Back to the Start Chapter 13: First Stage, a glee fanfic

Sectionals was this week and we still didn't know who our faculty advisor was going to be. I was wondering why he hadn't just told us as soon as he was suspended because that would have made a lot more sense. I didn't know if I would be singing at Sectionals. I assumed that I would be, but I couldn't be sure of it. I also didn't know who else would be singing at Sectionals. Had our set list even been made yet? Were the other teams going to get it somehow? I had a lot of questions that I didn't know the answer to.

People were guessing who was going to be our advisor and I was pretty sure that the guesses were way off. It would most likely be either Coach Tweedy or Coach Kiernan, but probably not both. I still wanted to get them together, but that wasn't the most important thing right now. The important thing was winning Sectionals. While we were rehearsing, Quinn slipped and fell and I suddenly rushed to her aid. The more important thing was Sam did not like he was supposed to. I wondered if I should talk to him. He really didn't seem to want to be with her.

"Hey Sam, can we talk?" I asked him once the two of us were in the hall. I knew it was going to be a bit of a hard conversation to have. He would probably wonder why I was asking him to break up with her. Would he think that I wanted to be with him? Would he think that I wanted to be with her? Quinn was my best friend and I didn't really like her in that way. I wasn't really feeling romantic feelings for anyone at the moment. After four months, I was finally getting used to being a girl.

"What did you want to talk about?" He replied. He didn't seem to be very perceptive, but I also probably wasn't that obvious.

"Quinn." I answered. "I want to know if you're with her because she's pregnant or if you're dating her because you like her."

I knew that this was a bit of a delicate subject and I also considered that he could tell me that it was none of my business, which I supposed he would have a point if he thought that. It probably wasn't my place to meddle in their relationship.

"I mean I don't want her to be alone in such a vulnerable time." He answered. That made it sound like he didn't really want to be with her, but he was doing it more because he felt like he was obligated to.

"But she isn't really alone. She has me and her sister helping her out." I pointed out. "Just because she isn't getting any romantic love doesn't mean that she's not getting love. Though, it sounds like she's not getting any romantic love either. So I'm going to ask you again. Do you like her?"

"Not really, but I don't really know what I can do about it." He stated. To me the answer was pretty obvious. I couldn't believe that I needed to spell it out for him.

"I think you need to break up with her. I'm not saying this because I like you or because I like her, but I want the two of you to be happy and it's pretty clear that you're not happy together." I explained. I hoped that he would listen to me.

Later, I was in rehearsal, waiting for Mr. Schue to come in. He finally came with Coach Kiernan next to him. So I supposed that answered my question.

"Hey guys, let's gather round." He announced. "Well, I have found my replacement. So give it up for Coach Kiernan."

We all gave her some applause.

"Why are you doing this?" Santana asked her.

"Because it needs to be done." Coach Kiernan replied. "I also don't want to see you get disqualified because you don't have a coach. Now I know how to coach a winner even if I don't have any experience with this particular thing."

"Now I don't know what the future holds for me, but I know Saturday you're going to make me proud." Mr. Schue stated. Did he really think that he wasn't going to be allowed back? I wasn't sure why he would think that. "You guys are going to be great."

"What about our set list?" Jasmine inquired.

"I can't help you with that. You have to figure that out on your own." Mr. Schue explained. So that was why we didn't know yet.

"Well we should do 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman'." Katie replied.

"We can do 'Livin on a Prayer' too." I added.

"Neither of those are ballads." Rachel pointed out.

"I know a ballad." Jasmine piped in.

"But is it any good?" Rachel retorted.

"Rachel, let her sing it." Coach Kiernan told her.

Jasmine started to sing "Hallelujah" and I would definitely say that was a good song.

"Wow, Jasmine, you should totally sing that song at Sectionals." Rachel told her. I was a little surprised but maybe she was moved by it.

Afterwards, we left to go to class.

"So I talked to Sam earlier." I stated.

"About what?" She asked.

"I said that you two need to reanalyze your relationship because I don't think you two are happy together." I explained.

"I don't think you should have done that." She replied.

"You two shouldn't be together just for the baby, especially since the baby isn't even his." I declared.

