Title: A Love of 100 Hearts

Author: DreamsofRay

Story Rating: T

Chapter Rating: T

Summary: 100 times that Rachel Berry and Jesse St James have loved each other. 1. Flowers. She allowed a few tears to soak into the velvet petals, soft against her cheeks. She would escape Ohio. She would do it for him.

Disclaimer: Pretty darn obviously, I do not own Glee… or OSU… or NYCU… or yellow roses (that's a lie, I have owned yellow roses once, they were lovely :) ).

A.N. Okay, so the idea is that I have 100 words and for each word I do a St Berry one shot/drabble.

I'm a pretty excited to be doing this. I've been thinking of doing something like this for ages and it's great to get the chance! If you guys want me to do a certain thing, just review a word, or an idea or anything and I'll give it a shot, either on this story or as a separate one shot. But unfortunately RL is going to start kicking my ass soon so it might take me a while :(

I am absolutely positive that something like this will happen on the show… or is it just wishful thinking? It's a little more angsty than I expected… sorry guys, but I hope you enjoy it anyway :)

Xxx

1. Flowers

If you asked anyone, they would tell you that Rachel Berry gets over excited.

In Rachel's eyes this wasn't necessarily true.

The problem was, that Rachel Berry lived life in this excited, ever anticipating state that meant she tended to over react, she was the glee club's resident diva after all. To Rachel Berry, life was a theatre, Lima, Ohio merely the dressing room before she hit New York for her opening number in the Big Apple. And like the theatre, everything was bright, red and gold and glitter. Life was a constant preparation for her inevitable starring role and if that meant that she tended to get over excited that so be it.

Every Christmas, since Rachel had learned to walk her first few steps (Rachel had never toddled, she was too dignified), Rachel Berry had leapt out of bed and run downstairs to gaze with wonder at the presents beneath the tree, before sorting each and every one into a pile for each member of the family. Hers was always the biggest.

Every birthday she had jumped into bed with her parents at the early hours of the morning and snuggled with them as they handed her presents and the tasty treats they kept stored in their bedside draw every year for that exact purpose.

Rachel Berry just felt differently to everyone else. She felt more, everything was brighter, bolder and stronger and she would never apologise for that.

However, the one morning that everyone who knew her would expect her to be pacing backward and forwards in her bunny slippers over her bedroom floor, Rachel lay, stock still in bed, staring intently at her bedroom ceiling.

She was frozen, completely paralysed in place as her mind whirred furiously. Turning, she glanced at her Anything Goes calendar and stared at the small box which showed the day. She had been crossing off boxes every day this week as she counted down to this very day, the box surrounded by her favourite gold stars, but now that it was here she could barely comprehend it.

"Rachel honey?" There was an undertone of nervous excitement to her papa's voice as he stuck his head around the door, clearing his throat a little. "It's time to get up sweetie." Crossing the room in a few paces Hiram pulled open the curtains and smiled down at his baby, before leaving again.

Slowly, Rachel pulled herself, foot by tense foot, out of her bed. She went through her toilette in a daze, dressing in a purple dress, slipping on some white pumps and a white cardigan. Despite the cold weather outside, she still dressed seamlessly.

Walking down the stairs was what woke her up. The anticipation appeared, followed by the nerves and she felt her breathing begin to deepen and quicken. Hurrying her pace, she pushed open the front door and prayed that the mail had been delivered early today. If she had to wait until the end of the day, she would likely murder the mail man. Fortunately the mail box was pushed shut and she started to run, trying not to slip on the slippery ground beneath her.

Pulling it open frantically, she ignored the other letters, which fell the ground and pulled out a thick, glossy white envelope with the words Rachel Barbra Berry written on it.

Gripping it tightly in her hands, she felt herself begin to shake and turned, leaving the mail on the ground and pulled open her door again. Pushing through the door, she met her fathers anxious, upturned faces in the kitchen and sat slowly in her seat, placing the envelope onto the table.

They looked at it silently for a moment.

"It's pretty big." Leroy said, slowly.

"Open it." Hiram urged, sliding it closer to her.

Taking the envelope from her, Rachel Berry was unusually quiet as she opened her letter and read the first piece of paper.

A wide smile broke out over her face and she turned to them as the nerves were lifted from her chest.

"I got in."

There was much celebration then, hugging and kissing and crying. Passages of the letter were read aloud multiple times, especially the part that commended Miss Berry on her 'impeccable application and interview, like none ever seen before.'

