Thank you all to those who have reviewed, added this to your fav/alerts. I hope you enjoy this because I'm having fun creating it.

Disclaimer: I don't own ANY of it (except for Noelle). Fox, The-N, Ryan Murphy & Tom Lynch take credit for the amazing characters otherwise.

Mini Pilot 1x1.2

Rachel Berry woke up as soon as her alarm clock went off. A smile graced her lips as she threw her hair back in a ponytail and started her music. It was the first day of school since the summer break and she couldn't be more thrilled about getting into that choir room for glee practice.

Summer break wasn't that bad, she went to Vegas and New York with her two dads and saw a couple of Broadway shows along the way. Academics and singing interested her more than travelling though. After spilling the beans about Finn not being the dad to Quinn's baby, Rachel realized that she was once again alone in the world. The others from the Glee Club spoke to her only when spoken to and the energy that was once filling that choir room, quickly dwindled after that.

Luckily she had Spencer Carlin come to her rescue. The two were always close acquaintances but before their sophomore year ended, they clicked and became best friends quickly. The blonde had helped her realize that everyone had their own problems and just because she was the one that brought Quinn's secret to light, it didn't make her a bad person.

Finn Hudson tried to pursue what Rachel had wanted for so long; a relationship. It didn't take her long to figure out he was trying to get back at Quinn and the brunette realized that he wasn't what she wanted to begin with. She was in love with the idea of being a star at the school as well as dating the star of their football team.

"Bear? You have ten more minutes before your breakfast gets cold!" Paul, one of Rachel's dad's yells through her bedroom door.

"Coming dad!" Rachel finished applying her light make up and checking herself out in the mirror one last time. She had chosen to wear a pink plaid skirt with one of her many matching argyle sweaters.

"Good morning Rachel." Simon grinned at his daughter. "Excited about school?"

"I am." She nodded and flipped hair over her shoulder. "I think this year's going to be different, I can feel it. I'm going to help Mr. Shue with new material for Glee Club. I think he'll like what I have to offer."

"That's our girl," Paul glanced at his husband with an adorable smile, "always thinking ahead."

Rachel beamed proudly and dug into her pancake breakfast, making sure not to drip any syrup on her new school clothes.

"Is Mr. Shuester holding practice today?" Simon's brown eyes asked.

After swallowing her food, Rachel shook her head. "No, he'll probably post a sign-up sheet for the first two days in hopes that more students will join."

"Will you be home after school?" Paul asked, glancing over towards the other man before looking at his daughter. "Simon and I will be having our weekly yoga meeting and Michael's boyfriend's home sick with the flu. We'll be holding it here."

"I'll probably head over to Spencer's anyway." Rachel shrugged like it was no big deal. She only went over to the Carlin household when she knew Quinn wouldn't be around. It was hard for her to be around the cheerleader after six months of claiming her as a friend while she was pregnant; only to be dropped in three seconds flat after giving birth to Noelle.

Paul and Simon both nodded before clearing their plates off the table.

Rachel quickly did the same and grabbed her school bag and light rain coat. She kissed each parent on the cheek before texting Spencer to let her know she was on her way to pick her up for school.

Ashley pulled up to a rather large white house with black shudders surrounding each window. She surveyed it through the mist of rain that was falling down. The gloomy weather was a change for her and it had only been a day. She wasn't used to much rain back in LA.

"Thanks for doing this," Puck gave Ashley a small smile, "I really want to see Noelle, it's been a few days."

"That's okay, I don't mind." Ashley nodded sweetly and watched as the guy opened the door and ran towards the front door of the house.

Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, she noticed a red VW beetle convertible pull up in front of her and honk the horn. Casting her eyes quickly back to the house, her heart immediately jump-started at the leggy blonde in a skirt, giggling and running towards the vehicle in front of her. It was as if the mysterious blonde happened to notice her black Cayman S stick out substantially and blue ocean eyes were swept up in a swirl of chocolate brown.

Blinking, Ashley ducked her head down a bit when the blonde smiled in question at her before hopping into the beetle and taking off down the road.

"She's nice, Quinn." Puck's voice could be heard outside the car and when the passenger side door opened, his head poked through. "Thanks for the lift, I'm just gonna run to school since there's no room for me."

