Rachel sighed impatiently. Her father was late picking her up from the airport and the dark parking lot she was waiting in was making her more and more paranoid.
Her ringtone rang out in the calm quiet and she jumped a little, surprised, before reached into her bag for her phone, swiping across to answer the call.
"Hi Dad, where are you? I'm in the parking lot… what car? Ok, I see it now." A blue rental car pulled up next to her and her dad rolled down the window and smiled apologetically at her.
"I'm sorry sweetie, work is a little bit hectic still, I'm still adjusting to the…. environment." Rachel heart sank a little as she caught on to the meaning behind Leroy's words. She knew that moving from the liberal New york, the place where she had grown up, to the conservative Ohio would be difficult, but if her dad's work troubles were any indication, it would be worse than she thought. However, it just couldn't be helped. Her aunt was sick and Hiram, her other father, had to move back to help take care of her and of course, his family came with him.
Rachel nodded and climbed into the car, giving her dad a kiss on the cheek before buckling in and settling her head against the seat. She felt her skull sinking into the soft headrest and by the time they reached their new house, she was nearly comatose and Leroy had to shake her shoulder repeatedly to get her to wake up enough to get in the house.
The darkness made it hard to see what her new house was like but she eventually made out a two story bungalow and made her way to the door with a bag rolling next to her and her dad right behind her. Leroy walked up with one of her bags and rang the doorbell, smiling at his daughter. The door opened and a tall, excited man appeared in the doorframe.
"Rachel! You're finally here! It's been such a long time." Hiram nearly shoved Leroy aside to hug his daughter dramatically.
"Daaad," Rachel giggled, "It's only been 1 week, and it's not like its my first time alone. Besides, I was with Addie."
Addison was her best friend in New York and was fiery, passionate and boisterous. She was pretty much the reason Rachel learnt about fashion and makeup, not that she cared too much about it. While she knew how to wear a dress well and put on makeup now, Rachel still preferred comfortable, simple clothes and minimal makeup. Addie was one of the popular kids, being a pretty kick-ass dancer and Rachel had a respectable amount of popularity too, being the voice behind her show choir.
Hiram sighed dramatically, "Well, I guess I'm alright with it then; Now, you look exhausted, let's get you to bed."
"My bags.." Rachel protested but Leroy immediately said, "I can get them no problem." When Rachel still looked reluctant, her continued, "Rachel you look like you're about to fall asleep standing up, go to sleep."
Rachel agreed and turned, but before she went too far, she was pulled back and engulfed in a group hug with both of her dads.
Rachel smiled and hugged them both back for a long moment before, after some I-love-you's and murmuring, Rachel drowsily climbed the stairs, got ready and into bed, sleep reaching her the moment her head touched the pillow.
Rachel groaned at the sound of AC/DC coming from her phone, her set ringtone for Addie.
She picked it up and answered it but quickly moved it away from her ear at the loud voice coming through it.
"WAKE UP! …. You awake? Good." Rachel groaned again at the laughter sounding out in her new bedroom.
"I hate you so much."
"No you don't you love me. Now how's the middle of nowhere treating you?"
"I don't know, I literally just got here and collapsed into bed. I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be pretty though, I think Dad's already gotten a taste of conservative Ohio at work." Rachel replied.
"Ouch that doesn't sound good. But keep your head up, there might be hope yet. When are you getting to school?"
"Tomorrow. And I think this time, I'm gonna just keep my head down. At least for a little while, while I adjust to this whole place."
"Are you sure? No show choir?"
"Nope. I'll practice privately still of course but I'm not sure how well it might go over here, its best to just stay discreet for a while while I check things out."
"Ok fine. Anyways, gotta go do stuff while I'm still hot and young, don't do anything I wouldn't do." Addie called out.
Rachel laughed, "Which means pretty much anything."
"Huh true. Ok, don't do anything you wouldn't do! See ya, bye."
Rachel chuckled at the silliness of her friend and hung up the phone. She stretched luxuriously out on the bed and sighed deeply before rolling off to start the day and start the momentous task of unpacking all her belongings.
Rachel grunted in frustration. 5 hours later and she still wasn't done unpacking. She looked up at the ceiling in exasperation and said internally, screw this, deciding to go out and see what kind of town she had landed into.
Changing into something nice but comfortable, with a hoodie and skinny jeans to combat the autumn breeze, she headed out. She strolled along into town which was just a few minutes away from her house and into the first coffee shop she saw, something called the Lima Bean.
It was old and rustic but modern at the same time and smelled like coffee. It brought a genuine smile to Rachel's face and reminded her of her favorite coffee shop back home. She bounced over to the barista and gave her order, paying and moving aside to wait for her coffee.
As she waited mindlessly, leaning against the counter, her mind began to drift, thinking of her dreams of Broadway and Barbra, wondering if it would ever happen. Her world had felt a little surreal to her, kind of numb, for the last few months, like she couldn't really feel anything deep into her bones. It was the reason she had broken up with her previous boyfriend, and her girlfriend before that. It hadn't actually been a big deal to her, having a girlfriend since having two fathers and very loving and open ones at that had made her quite open-minded and she had always felt her sexuality as being quite fluid. In New York, it also hadn't been much drama coming out as she had gone to a liberal arts school and so was accepted there as well.
"Excuse me." said an authoritative voice next to her. Startled, Rachel abruptly spun around and her eyes widened at the beautiful girl with short wavy blonde hair and hard eyes in front of her.
"Uh y-yes can I help you?" Rachel winced at the stutter but was proud of her recovery, following her sentence up with a bright smile.
The blonde's eyes softened a little and with a tone of amusement, she said, "You're in front of my latte."
"Oh! Sorry about that." Rachel quickly handed the coffee behind her to the blonde and reading off the name scribbled on the cup, she continued, "... Quinn."
"Thank you…. Rachel." Quinn answered, squinting at the cup sitting on the counter that just appeared.
Rachel smiled and picked up the cup, sipping it a little and moaning at the delicious taste. "Uhh.." A startled voice came again and Rachel stopped drinking to see a perfectly arched eyebrow. She blushed and explained, "This is just heavenly."
Quinn laughed. "So Rachel, are you new here?"
"Yes I am, I just arrived from New York actually. What about you?"
"Here, all my life - pretty boring actually. But never mind about me, what's New York like?" Quinn said, intrigued.
Rachel brightened and her eyes lit up. "Oh, I love it there! It's an amazing city - have you never been? You should really visit it sometime, see the capital of music and broadway."
"Hmm broadway, that would be amazing. But if it's so great, why are you here in Lima, Ohio?" Quinn's voice had a hint of disgust to it as she said the name of her town.
"My aunt is sick so we came to see her. And hey, don't knock Ohio, it seems pretty great so far, and quite beautiful too." Rachel smiled charmingly and looked meaningfully at Quinn.
Quinn blushed and met her gaze with sparkling eyes, and Rachel suddenly developed tunnel vision, light from behind Quinn shining, making it seem like she was glowing. Rachel felt a warm feeling spreading through her from the sight
"Uhum." A cough from behind Quinn broke the moment and they both turned around to see a woman waiting for her coffee. They quickly walked a few steps away from the counter to stop blocking it and then shyly smiled at each other again. After a moment, Rachel reached across and paused a moment before sliding Quinn's phone out of her pocket. Quinn's breath hitched a little and Rachel smirked coyly before quickly typed her number in.
Handing the phone back into Quinn's stunned hands, she walked past her towards the exit, leaning in and said in a low voice, "Call me sometime."
Rachel emerged from the exit, feeling the sunshine on her face and grinned beautifically. Maybe Lima wouldn't be so bad after all.