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

Chapter 5: Accomplishment

It took a week for the news of Julie's pregnancy to stop showing up on celebrity news. As Peyton had suggested to Julie after the announcement, it would only take a day for a bigger scandal to be top news and after that, hers would slowly fade.

"I don't know why you're so happy," Santana said snidely to Julie when she walked into the board room and saw everyone celebrating. "The fact that people forgot about you already is nothing to cheer for. Hmm... Maybe it is."

Julie rolled her eyes but smiled. She knew deep down Santana was happy for her, and she was definitely happy for herself, especially when Sebastian said, "We can finally move on from this and focus on what really matters. Santana's career."

Sam, who was gathered with the band on one end of the room, pressed his lips together. Sebastian was attacking Julie and attempting to make her feel guiltier than she already did about stopping while she was in such a good place. About 'ruining everything,' as he liked to put it.

But it didn't matter anymore because Julie seemed to be at peace with everything. Dan, on the other hand, found himself getting angry at her for giving it all up, and at Sebastian for acting like Santana was the next best option. After all, the band had enough momentum built over the years that they didn't need Sebastian to put all his focus on them.

Santana, though? Santana was just one step behind Julie. She had fans all over the country and even some elsewhere. Meanwhile, he and Amity had lost all the buzz they'd built up from Tracy's tour. All people cared about was the fact that Julie and Nick had been frequent guests or that Alex was the lead guitarist or that Tracy was dating him or that Santana was the Choice Breakout Artist or that Crystal Army's performance was great. And now, that Julie was pregnant. That left no room for Dan and Amity.

"It's going to get better soon," Amity told him after he made the mistake of talking to her about his concern that they were being shoved into a dark corner. "When this Julie thing dies down, everything here will be back to normal."

"Back to normal?" Dan asked. "Amity, you heard Sebastian this morning, didn't you? He said he was going to bump Santana up but didn't even so much as glance at us."

"He's only giving her so much attention to get back at Julie for having those babies," Amity said, trying not to smile at how ridiculous Sebastian's actions were.

"And everyone else?" Dan asked her. "Dani was the only one that cared about us and she's dropped by twice in the last week but she didn't even have time to look at our stuff. Or at us, for that matter. And you, you're so distracted half the time. Amity!"

"Hm?" Amity said, looking up from her phone. She sighed, "Dan, I'm sorry. I just... I have some things going on and I'm actually waiting for a call right now."

"But we need to put down a new demo," Dan told her.

She opened her mouth but was interrupted by Blaine, who stopped at the door and said, "Is this a bad time?"

"This is a great time," Amity said, watching her phone. "I have to go but Dan's been wanting to get a producer on this new track so maybe you could..?"

"Yeah, of course," Blaine said and before he could say anything else, Amity was out the door and talking to someone quietly on the phone. He turned to Dan and asked, "So where's this new song?"

***

"It sucks you can't make it on Sunday," Alex said as he polished his guitar and Julie set the table. "We really wanted you to be there."

Julie nodded, "I wanted to be there, too. I mean, it's the VMAs and Ariana Grande's hosting, which I'm sure will be interesting, to say the least. I wanted to see if it was true that she and I look alike in person. And I have Blank Space nominated for Best Pop Video but... But it's best if I just stay here and keep away from cameras of all sorts."