Ashley quirked an eyebrow at him and shook her head. "What?"

"Quinn," he ushered the blonde forward and sat her down in the car seat, "this is Ashley, Ashley, Quinn. I'll see you two at school." And then the door shut and Puck was off running towards the direction where the VW beetle had taken off to.

"Hi." Ashley nodded awkwardly and pressed on the gas a little before peeling onto the road.

"Sorry Puck did this." Quinn apologized and swallowed as Ashley smiled towards her.

"It's okay." The brunette shrugged. "You have a beautiful daughter by the way." She laughed at Quinn's confused look. "Puck has a picture of you and Noelle hanging up above her crib. She's adorable."

The blonde cheerleader blushed. "Thanks." She shifted in the leather seat a bit and bit her lip. "She's pretty much everything to me."

Ashley grinned and made a left turn, noticing the school wasn't too far away. "Care to tell me what to expect at this school?"

"Drama." Quinn quickly replied. "Don't mess with the popular kids or you'll receive a slushie in the face and believe me, it's not pleasant."

"How do you know who's popular or not?" Ashley slowed down and made her way into the student parking lot.

Quinn laughed and shook her head. Hazel eyes immediately fell onto her two verbal punching bags. "If you hang out with those two, you'll be slushied; well, not so much the blonde one because I have a duty to protect her somewhat, but the brunette is fair game."

Ashley frowned and started to wonder if this Quinn was going to be another Madison Duarte she'd have to deal with all year long. "Thanks for that I guess."

"If you like grape slushies in your face every morning then be my guest." Quinn shrugged and opened the door. "Thanks for the ride."

The brunette nodded slowly and locked her car behind her, quickly making her way into the school where it was dry. Sighing heavily, she found her arm being looped through by Quinn's. "Did you forget something in my car?"

"I think maybe we should start over. You can hang out with whoever you want but this school can be pretty brutal sometimes. I just wanted to give you a fair warning." The cheerleader smiled a bit and dragged Ashley towards the office, "come on, we'll get you registered and I'll show you around."

Ashley snorted. "Try going to a school like King High."

"I didn't get a good look at her." Spencer sighed, sitting at her desk. "The rain was in the way."

"But you think the new girl's a total babe?" Mercedes raised an eyebrow and grinned towards Kurt as a blush made its way up the blonde's cheek.

"Like I said, I didn't get a good look at her." Spencer mumbled shyly.

"You should've seen the car she was driving." Rachel piped in and glanced towards the teacher, who was busy writing things on the board.

"Since when are you into cars?" Kurt spoke up and fixed his stylish scarf before catching Spencer's gaze. "What kind of car anyway? My dad works on them, I think I can see if she's worth it or not."

"I don't know." Spencer shrugged. "A Porsche of some sort."

"Ou girl, I think it's safe to say her money is definitely hot." Mercedes laughed. The noise in their direction of the classroom caused the teacher to turn around and discipline them for not paying attention.

Rachel tuned out her best friend's conversation after that because she really didn't want to start off the school year badly with her teachers.

Before long the bell rang and students scattered off to their next class. Rachel and Spencer linked arms as they made their way to the other side of the hall. Mr. Shuester turned the corner and bumped right into the girls, sending books crashing to the floor.

"Oh god," he laughed embarrassedly and rubbed his head before kneeling down to help pick up loose papers, "I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That's okay Mr. Shue." Rachel grinned politely and handed Spencer her book. "While you're here I was wondering if we could talk?"

"Sure Rachel, what's up?" He smiled at her and fixed his tie a bit.

"Well I have a few proposals this year for glee and I wanted to go over them with you." The brunette singer started to ruffle through her bag when Mr. Shuester stopped her.

"I'd love too but right now is not a good time though, I'm meeting Miss Pillsbury." He looked at her apologetically. "Feel free to stop by after school or better yet, tomorrow we'll have our first meeting of the school year and you can share it with me then."

Brown eyes lit up as Rachel nodded her head enthusiastically and squealed towards her best friend.

