DISCLAIMER: I am still not Ryan Murphy, although I do have Urkel locked in my basement building a body swapping machine CUE: evil laughter
FINCHEL
Some people would think that boycotting your school would mean sleeping in. These people have never been to a boycott hosted by Rachel Berry and her fathers. Not surprisingly the Berry home had been turned into a base camp for the boycott, the den had been turned into a make shift classroom where the glee club had their mandatory study hours while upstairs the parents worked upstairs, Carole and Burt had immediately volunteered their time when Kurt admitted to them some of the less savoury aspects of his school life. No one had been surprised when Mr. Schuester and Miss Pillsbury showed up on the second day with poster boards and magic markers, the jazz band had also shown up that day under the guidance of Artie, more students who had also faced the humiliation of the slushie facial showed up over the days, Lauren, Suzy, the other girls who were obsessed with twilight.
The thing popular people forget, they're the minority, the cheerios and the jocks could have the school but who would they pick on when all the so called geeks, freaks and Lima losers were nowhere to be found? At the rate the school was emptying thanks to the negative press the boycott was garnering they would soon find out.
"What do you think of this?" Finn held up his poster for Rachel to inspect.
"Don't Stop Believing in Equality for all!" She read aloud with a smile. "Perfect."
"It was Matt's idea." Finn nodded to his teammate who was busy sketching out slogans on the boards before handing them down the assembly line to Mercedes and Quinn who were painting them. Kurt was near them painting the slogans on shirts for them to wear, Artie and Tina were on the computers making websites, facebook groups and doing pretty much anything so that people would know.
"Great news honey!" Leroy announced coming into the den with Mr. Schuester behind him. "Rod Rimmington has invited us onto his show to discuss our protest!"
"Doesn't he anchor the show that Miss Sylvester is on?" Mike asked.
"That's how Sue see's it." Santana piped in with the hand gesture. "She's probably going to challenge you to a dual on air."
"I think I can handle it." Leroy assured the group. "I've faced scarier people than Sue Sylvester."
"Hey Berry you never told me your dad wrestled alligators." Puck joked nudging Rachel who frowned.
"I was talking about my parents, I'd like to see any of you fellows come out to your parents and tell them you're marrying a Jewish man." Leroy chuckled. "My father was a minister!"
"Sue Sylvester is a pit bull daddy, to beat her you'll have to fight dirty." Rachel informed him. "Mr. Schuester I think in preparation we should have a mock interview and debate, Santana can be Sue."
Santana was going to protest but she was the most like the cheerleading coach after all.
"Let's go Mr. Schuester unless you need some time fixing that hair of yours in a way that doesn't make you resemble K.D Lang."
Everyone gaped at her and she shrugged with a smirk making Sue's trademark 'c'.
"Just getting into the character."
"Okay that was scary." Tina shuddered looking over to Mr. Schuester who was patting his hair self-consciously.
"I'll start writing out practice questions and topics, Miss Pillsbury can mediate, be ready to go on by four." She skipped out of the room and headed for her room, she'd need quiet for this.
"I'll help her." Finn offered before he too disappeared. Kurt let out an over exaggerated sigh.
"And I'll watch them, but if I see anything that could be construed as cute or fluffy I am not to be held responsible for my actions."
Mercedes used to her best friends theatrics didn't even look up from the poster she was painting, Tina however was staring after him, that flounce out was so Rachel Berry it was scary.
"Come on Leroy, let's get started I have a feeling Rachel wont let any of us leave until you're prepared to the point of ridiculousness." Mr. Schuester said clapping Rachel's father on the shoulder.
"And she thinks you don't understand her." Leroy mumbled following the teacher and leaving the glee club alone.
FINCHEL
Finn tried to conceal the yawn, he should have known after brainstorming questions with Rachel that she wouldn't let the mock debate end until she was completely satisfied. Leroy looked remarkably awake but then again he'd had sixteen years of Rachel and was probably accustomed to this, Santana and everyone else on the other hand were not. Miss. Pillsbury had taken pity on the group and called for a break, he was amazed there weren't Kurt and Puck shaped holes in the doors.
"You're doing great Daddy, I just think we need to tweak your answer about what we hope to achieve and it'll be perfect." She complimented fixing the tie and blazer she had chosen for his outfit, Kurt had insisted on running camera tests on them first and recruited Artie to help.
"Thanks sweetie." Leroy kissed her forehead and yawned. "I think we should send everybody home, we can continue this tomorrow after a good nights sleep."
