―

―

"YOU NEED TO TRY and stop stressing out so much about all of this money thing. I know it's hard, but it's not healthy for the baby," Hunter told Quinn, as Mr. Schue entered the choir room, ready for Glee rehearsal, "If you need money, you know my family and I would happily help you out."

"I know, Hunter," Quinn sighed, "But this is mine and Finn's baby, I couldn't ask you for that."

"All right, guys. We're doing a new number for Sectionals," Mr. Schue told everyone, handing them all music sheets, "I know that pop songs have sort of been our signature pieces, but I did a little research on past winners, and it turns out that the judges like songs that are more accessible. Stuff they know. Uh, standards, Broadway."

Kurt grinned excitedly, "'Defying Gravity'? I have an iPod shuffle dedicated exclusively to selections from Wicked. This is amazing."

"Think you can handle it, Rachel?" Mr. Schuester asked, making Quinn and Hunter share an eyeroll.

" It's my go-to shower song," Rachel nodded, "It's also my ringtone."

Hunter frowned, placing a comforting hand on a crushed Kurt's shoulder.

"Why do we have to go all vanilla on this song? See, what we need is my chocolate thunder." Mercedes smirked, the rest of the club hyping her up.

" Okay, we don't have time to rearrange a song for you, Mercedes. Rachel is singing it. Don't worry, we'll find something for you to dip in chocolate." Their teacher told her, making the club chuckle, "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."

"W-w-what?!" Tina asked.

"That's completely unfair." Rachel said, making Hunter agree with her for once.

" So we're going to have to raise money to pay for it ourselves," Mr. Schue sighed, "See, when I was in glee club, and we needed new silk cummerbunds for regionals, we held a bake sale."

There was scattered laughter, whilst Hunter grinned widely in excitement.

"You're joking, right?" Santana scoffed, "I mean, bake sales are kind of bougie."

"So hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?" Mr. Schuester asked.

"Mr. Schue, no-one says 'hip' anymore." Hunter told him.

"It's not that?" Brittany said, "It's most of us? Don't know how to bake? I find ... recipes confusing."

"My family is fully committed to takeout." Rachel agreed.

"Yeah, Mr. Schue, kids are busier than when you went here. We've got homework and football and teen pregnancy ... lunch." Finn shrugged.

"Can't Artie's dad just take him?" Mercedes shrugged.

"That's not fair, though." Hunter spoke up.

"I can't believe how insensitive you're all being," Mr. Schue said, "Are you a team?"

"Of course," Quinn nodded, "But Artie understands, don't you, Artie?"

"Oh... Of course," Artie nodded, unconvincingly, "I-It's cool. Anything that takes away our time from rehearsing doesn't serve the team."

The school bell rang and everyone started to leave, except Artie, who went to tie his shoelace, only to have trouble, causing Hunter to hang back and help his friend.

"I've got that."

"Thanks, Hunter." Artie said with a small smile, as Mr. Schue walked over to them.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about how they rest of them all reacted, Artie."

"Oh, it's okay. I'm used to it," Artie shrugged, making both Hunter and Mr. Schue frown, "They just don't get it... Can I use the auditorium this afternoon to rehearse, Mr. Schue? Some of the band equipment's in there."

"Sure." Mr. Schue nodded, as the boy rolled away.

―

The Glee Club sat in the Choir Room, about to start another rehearsal, as Kurt stood up, hands on his hip.

"I have something I'd like to say. I want to audition for the wicked solo." He said, everyone giving him murmurs of encouragement.

"Kurt, there's a high F in it." Mr. Schue said.

Kurt smirked, "That's well within my range."

There were several 'oooohs', as Hunter clapped his friend on.

"Yeah it is!"

"Well, I think Rachel's going to be fine for the female lead, but I'm happy to have you try out something else, Kurt," Mr. Schue told him, "And we'll make sure it's got a killer high note."

Kurt sat back down, dejected, as the rest of the team comforted him.

"You tried." Artie shrugged.

"Anyway, I wanted to say something to you guys. I was a little disappointed at how you were all so willing to take the bus to get to sectionals and make Artie drive by himself with his dad. We're a team, guys. We're in this glee club together." Mr. Schue told them all.

