Happy Thanksgiving! :)

I want to thank everyone who left a review, followed, or favorited this story. It's nice to know that people are enjoying it!

As soon as this story is finished I will begin to work on the sequel to The Mystery Texter, and those who haven't read it I encourage you to do so!

-Chapter Two-

I stretched out my tired limbs as I woke up the next morning. It took me forever to fall asleep the previous night because of my unfamiliar surroundings. This place felt nothing like a new home, but rather a permanent hotel. A fancy, private, and homey hotel, at least.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around the room. My pink walls and white colored furniture were gone and were replaced with much more modern beige walls and standard wood furniture. I wrapped the blankets tighter around my body out of discomfort. A thought suddenly crossed my mind; shortly I will not have this bed all to myself. Soon, a stranger will occupy the other half, and hopefully stay on his half.

I wrapped myself into a cocoon and snuggled deeper into the warmth of the bed. I'd let those disturbing thoughts plague my mind later.

I woke up again a few short hours later and somehow found the energy to pull my body out of the bed. I shivered and wrapped my arms tighter around myself. The temperature of the house wasn't very comfortable, but I wasn't sure if it was because of the thermostat setting or my general discomfort.

I opened the blinds and let some sunlight in the dark room, but it didn't really brighten the room in my opinion. It was still dark and gloomy, just like it was yesterday. I walked to the kitchen and pulled out the waffle maker that was pre-purchased for my so-called fiancé and me. I found ingredients for vegan waffles and immediately set to work on making the batter.

I prepared my breakfast quickly and at down at the dining room table to eat. I felt like I was on the border of insanity without having any noise around me. In my dads' house the boiler and all the water pipes made noises often, so the quietness of the new house was very unsettling.

After I cleaned my dish and wiped off the dining room table I decided to go out for a jog. In my previous morning routine, I would run on my elliptical to get in my daily energy, but in this house there wasn't a piece of exercise equipment in sight. I quickly dressed into proper running gear and headed out the front door, already feeling better in the warm summer air.

The further I got from the house, them more I felt like myself. I lived on a long road, that had houses placed very far apart. The area was wide open, and looked like it could have many more houses, but the set up looked nice anyways. After a few minutes of jogging I finally reached the house "next" to mine, and I stopped when I saw a woman in the driveway. She was clipping the grass along the concrete to make the yard look perfect, and once she saw me she placed her tool on the ground and stood up.

"Hello, there," the woman said, wiping the dirt from her hand before offering it for a handshake. "I'm Mercedes Jones. You must be the new neighbor."

"Yes," I said, shaking her hand in return. "I'm Rachel Berry. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Ooo, fancy," Mercedes commented. She noticed the confused look I was giving her. "Most new neighbors around here are as rude as rude can possibly be. It's nice to know someone polite will be joining our little community."

"What do you mean by rude? And little community?" I asked her; already a bit frightened by the neighbors I hadn't even met yet.

"Most are just snobby, that's all," Mercedes answered my first question. "And as for the community part, this is the only suburb type housing area on this side of town. Most of the housing is apartments in the downtown area, where we have this secluded little area all to ourselves. It seems like it would be nice, but it's more like we are isolated from the rest of Lima, which makes one get to know the neighbors pretty well."

By hearing her words, I began to realize the truth to what she was saying. The little neighborhood we had was a good 15 minutes from town, and I didn't notice any other houses on the way here.

"You see, I moved here with my husband Sam when we first got married. It seemed like the perfect little started home for us. And, it was the perfect little home at first, but like I said before you begin to feel a little isolated," Mercedes said. She pointed to the house across the street from hers. "Noah Puckerman and Quinn Fabray live there. It's a nice four-bedroom home, and they moved in right after they finished high school. They had two kids during high school, and now they have three with another on the way. And the real kicker in the situation, they still aren't married and neither of them has a decent job. I have no idea how they can even afford the place."

Next, Mercedes pointed to a house that was a little further down the road. "That one belongs to Santana Lopez. Trust me, you do not want to associate with her."

