A.N. This is my VERY first try for multi-chaptered fics. Although I don't really consider this piece exclusively mine since I got the idea and the story from a pocket book written by Janet Quin-Harkin which I used to read (a lot) when I was on my pre-teens I think. Obviously, this one's totally AU from what you read from the short summary describing this fic. I do hope you'll like the storyline as much as I did and I only used this idea just because I think Puck will be much hotter if he's like a cowboy or a farm boy (whoops! Spoiler there!) So again, this one's AU but I'm going to use the characters in the series and I'll try to update this story once or twice a week depending on how much review this will get so please, send me some love people! LOVE = REVIEWS, so please do drop by a review after reading because that would be totally appreciated. :D And yeah, the whole story would be based on Rachel's perspective. It'll start off as St. Berry (which I totally adore from the past episode) but it's an eventual Puckleberry. The characters may also be so OOC especially Puck, who will be part of the next few chapters so please do tune in with my updates. Hell, I'm so in love with berries.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything that I used in this story. The series, the characters, the idea and even the program I used to write this to let you, the readers, to enjoy it. But I do own the laptop to type this and the OCs included in the story. Lols. Again, I got the story from author Janet Quin-Harkin.

CHAPTER ONE

Music was spilling out into the hallway as Mercedes and I stepped out of the elevator onto the 20th floor. I could feel the thump of the beat through the soles of my shoes. I could also feel my heart thumping, almost as loudly.

"I can't believe we're actually here!" I whispered, grabbing Mercedes' arm for support. "We're really going to Jesse's party."

"And if things progress the way I think they will," Mercedes said knowingly, "I'd say this is the start of a beautiful relationship. Rachel and Jesse, a match made in heaven – and helped of course by one Mercedes Jones, of course."

"Hmph," I muttered, giving her a look that made her laugh. But I couldn't stop smiling to myself. It was all too good to be true. I'd started high school a year earlier at Dover Prep, an exclusive and academically strong private school in Manhattan, as a short, shy nobody. I'd been fourteen years old and looked about eleven. In fact, the only thing I'd had going for me that year was my skill in gymnastics, which nobody at Dover knew about anyway. I'd gazed with envy at all those girls with perfect bodies who confidently swept down the halls in the latest fashions. Then, toward the end of the year, things had started to happen to me. I'd grown. I'd filled out in all the right places. It had put an end to my gymnastic hopes, but people at school had started to notice I was alive. The turning point came when I had rescued Mercedes' heel from a grating and helped her to her apartment. After that we'd started walking home together. Mercedes was a live wire who knew everybody. Pretty soon I was part of her clique. And her clique included Jesse St. James.

I'd been gazing at him longingly all freshman year, marvelling at the length of his eyelashes, those adorable little creases in his cheeks when he smiled and the way he looked at girls with his smoldering gaze. I's never dreamed that that gaze would be turned on me, but at the start of sophomore year, we'd been made biology partners.

Talk about fate! We'd sat side by side at a lab bench, our knees touching as we peered at dissected worms. The teacher was serious and bespectacled, and he spoke in a way that made Jesse and me giggle. Jesse had started whispering funny things into my ear, and the feel of his lips and warm breath made me dizzy. I couldn't believe it when he suggested working on our bio homework together.

So we'd gone to Fiorelli's Coffeehouse on 75th street, which was a favorite after-school hangout, and worked through biology assignments together. At first it had just been biology, but one day we sat over double mochas for hours, just talking and laughing. I'd never felt so at ease with any guy before, never been able to laugh and kid around. But Jesse was different. He was really funny, and he was great at intimidating teachers. I'd noticed other people watching us and I felt really proud to be with him. I could have sat there with him forever.

"I had really fun time today, Rachel," Jesse had said as he walked me home. "We should do this again."

And then it happened. Outside my building he'd given me a gentle goodbye kiss. Even though it was a mere brushing of our lips, and there were people passing all around us, it had made me tingle right down to my toes.

A week later we'd been at Fiorelli's again when he told me about his party. "It will be cool," he'd said. "My folks will be out of town."

"And they're letting you have a party while they're gone?"

"Not exactly," he'd said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "My sister's home from college. She's supposed to be keeping an eye on me, but she's cool. And she'll be useful for buying the beer. You will come, won't you?" He reached out and covered my hand with his.

