CHAPTER 121
Tuesday - 5 days to the Final
It was 6 am on Tuesday morning and both Finn and Nicole were already in the studio. They knew that Christopher and Ella were going to put on superb performances on Saturday so Finn needed to do something very special to cement his place in the Sunday final. The way the final worked was that the voting lines would open half an hour before the start of the final. Then, each of the three acts would sing their opening solo and their mystery duet. After everyone had finished their two performances, there would be a final hour for fans to vote before voting lines would close. At around 8 pm on Saturday, the three contestants would be invited back on stage and Dermott would announce the two acts with the most votes who would be proceeding to the Sunday final, and the one act who would be going home on Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, the two remaining acts will perform their mentor duets, as well as their winner's single which, if they win the competition, will be released as their debut single with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music.
"All right. Let's start with the first song." Nicole said. "It can be literally anything you want, but it has to be incredible."
Finn thought for a moment.
"Actually, I did have an idea. Why don't I take a page out of Rylan's book?" Finn asked. Nicole raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"You mean you want to wear neon clothing and dance to Spice Girls songs?" Nicole remarked. Finn chuckled and shook his head.
"No, not that part. Definitely not that part." Finn laughed. "I meant doing a mashup/medley of some songs. I haven't done that yet in the competition and go big or go home, right?"
Nicole nodded.
"That could be promising. Did you have any songs in mind?" She asked. Finn nodded. He grabbed his guitar and walked over to the loop station that was at the corner of the room and plugged it in.
"I'm just going to use the loop station for now because I don't want to waste precious time making a studio backing track. That's fine, right?"
"Yeah, that fine. Show me what you've got, Finn." She smiled, sitting back in her chair. Finn played through his performance and at the end, she jumped to her feet and cheered and applauded.
"YES! Let's do that!" She exclaimed. "That was awesome! And just what we'll need to edge past Ella and Chris!"
Finn smiled and let out a sigh of relief. One hour into rehearsal and he already had his first song.
"Cool, let's do it. What would you suggest for the backing track?" Finn asked. Nicole shook her head.
"No, no, no. When I meant let's do that, I meant with the loop station." She explained. Finn raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, you want me to perform the biggest performance of my life with equipment that's meant mainly for informal jamming, rather than using the whole recording studio of equipment we have at our disposal?"
"Yeah. It's different, it's epic, it's as live as you've ever been. I don't see any problem with it. In fact, I think using the loop station would actually be better. I can say with certainty that nobody has ever done something like that in the final. We might as well be the first."
"OK, I trust you. You got me this far so clearly, you know what you're talking about." Finn said. "Let's do it."
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Nicole and Finn spent the next 5 hours perfecting his performance and because there was no studio recorded backing track, 5 hours was all they needed. Finn knew every chord, percussive hit, and note in the whole medley and Nicole didn't know what else they could do to prepare for it.
Instead, they spent the afternoon working on their mentor-mentee duet. Nicole had such a powerhouse of a voice while Finn's was quieter but more soulful, so it was a struggle finding a song that didn't wash out his voice as at the end of the day, Finn was the one in the final. They went through power ballads, R'n'B songs, pop, rock and literally every song under the song with no success. Finally, at around 7 in the evening when they had almost given up for the night, Nicole found something.
"How about this one?" Nicole suggested. Finn looked at it, thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded.
"Yeah. Oh my god, this song brings back memories. I also sang this as a duet in the Regional show choir championships in my junior year of high school 9 years ago."
"With your girlfriend?" Nicole smirked. Finn laughed and shook his head.
"No, the opposite. I hated the girl I sang it with. She was the worst. She's actually the anonymous source who told my backstory to the press. You know, the crap that was written about me when live shows were just starting."
Nicole raised an eyebrow.
"Wow, what a bitch!" Nicole remarked. "Why would she do that? Was she an ex or something?" Nicole asked. Finn laughed. He loved how Nicole was genuinely interested about his personal life. She wasn't just a mentor - she was also a really close friend. After all, they were spending at least 60 hours a week together and had been for the past 15 weeks.