After school, we were at rehearsal when Sam walked in a little late.

"So I'm here because I need to say that I'm out." He declared.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Quinn asked him. "Yeah and I'm leaving the glee club too."

"What?" Quinn asked. "But Sectionals are this Saturday and we need 12 people to compete. You can't leave us."

"I know and I'm sorry. I hope everything goes well." He declared before he walked out.

Okay, I didn't expect him to just leave like that. I supposed that I shouldn't have been surprised considering that was what I had done, but he also didn't seem to be particularly angry like I was.

Quinn and I were seated outside because we kind of called rehearsal early after that.

"Okay, so that didn't go how I planned it." I admitted.

"Now do you see why you shouldn't have meddled?" She asked me. I felt kind of bad but I supposed that was how I was supposed to feel.

"I'm sorry." I declared.

"You need to try to find a way to fix this." She stated. I didn't know if I could just ask him to come back. "But I guess I am happy that it's over. I want to be with someone who loves for me and doesn't just feel obligated to be with me."

I tried to think of another way to fix it that didn't involve asking Sam to come back. I then thought of one. I hoped that he would go for it because I did not want us to have to take Jacob Ben Israel to Sectionals.

I walked through the hallway and I finally found him. I was a little nervous about it.

"I've been looking for you." I told James.

"Well you found me." He declared. I couldn't help but wonder if he was mad at me for turning him down a few weeks ago. "What can I do for you?"

"I kind of need a favor from you." I stated. "You see one of our guys in the Glee club left suddenly and now we don't have enough people to compete. I was wondering if you could come with us to this competition on Saturday. You don't even have to stay after that if you don't want to."

He seemed to be thinking about it. I just hoped that he would say yes. I didn't really have another plan if he said no.

"Hmm, I'll do it on one condition." He remarked. I hoped that the condition wouldn't be too hard.

"What is it?" I asked nervously.

"You have to go on a date with me." He replied. I supposed that wasn't so bad. There was just one thing that I needed to know about it.

"I'm not going to have to do anything for this date, am I?" I replied.

"No." He answered.

"Well if you come to this with us, I'll go out with you after the competition." I bargained. I didn't want the date to end badly tonight and have him not show up or something.

"Deal." He agreed. "So do I need to wear anything special for this?"

"No, we have the costumes already." I explained. I was at glad that I had managed to get that sorted out. I also hoped that everyone else would be okay with me inviting him to join.

On Saturday, James did show up. You know I couldn't help but miss when we were the ones that we hosting Sectionals. The other two schools weren't hosting it either. It was just in a sort of neutral location. We watched as Mr. Schue said goodbye to Coach Kiernan as we left. I couldn't help but wonder what he was going to do with his life. He seemed to be a little lost. Maybe after the competition was over, I could talk to him. It would be a little weird but I wanted him to be happy.

I took a seat next to Quinn on the bus. Just because I had agreed to go out with James didn't mean that I was going to sit with him. I didn't really have high hopes for the date.

We were actually going to be performing at Ohio State. You know I was a little bit surprised that I had been able to get there in time before. It was a good thing that Mr. Schue told me after the halfway house performed. Being at Ohio State made me pretty sure that Frannie would be there. I hoped that she would. She seemed like she would.

"So I got you signed in." Coach Kiernan declared. "We're going to be performing last."

I couldn't help but wonder if that had been intentionally set up last time. It also felt weird being there with everyone else. I hadn't known what it was like to be at this part for this competition.

"I can't believe we have to go last." Ben declared.

"No, this is a good thing. It's always best to go either first or last because the judges will remember you better." Rachel explained. Coach Kiernan also nodded in agreement.

"We also can't change our position, so we're just going to have to do the best with what we can." Coach Kiernan declared. "I know that you're all going to be great out there and I know that we are going to win this."

I took Chrissy over to the bathroom before we went over.

"So you didn't give the set list to the other teams, did you?" I whispered to her.

"No, but I still wouldn't be surprised if they managed to get it somehow." She remarked. I probably wouldn't be surprised either. I was pretty sure that we would stomp them if they didn't know what we would be performing. Something was going to make this harder for us. I was pretty sure that they had gotten it somehow.