"Sure," I'd told him. "I wouldn't miss it." I'd known then that I'd be at that party, even if it meant swimming the Atlantic Ocean to get there. Actually it meant something almost as tough – convincing my parents. My parents are surprisingly old-fashioned for hip New Yorkers. I knew exactly what they'd do if I asked them for permission to go to Jesse's party. They'd call Jesse's parents and discover that they weren't planning to be home. Then they'd tell me, in their calm, reasonable voices, that they were sorry, but I wasn't allowed to go to a party with no adult chaperones.

I had called Mercedes in despair. "I just have to go," I'd said. "He told me it wouldn't be any fun if I wasn't there. I think he really likes me, Mercedes. I can't miss this."

"It's simple." Mercedes deep, mellow voice had come down the line. "if you think your parents will say no, then don't tell them."

"Wait a minute, Mercedes," I'd said, laughing uneasily. "I can't lie to my parents. And I's have to come up with a pretty good story to be allowed to stay out after midnight…"

"So tell them you're spending the night at my house," Mercedes had said. "You can come back with me after the party, so it won't even be a lie."

"Mercedes, you're a genius!" I'd said excitedly on the phone. My parents wouldn't object to my sleeping over at my best friend's house on a Friday night.

"Great. I can't wait for Friday night!" Mercedes squealed on the other line.

It had all been easy. Friday night I had smuggled out my new black velvet dress, for which I'd spent way more than I should have, and everything else I needed to make myself look cool, cute, and desirable for Jesse. I'd gone to Mercedes' and changed my clothes. And there I was, walking toward his door.

It was Jesse himself who opened the door. His face it up when he saw me. "Wow, Rachel – looking good!" he said, his eyes travelling from my head down to my high-heeled shoes. He took my hand. "Come out onto the balcony."

"We just got here," I giggled to Mercedes, "and he's already trying to lure me away."

"I want to show you something," he said, his dark eyes gazing into mine. "You'll never believe it."

I followed him across the living room and out onto the balcony. Central park was a huge rectangle of darkness surrounded by a million lights.

"How about that?" Jesse said, waving proudly.

"The view? It's pretty – "

"Not the view," he interrupted. "In the corner!"

I looked over. "A keg!" I exclaimed. "How did you get it up here?"

"It wasn't easy," he said. "David, Azimio and I brought it up in the service elevator in a garbage can. My sister bought it for us. Pretty cool, right?"

That was one of the things I liked about Jesse. He took risks. I hoped a little of his coolness would rub off on me. It wasn't easy trying to grow up cool with overprotective parents like mine. The thought of them shot a jolt of guilt through me. I'd never lied to them before – at least not about something as big as this. This was major deception.

I didn't have time to think about it any longer because Jesse brought his arms around me. "And while I got you all to myself out here…" he whispered then kissed me. It wasn't our first kiss. He'd kissed me when we walked home from the coffeehouse together. But we'd had to break off because people were looking. This time we were alone in the darkness and his lips felt warm and wonderful. Through the fabric of my dress I could feel his warm hands on my back and his heart hammering against mine.

"We should probably go back inside," I whispered, laughing nervously as drew apart again. "Everyone will be wondering where we are."

"No, they won't," he said. "They're not stupid. They'll be able to guess where we are and what we've been doing."

From the darkness came the muted honking of taxicabs and a burst of jazz music. "I love New York," I sighed. "It's so romantic and exciting."

"Yeah," Jesse said, his arms still around my waist. "I couldn't live anywhere else."

"Me neither, although my parents keep talking about escaping to a barn in Connecticut."

"They're just fantasizing," Jesse said. "All New Yorkers do it. My mom's always threatening me to move out to the Hamptons, but she doesn't really mean it."

"You're right," I said. "My parents love the city, too."

"Hey Jesse, get in here," a voice yelled. He let go of me and I felt his warmth slowly drain out of me. "To be continued later," he whispered in my ear and dragged me back into the room. Jesse was soon noisily greeting the guys at the front door, and I found myself swallowed up in the crowd.

"I didn't see you arrive, Rachel," Mandy Blake said. Mandy was also in Mercedes' group and had become a friend of mine, too.

"That's because Jesse dragged her outside the moment she got here," Mercedes said, grinning.

