The High Road

**The High Road** is the sixty-fifth chapter of Push to the Limit and the four hundred and fortieth chapter of the series overall. It is 15,111 words long and told entirely in third person.

Julie and Santana decide to take charge at work. Santana must make a difficult choice when it comes to her future and her family. Marley and Dean spend time together while Amity gets to know Christopher. Brooke gets advice from the other women.

## Plot

Julie is at Starmaker filming the Last Chance rounds live. Her two contestants performing that night are Annie and Jorge. Julie is anxious about whether she'll send one of them home or perhaps Ronald or Idle Cravings, who performed last week. She also doesn't know if she'll want to steal a contestant from the other judges and, if so, whom. She is also still concerned about the media discussing the Francesca pill swap, especially when the other judges tell her she should press charges or at the very least sue. During the show, Annie performs Rise Up and impresses the judges. The producers are pressuring Julie to keep Annie and Idle Cravings, a boy band whom she does not like, in the competition and send Jorge, a talented but not as attractive teen singer, home. Xavier tells Julie that he is sending a contestant named Jason Bliss home because his sound isn't rock enough for him to support it. Jason, however, gives a heartwarming performance of Unchained Melody, which gets Julie nostalgic over her high school years, when she was torn between Ryder and Jake, she briefly had a mother, and she met Alex. During a commercial break, she calls her father, asking him for advice on how to handle the Francesca situation. He tells her that although he thinks she should press charges, she should do what she wants and if what she wants is not to speak about it to anyone, he'll support that. Julie thanks him and reminds him that she loves him, even if she's too busy to spend time with him and the family. She then returns to the show, where it's time for eliminations of the night. After Xavier eliminates Jason from his team, Julie can't help pressing her lifeline buzzard to save him by adding him to her team. This means, however, that Julie must then eliminate *two* members of her team. She first eliminates Ronald, whom she believes is too cocky anyway, and then defies the show's producers by getting rid of Idle Cravings. She believes the show should start working harder to make her happy, not the other way around.

Alex gets an early morning call from Julie, who wants to talk about their friendship. She reminds him of how long they've been friends for and that when Jake confessed his feelings for her in junior year they were able to stay friends and now that they are adults they should be just as mature. Alex reminds her, however, that she was only able to stay friends with Jake briefly before eventually falling for him and dating, and that the knowledge of Julie's history with doing that had given him the false hope that led him to confess his feelings in the first place. They apologize to each other for their behavior and congratulate each other's new relationships before agreeing to see each other soon and perhaps even hang out with each other's partners.

Dean once again wakes up to a visit from Marley, who wants to clarify why she brought the cookies the other day. She admits that she didn't like him disliking her but only because she doesn't believe that she was actually being judgmental, as he claimed, and she doesn't think she's better than he is. Dean assures her that he doesn't dislike her, but instead says he feels indifferent towards her and leaves. Kitty and Marley head out to the park with the kids together.

After rain stops their day plans, Quinn, Bree, Marley and Kitty return to Julie's house to have their baby play date there. Brooke arrives and it becomes awkward as the conversation continuously shifts to how great she is with kids, a reminder that she can't have any. After Quinn suggests that Brooke adopt without Ryder, the conversation ends. Later the girls all go home, except for Marley, who stays to watch the kids while Kitty goes to pick up Riley from her new job. After Kitty leaves, Ryder comes by to pick up Ben and Marley is left alone with the twins. While she sits reading a book she found in the living room, Dean arrives thinking the house is alone and wanting to use the big piano. Marley tells him it doesn't bother her if he plays but he admits he's the one bothered, as he hasn't written anything good. After thinking about it, she decides to help him write a song.

Santana is in the studio finishing up a recording of Heartbeat Song, which she is singing for Blaine and Sebastian. Santana is upset that she has to record with Blackbird again but she has to think of how her career choices will affect the future of her family. After recording, Sebastian speaks with her privately and the two negotiate how the next weeks of working together will go. Sebastian wants Santana to sign a binding contract for two more albums before he begins to put out new music for her. Santana, however, threatens to leave the label altogether and take several of his artists with her to Julie's new label, so Sebastian is forced to agree to her terms and release just one single before signing on for albums.

Due to Alex's scandals with Francesca and Haley, whose video punching a paparazzi has gone viral, Alex and the rest of the band is trapped in a hotel lobby, unable to leave due to the reporters surrounding the area. The guys resent Alex for the trouble he has caused Julie and Haley.

Dean is having a hard time writing a song with Marley's help on the melody and realizes the music wasn't the problem, but the lyrics. Marley suggests listening to other people's powerful songs and begins to play Read All About It, Pt. III with him, the two singing and discovering that they really enjoy the music. Kitty then arrives, breaking up their conversation, and Marley wishes Dean good luck writing before leaving.

As Santana leaves the studio, she sees Amity arriving and stops her, telling her they are going out to Adonis instead of working. Amity does not like this but Santana doesn't let her go.

When they arrive at Adonis, Santana reveals that they are actually there to meet with Mercedes, Rachel, Finn, Blaine, Kurt, Quinn, Jesse and Christopher. Amity realizes that it's a set up while Christopher notes that Amity does not look like she wants to be there and proposes a way for them to get out. He fakes a stomach pain and Amity volunteers to take him home, but instead they walk across the street to Amelia's.

Over dinner, Christopher shares how impressed he is by the people who live in Lima and seems intrigued by Amity's life and career. Amity shares that the hardest part of it all is getting stuck in the middle of the drama that her friends create. She then recalls nearly getting caught up in a love triangle with two friends but stopping it to save their friendships.

John wakes up Alex, who has fallen asleep in a hotel room. He tells him they can finally leave due to the paparazzi clearing and that if they don't go soon, they will get caught up again. Alex notes that John seems angry at him and John reveals that he and the other guys are frustrated by the unnecessary trouble Alex has gotten them into and the fact that they can't go home to their loved ones and to Jake's launch party when they had hoped to. Alex hopes that all this drama will go away soon.