Forever Has to Start Somewhere

Chapter 18: Special Education III

Adam (Friday 4:35pm)

How are they?

You (Friday 4:36pm)

The last text message Kurt sent me said (and I'm copying and pasting here):

You know, I complain about Rachel a lot. But at least she's always got her act together pre-performance. This is a disaster.

Adam (Friday 4:38pm)

So the same as always.

You (Friday 4:39)

Pretty much.

You (Friday 4:39)

I'll let you know how it looks once the Warblers perform.

"I know I taught you better than to be on your phone in a theater."

Jesse hit the home button and locked his phone up. He slipped it into his jacket pocket before turning to the woman who had just settled into the seat next to him. "The competition hasn't started yet, Shelby."

"I suppose it hasn't," she murmured. Her eyes scanned over him. He resisted the instinctive urge to straighten up under her scrutiny. "I heard you turned down UCLA."

"I did," he answered. "I accepted NYADA's offer instead. They only offered half of my tuition, but it would be a much bigger challenge."

"New York is a lot closer to Ohio than California is. Wasn't your goal to get as far from here as possible?"

"It was," Jesse agreed. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his seat. "But my girlfriend lives here and we're both destined for New York. I just decided to speed the process along so that I could stay close to her."

Something in Shelby's eyes lightened. Her voice was softer when she asked, "How is Rachel?"

"Obviously not fine," he said. "Considering the fact that my uncle had to offer you a salary to ensure she was treated fairly in her glee club."

"I knew that. I just – Is she happy? Is she doing well in school?" He stared at her for a moment. Then he gave a light shake of his head. "She's not?"

"I'm not saying that. I just refuse to sit here and tell you about her. You had the chance to learn those things about her first hand and you refused it," he answered. He made sure he was looking Shelby in the eye as he asked, "How's your daughter? She's what...a few months shy of one? She'll be talking soon right? Here's hoping she becomes the perfect golden child you wanted."

He was sure his words had hit their mark when she flinched.

Before Shelby could answer, Jesse's phone buzzed in his pocket.

Rachel (Friday 4:47)

Where are you seated? Mr. Schue said Kurt and I could sit with you until the Warblers finished.

You (Friday 4:48)

I'll come meet you instead.

Jesse shoved his phone away before standing up. Shelby's eyes followed his movement.

"Excuse me," he said. "My girlfriend asked me to go sit with her."

He shifted around her, shuffling out of their row.

He walked to the back of the auditorium and towards the door that New Directions was entering from.

Jesse reached them right as Rachel slipped inside behind Mercedes and Kurt. Her phone was in her hands and her eyebrows were knitted together as she examined it.

He gave Matt a pat on the back as he slipped between him and Mike.

"Hey," he greeted as he looped an arm around Rachel's shoulders. When he looked over, he could see that she had been reading his text message. "Told you I'd come to you."

A smile lit her face as she looked at him. She chided softly, "That wasn't the plan."

"I'm a fan of going against those." He looked over her. It was the first time he was seeing her in her costume. The silver and white halter dress looked good on her. "You look as beautiful as always."

"Thank you." She gave a soft hum as they followed the others down the aisle. "It's lack of pockets are a bit inconvenient though. I needed my phone to find out where you were and now I have no where to put it."

"We can put it in mine and you can grab it again before you go to the green room." She gave an agreeing hum before slipping her hand around to put the item in the back pocket of his jeans. Afterwards, she raised her arm just enough to rest it over his lower back and curled her fingers around his hip. The extra contact made him smile. He pressed a kiss to her temple. "You know, I love you right?"

"I do," she agreed. She craned her head back to look at him. "You know, I love you right?"

"I do," he echoed. He pressed a kiss against her forehead.

"Alright, alright," Matt said from behind them. Jesse felt a foot kick against his calf. "Keep that shit to a minimum, love birds."

"You are just jealous and lonely," Jesse teased.

As he spoke the words, he thought of the woman he'd been sitting with moments before. There was no doubt in his mind that the words applied to her.

"You could have won."

Will sighed. He took a quick check of the kids, counting carefully to make sure they were all still grouped in front of him, before turning around to face Shelby. "We did win."

"You tied," she corrected. "And the only reason that happened was because you had the dancing the Warblers were lacking. If you'd had different vocalists, you would have won."

"There is no guarantee that's true."

Shelby shook her head. Her chest heaved with a sigh. "Will, Rachel won sectionals singlehandedly last year."

"That's not true. The whole club worked together and-"

"She was all the circuit was talking about for months. Everyone wanted to know about the tiny brunette who belted out a near flawless rendition of a Streisand classic," Shelby corrected. "I'm not claiming to know your club, because I don't. But I can promise you would have that trophy all to yourself if you'd put Rachel on I've Had the Time of My Life."