"God no! I've dated two girls in my whole life and she definitely isn't one of them. No, she definitely wasn't an ex."
"Hold up. Let's go back a bit. You've only had 2 girlfriends in 26 years?" She asked, incredulously.
"Yeah." Finn admitted, blushing.
"But you're so attractive! What's the point?" Nicole joked. Finn rolled his eyes and shrugged.
"I mean, there never was a really good time to be dating. I was homeless up until age 14. I then was very mentally scarred between the ages 14-16. Then my first relationship didn't end too great. She got pregnant and then only started dating me so that she could sleep with me and then pretend the baby was mine when she had already taken a positive pregnancy test before we slept together."
"Yeesh, that's harsh! How long did it take you to find out?"
"Too long." Finn sighed. "Almost halfway through the pregnancy. She scammed me out of 15000 bucks. And that's not even the worst part. Apparently, all of my so-called friends found out less than a month into the pregnancy and didn't tell me so I would still perform with them at their Sectional show choir competition."
"Wow… that's inhumane. That's gotta be illegal or something!" Nicole exclaimed.
"You're telling me, Nicole. Yeah, so after that, I wasn't about to jump into a new relationship. Then, my mom died and I ran away to Hawaii. I wasn't about to be dating anyone there either. Then came senior year where I started dating girlfriend number 2."
"This is the one you loved? Bella, right?"
Finn sighed.
"Yeah." He replied. "But then I joined the army for 6 years while in a long distance relationship. Oh, and you were asking about Rachel? She had a crush on me briefly during sophomore year, but that quickly turned to hating me."
"How?"
"She was kinda jealous to be honest. She was used to being the star of the show choir but then I came along as the new kid and I consistently showed her up. In high school, we had a tournament to determine the best singer in the Glee club and I won in both Junior and Senior year. And I would get all the best solos in the big competitions."
"Right, but that would explain a high school rivalry. Would she seriously be so better that she hangs onto that grudge 8 years later?"
"Well, something you should know about Rachel is that she is the most pathological, over-competitive, type-a person in the world. From pretty much before she could walk, she knew that she wanted to star on Broadway. That didn't quite pan out. She never got the main role she was looking for and in the two supporting roles she got, she was fired for a bad, immature attitude towards her directors and other actors."
"Wow, she sounds like a tool." Nicole remarked. Finn laughed.
"She was. A very over-privileged one too. She had to move back in with her dads in New York because she spent four years in a performing arts college but can't hold a job on Broadway. Right now, she's still living with her dads. She gets the occasional role as an extra in off-Broadway plays, but that doesn't nearly cover rent, hence living in her parents' basement in Queens. She currently works as one of those really low-level data entry people that live in those miniscule cubicles, endlessly typing in numbers for 12 hours a day. And according to Santana, she doesn't even have a boyfriend or anything - unsurprisingly. She just goes from the crappy job to her parents' basement every day."
"That's a pretty sucky life." Nicole said. Finn nodded.
"Yeah, and after everything I went through in the army, still living my dreams and becoming the celebrity which she would die to be… she was very bitter, hence why she went to the press to write shit about me. Obviously, she didn't know about the Army stuff but the child-abuse stuff and the rest of the expose: all her."
"That's so rude! No wonder she was fired by those Broadway directors!"
Finn laughed.
"You know what I should do? I should send her a ticket to the final. I'm sure she'd love to watch her least favourite person in the world compete in front of millions of people in the final of the biggest singing competition on the planet!"
Nicole giggled.
"Yeah, you should totally do that! You just reminded me. How many tickets do you want for the final? You can invite as many people as you'd like."
Finn opened his backpack and took out a list. A week ago, he had asked his friends who would be interested and to his surprise, everyone he invited wanted to come. Santana, Mercedes, Quinn, Tina, Brittany, Harry, Liam, George, Artie, Sam, Puck, Mike, Kurt and Mr. Schue all wanted to come to support him, and he was going to spitefully send Rachel an invite. Nicole quickly skimmed the list and she looked up at Finn.
