I want to ask you, please, to look at this fic fondly because it was the first of all the stories I wrote in Portuguese. I consider it "weaker" than the others and never thought about translating it, but I decided to do it because I had a request.

Hope you like it, even if it's a really simple story.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo
Mari

Rachel was bored. She was beating with a pen on her desk, with her thoughts on nothing specific. She only knew that the end of classes at NYADA was not the best of moments for her. Vacation meant spending a good amount of time in Lima with her parents and she had no friends in the city, so it would be only the three of them.

Please, don't misunderstand Rachel! She loves her parents. But the problem is that, after a while talking and telling them everything that happened during her first college year, time would come when they wouldn't have much to share. She didn't want to be daddy's princess anymore and spend her holiday watching and rewatching musical movies, filling herself with popcorn and vegan ice cream, anxiously awaiting the return of classes to see the friends that she finally had in NY.

Tina entered the bedroom that the two girls shared in one of many republics full of college students in New York and announced:

"We're gonna celebrate the end of our first year today. Put on your best clothes because the night awaits us, Rachel Berry!"

Rachel didn't want to ruin Tina's plans or wipe the smile off of her friend's face, but didn't know if it was a good idea to go out for the night. It was sure that Rachel had changed long after her arrival in NY and she no longer wore clothes that resembled a mixture of grandmother with children from kindergarten. She was feeling more fashionable and even sexy! And she also had greatly improved her temper, having no problems to hang out with colleagues and starting friendships that could really become lasting. Still, she doubted whether or not she would feel displaced at a night club, drinking, dancing, watching people and being observed too.

"I don't know, Tina. I haven't done my bags and I ne-"

"No, Rae! Don't come up with this! You are going with me and I promise I won't stay all the time with Mike. We'll dance the night away and there'll be more people you known there, like Mischa, Tony... Jesse."

"Ok, ok. I can't say 'no' to you when you do this little puppy face of yours!" She giggled.

They embraced, Tina walked over to the closet to look for something to wear and Rachel decided to do the same. Since she would go out, she wanted to be beautiful for that! She put on a black dress and high heels of the type she once heard one of the cheerleaders from high school saying were shoes that scream "come and have sex with me now!".

Upon entering the club that night, Rachel did not feel as bad as she feared. The place was beautiful, people were hot and well dressed, and some familiar faces were soon seen by her and Tina. They greeted Mischa, Tony and some other students from drama academy, going to talk to Mike then, who presented them some guys she imagined were friends from his dance course at Julliard.

Rachel and Tina bought drinks and danced a little, and when their first drinks ended they went to the ladies room to redo the makeup. Returning from there, they found Mike sitting at a table in the corner, accompanied only by one friend, and Rachel noted that this one hadn't been introduced to her and Tina sooner, but the other girl immediately greeted him warmly with a hug.

"Rachel , this is Finn, Mike's roommate." She introduced them and Rachel and Finn quickly greeted each other the same way Rachel had greeted all the others, previously, while Tina sat next to Mike in one of those double seats and kept talking. "They studied together in high school too and Finn was in that band with Mike... the one I told you about."

Rachel just nodded, not realizing that Finn, meanwhile, was watching her, amazed.

Tina took a quick peck on her boyfriend, while Rachel directed her gaze to the dance floor and smiled, observing their friends, and Finn took a sip of his drink without taking his eyes off her. The Asian girl then spoke again, hoping that her next words would finally break the ice.

"Finn, Rachel studied at McKinley too. During the same years when you and the boys were there."

"No way!" Finn said, which made Rachel look at him with a confused expression, and so he asked, turning to her: "Is that true?" To which she replied only with a positive nod. "Can't be! I would remember you." He added.

"It's what you say... but you don't remember." Rachel said finally. "Don't feel bad, because I don't remember you either." She said , trying to remain indifferent, but also not understanding how she could ignore someone so tall and so... handsome!

"This is really hard too. I was the quarterback of the football team, the captain of the basketball team... "

"I have never been interested in sports." She said smiling.

And it was just true that Rachel had never paid any attention to sports. She was always totally focused on her curricular and extracurricular activities, like musicals , newspaper and radio school, because she wanted to get into NYADA.

Besides not liking sports, she had no social life of any type, not even going to the dances that took place during the schools years. She had always been lonely, the only exception being the time when her co-star in the school production of Beauty and the Beast fell in love with her and she decided to take a chance on the boy, despite not seeing fireworks, sparks and all these things they show in romantic comedies, when she was with him. It had happened in the last year of school and lasted about eight months, but the girl broke up with him when, even after giving herself to him some times, she still had felt nothing intense in her body nor in her heart.

Finn was the exact opposite! He had many friends, a lot of girls were interested in him, and he was involved in social activities throughout most of his school life, which only changed slightly in the last year, when he began to devote more to music, including composing. He decided that he would study music and the facts that he had a band and had studied a lot alone (he played several instruments, knew much about music theory and singing) made it easy to go to Julliard.

Seeing that Mike and Tina were lost in each other at this point, Finn asked Rachel if she wanted to go to the bar and get drinks, and she agreed, getting up from the double chair they were sharing.

At the bar, he asked what she wanted to drink, and she asked in turn what he would drink.

"A beer."

"A beer for me too then!" She decided.

They received the beers that Finn insisted on paying, and returned to the table, talking. They asked one another about what they were studying in NY and were extremely surprised (she more than him) and awed (really both of them in this case) with the career choice of the other. It seemed that, after all, they had something in common: art, and especially music.

The conversation flowed naturally and they returned to the bar to grab more beer, but this time they didn't come back together to the table, because Rachel said she loved the music that started playing, and asked if he would care if she joined her friends on the dance floor. Obviously, he said it was okay and so she went dancing.

Finn could not take his eyes off her, moving on the dance floor. She was so sexy, so beautiful! Her smile lit up more than the lights of that place, and her laughter was contagious, even from afar. Only seeing her so spontaneously laughing at some joke of friends, he found himself grinning like a silly boy.

Without even realizing, Finn had taken all his beer and stood to get another. The night, after all, was just beginning.