AN: So here we go! Thank you for all those who are sticking around for the continuation of the story (I should come up with a series title. Anyone have any suggestions?) I have a lot of ideas for this series, whether it ends at this story or not. Oh, and thank you for all those who put me on author alert after the last chapter of Cry Till We See was posted. I'm glad so many of you like this series that much. R&R!!!

OH! And if any of you have any suggestions or ideas for songs you want me to put in the story. Either for Rachel to sing in the auditorium or a song for Sectionals or Regionals etc (I have a few songs but I need more ideas) feel free to review or PM me and I'll see if I can fit them into the story!!


Like all teenagers, the twelve members of New Directions were not looking forward to the start of a new school year. Even Rachel Berry, who was determined to be well educated, would rather she had more time to enjoy the summer heat. As she walked into McKinley High School for the first time since departing in May, Rachel felt that things could be different this year. There was already a stark difference between the beginning of this year and that of the last. She had many more friends than she had and with a smile on her face, Rachel was more than ready to face whatever new adventures her junior year held for her.

Unfortunately, while things around her were changing, two football players heading towards her, slushies in hand reminded her that things would not be as different as she had hoped. Thankful she had reasoned with herself that bringing a change of clothes was necessary this morning, Rachel felt the chill of the blue drink splash in her face, twice. Rachel looked down to see that the freezing substance had covered her pink top and even had begun to stain some of the new school supplies that she was cradling in her arms.

As the athletes walked past her laughing, Rachel could only breathe deep and turn to return to her locker for her change of clothes. Kurt would be upset she didn't have any of the ensembles they had spent the summer shopping for, but Rachel had to be practical about what she wore to school for the reason she was currently dealing with. When she turned around, she saw the same jocks who had assaulted her just moments before pushed against the lockers, both by none other than Noah Puckerman. Rachel hadn't seen him in the month or so since the glee camp had ended. Still covered in blue syrup, Rachel watched on as Puck began berating the boys in front of him.

"No one. And I do mean no one does that again!"

"Sorry, Puck," Nick Robinson said, "We just thought since she wasn't your girl anymore-"

"You thought wrong. Now I'm telling both of you and if I were you, I would spread this like wild fire, you don't slushie anyone from the glee club. Understood?" Puck spat.

Rachel watched in awe as Puck walked away from the nodding football players and over to her.

"Uh, hey. Sorry about that." He said his hands in his pockets as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"No need to apologize, Noah. You didn't do this."

"If the boys on the football team know what's good for them you won't have a problem again."

"Thank you for that Noah. Unfortunately while you can control the football team, there is no alliance between your team and the hockey team."

"Yeah, I guess." Puck said looking at Rachel as she shivered from the coldness of the drinks, but she was still standing there even as silence fell on the two.

Rachel felt the awkwardness creeping up on the two of them and she knew the only way to alleviate it for one of them to leave the situation.

"Noah, neither of us excels at small talk," Rachel said, "So if you'd excuse me I'm going to go clean up."

"Uh, right," Puck said running his hand through his Mohawk.

Rachel turned away to head back to her locker to change so she wasn't tardy on the first day of school, "I'll see you in glee Noah."

Puck didn't say anything but just stood there and watched as Rachel walked away from him covered in blue.

