Who will I be, Jesse St James

009. FUNDRAISER

Chapter nine
"Fundraiser."

Sitting in glee club, everyone seemed to be doing their own thing as Mr Schuester came walking in "all right, guys. We're doing a new number for sectionals. I know that pop songs have sort of been our signature pieces." he shared, handing sheet music to Artie and then a pile up to Mike and Tina so the two can pass them out up top as he continued to do so at the bottom "but I did a little research on past winners and it turns out that the judges like songs that our more accessible. Stuff they know. Uh, standards, broadway." he shared, and when Kurt saw the song his face lit up as he smiled "defying gravity. I have an iPod shuffle dedicated exclusively to selections from wicked. This is amazing." he shared.

As Mr Schuester then looked to Rachel "you think you can handle it, Rachel?" he asked her "it's my go to shower song. It's also my ringtone." Rachel shared "why do we have to go all vanilla on this song? See what we need is my chocolate thunder." Mercedes shared "okay, we don't have time to rearrange the song for you, Mercedes. Rachel is singing it. Don't worry. We'll find something for you to dip in chocolate." Mr Schuester shared, laughing along with everyone else "on to item two. The school won't pay for the special bus we need to take Artie and his wheelchair with us to sectionals." he told them.

"What?" Tina stuttered out "that's completely unfair." Rachel mentioned "what are we gonna do?" Caroline asked as Mr Schuester pointed at her "I'm gonna tell you what. We're going to have to pay for it ourselves. See, when I was in glee club and we needed new silk cummerbunds for regionals, we held a bake sale." he shared as many people in the room laughed at that "wait. You're joking, right? I mean bake sales are kind of bougie." Santana mentioned as Mr Schuester furrowed his brows "so, hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?" he asked "it's not that. It's most of us don't know how to bake. I find recipes confusing." Britney shared "my family's fully committed to takeout." Rachel shared.

"Yeah, Mr Schue. Kids are busier then when you went here. We've got homework and football and teen pregnancy, lunch." Finn shared "can't Artie's dad just take him?" Mercedes asked "I can't believe how insensitive you're all being. Are you a team?" Mr Schuester asked "of course. But Artie understands. Don't you, Artie?" Quinn asked him "oh, of course. It's cool. I mean, anything that takes away our time from rehearsing doesn't serve the team." Artie mentioned "but.." Caroline went to add on, knowing nothing that was just said was right but her voice got drowned out by the sound of the bell ringing.

As everyone began to get up to leave, Caroline looked to Artie and noticed him trying to tie his shoe as she quickly stood up, throwing her bag over her shoulder and ran down from the top of the steps to help him, which Mr Schuester noticed, as she threw her bag down to the side "here, let me help you." she told him, crouching down to do so "thank you." Artie told her, although he was honestly surprised she was even speaking to him "look, about the others being so insensitive. It's like this whole club is like American idol or something with them all just focusing on being a star." Caroline shared, chuckling "it's okay, I'm used to it. They just don't get it." Artie told her, chuckling.

Caroline looked up to him with furrowed brows "I do. It's not fair, you work harder than the rest of us. They're all just too focused on the spotlight to care about other's sometime." she told him,  sighing as she stood up, grabbing her bag "I'll see you around, Artie." she told him, giving him a smile as she turned around and looked at Mr Schuester watching her as she gave him a smile "bye, Mr Schue." she told him, giving him a wave "bye, Caroline." Mr Schuester told her, as Caroline headed out of the choir room, Artie watched her leave.

That afternoon, Caroline had headed to the auditorium like she usually did to goof around on the piano and just have sometime to herself but when she did, she heard Artie singing as she walked to the wing and watched him on stage.