Sophie wiped the last bit of flour from the kitchen counter and turned to admire her work. The kitchen table had been set up perfectly with a stack of blueberry pancakes on a well worn out red plastic plate. A tall glass of orange juice sat in front of it. She and her parents had managed to decorate the room perfectly. Everything was in place. Except Chris.

As if on cue, Sophie's extremely tall older brother Chris stumbled down the stairs, his dark brown hair in the usual morning mess. "Happy birthday thin man!" she shouted jumping up and down, half in an effort to be taller and half out of pure excitement. "What!" he glanced around in confusion before breaking into a grin. "You!" Chris raced over, and threw her over his shoulder.

"Chris!" Sophie squealed "put me down now! The surprise isn't over!" He placed her on the floor. Sophie patted down her hair, smoothed her skirt, flicked lint off her blouse. "Chris, may I present, the person who you've been talking about for weeks." she turned "you can come out now!"

Juliette Evans, Chris' girlfriend of two years, popped up from behind the Hudson's sofa and shouted surprise. "Juliette?" Chris whispered his eyebrows furrowing in confusion and then straightening in understanding. "Kiss her! The tension is killing me!" Sophie stated impatiently before shoving him over. "Hey white boy. Did you really think I was going to miss this?" Juliette smiled, pulled him down and crashed their lips together.

Chris stood up, dazed. "Oh my God. If this is a dream, I never want to wake up." Then he spun around. "Slugger, you planned this?"

"Well, sort of. With the help of Mom and Dad of course." Chris suddenly went serious. "Where are Mom and Dad anyway?"

"They're out getting the extra gifts they ordered." Sophie replied, just as Rachel came up behind her and placed her hands over her daughter's mouth. "You are too much like me." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Finn, baby, bring the stuff in, you don't even need to wrap them. Sophie told him already." Finn appeared in the door way, holding various boxes, with a cross look on his face. "Sophie" he groaned "we told you not to tell him. Not as in no." She blushed at that. "Sorry Dad."

"Anyway, why don't we give you all your gifts before Sophie tells you what they are." Chris' presents turned out to be two T-shirts, new football gear, drum sticks, tap shoes, a nook, and a mysterious plastic flower that Rachel quickly took back saying, "it's for something else." Everyone new better than to question her. "Wow. I love everything. Especially the new tap shoes." Chris smiled "thanks for making this the best birthday!" "You only turn 18 once." Sophie replied nudging him with her elbow.

After, everyone had finished their breakfast and pitched in cleaning up, Sophie went up to her room. The Hudson's had moved to Lima from New York when Sophie was four and Chris was 7. They had always planned on going back, but it didn't work out. Rachel had given up her career as a Broadway actress when Sophie was born, even though she world renowned for playing Fanny Brice in the remake of Funny Girl. It had been her first and only part, and everyone agreed that she was second best, only to Barbara herself.

Sophie was not obsessed with Barbara. Though she liked Funny Gil and the music from it, her favorite movie was 'All About Eve' and her favorite actress was Bette Davis. The woman couldn't sing, but she was an amazing actress in all of her films. All, in which, Sophie had. Rachel was disappointed that she couldn't make Sophie into a Fanny Brice or Yentl lover like she was, but Sophie's incredible singing voice made up for that. Rachel had started Sophie's vocal training when she was seven. This was the same time Finn had started her baseball training. It was rather strange really...

"Rachel! Rachel! Oh my God! She's a pitcher! A pitcher!" Finn Hudson raced into his wife's bedroom to find her seated, excited for her own reasons. "Rach, you just had to be there!" Finn sunk into a chair across from her. "She pitched to Chris and then to me. She whaled them, perfect line drives and her aim is incredible!" He looked like a little boy on Christmas.

"That's wonderful Finn, but you have to hear her sing. I was listening as she sang in the shower. It was Rose's Turn from Gypsy! Finn she was amazing! She hit the hight notes perfectly! She had all the emotion!" Rachel shook her had slightly. "And just think, she's only seven and she already has this much talent. Imagine what she could do with a little training!"

"That's great babe. But do you know how rare it is to have a true baseball player in the family? I mean, I know that my Dad was no slouch in the sport, but Sophie was even better than that. She played like she was a Yankee, I'm serious." His grin grew even wider if possible. "If I started to coach her, she could be fantastic!"

They turned to look at each other, husband and wife, each holding onto their dream with every fiber they had. "She needs to learn singing!" Rachel screamed at the same time Finn yelled baseball. They glared at each other before Rachel sighed. "We'll just have to make schedules for it. You teach her on day, I teach her the other. But she's only one person, we have to make sure we don't overload her."

Finn nodded, liking her suggestion more and more as he thought about it. "Fine, I get tuesday's and you get wednesdays. That way it's only once a week for each and we still get everything we want for her in." Rachel bit her lip the way she always did when she was really thinking about something. "Deal."

From that point, things hadn't changed much. Sophie still had coaching on those days and she loved both of them equally. Occasionally, her parents would still argue about which she was better at, singing or baseball. Nobody one, because the argument almost always ended with them kissing on the couch. Sophie smiled thinking about this, before she flopped onto her bed.

The walls of her room were light blue with an assortment of framed playbills and baseball players lining the walls. One of her favorite performers, Sophie Tucker, was taped to her mirror. Her bed spread with light blue, hot pink and bright green with purple flowers. Once she felt the comfortableness of her bed, she remembered that she had gotten up at five o'clock that morning to get everything ready for Chris. She began to fall asleep again, her last thought being, 'First Day of School tomorrow. Finally."

What do you think? Any suggestions? Chapter two coming up soon!