Hi guys :) This is my first Glee fanfic. I hope you enjoy it. It's slightly AU, Shelby is a Broadway star and has never met Rachel. Some common pairings, others will probably appear later on knowing me. I would love to hear what you guys think of this, let me know if it's something worth continuing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. I wish I did but, alas, the TV gods have not allowed it.

Rachel slammed her front door and stormed up the stairs to her bedroom, her eyes filled with unshed tears and her chest feeling like it was going to explode from all the anger brewing inside. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to let all of those bad feelings out but was too scared of what might happen if she did. Most of all, though, she wanted to escape from her life, her school, her home. She wanted to run away and never come back. She wanted her mother.

Instead of wishing for all the things she couldn't have, all the things that would never happen, she just stayed in her room and cried. She didn't know what else to do.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts and had no idea how much time had passed since she got home from school, meaning she didn't even notice her father, Leroy Berry, come into the room and hand her a glass of water.

"Thanks." She whispered, her throat too sore from crying to speak any louder.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Her father asked with concern evident in his calm voice. Rachel merely shook her head and continued crying, knowing she wouldn't be able to stop herself now that her barrier that kept back the tears had been broken.

Leroy knew that Rachel was a bit of a drama queen, but she had never seen her upset like this before. As a child she would throw tantrums and threaten to run away, but never cry like she was now. Him and his partner, Hiram, would always humour her when she said she was running away, knowing that she would never get further than the end of the street before turning back and apologising, promising to never run away again and telling them how much she had missed them and loved them. This time she was different though. He could tell something was seriously wrong.

Gently, her placed his arm around his daughter's shoulders and whispered comforting words to her whilst waiting for her to calm down enough to speak.

"So do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly.

"No."

"Come on, sweetie. I'm your dad. You can tell me anything."

Rachel paused for a second to think about it. On one hand, she didn't want to tell her dads about the bullying because she knew they would feel guilty and it would upset them to see their baby girl hurting. On the other hand, she wanted it to stop so badly so that she could enjoy the rest of her time at high school and have the best chance possible of becoming a Broadway superstar. Plus she knew now that they would probably worry just as much, maybe even more, if she didn't tell them.

"There's a couple of kids at school who have... ummmm..." She paused, wanting to chose her words carefully. Sensing her hesitation, Leroy reached over to the glass of water that had been left on her dresser. He handed it to his daughter, who had a sip and then just gripped the glass firmly in her lap. She took a breath and figured she might as well just say it. "They've been bullying me, Daddy. They throw slushies at me and it hurts, it really stings, they call me names and say mean things about me."

Rachel broke down in tears once more, just as Hiram closed the front door after arriving home from work.

Hearing the desperate sobs of his only daughter he rushed upstairs to find his partner sat on her bed, trying to calm her down and get her to focus on breathing steadily so as not to send herself into having a panic attack.

Leroy looked up and caught his eye.

'What happened?' Hiram mouthed. Leroy gave him a sad look and then looked at Rachel. He came and sat on the bed next to his daughter, who hadn't even noticed him entering the room.

"Dad!" She said and hugged him tightly, as if scared to let go.

"It's going to be alright, Rach, just tell us what happened."

Her two dads sat there in silence while they listened to what Rachel had to say. She described the daily torment that she faced at school, how she always had at least one, sometimes two, spare pairs of clothes in her bag or locker in case she got slushied. She talked about the long list of names she was called and things people mocked her for.

To Leroy and Hiram the list felt endless. Kids would insult her dress sense, her obsession with Broadway because, apparently, it was considered 'uncool' and they thought she was strange wanting to watch musicals when there were so many new films out in the cinemas, the made fun of the fact that she had two gay dads, making the pair very angry, and most of all they mocked her for the one love she had at school, glee club.

It seemed that the only friends that Rachel had were the New Directions, and even then her parents knew that relationship statuses, friendships and fights amongst the group changed so frequently that some of the time she couldn't even rely on the hour or so she spent with them a day to cheer her up. Apparently today had been one of those days. With all the drama going on between the dozen of those kids, it was difficult for anyone, even Rachel, to determine what actually caused the arguments in the first place.

