Chapter 16

The past couple of weeks had flown by for Rachel since the NYADA mixer event. The school year had come into full swing, and her senior year schoolwork was beginning to get on top of her. Rachel wanted to try and get a lot of her current assignments done before the end of the week before she went to visit James, as she wanted to spend as much time as possible with him without the interruption of school. Just as when he came to visit her in Ohio, Rachel knew that James would have some activities planned for the two of them.

Her dads had cleared up the issue of her going to Oregon at the end of the week for James' sectionals performance. They had gone into see Principal Figgin's so that she could be excused for the Friday since she would be flying out on the Thursday night after school and staying for the weekend.

To say that Rachel was excited about seeing him was a huge understatement, over the past couple of weeks she hadn't been talking to him as much. There conversations over the phone had gone from being every night and most days during her lunch period when she knew James would be free to talk to her to every couple of nights. Just as busy as Rachel had been during the last couple of weeks, James had equally if not infinitely busier. She felt sympathetic to him, knowing how the schoolwork was for him as well as for her, but also the pressure of preparing for sectionals. As the reigning champions of the show choir world, there would be a great deal of expectation for them to repeat the success they had achieved the previous competition cycle. Their rehearsals had been going onto late at night in the build-up to sectionals, as the Scale Blazers attempted to bring their performances up to the level expected of them, which she knew was becoming frustrating for him without a coach considering his school still hadn't hired a new music teacher.

When Rachel had spoken to James at the start of the week, he sounded tired and exhausted as he explained the rehearsals his glee club had been going through. He told her that he hadn't been sleeping much and he actually felt nervous before a competition for one of the first times in his life, aside from his first nationals three years previous. Rachel had tried her best to cheer him up, talking about how her NYADA application was coming on well, and when the auditions for the musical were being held the week after, how she was certain to win the role of Maria. Listening to her talk with as much passion as she did made him sound more cheerful.

As their conversation turned to her visit, he spoke happily to her about how he had plans for them to enjoy the time together. He asked if she wanted to go to school with him on the Friday during the day before their sectionals at night, which he had made sure was alright with his principal, and if not then his mom had offered to get the day of work to keep her company. She found herself intrigued by seeing what his school, Stanley High, was actually like; after hearing about how the glee club was popular there; and by extension James was one of the more popular people there outside of the jocks. The opportunity to watch James as he was surrounded by his friends was another thing that she wasn't going to miss.

Rachel couldn't help but giggle as he told her all he wanted to do was sit in his bed and watch movies with her for the entire three days she was there. Remembering the times they had made out on her bed while he had been in Ohio brought a blush to her face, and she knew that he was thinking of that fondly as well. After telling him she couldn't wait to hold him again, Rachel bid him goodnight and finished their call heading to bed with a smile on her face.

….

That Thursday morning, Rachel woke up when her alarm went off to wake her for her morning routine. Smiling as she stretched her arms above her head, moaning slightly as her back straightened itself in that soothing way it did while being used for the first time following a good night sleep, Rachel eyes lingered on her suitcase leaning against her wardrobe, having packed it the night before in preparation for her flight to visit James. She had packed several different outfits, including a couple of her fancier, smarter dresses after he had indicated that his mom wanted to take them out to a restaurant for dinner after she had arrived in Oregon that night.

Her excitement spurred her on during her morning elliptical routine, as through breakfast with her Dads who noticed her happy attitude and they asked her if she was looking forward to being reunited with James for the next few days. Grinning widely, Rachel talked about him extensively and the warmness she always felt when she mentioned his name.

School that day seemed to drag, Rachel had caught herself looking at the clock in her classrooms for the first few periods during the morning every couple of minutes hoping that it would speed up and arrive at the time where she could be whisked off by her dads to the airport and ferried off to see her boyfriend who she missed immensely.

During lunch period as she sat listening to Kurt and Mercedes at the New Directions table, with the rest of the glee club further along mixed in their own conversations, Rachel fond herself pushing her salad around on the plate wishing that the day would just end.

"Hey" Rachel heard Finn's voice as he sat next to her.

She turned and smiled at him, placing her fork that she had been mindlessly stirring her salad with down on the plate, noting the warm expression on his face. Her friendship with Finn had been developing nicely, and it felt like during Sophomore year where they would talk frequently about their day to day lives. It was nice to have him back in her life, without the drama of their relationship affecting how well they got on.

"Hi Finn" Rachel said smiling at him, "You okay?"

"A little worn out from football" Finn answered, and she nodded. The season had gotten underway and Coach Beiste had the team on an increased training regime in order to repeat their success of the previous year. He had been telling her about his hope he could get a college scholarship by leading the titans to another championship. "Apart from that, I'm good. How about you?"