Checking her phone somewhere during the celebrations, she found that she had three missed calls from Kurt, which forced her to remember her duty towards the school.

Telling her dads that she had better get on, they each hugged her tightly, told her how proud they were and to have a good day of school before she left the house.

At school, she had barely parked her car before she was accosted by an excited Kurt. They gazed at each other for a long moment and then said in unison.

"I got in!"

Laughing loudly and embracing, they strolled into school together, discussing the prospect of living in New York together and their future university.

"Finn got accepted into OSU this morning." Kurt told her, as they spied the tall boy in the corridor in front of them.

Rachel nodded, realising what Kurt was all too subtly trying to say. This was it, the moment she had been dreading ever since last year.

Because Finn wasn't going to want to go to New York with her and there was no way in hell she was going to stay in Ohio. So there was no other choice. They would have to go their separate ways.

Before Rachel could duck away, he spotted them and beamed, waving wildly in their direction. Kurt cringed and gave Rachel a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder before departing, his phone already out as he texted Blaine.

"Hey Rache." Finn beamed at her and pulled her close for a slightly awkward hug as they tried to balance their books between them,

"Hi Finn." She replied, automatically. He bent down to kiss her and she returned it, but pulled away after a moment. It just felt wrong to be kissing him with their upcoming separation so imminent and she wondered why he didn't feel the same.

"How you doing?" He asked, taking her hand in his as they made their way down the corridor.

"Very well, thank you." It felt awkward, stilted.

"Oh, cool. Me too." He couldn't stop beaming, but obviously he wasn't going to tell her his news voluntarily. It seemed a little prompting was necessary.

"Get any news today?" She asked, reluctantly, stopping to drop off some of her books at her locker.

"Yeah, actually." He dug around in his pocket and retrieved a piece of paper. "I got my acceptance from OSU."

"Really?" Her extensive acting training allowed her to sound legitimately surprised.

"Yeah," He grinned at her, his eyes bright. "Football. Isn't it great?"

"Great Finn," She replied, trying not to meet the boy's eyes.

"Hey, what about you? Did you get…"

He was cut off by the bell and Rachel felt instant gratitude towards the interruption. "We'll talk later okay?" She said, not giving him chance to reply as she hurried away to her class, relief seeping through her ever nerve at the near miss.

She knew that the confrontation would have to come by sooner or later, it had been building for months.

She would just rather it was later as opposed to sooner.

Her classes went by in record time, which irritated her thoroughly and when lunch came around and along with it Glee club, she felt about ready to bolt at the thought of the upcoming argument.

"Have you told him yet?" Kurt asked as they walked together to Glee and she could only shake her head.

"Rache!" The call from down the corridor made her jump and she had to suppress her reaction to just turn and run.

"Get it over and done with." Kurt advised, slipping through the choir room door and leaving her to face her fate on her own.

"Hey," Finn grinned goofily at her and she tried to smile through her nerves as he took her hand in his and lead her into the choir room, where most of the club had already gathered and were talking happily amongst themselves.

"So," He said, as they sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh," Rachel was grateful when her voice didn't crack. "What's that?"

"Did you get any acceptance letters this morning?"

"Uh… yeah. I got one... from NYCU."

"Oh," Finn's eyebrows furrowed and he continued. "What about OSU?"

"Finn," She sighed heavily. "I didn't apply for OSU."

"What? Of course you did, you had a form."

"One that you gave me Finn." She tried to keep the irritation from being obvious to the boy in front of her. "I didn't fill it in."

"Oh." Finn seemed despondent for a moment, before perking up. "Well, you can always apply again in April Rache, don't worry about it."

"I'm not applying in April, Finn." Her voice was firm, unmoving.

"Why not?" He asked, perplexed. "Do you not want to go to college Rache."

She sucked in a sharp breath at that and tried to keep the anger down.

"Of course, I do Finn. I'm going to NYCU."

"What?" His sharp voice rang out through the room and Rachel thought she saw Kurt cringe. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because that's where I need to be Finn!" She snapped, her anger making her voice rise too, a high soprano.

"Why?" He demanded, glaring at her. "What's there that isn't here Rache?"

"What isn't?" She repeated, scoffing at his idiotic question. "I'm going to study theatre in New York Finn."

There was an awful moment of silence and then, perhaps even worse, the unmistakable sound of Finn laughing. Tears pricked in her eyes and she stared at him, speechless.