"Well even if someone else did, I'm just glad that you didn't do it." I declared.

"I wanted to, but I remembered what you told me. I just hope that this hasn't changed things. I can't really keep track of them anymore." She said.

"Chrissy, please stop worrying about that. Things are going to be fine. I promise that they are going to be fine." I told her before we went back.

We then went to the auditorium to watch and just as I expected, the halfway house was singing "Hallelujah". It wasn't particularly good, but we still couldn't sing the same songs as them because it would look like we were the ones who stole from them. Everyone else seemed to look shocked and I tried my best to look shocked as well. My biggest concern was who had leaked our set list to them. One thing that I couldn't help but think was Sam had done it, but I figured that even if he was mad at us, which he didn't seem to be, he still wouldn't do something like that. The Sam that I knew was a good person. There was also a chance that it could have been a coincidence.

However, once they got to the second song, I could tell that it was not a coincidence because they were performing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" wearing suits. While it was possible they could chosen that song on their own, even as unlucky as it was for a group of inner-city girls to do something like that, the fact that they were wearing suits was distinctly stolen from us. I knew that we were going to have to do something quick.

Interestingly, they did choose to go with a different song for their third song. It was so bad that I wasn't even sure what it was. Like I said, we would win as long as we had a good set list, the important thing was trying to figure out what we were going to do. I had prepared a song in case I was asked to sing something. It was a Hannah Montana song. I kind of underestimated Miley as a performer, but after really taking the time to listen to her music, I found that I really liked it.

We then went to the green room to prepare.

"So we have a bit of a major problem." Coach Kiernan told Mr. Schue over the phone. There is some Bring It On stuff going on here. I don't know how they found out, but the other teams are doing our numbers and I'm not entirely sure what to do. What do you think?"

Of course I couldn't hear what he was saying. Most people didn't have their phones on speaker. I knew that we would be on our own for this. I wasn't even sure if we could expect Sam to come since he couldn't drive. I supposed Mr. Schue could drop him off. I was pretty sure that the rules said that he explicitly was not allowed in the building, but the parking lot was not in the building, so it should have been fair game.

"Coach Kiernan, I know that you're afraid, but I think if anyone can get us together, it will be you." I told her. I had Faith in her. She didn't get to be a prolific cheerleading coach by being afraid.

"Alright, everyone listen up!" She declared. "I understand that our circumstances have changed suddenly, but there has to be some other songs that you can perform. We need a ballad. Jasmine, do you know any other songs that you can do?"

"I don't think that there are any that I feel as confident in as that one." Jasmine stated.

"Shouldn't we try to figure out how the other team got our set list first?" Ben asked.

"Why don't we look at the elephants in the room?" Katie replied as she looked at Brittany and Santana.

"Hey, we don't need to be accusing each other." Coach Kiernan remarked. "Did either of give the other teams our list?"

"No, I like being in Glee club whether you believe me or not." Santana stated.

"Well I gave it to Jacob Ben Israel but I didn't know what he wanted with it." Brittany declared. So that was how it got out.

"I am going to get that boy expelled." Coach Kiernan muttered. I didn't know if that would work. "Brittany, you shouldn't give to people just because they ask for it. Now let's figure out what ballad we're going to sing."

"I can sing something." Rachel offered.

"We should have our strongest singer out there." Katie remarked. "As much as I think that it could be me or Rachel. The truth is it's Faith."

"I have something that I can do." I stated. "I've been trying to practice just in case."

"And we can close with 'Somebody to Love'. Everyone loves that." Ben added.

"Well we can't just go out there with two songs." Adonis declared. At that point, I waited for Sam to come in through the door, but he didn't.

"I have something. I don't know if all of you know this, but I write songs. I have something that I wrote with my sister." Quinn replied. Okay this was not something that I was expecting here. "Mike, Ben, Jasmine and Santana can improvise a dance number to it. I have it right here in my notebook."

I saw the song and I couldn't help but think that I had heard it somewhere before.

"I know this song." I stated.

"That's because I played it for you before." Quinn reminded me. It was supposed to be a reminder anyway even though I didn't really remember any of her songs.

"It'll be choppy." Mike replied.

