Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews on Chapter 6. I am SO sorry it took me so long to update, but this is a busy time of year for everyone. As those of you who read my other story know, my other story is almost over, so I'm wondering: how would you guys feel about another story with Finchel's kids? Anyway, enjoy this chapter and review if I should keep going, and Merry Christmas if I don't update before then!
Chapter 7: Out
Rachel lay in the bed next to Finn, thinking about the phone call from the extra. The lead from Funny Girl was going on the tour. That left the door open for her to take over the lead role. But would they give her the role?
When she'd showed up with her hair slightly shorter and with the color just a little different, the director and producer had completely lost it. Ever since she said she didn't want to do the tour, things had been different at rehearsals. She'd felt ostracized and had been criticized for the smallest things.
She thought that she would be good for the role. But with everything that was going on - would they give her a chance?
Finn rolled over and looked at Rachel. "Hey beautiful."
"Why aren't you sleeping?" Rachel asked.
"Having trouble sleeping," Finn said. "What about you?"
"Yeah, same thing," Rachel said.
"Maybe I shouldn't have had caffiene so late in the day," Finn admitted.
Rachel giggled. "Yeah, maybe not."
"What about you?" Finn asked. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"I've just been thinking," Rachel said. "With Marissa going on tour, there will be an opening to play Fanny on Broadway, and I really want to do it..."
"Of course you do," Finn said. "And no one would be better for it than you."
"But Rupert and Sidney hate me," Rachel admitted. There was no point in pretending they didn't. She knew they did.
"I don't think they hate you," Finn said.
Rachel sighed. "They get mad at me for the smallest things. I thought they were going to fire me when I cut my hair."
"They didn't," Finn said.
Rachel could tell Finn was trying to be encouraging, but she knew what her producer and director were really like. "Yeah that's true. But what do you think I should do?"
"When they start talking about it, I want you to tell them you want to play the part," Finn said. "Rachel, I've heard you sing those songs. You're amazing. No one can do it like you."
Rachel forced a smile. "You're so sweet, Finn."
Finn leaned in and kissed Rachel. "I love you. You know that, right?"
Rachel nodded and kissed Finn. "I love you too. So, so much." Maybe Finn was right. Waiting it out would probably be the best thing to do.
x
"So the word's out on the Broadway blogs! Marissa Highwater is going on the Funny Girl tour, so who will take over as Fanny Brice on Broadway?"
Rachel tried to stay focused on her homework as she sat at a table in the study lounge with Kurt and Blaine. NYADA's biggest gossips were at it again. These two guys knew everything, and ever since Rachel's freshman year (their sophomore year) they had been a pain in her side.
"Just ignore them," Blaine whispered. "They're just being their usual annoying selves."
"You know, if Paolo San Pablo goes on tour, too, then they'd need to refill both the lead roles," one of the boys said. "And two of the understudies come from NYADA, Rachel Berry and Jean Baptiste."
The other one looked at Rachel. "But Rachel, how do you respond to rumors that you have been uncooperative on the set lately?"
Uncooperative? There were rumors going around about that? Rachel was cooperating fine. It was Rupert and Sidney who were being difficult. "Those rumors are false," Rachel said.
"We heard you chose your loser boyfriend over the tour," one of the boys added. "True or false?"
"She doesn't have a boyfriend," Blaine said. "She has a husband, and he's certainly not a loser."
"Married before college is over?" one of the boys asked.
"Yes," Rachel said. "I love him, and I don't want to miss out on any time with him."
"And if you guys don't stop, I'm going to challenge you to midnight madness," Kurt said.
The boys looked threatened now and walked away. "At least they're graduating after this year," Blaine said.
"Who's starting those rumors about me?" Rachel asked. "Ever since I told Rupert and Sidney that I wasn't going to do the tour, they've been making my life a living hell at rehearsals."
"Maybe it's some extras who want to move up in the production," Blaine suggested.
"I love performing and I love Funny Girl, but I'm not at a place in my life where I want to be traveling all over the country," Rachel said. "With Marissa going on the tour, this is perfect for me, but who knows?"
x
"Okay, everyone, let's get started," Finn said as he walked into the room.
"Uh, Finn, we can't just get started," Mark said.
Finn looked around the room and noticed that some people were missing. "Wait, where are our leads?"
"We don't know," Scott said. "They were in classes today."
Finn began to think. Where could they be? "Well, let's just get started. I can have some of the others sing songs that they aren't included on."
"They're on most of the songs, Finn," Bridget pointed out.
"Well, we'll need to run through some of the ones that they're not on," Finn said. He wished that he'd sent for some of the other kids to go look for the leads, but instead he had them work on some of the other songs. As he got out some sheet music, his phone started vibrating. He looked and saw that it was a text from Josh. "Hey, why aren't you here? And why isn't anyone here but me and Caitlin?"
