Chapter 47

"How are Sam and James getting along?" Kurt asked as they sat on his bed watching The Wizard of Oz together.

Sam had been in Ohio for a few days now, staying at James' house, and the two boys seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. The two of them seemed to have become practically best friends in the short amount of time since she, along with Finn, had gone to Kentucky to bring Sam home.

Rachel finished eating her slice of vegetable pizza, reaching for a glass to wash it down before she replied. "They're good I think, they seem to like each other"

"It does seem that way" Kurt nodded, "They were talking about what I presume was football earlier today"

"I'm glad" Rachel replied, rubbing her arm subconsciously "As much as I love James being here and I know he loves it as well; he really misses his friends and while I know Noah and James get on; they aren't close. Maybe Sam and James can be like best friends or something"

Kurt smiled at her before speaking; "I missed the two of us just hanging out watching movies and eating pizza"

"Me too" Rachel said with a wide smile, "It'd be better if Mercedes was here as well"

"Yeah…" Kurt agreed, "I was actually speaking to her the other day and maybe she might be in the near future"

"She has remembered that we're friends and she doesn't hate me?" Rachel said with a roll of her eyes.

"I think she's realising that you are her friend and that she made a mistake with this" Kurt murmured, giving her a smile. "All I'm saying is that maybe we can all be together again but anyway, what is Sam and James doing tonight? I know they kidnapped my boyfriend as well"

"They're watching some super manly, action film" Rachel added, making quote marks in the air with her fingers before giggling along with Kurt. "Apparently it's much to manly for a girl like me to truly appreciate, or at least that's what James said"

"I hope you restricted his privileges" Kurt said laughing.

"No, I can't go without kissing him; it would be punishing myself as well as him" Rachel felt a blush cross her cheeks as she spokes, continuing to try and get passed it "But I did punch him and call him a jerk"

"As long as you didn't let him get away with it" Kurt said with a smile. "What do you think of the girls week that Finn has got planned for Glee Club?"

"It's horrible whats happening to Santana" Rachel said softly, "But I think it's a nice idea, she's obviously struggling with it so whatever help we can offer her is something that has to be good"

"Yeah, I agree" Kurt replied, nodding his head slowly. "I know what its like to worry about what people will say about you to your face, or behind your back; Santana may not be the easiest person to be friends with but she is our friend and we can only try to protect her the best we can"

"Have you picked the song you want to sing for her?" Rachel asked, twirling some hair between two fingers.

"Me and Blaine have this one that we like to sing together, it's a good message and hopefully it'll make her feel better about everything" Kurt said, smiling.

"I can't wait to hear it!" Rachel replied, resting her forehead back against the headboard of Kurt's bed.

The two of them spent the next couple of hours watching the film before they turned the lights of in Kurt's room and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning and Rachel was stood at her locker, retrieving her books for the school day ahead when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist causing her to squeal and jump in surprise before hearing a familiar laugh in the crook of her neck as James pressed a gentle kiss against her skin.

"Morning" He said laughing, kissing her once more before he pulled back and allowed her to spin around to face her. "You're so cute when you squeal like a little girl"

"I hate you sometimes" She pouted up at him as he smirked at her, before leaning down to give her a proper good morning kiss; the feel of his lips against hers making her smile as she sighed happily.

"I love you too" He murmured as he pulled back, his hand stroking her neck affectionately. "I missed you"

"You say that now, but you didn't want me around yesterday" Rachel smiled at him and put her arms around his waist, hands resting in the small of his back; "But you only say it when we're alone , where was the I miss you last night on your boy's night out"

"I miss you all the time, baby" He said, kissing her again "I miss you when we're not together for even five minutes; I miss you when I'm alone, I miss you when I'm with friends and I miss you when we're not in class together"

Rachel grinned at him, murmuring a "I miss you too" before kissing him again.

"Well I could have come last night if you hadn't insisted it was too manly for me" She teased as she pulled away from him and he smirked at her again.

