"'Colpo di fulmine'; the thunderbolt, as Italians call it.

When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can't be denied.

It's beautiful and messy, cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see.

It turns a person inside out, and there's no going back from it.

Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is irrevocably changed." - J.M Darhower

The first time Quinn Fabray laid eyes on Rachel Berry wasn't at school, or at the supermarket, or at the bowling alley; no, it was on the internet.

Myspace, to be specific.

It was a Thursday afternoon (Quinn can remember it like it was yesterday) and Santana had gotten a laptop for Christmas that year.

Quinn, Brittany and Santana were the best of friends by that point. They all met through cheerleading, and the three of them were set on being at the top of the social ladder through whatever means possible.

They knew high school was a cut throat environment. Do or die. Be someone or be no one. It was as simple as that.

So the three girls knew what they wanted from the beginning; the best. The best of everything, and they'd be damned if they didn't get it.

It didn't take Quinn very long to realize that she would have to eventually fight Santana for that top spot. There can be only one HBIC.

Still with that knowledge, the two still played the role of 'besties'. Inviting each other to the mall, texts throughout the day, planning what football player would be their boyfriends. Naturally, Quinn picked the quarterback, and Santana didn't mind, at all. She seemed to have something against Finn Hudson. Instead, she opted with the resident 'bad boy' of the school. That was definitely more her style.

In all honesty, it was just like a big game of chess. Always trying to stay two steps ahead of whomever it was that was going after your King. Sure, the Queen was the most important piece, but you were three times more likely to lose the game without your King. Both girls knew that, so they latched onto a boy as soon as they could. They needed their feet planted firmly on the top of that ladder.

Brittany didn't seem to really care about it as much as they did. She enjoyed being popular, simply because of all the friends she made. She wasn't interested in the planning of it, just the fun.

Less competition, Quinn thought.

Quinn had finished doing her laps for the day. She talked back to Coach, about what, she couldn't remember, but sass normally meant about three hundred laps on the tracks for the remainder of practice. For whatever reason, though, Coach Sylvester decided to be generous that day and only give her one-fifty.

She made her way to the bleachers for a quick rest before Coach would have her on the top of the pyramid again. She was out of breath and sweaty, and she honestly just couldn't wait to shower and sleep.

Quinn liked the perks that came with cheerleading; popular, and she was obviously in a position of power, but she didn't entirely like the sport itself. She liked being tired by the end of the day, she liked the work out, but the actual cheerleading; no, she wasn't exactly a fan. However, not cheerleading was out of the question since the day she was born.

Her mother had always told her stories of how she always wanted to be a cheerleader during high school, but never quite got around to it. She always says it's the one thing she regrets in her life. It had been put in her head, from a very young age, that she would be a cheerleader, and that her mother would be proud.

And if there was anything that Quinn wanted, actually wanted, making her parents proud was certainly towards the top of her list.

Santana had brought her laptop in every day since she got it, so Quinn took the opportunity to check the front page of for anything she hadn't read yet.

She was greeted with Santana's old myspace page when she opened it. Everyone made a myspace when it got popular, but much like herself and Santana, they got bored of it after a while.

She scrolled through Santana's page, and found a comment Brittany made; 'she sings really good tho'

Quinn wasn't exactly one to be nosy, but… who sings really good?

By now, it wasn't a secret to the other girls that Quinn enjoyed singing. She liked music above all else, well, maybe not above all else (books always held a special place in her heart) but she truly did enjoy singing. She did it whenever she could, really. In the shower, while cleaning; it was just fun.

Quinn clicked on Brittany's profile, and scrolled down to read her comments: 'Who cares? Berry is a freak. Don't talk to her, Britts.' And another one: 'take her off your page'.

Quinn scrolled down some more and there it was, titled 'Rachel Berry sings 'Good Morning Baltimore'

She bit her bottom lip, before she pressed 'play'.

"Oh, oh, oh
Woke up today
Feeling the way I always do
Oh, oh, oh
Hungry for something
That I can't eat
Then I hear that beat
The rhythm of town
starts calling me down…"

Quinn felt a jolt in her stomach.

Quinn couldn't remember if she had seen this girl in school before. No, no she definitely hadn't.

She wore a long sleeved button up shirt, and a short plaid skirt, and she sounded so beautiful. So heart achingly beautiful. Quinn's stomach kept doing flips, the more she watched. Something shot through her, her body tensed, she felt frozen; mesmerized. She watched how the girl's eyes closed, eyelashes fluttering, as she put more of herself into the song. She watched how her hands slightly rose whenever she would hit a high note, or how her lips would purse in between words, or how the girl would squint her already closed eyes, completely losing herself in the moment.

Quinn felt connected to her somehow. How could she not? This girl was practically pouring herself into ever word.

Then, the girl opened her eyes, and stared right into the camera. Quinn wasn't prepared for that. She wasn't prepared for those eyes.

Suddenly, Quinn felt sick.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Quinn tripped up on the keyboard, scrambling to turn the video off.

"Whoa, calm down. It's not like I just caught you watching porn. Or…" Santana smirked. "Did I?"

"Shut it, Lopez."

"So, what the hell were you doing?"

"Ch-checking something."

"Checking what?"

"Seeing this Berry girl." Quinn admitted. "Brittany doesn't really want to associate herself with man-hands here, does she?" Man-hands. It was easier to pick apart someone's image than to admit she actually thought the girl was rather pretty. Maybe not conventionally, but Quinn… liked the way she looked.

God, what was she thinking?

Snap out of it.

Santana laughed. "Of course not. We'd rather be caught dead than be seen with that freak." Santana looked back to the field. "Well, are you coming or not? Coach said you're on."

Quinn nodded, and closed the laptop. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach still lingered, as she ran out into the field.

A/N: This story will actually be speaking from Quinn's POV about 97% of the time. It chronically accounts all the interactions the two girls have had throughout the show (and, of course, some things we didn't get to see).