Rachel Berry felt proud of herself. She had just gotten Sandy Ryerson, the former Glee Club leader fired. "It was his own fault." Rachel thought to herself as she watched Mr. Ryerson leave Principal Figgins' office with a distraught look on his face. "If he had just given me the solo that I deserved, I wouldn't of had to make up that story about him touching the other glee clubbers." As soon as Sandy left the office, she marched into Figgins' office with a cheery smile on her face. "Well now that Mr. Ryerson's gone, who are you going to have to run the Glee club?" Rachel questioned.

"Unfortunately Rachel, interest in the Glee club is low, and I'm afraid that without a teacher to run it, we simply won't have funding for the glee club." Mr. Figgins said in a heavy Indian accent.

"You're cutting the Glee club?!" Rachel yelled. "How could you do this? Can't you just cut another club?"

"Even if I wanted to Glee doesn't have anybody to run it."

Rachel, disgusted, stormed out of the office and began stomping out to her car. However, her mood was immediately lightened when she saw Finn Hudson, with a few of his other football buddies, standing out near the football field, tossing a ball around. The half smile on Finn's face made Rachel blush, and hurry to her car. However silly it was, Rachel couldn't help the crush she had on Finn. She had liked him since the first day of middle school, nearly five years earlier. Unfortunately for Rachel, Finn was the most popular guy in school, and was dating Quinn Fabray, the head cheerleader. Pretty much everyone in the school, except for Finn knew about how Quinn and Noah "Puck" Puckerman, Finn's best friend, had been hooking up on the side, and that Quinn was only using Finn for his popularity. Rachel thought about how much happier Finn would be if he were dating her, but she shook herself out of her fantasy, and drove home.

That night, Rachel made her nightly MySpace video, and read all of the hateful comments made by her classmates. Rachel was glad it was Friday. She didn't hat school, but sometimes, she had enough of the bullying inside the halls of William McKinley High, and needed the weekend to recuperate for the next week. She had had an especially cold blueberry slushy thrown in her face that day, which made her even more ready for the incoming weekend. She was excited for the ext day, as she would be performing at the local theater. There was a singing competition, which Rachel knew she would win. She went to bed content thinking of winning first prize the next day.

The next morning, Rachel went through her usual routine, and dressed in a cute sundress. Her fathers drove her to the theater. However, when she arrived, she nearly passed out. Finn was standing with who she assumed were his parents in front of the building. Rachel had completely forgotten that Finn was the stepbrother of Kurt, one of her fellow Glee club members. Kurt, who was also singing in the competition, always wanted a large audience, so bringing as many people as he could was only natural. Rachel quickly kissed her dads goodbye, and went around to the back of the building to enter, as to avoid having Finn see her.

Rachel had never been this nervous before a competition before. Thankfully she was performing Don't Rain on My Parade which she always had sung the best. Before Rachel went on stage she tried to calm herself. "Just think of it as a chance to get Finn to notice you." Rachel told herself as her name was announced. Putting on her best stage smile, she strutted onto the stage, briefly making eye contact with Finn. She could tell he was trying to make out where he had heard her name before, and saw his puzzled face turn into a face of recognition as he recognized her. The music for the song began playing, and as soon as Rachel opened her mouth to sing, she saw Finn's jaw drop. He was clearly very impressed by her voice. As Rachel got into the music she began to feel more confident and turned to face Finn making direct eye contact, for one magical moment. Rachel finished the song, and as she walked off the stage, shel was bursting with confidence. Rachel listened to a few inferior performers sing, before she was crowned the winner, with Kurt coming in second place. Rachel knew that she had gabbed Finn's attention, now the goal was to keep it.

Finn had never been more amazed in his life. The girl he had always known as the weird girl who wears sweaters with animals on them, had the voice of an angel. Finn hadn't been happy when his parents had forced him to come to come to Kurt's recital, but now all he wanted to do was listen to the girl, Rachel, he reminded himself, sing again. He briefly asked Kurt about her and he mentioned her being the girl who's MySpace was attacked with mean comments by Quinn.

When Finn got home, he rushed to his room, and searched for her MySpace. Sure enough, he found a page of Rachel singing covers of hundreds of songs. This was just what Finn had wanted. He plugged in his earbuds, and clicked on a cover of On My Own. Finn listened in awe for the second time that day. He had never heard a better singer, even with all of the singing recitals he'd gone to for Kurt. And to think; he hadn't even known her name before that morning. "Rachel," Finn thought to himself. "That's a pretty name. She's a pretty girl herself." Finn smiled to himself, but quickly shook his head, reminding himself of his girlfriend, Quinn. Finn spent the remainder of the night listening to all of her covers. Every time he heard another song, her voice got better and better. Finn found himself drifting off to sleep, but before he nodded off, he thought to himself, "I need to get to know this girl."