"Rach, you know I'd rather be cuddled up with you" He murmured and she bit her lip as he spoke again "It's just nice to hang out with other guys sometimes"

"I know baby" She replied, leaning into his touch as he started to rub her skin gently with his thumb "And believe me, I'm really, really happy that you and Sam are getting along so well"

"Me too" He murmured, pecking her softly on the lips. "Besides, I bet you and Kurt spent all night gossiping"

"Not all night…but most of it" She said giggling as he laughed at her. "You're still coming over tonight for dinner with my Dads right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world" He replied, squeezing her arm with his hand as the one at her neck dropped and laced his fingers with hers. "Oh that reminds me, I need to invite them to Charlie's birthday meal on Monday night"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I spoke to my mom about it last night; You're my girlfriend and they're like part of the family" He replied with a smile. "Besides, my Dad is paying so it's an excuse to spend some of his money on a real nice restaurant"

"That's awful" Rachel giggled as James smirked at her. She'd noticed that since Robert had come to visit them in Ohio a few weeks earlier, James seemed to have a brighter attitude towards his relationship with his father. "How long is he in town for?"

"Just a couple of days" James replied, "Charlie insisted that she was coming to see to the new house or I might not have seen either of them before Christmas"

"I'm guessing he isn't staying for sectionals?"

"No, but Charlie and Hugh are" James said with a bright smile "The two of them are flying in on Saturday afternoon; Sam's going to come out for lunch with us"

"You spoke to your mom about him?" Rachel asked softly

"Yeah, she's totally cool with it so that's awesome" James replied "I think I'd miss him if he left now"

"I'm glad" Rachel grinned back "Come on, walk me to class?"

"My favourite thing to do" He replied with a wink as the two of them set off towards her first lesson of the day.

The rest of that day passed by quickly, like most days did, and they were all eventually sat in the choir room along with the Troubletones. Rachel had given Santana a reassuring smile as the cheerleader had looked around the room with a vulnerable look in her eye as Finn had explained what was going on. Santana had returned it before casting her eyes back to the front of the room as Blaine and Kurt had gotten up to sing their song to Santana and the entire room had loved it. Rachel had giggled as she sat with James holding his hand as he sung along with the two boys and wiggled his eyebrows at her when she had nudged him.

When the song came to and end, which she thought was amazing, she had glanced and smiled as she saw Santana sitting with a wide smile on her face; as though the song had made her feel better about what she was dealing with. Rachel couldn't help but feel proud of Finn, as well as Kurt and Blaine, for doing this to help her; it obviously meant a lot to Santana.

"Thank you Blaine, Kurt and you too Finn" Santana said, smiling "With all the horrible crap that I've been through in my life…now I get to add that to it, so yay"

Or not.

Kurt had been downtrodden after that, complaining about how Santana needed to allow people in and help her rather than getting closed up in herself and lashing out to try and help people. They were all aware just how accepting their part of the world was and when that add run, Santana was going to need the help of her friends; Rachel reminded him that they had to plough on and try to help her because they were friends and that's what friends did for each other.

Dinner with her Dads and James that night had been great, a nice distraction from worrying about Santana and also with Kurt's election campaign, which for some reason was still behind Brittany's. Rachel had hoped that people would flock to his support, but unfortunately the blonde cheerleader had stepped up making false promises to try and get voters and it appeared to be winning. Despite of that, Rachel managed to enjoy spending time with her boyfriend and Dads; the four of them singing along to musicals together as they sat in the lounge. Resting her head against James' chest as she sat on his lap cuddling close to him, Rachel couldn't help but sigh in happiness.

…..

I haven't been this worried about a vote since Lamburg v Allan; Kurt needs this election to get into NYADA, more importantly he is clearly the superior candidate. I mean…come on Rachel thinks to herself as she walks through the corridor at McKinley, glancing with disgust as Brittany is giving out Pixie Sticks and promising things that she clearly can't guarantee like "Robot Teachers".

