Author's note: My muse went crazy this morning and I had the whole chapter planned out within minutes. Figured I might as well post. The story at the moment takes place just hours after Jesse eggs Rachel. I'm definitely continuing this story, I have so many ideas for it filling up my brain and stopping me from doing homework...

I Am The One

I just thought you should know

I am the one who knows you

I am the one who cares

I am the one whose always been there

Shelby glanced at the clock. She could have sworn it was later than that. Surely she'd been sitting in her office blankly for more than half an hour. Although, stress always seemed to make time feel a little wonky. At least she was finally home and could pop out a tub of ice cream, crash on the couch and maybe watch an amalgamated series of Streisand movies.

She'd quickly changed into a loose pair of yoga pants and an old NYU -tshirt. There was no need to wear a pant suit for a wallowing session. Comfortable now, she made her way to the kitchen for the calorie induces ice cream.

Just as she had opened the freezer door her cell phone went off, making a faint buzzing noise. In the silence of her apartment, the soft vibrations were very distinct and could be heard clearly from the living room. She rushed to the coffee table where she had placed it upon coming in. It was part of her routine of coming home from work; heels off at the door, jacket on the rack, phone on the table, purse on the floor beside the couch.

Shelby picked up the phone, hit the talk button and answered professionally, "Shelby Corcoran."

"Hi, mom."

Immediately recognizing the voice coming through the ear piece, Shelby let out the tiniest, involuntary sigh of exasperation at the title. "Rachel," the name felt wrong coming from her mouth. As undeserved as having the girl call her mom. "Look, I thought we were clear on this. The other day- that was our goodbye. And, you know, that kind of means you can't-"

Rachel cut her mother, who was stumbling with her words, off. "I know. But I really need to talk to you."

A short pause. She let herself fall to the sofa, head leaning against the back lazily. She didn't want to lie, but Rachel couldn't keep doing this. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm busy."

"You don't look busy."

"Wait, w- what?" Shelby's head shot up and she looked around the room wildly, half-expecting to find the girl leaning over the couch beside her. Instead, she spotted Rachel peering in only slightly off to the side of the window. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before Rachel vanished, scurrying away.

Well, that's what you get for living on the first floor. "Rachel... I just..."

"No, it's okay. I get it," she said unconvincingly, a loud sniffle added for effect. "I'll just walk all the way back home and it's getting really cold, but it's okay."

Shelby sighed at the act, pushed herself off the sofa and went towards the door. Opening it, she could see Rachel's tiny figure walking very, very slowly away, her head drooped in defeat with shoes dragging along the pavement.

Unable to resist Rachel's obvious plea for her attention, Shelby pushed the off button on her phone and called out to her. "Rachel, you can come in." And in the most fluid of motions, the teenager's head snapped up with the widest grin spread across her face as she turned on her heel and headed inside, her mother closing the door behind her.

Though Rachel had never been here before (not that Shelby knew of anyway. If so, she had one very creepy child. Or at least one with severe boundary issues), she quickly made herself at home; taking her shoes off at the front mat, placing her coat on the side rack, entering the living room and sitting down center sofa.

Shelby, though, stood in the adjoining doorway, a weak smile displayed on her face. Rachel only looked back up at her with that wide-eyed grin. Realizing she would have to start, Shelby moved further into the room so that she was standing directly across the coffee table from her daughter, looking down at her. "I really thought we came to the conclusion and that you understood that we'd, you know, keep our distance. And that means you would have to not-"

"I know," Rachel cut off again. God, people really didn't like it when Shelby finished a sentence, did they? "But I stayed up all night thinking about it. I drank an unmitigated amount of water from the cup you gave me and I came to the conclusion that I'm not okay with that. You're my mom. You're the only one I'm ever going to have so I can't just let go. Clearly, you have some emotional hindrances that we'll have to work on but I'm confident we can get through it. So I'm here to bond with you."

"Sweetie," she searched for the right words but they never seemed to come when Rachel was around. "I- I just- I can't-"

"No!" Rachel exclaimed, interrupting her again. "You can! All you have to is try. And you don't have a choice! I want you to sit down beside me and help me do my homework and if you don't, I'll just sit here and cry all night until you do." She shut her eyes tightly then reopened them, newly formed tears springing at the edges.

It's your fault, you know. A voice chimed in Shelby's head. She gets the crazy from you.

Staring at the girl who was forcing herself to cry upon her sofa, Shelby gave in. There were no possible words she could come up with that didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. So, she awkwardly walked around the coffee table and sat down beside her daughter.

Clearly quite proud of herself, Rachel straightened up then reached into her bag, which Shelby hadn't even realized she had brought, and pulled out a pink notebook with gold stars plastered along the front cover. Shelby had a very strange flashback of herself twenty three years prior holding a very similar binder. Rachel opened it up on the space between both womens' thighs.

"So I had some difficulty with these calculus problems."

"Oh. Uhm, yeah... math's not really my strongest suit," she said gingerly, eyebrows crinkled in a spot of shame. "I failed eleventh grade data management."