"Why is that?" I asked Mercedes.

"She has to be the most evil girl that ever walked the planet. Most of us have nicknamed her "Satan" because of her terrible personality. Her profession is a stripper, and don't ever ask her about her job. I don't know why but she is always defensive about it. Oh, and you'll constantly see a man over at her house. Don't ask her about him either or what they do inside. She's defensive about that too. Just avoid her at all costs."

"What about that house?" I asked Mercedes, gesturing to the house next to Santana's that was painted in various colors. "Who lives there?"

"Brittany S. Pierce, who we all swear is nuts. She enjoys unicorns, swears her cat is smoking behind her back, and thinks that birds deliver babies. Other than that she is a very sweet girl."

"Interesting," I commented.

"And last but not least we have the house of Tina Cohen Chang," Mercedes said, pointing to the house that was closest to the main road. The house was painted mostly black and had very little plants decorating the outside. "She's the sweetest thing, but you'll hardly ever see her. She's incredibly shy and suffers from a stutter. However, once you get to know her you'll love her."

I nodded; relieved to know someone else in this neighborhood was nice.

"So what's your story?" Mercedes asked me.

"My story?" I asked her.

"Yeah, everyone in the neighborhood has some sort of story. What's yours?"

I couldn't tell Mercedes the truth. I mean, what could I say? I'm here to live with my fiancé that I've never met and won't meet until we have our arranged marriage? "I just recently moved out of my dads' house and was looking for a place to start on my own. Nothing too special about me."

Mercedes gave me a skeptical look, but moved on anyway. "Cool. If you just keep to yourself most of the time, I'm sure you'll love it here, and if you have any problems just remember you have me."

"Thanks Mercedes. You're information has been very helpful," I told her. "I should probably finish up my run now."

"Oh, yes. Got right ahead," Mercedes said, stepping out of my way and heading back towards her trimming. "I'll see you around."

I started jogging down the long road once again and as I passed all of the houses I thought about the information I just received about the owners. If there was one thing I knew for sure, this was not an ordinary neighborhood.

Once I had returned home from my jog, I look a quick shower. When I was finished showering and completely ready for the day I realized that it was a little bit past lunchtime, and I was already incredibly hungry. I walked to the kitchen and rummaged through the contents of the refrigerator, looking for something good to cook for lunch. I found a few TV dinners that were not vegan friendly and I made myself a mental note to stop by the local grocery store sometime.

Just as I was about to get some bread out and make myself a sandwich, I heard a knock at the door. I hurried towards the door and swung it open happily, expecting it to be one of the neighbors welcoming me to the neighborhood. I opened the door to find a taller woman with extremely short brown hair with frosted tips. She had a clipboard in her hands and a rather large purse hung from her shoulders. I noticed a car in the driveway, so I knew the woman couldn't be one of the neighbors.

"Hello," I greeted her, confused as to why this strange woman was at my house.

"Hello, you're Rachel, right?" the woman asked me, her words coming out quick and rough.

"Yes, that's me," I replied.

"My name is Marie, and I was hired as you're wedding planner," the woman said, suddenly stepping into my house uninvited.

"Oh," I said to myself out of shock, stepping back to let her in. I should have known it would be something about the wedding. My dads did say I would be working on the plans today after all. "What brings you here?" I asked Marie, watching her as she looked around the small house.

She turned around to face me, "There is so much work to do! We must get started right away!" She unexpectedly grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the house just as fast as she walked in. She allowed me the time to lock the front door before she pulled me forcefully out to her car. I was still extremely confused and a little scared. "We are going to pick out save the date cards first seeing as your wedding is coming up soon."

It was the first time someone actually mentioned the date of the wedding, and I realized I had no idea when the wedding would be taking place. "When is the wedding date, exactly?" I asked her.

"No time for silly questions!" Marie yelled. "Get in the car!"

I did as I was told and I climbed into the passenger seat quickly. I was terrified to find out how her driving was when she was in such a hurry.