"I'm sorry," Finn spluttered over his own mirth. "Rache I didn't know you were serious when you told me that."

Her voice turned icy and every single member of New Directions fell silent to watch the argument between the two co-captains. "I was."

"Seriously? You expect to get somewhere studying theatre?"

Rachel bristled and Finn seemed to realise, suddenly, just how angry she was, because he backtracked quickly.

"You can still study theatre if you want Rache, but here in Lima, then you could go and do stuff with the amateur dramatics and I could run Kurt's dad's tire shop, it'd be great!"

Rachel shuddered at the image he was conjuring and shook her head firmly. "No Finn, no way. Do you really expect me to just give up all I've ever dreamed of?"

"Don't I mean that much to you?" He shouted and she could practically feel the fury trembling through her.

"I can't believe you're trying to make me chose! You or my career, that's not fair Finn!"

"There shouldn't be a choice!" He cried and then his tone abruptly changed to that cajoling, whining tone that really scratched on Rachel's nerves. "Come on Rache, you don't really want to go to New York do you?"

She could only cry out in fury, turn on her heel and storm from the room, as she had done so many times before.

The drive home was pretty dangerous, if she thought about it. Half blind, she drove, tears streaming down her face and pulled up in her driveway. Slamming her door loudly, she stormed through the door, throwing herself on her bed and crying heavily, tears soaking into the cotton of her comforter.

It was ridiculous to be upset over this, she had known all along that this was how it would go, that she would end up hurt and he would end up angry. She had just never expected the ridicule, never expected how much it would hurt her that he thought that way of her.

Finn was such an idiot. So ridiculous, so stupid and so careless too. She had always known that he wasn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box, but she had never known that he could be so cruel.

The sound of knocking breaks through her inner musings and she sniffed deeply, wiping her face hastily on her comforter and then immediately regretting it when she saw the streak of mascara left on the pale coloured cloth.

The knocking came again, so she hurried downstairs, pulling the door open and hoping that it wasn't Finn.

Instead a delivery man stood before her, mostly hidden by a huge bouquet of sunshine yellow roses.

"Miss Rachel Berry?" His voice was muffled by the flowers and she hurried to relieve him of his burden, taking the roses in her arms.

"Yes?" She asked, glancing at him.

"Delivery for you, sign here?"

Bemused, she did as he said and asked. "Where from?"

"What do I look like, an oracle? I'm pretty sure it'll be on the card kid."

Raising her eyebrows she huffed and turned, slamming the door on him before he'd even made it down the garden path. Padding through to the kitchen, she placed the roses gently on the table and peered through the glowing buds, eventually finding a small white card.

Congratulations, I always knew you could do it.

J St J

The card fluttered to the floor from her limp hand and she had to reach out a hand to steady herself on the table.

Jesse St James had sent her flowers? How had he even known about NYCU? And why, in God's name, was he congratulating her?

Rachel wasn't an idiot. She knew what she had done to Jesse. She had led him on, made him believe she loved him and then kissed someone else on stage in front of him. The look in his eyes still haunted her to that very day. It took a lot to hurt Jesse, but in that one look, she managed to see that she crushed him. And though she would have expected to get some perverse pleasure out of it, all she felt was guilt and sorrow. Both of which she had tried to quash fully over the following summer, but never quite succeeded.

Glancing over at the roses, she ran her hand gently over the buds, all in their prime and sighed a little.

Finn hadn't even taken the time to congratulate her, he had just moved straight into mocking and shouting at her.

Suddenly she pulled out her phone, scanned down to his name and fired off a quick text.

How did you know?

A moment later, a reply came through and she snatched up her phone with unreasonable urgency.

There was no way you wouldn't get in. It's an inevitability.

She replied quickly, her heart thrumming in her chest.

Thank you Jesse.

After a moment of pacing back and forth across the kitchen floor and biting her nails anxiously, her phone buzzed with an incoming text.

No worries. You deserve it, you'll get out of that cow town soon Rache. Don't let anything hold you back.

Turning, she plucked one rose from the bouquet and held it to her nose, inhaling the sweet scent. Silently she allowed a few tears to soak into the velvet petals, soft against her cheeks.

She would escape Ohio. If nothing else, she would do it for Jesse.

Xxx

Hope you liked it! Give me your thoughts :) Maybe seven reviews before an update?

Love Ray

xxx