CHAPTER 15

Two weeks later

"Tonight!"

The song ended and the four boys smiled at each other.

"Yes! YES! That was awesome!" Hunter exclaimed.

"Yeah, Invitationals are gonna be awesome!" Sebastian cried.

"So awesome," Blaine added. Finn grinned. They had decided on a completely new style for this year. Rather than having one central performer, and everyone dancing and singing around them, they decided on a 4 man boy band angle instead. Finn, Blaine, Hunter and Sebastian had created the band District4, and the Warblers would be dancing and singing around the 4 boys. They knew that the audience, especially the ladies, would love the performance. They were like a modern day One Direction. Invitationals were in a month, and they had just finished their first song.

"OK, guys. I gotta head home now." Finn said. They smiled and nodded at him.

"Cool. We're gonna take Nationals this year! I can feel it!" Sebastian said. Finn left the auditorium shortly after and drove home. He quickly ran into the bathroom and started to take a shower. He had physical therapy in an hour, and he didn't want to be late.

"So this is my house." Kurt said, as him and Bella walked inside. Bella and Kurt had gotten pretty close over the past few weeks. They both had very different personalities: Bella was into outdoor activities like camping, dirt biking etc, and Kurt was into fashion and other indoor activities. But they got along very well anyhow.

"Yeah, I guessed!" Bella laughed. Kurt rolled his eyes and they walked inside. Burt and Carole were both at work, so Kurt and Bella popped some bags of popcorn and walked up to Kurt's room. On the way, they walked past the bathroom and heard a faint singing coming from within.

"Don't you stop me, I will get what's coming to me, I am ready, baby, I will be somebody."

It was one of the most raw, talented voices Bella had ever heard. She raised an eyebrow and pointed at the door.

"That's my brother." Kurt explained.

"He has a beautiful voice." Bella commented. Kurt sighed.

"Yeah, we could have taken Nationals this year if he hadn't left. For some reason, when he came back after the summer, his voice was like a hundred times better. Like he was no longer afraid of being shot down."

"And what song is that? I don't think I've heard it before." Bella asked.

"I honestly have no idea. Finn writes a lot of his own songs so it might be that."

Bella nodded. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she didn't know why. She shrugged it off and followed Kurt into his room. Moments later, Finn opened the bathroom door and walked into his own room.

"So, tell me about your brother. Why did he transfer?" Bella asked as they sat on Kurt's bed. Kurt laughed.

"Well, where to start? It all began during sophomore year. Finn was the high school Quarterback who joined the Glee club. He was going against the status quo and the jocks didn't like it. They made every effort to make Finn's life hell. Finn lost a lot of friends because of his joining the Glee club, but he didn't care as he had also gained quite a few from Glee. Or so he thought. In the middle of sophomore year, his girlfriend, Quinn, the head cheerleader, got pregnant. Quinn told him that he was the father, when in reality, she had cheated on him with Puck - Finn's best friend. All of the Glee club found out within the first 2 months - myself included, I regret to say - and none of us wanted to tell Finn as we didn't want him to get angry and leave the Glee club."

Bella's mouth dropped in horror. Kurt read her expression.

"I know, it was really selfish. Not telling him was one of my biggest regrets. Anyways, around 4 months into the pregnancy, Rachel, who was in love with Finn, found out. She obviously told Finn, not because it was the right thing to do, but because she thought that if she broke Finn and Quinn up, her and Finn would get together. When she told Finn, obviously Finn was extremely upset, more so because his 'friends' knew but refused to tell him. He broke up with Quinn, and left the Glee club for a month. During Sectionals, our setlist was leaked, and we were about to drop out of the competition, when Finn came back and saved us. Everything was good, until junior year. Then, things got worse and worse."

Bella looked at him.

"It gets worse?" She asked in disbelief.

"Much." Kurt replied. "So over the summer before junior year, Finn and Rachel had started dating. They were happy for a while, until December of junior year. Something you should know is that Santana had been trying to get Finn into bed since the beginning of high school. He was the only person in the whole football team who she hadn't banged, and he was the Quarterback, so she wanted to get him into bed no matter what."

"I really want to meet the guy who rejected Santana!" Bella exclaimed. Kurt chuckled.

"Anyways, back to the story. Santana wanted to sleep with Finn, so she went a bit too far to try and do so. Rachel knew about Santana, and Rachel was always very afraid that Finn would give in. One day, Santana told Rachel that Finn slept with her the night before. Finn tried to tell Rachel that it wasn't true, but for some reason, she didn't believe him. Rachel was very mad, so she got the person that she knew would hurt Finn most, and tried to sleep with him for revenge."

"Puck?" Bella guessed. Kurt nodded.

"Yeah, so she almost ended up sleeping with Puck to try and 'show Finn how she felt', even though Finn didn't cheat. Puck backed out though after they made it to first base: he said he couldn't do that to Finn again. Puck told Finn about what happened, and Finn dumped Rachel. This was the starting point of Finn's spiral. He never expected Rachel to cheat on him, especially just out of spite, with the worst person possible, and Finn was a wreck because of it. Then, Finn made his first mistake… To get back at Rachel, he decided to get back together with Quinn. She ended up cheating on him again, this time with Sam, 2 months into their relationship. Finn obviously dumped her too. At this point, Finn lost his spark. He never asked for solos in Glee, he got injured in the big championship game for football and he distanced himself from all his friends. Then, last summer, he joined the Air Force National Guard. He was deployed, and he got severely injured. However, rather than negatively affecting him, he came back more confident and secure about who he is. Only problem is that he transferred out of McKinley."

Bella listened to Kurt intently as he finished his story.

"Well, can I give you my opinion?" She asked.