"Oh Spencer," Mr. Shuester snapped his fingers and gave her a charming smile, "I really hope you decide to follow Rachel to rehearsal tomorrow. I think you'll be a great addition to the group."

Spencer sputtered slightly before shaking her head. "Quinn would hate it if I joined. She'd probably end up quitting and it'd be my fault."

"No," Rachel shook her head, "she won't. I've watched her perform, she secretly breathes for it. I say go for it Spence, please?"

The blonde cast her gaze between the teacher and Rachel before biting her lip. She had always wanted to belong somewhere. "Fine but if she puts up a fuss I'm out of there."

Mr. Shuester patted her on the back and grinned. "Awesome, I'll see you two after school tomorrow. Don't be late!"

Spencer groaned once he was out of ear shot. "Way to put me on the spot!"

"Oh come on, you already said you weren't going back into drama this year. You need some sort of extracurricular activity thrown in there somewhere." Rachel pointed out with a serious face. "So your sister's a bitch, we all know this but don't let that bring you down when I know you've wanted to be in glee since Mr. Shue took over."

"Quinn can be a bitch." Spencer grumbled and chewed on her lip while thinking about it. "Okay I'll go but Rach-"

"No buts! You're going and you're going to enjoy it." The singer grinned and looped her arm back through her best friend's. "Hey Spence?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think that maybe if Coach Sylvester never asked Quinn to be Queen Cheerio again, she'd still be smiling with me rather than laughing at me?" Rachel swallowed and adjusted the books in her arm.

Spencer smiled sadly. "You know what sucks about this is that she really liked you. However she likes to be center of attention more and after Elle was born, she maybe thought she'd no longer get that attention and figured becoming a cheerleader again will give her what she wants."

The brunette could only nod and sigh heavily.

"Hey." Finn smiled as he slid in beside his girlfriend, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I know I said I'd give you a ride home today but Coach Tanaka is going hard on us this year."

Quinn nodded and waved him off a bit. "It's fine. I was going to ask Ashley if she wanted to come over for a bit."

Ashley blinked up from the book that she was reading when she heard her name. "Sorry?"

Quinn laughed, as did the other cheerleaders around the large cafeteria table. "I was inviting you over after school. We had cheerleading practice but turns out Coach Sylvester is actually sick and on the first day of school too."

"Bummer." Brittany, a fellow blonde Cheerio, put her head down in sincere sadness.

Finn gaped openly at the new girl and cleared his throat when Quinn smacked him upside the head. He quickly looked away but couldn't ignore the 'pussy whipped' snickers from around the table.

"Sorry, how rude of me," the head cheerleader rolled her eyes a bit, "Ashley this is my boyfriend Finn, Finn meet Ashley, she's fresh from LA."

"Oh, cool." Finn smiled and nodded, letting go of the tanned hand that reached out to him. "So why didn't you bring the sun with you?"

Brittany scoffed. "Because stupid, she can't reach it."

'Wow' Ashley mouthed with a snicker and closed her book. "Um, didn't think we needed it I guess."

"I hate cheering in the rain anyway." Santana sighed heavily and looked at her nails before throwing a smirk towards Brittany. "Wanna come over after school Brit?"

"Sure." Brittany beamed. "You want to join us Ashley?"

Quinn laughed. "Yeah, sorry Brit, I already claimed her and I doubt she wants to ijoin/i you two."

The dark Latina smirked. "You never know there Q, she could be a rainbow chaser."

Ashley couldn't help but laugh and nod slowly. "You two are together?"

"Oh we're not dating," Brittany quickly clarified, "we just have sex," she paused, "a lot."

Finn cleared his throat and chuckled with the rest of the girls. "Way to be subtle Brittany."

"No kidding!" Santana scowled and grabbed her lunch before snapping her fingers for the clueless blonde to follow.

"What? It's not like it's a secret anymore." Brittany pouted and followed the girl.

"Sorry about them." Quinn waved them off and tucked golden hair behind her ears. "So did you want to come over afterwards?"

Ashley smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure. I um, I need to find Puck though and see if he needs a ride home first."

"Seriously? It's your first day and he already has you tight in his grip?" Finn scoffed with a frown and scanned the room, finding him flirting with a few other girls. "He's such a man tramp."

