one from Glee was helping Rachel realize what a mistake this was. In fact, everyone was doing the opposite. "Well, Rachel, congratulations. Normally, you dress like the fantasy of a perverted Japanese businessman with a very dark, specific fetish, but I actually dig this look," Santana said. She started clapping. "Yay."
Rachel smiled wide. "Thank you."
"I think what Santana is trying to say, Rachel, though I risk expulsion by saying so, is that it seems Britney Spears has really helped you blossom. That's all," Kurt said.
Mr. Schue looked at Rachel. "Wait. Rachel, is that true? I mean, you are sort of dressing differently."
Artie made some hand gestures. "Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy..."
Finn couldn't take this anymore. He gave Artie an annoyed look. "Hey, hey."
"Look, all I know is that I had a very vivid Britney Spears fantasy at the dentist, and since then, it's made me feel free to get out of my own way," Rachel explained. "I think I've just always been afraid to dress like a pretty girl because I've never really felt like one before. Now I realize it's okay to feel that way about yourself every now and again. And maybe it's a good thing."
What did Rachel mean? She always was a pretty girl! And this wasn't a good thing!
"It's such a good thing," Brittany said, backing up Rachel. "I can't believe it."
x
Finn needed some time to clear his head after practice, so he went to work out. After all, Rachel had suggested he rejoin the football team.
"What are you doing?" Artie asked Finn.
"I'm going to run some laps," Finn said. "Gonna get back in shape and back on the team."
"That's what I came here to talk to you about," Artie said. "I want on the team, too. Every day, Tina and Mike's Asian fusion grows stronger."
Finn didn't know what to say. He really liked Artie, but trying to get Artie on the team was why he got kicked off in the first place. "Look, I want to help you, dude, but I kind of need to take care of myself right now. I'm sorry."
"I had a vision at the dentist," Artie said. "You and I were out on the field with the team, playing football. We were unstoppable. I just know that if we can show what I can do to Coach Beiste, she'd put me on the team."
Coach Beiste passed the boys. "Show me what?"
"I wanted to ask you to reconsider putting me on the football team," Artie said.
"I'm not with him on this one," Finn said, hoping to get off her bad side.
"Well, you should be," said Coach Beiste. "I need you to help him get his uniform."
Finn couldn't believe it. What had made her change her mind. "What?"
"Well, don't just stare at me like a donkey with a wooden leg," Coach Beiste said. "Go see the equipment manager, and you boys get out on the field. Practice starts in five minutes."
Finn couldn't believe it. "Thanks, Coach. We won't let you down."
x
As Finn got ready for practice, he heard a familiar voice. "I always thought the boys' locker room would be all sexy, but actually, it smells like feet in here."
Finn looked. "Oh, Rachel, you can't be in here." Then he noticed something. "You changed back to your old clothes."
"I just want you to know that I heard everything that you said and that I respect your needs, and I'll do anything to make you feel safe and happy," Rachel said.
Finn smiled at Rachel. "Cool. Well, thanks. I gotta go."
"Wait... I mean... d-don't you want to make me feel safe and happy, too?" Rachel stammered.
"Well, yeah," Finn said. "Yeah, sure. Wait. Wait." Then he remembered their conversation earlier this week. "Do you want me to quit football?"
Rachel looked guilty. "Look, how am I supposed to trust that you're not just going to stray again? Remember your little fling with Brittany and Santana? I do... all right? Let's face it, Finn- the only way that this relationship is going to work is if we're both losers."
Did she really think he would do that to her? Finn pulled Rachel up to him and hugged her. "Okay. Come here. This is how it's gonna happen: I'm going to be quarterback again, then I'm going to throw a touchdown in our first game, and then point to you in the stands so that everybody in the school knows you're my girlfriend. All right?"
Rachel still didn't look convinced. "That's very romantic, but... I don't know."
"Rachel, you can't ask me to choose between you and football," Finn protested.
"Well, I am," Rachel said before leaving.
Would she really break up with him? He needed to somehow prove his love to her! She was not a loser, and he wished she'd stop feeling like one.
x
Rachel hadn't mentioned asking Finn to quit football today. That was something, right? Maybe she didn't really mean it. Finn stood by his locker and began to go through his books. "U.S. History... Crap, I forgot I was taking that." All the homework he'd gotten so far in that class was reading, and he'd fallen behind...
But then he saw someone standing at his locker. Someone who he didn't really want to see. Quinn. "Congrats, Finn," Quinn said. "You're back on the team, I'm head cheerleader again. Some kind of symmetry, don't you think? With all the nastiness between you and I behind us, I think we should be together. We'd be a shoo-in for Homecoming king and queen. So what do you say? You and me, 8:00, Breadstix?"
