CHAPTER 32

"FINN! Over here!"

Finn turned the corner at the Arrivals section of Lima airport, to see George, Harry and Liam standing there, waving wildly at him. Finn grinned and walked over to them.

"Hey guys!" He said, cheerfully. "When did you get here?"

"2 weeks ago." Liam and Harry said simultaneously.

"A month ago." George said. Finn nodded.

"Have you guys toured the city?" Finn asked.

"What is there to see? This place is a dump." He commented. Finn laughed.

"Yeah, I felt that way too when I first moved here. But you get used to it. And anyways, I guarantee that you won't get bored. There's way more drama here than Toronto."

"This coming from the guy who was robbed of 15,000 bucks and almost became a father at age 17. Yeah, we definitely trust your reliability." Harry remarked. The four boys walked out of the airport together, and into George's car. They all drove to George's house to spend the evening catching up. They talked long into the night, despite the fact that they had their first day of school the next day so needed to be up early. Finally, at almost 3 am, Liam and Harry went home, and George showed Finn to his new room. When they arrived, Finn turned to his friend.

"Dude, I don't even know what to say. Thank you so so much for this."

George shrugged.

"It's nothing, man. I know you'd do the same for me."

Across the city, Santana was having trouble sleeping. She would be seeing Finn again the next day and she was scared of another fight. Would he lash out again. Or, would he just ignore her and not speak to her. The second one was arguably worse as, even though Santana would never admit it, she wanted Finn in her life.

The next morning, Finn was roughly awakened by George flickering the lights on and off.

"FINN! FINN! FINN! GET UP! GET UP!"

Finn groaned and slowly opened his eyes. George was already fully-dressed, and was glaring at him to wake up. Finn rolled over and looked at the time on the alarm clock: it displayed 6:00. Finn grumbled once again.

"How can you be awake this early?" He complained into his pillow.

"Because it's the first day of senior year! We're seniors now!"

"You seem way more excited than I am." Finn commented as he slowly got out of bed.

"Well you've always been kind of dumb, haven't you?"

Finn hit him on the shoulder and then got ready for school. He showered and put on a tattered hoodie and jeans, before joining George and his for breakfast.

"Hey Finn, here, have some pancakes." She gave him a plate of two blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, which he accepted gratefully.

"Thanks Mrs. S." He said, biting into the delectable pancakes.

"No problem, Finn." She replied. "So, are you boys gonna try out for any sports teams?"

"I mean, I'm gonna probably play football. I was quarterback last year, and we did pretty well." Finn said. George nodded.

"Yeah, I might play football too."

George was Finn's wide receiver back in Toronto, and they had a pretty good partnership. George was a crazy-fast runner, who had great hand-eye coordination from years of ice hockey - so they were both pretty good at football. Finn grinned at his friend.

"Yeah, let's go! Gonna bring back the old insane team, are we?"

"You're damn right we are!" George replied and fistbumped Finn. Mrs. Shelly smiled at their encounter. Finn and George were so close and comfortable with each other that they were all but brothers. Finn was basically a part of their family.

Mr. Schue was nervous but excited for this year of Glee. It was his last chance to go for Nationals with the current crop of students. With the talent that they had this year, it was probably their best chance of winning. Suddenly, the door swung open and the eleven existing New Directions students walked into the auditorium. Mr. Schue smiled at them.

"Hey guys, how was the last week of the summer? You guys relax after Hawaii?"

"No! Of course not! I needed to start preparing for Sectionals!" Rachel cried, offended. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Where's Finn?" Puck asked, completely ignoring Rachel's outburst. Mr. Schue shrugged.

"I don't know. Him and his friends should be here any minute now." Mr. Schue replied, and, as if on cue, the door of the auditorium swung open once again, and Finn, George, Liam and Harry walked in. Finn smiled at the Glee club.

"Hey guys, these are my friends: George, Harry and Liam." He said, pointing to the three guys. "You might have met them at my mom's funeral, you might not have, I don't."

"Hey there boys. Welcome to the New Directions. We're really happy to have you here. And Finn, welcome back."

Finn nodded.