"Finn, Ashley's basically his sister." The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, my mom is marrying his dad." Ashley didn't sound overly excited about it all but she'd deal.

"Oh." The tall football player shook his head. "I'm sorry for my earlier outburst. My foot tends to live in my mouth."

"It happens." Ashley chuckled and licked her lips, finally taking in the rest of the students taking up the cafeteria space. Scanning through the crowds she noticed a familiar pair of blue eyes meet hers and she felt that same heart flip like she did earlier that morning. "Who is that?" She pointed towards them.

Quinn and Finn looked in the direction that was being pointed out and the boy spoke first. "Oh, the blonde?"

"Yeah." Ashley smiled over at them across the room but was met with a scowl from the other blonde.

"Spencer Carlin, she's Quinn's si-" He was elbowed in the stomach and flinched, rubbing where his girlfriend made contact.

"She's your, what?" The brunette asked confused.

"Sympathy friend." Quinn quickly recovered. "Uh, remember this morning when I said not to hang out with the blonde and brunette that was walking by?"

"No, well yes, but no... it was raining quite hard, I didn't get a look." Ashley frowned. "Didn't I see her come out of your house this morning?" She asked gesturing to Spencer from across the room.

"Yeah, you did. I helped her with her hair." Quinn's face twisted in disgust at her own lie and rolled her eyes. "Okay, she's my sister."

Ashley's eyes travelled over towards where Spencer was sitter and tilted her head. She scanned the girl from head to toe and bit her lip. "The only resemblance I see is the hair."

Quinn nodded. "Half-sister. My mom cheated on Arthur with a doctor from her former workplace. She ended up pregnant with me but luckily Arthur was full of forgiveness and accepted me as his own. Twelve months after I was born, Spencer came along, blah blah blah."

"Well you just come off all kinds of excited that you're her sister." The brunette sarcastically spoke. "I get it; I've been there with my own half-sister. She came along after my dad passed away. We get along now though."

Quinn shrugged. "She helps out a lot with Noelle. It's just she's so high strung on not caring what people think of her, it kind of makes it hard for me to stay on top."

Ashley laughed and shook her head. "You're kidding me right? I thought the cheerleaders would be nicer in this smaller place. I knew this girl, Madison Duarte, she was the head cheerleader at my old school. The biggest homophobic bitch you'll ever meet and always judging others." She went to gather her lunch garbage up and tuck her book away in her hoodie pocket. "I'm sorry Quinn but I couldn't stand her and what she wanted to be recognized as and I don't think I can be friends with you if that's what you choose to do."

Shocked, the blonde cheerleader looked almost offended. "I'm not homophobic, okay? I have friends that are gay."

"I didn't say you were." Ashley pointed out. "I'm just saying if being popular means so much to you that you have to disown your own sister, it's really not the kind of character I care to be around."

"I love my sister. I just don't understand her most of the time."

"And I bet she doesn't understand why you have to act the way you do." The brunette reasoned thoughtfully. She threw an apologetic look towards Finn then back at Quinn. "I don't know you so maybe I'm reading into this wrong. I'm sorry."

Before Quinn allowed Ashley walk away, she grabbed her wrist. "Please, just stay? I admit I can be a little bitchy and seem like I don't care most of the time but I do. I guess that's the problem, I care too much."

"Maybe so," Ashley sat back down slowly and took a look around the room piled with different teenagers in mixed groups, "but in the end you have to wonder if what you're caring about is worth losing some pretty amazing friendships you could be making."

Quinn sat there quietly and glanced down at her salad.

Finn rubbed her back and shared a light smile with the brunette. "I guess I'm going to go find Puck and let him know I can drive him home."

Quinn nodded and kissed him briefly before he left the cafeteria.

Ashley sighed. "I'm sorry if I'm being harsh."

"No," the blonde cheerleader shook her head and directed her sights over towards her sister and best friend, "don't be. There's only one other person that's brave enough to tell me where to go and for that, she'll always have an everlasting impression on me."

Ashley raised an eyebrow and noticed a small smile tug at the corner of Quinn's lip while she openly looked at the brunette sitting next to Spencer.