Finn knew that voice and that face. That was what she looked like and sounded like when she was scheming something. He tried to be as nice as possible. Of course he didn't want to get back with her. He loved Rachel. "Look, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for you. Probably always will. But I'm not gonna get back together with you. There's someone else, and you know who that is. I'm asking you to respect that. I'm sorry."
Finn found himself wishing Rachel had seen or heard this. He'd turned down the head cheerleader. This would have shown Rachel how much he loved her.
x
"I have a song that I've prepared for the class," Rachel said in Glee that day.
"Sorry, Rachel, no Britney," Mr. Schue said. "I'm really happy that her music has inspired so many of you, even if that inspiration was brought about by a dangerous narcotic. And I think we've all come to appreciate her music and celebrity so much more this week. But honestly, she's just not us."
"I'm devastated," Kurt complained. "I can't believe we only did one Britney number."
"I was actually gonna do something from our original assignment last week, adult contemporary," Rachel said. "But this is just a little bit more young adult."
"Oh," Mr. Schue said. "Great, Rachel. Well, let's hear it."
Rachel came to the front of the room. "I'd like to dedicate this song to my boyfriend Finn. I was wrong. I shouldn't try to control you. I've just, I've never been this happy before. And I realize that I was trying to hold onto how you were making me feel so much, that I was strangling you in my hands, like a little bird. I get now, that in order for this relationship to work, I have to open up my hands and let you fly free."
Rachel had a song prepared for him? To sing to him in front of the whole class? This more than made up for her asking him to quit football. And the best thing was, now he didn't have to choose. He just sat back and listened.
Rachel: When I was younger, I saw, my daddy cry
And curse at the wind
He broke his own heart, as I watched
As he tried to reassemble it,
And my momma swore
She would never let herself forget,
And that was the day that I promised
I'd never sing of love, if it does not exist
But, darling,
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
Maybe I'd know, somewhere
Deep in my soul that love never lasts,
And we've got to find other ways
To make it alone, keep a straight face,
And I've always lived like this,
Keeping a comfortable distance,
And up until now I had sworn to myself that
I'm content with loneliness
Because none of it was ever worth the risk
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
Oooh, oh, heeey,ooh
I've got a tight grip on reality
But I can't let go of what's in front of me here
I know you're leaving In the morning, when you wake up
Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream
Ooh oh ooh oh
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception
You are the only exception,
You are the only exception,
And I'm on my way to believing
Oh, and I'm on my way to believing
At the end of the song, Finn went up to Rachel and gave her a big hug. "I love you," Rachel whispered.
"I love you too," Finn whispered back.
The two of them sat together for the rest of glee practice, and as they left, Rachel looked up at Finn. "Finn, I'm so sorry. At times I can be so insecure. I'm afraid of losing you."
"The only way you'd lose me would be if you stopped being so amazing, and that's never going to happen," Finn said. Maybe now would be a good time to tell Rachel about what happened earlier. "You know, earlier Quinn asked me out, and I told her no, because I don't want to be with anybody but you."
"Really?" Rachel asked. She looked thrilled.
"Yes, really," Finn said. "I'm sorry if I made you feel bad for being down on myself for being off the football team. As upset as I was, I'd feel a lot worse if I lost you."
"Well, you won't lose me, either," Rachel said. "I don't want you to quit football, you're so good at it, and you love it."
"Maybe you could come to my game tomorrow?" Finn asked.
"I'd love to," Rachel said.
x
Rachel had never been to a football game before, but she wanted to do it for Finn tonight. She felt bad that she'd asked him to quit earlier, so this was the least she could do to make it up to him. She'd convinced her dads to come to the game with her so she wouldn't be alone. Neither of her dads were football fans, so they were just as confused as she was.
"What number did you say Finn was?" Hiram asked.
"He's #5," Rachel said. She looked down at the field and spotted Finn. "See, there he is."
She sat back and watched the game. Finn still hadn't been promoted to quarterback yet, but Rachel had faith that he'd get his position back.
The McKinley team got control of the ball, and Finn scored a touchdown. The crowd was on its feet, and Rachel cheered as loud as she could. Finn made eye contact with her in the stands, and then he pointed to her.
"What was that for?" LeRoy asked Rachel.
"It's just a little something," Rachel said with a smile. She knew Finn would keep his promise. And right now and always, she felt so proud that he was her boyfriend.
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