"Thanks Mr. Schue. So do we have to audition or can we just be in? You already heard us sing during my mom's funeral."

"Nope. You gotta sing for us!" Tina exclaimed.

"It's easy. Just sing as a group like me, San and Britt did." Quinn said. Finn nodded and the 4 boys walked on stage. Finn and the three other guys agreed on a song, and Finn quickly told the band what song to back them up for. They nodded and Finn grabbed his mic and stood in between Liam and Harry.

Liam:

When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

All:

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Harry and George:

Stuck in reverse

Finn:

When the tears comes stream and down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

All:

When you love someone, but it goes to waste

Finn:

Could it be worse?

Finn:

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try... to fix you.

Finn:

Tears stream down on your face

George, Harry and Liam:

(Tears stream)

Finn:

When you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down (tears streaming) on your face and I ...

Ooh Ooh

All:

Lights will guide you home (guide you home)

And ignite (igni-i-i-i-te) your bones

And I will try... (I will try) to fix you.

[To hear the real version, click: watch?v=ArzVwsPFMDQ]

The four guys' rendition of Fix You by Coldplay was hauntingly gorgeous. The four boys sang so well together - sure Finn was the lead vocalist, but they all played their respective parts in the group. Mr. Schue smiled to himself. He knew that during Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals, the women in the audience in particular would love these guys. They were young, attractive and undeniably good singers. He clapped with the rest of the Gle club when the boys finished singing.

"Well done, you guys. That was incredible. You absolutely killed that Coldplay song! Welcome to the New Directions!"

The guys smiled and sat down next to Puck, Mike, Sam and Artie. George, Liam and Harry were welcomed into the Glee club family immediately. That was the beauty of the Glee club - it didn't matter where you came from, all that mattered was that they all loved singing.

"OK, would anyone else like to perform?" He asked. Rachel stood up.

"Yes, I would like to perform On My Own by Le Mis." She said, and started to walk towards the stage, when Mr. Schue stopped her.

"Hold on a second, Rach. There's been a new rule implemented by the National Show Choir Committee. We are not allowed to perform any songs from musicals in Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals. So, unfortunately, you will not be able to perform any of your Broadway ballads anymore."

"What? That's bullshit!" Rachel shouted and everyone gasped. Rachel NEVER swore! Mr. Schue shrugged.

"I'm sorry, Rachel. But I don't make the rules. And anyways, think of the bright side: you'll expand your repertoire in time for college next year."

"Yeah, maybe someone else will finally get to solo!" Mercedes added. Rachel scowled at her and stormed out of the room.

"Wow. Who crapped in her cheerios?" George remarked and everyone snickered.

"Don't mind her. She has… temper problems. When something doesn't go her way, she tends to get a little… overemotional." Quinn explained to George. As soon as he had walked into the room, Quinn had immediately felt a funny feeling inside. She felt drawn to him - a feeling she hadn't felt with anyone. Not even Finn. Sure she had seen George before (she had seen him during Finn's mom's funeral), but she never really studied his looks very much. He was lightly toned - not as built as Finn, but stronger than Puck for sure. He had piercing, hazel eyes and had an adorable smile. Moreover, his singing was beautiful. Quinn didn't know much about him, but she wanted to know more.

After Glee rehearsal, Finn, George, Liam and Harry all left the auditorium together. They were walking over to the lockers to gather their books for the first class, when suddenly, George felt a cold feeling was over him. Literally. One of the football jocks - Karofsky - had just dumped his ice-cold slushie over George's head.

"Welcome to McKinley, Biatch!" He shouted, shoving George into one of the lockers. George, Harry and Liam were shocked. What the hell just happened? Finn then realised that he hadn't warned the guys about this. He felt bad, not for George, but for what was about to happen to Karofsky. Sure enough, a moment later, Liam and Harry - who were both similar in size to Finn - threw Karofsky up against one of the lockers.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Liam growled, lifting Karofsky in the air by the scruff of his shirt and judo-flipping him to the ground. They had gathered a crowd by this point. Nobody had ever stood up against Karofsky before - other than Finn. Finn remembered the consequences of what happened to him after fighting Karofsky, so he quickly dragged Liam away.