Why wasn't Finn where? Finn quickly replied to the text. "What do you mean?"
Josh sent another text back. "Ariana told me in the hall that rehearsals were going to be at the rec center near the library today..."
Finn should have known. Ariana. Of course she had something to do with this. She wanted to keep Caitlin away from rehearsal so she could have the lead parts. Finn groaned and replied to the text. "Well, she lied. They're at school. Since you and Caitlin missed rehearsal today, I can set up a time to go over things with you, and I'll have Sam and Rachel come, too. I'll talk to Ariana about this." Finn looked up at the group. "Okay everyone, let's take a five minute water break. Ariana, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Ariana came up to the front of the room. "Hi Finn. I know what you're doing. Since Caitlin's not here, you're going to tell me I can be Maria... and there's a really cute boy in my study hall who I can get to play the Captain..."
Finn wasn't stupid, and he wasn't going to let her act like he was. "No, that's where you're wrong. I know that Josh and Caitlin aren't here today because you told them rehearsal was going to be someplace else."
"What?" Ariana asked. "That's not true."
"Oh really?" Finn asked. He got out his phone and held up the text from Josh. "Explain this to me then?"
"The freakishly tall guy is lying!" Ariana snapped.
"Josh doesn't seem like the type to lie," Finn pointed out. "He's always here on time, he always pays attention, he's devoted to his sports and from what I've heard, he gets pretty good grades."
"Oh please!" Ariana said. "He's trying to get me in trouble so that girl in the ugly clothes can get rid of her main competition. I know he likes her. It's obvious."
"Who likes who is not the point," Finn continued. "You lied to them. I can't have my leads missing rehearsals."
"This isn't my fault!" Ariana snapped. "You have no proof."
Finn sighed. "I'm not going to argue with you, but I know and you know that you told them that. Now get back to practice, or you may just find yourself getting kicked out of the show." He wasn't going to put up with this. There were many other kids who needed his attention. Mr. Schue had kicked out Santana when she lit the piano on fire and Mercedes when she was being rude at booty camp, and he wasn't afraid to kick people out if he had to.
When the other students came back, Finn turned to them. "Let's get back to our practice." For now, he'd deal with practicing with the leads later.
x
Luckily for Finn, Josh and Caitlin were both available to meet after school the next day. Rachel had talked to Caitlin on the phone the previous night since she had rehearsals this afternoon, and Finn had brought Sam with him since he was Josh's mentor. "So, she just gave them the wrong place for rehearsal?" Sam asked as they arrived in the classroom.
"Yeah," Finn said. "She's just... she's insane. I don't know what I'm going to do about her."
"Are you okay?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Finn said. "I'm just hoping all goes well."
"It will," Sam said. "You told me about how you told her you'd kick her out if she didn't cooperate... that's definitely a sign of backbone."
Josh and Caitlin came into the classroom. "Thanks for meeting with us today," Caitlin said. "I just... I need this play. I need people from NYADA to see it and I need to get in. If I even miss one rehearsal, I'm doomed."
"Hey, I think you'll be fine with one missed rehearsal," Josh told Caitlin.
Caitlin looked flattered. "Thanks."
"Okay," Finn said. "So, Caitlin, you talked to Rachel?"
"Yeah," Caitlin said. "I sang lots of the songs for her on the phone and she gave me some great advice."
"Good," Finn said. "Now, you guys saw how Rachel and I did our duet together. When you have your romantic scenes together, I want the audience to feel the passion."
"Not everyone has what you and Rachel have," Caitlin said.
"This isn't about what things are like in real life," Finn said. "You want to go to NYADA and be on Broadway, and you're going to have to have romantic scenes."
"Okay," Caitlin agreed. "Let's get started.
x
As Rachel was leaving rehearsal, her phone rang. She looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Kylie, so she picked up the phone. "Hey!"
"Hey," Kylie said. "Rachel, things are getting insane at McKinley."
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.
"What it sounds like I mean," Kylie said. "Today... I just wish you guys could come help with our musical, too. It would be better than what's going on now."
"What happened?" Rachel asked.
"Well, let's see..." Kylie began.
x
April and Holly were late. They'd been late a lot lately. The musical would be opening in a few weeks, and still, no one felt ready. Mr. Schue may not have been perfect, but at least he knew what he was doing.
"Maybe we should get started without them," Jake suggested.
"Okay," Ryder agreed. "Let's go from the top, with Tradition."
"One of your big solos," Jake murmured, looking at Marley.
"It's the opening number, you guys," Marley said. "It's the one we're going to use to welcome the crowd to the show. And it's important to make a good first impression."