After Rachel got her things from her locker, she hurried into the washroom, thankful that it was empty. She examined herself in the mirror and rolled her eyes. There was blue everywhere and she was going to have to throw the shirt out. Her father had given her that shirt for her birthday last year and he was going to wonder at some point where it was. Changing into her new shirt, Rachel thought about what Puck had done for her in the hallway. She smiled at the fear in the eyes of the football players as Puck threw both of them into the lockers. Puck. Rachel had spent so much of her summer busy with her summer job and hanging out with Quinn, Finn and Mike (yes, Mike Chang) that she almost (but not entirely) had forgotten about him. She kept busy but she couldn't keep him from entering her mind when she was most relaxed. She hadn't changed her mind about the whole situation. And she would admit (only to herself) that she was protecting her heart. But she couldn't help the fact that it wasn't just the fear in the faces of the jocks that made her smile; it was that he was doing it for her. She shook her head, that wasn't true. It couldn't be, especially now that Puck was dating Jessica something-or-other. Yes, Noah Puckerman had returned to the life of being a one-woman man. Jessica was neither Cheerio nor Gleek so Rachel had no idea who she was but Rachel couldn't do anything about it. She had left and Noah was free to sleep with as many or as few girls as he wanted. And if Jessica made Puck happy, Rachel was determined to be happy for him.

~~~~*~~~~

Since Rachel had a bunch of new friends, she decided that at least a couple times a week, she could spend lunch with them. She hadn't been to the lunchroom during lunchtime in a very long time and Rachel quickly got used to the noise. This was the first time most of the club members had seen each other since the camp had ended and everyone was quickly getting caught up.

Mercedes was telling Kurt in great detail about the date that she and Matt had gone on the week prior. Matt just sat there and watched Mercedes speak about that night. All they had done was stay in, order pizza, and watch a movie in her basement, but Mercedes told the story like it was the most romantic date she'd ever been on. And maybe that was true. Rachel laughed with everyone else as Mercedes told of her excitement that she was able to convince Matt to watch Dear John. A chorus of awes came from all the girls and Matt just rolled his eyes and pulled Mercedes close to him.

Kurt, who was sitting mighty close to Hank, told everyone about how he and Hank got busted by the cops for making out in the back seat of Hank's car. Hank had forgotten to turn off the headlights and they ended up shining into an old woman's home who in turned called Lima's finest to investigate the situation.

Rachel and Quinn had gotten summer jobs at Olive Garden as waitresses and Finn finally got that job at Target that he had applied for ages before. Those three told of the crazy customers they had to deal with. When they weren't working, Quinn, Finn and Mike spent a lot of time at Rachel's since her dads weren't home very often watching movies or playing games or just hanging out by Rachel's pool. So the situation with Mike is unexpected and unusual but it just kind of happened. During glee camp, Rachel couldn't seem to get some of her choreography down, which frustrated her more than anyone could understand. She was Rachel Berry, she'd been dancing since she was three months old and she couldn't land a few steps. She had asked Mike for some help since he seemed to have mastered it (possibly, because he had a hand in choreographing it). He was able to help her achieve perfection and then they just started joining Finn and Quinn, which didn't both Rachel because she felt like such a third wheel when her best friend and her boyfriend were around. But she had made it clear to everyone that her and Mike were in a strictly platonic relationship. 'Other Asian' as he was so often called, was nothing more than a good friend, one she had been able to rely on in the summer months and although completely unexpected, Rachel welcomed it.

"Rachel made me watch a bunch of musicals," Mike said when it was his turn to discuss his summer activities.

"Welcome to the club," Quinn chimed in and everyone laughed.

As everyone else took turns telling their tales of the parts of their summer that weren't spent together, including Santana and Brittany's recount of their coming out to their parents. Rachel was very proud of her friends for their acceptance of who they were.

"Where's Puck?" Kurt asked.

Rachel remembered a time when that question was asked and she had the answer, but now turning to Kurt, he wasn't looking at her; he was looking at Finn, who just shrugged.

"I wonder what he did all summer." Puck inquired.

"Jessica," Matt said laughing which resulted in Mercedes sending him the ugliest of looks and his immediate silence; and Rachel couldn't help but laugh.

Kurt gave Rachel a look that said 'she officially lost her mind.' And everyone was silent. Rachel just continued laughing.

"You can all resume the conversation. And I would appreciate if none of you walks on eggshells around me because it makes for a much more uncomfortable position than if you were to speak freely. I am able to speak for Puck, but I will not be harboring any sour feelings because it is not beneficial to the group. So continue," Rachel said waving them on.

It took a second but eventually the eleven friends around her broke into intense conversation. Rachel suddenly wishes she were in the auditorium because there is a song in her head that she wishes would disappear. And she could do that if she could sing it out. Maybe she would post a MySpace video when she got home. She hadn't done more than a handful throughout the summer, even though she did quite a lot of singing and practicing. Underneath the buzz of the lunchroom and her friends, Rachel hums, singing the song in her head so that that dreaded line would disappear from her thoughts, 'Nothing cures the hurt you bring on by yourself.' And Rachel knew that was true and she was glad when the bell rang and lunch was over.