I had to take a stand so I went to Principal Figgins…but he was beyond useless She continues, remembering how she had gone into his office and ranted about Brittany doing something illegal to try and win the election only to find the man eating one of those Pixie Sticks. Unbelievable!

Since realising, or rather remembering how important Kurt's friendship is; more so than a stupid presidential election, she had been putting all of her energy into helping him catch Brittany in the polls. It was unbelievable how well the blonde cheerleader was doing when you considered the fact that she hadn't said a single thing that would help the school; instead sticking to clearly impossible to achieve promises whereas Kurt was genuinely doing it to help people at McKinley. James had been supportive of her as well, transferring the energy that had been reserved for her campaign into Kurt's and Rachel loved the way he had looked at her like she was the greatest thing on the planet when she'd explained how she wanted to help Kurt rather than try to win herself. Needless to say they had made out passionately that night.

Nobody cares at this school, they're all so lost that they can't see how important this is to me. Elections have consequences and the consequences of Brittany winning are that I might have to go to New York without my best gay. What if I needed an emergency makeover, and sure living with James sounds amazing but I'm not sure I want it to just be us two.

"Hows the concession speech coming along?" Jacob asks and Rachel frowns as she say that curly haired weirdo harassing Kurt. "Can I print an early copy on my blog?"

"Who says I'm ready to concede?" Kurt replies "I'm leading that hockey playing kid by 10%"

"But that's mostly because he's in a coma after getting brutally checked last week in a game. Also you're trailing Brittany by 12%, if this was a horse race, you'd be glue"

"The glue that keeps this school together when he gets elected president" She can't help but interrupt, defending her best friend. Kurt gives her a thankful smile as she puts her hand through his arm.

"Oh my god its Brittany. Madame President?"

"Don't worry about it, we still have the rest of the day to change the minds of the voters" She says smiling as she moves to stand in front of him as he closes his locker.

"What's the point?" Kurt sighs "I'm going to lose unless I pull a JFK"

"You're going to shoot Brittany?" Rachel replies eyes widening "Kurt you can't do that"

"What?" Kurt says and frowns back at her "Why would you even think that? No, when Kennedy ran against Nixon in 1960; he had all his mob buddies in Chicago stuff the ballot boxes so that he would win Illinois. It won him the presidency"

Rachel mouth opens instinctively, shock as she realises what Kurt is suggesting that he do in order to win the election. Surely he can't be thinking of cheating? Its important but that….

"Kurt...no, I can't let you do this"

"What other choice do I have?" Kurt replies glumly.

"Come on, can't we just do a great duet in the cafeteria to drum up some last minute support" She explains, putting some enthusiasm into her voice and smiling widely trying to convince him that's what they could do, rather than for him to risk getting into trouble by doing something as extreme as rig the election.

"I have Kennedy's impeccable hairline"

"I know" Rachel agrees.

"Why can't I have his ends justifying the means attitude?" Kurt explains "If I lose and my resume remains blank; I'm not going to get into NYADA. I can't accept that"

"You're seriously considering cheating?" Rachel asks in a low voice.

"What choice do I have?" Kurt replies sadly and shrugs his shoulders slightly. Rachel watches as he turns and walks away from him, a glum look on her face as she watches her friend walk so despondently away from her; as if everything is waiting to burn down around him. she doesn't know what to do to help him but Rachel knows she cant let him risk getting in trouble by cheating.

…..

Rachel made her way towards the choir room, a frown on her face as she walked deep in thought. It was horrible to see her friend so worked up about the fact that, at this rate, he wasn't going to win the election for student council president and that would ruin all of the foundations for the place to be in New York, at NYADA together, next year. It was only a few days off and she had to hope that Kurt's campaign would gain some serious last minute support so that he'd win otherwise she really feared that he would go and get himself in trouble by doing something extreme as trying to stuff the ballot boxes.