"Please," Kurt said.

"Well, if you truly care about him, put his happiness over your need to win. You didn't do so when Quinn was pregnant, do it now."

Kurt nodded.

On Monday morning, the Glee club was huddled in the choir room. They weren't nearly as confident as the Warblers were.

"Puck! Sam! You have to keep up with me!" Rachel cried. "I can't carry you guys!"

"It's not our fault! We're not as good as Finn, we know that. But we're all you've got. So why don't you try and work with us, rather than against us?" Sam suggested. Puck scowled at Rachel.

"You know I'm personally hoping that you and my boy Finner get back together, purely because he was the only person that could effectively shut you up. And you were a lot less annoying while you two were dating!" Puck shouted at Rachel.

"HEY, HOW DARE YOU?! Rachel screamed, rising to face Puck. Mr. Schue ran into the room a moment later, hearing the raised voices.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted. "I know we all miss Finn. But he's not here. DEAL WITH IT!" He shouted.

"Look," he said in a much quieter voice. "I miss Finn too. But frankly, after all the shit you put him through in the past two years, I don't blame him for wanting to transfer! Now, we're gonna win Sectionals, Regionals, or Nationals with or without him. I got us 13 tickets to Dalton Academy's Invitational, so we'll see how good they actually are. For all we know, they could suck."

Three weeks later

It was 16th October, the day of Dalton Academy's Invitational. The guys were nervous. They weren't performing with the whole group: Finn, Blaine, Hunter and Sebastian (District4) were putting on a 4 man show. Because Invitationals weren't competitive, they were allowed to perform with less than 12 people. Finn straightened his tie and blazer as he stood backstage with the 4 guys. They were performing a 5 song setlist, and all 5 were songs that they had painstakingly arranged into group numbers.

The New Directions all walked into the Dalton Academy auditorium complex together.

"You guys ready to see the Warblers? Well, 4 members of the Warblers anyways." Mr. Schue asked. They all nodded.

"Finn and Blaine told me that they completely changed tactics for this year since the old leaders graduated." Kurt commented. Rachel nodded.

"Yeah, I heard from someone that they're no longer acapella. And rather than being based around just Blaine, they're basing the performances around Finn, Blaine, Sebastian and Hunter." Rachel remarked. Mr. Schue nodded.

"Well, remember guys, even though Finn left, he still contributed a lot to New Directions. We never would have made it to Nationals last year without him. I want you guys to be supportive, just like I know he would be of you guys."

Everyone agreed. Kurt and Bella decided to sit down until the doors opened in two of the few spare seats outside the auditorium. They were chatting randomly, when Kurt noticed Carole and Burt enter the building. They were coming to watch Finn perform. Bella hadn't yet met Kurt's parents: everytime she came over, they were usually at work. Kurt gestured to them, and they smiled and walked over. Carole gave Kurt a hug.

"Hey Kurt, what are you doing here?" Carole asked. Kurt laughed.

"Honestly? We're spying on the competition."

Burt rolled his eyes. "You guys take your Glee club too seriously!" He commented. Kurt sighed.

"Maybe you'd think differently if you could actually sing like me and Finn!"

"Hey! I can sing!" Burt cried indignantly. Both Kurt and Carole shook their heads and Bella laughed. The two parents turned to face her for the first time.

"New friend?" Carole asked, smiling at the blonde girl. Kurt nodded.

"Mom, Burt, this is Bella. She's new to Lima this year and she's Finn's replacement in New Directions."

"Nice to meet you, sweetie," Carole said, shaking the girl's hand.

"So, how do you think you guys are gonna do this year?" Burt asked the two New Directions members. Kurt shrugged.

"That depends on whether we manage to convince Finn to come back or not. It's only when he quits that we realise how much we're missing a male lead. And it's not just his voice. Finn was like our leader. He also had an incredible voice, so that helped." Kurt said. Burt was surprised. He had never heard his son say such nice things about his step-brother before. Finn's deployment really had changed all of them.

Carole nodded at the kids and had a wistful expression on her face.

"Finn always sang like his dad. I still remember watching as his dad taught him how to sing when Finn was 7. Finn was absolutely shattered when his dad died. He refused to even go to his funeral."

Bella raised an eyebrow. She had heard that story before, but she didn't know where from. She was racking her brain, trying to remember where she had heard the story before, when Kurt broke her train of thought.

"I think we need to go into the auditorium now." Kurt pointed out. They turned around. Everyone was slowly filing into the auditorium. Bella turned back to face the Hummels once again.

"It was really great meeting you Mr. and Mrs. Hummel," Bella said, politely.

"You too, sweetie." Carole said, and they all stood up. Suddenly, Carole accidentally dropped her purse, and a couple of cards fell out. Bella went down to pick them up. It was Carole's driver's license and a random gift card. She looked at the driver's license briefly, and the name caught her eye.

"Here you go, Mrs. Hummel. Just one thing, why does it say Carole Hudson on here?" She asked.

Carole smiled. "I kept Christopher's last name. I could never bring myself to change it. It's Finn's surname as well."

Bella suddenly realised something. Everything clicked into place. Everything made sense. The surname Hudson; him having a step-dad and step-brother; him refusing to go to his dad's funeral; joining the military over the summer. All of those things overlapped with one other man she knew. A man who had dominated her every thought. A man who she thought had died two months ago. As her and Kurt walked into the auditorium, Bella turned to him.

"Hey, Kurt?" She said.

"Yeah?"

"Random question. Is your brother brunette, 200 pounds, has tattoos on one hand's knuckles that say 'Life' and the other hand saying 'Love'?"

Kurt looked up in surprise.

"You know him?" He asked.

"Oh my god…" Bella murmured.