"Artie doesn't care," Mercedes shrugged, "His dad drives him everywhere."

"I do care," Artie admitted, "It kind of hurt my feelings."

"We didn't think you would take it personally." Rachel said.

"Well, you're irritating most of the time, but don't take that personally." Artie sassed back, making Hunter - who was sat next to him - give him a high five.

"I don't know if you guys really understand how much harder Artie has to work just to keep up." Mr. Schue said, starting to get even more frustrated.

"Preach." The boy in question nodded.

"We're riding to sectionals together. Or we're not going at all. And to pay for the bus, we're having a bake sale," Mr. Schue told them all, as there were groans and murmurs of displeasure and Mr. Schuester went over to the door to let in several people pushing empty wheelchairs, "St. Ignatius nursing home was having a tag sale, and my AV club friends here agreed to help out. For the next week, each of you is going to spend three hours a day in a wheelchair. Oh, oh, oh. And we're doing a wheelchair number."

At the end of the rehearsal, Hunter wheeled over to his Spanish teacher with a sigh, "You know, it's all well and good to preach about helping Artie and being a team. But just straight away giving that solo to Rachel, when Kurt obviously wants it. That's low." He said, before leaving the Choir Room with a dramatic roll.

―

"So there's gonna be a big 'diva-off'?" Katie asked with an amused smile, as they stood in Hunter's kitchen, surrounded by his mother's baking equipment.

"Yeah, Kurt's gonna kill it." The boy nodded with a grin.

"I don't doubt that he will," Katie chuckled, as she watched the boy move around the kitchen, "You're really good at all of this."

"Thanks," Hunter blushed, "My Mom and I baked together all the time growing up."

Katie smiled fondly, "That's really sweet."

The boy nodded, "Yeah. Did you ever do anything like this with either of your parents when you were a kid."

"Not baking, but my Dad would always take me fishing when my siblings and I were younger." Katie told him.

"That's really cool," Hunter said, "My Dad and I didn't really spend much time together when I was a kid. He was always working, you know, supporting us as a family."

"Are you guys close now?" Katie wondered.

"Not as close as I'd like us to be," Hunter shrugged, "But ever since my mom went into hospital, we've slowly but surely been getting closer."

"That's great," Katie said with a small smile, before adding, "That you're getting closer, not the thing with your mom. That's horrible. Like really, really horrible. Oh God, I need to learn to shut up."

Hunter smiled at her fondly, "Katie," He cut off the rambling girl, putting his hand on her arm, shutting her up, "It's fine."

The blonde girl winced, "I'm sorry."

"Seriously, it's fine." Hunter reassured her.

"I am really sorry about everything that your family's going through." Katie told him sincerely.

"Yeah, it sucks," Hunter nodded, "Thank you for supporting me through all of this."

Katie smiled up at him, "Of course."

―

The Glee Club, including Brad, were on the stage in the auditorium, sat in their wheelchairs, as Artie was teaching them some tricks.

" The key to a double turn is to just go for it," The boy instructed his friends, "You push with the right wheel and pull as hard as you can with the left, and find a spot on the wall to spot you so you don't get dizzy."

Everyone starts doing double turns, with varying levels of enthusiasm and success.

"Woah, I'm dizzy." Hunter laughed.

"It's like Artie said, you need to spot or that'll keep happening." Rachel told him.

"I know, but if I keep going then I'll be seeing spots soon." Hunter chuckled, Rachel joining in, before he successfully gave it another go.

"Okay, guys, take five, all right?" Mr Schuester called out, "Oh, remember to show up early on Thursday. It's Rachel versus Kurt for the big solo."

Everyone nodded, beginning to wheel out, when Hunter turned to Rachel.

"Wanna go find an unhealthy, sugary snack from the vending machine?" He asked.

"You seriously want to spend time outside of class with me?"

"I mean, technically, we're still in class," Hunter shrugged with a smirk, "Come on, I'm finding you tolerable today and it's making me want to try and be your friend."

