She's Back {New Directions & Jesse}

[rachel barbra berry]

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[atrb=background,http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/9220/jesse1.png][scrolly:h(200),w(400),sy] It would be the first time Rachel would be with all of the members of her glee club. It had been ages since she had seen some of them – which surprised her, especially under the awful circumstances that the girl had gone been through. But, it wasn’t like all of them had been ‘no shows’, she had seen a few of them. Finn of course was the first one that she had seen, and that didn’t end out exactly the way she wanted it too. An explosive breakup like that one wasn’t good for Rachel, especially then and there. She understood that he was upset – which she was sorry for – and he had a right to be upset, but doing what he did wasn’t right, and not only did it hurt her, it hurt himself and it hurt Jesse. The atmosphere after that was nearly destructive and all that happened were strong words and tears. It took a few days for everything to blow over before that love that brought Rachel and Jesse together came back and they were in one another’s arms again. Blaine had seen her, for a day, but besides her parents, and a few more people including some of her teachers, no more students or glee members had come and seen her. Her mother hadn’t even taken time to come and see her daughter. That hurt Rachel the most. After, of course, she saw a few more members, including Kurt – who promised her he would have come to see her if he had time, and Brittany whom invited her onto her Fondue show. They both had been nice about her injuries, and tried not to pull any feathers when speaking about Jesse. The biggest jump for Rachel was the visit to Lima Juvenile Detention Facility, telling her that she was dropping the charges –of course as long as she paid for the medical bills, that was the only way her fathers would allow her to drop the charges. It wasn’t like they had become best friends after her release, even though that is what Rachel wanted, but Santana wasn’t at her throat anymore. Jesse had given her a ride to their first practice. Their ride was mostly silent, besides a few off topic conversations that were quickly ended. It wasn’t awkward for either of them – they were both just worried about what was going to come. He wouldn’t leave her alone at this practice, especially with both Finn and Santana there, that and he was their consultant, he would help them get everything molded before they would hammer out the kinks in the next practices. Once they had gotten out of the car, Rachel shuffled through her papers and leaned into the arm wrapped around her body. Jesse’s comforting arm made her smile as she pulled her rolling back pack behind her with one arm, and wrapped her arm around his waist with her other, “Do you think they missed me Jesse…?” Rachel murmured, letting her head rest against his shoulder. She really shouldn’t have been worried about that, but something in her just thought that they would be happier without her. The sound of her wheels going from the parking lot to the sidewalk made Rachel stop in her tracks, and she looked up to Jesse. “don’t start anything…with finn…. Ok…? We don’t need that. Just…stay away from him…for me…?” The theatre was exactly as she had remembered it. It smelled of sheet music, and success. Running out of Jesse’s embrace, she pulled her bag to the middle of the stage, a big smile on her face as she closed her eyes and felt the bright stage lights shine across her cheeks. She was home, and she knew it. Brad sat at the piano, and she waved at him, pulling out his copies of sheet music and placed them in his hands, “here is our music, I spent a long time getting everything perfect.” She stressed perfect before continuing, “If you have any questions, all you have to do is ask me.” Giving him a Rachel Berry smile, she turned back to the front of the stage, looking at the risers and how they had already been placed on the stage. Squinting, she looked off stage to see a few people looking up at her. Flattening out the edge of her red floral dress, Rachel called out, “guys..?” missing out on all the lights in her eyes she couldn’t tell who was sitting out there. But all she could tell is that it didn’t look like everyone was there yet. “Come on guys, we need to practice.”she waved them up to the stage and grabbed her microphone which was tucked into her bag and placed it in the stand. “I have each person’s sheet music color coded. Girls are pink, guys are blue. Your names are on the top, and all the music is stapled together, you should have a copy of all the music already, but I brought these ones so that all your parts are highlighted for you.” Of course there were people who didn’t have solos, but that wasn’t important – winning was. ---------------------- Wordcount – 860 Tagged- New Directions and Jesse Notes- Just because Rachel talked to jesse first, that doesn’t meant that he needs to talk first. Mostly because Minty won’t be back until sunday ish. Open to finn and Santana to answer first [/scrolly]

[jesse henry st. james]