"Oh," Rachel frowned. "Well, that's okay. I've never been very good at it either. I find all those numbers and laws and rules and theorems to be both confusing and daunting. I guess that' just another thing that we have in common."

Shelby's expression turned a bit distraught. Here was Rachel trying so hard to make that connection and there was Shelby sitting like an idiot, scared that the connection would in fact be made, just praying for a way out before it all would eventually get shot to hell.

"What about English?"

"That. That I can do."

"Excellent! Here," she handed her mother a four page essay perfectly typed, her full name boldly printed on the cover, another gold star sticker stuck on the end. "This is my paper on Wuthering Heights. I assume you've read it. It's an American classic."

"Yeah, I've read it," she replied, already opening it and looking through the first paragraph.

"You can edit it and tell me what you think!" Shelby continued reading, though it already seemed rather perfect. She was surely not the first person to have looked it over.

The phone rang, the house phone this time, as she flipped the page. But Shelby ignored it and kept reading. It rung two more times, and Rachel looked downright annoyed.

"Are you going to answer that?"

Shelby looked up. "No," she replied nonchalantly.

"Why not? What if it's important?"

"Well, you see, last time I picked up the phone, I got unexpected company and I think one guest is enough for tonight."

Rachel looked like Shelby had just killed her dog. And at that look, Shelby felt the exact same way. She was usually so much more articulate than this.

"Oh no- no, honey, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant- I'm really not a-" But the girl had already gone to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Shelby, it's Jesse. Could I come over and we can discuss-"

"No, you jerk! Stay away!" Rachel yelled into the phone and slammed it back down on the receiver.

Where Rachel looked both hurt and proud of herself, Shelby had her mouth open, gaping; confused.

"That was Jesse," she said, as thought that would explain everything. It didn't. Although, thinking about it, that would have been Shelby's same response to the boy and it really didn't matter it if actually came from her mouth or not.

"Oh right! You won't believe what he did to me earlier today!" Rachel said, and Shelby could already tell that the gears in her brain were working to find the perfect way to tell her mother the entire story.

Funny, Shelby thought. I could say the exact same thing.

But before Rachel could explain what it was exactly that he had done, there was a rattling of keys as the front door was opened and Jesse stormed in. Like Rachel, he must have already been standing outside making sure she couldn't actually deny him entrance. Although, she figured since almost every time someone called and asked her if they could come over, she denied. Most people who knew her must have learned to just show up anyway. Not that there were many people who asked at all.

"I don't care if you want me to stay away, because I think that I'm in lo-" Jesse's eyes widened, his confession slowing down as he spotted Rachel standing in the middle of the room. "-ve... with a boy in my gym glass." He blurted out, just trying to think of something, anything, that wasn't the truth. So let Rachel think he was gay. That might actually be able to work out better in his favour.

"What is he doing here?" Rachel turned toward her mother in outrage, as though Shelby might actually have an answer or that it was her fault in some way. Still, she had given him a key and she was mentally slapping herself for that now.

"You pick tonight of all nights to actually have company over? Tonight?"Jesse too, turned towards the older woman, trying his damnedest to speak over Rachel, his voice just a little louder than hers.

They both waited for her response, but before any words could escape her open mouth, another voice entered.

"Shelby?" Will Schuester's figure appeared in the doorway, "Uhh, I heard yelling and the door was open..." He trailed off, eying both Jesse and Rachel, trying to figure out what was going on. All eyes turned to him. Shelby looked about ready to die. What was he doing here? They made out once, he gives her advice once and he thinks he can just come waltzing in here? She opened her mouth again to speak, and was just about to scream when there was another swinging sound of her door opening.

"Shelby Sophia Corcoran! I could hear this racket all the way from the parking lot, what could you possibly be doing-?" Taking in the sight of three new people in her daughter's home, Raquel Corcoran widened her eyes in pleasant surprise. "You have company!" She said joyously, marveling at the thought that her practically recluse child was having an actual, real social interaction.

Shelby seemed to have sunk down further into her seat as each new occupant had come in. She now held two fingers to her forehead, the plague of a migraine threatening to take hold.

All four guests started to speak at once, but Shelby jumped up to stop them.

"No! What does this place look like to you people? This is not The Department Store of Shelby! I am not open for business! All I wanted was to watch some crappy soap operas and drown myself in ice cream for the night! Is that really too fucking ('Language, Shelby!') much to ask? Is it?"

"But-"

"NO!" Shelby threw her hands up to silence the protests and remarks at her current juvenile behaviour. "No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" She continued her chant of 'no's as she made her way to the kitchen and slammed the door behind her; adding a final, very loud, "NO!" through the wooden door.

Shelby got a spoon from the utensil drawer, the ice cream tub from the freezer, pulled out a chair, sat down and started to eat her ice cream.

Author's note: I promise to explain why every person showed up at Shelby's! They actually have reasons xD Please review! I love to hear what you think and ideas are always welcome! Oh, and can you spot the Idina reference in this chapter?