As she turned and walked through the door, a smile quickly replaced the frown on her face as she saw James dancing, teaching in fact, as Sam stood next to him. She was proud of her boyfriend, he had been so sweet about helping Sam learn the choreography and it really felt amazing to see him take the New Directions seriously; his winners attitude was surely going to help them win next Thursday at sectionals.

"Hey" She said, speaking up after a couple of minutes of watching Sam repeat what James had shown him. "Practising hard you two?"

"Hey beautiful" James replied, his hand coming up to cup her cheek as she approached; pressing his lips against hers in a tender kiss. "Just trying to make sure Sam gets them down before rehearsal"

"It looks like you're doing a good job" She murmured, nuzzling his nose with hers before pulling back and cuddling into his side. "You been at it long?"

"Just twenty minutes or something" Sam replied, stretching his shoulder. "Your boy here is a good teacher"

"I'm alright" James shrugged

"He's the best" Rachel replied, smiling up at him as she felt him press a kiss against her forehead.

"love you" he murmured, before pulling back and observing her; "You okay? You look worried"

"It's nothing, just something about Kurt's campaign" She replied, giving him a smile as he nodded "Have you got your song planned that you're singing for Santana?"

"You bet" Sam said with a smile "Gonna bring her some of the ol' Sam Evans guitar lovin' to get her smiling"

Rachel giggled at him, turning to James and giving him a smile "What about you baby?"

"I'm not singing one for her" He replied, removing his arm from around her and heading towards his water bottle. Rachel frowned as she watched him walk the short distance away, turning to Sam who was wearing a small smile. He wasn't singing? Surely he couldn't been serious; everyone in New Directions, as well as the Troubletones were performing.

"What do you mean you're not singing" She murmured, frowning at him as he put his water bottle down again

"Exactly what it meant when I said it" James replied, "I don't agree with the fact that we're forcing Santana to deal with it"

"We all agreed-"

"No, we didn't" James says shaking his head. "Finn decided that we were doing this lesson, which by the way is his fault in the first place for outing Santana in the middle of a crowded hallway"

Rachel was speechless as she watched him rub his forehead "I don't understand why you don't want to do it"

"Because it's a waste of time" He continued, "Don't look at me like that"

"I don't believe what I'm hearing from you" She murmured.

"Sectionals is next week and we haven't finished our setlist" James said shaking his head, a dry laugh escaping his throat. "We're going to get crushed at sectionals because we haven't practised our routine at all in three days. At this point in the Scale Blazers we would be on full scale, Dress rehearsals on stage"

"Sectionals will be fine" Rachel replied, "We always do this-"

"What? Not have enough members with about a week to go?" James said with a smirk "Sam doesn't even know the choreography to our numbers, I'm the only one that's taken an interest in helping him because everyone else is too concerned with worrying about fixing Finn's conscience because he was a gigantic asshole to someone and now he's sorry"

"Somethings are more important than sectionals" Rachel murmured, stepping closer to him. "Baby, I know this is different than you're used to but Santana is our friend"

"I'm being a friend to her" James replied "I'm not making a big deal out of the fact that she's a lesbian. You think she wants everyone to start treating her differently? If anyone dares to try and say something to her, I will kick their ass, just like Sam or Noah will do but I'm not going to act differently towards her, and spend a week we should be rehearsing singing songs to try and cheer her up"

"Mr Schuster thinks that Finn's idea is a good one-"

"So I'm supposed just to drop everything and do something because Finn thinks it's a good idea?" James snorted, clenching his Jaw together "I don't think so; as far as I'm concerned he's already done quite enough already without sticking his nose in Santana business any further"

"But we're all singing –"

"I haven't sung in Glee club all the time I've been here and now it suddenly makes me a bad person because I don't want to, Rach?" James replies, frowning at her. "I can't even get involved in trying to help out because I get this evil look from him as if he's saying "What the hell does this guy" I'm national champion"

"He's just trying to do whats best for the club and I think it'd be really great if you could sing something for Santana; she's our friend and it'd be really amazing for you be a part of that" Rachel says, giving him a smile to try and convince him.

