(a/n) Hello, Friends! I am so excited to start this new story! In the past, I feel like my fanfics have been okay/mediocre but I have been planning this one out and I can't wait for you guys to read this first chapter and tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading and please review!

-Lyndsay

She wouldn't necessarily call herself "uptight", despite most peoples' comments on her personality. She preferred the term "organized" or "perfectionist". Rachel Berry had a nature about her that most people claimed "got on their nerves" or "annoyed" them.

As a music teacher in a middle school, 26 year old Rachel Berry was loved greatly among her students. Every day she woke up with a smile on her face. Being an educator for the arts, especially at Lincoln Middle School in Lima, Ohio was something that she held very dearly to her heart and although it wasn't her biggest dream, she loved sharing her love of music with her students.

"Mrs. Berry, can you sing to us?" asked one of her students one day before class was over. Rachel smiled and looked at the clock, "One short song before the bell rings wouldn't hurt…and it's Miss Berry, Nathan." She smiled, walking over to the piano where her assistant-teacher, Tina Cohen Chang sat.

"To Love You More?" Rachel asked, hopefully. Tina nodded and pulled a piece of music from her folder before beginning to play the piece that she had become very familiar with thanks to Rachel, one of her dear friends.

As Rachel began singing, she could feel the music through her veins.

Take me back in the arms I love
Need me like you did before
Touch me once again
And remember when
There was no one that you wanted more

Don't go you know you will break my heart
She won't love you like I will
I'm the one who'll stay
When she walks away
And you know I'll be standing here still

I'll be waiting for you….

The bell rang abruptly, causing the piano to stop playing and the students to shuffle out of the classroom, pulling Rachel out of her trance. "Have a great weekend!" she called out to them.

Rachel's next class wasn't to come in for another half hour, so she grabbed her wallet and headed to the cafeteria, Tina going to the vending machine in the teacher's lounge.

After getting a bottle of water and a cookie as a treat, Rachel paid and thanked the lunch lady, walking out of the line and heading back to her classroom where the rest of her lunch that she had brought from home was waiting.

Looking down for a moment, Rachel was met with a tall figure, taller than six-foot from what she could tell, causing her to drop her bottle of water on the ground.

"Oh-a-sorry about that…" the man said, leaning down to pick it up.

""Oh you're fine, don't worry about it…" Rachel replied, stepping back and taking a good look at him. She had never seen him before but noticed the teacher's badge around his neck.

"Uh-hi, I'm Finn Hudson…the new seventh-grade English Teacher."

Rachel smiled before reaching out to shake his hand, "Rachel Berry, the music teacher here at Lincoln."

Finn smiled back as Rachel took a step back awkwardly. "Nice to meet you, Rachel Berry, or should I say Mrs. Berry?"

Rachel grinned and looked down for a moment. "Uh-actually it's just Miss…" she replied causing her face to turn a light shade of pink.

"Well I better get back to my classroom, it was nice to meet you Mr. Hudson." She said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you too, Miss Berry."

Finn sat at a bar stool at Evans' Pub later that night, drinking a beer and watching the game.

"What's up, dude, you haven't been here in weeks." Sam, the owner of the bar, said walking up to Finn from behind the counter.

Finn shook his head and smiled lightly, "I've been doing work stuff, man. Teaching takes a lot of work." Finn admitted. He had been working on lesson plans, grading papers and going to workshops for the past few weeks but he could easily say that he loved his job.

Sam shook his head, throwing a towel onto his shoulder. "Sounds better than here, man. We've lost 3 employees in the past month." Sam admitted, looking around. "I feel like this place is turning into a dump. At least I have a few loyal customers"

Taking a sip of his beer, Finn slouched in his seat, feeling tired from the day. "Speaking of loyal customers, where's Puck?"

"He was here this morning and said something about some game that he was going to tonight with Blaine and Artie. I'm sure he'll be here when it's over." Sam chuckled, knowing that Puck was there just about every night since he was unemployed and had been since forever.

Just as Sam said that, Puck, Blaine and Artie walked (and rolled) through the door of the bar.

"Hudson! Where you been, dude? Tell me it's because of a woman." Puck exclaimed, taking a seat beside one of his best friends.