~~~~*~~~~

Rachel was more than excited about the first glee meeting of the year. Kurt and Hank were the first two in the room (after Rachel of course) followed by Quinn and Finn, Quinn taking a spot next to Rachel. Tina and Artie came in after them, followed by Mike, Matt and Mercedes. Matt and Mike were talking and laughing; and by the look on Mercedes' face she was either entirely confused or completely disgusted before Matt and Mercedes went to the back and Mike took a seat next to Rachel. The next to enter was Kristine O'Sullivan. When the New Directions summer camp started, the only new member was Hank; but as week two started Kristine had joined them, and she was instantly accepted into the group. Rachel even gave her seal of approval when she heard Kristine sing. Kristine was a senior, and wanted to find something to make her high school experience memorable (being part of something special makes you special right?) Unfortunately, no one else had joined through out the summer, but everyone was happy that they had gotten their two new members. Glee club was on the rise and Rachel felt that even if she weren't around to experience it, one day glee would rule the school. Brittany and Santana walked in arms linked smiling before taking seats behind Rachel and Quinn.

Mr. Shuester walked in next and everyone was there, except Puck. Mr. Shue surveyed the room as was about to be the second person today to ask of Puck's whereabouts before, as if on cue, the door to the choir room opened and Puck walked through shuffling through the room without a word and taking a seat behind Finn as Mr. Shuester clasped his hands together to begin his speech.

"Welcome back guys! I'm glad to see all of those from last year and here and we are very proud to welcome Hank and Kristine to New Directions," Mr. Shue said as everyone applauded, "I have such a good feeling about this year. I was unbelievably proud about how far we came last year and I look forward to joining you on your journey again this one. We spent the summer working on perfecting vocals and creating dance routines for a handful of songs. But we have the possibility to go to three competitions so we will use some of that material, but while we weren't meeting, I found a couple of other songs that I want to work through and add them to our repertoire. We are going to try new things this year, including changing up some of our leads."

Everyone's gaze immediately shot to Rachel to see if she would protest.

"I wasn't going to say a word!" Rachel said putting her hands up as if she were surrendering.

"I'm glad to hear that Rachel. I'm not saying that Rachel isn't going to get a solo or two, but I'm not saying that we will have her on all the leads. Finn, this goes for you too; you may have to share the spotlight with a couple of the other guys."

"I'm down with that," Finn said smiling.

"Perfect," Mr. Shuester said turning to pull music out of his bag and distributing it, "Now this is the first song I want us to work on. It's called 'Flying without Wings'"

"Mr. Shuester," Kurt said looking up from his music, "I'm not judging your musical taste, because aside from that disco nightmare, your choices have been rather good; however where do you find some of this stuff? I haven't even heard this song before."

"That's a good question Kurt. Some of this is old music I found on Cds that I haven't listened to in ages or were my ex-wife's. There is an amazing amount of music out there; you just have to know the right places to look." Mr. Shuester said as Kurt just nodded.

"So who will have lead on this song Mr. Shuester?" Quinn asked.

"All of you. I'm still working out the details but I wanted to give you the music and give you a heads start. On Wednesday, we will go over the song and then I will assign the solos. I know it's the first day of school and none of you want to sit here. So today, you can all go home early. You've done a great job over the summer and starting Wednesday we are going to kick into full gear."

Mr. Shuester dismissed everyone after that and everyone began trickling out of the choir room. Quinn drove Rachel home with a promise to call her later. Rachel went straight to her room and threw herself on her bed. She contemplated making a MySpace video but found she had no energy to make herself up to make it. Instead she just stared at the ceiling, until she fell asleep, wondering what this school year would bring.