Later that evening, once Rachel had gone to sleep, the couple sat down in the living room and talked about the day's events.

"I had no idea any of this was going on." Hiram said.

"Why didn't she tell us sooner?" His partner replied. "I mean, she would always moan about school and everything that went on in glee club. And that teacher that tried to shut it down, what was her name?"

"Sylvester, I think."

"That's it! All the times she moaned about her, I never once thought something as bad as this would be happening to our little baby."

"I just hope she never has to go through anything as bad as what happened to me in high school." Hiram replied, sadly. He had been bullied at school for being gay. They knew it was just because he was different and, especially when they were kids, people were scared of anyone who was different because they didn't understand them. Leroy hadn't had this problem. He didn't come out until college where people were more accepting. Unfortunately, his parents didn't have the same open minds. The words his father said to him that night still haunt him to this day. 'You are not my son. My son was a real man. He's gone now, he's been replaced. Until you can find my son, my son who likes women, I don't want to see you set foot in this house again!' He heard the echo of his father's voice say in his head. That night he had packed his bags and stayed at Hiram's house until the time came for him to return to college. It was New Year's Eve, well technically New Year's Day now, having missed the countdown when packing. He wanted to start the New Year as himself, not having to hide who he was. Hiram's family understood and let him stay. The pair got together that night and have been in love ever since.

Rachel was lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She had put glow in the dark stars on it was a child, because 'gold stars are kind of my thing'. She stared up at them as if looking at the night sky. She could imagine that she was somewhere else, maybe on holiday, and pretend that all her worries would have disappeared.

'Why was I never the popular kid?' She thought to herself. 'I mean, I'm not being rude or anything but I'm clearly the most talented singer in the group. Finn is amazing and a great male vocalist to complement my talent, and Mercedes can sing with such passion and soul. Tina could be great if she was more confident, but as her voice is overshadowed by mine at the moment she won't get any solos yet anyway. The rest of the group are good singers and will help us to win Sectionals and even Nationals this year, but none of them can compete with my talent, that much is obvious'

She remembered all the good times they had together, but she knew in her heart that they would only ever remain in the choir room. Santana and Quinn would never talk to her outside of glee. No one did. She thought that things were getting better though, until today. Quinn, the girl who had gone from being her worst enemy to her friend to her acquaintance so many times had just started being nice to her in glee again but today, when she was walking to Spanish class, she had thrown a slushie at her. She was so angry with her. Quinn knew what it was like, she was in the glee club and had had a child a couple of years ago. She'd suffered from the slushies almost as much as Rachel during those nine months. For someone she thought was her friend to do that to her was the final straw. Sitting through Spanish class and glee that afternoon had been near impossible. She held in her tears for just long enough to drive home safely before letting it all out.

She thought back to Finn, her ex-boyfriend. He was lovely and amazingly good looking but being with her made him the target of even more bullying. He was already split by glee and the football team, Rachel didn't want to make his life any harder. She claimed he never understood her and her big dreams and had broken up with him a little over a month ago. Now she was miserable and she knew it was her fault.

How did she feel now that her dads knew about it all? She didn't know. It was still too soon to tell.

Rachel looked around her room at the posters of all the Broadway stars. Her idol, Barbara Streisand appeared many times. So did her new favourite star, Shelby Corcoran. She'd heard about her through Kurt and fell in love with her voice. After finding out she was from Ohio, Rachel instantly felt a connection with her. If Shelby could make her Broadway dreams come true then so could Rachel. She made her believe that anything is possible, making her heart even more set on going to NYADA next year.

Rachel tried to focus on that as she rolled over on to her side and closed her eyes. Exhausted from the day's events, sleep came surprisingly easily to her and she hoped that tonight her dreams would be free from nightmares.

Back in the living room, Rachel's fathers were still discussing what they could do to help their daughter.

"Why won't you consider getting her to transfer schools?" Leroy asked.

"What sort of message would that send out to her? That running away from her problems would solve everything? How would that help her when she becomes famous and gets some bad press or some rumours come out? She won't be able to handle it. She can't run away from that."

Leroy considered his partner's argument.

"I guess you're right. There is one other solution though."

"What are you thinking?" Hiram asked.

"There's someone else that might be able to help her. Her mother."