Hello all! I hope you like this, it is like my millionth fanfic, but the first one I have had the nerve to publish!

Today is not going to be my day. I already decide that when my alarm clock cruelly wakes me up at 7am, and I feel a nauseous pang in my head, the result of an ill-advised, wine filled, girls night in with my best friend and roommate, Unique. It takes all my will power not to turn the alarm straight off and go back to sleep, but I have work in just over an hour, and as a 21 year old small town girl in the big city, struggling to make ends meet, I can't afford to call in sick and turn down a shift's pay, even if it is on minimum wage.

I jump in the shower and reflect on my new life to take my mind off the growing headache. I had graduated from college in Los Angeles six months ago with a major in music. I had offered to return to Lima, Ohio, to my mom, who doesn't really have anyone else, but she wasn't having any of it:

"You have magic in your throat, Marley. Don't you dare even think I'm going to stand in the way of your dream."

My dream being singing. I had dreamed about being able to hear myself on the radio since about six years old. So I stayed in LA and began renting an apartment with Unique, whom I had met in college, and was also able to retain regular contact with many of my friends who also stayed in the city, and set about working on making my dream a reality.

Now don't get me wrong, I had never thought it would be easy. But I had been working on getting noticed non-stop since graduation from college, and no-one in the industry had even blinked twice. So for the moment, and indeed, foreseeable future, I was stuck waiting tables in a modest downtown café, and right now, I was needed for the breakfast shift.

I get out of the shower and start drying my hair, all the while continuing my slightly harsh, but true, evaluation of post-college life; My love life was no silver lining to the grey cloud of my job status, either. I had broken up with Jake Puckerman, my first love, about half way through my our final year of college. I was pretty much over the split, but the guy whom I gave my virginity living only a couple of blocks away with his uber-bitch of a new girlfriend, makes things awkward, to say the least. I despise Kitty. A fellow student at our college, she reminds me of the bitchy girls who had made my high school years hell in Ohio. She had been after Jake from the start of our relationship, feeding our already intense rivalry, and well, I guess she had won in the end. There hadn't been any other guys since Jake, despite Unique and my other best friends Tina, Brittany and Sugar's protestations that I should put myself out there and 'have some fun', as they put it. I however maintained the fact that I was happy single and focussing on my career rather than my love sex life, and that it was going to take a pretty awesome guy to change that.

I am now ready. I look at the clock. It is time for work.

Over fourteen hours after I had left that morning, I finally return home to our apartment, sore, exhausted, and still hung-over. I belly flop dramatically onto the couch.

"Girl…how long have you been grafting at the dump today?" I hear Unique ask from the kitchen area.

"Too long", is my reply.

"Unique found something that might interest you today." My best friend has a bizarre tendency of referring to herself in the third person, being the diva she is.

"Oh yeah? A recording contract? A date with Ryan Gosling? A vacation to Hawaii? After the day I've had it's gonna have to be on that level." Unique grins at my self-deprecating moaning.

"Not quite", she starts, "but it could get you in to the entertainment industry, on a low level."

I look up. This is already more interesting than I had expected. I motion at her to continue.

"The Melville Community Theatre is doing a small production of Grease. They've found their Danny Zuko but auditions for Sandy are still open. You should totally try out!"

"Oh, I don't know…" I start. "I love watching musical theatre but doing it isn't really my thing-" Unique cut me off.

"Girlfriend, you need to stop with all this negativity. How do you know it isn't your thing if you haven't tried it? You need to stop thinking, 'Marley Rose, broke waitress wannabe popstar' and start thinking 'Marley Rose, best Sandy Olsson since Olivia Newton-John herself'. Besides, I've heard the guy playing Danny is super cute, and uh, let's just say it's been a while for you, hasn't it…"

"UNIQUE!" I playfully swat her with the flyer advertising said audition she has just handed to me. But I am curious. I love Grease, and I could really use the money, if nothing else. "Do you really think I should audition?"

"Yes! Tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow? No way will I be prepared so soon"

"Bitch please!" exclaims my friend, in her typical OTT diva style. "I know one song you could do in your sleep and still ace it."

I smile awkwardly. I am pretty good at that song. Also, I have tomorrow morning off, so I totally could go if I wanted too…

"Oh, what the hell. I'll give it a go." Unique squeals and claps her hands.

"Better go get your beauty sleep girl, I am SO excited for you!"

I awake the next morning. And get ready quicker than I have done in a while. Despite the fact that all logic suggests I won't get the part, that it will be another no, I just have a good vibe about this. By 11am, I am at the Melville Community Theatre, waiting in the corridor outside a door with a sign proclaiming 'OPEN AUDITIONS- GREASE'. A man opens the door.

"Next please." I am the only girl waiting. Oh God. That means I'm next. I follow the man awkwardly through the door and into the theatre's auditorium. It is very small and intimate, but the empty seats still make me nervous. I step onto the stage. The man who showed me in has sat down next to two other men, and starts talking.

"Hi there, I'm Will Schuester, I'm producing the production, here on my left in Artie Abrams, director, and this here is Ryder Lynn, he'll be playing Danny, he wanted to watch auditions for Sandy to have a say on who he'll be sharing the limelight with.

I look at this Ryder Lynn and immediately feel myself blush. Even in the dim light of the auditorium, he is gorgeous. From what I can see, he has an athletic frame. His darkish hair is floppily combed, framing his beautiful face. His eyes and smile twinkle like nothing I've ever seen before, and his sideburns are doing very funny things to me. Wow. I haven't crushed on a guy like this in a long time.

"Hey." He smiles. "You can start when you're ready. What's your name?"

I'm flustered. I now want this more than ever.

"Hi, my name's Marley Rose, and I'm going to be singing 'New York State of Mind'."

Ryder Lynn smiles again, and I sing my song, my special song.

I think I've done ok. They're clapping, at least.

"Thank you Marley Rose. We'll let you know."

I smile awkwardly and step down from the stage, trying my absolute hardest not to trip as I walk past that gorgeous, gorgeous man. I leave the auditorium. I am on a high. Nothing is going to bring me down today, nothi-

"Oh hi boobless. I hope you weren't just trying out for Sandy, because that part, like your EX-boyfriend, is mine."

Kitty Wilde sends me a vicious stare before marching through the door I have just left. Crap.

Hope you liked it! Please review, it would make my day. Chapter 2 will hopefully be up within the next couple of days :)