Natalie was extremely excited when she heard the news. Ever since she went back home to Washington, she kept in touch with Rachel. At first, it was just a little bit of happiness. Nationals in Seattle? It seemed nice. Then she got the news that the New Directions won at Sectionals. Then Regionals. It all became clear that this was actually happening. She was going to see Rachel, and Kurt, and all the other guys from Ohio. Natalie actually hadn't gotten this excited for something in a long time.

The days leading up to the competiton you could tell something was different with Natalie. A slight spring in her step. A bit happier look on her face. She'd never outright admit how thrilled she was to watch her cousin and her friends perform, but it was pretty obvious. Henry joked that she never looked that happy when she was with him.

Finally, the day was here. Natalie, her dad, and Henry drove to the theatre where the Nationals competition was going to take place. Natalie glanced at her program that she was handed. The New Directions wouldn't be going for a while. Who knew that there were this many showchoirs? Natalie hardly knew what a showchoir even was.

Natalie sat through performance after performance. She thought it was really boring, but she had to support Rachel. She sat through mediocre performances, to very well done performances. The best so far was done by a group called 'Vocal Adrenaline' or something like that. They were very flashy, but Natalie whispered to Henry that the New Directions would be better. Henry smiled back at her. She was pretty sure that he was half-asleep over there.

"All the way from Lima, Ohio, it's the New Directions!" The announcer, well, announced. Natalie pinched Henry.

"That's us!" she hissed, before applauding like the rest of the people.

Someone starting singing from the back, not on the stage. The crowd shifted in their seats to look. It wasn't Rachel singing, it was one of the other girls. Soon the rest of the club entered, all singing. It wasn't a song Natalie recognized, but it was probably from a musical. That was their theme this year, Rachel had told her. But nothing else. Their setlist was top secret.

As the song went on, Natalie tried to pick out the faces. There were definitely all the ones from summer, but there were also some new faces. And was that Blaine? Didn't he go to a different school?

Slowly, Natalie thought she knew the song. It was from that one musical-what was it called? Oh yeah, RENT or something. They looked all looked good, the girls in dark red dresses and the boys in matching red shirts with black ties. Their song had ended, and now they were singing another song.

This song, Natalie thought was from a musical called Spring Awakening? She wasn't quite sure. But they were really amazing. It went on like this for a while, until finally they were finished. Natalie, Dan, and Henry all made sure that they applauded the loudest.

After the last few performances, Natalie grabbed Henry's hand and they both ran out to the lobby. There were the New Directions.

"Natalie!" A voice came from behind her. She turned around. Kurt rushed up and threw his arms around her. "I missed you!" He pulled away and looked at her. "You look great! How were we?" he said, slightly breathless.

"You look great too, and you guys were fantastic," Natalie said honestly. "Oh, this is Henry. Henry, this is Kurt," she explained. Henry gave a little wave. Kurt smiled.

"Great to see you again! Oh, there's Blaine!" And just as quickly as he ran over, he ran off.

"Natalie!" A different voice said. Rachel ran over to her. "I'm so glad you came! I'm going to hug you now," she wrapped her arms around Natalie.

"I'm glad too," laughed Natalie. "This is Henry. Henry, this is my cousin Rachel."

"Natalie's told me a lot about you," Rachel said. Henry grinned at Natalie, who felt her face turning red as she glared at Rachel.

"You haven't met the new members yet!" Rachel said, eager to change the subject. "That's Sugar," there was a slight note of disgust in her voice, "That's Rory-he's from Ireland! Blaine transferred here at the beginning of the year, and Quinn's over there. She isn't new, she just was...busy, when you were here."

"You guys were awesome," Henry said. Rachel nodded, a determined look in her eye.

"We were! We are going to beat Vocal Adrenaline this year, I just know it!" she beamed. "Oh! Uncle Dan!" She ran over to Natalie's dad.

"That's Rachel," Natalie said. Henry smiled and squeezed Natalie's hand.

"Well, if it isn't the Goody Two Shoes and her one true love," Santana said, strolling up to the couple. "How adorable. How long have you two been courting? Have you kissed yet? Or are you taking this extra slow?"

"I missed you too, Santana," Natalie said. Suddenly, Santana hugged Natalie.

"How's it with you and Brittany?" Natalie asked.

Santana pulled away, smiling. "Perfect...thank you," she left.

Henry looked confused. "Was that the girl you shoved into a pool?"

"Yeah," Natalie said simply.

"The list is up!" Someone shouted. All the clubs tried to gather around at once. It was a huge mess.

Natalie, Dan, and Henry stayed back, Natalie gripping Henry's hand tightly. The minutes went by with no response. There was cheering. Some groups jumped up and down. Some groups quietly walked away, disappointed. No sign of what the New Directions was doing.

The groups broke up, one by one. Mercedes ran over to them.

"We got in!"

A/N: This was all originally supposed to be a oneshot, but it was too long, so I'll probably just add another one or two chapters. Bye!