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[atrb=background,http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/9220/jesse1.png][scrolly:h(200),w(400),sy] Rachel had recovered splendidly, and the doctors gave her the OK to sing again, so that meant she and Jesse needed to start cracking down on rehearsing for the upcoming competition. He was, of course, still concerned for her well-being as both Finn (Jesse was proud to say that Finn was now her ex, although that hadn't been pretty) and Rachel's attacker would be in attendance. Despite that, he had to be in full business mode, meaning that he had to turn New Directions into a choir that was worthy of competing against Vocal Adrenaline and even coming out victorious. If Regionals and Nationals were any indication, he had his work cut out for him. Rachel was the least of his worries when it came to show choir. She was the star, and required no direction on her part. As he saw it, the rehearsals were to make sure that everyone else knew their place around her and didn't get in her way. This didn't mean that Jesse would disregard her safety. Quite the contrary. He insisted on driving her to practice himself, being older and therefore having more experience behind the wheel. He wouldn't let her out of his sight, unless he was busy, in which case she would be closely watched by someone he trusted to keep her safe. He didn't like her being around Finn or Santana, but it was necessary for their set, and they couldn't redo it this close to the competition. All the way through the car ride, he put his mind off worrying by thinking of what he needed to see from the other members of New Directions. Rachel would, of course, be perfect, but he didn't need anyone else slacking off. Going by his experience, the choreography would need to be intense in order to set a standard for the enemy choirs. No one (with the possible exception of Rachel) would be allowed to sit down today. He pulled into McKinley's parking lot and looped an arm protectively around her shoulders once they'd gotten out of his car. A superior smirk crept onto his face as her arm snaked around his waist. To him, that was a sign that she was just as possessive of him as he was of her. He kissed the top of her head as they walked. "Of course they missed you. I saw you every day, and I missed you." Maybe the less-talented kids pretended to dislike her at times, but honestly, they liked her enough to stick up for her after he broke her heart, enough to hate his guts for the rest of their days no matter what he did to try to make up to Rachel. They were her friends; bitter, jealous friends who would kill to be as good onstage as she was, but friends nonetheless. Just before they entered the building, Rachel stopped them. He looked back at her, puzzled. They had a rehearsal to go to, and they couldn't be late. But this was the ever-important matter of not going on a rampage at Finn. Jesse sighed. "I don't have a problem with the guy except for his absolutely horrific dancing and sense of priority. If anything, he's the one who would start something. But, if you insist, I'll steer clear." Finn was a bumbling idiot and, in Jesse's opinion, one of the worst performers in glee. He would be nothing if not brutally honest with the kid, because this was business. Personal issues couldn't get in the way of that. The theater was mostly deserted. They were the first ones there, naturally. Not even the director was there, but it was no big deal. The leadership role simply fell to Jesse and Rachel, and under that guidance it would be difficult to fail. Not that such failure was beyond New Directions, Jesse frowned, so he went through his ideas for the upcoming performance and they would be perfected by the end of the day. Or else. Word count: 693 Tagged: New Directions Notes: other people should reply to this... [/scrolly]

[kurt elizabeth hummel]

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[atrb=background,http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7333/kurt1.png][scrolly:h(200),w(400),sy] The wait was over for rehearsals to begin again. Kurt, followed by Finn, walked calmly into the April Rhodes Civic Pavilion, putting his bag containing old sheet music and a water bottle on one of the chairs in the back row of the front-and-center section of the audience. Rachel and (he tried to hide his scowl) Jesse were already waiting onstage. Fantastic; this meant that he would be spending most if not all of rehearsal hearing about how wonderful their self-proclaimed star was and how terrible everyone else was in comparison. Finn just glared at them. Kurt sighed. As his brother, it was sort of Kurt's job to be angry with Jesse and be comforting by telling him that he was too good for her, anyway, and help Finn get back on his feet and in the dating scene. Except... he really wasn't all that mad at Jesse and Rachel was one of his best friends. All he wanted ever since the breakup occurred was for Finn to stop whining about it. It wasn't the end of the world, after all. He was overreacting, and that was coming from Kurt. "What's he doing here?" Finn asked, seething. "Finn, he's a consultant. He's not here just to spite you." The facepalm was just waiting to happen, but Kurt controlled himself. How did he ever find this idiocy charming? "Although I must admit: if he belittles my ability again, I will personally kick him." Jesse may have been a half-decent human being, but Kurt would not stand to be treated as if he were inept, as it seemed to be the case when they auditioned to see who was the best singer before Nationals. He knew his rendition of "Some People" was fabulous, no matter what Jesse said. Rachel summoned them to the stage, and Kurt had to drag Finn with him if anything was to get done at all. Others started to file in as well behind them, grumbling at the presence of Jesse as well, since most of them still didn’t trust him at all. The new sheet music was passed out to everyone, Rachel occasionally leafing through to find the specific copies for each person as they arrived. A fair-sized set of glares followed Jesse to his place at the “judges’ table” while she gave direction. Kurt rolled his eyes; his friends could certainly hold grudges. He looked at the packet that Rachel gave him to see that most of the work was done for him. Most of what was highlighted was the harmonies that he’d worked on while she was in the hospital, but hello. He had a feature in Seasons of Love. He grinned. With Jesse and Rachel at the wheel, he wasn’t expecting to be more than just background vocals, as always. He supposed he had Rachel to thank, given Mr. Schuester’s absence. It wasn’t a solo, but not even the Warblers had given him that unless Blaine said something about it. No, the one solo went to Rachel as always. After what happened to her, though, he didn’t have the heart to bitch about it like he usually did. It wasn’t as if he was ungrateful, either. Finn, standing next to him, kept a contemptuous gaze trained on both Rachel and Jesse. Kurt wished he wouldn’t. Time was short, and Vocal Adrenaline was just begging to be defeated, and that was essentially impossible without Finn. Even now Kurt knew that (before, it was mostly the crush talking), but his stepbrother looked like he was about to storm out a la Rachel Berry at the beginning of sophomore year. Or maybe like he did when he learned that Puck had fathered Quinn’s baby. He had every right to be pissed, after all, then and now. As soon as the tension became tangible, Kurt felt the need to intervene. ”Okay, can we just skip the relationship drama and get started?” he asked in frustration. ”Honestly. It’s almost worse than Rumours week.” Sam, somewhere onstage, cringed at the memory. He’d caused most of the drama that week, and there was one point where Kurt had had to tell Blaine that if anything came up about him cheating, it was a lie. It was a good thing he did, too (as the narration stared pointedly at Finn). ”Are we going over the group numbers first, or what?” Word count: 728 Tagged: New Directions and Jesse Notes: HA I got in two posts in a row. [/scrolly]