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

Chapter 4: Rush

This is going to be the last Julie-centered chapter for a while, I think. After this we will fall back into themed weeks, spread out storylines, etc. But first we have to finish what was started in the last 3 chapters, starting with...
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That night, Julie and Sam fell asleep together, watching their sonogram DVD over and over again. The next morning, Sam was still exhausted but Julie felt energized, so they made their way to the studio together.

There, the other artists were already gathered, though not all of them looked pleased to be there. As soon as Julie walked in, all eyes were on her and Sam.

"You're smaller in person," said a voice she didn't recognize.

Julie turned to find a girl who she remembered from Dan's short-lived TV series about vampires living in a post-modern outer space civilization. She played a bold human, but Julie knew they would eventually turn her.

Seeing Julie's surprised reaction, she added, "Sorry, I thought I'd break the dramatic silence. I'm Tatum. Tatum Goode?"

"Julie..." Julie mumbled. She looked around and saw that everyone was still staring at her. "What?" she asked. "What is it?"

"Everyone knows..." Dan told her in a soft whisper.

Sam and Julie exchanged looks. Then Sam turned back to Dan and asked, "Knows what?"

"See for yourself," said Sebastian, passing his tablet over to them. He was pissed, they could tell, and when they looked at the tablet, they knew why. They were looking at a Facebook newsfeed, the name Juliet Vasquez trending. The short description said, "Rumors surface that singer is pregnant." Sebastian reached over to click on the name.

Dozens of articles popped up, most of them showing pictures of her that were irrelevant to the rumors. However, they were all titled with something along the lines of, "Pop Star Pregnant?" and so on. When Sam tried to scroll down the page, he accidentally clicked on one of the articles and Julie gasped.

There were multiple pictures from the previous days and one of them showed her with Ryder. Not his whole face, just his side profile, but anyone who knew him would be able to tell it was him. Anyone who knew her could make him up.

"Oh no, Ryder," she said when she saw that the article had figured this out, too.

"Ryder?" Sebastian asked, getting so close to her that she had to take a step back. "Ryder is not a celebrity. Ryder doesn't need to fix this. You do."

"There's no need to talk to her like this," John said, his brow creased with concern that Sebastian was overreacting.

Julie put a hand to her head, feeling dizzy. "But we were going to..." she began to say, disoriented. "We just... One more day and we knew what to say..."

"It's too late for that, isn't it?" Sebastian said, snatching the tablet away from her shaking hands and passing it aggressively to Tyler, who leaned back as he put it on the table. "You were careless and now they've seen what you really look like without all the covering up. And you know what? This is your fault for being so irresponsible. If you had kept your legs closed—"

"Whoa!" Tyler exclaimed as Alex said, "That's unnecessary, dude."

"—then none of this would've happened," Sebastian continued. "But now your life is over and you have yourself to blame."

He took a step towards her and a few of them stood up, fearing the worst, but it was Santana who grabbed his arm. "Back off, Smythe!" she exclaimed, moving him away. "Maybe you need to take a second to walk away from this and cool it. Clear your head."