"GOOD MORNING LIMA, OHIO! I'M YOUR HOST ROD REMINGTON AND IT'S 5:30 AM ON SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND. IT'S TIME TO GET UP AND ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL THURSDAY MORNING!"

Rachel groaned, rolling over to shut off her alarm clock radio and stare up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been stuck to her ceiling since she first moved here. It had been 9 years since the accident, but she never had a day where she could wake up and think of something else before the painful memory hit her. She got up quietly and went to take a shower without waking up Brittany in the next room over. As she let the hot water wash away all her stress, she began to regret staying up so late the night before. She had even fallen asleep with her laptop still lying across her lap; something she was definitely not proud of. Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped a towel around herself and made her way back into her room to get dressed. She had at least a half an hour before she had to be at the bakery. She really hated getting up early for work because she could no longer continue her usual schedule of running on the treadmill before school, but Mrs. Pierce had been kind enough to take her in all these years, so it only seemed fair that Mrs. Pierce made her get a job so she could have money to spend on things she wanted… even though she had never made Brittany work a day in her life… she shook the thought from her head and quickly put on some make up before she grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

She parked her old car behind the bakery and quickly headed in through the back door. The bakery had stayed the same for as long as she could remember. With its adorable pink and cream walls and checkerboard tile floor, it had become a staple in her life, a place of comfort no matter what bad things were going on. She grabbed her apron and tied it around her waist as she spotted Mercedes decorating a batch of smiley face cookies in the icing corner of the kitchen.

"Hey Rach!" Mercedes greeted her enthusiastically as she paused from spreading yellow icing over the next cookie on the sheet.

"Hey, what are you doing here so early? You're making me feel like a slacker!" Rachel laughed as she pulled out some supplies from the icing cabinet and refrigerator and joined Mercedes in her decorating duties. Mercedes dropped her supplies and stared at Rachel as if she were going insane. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"RACHEL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Homecoming is a WEEK away!" Mercedes gasped as if that should explain everything.

"So…?" Rachel was still had no idea how that was related in any way to Mercedes showing up to work an hour earlier than normal.

"I need MO-NEY. For a D-RESS," Mercedes explained as if Rachel were a five year old rather than the socially awkward girl she was.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" Rachel was getting annoyed; Mercedes knew how Rachel refused to attend any social events other than the daily social event that was school.

Mercedes picked up her decorating supplies and began frosting the cookies once again. "Because" she said, not missing a beat, "you're going with me."

"NO I'M NOT!" Cried Rachel glaring at her best friend like she was out of her mind, "I've never attended a single dance in my life, why should I start now?"

"Because I said so, c'mon Rachel! I found the most ADORABLE dress; you'll just die when you see it! It's so… you!"

"What's THAT suppose to mean?"

"Oh don't try to change the subject, you're going even if I have to drag you by your knee socks!"

Rachel sighed. She didn't want to fight with Mercedes, in reality she was the one true friend Rachel had – besides Brittany, but Brittany was a bit loopy and they couldn't hang out at school because Brittany was popular and hung out with Quinn Fabray. The same Quinn Fabray who's one goal in her high school life seemed to be to utterly humiliate Rachel every chance she got. Rachel didn't want to lose Mercedes to the higher forces of evil too, so she tried a different approach to get out of going to the dance. "But, but, I don't even have a date!"

Mercedes quirked an eyebrow at her, "so no one's asked you? Not ONE person?"

Rachel looked at Mercedes, trying to analyze the look on her face. "No… no one's asked me," then she thought to herself, except for him…

"Ya' know Rach, you've always been a great actress, but only when you're playing other characters… I know."

"Kn-know what?" Rachel began to panic; she told Mercedes last month that she'd stopped talking to him, because Mercedes kept pressuring her into meeting him. But in all truthfulness she just enjoyed the IDEA of him, because deep down she knew that he could never be as good as she imagined in her head.

"You left your email open when I was at your house last week. You're still talking to him aren't you? No, don't answer that, I already know you are. Why would you lie to me about it?" Mercedes looked truly hurt, she clearly didn't understand why Rachel wanted her to just drop the subject.

"I'm sorry… you just kept bothering me about meeting him, and I'm just not ready…"

"Well he seems to be ready" she said with certainty.

Rachel panicked, "wh-what email did you read?"

