Chapter 2

Rachel applied for the music director's position at McKinley and received a response in the affirmative a couple of weeks later; she was to start on the Monday, a week before spring break it was perfect timing as she would have everything properly organised in time for the new term. Unbeknownst to her the handsome, man from the concert also teaches there; but happened to be at a weeklong Teachers conference out of town. She has spent some time, ok a lot of time thinking about him, but figures it was a one-time thing, why would he be interested in someone like her anyway, even if he was single which Rachel is positive he isn't. He was most likely a parent so the idea of the tall, cinnamon eyed, dimpled future she could see from just one glance went straight out the window. Rachel spent the next few days organising the choir room and going through the lessons she had planned, doing inventory on instruments and getting to know the other staff members. Most of them seemed really nice and welcoming. She had a change of mind though; because on Wednesday at lunch time in the teachers' lounge, she overheard a striking brunette asking a pretty blonde if she had managed to get into that dorky, Mr Hudson's pants yet. Rachel thinks the blonde's name is Quinn Fabray and the brunette Santana Lopez, Quinn answers Santana with a negative shake of her head, and says.

"No, he doesn't seem to be interested, I've done everything I can think of apart from stripping naked in front of him, he is polite but that's all how could he not want this", pointing with a bright red manicured nail, to her slim body clad in a skin tight black mini skirt and lacy white low cut blouse, "he must be as dumb as those remedial kids he teaches, he would be a bit of fun, though I'd probably have to give him lessons, not sure he'd be any good in bed he looks like a cross between a marshmallow man and a virgin teddy bear."

"Maybe he's gay, Santana offers with a shrug."

Rachel tunes them out, they don't seem to be very nice, and in her personal opinion anyone who has the patience and compassion to teach remedial kids was a hero, the kids weren't dumb they just learnt differently. She finds that with music, non-academic kids more often than not excelled in music. She was also extremely offended by the notion that being gay was bad; her Fathers' are gay and have been nothing but loving and supportive of her and her dreams all her life. Rachel makes a mental note to stay well clear of those two women as much as possible. She felt annoyed at the way they were talking about Mr Hudson, just because a man didn't want to sleep with every single woman on the planet and treat sex and relationships like a game did not in Rachel's opinion make him a failure in the bedroom, she thought that made him a sensitive, caring and chivalrous gentleman, just the sort of man she could see herself settling down with. She was shaken out of her personal musings by a voice belonging to a tanned, Mo- hawked, muscled body, intruding on her personal space so closely that his slightly thrusting hips were right at her eye level.

"Hey gorgeous, I'm Puck I teach gym and football".

Rachel looked up at his smirking face and held out her hand to shake,

"Hi, I'm Rachel Berry I'm the new music director."

"It's your pleasure to meet me" he says in an oily voice and kisses the back of my hand. I quickly jerked my hand away and decided then and there he was another person to avoid, I quickly gathered my things and made to leave having lost my appetite, as I got to the door I heard Ms Fabray say with a sarcastic tone, turning to look at her smirking friend,

"Oh never mind Puckerman, I'm sure there is another unattractive, desperate woman out there, who will fall at your feet and give you the time of day or maybe you are just losing your touch, if the ugly ones won't even pay you any attention".

"Are you putting yourselves on that list? He asks waving a finger between the two women, because you know you both loved the piece of the Puckerone you sampled." With a wink and a smirk, he left the lounge.

Rachel sped away with tears flowing down her face, and hid in her office, her self- esteem about her appearance was already low, and now these people who didn't even know her had knocked it down another level. She gave herself a pep talk about not letting these awful people get to her, and as she had no classes that afternoon, she set about decorating her choir-room, hanging her favourite Broadway musical posters, motivational posters and pictures of music notes, music award statues, pictures of famous song writers and composers, even some of her favourite modern artists. Generally making the room bright and inspiring, the posters always inspired her to reach for her dream and she hoped they would do the same for her new students.

The end of the day finally came and as she was heading to her car, she heard her name being called, reluctant to turn in case it was the horrible women from before,

"Ms Berry"; she slowly turned to the voice, and was level with a kind faced African/American woman about her age. "Ms Berry? Rachel?, Hi I'm Mercedes Evans, my friend Tina Abrams, said you had just joined our staff and I wanted to introduce myself, I teach art/craft and Home Economics". She smiled again and held out her hand for me to shake.

"Oh, I'm sorry, hi yes I'm Rachel, Tina is an old friend of mine, it's good to meet a kind face I was beginning to think everyone here was horrible.

"Ah you've met Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez I take it" she says with a frown.

"Yes and someone called Puck?"

"Oh yes, Noah Puckerman, he thinks he is god's gift to women, don't let him fool you, he is a major player."

"Don't worry he is most definitely not my type".

"Maybe you should meet Finn Hudson, he is one of the few nice ones still around".

"I overheard Ms Lopez and Ms Fabray talking about him earlier, they made it sound as though he was a game to be played, and the way they made fun of his students was just plain nasty."

"Yeah I know I don't even know why they became teachers; they don't have the right attitude. Ms Fabray teaches Business studies to the kids in the higher grades, and Ms Lopez computing. Oh my! look at the time, I'm sorry but I really have to go I'm meeting my Husband Sam for dinner it's our third anniversary, I'll see you tomorrow though, yes? Thank goodness there are only a couple of days till break, Bye Rachel". And with another beaming smile and a wave she was gone.

Rachel went on her way as well, her mind turning over all the information she had gained from her new friend, especially about the elusive Finn Hudson, he sounded nice and the sort of guy she could be attracted to.

When she got home the first thing she did was call Tina and thank her for mentioning her to Mercedes and how they had met that afternoon and spent time chatting, Rachel thought they could be good friends, Her and Tina spent a little while longer catching up and hung up with a promise to get together, for lunch when school was on break.

Rachel went about her daily routine feeding her cat Molly, searching the fridge for her own dinner and settling down to watch a bit of TV, with Molly curled in her lap. Her mind drifting towards Mr Finn Hudson, and she wondered when she might meet him, she supposed it wouldn't be until school went back. She hoped he was as nice as Mercedes had said he was.