Forever and Always

Chapter One: Meeting New People

'This year has been just awful, first I find out that Finn cheated on me with Santana last spring, second Finn just broke up with me to date Quinn again, third everyone still treats me like crap, and fourth I don't even know if the song I wrote for this Regional's singing competition is even relatively good enough to win. It's like everything in my life has been turned upside down within such a short time.'

Rachel was pulled from her heartbreaking thoughts when the red lights started flashing in the dressing room, signaling her group was to be the next to perform. After making sure she was ready, Rachel walked out on the stage, faced the crowd, took a deep breath, and sang her original song (Get it Right).

When she finished she got a standing ovation, and signaled to the rest of the glee club to come out on stage to sing (Loser like Me). Everything went well, no one messed up their lines or dance steps, and they got another standing ovation for that performance.

Later they were all standing on stage with the other glee groups, nervous to hear the results. The announcer walked up to the mike, and announced the winners, Sue's team Vocal Adrenaline came in second, and everyone jumped for joy and hugged each other when The New Directions won first place, insuring that they're going to Nationals.

Rachel was overjoyed, until she looked to her left just in time to see Finn run up to Quinn and pull her into a loving embrace and give her a kiss. Rachel was so crushed at seeing them together she run off crying to the dressing rooms.

She was almost done collecting herself when she heard someone walk in. "Hey, that was a wicked awesome performance!" some girl behind her said, then added "Your group totally deserved the win, especially you."

After hearing what the girl said, Rachel turned around and gave her a small smile of acknowledgment, then after she got a good look, noticed she was one of Sue's girls. 'Wow, she's really beautiful. I remember her, I mean who wouldn't, she was the one doing almost all the dancing, really, really sexy dancing...'

She was so caught up in thoughts of this girl; she almost didn't hear the question she asked. "Huh, what?"

The girl chuckled and repeated her question. "I asked if ya were alright, ya kinda spaced on me there."

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, um thanks, for the compliment earlier, no one ever does, compliments me that is, so thanks." Rachel told the girl sounding really sad.

"Damn, why ya so depressed, your team just won, you should be happy, right?" the girl asked.

Even though the question wasn't asked snarky or anything, Rachel was already really upset with the goings on within the glee club and her personal life. She really just needed someone to vent to, so she did.

Rachel lashed out at the other girl "For your information, I am quite enthused about winning! I mean this is my life's dream, to perform in front of people who appreciate what I do! So you can just go, I don't need anyone's pity!" She spat, glaring hard at the unknown girl.

"Fuck! I was just askin if ya was alright, looked like ya was crying or some shit, and for your information, it's called compassion, not pity!" the girl practically screamed with a hurt expression.

Once Rachel realized what she had done, lashing out at a total stranger who was just trying to be nice, she apologized immediately. "Oh God, I'm so, so sorry, I've just been going through a lot of stuff, and you were the only one here, so I just took everything out on you..." But Rachel couldn't finish her rant, because she broke down crying at the end.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, I get it, you're going through some bad shit." the beautiful girl said, she hated seeing this great performer having such a rough time, when she should be celebrating her win with her friends. So she did the only thing she could do, she grabbed Rachel, and hugged the small brunette to her chest rubbing her back up and down, trying to soothe her.