"I think you know EXACTLY which email I read. C'mon Rachel! He wants to meet you. This is your chance to be happy… you know that's all I've ever wanted for you…" Mercedes looked at Rachel doing her best to radiate sadness, if it was going to take the guilt card to get Rachel to go then she would be glad to use it to her advantage.

"I can't Mercedes, I just can't! What if he doesn't like me? Or what if he is nothing like I imagined in my head? Or… or…"

"Rachel you'll never know unless you meet him…"

Rachel thought for a moment, and then asked, "Will you go with me? And you have to promise you'll get me out of there as soon as possible if he's creepy…"

"I promise!" Mercedes beamed, glad that she'd finally talked some sense into Rachel.

"Okay…" Rachel turned back to her decorating, but then a few minutes later she slowly began to realize what she'd just agreed to do, "wait, Mercedes, I can't!"

"Yes you can! And you will! Here's what will happen: you agree to meet him, today after school we'll go get that dress, and then you'll meet him at the dance! You can live in fear for your whole life Rach. Don't miss your opportunity to be happy"

"Fine… I hate you though," Rachel gave her a shaky smile and laughed a bit along with Mercedes as they nudged each other playfully and continued decorating.

Rachel pulled her car up to the school and found a spot to park her car in. She looked at the clock on her dashboard and saw that she still had 15 minutes before she had to get to class. She sighed and then pulled out her phone to reread the same email from last week. The same email she kept rereading and rereading even though she'd already turned him down.

Dear Stargirl01,

We've been talking for months, but I still don't know who you are. Will you meet me at the dance this Saturday? I know you said you hate dances, but I thought maybe if we went together it wouldn't be so bad.

Let me know!

-drummerdude12

PS- You know you want to ;)

She sighed, Mercedes was right; she couldn't keep living in her fantasy anymore. She had to find out once and for all who this guy was. She glanced through her text messages and the guilt began clawing at her. She opened the most recent text and began scrolling through

From: drummerdude12 at 7:15 am, September 22

-We don't have to meet if you don't want to. I didn't mean to scare you off. Please text me back. I miss talking to you!

From: drummerdude12 at 11:00pm, September 21

-Why haven't you talked to me all week? Did I do something wrong?

From: drummerdude12 at 7:32pm, September 20

-Pleeeeaseee meet me at the dance!

From: drummerdude12 at 9:08pm, September 19

-Why did the chicken cross the road?... To meet me at the dance! (Yeah I know that joke was lame, but whatever. Meet me! Please?)

Rachel reread the messages at least 5 times in a row before she could come up with a response. She couldn't help cracking a smile at his lame jokes though as she tried to type in her reply.

To: drummerdude12 at 7:38am, September 22

-Why did the chicken cross the road?... To say she's sorry and that she'll meet you at the dance on Saturday.

She sat back preparing to wait a few minutes for the reply but was surprised when her phone beeped signaling a new text message in a record time.

From: drummerdude12 at 7:39am, September 22

-Meet me in the middle of the dance floor at exactly 11:00. See you then!

Rachel smiled at the message and just as she was about to put her phone away it beeped again.

From: drummerdude12 at 7:39am, September 22

-Btw- I didn't know chickens could talk… or feel sorry ;) I'm glad they can do both.

She couldn't stop the smile that threatened to crack her face in half as she got out of her car. But of course, fate could never let her be happy for the slightest minute, because right when she turned away from her car she felt the ice-cold stab of a slushie in the face. She gasped at the cold and her face turned red from embarrassment as she tried to wipe her eyes clean of syrup and sugar.

"No keep that on, RuPaul, it makes the sight of your face easier to suffer through," Quinn sneered, receiving a round of giggles from the cheerios around her and a snicker from Karofsky and Puck.

"I hope you enjoyed your stay at the Karofsky day spa, but that Slushie facial is gonna cost ya'," Karofsky commented, laughing along with everyone else.

Rachel tried to ignore their comments as she grabbed a towel from the back of the car and did her best to wipe the slushie off her face and the front of her butterfly cardigan. Once she was done she grabbed her books and locked her car. When she looked up, she noticed that Finn hadn't been there to witness her slushie to the face since he was just walking up now to join hands with Quinn and talk with everyone in the group. He must have just been off on a private mission to harass some other innocent student, Rachel thought as she quickly walked away before another remark could be thrown her way.

She really hoped Mercedes was right about this meeting being the source of her happiness, because she sure could use some light in her life.

One thing was for sure, as long as her prince charming wasn't one of those jerks, she'd have nothing to worry about.