It was like high-school al over again, she had naively thought that it would all change once she got to college and New York, but apparently it would not.

The teachers were not the artistic open-minded people she thought they would be, her classmates were all stuck up cocky divas and she had only met her room-mate for 5 seconds in which she made it clear she had no intentions of befriending her at all.

She didn't know she would feel so out of place in the city she had always dreamed about, she missed Kurt, she missed her dads and, she never thought she would but, she missed Lima and McKinley.

/

Rachel walked dragging her feet and hanging her head, feeling exhausted, disappointed, lonely and angry, she had seen the coffee house earlier when she was walking to campus and she hoped a nice large soy latte would give her some sense of warmth, but then again even soy and coffee might taste different there too so she didn't have her hopes up

It was cosy on the inside, dim warm lights, with earth-colour sofas and chairs, relaxing music and an intense coffee aroma that instantly reached her nose and made her feel instantly better. She took a single sofa on a corner, laid back and opened her laptop while she waited until someone took her order.

"Good evening miss, what can I get for you?"

Rachel smiled for the first time all day, the hostess' voice was gentle and warm and it was just what she needed… well, and her latte.

"Good evening. I would like a large soy latte, hot…. You do have soy milk right?"

With a proud smile the hostess nodded and informed her that the waitress would be there in no time with her order. Rachel smiled and thanked the kind woman for her attention and went back to her computer.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coffee house, Quinn Fabray was delivering another order to a couple sitting on a booth near the entrance when the barista called out to her:

"Hey blondie! Order's up! Large soy latte for the woman on the corner"

"Hey! I've told you! Don't call me blondie! I swear a costumer once actually might have thought that was my name because he kept calling me that the whole time he was here!"

The barista pulled out his tongue and Quinn made an "annoyed" face at him but chuckled as she took the order and turned around to look for the girl sitting at the the corner, and to say she was mesmerized by the brunette she found there would be an understatement really. Her brow furrowed, a sort of angry-annoyed-nostalgic expression and yet she looked beautiful.

Quinn immediately started thinking about what she could say to the girl to make her smile, she made a bet with herself that the girl would have a dashing smile. She was so lost in her thoughts that she missed the coffee table infront of her and tripped, spilling the whole drink so close to the brunette that it actually stained her shoes a little bit.

"Oh gosh… I am so so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Oh for goodness sake! Can this day get any worse!?"

Quinn was surprised at the tone of voice that came out of the girl but didn't make any comments about it. She picked up the plates and cleaned as much as she could while still muttering apologies.

"I am so sorry, I didn't see the table there. Please just accept another coffee from the house ma'am"

"Why? So you can spill it on me again? Are you seriously that much of a spaz?"

"Ma'am I-"

"Save it! I don't care! I think it's quite obvious that your abilities are limited and you should most definitely not be handling hot beverages. You are aware that you could have burned me or ruined my computer right?"

Quinn was in awe, not only the girl had an enormous attitude but she was one of the rudest persons she had ever encountered. And the drink had barely touched her!

"I…."

"You? …. You what?"

Quinn wanted to tell her to just take her fricking attitude and get the hell out! But it was a rule that if any beverages or food was spilled, it had to be replaced on the house.

"Please just accept my apologies and allow us to give you another drink for free."

"No thank you. I'd rather keep me and my belongings safe and dry, I will just have to go to another place where the waitresses are not unqualified morons and can actually serve me my drink without dropping it all on my shoes!"

And with that, a huff and a foot stomp, Rachel left the coffee house in a full-on diva storm out, leaving an insulted and fuming Quinn Fabray with her jaw practically on the floor.

"Bitch…"

As soon as Rachel left and was able to think with a clear head she felt guilty, she had been extremely rude and if she was honest with herself the drink had been far from doing any damage at all. She looked at her shoes and saw just a couple of stains there. She wanted to go back and apologize but her ego had been bruised enough for one day to have to drag her feet back there and accept her mistake, so she just walked back to her dorm feeling worse than she had before.

/

The next morning Rachel woke up feeling a little bit better than she had when she fell asleep, she was still feeling guilty about her behaviour in the coffee house the day before and made a mental note to go back and apologize.

She entered her Drama class and saw the blonde waitress sitting in one of the middle rows and went to sit next to her.

"Hello, my name is-"

"I see your shoes survived."

Rachel was taken aback from the blonde's bitter response and was thrown out of her apology plan.

"I… What?"

"Your shoes. You made such a fuss about them yesterday I thought they were totally ruined, but I see my uhm… what did you call it? Yeah, my lack of qualifications to handle hot beverages didn't ruin your precious shoes."

She felt as colour made its way to her cheeks at being called out on her rudeness the day before. She tried to say something else but was cut off again by the blonde's offended tone.

"I also see your computer survived. I'm glad to see you are still alive after that fatal encounter."

"Excuse me. While I am well aware that my actions from yesterday were a somewhat exaggerated…"

"Understatement of the year there."

"… I do believe that you are being unnecessarily rude…"

"Oh, am I?"

"… I am just trying to apologize here. And besides, what are you even doing here? "

Quinn raised an eyebrow at her and she immediately knew she had blown her opportunity to apologize and start over. The blonde girl looked like she was just about to yell and Rachel prepared for the lash-out. But the girl used low and definitely intimidating tone of voice.

"Well, for your information miss please-don't-stain-my-shoes-and-my-computer-my-parents-paid-for, some of us actually have to work to be in school, therefore I will ask you, just once, to leave me alone as class is about to start. I would also recommend that you sit far away from me, God forbid I stain that horrendous shirt you're wearing with my unqualified abilities"

With that Quinn turned around and Rachel stood up and took another seat a couple of rows front, already thinking about a way to make an assertive apologize to the blonde girl… or at least a way to find out what her name was.