"What for, to admire the view?" Alicia asked

"What do you think for, stupid?" Mercedes said. She rolled my eyes at me. "So I guess you two really are an item. I heard a guy calling you Jesse's hot new babe."

I felt my cheeks getting warm as the other girls looked at me with interest. Lauren, a popular junior, was looking at my dress.

"You got that in The Village, didn't you?" She asked. "I saw it in the window of a store on Eight Street, but I couldn't afford it.'

"I'd decided I'd rather go naked for the rest of the year and get it," I said, grinning delightedly. "My mother would flip if she knew how much I paid for it."

"What are charges card for?" Mercedes joked.

"Looks good on you," Lauren agreed.

"You can borrow it sometime if you want," I said, feeling generous.

"Thanks," she said smiling,

It felt great to be the center of attention, getting all the admiring glances – and having a real conversation with some of Dover's most popular students. In a few minutes, Jesse appeared with a beer for me. I took a sip, although I'm not much of a drinker. I hated the taste of beer.

The room was filling up and some kids were smoking, filling the air with blue haze. The noise level rose with the smoke. Someone had put on a rap CD, and kids were dancing in the hallway. The music was so loud, it was like being part of a giant heartbeat.

"What if someone calls the police, Jesse?" Mandy worriedly asked.

"Don't worry. I squared it with all the neighbors. Everyone on this floor is out for the evening and the old guy down below doesn't care. I slipped twenty bucks to the super, so that's okay. Everything's under control." He pulled me to him and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

"So you managed to get here without your parents giving you any grief, Rachel?" Mandy asked.

"We told them she was sleeping over tonight at my crib," Mercedes said.

"Actually, it was easy," I said. "They were hardly paying attention when I asked them. They've had a lot on their minds lately… My dad got this big case coming up in court and my mom has to do a presentation for a new account at work, and right in the middle of all this they got a call from my grandfather out in Wyoming, saying that he's broken his leg and he can't take care of the ranch. So now they're trying to decide what to do about him –"

"You have a grandfather on a ranch, Rachel?" interrupted David, one of Jesse's friends. "Somehow you don't seem like the type."

"I am absolutely not that type, David," I said. "Neither is my dad. He couldn't wait to get away from there when he went to college."

"I don't know," Alicia commented. "I think a ranch sounds romantic. All those horses. Do you ever go there?"

"We haven't been there since I was a kid," I replied. "My dad and my grandpa don't get along. Grandpa can't understand Dad's need for the city life. And I don't have the greatest memories of the place. I remember this boy who'd tried to kiss me in my grandfather's hayloft. I also remember him putting a frog down my back when we were hiking near the river, and my grandfather saying I was spoiled rotten because I freaked out during a thunderstorm. Nit the greatest vacation I've ever had."

Someone put up a new rap CD and we all started dancing. But I felt a little guilty. I wanted to be loud and carefree like my friends but I can't shake off the dumb feeling of guilt. Was I the only one who felt that way? As Mercedes had said, I hadn't lied to my parents. I just hadn't mentioned all the facts. People do that stuff all the time and my friends thought it was no big deal so why am I feeling this bad?

I grabbed Jesse as he came past. "Dance with me," I begged with a pout slowly showing in my face. Almost on cue, the music changed to a slow beat.

Jesse pulled me close. His cheek was warm against mine and his arms were wrapped around me so tightly that we were breathing as one. I closed my eyes with a feeling of perfect, utter contentment. It was the most wonderful night of my life. I didn't ever want it to end.

We didn't even hear the doorbell at first.

"See if it's the crashers, dude," Jesse called to David, who was standing near the door sipping a half-bottle of beer. "If it's the old guy complaining, be nice to him."

"Thanks for letting me handle it," David called back sarcastically, but he opened the door anyway. Jesse kissed my forehead and we started to sway to the music. We were really getting into a rhythm when David pushed through the crowd to reach us.

"Hey, Rachel," he said worriedly. "It's your mom and dad, they're asking for you and they don't look very happy!"

*End note: Whoops! Okay, so sorry for the cliffhanger there but where's the fun in reading without those, yeah? So better tune in for the next chapter: Meeting the Berry's! And again, before I end this note, I would like to remind those reading this fic to please, please, please drop by some reviews. It would be really nice.