As the spotlight dipped and waned on stage, there was a moment – a single, shining moment before the applause – where all fell into place.
Rachel could feel it cut through her, igniting something unreachable when she held onto that last precious note.
And that's what made her different. Those other kids in Glee Club… they weren't in it for the song. Not for that moment of giddiness. And she couldn't help but think, as she watched them up there, that they could never possibly understand her love for performance.
It bothered her less and less as time went on, but she never let the resentment fully leave her mind. The stage was hers, just hers, and no one could take that moment away from her.