"You're not inviting Bella?" She asked, surprised. Finn shrugged.
"I don't know. Should I? I don't want to put her in an uncomfortable position, but on the other hand, I don't want to invite everyone BUT her. We've been broken up for 3 years."
"And may I ask why?" Nicole asked. Finn shrugged.
"I had been 'dead' for two years. My mental health wasn't great. I wasn't about to burden her with it."
Nicole knew that wasn't the actual reason. She had gotten to know Finn very well after the hundreds of hours she had spent with him and getting emotions out of him was like prying teeth, but she had still managed to break through the walls he built around himself.
"But you loved each other, right? Unconditionally? Wouldn't that mean that she was well aware of your mental health issues and could probably help you more than anyone else in the world?"
"Nicole, you don't understand. I was protecting her." Finn said.
"Finn, could I tell you my observation?" Nicole asked, gently.
"Yeah, sure." Finn nodded.
"I think you wanted to break up." Nicole stated, boldly. Finn raised an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about? I loved her." Finn argued. Nicole nodded.
"I'm not denying that. In fact, I think that was part of the reason you broke up with her."
"OK, you've confused me now. What are you saying?" Finn asked.
"Finn, this is just my opinion but I think that you were scared. Scared because everyone you ever loved is dead. Your mom, your dad, Carole. You knew how much it hurt to lose someone you love, and you didn't want to hurt again on the rare occasion that something happened to Bella. I think that's the reason you even joined the Army in the first place."
Finn shook his head.
"You're wrong. I enlisted for the benefits. Health insurance, college tuition payment." Finn said. Nicole raised an eyebrow.
"And did you end up even going to college?" She asked.
"Um… um… I… um…" Finn stammered.
"Thought so." Nicole replied. "And anyways, you had other opportunities. You could've gone to college on a football scholarship. You were one of the top prospects and you were even approached by LSU early in the football season but you rejected them and told them to spread the word to other colleges that you weren't interested in any offers."
Finn's jaw dropped. That was a secret that not a soul in the world knew but him.
"How did you…"
"My cousin, he's a recruiter for Texas Tech. When you first appeared on the X Factor, my cousin recognised you and called me up. Apparently, they were very interested in you, before you rejected them all of course. Then, a week after your first audition, I got a very interesting phone call from Simon Cowell himself, telling me that he himself offered you a record deal when you were still in high school. You told him that you had committed to the military but when I checked military records, the last set of forms you needed to sign before your enlistment was confirmed were signed by you three weeks after Simon offered you the record deal."
"Since when are you Nancy Drew?" Finn mumbled.
"It didn't take long. I have quite a few connections. Anyways, that's besides the point. The point is that you had at least two ways but you didn't take them. Instead, you enlisted. You thought Bella would break up with you when she found out, but to your surprise, she stuck by you. And that just made you love her even more. You had lost the opportunity to break up with her when you enlisted, and then when you came back from the dead, the opportunity was right there. You took the easy way out. You run from your problems, dude. You ran away from your abusive dad, - which I definitely don't blame you for - you ran to Hawaii when your mom died, you ran back to Lima after your discharge. You don't face your issues and because of that, you don't get what you want or deserve."
"What's your point, Nicole?"
"My point is that you're not going to be with a girl like Bella if you keep running. So you should invite her. Here's one more ticket. She doesn't have to say yes but in case she does…"
Finn took the ticket and put it in his pocket. He then stood up.
"All right. It's been a long day, so I'm going to get going. Same time tomorrow, right?"
"Yup, you got it! Good night, Finn."
"Good night."
Finn walked down the corridor of the studio and, turning around to make sure Nicole wasn't watching, threw the extra ticket in the garbage before walking Nicole. Nicole, who was hiding at the corner of the corridor and had seen everything, sighed. For such an outgoing, flexible person and musician, he was truly stubborn as an ox when it came to emotions. But Nicole was his mentor. Her job was to look out for his best interest and be his eyes when he wasn't seeing the full picture. She needed to do something…