"Who left you two in charge?" Jake asked.
"They are the captains," Kylie pointed out.
"Okay, enough," Ryder said. "Everyone, let's do our number. After that, we can do Sunrise Sunset..."
Then the door opened and April and Holly came in. "Hola classe!" Holly said.
"You guys are late," Kitty pointed out.
"We're late because we wanted to find some extra special stuff for the musical!" April said.
"Yes," Holly added. "We wanted to put a modern twist on it. So, we were thinking that instead of Russia, we could set it in modern day Ohio, and we can replace some of the slow songs with rock songs..."
Everyone knew this was a bad idea. "No!" Marley said. "This needs to be like the real musical."
"Wouldn't it still be a real musical?" April asked. "Maybe we should have just done Crossrhodes."
"April, Holly, thank you for your suggestions, but we're sticking with keeping it close to the original," Ryder said. "You can watch us do our opening number and tell us what you think."
During the opening number, the New Directions members noticed April and Holly were on the computer. It was clear that the real directors were Ryder and Marley, not April and Holly. At least they seemed to know what they were doing... but everyone just wanted Mr. Schue back.
"Well, what did you think?" Jack asked at the end of the number.
"Well, it wasn't bad," Holly said.
Not bad? That was all they had to say? "By the way, have any of you thought about what songs might be good for Sectionals?" April asked.
Shouldn't it be the directors' jobs to help come up with songs? "Maybe we should just do songs from the musical, so we can fully focus on that," Kylie said, saying the first thing that came to mind. After all, last year they'd won with songs from Wicked.
"Do you think the judges would find those songs appealing?" Holly asked. "You should have done a good show."
"We decided what show we were going to do last year," Marley said. "And we've been working on it hard when you've been late. Mr. Schue would never be late."
"I love Mr. Schue, but you guys should loosen up," April said. "Have fun."
Clearly, trying to work with their directors wasn't going anywhere. "Let's do Matchmaker," Marley said.
x
"Oh gosh," Rachel said. She knew how hard Finn was working with his glee club and she wished that her sister and the kids in the club she was in once had that. She did like April and Holly - but she had a feeling that they weren't the right people to be leading the glee club.
"Yeah," Kylie said. "I just don't know what I'm going to do..."
"I wish there was something I could do," Rachel said.
"Sorry for all the complaining," Kylie said. "So, how's New York?"
Rachel was tempted to say something about working on the musical with Finn, but she knew it might make Kylie feel bad about the McKinley musical. "It's good. Work is piling up. I hope you can come visit soon."
"Me too," Kylie said.
x
The production staff of Funny Girl had made the announcement - their lead was leaving the show to play Fanny on the US tour, and a new actress had not yet been named. Rachel decided to go to Rupert's office and talk to him. He was typically more reasonable than Sidney, so maybe she could have a shot. She knocked on his door as she was about to leave. "Come in!" Rupert called.
Rachel went inside. "Hi."
"What is it?" Rupert asked.
What kind of way was that to greet one of your employees? Rachel decided to just get to the point. "With Marissa going on the tour, I want to audition for the part to be the main Fanny."
Rupert looked surprised. "You do?"
At least he hadn't flat out told her he couldn't. "Yes," Rachel said. "I'm a good singer and a good actress, and I'm going to work as hard as I can to be an even better performer. I've been watching this show since I was little and I have a special connection with Barbra Streisand. I think I would be a great Fanny."
"You do?" Rupert asked.
"Yes," Rachel said.
Rupert looked a bit annoyed. "Well, I guess I could have you try out when we have auditions."
Well, at least he was going to give her a chance. That was something. "Thank you." She left the office, deciding not to continue this conversation and feeling a bit of confidence coming back.
x
"That was good, Caitlin," Finn said as he listened to Caitlin finish up on Do Re Mi.
"I was a bit off with my beat," Caitlin critiqued.
"Hey, you were good," Finn said.
"My beat wouldn't be off," Ariana snapped.
"Well, you have three years to prove that," Finn said. "This is how this musical's going to be."
"You think you know so much because you're married to that girl on Broadway," Ariana snapped.
"You know what?" Finn snapped. "I've had it with you. You're rude to me. You're rude to your fellow glee club members. You talk back, you degrade others, and you have a bad attitude, and it's not okay. Get out!"
Ariana looked shocked. "What?"
"You heard me," Finn said. "Get out."
Ariana started to leave the room, and Finn felt proud of himself.
Chapter 8 preview: What will the school think of Finn kicking Ariana out of the glee club? Rachel also tries out for the lead in Funny Girl and some familiar faces come to visit New York!
15 reviews unlock Chapter 8!
