A.N: first of all, even though Rachel is my 100%, can we please get some more Santana and Quinn solos? Cause even though Lea's voice is so powerful and makes me want to cry when she's doing those soulfull ballads, Dianna's voice is super sexy and Naya's voice is sultry and I just want to hear more of that in my life.

Anyways, Hey! So SFTD is pretty much done, I'm kinda just keeping it under wraps for a special reason. Anyways, heres the next chapter. Flashbacks are italicized. Just a filler until I get into the real you enjoy! :)

Rachel walked down the hallway, feeling happiness coursing through her veins. Today was the day of her try-out and she was pumped because all weekend had been spent in preparation for the upcoming audition. She was feeling so good about herself, in fact, that she didn't even bother dealing with Finn. For all she cared he could suck it. She was not about to let a boy be her ruin.

She thought back with her conversation with Beiste;

"Ok, Berry, you've got yourself a try out." Shannon said smiling. The grin on Rachel's face only widened as tears started prickling the edges of her eyes.

"I-I don't know what to say Coach. Thank you. I won't let you down, I promise." she said as tears started to flow down her face. She raised a hand to her face to swipe at the tears uselessly.

"I," She sniffed, "I don't know why I'm crying. You must think I'm some kind of wreck." Rachel mumbled to Coach Beiste, mortified by her tears. She couldn't believe that she was breaking down because she got the chance to get something she wanted.

But instead of judging her, Shannon smiled kindly, understanding exactly how Rachel felt. It was the same way she felt when, after years of constant torment, someone treated her with a shred of decency. The relief was so overwhelming that she herself broke out into tears.

"It's ok Rachel. I understand." Shannon said as she reached out a hand to lay on top of Rachel's "I understand. You don't have to worry about me judging you. I will never judge you for who you are, and if you make it and prove to the guys that you deserve to be on the team as much as they do, then they'll accept you too. And that's a promise."

Rachel sobbed, "Thank you, thank you so much." A wide smile broke out on her face at the words, because in only fifteen minutes spent in a room with a woman she had never attempted to talk to and she felt more accepted than she had by her so called friends and family in her entire life.

Shannon only smiled again, "No problem, kiddo. Just show up on Monday morning for the try-outs and remember to do your best."

Rachel's tears dried up and she raised her head in determination, "I will! You can count on me."

Rachel's good mood at the memory diminished, however, when she felt the icy cold sting of slushy hitting her face and the sound of raucious laughter.

'Cherry flavor' she thought dejectedly, and raised her head to see who had slushied her. It was Karofsky, who was standing with a laughing Azimio. 'Great, just great. The day I'm supposed to try out and my soon to be teamates slushy me. I'm screwed.'

"Hey it's a cherry-flavored Berry." Azimio joked, causing Karofsky to laugh louder before high-fiving him as they walked away, leaving her dripping in slushy.

Rachel took a breath, before letting it out slowly and continuing on with confidence. 'Soon. Soon things will be different.' she thought before mentally dusting herself off, and making a detour to the bathroom to clean herself off.

She never noticed the hazel eyes watching her from the distance.

Quinn's eyes followed Rachel's form until she disappeared into the bathroom, nodding absently at Brittany, who was yammering on about something involving Artie, cucumbers, and mustard.

"-and then the cucumber started dancing, Q, and I really wanted to dance with it-Quinn?" Quinn's eyes snapped back to Brittany-looking at her with a confused pout- at the sound of her name.

"Uh, that's sounds cool, B. I wish I could dance with the cucumber too." She said placating the other blonde. Brittany's eyes lit up happily and she linked arms with Quinn and dragged her along to Spanish, this time talking about the mustard which caused Quinn to mentally roll her eyes.

She loved Brittany like a sister, but sometimes...

"So why were you staring at Rachel, Q?" Brittany asked out of the blue as they strode along to their next class. Quinn turned to the blonde in surprise. She didn't think she had noticed.

"Um, what are you talking about Britt. I wasn't looking at Ra-Berry." Quinn tried uselessly to deny.

Brittany frowned at her in confusion, "What are you talking about? You were staring at Rachel sadly and then when Dave slushied her, your eyes got really angry, like Santana angry when people would make fun of me."

Flushing a bright red, Quinn again attempted to avoid the questioning, "Look, B, I was just looking at her atrocious outfit, that's all. And, and, I got so mad because, um, I was so offended by her choice of clothing that I wanted to punch her in the face."

Brittany only grew more confused, "Well, ok, if you say so. I thought Rachel looked ok today. Less like a grandma, and more like a toddler...hey, Q, do you think it'd be ok if we got baby bottle pops? They're really good..."

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief as the blonde once again trailed off before her thoughts turned to Rachel. It did make her angry when she saw the brunette's beautiful smile, a smile she hadn't seen since Rachel and Finn had broke up thanks to Santana, wiped away by those ignorant jocks. It had kind of made her happy to see Rachel so happy.

But Quinn wasn't ready to admit that to anyone. Not to her best friend, and especially not to Rachel. She didn't know if she'd ever be ready. So until then, she would just have to play her part and not let the mask slip.

'Until then...'

After sufficiently cleaning herself, Rachel headed to her math class with a newly determined stride. She wouldn't let anything bring her down today, not even Karofsky's daily slushy facial and having to miss Glee to attend the try-outs. Though if she really thought about it, the latter was more of a blessing than a curse.

'First stop, Math. Then English, and finally try-outs.'

The smile wiped off due to the slushy facial returned full force. 'I mean, how hard would it be to make the team and to win these guys over?'

Ridiculously hard. As she would soon find out.