"Well I appreciate that," Rachel said, as they rolled down the hallway, "I see how good of a friend you are to people like Quinn, Finn and Mercedes. I'd like for us to get along."

"I would too," Hunter nodded, "Just as long as you stop turning into Miss Piggy."

Rachel blushed, "I'll try."

As he went to say something, Hunter felt a sudden cold liquid being thrown in his face, making him gasp, wiping the blueberry slushy from his eyes, seeing Rachel had been given the same fate.

"See ya, wheelchair losers!" A jock laughed, high-fiving his friend as they walked off.

―

"Here." Hunter said, passing his spare grey shirt over the bathroom stall as he stood awkwardly in the girl's bathroom.

"Thank you, Hunter," Rachel said, as the boy leaned against the sinks, "Are you sure you don't want your shirt? I normally have a spare set of clothes in my locker, however-"

"It's fine, Rachel," Hunter assured him, "My hoodie will cover up all the slush." He said, making them both chuckle as the short girl exited the cubicle, brushing down the shirt that swallowed her.

"What do you think?" She asked, giving him a joking twirl.

Hunter chuckled, crossing his arms, "I think that you might want to tuck it into your skirt unless you want to wear it as a dress."

Rachel let out a small laugh, agreeing with him and doing so.

"Hey, Rachel, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." The girl nodded.

"Why do you go so Miss Piggy?" Hunter wondered, "Like when Tina got the West Side Story solo and you didn't. I get that it must have sucked because you wanted it bad, but it's just one song."

Rachel looked down, frowning slightly, "I guess that after waiting so long to prove myself, having been so ignored all of the time, I really want to keep proving myself. I guess I just let my passion control me too much." She admitted, as they exited the bathroom, making their way back to rehearsal.

"That's not a bad thing, you know," Hunter told her, "It's just shows how ambitious you are and how much you care."

Rachel looked up at him, "You really think so?"

"I do," Hunter nodded, "And you know what else I think?"

"What?"

"That as long as you calm down a bit in rehearsals, we could be good friends, you and I." The boy grinned, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

Rachel smiled, "Thank you, Hunter."

"Anytime."

―

The Glee Club sat in the auditorium the next day and Puck handed the wad of cash that they had made from the bake sale to Mr. Schuester.

"Twelve hundred dollars," Puck grinned, "That's enough for the show bus and two cases of Natty Light for the ride home."

Mr. Schue scoffed, "Oh, dream on, buddy."

The group all cheered and applauded.

"I'm very proud of you guys. Artie. Why don't you bring this to Principal Figgins yourself?" Their teacher grinned, handing the boy the money as the club cheered and clapped again. Artie, however looked hesitant.

"What's wrong, dude?" Finn asked him.

"I really appreciate what you guys did for me, but I'm not the only kid in a wheelchair at this school. And I'm sure there will be others after I graduate," Artie sighed, "And I know how important it is for all of us to go to sectionals together, but I think I'd rather just get a ride from my dad and use this for a handicapped ramp in the auditorium."

"Any objections?" Mr. Schue asked.

"Well, sure beats having to carry him in every day." Finn shrugged as the group chuckled and Hunter - who was sat next to Artie - launched over to him, encasing him in a hug, making the club laugh more.

―

As the club were getting ready to perform their number, having found out that Sue had given Figgins a cheque to pay for three new ramps in the school, meaning that they could all ride to sectionals together as a group, Quinn walked up to Hunter with a quizzical look.

"Hey, why was Rachel wearing your shirt yesterday?" She asked.

"Oh, she got slushied and had no spare clothes." Hunter shrugged.

"So you guys are friends?"

"I guess," Hunter nodded, "And I know you two don't get along, but she's pretty cool when she's not all 'blah blah blah'."

"Just be careful," Quinn told him softly, "I don't need her trying to take my best friend as well as my boyfriend away from me."

Hunter smiled down at her, wrapping her in a warm hug, "That'll never happen," He assured her, "Now, come on. Let's roll!" He exclaimed, jumping into his wheelchair, making his best friend giggle as the club started their number.

[ rolling on the river, performed by mercedes, artie and the glee club ]