"Well we're best when we're loose." I pointed out. "We just need to go out there and give it all that we got."

"Those other teams really aren't even that good." Santana replied. "They just had the advantage because they knew what we were going to be singing."

After a very small amount of rehearsal, we changed into our outfits which we were still the same as before, which meant that I was wearing a black dress with a red sash. Like Rachel I was behind the curtain in the back of the audience. Quinn was on the stage playing piano.

How did I get here, turned around and there you were
I didn't think twice or rationalize cause somehow I knew
That was more than just chemistry, I mean I know you were kind of into me
But I figured it was too good to be true

I said "Pinch me. Where's the catch this time"
Can't find a single cloud in the sky
Help me before I get used to this guy

They say that good things take time
But really great things happen in the blink of an eye
Thought that the chances to meet somebody you like were a million to one
I cannot believe it, you're one in a million

All this time I was looking for love
Trying to make things work that weren't good enough
Till I thought "I'm through", said "I'm done"
And I stumbled into the arms of the one

I said "Pinch me. Where's the catch this time"
Can't find a single cloud in the sky
Help me before I get used to this guy

They say that good things take time
But really great things happen in the blink of an eye
Thought that the chances to meet somebody like you were a million to one
I cannot believe it, you're one in a million

One in a million
One in a million

"Ladies and Gentleman, we are the New Directions." I announced.

We then went out for the second song. I didn't know why I remembered hearing it. Maybe I had heard it in my other life, or maybe I was actually starting to remember some things that happened. I hoped that wouldn't mean that I would forget some of the other things that I knew. Since it was Quinn's song, we were going to let her sing it. Fortunately, the black was slimming and you wouldn't be able to tell that she was pregnant from far away.

Into your hair, into your mind
Out of your soul, race through your veins
You can't escape, you can't escape

At that point, I joined in.

Into your life into your dreams
Out of the dark sunlight again
You can't explain, you can't explain

Can you feel it, can you feel it
Rushing through your hair, rushing through your hair
Can you feel it, can you feel it

Don't let nobody tell you your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now you don't have to know how
Know it all before you try

It takes you to another place, imagine everything you can
When all the colors start to blend your system overloads again

Can you feel it Can you feel it

Don't let nobody tell you your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now you don't have to know how
Know it all before you try
Don't let nobody tell you
Don't let nobody tell you

Don't let nobody tell you your life is over
Be every color that you are
Into the rush now you don't have to know how
Know it all before you try

And as we agreed on, we closed it out with "Somebody to Love" which I was pretty sure that everyone had a good time with. I also knew that they were going to have a good time when we were announced as the winners.

We waited for them to deliberate and when they finally came out, they announced us as winners.

At school on Monday, we were in the choir room. It turned out that Mr. Schue's suspension only lasted through Sectionals like I thought it would. Coach Kiernan was in the room with us.

"You did it. The judges didn't even know about the cheating and you still won." Mr. Schue declared. That was because the other teams weren't good.

"So I guess Sam didn't want to come back." I announced. "I think we should give James the chance to properly audition though."

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there on the balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ballrooms
See you make your way through the crowd and say hello
Little did I know

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase begging you please don't go
And I said

"Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby just say yes
Romeo save me they're trying to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid we'll make out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes"

I got tired of waiting wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading when I met on the outskirts of town
And I said

"Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come"
Is this in my head I don't know to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said

"Marry me Juliet, you never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just say yes"

Cause we were both young when I first saw you

Before we left, I decided to talk to Coach Kiernan. I had to see if she was interested because I wanted to do this for Coach Tweedy.

"Coach Kiernan, I have something to tell you." I remarked. "I don't know if you've noticed but Coach Tweedy likes you. You may be ready to love someone, but if you are, I think you should talk to her. I think you'd be really good together."

"I'll think about it." She stated before she walked away.

If there was one thing that I could change, I would really want to win Regionals.

So it was Jacob Ben Israel that leaked the set list and Coach Kiernan was the faculty advisor. Also Sam left. Is he going to come back? The songs are "One in a Million
" by Hannah Montana, "Rush" by Aly and AJ and "Love Story" by Taylor.