As much as we do would like to be able to tell you different, we are obligated to inform you that we do not own glee. We do however, own the plot and the two character that are introduced in this prologue. So if you do happen to see two new female characters named Meredith and Sophie on Glee, know that 1) That we were approached by the creators and were offered an insane amount of money or 2) There is some serious intellectual property theft going on. Thank you.

Note: This isn't a chapter so much as it is two prologues, each introducing our O.C.'s Meredith and Sophie.

Meredith

The rain falling down in swift drops upon the windshield of her old black Ford Taurus reminded Meredith of London. She had never been there herself, but her older sister had spent a semester in England when she had been in college. She remembered the stories she had heard her tell of the grey skies and cold drizzle that frequently fell, just heavy enough tease frizzy hair and make an umbrella essential. It sounded very different from Ohio, where the water fell with such force that it made driving more dangerous and the bare ground squish under the pressure of rain boots. Then again, there were a lot of things that made Ohio and the town of Lima hash. It wasn't just the whether.

In actuality, it probably any different than any other small town in America. The close-mindedness and open worship of high school football were pretty much a constant from all Meredith could tell in the limited scope of experience she had. She hadn't traveled much (even for a 17-year-old), but the few places she had visited for school or out of some other necessity all seemed the same to her. When a tall, thin, blonde girl like Quinn Fabray walked into a room people noticed. Girls got that envious, scrutinizing look in their eyes like they were assessing if her presence was a threat to them. Boys stopped mid-sentence… mid thought to stare at her, all doing their best to tell if she was single and how easy it would be to get in her pants.

All of that fuss was a far cry from when someone like Meredith walked into a room, who wasn't blonde, particularly tall, or easily recognizable in a crowd. Girls didn't see her as a threat unless it was one of those occasions when she remained the teacher of a homework assignment they hadn't done. Boys certainly didn't stop what they were doing to gawk at her. The closest they got to looking at her was looking over her shoulder for answers to a test. Somehow, Meredith didn't mind any of this all that much. She couldn't bring herself to care that a bunch of people who were probably never going to pass the county line in their entire life didn't notice her, or when they did it was just because they were jealous and or wanted to start a new rumor about how she stuffed her bra. Her aspirations involved things that were much bigger than Lima….

This is what Meredith remained herself of as she pulled into her parking spot at William McKinley High School. Only a few more months of this school, these people, and this ridicules judgmental town and she would be fee to go… free to do the things she had dreamed of for years now, but hadn't exactly said out loud to anyone. Things would be better just in a new setting with new people. Hopefully, new people with more open minds. At any rate, they wouldn't have all of the rumors or ongoing jokes at her expense to use against her. These things alone would be a welcome change in and of themselves.

But Meredith planned on taking it a step farther. She wanted to make something for herself, a world where she wasn't an outcast, existed just for her, and was only visible to her eyes. She wanted to write. Not just for fun like she had been doing her whole life, but she wanted to do it professionally. That was how she would she would single handedly shut up all of the voices that had always whispered when she walked passed, all of the criticism she had heard for her whole life, she would do it with her pen. If she could do that, she could show them all they had been wrong about her. The one moment when they realized what she had been doing all these years wasn't such a waste of time after all would be her revenge and for Meredith, that day couldn't come soon enough.

Sophie

Maybe it sounds really cliché to say that Sophie was so invisible that people had sat on her before. But she was. And they had. The difference was that she didn't really mind it. At a place like McKinley High, you were doing well if you got through the day without getting a slushy to the face or a brand new rumor to wear around your neck. If it wasn't one of those things, it was being teased for being smart, loud, fat, ugly, take your pick. In the end, it was a miracle if you could fly under the radar for as long as Sophie had.

It was a very carefully perfected talent, becoming so painfully normal that she might as well have been the paint on the wall. First of all, she had to be careful not to talk to anyone, no matter how badly she wanted a friend. It was too much like getting into politics. Choose the wrong friend and that's it, you've entered the official bullying storm. Choose someone high up, and you get sucked into being one of them. Sophie wanted neither, so she avoided both. Second, no activities. Picking a clique or club was almost as bad as picking a friend, and it would scrape her into a unit which stood apart. Therefore, she would stand apart. There was also walking to school to avoid transportation prejudice, eating lunch alone, never making eye contact and making thoroughly un-fascinating B+'s and A-'s.

The last, and hardest, part was making sure that she was carefully indifferent to her entire situation, to her entire life. She could never look overly happy, or people would want to know why, and the same went for looking sad. Neutrality was key, so she sported it.

She didn't realize until halfway through high school that she might have made a mistake in choosing to be see-through, gray at best, but it saved her the ridicule that so many endured so she tried not to mind.

But when she got home in the afternoons, where she could be happy and remember what it was like to feel, she would face her secrets, and know she deserved more.

The secrets started taking over one day, and she found herself sneaking away, back to the school gym at night, where she had room to feel, to be. Later, they would take control in the middle of the school day, and her feet followed the trail of music notes to the Glee rehearsal room. She would stand and look through the open door, transfixed by melodies and harmonies she wished she could join.

And it was in the midst of her staring that someone finally saw her, and once she'd been seen, hiding was no longer an option.

Sam Evans was the exact opposite of Sophie Brice. He was bright, blonde and unmistakable, with an identity as stedfast as Sophie's apparent lack thereof. Where she was always listening quietly and letting things happen, he was briefly observing before jumping into action. No hesitation, no concern for possible consequences. Sophie had witnessed his first slushy and even then, he hadn't backed out of Glee. Glee...if any of them had it, it was him.

That's what she was thinking the first time he turned his head and caught her there in the doorway, watching all of them. And though she'd been more careful after that, he always noticed she was there, and that's when she hurried away, the spell broken. Still, even though she knew he was onto her, she kept coming back.

It was only a matter of time before he confronted her. But honestly, in her head, she knew she was sort of waiting for it. She'd become too frightened to break out of her self-created shell on her own, and maybe he wouldn't be too shy to give her a little push. That was all she needed him for, that was the only reason she was drawn to him...right?