Marie put the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. She then sped off down the road, going 20 miles per hour over the 25 miles per hour speed limit. I buckled my seat belt and hung onto the door handle as she drove, and I couldn't help but wonder who would even pick a woman like this to be a wedding planner.

I felt my stomach growl, and I wished that Marie and I could stop for lunch.

I kept my mouth shut.

I was a little scared of Marie.

We spent hours looking at save the date cards, and we still found nothing. I found many cards that I thought were very tasteful, but Marie disagreed, and threw them back on the table. As we looked she didn't allow me to give my input on anything. Isn't this supposed to be my wedding?

After what seemed to the millionth disagreement between Marie and I, and after the hundredth time my stomach growled, I decided it was time for me to ditch Marie and find myself something to eat. While Marie was arguing with a worker at the store, I made a break for it, and ran out of the shop. I walked at a fast pace until I was a good distance from the shop, and finally slowed down and looked for a place to eat. Most of the stores were small outlet shops, displaying numerous sale items on the windows.

Finally, I found a small diner called Lillian's in the center of downtown Lima. I entered the small building and took in my surroundings. The diner was very fun and bright looking, like one of those places that used to be really popular back in the day and everyone hung out at. A small bar area was along one wall, and a few booths lined the outside walls. The walls were painted orange and yellow, making everything seem so… happy. I took a seat at the bar and waved the bar tender over. As the man approached me, I read his name tag, Ernie.

"What can I get for you, ma'am?" Ernie asked me.

I read through the menu that was in front of me and weighed my options. "Could I just have a salad, please? And a glass of water?"

"Certainly," Ernie replied, "coming right up." Ernie walked back into the kitchen that was attached to the front room, to place my order.

The man sitting a few seats down from me cleared his throat, "You new around here?"

I turned to face him, "Is it that obvious?"

He shrugged, "Most of the people who come around here are regulars, and since you had to look at the menu I figured that you've never been here."

"Well, you guessed correctly," I replied. "I just moved here from the other side of town yesterday."

"Oh, so you're from the rich side of town," he arched an eyebrow. "What's a high-class girl like yourself doing over here?"

I should have been offended by his words, but I couldn't really blame him. Lima had a rich and a poor side. Not that this side was necessarily "poor," but let's just say the other side was much better. Also, he could have easily guessed where I was from by my outfit. I hadn't really seen any other girls wearing diamond earrings, high heels, and expensive dresses around here.

"I just moved out of my parent's place, and decided to come here," I told him. "Is there something wrong with me being here?"

He took a sip out of the Pepsi he had in front of him. "No, not at all. It's just refreshing to see someone different around here for once."

Ernie placed my glass of water in front of me, and I thanked him before turning back to the man. "Different? How so?" I asked him.

"Most of the people around here are all the same. They act strange, like they all have some big secret. You, you look confident. It's nice to see some confidence for once."

I gulped after hearing his words. In reality I did have a big secret haunting me, but I didn't need to let him know that.

He finished his Pepsi and pushed the empty glass away from him. "Anyways, I have to get going." He stood up from he seat and waved at Ernie, "Thanks Ernie! I'll see you later!"

"Bye," Ernie called back before getting back to his work.

The man started walking towards the door to leave, but I stopped him from doing so.

"Wait," I said, causing his to turn around. "Don't I at least get to know your name?"

He took a few steps towards me, "I'm Finn. Finn Hudson. And you are…"

"Rachel. Rachel Berry," I told him. "It's nice you meet you, Finn."

"It's nice to meet you too, Miss Berry," Finn said before turning around again and leaving the diner. I watched as he left, and slowly turned around in my seat. Finn Hudson. He was an interesting man, and I was itching to know more about him.

I heard the door open behind me, and someone said, "Rachel! There you are!"

I groaned. It was Marie.

When was this day ever going to end?

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And yes, I know, a lot of the characters are a little insane so far, but you'll get to know them better as the story plays out.