"Dude, don't! Trust me!" Finn whispered to Liam. George was still immobile in shock.

"But, he…" Liam snarled, angrily gesturing from a motionless George, to a retreating Karofsky.

"Dude, you don't want to pick that fight. I did, and it didn't end well. I'll tell you later." He said, letting go of his friend. At least Liam hadn't done any damage to Karofsky that would bring his dad into it.

The rest of the Glee club were watching the whole exchange from the safety of the other side of the corridor. They were amused.

"Ooh, looks like Finn and his boys are fighting back." Mercedes commented.

"I'm worried. What if what happened last year with Karofsky, happens again this year. We can't afford to have anyone banned if we want to take Nationals." Mr. Schue said, worried.

"I don't know. All I know is that this year is going to be interesting…" Mike said, watching as the four boys turned the corner at the end of the corridor, walking towards the guys' locker room for football trials. By the time they finally drove home, Finn was, once again, the Quarterback and captain of the football team; George was one of the new wide receivers; and Liam and Harry were both Linebackers. They drove him that day, happy.

"Hey, Finn. Why didn't you let me fight that guy? You and I both know that I could have taken him." Liam asked, as Finn parked the car in George's garage. The guys were spending the afternoon together. They planned to play a game of shinny hockey that night on a nearby street. Finn sighed.

"Dude, I know that you could have taken him. But you couldn't have taken on his dad if his son was put in the hospital. Trust me, I tried, and I failed. I had to resort to blackmail."

George clapped his hands together excitedly.

"Ooh, I smell an interesting story." He exclaimed, and they all laughed. Finn nodded.

"OK, story time! Listen up, kids! So do you remember the latina cheerleader and the tall blonde cheerleader from Glee club?"

"You mean Santana and Brittany?" George asked. Finn nodded.

"Yeah, so they both came out during junior year, and started dating. Some of the jocks weren't happy about this. They hate anyone going against the status quo, and two female cheerleaders dating definitely went against it. Then, to rub salt into the wound, the girls prioritized Glee club over Cheerleading. The jocks were really pissed at this point. They wanted to send a message. 8 of them cornered Santana and Brittany in an alley behind the school. Karofsky even had a knife."

Everyone's jaw dropped.

"Let me guess: you were a dumbass and joined the fight, rather than looking for help?" Harry guessed

Finn laughed.

"Something like that. I fought off the 8 guys, and I completely mangled Karofsky's arm. I had to! He was waving a knife at me and my friends! He lightly stabbed me too. Yeah, so I fought them off, and Karofsky had to go to hospital to fix his arm. His dad was really pissed! And one thing you need to know about Karofsky is that his family has a lot of money. And money means power."

The other guys started to piece together a story.

"I think I see where this is going." Liam remarked.

"Yeah, so because of Karofsky's family's money, he managed to corrupt Principal Figgins, and make him think that his son's injury was my fault. I was banned from both football and Glee. I was hella pissed. So I did something I'm not proud of. You can't tell ANYONE this? You understand?" Finn demanded. They nodded, curious about what was about to happen.

"I was really angry, but more importantly, I need a way back onto the football team and Glee club. Both teams needed me and neither team could win without me. So I kinda hacked Mr. Karofsky's social media and phone, revealing a LOT of adultery, some of which was with girls under 18. I blackmailed him into letting me back on both teams. I could be arrested for that."

The guys were silent. They knew Finn was a mystery, but they loved him anyways.

"Hey dude, that's so badass. And anyways, the ends justify the means, don't they."

Finn laughed and nodded.

"I guess. But still don't tell anyone!" He said.

"Your secret's safe with us." They reassured him, and Finn relaxed. He was so happy. He was with his four best friends, in his favourite high school, competing in Glee club and football with them. His life had gotten so much better, and he intended on keeping it that way. However, all good things come to an end, and he would learn that really soon…

Please Review. Next chapter should be out today or tomorrow. I love you guys. Your reviews make my day! I know it's sad, but it's true. During Corona times, there really isn't that much to do.