CHAPTER 28

"And the winner is… Vocal Adrenaline!"

After a dreadful showing by New Directions, Vocal Adrenaline were crowned National champions for the record 7th year in a row. The New Directions were severely lacking in the male vocals section once again and Rachel wasn't performing at 100% either - Jessie's plan of hurting Rachel right before the big performance had worked perfectly. He raised the trophy for Vocal Adrenaline and then smirked at Rachel. She was close to tears after this dickish gesture. Mercedes put a comforting arm around her friend but deep down, she was just as sad as Rachel. They had failed. They made it so far, only to lose. What made it even worse was that if they had either Finn or Jessie, they could easily have taken Nationals.

Finn was a big question mark over their lives. He had only been part of the Glee club for 6 months, and then he had vanished off the face of the earth. No matter how many times they tried to contact him, he never answered. It was like he was a ghost. They didn't even know if he was still alive. After all, if he was homeless, there was a small chance that something had happened and he had died or been arrested. Santana in particular wasn't too great. During her friendship with Finn, Santana's personality had started to change quite a bit. Both Finn and Brittany were able to break through the bitchy personality she portrayed on the outside, and her kind interior was exposed. However, when Finn left, the wall had been built right back up, and she was sarcastic, cynical and overall, not too nice of a person. She was lucky that Brittany loved her so much and didn't break up with her for that reason.

"Hey George! Get in here for a moment! I need to talk to you about something!" Mrs. Shelley called from the living room. George slowly put down his guitar and walked downstairs, confused. It was almost 11 pm. Usually, at this point, his mom would have just come home from work and was kicking back in front of the TV.

"Hey mom, what's up?" He asked. His mom had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Um… George… I found out where the company is transferring Liam and his family, Harry and his family, as well as you and I."

George took a deep breath. This was it. The place where he would be spending senior year.

"OK, where is it? Is it in Canada? The U.S? Somewhere completely different?" He asked, nervously.

"It's in the U.S. You know the place actually. It's Lima, Ohio. You know, where Finn and Carole used to live."

George smiled widely, and his mom noticed.

"What? You seem very happy." She commented. George nodded.

"Yeah, I am. Don't get me wrong: I love it here. But I feel like that if we're living in Lima, I might actually be able to get Finn to come back."

Mrs. Shelley nodded. She knew how close the two guys were. She then realised something: she hadn't actually asked her son if he found out where Finn was. She knew that George didn't have any luck during his trip to Lima, but she also knew that there was no way that George had stopped his search there.

"Did you end up finding where Finn was?" She asked. George nodded.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact, he's actually in Hawaii. He got a job as a singer for one of the big resorts there. He gets a free hotel suite, free food, drinks, and resort amenities. But I know he's not happy. I could hear it in his tone. He clearly misses being a child, and going to high school. So I was wondering, if I can convince him to come back to Lima, could he live with us? It's not like he has anywhere else to go."

Mrs. Shelley nodded.

"Of course. He can stay as long as he wants. He's like family."

George smiled and hugged his mom. He had a new determined look on his face. He now had a plan to try and get Finn back.

3 months Later

Everyone's summers weren't going too great. It was the summer before senior year, so people were starting to think about college applications. Rachel and Kurt obviously wanted to be in New York to help boost their chances of making it on Broadway; Mercedes wanted to be in L.A; Brittany wanted to be at any university that would possibly accept her. The others weren't too sure: they didn't yet know what they wanted to do after high school.

Two weeks before Senior year began, Rachel was sitting in her bedroom, looking thoroughly through college pamphlets from Julliard and NYADA. She had read pretty much every comparison of the two elite music colleges, and still wasn't any closer to deciding on which one to go to when she got in. Of course she would get in. There was no other option. One aspect of Rachel's summer that made it decent was that she started dating someone. His name was Brody Westen, and he went to the same singing school as her. He was a Carmel High student and was a member of Vocal Adrenaline in his freshman year, but quit when he saw how bad people they truly were. Rachel was obviously apprehensive about going into another relationship after what happened between her and Jessie, but Brody seemed like a genuinely nice guy. And he had even survived a dinner with her and her dads and hadn't run screaming for the hills. He also wanted to be on Broadway, so they could possibly stay together during college. Suddenly, simultaneously, the whole New Directions received a text message.

Everyone! Emergency Glee meeting! Meet at the Choir Room! I have great news!

From:

Mr. Schuester

The whole Glee club was confused. The only person depressing enough to call a Glee meeting in the middle of the summer was Rachel. Mr. Schuester never called Glee meetings during the summer, so whatever he needed to say must have been important. The Glee club all made their way to McKinley for the first time since summer started. The school was a ghost town as there was still two weeks of summer left. The only people who roamed the halls were janitors and cleaners. And even them were few and far between. They all made it to the choir room at around the same time, and Mr. Schue sat them all down, a huge smile on his face.

"Hey guys, how have your summers been?" He asked. "Have you guys been relaxing?"

"Cut the crap, Mr. Schue. Why are we here?" Santana asked, annoyed. Mr. Schue sighed, but his good mood didn't waver.

"Um… ok. So, we, the New Directions, have our first gig in a different state!"

Everyone cheered and clapped their hands excitedly. Rachel and Kurt jumped up and hugged each other. Mercedes started chattering into Tina's ear.

"Where are we going?" Mercedes asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"We are going to… wait for it… Hawaii! The owner of a big resort there saw us perform in Nationals, and he wants us to perform in his resort for 3 days. It's an all expenses paid trip: everything from the flight, resort room costs, food and drink is all paid for by the resort, so let's make it worth their money!"

Everyone high-fived and hugged each other. They were over the moon. After a very rough couple of months, a trip to Hawaii was exactly what they needed. Rachel turned to Mr. Schue.

"What's the name of the resort?" She asked, curiously. She was going to research the crap out of the resort later that night, so she needed the name.

"Um… let me see." Mr. Schue said, pulling out his phone. He scrolled for a couple seconds before answering.

"It is… Dreams, Riviera, Honolulu."