Rachel frowned, Leroy was far less susceptible to the power of her pout, glancing around she begrudgingly noted just how tired everyone looked and gave her acquiesce.
"Okay, I'll let everyone know." She skipped off to tell everyone and the room emptied within minutes.
"Rachel relax your dad is going to blow Sue out of the water." Finn promised throwing his arm around his girlfriend. "And those assholes will get expelled and you'll never have to deal with them again."
"And we can throw a slushie at them?" She asked grouchily hugging him tightly.
"A gallon gulp slushie."
"I'm holding you to that Finn Hudson." In spite of herself she yawned and allowed Finn to swing her up into his arms and carry her up the stairs to her bed. "I wish you could stay with me."
"Me too." He whispered dropping a kiss on her cheek, of course before he did that he would have to own up to that whole Santana thing. He knew that was going to come back to bite him on the ass. He could try to appeal to Santana's human side but it was rarely seen and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to blackmail her into silence, and even if he did the guilt would still eat away at him. So there was pretty much only one thing left to do, tell Rachel. Of course he'd need to figure out the perfect time to, she couldn't be happy because he didn't want to ruin her good mood. She couldn't be sad because then she would just be even sadder. He could try for when she was angry but he had a feeling that would turn out very badly for him. Maybe he'd just know when he had to tell her, it would just slip from his lips without thought.
"Rachel all tucked in?" Leroy asked as Finn wandered back down the stairs no longer bothering to hide his yawn.
"Yeah, she was practically asleep before her head hit the pillow." Finn chuckled. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, hopefully she'll actually sleep all the way through tonight."
"I thought I was hearing things." Leroy muttered. "Rachel's been calling you in the middle of the night?"
"I don't mind." He shrugged. "I like listening to Rachel talk even if I do have to look up every other word she says."
"Is she having nightmares?" He asked concerned, Finn shook his head.
"Nah, just more ideas for the protest, she's really excited about those guys finally getting what they deserve." He shared with a yawn. "Sorry I should really get home, I'm exhausted."
"I don't feel comfortable letting you drive like this." Leroy decided. "You can sleep in the guest room, it's all made up. I'll call your mother and let her know."
Much too tired to bother arguing he just nodded and dragged himself back up the stairs and pushed his way into the guest room. The bed looked so damn inviting and it was just as soft as it looked, he was snoring before his mother had even answered the phone.
FINCHEL
Kurt was pacing in front of the TV not calming down despite the club's persistent yelling at him to do so. Leroy and Sue's debate had finished a little over an hour ago and they were all awaiting his return with Mr. Schuester, Rachel had received a text that they were just a few minutes away.
The tell tale clinking of keys alerted everyone that they were finally home and the group had pounced before Leroy and Mr Schuester were barely through the door.
"That was amazing!"
"Please teach me how you did that!"
"You're officially my hero!"
"You rock man!"
All of the voices overlapped each other and after an hour of arguing with Sue Sylvester, Leroy had the worst kind of migraine.
"I'm so proud of you Daddy!" Rachel declared kissing him on the cheek and hugging him. Finn came from the kitchen carrying a plate of Rachel's special sugar cookies for celebration. Of course since he had helped make them she had renamed them Finchel's special sugar cookies.
"Thanks kids but I'm exhausted, you can stay down here if you like but I'm heading up to bed." Leroy yawned. "Don't forget sweetie we're picking your dad up from the airport tomorrow morning."
"I know Daddy." Rachel replied hugging him good night, Leroy waved good night and pulled himself upstairs leaving Mr Schuester at the mercy of the kids.
"What do you think is going to happen now?" Mercedes asked, the voter opinion poll had agreed with Leroy's argument with an astounding eighty percent saying that Figgin's stance was wrong.
"He made Sue Sylvester concede that Rachel's tormentors should have been apprehended by now and that more should be done to combat the bullying problem in the school that Figgin turns a blind eye to." Kurt stated even though they had all watched the debate together.
"The statistics Artie pulled on dumpster tosses and slushies attacks broken down by year and subsequent victim repetition was amazing, who would have thought the hockey team ignoramuses penchant for bragging about their daily geek bashing would be useful." Rachel praised. "And the information Quinn and Santana provided on the Cheerios finances legitimized our argument that the schools funding is not being evenly handled."
"Yeah Sue looked like she was completely biased especially when he called her out on using dry cleaners in France." Matt laughed. "And that the Cheerios uniforms are made by blind Tibetan monks and cost over a thousand dollars each?"
