Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or anything affiliated with it. I've also never really written a story before, but I thought I would give it a try! Please let me know what you think. It would mean a lot! Thank you!

Catalyst: (-noun) Something that initiates or causes an important event to happen.

Rachel Berry considered herself to be a very independent young woman. She had learned from an early age that the only person she could always count on was herself; a notion that was reaffirmed each time a slushie was thrown in her face by one of the jocks at her personal hell, William McKinley High School.

The daily torment Rachel faced only increased her determination to make it out of this town. After high school, while her former tormentors bagged groceries at the local corner store, Rachel was going to catch the first train to New York. After a year of working as a struggling waitress at a quaint café in the heart of Manhattan with auditions here and there, she would land her first role as an understudy in a Broadway production. Her understudy role would not last long, though, as a director would take note of her extreme talent in the arts and cast her in a leading role.

It was this familiar daydream that kept Rachel from succumbing to the daily onslaught of insults delivered by her classmates. She knew who she was, and her morning workout spelled out her goal: taped in front of Rachel's elliptical was a glittery sign that spelled out BROADWAY, punctuated by a gold star.

Rachel Berry had a goal. Ambitions. A dream.

Nothing would get in her way.

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride-

Rachel reached blindly over to hit the "off" button on her alarm, sitting up in bed and stretching. The sun flitted through the gap in her blinds, and Rachel strode over to the window and drew the curtain aside so that bright sunshine filled the room. Rachel blinked against the intensity for a second before hopping on her elliptical to begin her morning routine. If the sun was any indication, today was going to be a good day.

The cold sting of the slushie hitting her face moments after entering the corridor of McKinley brought Rachel back to reality. Blinking against the sting of the icy drink, she grabbed a change of clothes out of her locker and retreated to the bathroom. After the first slushie was tossed in her face freshman year, Rachel had been in tears as she told her fathers, both prominent lawyers who had threatened Principal Figgins with a lawsuit if it "Ever. Happened. Again." The culprits, Noah Puckerman and his group of Neanderthal jocks, were reprimanded by a stammering Principal Figgins (Rachel's dads were still in the office), and for a while order had been restored.

After school that day, however, Rachel had been approached while walking home from school from the same group of jocks, this time in the car of an upperclassman.

"Going home to your gay dads, Berry?" One had shouted out the window, "Here - I made you dinner!"

Eggs were thrown and Rachel ducked her head behind a textbook and raced away from the scene, away from the high fives and hollering she could hear as the car sped up and finally passed her. After that first week, Rachel had vowed to never tell her dads what was going on. Instead, she kept a spare set of clothes in her locker and utilized them when needed (which was often). Her steely exterior and stone façade ensured that she would never break down in the presence of others, as that would admit defeat. In the comfort of her bedroom was where Rachel allowed herself to explore her passion, filming video after video of herself singing and dancing.

After changing her clothes and stuffing the dirty shirt in the garbage (slushie stains were too difficult to get out, she had discovered long ago), Rachel made her way to her first period history class. The bathroom detour had made her late, and when she entered the classroom there was only one seat left: next to the most popular boy in school, the quarterback of the school football team: Finn Hudson.

Finn Hudson had it all. As a sophomore, he was the quarterback of the varsity football team. He dated the captain of the cheerleading squad (the Cheerios), Quinn Fabray. He eventually wanted to go to college on a football scholarship, though he knew his grades were not up to par.

Finn was a realist. When he was a year old, his father died in Iraq. His mother worked hard to provide for him, but sometime he would catch her holding his dad's picture in her bedroom, tears silently rolling down her cheeks. When she caught sight of Finn in the doorway, the picture would be put away and the tears would be gone.

Years later, Finn would be referred to as "oblivious." However, as a young child he had a certain awareness that allowed him to understand how people felt. Perhaps it was because of his dad that Finn was able to read emotions so well, having seen so many of them in his mother. In front of his mother Finn kept a stoic face; behind closed doors the façade fell, leaving Finn a bumbling mess at times; at others, it increased his determination to do well. To accomplish everything his father was not given the opportunity to do.

To make his dad proud.

BEEP! BEEP! BE-

Finn groaned and rolled over in his sleep, reaching out to hit the snooze button. The sun was beginning to infiltrate his room and Finn protested, shoving his head under his pillow. He woke up twenty minutes later to his mom shaking him awake.

"Finn! FINN!" Carole Hudson shook her son's shoulder as he opened one bleary eye to look at her.

"You have to be at school in fifteen minutes and I will not have another phone call from your principal telling me that you aren't there!" She pulled the covers off Finn and he begrudgingly sat up.

Ten minutes later, eyes only half open and hair still sticking up on one side (he would have football practice after school anyway, which was a sweat fest, so why bother fixing his hair?), Finn was digging his history book out of his locker. As he walked down the hall he noticed a familiar sight: Rachel Berry, the school's resident weird girl, with a slushie stained blouse. Not much further down the hall was the culprit: Noah Puckerman, or Puck, Finn's best friend since they were six and Puck had thrown that baseball into Finn's basement window. Finn had taken the blame, and a friendship was formed.

"Dude." Puck fist bumped Finn as he stopped in the middle of the hall. "Did you see that Berry chick? Next time I'll let you throw it."

Finn did not know much about Rachel Berry. She used to be a part of his carpool so he knew that she had two gay dads and a big house, but that was it. He did not understand why his classmates gave her such hell; if he had been her, he would have given up a long time ago. But Finn was sure that if given a shake, her walls would crumble. Finn had never taken part in any of the cruel pranks his friends played on who they deemed the "losers" of the school; he was there for moral support (duty calls; he was a jock, after all), but he always felt for the victims, even as he laughed at their expense on the outside.

Rachel Berry was no different. Finn wanted to tell Puck to fuck off, that it wasn't funny, that he was sick of the stupid "jokes," but instead he turned around with a "We're going to be late for class. See you at football" tossed over his shoulder at Puck, leaving Puck mumbling,

"Since when do you care about being late?"

Finn entered his class a few minutes early for once, snagging a table in the back. Seconds after the warning bell had rung, Rachel Berry walked in, her blouse obviously having been changed. The teacher made no comment and simply nodded toward the only empty seat: right next to Finn.

If you could review, that would be awesome! Thanks! The prologue was just a bit of back story.