AN: Okay so I ship just about every couple in glee but my heart is mostly with Finchel (when the writers aren't messing me about with that stupid Quinn/Finn/Rachel triangle, lol) and this is my first attempt at writing one with them as the central pairing. I've written a Puckleberry, Quick and a St Berry story before but I'm happy that I've been in kind of the mood to write for Finchel lately. Hope you like!

Oh and there is some St Berry in this but rest assured they are not end game in this story, lol.

Chapter One

All of her life Rachel Berry had only dreamt of one thing and that was Broadway.

She had the talent and the enthusiasm for it – she was destined to be on that stage and having leads in productions such as Les Miserable's, West Side Story and most importantly, Wicked. That was her dream, she was going to be a star and nothing was going to get in her way so from an early age of four she began to take up lessons such as dance and acting as well as persuading her dads to get her a vocal coach.

They were fully supportive of her dreams and they were willing to do whatever it took to help her fulfil them. So what if some people accused them of spoiling her and so what if people accused her of being a self centred diva. That was the cost of doing whatever it took to make her dreams come true and to actually get out of Lima, Ohio, her hometown unlike all the other losers that called her a diva that were going to be stuck there their entire lives.

Rachel Barbra Berry was destined for greatness and so deciding that she needed to take another step further into making her dreams a reality she managed to persuade her dads to allow her to attend Carmel High School instead of McKinley High School which, granted, was a lot closer to home but Rachel did not like the look of it.

Plus she read all about their glee club there and by the sounds of it, it did not have a very good director as well terrible funding. Clearly it lacked the attention that such an important arts program surely deserved and besides a star like Rachel couldn't possibly be forced to allow her shining light to be diminished in the shadows of a poorly treated glee club.

No, she read all about the one at Carmel High School and was blown away. Now that was the kind of glee club that Rachel Berry deserved to be in...No the star performer of. A talent like hers needed careful nurturing and room to grow. Carmel High was just the place to do that and so after a lot of crying and pleading she finally convinced her dads to allow her to go there instead.

And so that was the place that Rachel Berry started attending high school. As soon as she auditioned for a place on Vocal Adrenaline, the director Shelby Corcoran seemed extremely interested in her and as soon as she had performed she had blown everybody away and was instantly given the role of lead singer. She had been groomed as the star of the glee club for the past few years now and Rachel was now 16 years old and already living her dreams as her team had won nations three times in a row and most of those times were thanks to Rachel and her talent.

They made her feel truly appreciated at Carmel High School and it helped that the glee club was more popular than the football team there – something she doubted was the case at McKinley – and she felt like a Queen when she walked down the hallways. Her high school experience was definitely giving her the taste of what her future would surely be like and she couldn't get enough.

Also another benefit of being in Vocal Adrenaline was the male lead – Jesse St James. He was the hottest and most popular guy in school and was the Tony to Rachel's Maria and her other half. The two of them together were the school's golden couple and everyone respected them. He was the male version of Rachel and they were soul mates. Rachel didn't doubt that they had been made for each other and what they had was truly special.

"Rachel" The brunette was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of Shelby's voice. She was currently standing on the stage with the others and dressed in a sequinned pink dress with her hair tied up into a swaying pony tail. Jesse stood near her in the guy's customs of a pink sequinned shirt and black pants.

"Yes, director Corcoran" Rachel said obediently.

"Are you okay if we go through that Madonna melody one more time?"she asked and Rachel have her a bright smile – a smile that one day she would be shooting towards the entire media after receiving her first – though not last by any means – Tony award.

"Sure. I certainly believe in ensuring that everything including the song and the dance routine is perfected so that we can blow them away at Regional's" Rachel agreed immediately and gave her boyfriend a smile expecting him to say something which he did. He always liked to have his say on these matters and as male lead Rachel believed that he did have a right.

"Like Rachel said perfection is what we aim for and I don't mind going through the song again. But I have no doubt at all that we will win at Regional's especially since our leads are so talented" Jesse said smirking and without a trace of modesty.

"Okay. Let's take it from the top then guys!" she exclaimed and the music began playing again. Jesse and Rachel got into place, him standing behind her with his hands on her waist as she grinded her body against his as she sang her solo.

Meanwhile at McKinley, Finn Hudson was not having a very good day.

He had broken up with his cheating girlfriend Quinn and had been inadvertently been kicked off the football team because he had begun beating up his former best friend Puck since he had gone and knocked up mentioned cheating ex-girlfriend behind his back and never had the guts to say anything to him.

Finn was furious and he was seriously considering just blowing off glee that afternoon but then he knew if he did that he would have an angry step-brother on his case when he got home so there was no avoiding it. He guessed he was just going to have to suck it up and ignore Quinn and Puck if he saw them there.

He walked into the choir room where he saw Mr Shuester was already standing in the middle of the room discussing Regional's and sat himself down in between Tina and Kurt – his stepbrother.

"So do you guys want to know who we are going to be facing at Regional's." Mr Shuester asked them and Mercedes immediately piped up.