"Aren't you guys worried about what Sue will do to you guys? She has to know who blabbed." Mike asked throwing an arm around both Brittany and Santana.
"And risk losing two more Cheerios?" Santana scoffed. "Please she couldn't handle more try outs, the only people co-ordinated enough to join the cheerios are already on the cheerios. She wouldn't risk another trophy so close to competition."
"I'd still check under my bed and in the closet before going to sleep." Tina added with a shudder. "She might let it go for a while but once that competitions over she'll be out for your blood."
"So, she tries anything and we've got their backs right?" Matt asked looking around at the club who all nodded. "She can't do anything with twelve people watching her every move."
"She's Sue Sylvester." Brittany replied in one of her rare focused moments.
"I wouldn't worry about Sue." Mr Schuester interrupted seizing his opportunity to speak. "I think she respects what you kids are doing, she just doesn't want anyone to realize she has a heart."
Rachel opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the phone ringing. Finn couldn't help but stare after her when she bolted not wanting the ringing to wake up her father.
"Seriously guys I am so proud of what you have done for each other, how you stuck together." Mr Schuester praised obviously gearing up for one of his rousing speeches, it felt weird that they weren't in the choir room or auditorium that was generally the setting for such moments.
"DADDY!"
Rachel's screech cut off Mr Schuester and Finn went running after his girlfriend the rest of the group at his heels. Leroy looking bleary eyed managed to stumble down the stairs and grab Rachel by the shoulders.
"Honey what's wrong?"
She tried to speak but no sound came out of her mouth, she held out the phone still clutched in her trembling hand and immediately sought refuge in Finn's arms which he gave albeit bewilderedly.
"Rach what's wrong?"
Leroy was speaking in hushed tones the only thing everyone could really catch was the nodding and mm hmms he mumbled which didn't really help. Rachel looked up at Finn and took a deep breath.
"That was the school board, they want to meet with us tomorrow."
Kurt let out a squeal that rivalled any of the girls and jumped up and down with Mercedes, maybe if the glee club was granted equal funding with all other extra curricular activities they would have costume that weren't made of polyester and poly cotton blend. He had to use extra sensitive skin care just to counteract the effects the deplorable materials had on his body.
"Are they backing down?" Mike asked, the rest of the teens all looking over eagerly.
"Not exactly." Leroy answered putting the phone down. "Looks like you kids might be heading back to school soon."
No one exactly cheered at the thought but it was a victory nonetheless.
"Yay." Kurt said unenthused. "So are we all going?"
"They specified that they wanted the whole Glee Club there and me and Mr. Schuester. I think Miss Pillsbury will come along also." Leroy explained rubbing his head. "You kids should probably head home and get some sleep, looks like tomorrow is going to be a big day."
"Daddy we can't go to sleep now there are too many things to organize. We have to alert the media outlets that a decision may be reached tomorrow, organize rides oh and someone has to pick up Dad from the airport!" She ticked off, she really needed her notebook organiser right now.
"I can e mail the media people." Kurt offered already wheeling over to his laptop.
"And the rides are easy." Quinn said. "You, Finn and Kurt can ride over with your dad, Tina, Artie, Mercedes and I will go with Artie's dad and Puck can take Matt, Mike, Santana and Brittany."
"I'm sure Emma wont mind picking up Hiram from the airport, he'd probably like to come to the meeting I presume?" Mr. Schuester asked.
"Oh yes definitely." Rachel replied. "Dad has been dying to get back so he can yell at Principal Figgins himself."
"Well I'll call Emma later and let you know if there is a problem, what time does he get in?"
"His plane is supposed to arrive at eight am but factoring in disembarking and baggage collection it will be closer to eight thirty." Rachel calculated quickly.
"Perfect, the meeting isn't until nine, they'll only be a little late."
"Well I really must bid you all adieu this time."
"So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen good night!" Kurt and Mercedes sang back giggling loudly to themselves.
"I'm with the big Berry let's get out of here before they start singing a few of their favourite things." Puck shuddered. "I really don't want to know Hummel's favourite things."
The kids emptied out fairly quickly with only Kurt lingering while Finn and Rachel said their goodbyes.
"You're seeing each other tomorrow he's not going to the moon!" He shouted after waiting for five minutes. He still needed to finish his skin care regime and plan the perfect school board outfit, sometimes Finn could just be so inconsiderate.
3 FINCHEL 3
Hope you enjoyed it, as to my lack of updates, I only just returned from rural Victoria after staying with family after my grandfather passed away. Hopefully this fic will be finished within the week 1 chapter left!