"Teaching." Finn replied flatly, rolling his eyes at the fact that Puck knew that Finn had a girlfriend, Quinn Fabray.

Puck looked at Sam in a "you know what I want" kind of look and listened as Blaine spoke up.

"We all know that Finn has been dating Quinn since high school, so why do you ask if he has a new woman every time we meet up?" asked Blaine, Sam handing Puck his beer.

Blaine Anderson was openly gay but was most definitely not a stereotypical gay man. Although he had dated in the past, he had been single for almost four years.

"Because I'm just waiting for the day when Finny boy comes in here crying because Fabray broke up with him." He replied, "Remember senior year? When you guys broke up for a week? You were and still are so freaking whipped." He added, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of his beer.

Sam gave Puck a weird look, wiping off the counter where a couple had just left.

"I seem to remember a week in high school when Lauren Zizes broke your heart and you didn't even go to school, Puckerman." Artie spoke up, rolling towards him in his wheelchair.

It was no secret that Artie had been in a car accident at the mere age of eight and had been paralyzed ever since. Numerous surgeries had been performed but still, he was unable to walk. This didn't stop him at all, however, he was the station manager at the WZZTB radio station in Lima.

Finn stood up from his stool, looking at his phone. "Quinn's at my apartment, I gotta go." He said, halfway annoyed. He absolutely hated it when she showed up unannounced and then blamed him for not being there.

"Get some, Hudson!" Sam called out, chuckling. The rest of the boys laughed along and waved goodbye to Finn except for Puck, who Sam noticed held a look of annoyance on his face.

"So how was work, Rachel?" Kurt Hummel asked over the phone in the nightly conference call with Mercedes and Rachel.

"Work was good, Kurt, how is NYC?" Rachel asked, jealous that he was living there as a fashion blogger. Rachel thought it was ironic how they had both ended up in each other's hometowns, seeing as Rachel was from New York and Kurt was from Lima.

"Loud." Kurt answered in a flat tone.

Mercedes, a radio DJ at WZZTB, chuckled and spoke up into the phone, "You should come and visit us soon."

Rachel could feel Kurt roll his eyes through the call. "Ah, but I shouldn't. The people in Lima aren't so welcoming to gay people, you know." He commented.

"That's not true, there are plenty of gay people around here. Besides, wouldn't you like to see what all our friends from high school are up to?" Mercedes replied, hoping he would say yes. Her and Rachel were far too busy to make a trip up to New York but Kurt worked from home; he could always take a trip to Ohio.

"Name one and absolutely not." He responded. "Those neanderthals were stupid for staying there." He paused, "except for you Mercedes, dear." He said in a chipper tone.

Mercedes and Kurt continued talking, Rachel listening halfway as she brushed her hair, getting ready for bed.

"Well is New York any better? I mean in the boy department?" Rachel spoke up.

Kurt sighed, "You always have to be right, don't you?" he admitted. "But what about Lima, ladies? Any cute guys there lately?"

Mercedes sighed as in a "no" while Rachel fought the urge to talk about Finn Hudson.

Running into Mr. Hudson was all that Rachel had needed to turn her day around for the better. The rest of the day had been pretty great. She hoped that she'd see him often but didn't get her hopes up because she knew that he probably had a girlfriend, or maybe even a wife at home.

"I hate to end this call at such an exciting moment, but I have a meeting tomorrow and I can't go with bags under my eyes." Kurt announced.

"Yeah, I need sleep so I can do the morning show at 5." Mercedes replied.

"Goodnight, ladies."

"Goodnight."

Rachel hung up the phone and smiled, loving talking to her friends every night. Snuggling up to her cat, Ramona, in bed, she looked at the line of Playbills that were hanging on her wall, sighing.

Growing up in New York City, Rachel's dads (yes, two gay dads) took her to a plethora of Broadway shows and by the time she graduated high school, she had planned on being on Broadway.

But that was then and this was reality; Lima, Ohio. Rachel Berry loved her job but still felt like Broadway was her passion; it was in her veins.

That's it for chapter 1! Let me know what you think! 10 Reviews to unlock the next chapter!