He was quiet for a minute before asking, "The duet? Not the solo?"

"I'm not sure if Rachel could pull off a number like Valerie. She did well in the background, but I'm not sure she could reel herself back enough to keep from overshadowing the dancers," Shelby answered. Her shoulders seemed to slump with the admission. "I don't know her well enough to tell you that."

Will felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. He remembered their conversation last year about Shelby's expectations for Rachel prior to meeting her and the fall out that had followed, but this was clearly a woman who had come to regret her decision.

"You'll be working with us starting next week," Will said. "You'll have a chance to get to know her."

She gave Will a small bittersweet smile. "Thank you for saying that, but it'll be as her coach not as her mother. Jesse made it pretty clear to me that I wasn't going to get a second chance at the latter."

"You spoke to Jesse?" Will thought back on the afternoon. "When? He was with us the whole time."

"I sat down next to him before you entered the auditorium. I asked him how Rachel was doing. If she was happy and doing well in school. He shut me down and then left to meet you."

"Ah..." He gave a small nod of understanding. "That doesn't surprise me. Jesse's pretty protective of her."

Surprise flashed across her face. "He is?"

He gave another nod. "He had half the McKinley football team terrified of him within a week of transferring. He refused to let them so much as look at Rachel."

"He was never like that at Carmel," Shelby said. "He never seemed to care about the girls he had on his arm. It was like they were an after thought to him."

"Really?" This time it was his face with shock painted on it. "That's hard to believe. He and Rachel are always completely engrossed in each other. It's like they're one person."

They fell quiet.

Will turned over her earlier words about their performance while Shelby considered Will's opinion on her eldest daughter's relationship.

"Mr. Schue!" They both looked behind him at the interruption. Kurt had broken from the group, taking a few steps away from the group. "Can Rachel, Mike, Tina, Matt, Puck, and I head out? Jesse's offering to take us out for pizza."

"Does he have room for all of you in his car?" Will questioned.

"We can make it work," Matt piped in. "Mike and Rachel are small enough to share a seat."

"That's not legal," Will stressed. "Look, where's Jesse? I'll talk to him about it."

Puck gave a snort. "He and Rachel slipped off to make out like the second you turned your back. They can't seem to keep their hands off each other."

"Shush," Kurt said, waving a hand behind him to dismiss Puck. "Let them have their time together. He's off to New York again on Sunday."

Will just let out a heavy sigh. He pushed a hand through his hair. He gave Shelby an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, I have to go take care of this."

"Go ahead."

She gave a small smile of her own and shooed him with her hand.

He took several steps towards his team before throwing over his shoulder, "Rachel's got an A in Spanish though she's got a bad habit of mixing up her verbs."

He heard her soft, "Thank you," before he was surrounded by teenagers demanding his attention.

Jesse trudged up the steps towards his dorm room early Sunday morning. His dufflebag was slung over his shoulder.

It was only nine am and he was already exhausted with this day.

Rachel had been allowed to stay at his house Saturday night. They'd said goodbye on his front porch at four in the morning, before his uncle drove him to Columbus. Despite the early hour, there had been tears and tight hugs.

He'd slept through most of the hour and half long flight to New York and it'd left him groggy as he tried to navigate through LaGuardia. Catching a cab had been it's own type of hell.

"Hey! Look who's back!"

Jesse looked up, having been focusing on his feet to make sure he didn't miss a step in his exhaustion, to find Adam and Brody standing in front of the door to Jesse's dorm room.

"Hey," Jesse greeted. He was all too aware of how tired the words sounded.

"You sound like shit," Brody observed.

"I know," he answered. "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up in a few hours so I don't mess up my sleep schedule the day before I go back to class."

"We're on our way out for breakfast," Adam said. "We'll wake you up when we get back."

"Bring me something to eat while you're at it?" he requested.

As he reached them, Brody leaned over and popped the door open for him. He felt a rush of affection for his roommate.

"Sure thing," Brody agreed.

"You guys are the best friends," Jesse said as he passed them.

Adam let out a soft laugh. "We know. Now go to sleep, St. James."

"Absolutely," Jesse agreed.

He stepped into the room and kicked the door shut behind him.

He tossed his dufflebag onto the floor before collapsing against his bed.

Two weeks with Rachel had been amazing, but he sure hoped coming back after Christmas break didn't take this much out of him.

E/n: OKAY WOW FINALLY DONE WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION!

This chapter was mostly setting up for Shelby's return, but hopefully it was enjoyable nonetheless?

Lil bit of the brOT3 at the end there because I was kinda missing them.

The next episode is technically the Glee Christmas episode, but Jesse won't be back with Rachel until the chapter after that.

Review and favorite/follow if you enjoyed!