"No" He says shaking his head. "I have been a part of this team; I help everyone out with the choreography that I learnt within two days of being in the group. I stand in the back and sing background while you and Finn and everyone else stands up front singing lead on these songs. I'm sick of doing things that I don't want to do and I'm sick of this fucking club"

"James-"

"Save it Rach" He said putting his hand up. "I can't be around this right now"

Rachel watched as he walked over to where his bag was by the chairs, picking it up and throwing it over his shoulder; "Where are you going, we have Glee in ten minutes"

"Tell Mr Schuster that I'm not feeling well" He murmured, reaching into his bag and taking his car keys out before chucking them to Sam "Take my car, I'm gonna go for a walk. Just don't scratch my car, dude"

"Aight man" Sam nodded as James, stopped to lean down and press a kiss against her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I'll talk to you later" He murmured and before she could replied, he was walking out of the choir room, passing Blaine and Kurt as they walked in.

"Where's going?" Blaine asked with a frown

"I don't know" Rachel murmured softly, biting her lip as she looked out of the room after James.

…

She'd never lied to Mr Schuster before; well not about something like this. She told him that James wasn't feeling well and had gone to see the nurse who had sent him home and luckily the man hadn't questioned it, simply nodded his head and continued with their "Girl Music Week". Rachel sat in between Noah and Sam as they listened to Finn sing a beautiful version of girls just want to have fun before Sam brought some country to the glee club when he sung Shania Twain.

At the end of rehearsal, Rachel was walking slowly down the corridor towards the senior car lot; thinking about what James had said about Finn. Honestly, he was right; Finn was the reason why Santana was facing her sexuality being publicly announced, but Finn was trying to make it right; he was trying to help and Rachel fully supported his idea of girl music week.

The fact of the matter as well, was that James was used to a more rigorous regime of practise at the Scale Blazers, and she had to admit that putting off their rehearsals for this only a week before sectionals wasn't exactly the smartest thing in the world to do.

"Wait up Rach" She heard Sam voice and footsteps behind her, turning to give him a smile.

"Hey"

"Hey" He replied, returning her smile. "You okay?"

"Yeah" She said nodding "I'm okay, a little confused and upset at James but…"

"Yeah…he's sort of unhappy about glee at the moment" Sam replied, "I guess he's used to being serious about competitions"

"He's so dedicated to Glee" Rachel said biting her lip "He puts a lot of effort into dancing and performing, so I can sort of understand why he's frustrated at everything"

"Mhmmm" Sam murmured, "You do realize most of that stuff about Finn is because about what happened last week right"

"What?" Rachel asks, frowning.

"Finn" Sam says, smiling sadly. "The fact that Finn overheard James talking in the locker room about dinner and he got you to go to convince me to come home with him"

"James understands that it was just a misunderstanding-"

"He says he does" Sam replied, "But he's worried about Finn when it comes to you; worried that Finn will try and take you away from him"

"That's silly, I love him and I don't want Finn" Rachel said instantly.

"I know you do" Sam replied "But I'm just telling you what he told me….and don't take this wrong way, but Quinn said the same thing to me last year"

She couldn't say anything to that; Quinn had appeared happy with Sam until Finn had managed to somehow convince her that she really wanted him. Rachel shook her head at that, she couldn't want Finn over James. Her boyfriend was the better boy and the feelings she had for him were way more than that she'd held for Finn at any time over the past couple of years. She felt tears welling in her eyes that James still felt vulnerable in their relationship around Finn and she needed to reassure him that he was the one she wanted.

"I love James" She said "Do you think he'll be at home?"

"Probably not yet" Sam replied, "I'll give you a text and tell you when he gets back alright?"

"Thanks Sam" Rachel said, smiling.

…