Glee: Race to the Finish (the fifth book in the Glee series)

Chapter 10: I Am. I Said.

Now Demi has dropped her "Confident" album and I feel whole again you guys. New 1D song, new version of Fall Out Boy song featuring Demi. Like how do I even make time in my life to listen to all these songs on repeat? Demi's songs you should absolutely listen to? Father, Stone Cold, Yes, Wildfire, and Confident are my faves right now! Also some new Little Mix is out so this weekend was just perfect from the start!
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When Jake woke up, Kitty was already gone. She had an early meeting with the rest of city council, so he got up lazily and got ready for another day of teaching dance to high school students.

In the kitchen, Riley was finishing up her breakfast just as Jake was ready to head out. "Let's go before we're late," he told her. "You can finish in the car."

"I'm done," she said after her final bite, taking the almost empty bowl of cereal and putting it in the sink. She silently followed Jake out the door and to his car. Once they were seated and on the road, she cleared her throat and bluntly asked, "Are you going to leave Kitty?"

Jake glanced her way briefly and then looked straight ahead once again. "We're just going through a rough patch," he responded. "That's all." 

Riley watched him carefully. He hadn't said 'no' which was the answer she wanted to hear. With this in her mind, it wasn't long before they had arrived at McKinley and she realized that she'd run out of time to say anything else on the subject.

***

"And then we started talking about our families," Amity was saying when Alex walked into the board room and spotted her talking to John. "I told him about my mom and he told me about his wife. They didn't have any kids but... It's nice to know he found someone to be happy with." 

Watching Sebastian's threatening glare, she slowly answered, "No..?"

"Brilliant," said the woman on the other end of the line. "It was very nice talking to you, Juliet. Thank you and good luck."

The call ended and Julie looked up at Sebastian, "She was nice!"

"She's going to destroy you," Sebastian told her.

"You're so paranoid," Julie rolled her eyes. "You said being pregnant would destroy me and it hasn't. And now a harmless interview about putting my pregnancy first is going to make me look bad?"

"That woman already thought of the way to do it," he assured her. "I can think of at least five different ways to take those final comments and turn them on you."

A woman whose name Julie had yet to learn entered the room, "Mr. Smythe, the data you asked for is ready."

"Fantastic," said Sebastian, giving one final look to Julie before heading out. He grabbed the papers from the woman and then continued towards his office, out of Julie's sight.

When Sebastian entered his office, Blaine and Dani were already sitting in front of his desk. "Thank you for meeting me," he told them curtly. "Take a look at this."

He handed them the papers, which contained a lot of graphs, and Dani asked, "What is all of this?"

"Research," Sebastian said. "The label is moving upward, but at a low rate. I want to push myself and my artists even further. Santana and Julie are hitting well with people in their late teens and early twenties. Crystal Army does great with that demographic too, especially women. And their recent album boosted sales with males. Dan and Amity do extremely well with women in their late 20s. But the label is need of someone for the tweens and younger teens. Ages 11 through 15. You know, the ones who will scream their lungs out at the concerts and sell their kidneys to afford the backstage passes. The ones who are the most dedicated and who make things trend. Who make multiple accounts and vote multiple times for awards. We need those people behind our artists."