"Who cares? I'm going to blow them away with my solo" she bragged before receiving annoyed looks from the others.

"Mercedes, you know that I love you girl but who says you will be performing the solo? You have performed a solo at sectionals already" Kurt huffed from beside Finn.

"I think Finn should do a solo. He's the star of the club after all" Mike Chang piped up and got a glare from both Kurt and Mercedes.

Mr Shuester sighed.

"Guys be quiet and I'll tell you who we're up against" he snapped and the whole club fell silent. Behind him Finn could hear Quinn and Puck whispering to each other but he forced himself to focus on his teacher.

"We're going up against some show choir called Aural intensity and..." he paused before dropping the bomb on his students "Vocal Adrenaline" the tension in the room could be felt by all as they all took in their teacher's words.

Finally it was Kurt who spoke up and broke the silence that was quickly becoming uncomfortable for everyone. "We're up against Vocal Adrenaline? We should just give up now" he groaned.

"Kurt's right – we're screwed!" Tina exclaimed unhappily.

"Now guys don't think like that. I think that with all our combined efforts we have just a good a shot at winning this thing as Vocal Adrenaline do" Mr Shuester protested, trying to inject some positivity into the group but it seemed as though most of the group had already fallen into a deep funk.

"I've got two words for you, Mr Shuester – Rachel Berry" Kurt pointed out."That girl has got the biggest talent that I've even seen. You should have heard her rendition of my man. I swear that brought tears to my eyes"

"Shut it, Hummel" Santana Lopez growled at him."Praising the competition isn't going to get us anywhere"

"Besides I could beat Rachel Berry any day" Mercedes chimed in."So I don't think we have that much to worry about after all"

"Guys I think that we need to think more positively about this" Mr Shuster yelled over them, getting them to quiet down again."We have something that Vocal Adrenaline will never have"

"What?" Finn asked, confused. He didn't really have a clue what the big deal was about Vocal Adrenaline to be honest. When the whole team had gone to check out one of their performances Finn had been ill and had to stay behind but apparently they were really good but surely they weren't unbeatable?

"We have heart" Mr Shuester told them all with a smile."They can sing, they can dance and they have talent. That's true. But so do we and we put our whole hearts into every performance – can we say the same for them? I swear by the time Regional's comes around every single one of you will be ready for them and there will be a very good chance that we could win this thing!"

At his motivational speech everyone except Finn burst into applauds. Finn didn't understand what was going on – all he got was that they were apparently going up against a really good show choir and that New Directions had more heart than Vocal Adrenaline.

"Gather around guys" Shelby Corcoran called for her performers to gather around her. Following her instruction they all walked off the stage and surrounded her. She stood up holding a brown envelope in her hands. She gave them all a smile.

"Guess what? I have our list of competitor's right here in this envelope. Do you want to know who we're going up against?" Rachel's doe brown eyes widened and she smiled with anticipation whilst Jesse just smirked and answered on behalf of the entire group.

"Sure. Let us know who it is we're going to be crushing like bugs at Regional's this year"

"Well..." Shelby took out a slip of paper from the envelope and grinned at them."We're up against Aural Intensity" at the name of the group everyone burst out laughing and into applause. Rachel remembered them from last year's Regional's. They were really quite mediocre. Shelby continued "And we are also up against New Directions" at that the entire group fell silent and looked confused. Who the heck were New Directions?"

"I've never heard of them before. Are they good?" Rachel demanded, frowning.

"Who knows? They can't be that great if we've never heard of them" one of the guys that Rachel remembered being called Jake spoke up.

"Relax guys" Jesse spoke up in an almost lazy voice."I went to their performance at sectionals. Their leads were average at best. I doubt we'll have much of a problem beating them. It doesn't even look like they even practice their performances beforehand"

"Are you sure about that? Jesse you can be kind of harsh about the competition at times and I don't want to underestimate them" Rachel spoke up and Jesse glared at her.

"I'm not being harsh, Rachel. I'm merely stating the truth"

"Jesse, Rachel's right. We shouldn't under estimate them no matter what you personally think of their performances" Shelby spoke up, hushing up the male lead immediately before continuing "which is why I am adding more rehearsals onto the time table. I want to see you all here at 10.30 on Saturday and Sundays from now on"

"I think that is a good idea although I doubt we need it" Jesse shrugged.

"We are going to make sure that everything is perfect by the time Regional's roll around. I expect nothing less than your best effort from all of you" Shelby warned them before dismissing them.

As Rachel approached her car – her expensive new car which was her gift from Shelby as she had bought all of them new cars as a reward for winning Nationals the previous year – Jesse caught up with her and apologised.

"I'm sorry about earlier, Rachel. I just want us to have more confidence in ourselves" he told her softly, gazing down at her tenderly."We do have the most talented male on our team after all" he smirked before brushing a kiss against her lips before walking off to his own car.

As he disappeared, Rachel could not help but think that sometimes Jesse seemed to love himself more than her.