"Lima, Ohio. I can't believe I have to move to Lima, Ohio. Sure, it's where my mom grew up, but from what she told me, it's a pretty judgemental and small town. How am I supposed to adjust from New York City to Lima, Ohio?" Ashley Berry thought to herself as she stepped off the plane. She looked at the small airport of her new home. A small wooden sign with peeling letters read, "Welcome to Lima!" Ashley's attention was then caught by her Uncle Kurt calling her. "Ashley!"

"Yes, Uncle Kurt?"

"Welcome to your new home, Sweetie. I know it's not much, but remember, this is where both your mom and I came from." Ashley forced a smile as she grabbed her carry-on from Uncle Blaine. With a sigh, she followed her uncles to baggage claim and later their car. It was a thirty minute drive from the airport to her uncles house, and Ashley was exhausted.

"I'm really tired," Ashley spoke up suddenly. "Can we please turn off the radio so I can try to go to sleep?"

"Sure, Ash. It's been a long day. We'll wake you up when we get to our house." Ashley cringed at the words 'our house'. All of her belongings had been moved in, and her new bedroom was already set up the way her old one was, but it still didn't feel real to her. None of it did. For the past three weeks, Ashley had gone numb. Ever since she got the phone call that wrecked her seemingly perfect world.

FLASHBACK

It was 11 o'clock on a Friday night, and Ashley was having a "lazy evening" as she and her mom called it. Her mom was late getting home, but Ashley just figured her rehearsal went later. She was just practicing her drums when she heard her cell phone ringing. "Hello?
Ashley answered.

"Ashley Berry?" The voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is Dr. Steinman. There's been an automobile accident involving your mother, Rachel Berry. She is at St. Ignatius Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit."

"Thank you, Doctor. I'm on my way." Ashley hung up the phone and began to sprint out of the apartment she and her mom shared, and onto the sidewalk. Her heart was pounding, her head aching. She wasn't much of a runner, but she sprinted the fifteen blocks to St. Ignatius solely on adrenaline. Ashley felt herself ask the receptionist where Rachel Berry's room was, but what she remembered most was walking into her mother's room and seeing the many machines that were keeping her mom alive. "Mom," Ashley sobbed. She reached for her mother's lifeless hand, and felt it against her palm.

"Ashley...I love you so much, don't ever forget that." Her mom's voice was barely a whisper, but Ashley caught every word.

"Mom, what happened?" She managed to get out between tears.

"A drunk driver ran a red light," her mother whispered back to her. "Ashley, I need you to be strong for me. Be a good girl and remember that I will always love you so much. Take this, it means a lot to me." Rachel handed her daughter the 'Finn' necklace she had worn since high school. She started to cry, for all the mistakes in her short life. For not telling Finn he had a daughter, or that she never stopped loving him. She cried for her daughter, who didn't know who her dad was, who had to finish growing up without a mother.

"Mom, don't cry," Ashley reassured her mother. "I love you mom. So much," she added. Rachel squeezed her daughter's hand for the last time.

Ashley felt her mother's hand grow limp, and she looked up at the heart monitor that was now flatlined. Her mother was gone. DEAD. At just 33 years old. "What's going to happen to me?" She asked herself as she fell on her mother's lifeless chest. Ashley felt her world going black.

"I'm 15 years old. I have no mom. I have no dad," Ashley kept repeating to herself when she awoke the next morning. Her "uncles" Kurt and Blaine flew to New York last night, and explained to her that she would be moving to Ohio to live with them in Lima. She couldn't stop crying, but she was relieved that she would have a home with people who loved her. She was sad to leave New York and all her childhood memories behind, but she knew it was for the best. Besides, everything in New York reminded Ashley of her mom, who was never coming back. It was time to start her new life in Ohio. She would have a new house, new school, new friends, and a new life.

END FLASHBACK