AN. I tried to make this chapter somewhat longer, though I have to admit that long chapters aren't exactly my forte. It's hard to write when you have nobody that shares your passion for what you're writing about :'(

Also, I have a wee bit of Quinn's perspective in here. Yay!

Rachel sighed as she put her house key into the lock and twisted. The door swung open, and all she could see in the foyer were boxes. Looking up the hallway, boxes. Leading into the living room, more boxes. Shutting the door behind her, she manouvered around all the boxes to get to the answering machine. The light on it blinked at her, and she played back the recording.

'Hey, honey, it's Dad. I won't be home until late, emergency at the hospital. You tell Daddy that he's not allowed to cook for you, make sure you get takeout. The kitchen is still new, we don't need to replace it yet! Love you.'

A small smile flitted over the brunette's face, and she pressed the playback to hear the next message.

'Rachel-Bear, it's Daddy. The bossman called an emergency meeting, so I don't know what time I'll be home. You make sure your Dad cooks you something nutritious for dinner! I don't want you spoiling yourself on takeaways! Love you.'

The smile was wiped off her face when Rachel realized that she was going to be left on her own that night. Her first day at school, too. She wouldn't be able to tell her fathers about the Spanish teacher, Mr. Schuester who was overly friendly to the point where it creeped her out, or the tall blonde teacher she saw literally throwing students down the hallway, or the doe-eyed guidance counsellor, or Figgins, who was possibly the worst principal in the world.

Of course, that meant that she also didn't have to tell them about the slushie, or the students who jeered and laughed, called her names in the hallway just because she was the new kid.

Or the gorgeous blonde cheerleader with the hazel eyes who had somehow made her day better. Rachel sighed, and slowly climbed the stairs to her room. That would be something she'd have to ponder later, because her shower was calling to her and after the workout she'd got that afternoon, she really needed to get clean. Also, it had great accoustics.

Throwing her bag in the general direction of her bed, Rachel reached for her towel and resisted the urge to rush over and pick up the bag and place it neatly at the end of her bed- if she did that, then she wouldn't be able to resist re-ordering her wardrobe by color and fabric, re-shelving her books alphabetically by author. She needed to keep holding down the compulsive part of herself if she wanted to succeed in re-inventing herself. So she stripped down in the middle of her bedroom and left her clothes in a trail to the bathroom. Stepping into the shower, Rachel cranked the heat up and stood in the scalding water, letting the day wash down the drain. When she'd had enough of standing in the water, she washed her hair quickly and got out of the shower. Showers for washing were boring- showers for basking were amazing.

Pulling her hair up into a messy ponytail, she sat at her desk and switched her laptop on. After aimlessly surfing youtube for half an hour, she logged into her IM client. She hunted around her floor for the pair of jeans she had been wearing that day and reached into the back pocket. On a crumpled piece of paper, the cheerleader's cellphone number and email address. When inputting the comment for the friends request, she took pause. After adding and deleting the message several times, she simply put 'Rachel :)' and sent it.

Stretching, she stood and grabbed a book off her desk. Flopping down on her bed, she pulled the bookmark out and opened her book. Rachel started to read and got entrenchred in her book when she heard the chimes from her IM program. She ignored them the first time, but then the chimes went again, and again and finally Rachel stood to see who was messaging her so incessantly.

QFab: Rachel?

QFab: Raaaachel?

QFab: Raaaaaaaaacheeeel?

QFab: 'Kay, I'm sorry I'm really bored. I finished all my homework like an hour ago and now I'm just sitting here and bothering you.

GoldStarBerry: Hey Quinn. Sorry, I was reading a book

QFab: anything good?

GoldStarBerry: I'm not sure. Daddy always tells me to give it fifty pages before making a decision. I'm trying to stick with it, but this is... really bad. I'm only reading it because I bet Daddy that I could without giving up, but to be honest I believe I'll be making dinner for a week straight because this is undoubtedly the worst book ever written

QFab: .. I think you just wrote your own novel there, Rach..

GoldStarBerry: I have nothing to say to that!

GoldStarBerry: But really, this book is terrible. I can't even tell you the name for fear you might read it and hate me forever.

QFab: lol, okay. So how was your first day at WMHS? I know we touched on it after school but I think I might have got a little bit crazy with the showing you every little detail...

GoldStarBerry: I had fun c:

QFab: That's good, I was worried that I had bored you. What's your first class tomorrow?

GoldStarBerry: Spanish with the creepy teacher with curly hair.. what's his name again? Shoes? Boots?

QFab: Schuester?

GoldStarBerry: yeah, him. He creeped me out.. a lot

QFab: Mr. Schue is cool. He's our Glee teacher. Hey, did I tell you about Glee?

GoldStarBerry: Yeah, haha, a couple of times..

QFab: Oh, haha. I really like it.. we all really like it. You should think about joining. I mean, there's an audition but it's basically an 'everyone who auditions gets in' deal.

GoldStarBerry: I'll think about it C: now, I have to go.. both my fathers bailed on me for dinner tonight, so I need to go rustle up some food. I'll see you at school tomorrow, Quinn.

QFab: Night, Berry. See you at your locker, first period?

GoldStarBerry: wait.. I don't even know where my locker is, how do you?

QFab: I have my sources. See ya Rach.

Quinn smiled at her screen as she logged off her IM client. Stretching, she looked at the time. It was only six at night, so she had twelve more hours before she had to get up for school. Twelve more hours and she'd run out of homework to do, talking to Rachel had been a nice distraction for all of ten minutes and she happened to know that Brittany and Santana were occupied for the rest of the night. She could call Finn, but she didn't really want to talk to him anyway. Just because she was dating him, didn't mean she had to like him. Quinn snorted, that was mean, even for her. Finn was a nice guy, a really nice guy. And he was dating her even though he knew there was no real feeling in their relationship. They didn't even have the epic case of bromance that Quinn had with Puck, they were just friends. She was lucky he hadn't found someone else he liked. They had an unspoken agreement- as soon as Finn was interested in someone else, their sham of a relationship would be over.

Quinn huffed, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of her face. It wasn't like she'd ever find someone she was interested in at their school. She'd looked once, twice, left, right, up and down. There was nobody at the school that suited her. Well, she'd looked at a couple of people, but she always found reasons to not try and pursue them. Too geeky, not geeky enough, too fit, too unfit, already taken.. she wasn't trying to deny it, she was picky. She just didn't think that there was anyone at McKinley who was right for her.

With a sigh, the blonde flopped down onto her bed. Highschool was so much more trouble than it was worth. It wasn't like most of them were going to get out of the state. In fact, there were probably only a handful of her graduating class that wouldn't stay in Lima. Quinn buried her face in her pillow and groaned. Now was NOT the time to be thinking about that. Think happy thoughts, Quinn, happy thoughts. She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. She wriggled out of her Cheerio's skirt barely moving and kicked it off the bed. Then she wriggled out of the shirt with expert grace and tossed it onto the bloor. With a quick flick of her wrist, the light was out and she was laying in darkness.

The blonde yawned and snuggled down onto her blankets. It was still warm enough that she didn't have to get under them just yet, she was perfectly comfortable as she was.

Her last thoughts before she dropped off to sleep were of the transfer student, who she just couldn't get out of her mind. Maybe there was someone at McKinley who was right for her, after all.