"Excited" She said happily, barely able to stop the grin from covering her face. A few weeks ago, she would have been reluctant to bring James up in front of Finn, but he seemed to be genuinely happy for her when they had talked about her boyfriend recently. "I'm going to Oregon tonight for the weekend, its going to be so great"

Finn was looking at her with an amused look on his face, his lips smirking at her. "I've mentioned that already haven't I…"

"Only about a dozen times this week" He chuckled, and touched her arm softly as she blushed smiling nervously. "You're happy, don't be embarrassed"

"I really am" She giggled at him "It's been a month since I've seen him, Finn. I can't wait to just run up and cuddle him for an eternity"

Finn laughed at her, and she sighed happily. "I'm sure you're going to have a ton of fun, Rachel. Just don't forget we need you back here for our own sectionals"

Rachel giggled at him; "I won't do, someone needs to keep his ego in check by beating them at nationals and I can't do that if I stay in Oregon"

Finn chuckled at her, shooting her his trademark grin before the two of them talked for the rest of lunch period, talking about glee club and school in general; with Blaine and Kurt putting their input as well. Kurt had been campaigning for student body president for several weeks; against Brittany of all people and the three of them had been helping to run his campaign together. At the moment he was leading, and Rachel was determined to convert that into a win knowing how much it would mean towards his application to NYADA.

The rest of the day passed by a lot quicker than the first half of the day, and Rachel found her smile growing as every hour of the day passed. As she sat in her final period, listening to Mr Ward talking about the ups and downs of British occupation in Africa during the 19th century, she and Kurt shared a knowing look and secret smiles as Rachel tapped her pencil against the notebook.

Finally, the bell rang for the end of school; and Rachel made her way quickly to Glee with her arms linked with Kurt. She was more than eager to get the day over with so she could get home and go over her things before her Dads drove her to the airport. Giggling as Kurt made a comment about her being in a rush for no reason, the two of them walked into Glee where they made their way to the back row of chairs and sat down next to Finn and Puck.

Glee club had been a different experience this year compared to the previous two years they had been together. Since Mr Schuester's new focus on improving and perfecting their routines and set lists weeks before competitions instead of the week before as had been the norm in the last couple of years; the environment in the choir room had been more serious. A number of the group had been forced to attend "Booty Camp" where Mr Schue and Mike had been helping the less gifted dancers get better with the choreography.

When Finn's name had inevitably come up, Rachel had felt sorry for him; while he was good singer he was never good at dancing. To his credit however, and much to her surprise, he had embraced it with the right attitude and was determined to try and improve to help them win nationals. Rachel had looked at him with a huge smile, her face full of immense pride at him and embraced him tightly when he told her that he understand how much winning meant to her and Kurt's hopes of attending NYADA.

In other events, Santana had rejoined after pledging her allegiance to the glee club again; even if it was in private and to be hidden from Coach Sylvester. The only part of glee that seemed not to be better was Mercedes. The girl had been increasingly confrontational in recent weeks, and according to Rachel's sources in the booty camp, namely Kurt and Blaine, had been turning up late and her behaviour had been completely negative. Rachel thought to herself that this was more than likely due to her new boyfriend, Shane, who was on the football team.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Mr Schue making an announcement. Sitting up in her seat, she smiled as Noah sighed heavily in her direction.

"Last thing for today guys, next weekend the New Directions are going to be performing at the schools fundraiser" Mr Schuster announced, his hands clasped in front of his body tightly. "Now, this is important; it'll give us a chance to prove that the arts are worth more than what's been going on that school recently with the election campaign. We'll be starting rehearsals next week and…"

"If it's so important, why don't we start already?" Santana asked, as she filed her nails.

"Well, because I haven't come up with numbers yet for it…" Mr Schue replied, leaning against the piano in the middle of the room "And because we're going to be missing one of our performers while she…"

"You mean when Berry runs off to visit her fancy man in Oregon" Mercedes remarked sarcastically, and Rachel glanced at her with a frown. What was Mercedes problem?

"Yes Rachel is away, but she's going to be watching some of our competition, the scale blazers; last year's national champions at sectionals." Mr Schuster interrupted and Rachel smiled.

Glee club went on for around another fifteen minutes, before they were dismissed; Noah telling her to say hi to his boy James for him. Rachel giggled at him, nodding and telling Noah that she would do and she was sure he had missed him as well before she headed out into the corridor, walking arms linked with Kurt as they headed towards the senior car lot. They talked about how exciting their performance would be, but also about Mercedes hostility towards her over the course of the last couple of weeks. Kurt assured her that he would speak to Mercedes about it while she was away, and report back on Monday when Rachel got back to school.

After hugging each other goodbye Kurt requesting that Rachel make sure to get a recording of the performance of James' glee clubs as he, almost as much as she was, excited to see him perform in a real competition situation. They had heard him sing, many times in fact that summer, but neither had actually seen a real performance from him. Nationals, the Scale Blazers had performed after the New Directions; and with all that had gone on it wasn't something she remembered particularly well.