Sorry this took so long to update. Not one of my best chapters, but this chapter didn't really want to be written. The next chapter is A LOT better, but this is one of those chapters that, no matter how badly it sucks, you still need to read it in able to understand the story, therefore, it's here. xD I still don't own Glee, or any of the characters, no matter how BA that would be. Read, Enjoy, and Review! Tell me what you think is going to happen next! How is the relationship with Shelby and Rachel going to turn out? How is the relationship between Rachel and Jesse going to turn out? Will the New Directions ever forgive Rachel for transferring to Carmel? Let me know! ~~hayleynymphadora

Chapter 4: Carmel High School

She woke up to the recording of Shelby singing "I Dreamed A Dream" blasting through her ipod. She had converted the cassette tape into a cd, which she converted into mp3 f0rmat, which somehow managed to work on her ipod. In any case, it was her new "wake up" alarm, and she was glad. Her mother's singing being the first thing she heard when she woke up in the morning calmed her a little bit. Though she was excited, she was also completely terrified. Her mother's smooth voice just seemed to put her at ease. For a little while, anyways. Until the song ended. Then, she was done for.

Since things at Carmel High worked a little differently than they did at McKinley, Shelby had been up with Rachel all night, texting her the rules and regulations of the school, of the Glee Club, and how things worked. Neither one actually fell asleep until three a.m. Although, secretly, neither one got much sleep at all. Rachel hardly closed her eyes once.

Vocal Adrenaline rehearsals started at seven every morning, and additional rehearsals were tacked on after school, when they needed it, (which, Shelby felt, they normally did). Rachel stared at her alarm clock/radio/docking station from across the room with an evil eye. It was already five thirty. She was running way late. She got out of bed, and as soon as she did, her phone went off again. She flipped it open, reading Shelby's text.

"Honey, I forgot to ask earlier, do you need a ride to school? We're both going to the same place anyways..." it read.

Rachel's heart fluttered as she realized that this was actually happening. Three weeks ago, she didn't even know who her mother was. She was gathering research that proved her mother was Patti Lupone. Today she was getting offered a ride by her birthmother to her Vocal Adrenaline rehearsal, which her birthmother also happened to coach. It seemed like way too much. It was all very overwhelming, and it didn't do a whole lot of good for Rachel's nerves. But she took the offer anyways.

"That'd be great, thanks," Rachel texted back. "I'm going to go and get ready now...warm my voice up..."

Shelby answered back quickly. "We can do warm ups in the car too, if you're still a little rough on the way there..."

Rachel agreed, and put her phone down, deciding that she should probably get dressed and ready to face the long day ahead of her.

. . . . .

"I am a shining star," Shelby sang loudly and clearly. Her voice had obviously been pre-warmed up hours ahead of time.

"I am a shining star," Rachel sang next, taking it up the scale.

"I am a shining star,"

"I am a shining star,"

"I am a shining star. Now take it down," Shelby instructed.

Rachel did as she was told. "I am a shining star."

"Me me me me me me me," Shelby switched it.

"You you you you you you you," Rachel played along. "Me me me me me me me,"

Shelby laughed mid-phrase. "You you you you you you you."

They pulled into the driveway of Carmel High, and as Shelby parked in her reserved space, Rachel picked at the hem of her shirt. Shelby noticed Rachel's uneasiness right away. She gave Rachel a tight hug.

"Everything will be fine. You're a billion times better than everyone in that building, Rachel Barbra Berry."

Rachel sighed. "You have to say that.. You're my mom. That's a typical cliché."

Shelby nodded. "That is cliché, and I am your mother. But i'm also Shelby Corcoran, and Shelby Kimberly Corcoran doesn't say anything that isn't true. You have star quality, Rachel. True potential. Who cares what anybody else thinks? As long as you know it's true, and I know it's true, then use that truth and prove it to the rest of the world."

Rachel had to stop the tears that were stinging at the back of her eyes. She had been waiting for fifteen years to hear inspiring words like that come out of her mother's mouth. Speechless, she hugged Shelby again, and opened the Range Rover door, stepping out of the vehicle with her book bag swung over her left shoulder.

"Oh and also, you're MY daughter." Shelby added before Rachel started to walk towards the school. "Which means you're talented whether you want to be or not." she gave a wicked smile.

Rachel had to smile, too.

Once she made it to the front doors, she couldn't help but be amazed. No one had called her "pathetic" yet. No one had made fun of the way she dressed yet. Her clothes were slushy-free. No jeers, sneers, or name-calling of any kind. In fact, the place almost looked...inviting. She made it down to the auditorium with time to spare, setting her bag down in one of the front row seats and going over towards the piano, playing a few scales and singing them, just to make sure her pitch was absolutely perfect. It was.

Jesse came up behind her, almost teasingly. Not seeing him ahead of time, she jumped, slightly startled. "J-Jesse, I was just-"

"Rehearsing at the piano isn't a crime, Rachel." he gave her a small smile, which quite obviously dazzled her. But, being the actress that she is, she didn't show it. "Not when you're Shelby's daughter."

Rachel shook her head. "No. No no no. I don't want any special treatment from anybody just because of who my mother is. I especially don't want it from you just because you think you'll lose your place in her heart as "star pupil". If you want to give me special treatment for other reasons, then that's fine. But..."

"Are you flirting with me?" Jesse challenged.

Rachel couldn't hide her startled expression this time. It showed clearly on her face. "No! I-I would never, not after what you-" Shelby entered the room before Rachel could finish, clapping her hands sharply and crisply, startling her again.

"Feeling jumpy?" Jesse whispered with a light laugh. Rachel ignored him.

"Alright," Shelby said, speaking loud and clear. "We have a lot to go over in an hour, so let's get started now. Rachel and Jesse," they turned to face her automatically. "I want the both of you to sing a duet version of poker face. Rach, I'll work with you separately on that along with regular rehearsal times, Jesse, take the sheet music to your vocal coach."

The two eager teens nodded as Shelby handed them the sheet music for "Poker Face".

"Um, does that mean you've chosen yourself to be my personal vocal coach?" Rachel asked, with a small smile.

"Yes." Shelby said, smiling back. She then turned her attention back to the rest of Vocal Adrenaline. "Show me what you have on "Bad Romance" so far." she instructed. Rachel didn't know what to do, so she got off of the stage and watched the rest of her new team-mates scramble about the stage to their places. Shelby cast a glance over at Rachel, who was staying out of the way as much as possible. "Honey, I don't expect you to know this yet, relax. It's only your first day. But, Jesse," she said his name a little bit louder so she could get his attention.

"Yes, Miss.C?"

"I want you to skip rehearsal this afternoon, take Rachel down to the dance studio and teach her the choreography for 'Bad Romance'. Then, tomorrow, it's just going to be you and Rachel at morning rehearsals so you can practice "Poker Face", clear?"

"Crystal," he said, winking at Rachel before taking his place on the stage.

Rachel couldn't help but notice that Shelby was pairing her with Jesse quite often. More often than her own liking. Did Shelby not understand what Jesse had done to Rachel? How badly he'd broken her heart?! But she knew that she had to take under consideration that her and Jesse were the most talented people in Vocal Adrenaline, and Shelby probably just wanted her daughter to learn from the best. 'Ugh. Why does JESSE have to be the best?!' Rachel wondered to herself while watching her mother work. She focused intently on the moves that the group were doing, so she had to spend as little amount of time with Jesse as possible. She was already starting to get the hang of it by the end of rehearsals.

Before Rachel could leave the auditorium and try to find all of her classes in time, Shelby stopped her.

"I'm sorry you didn't really have anything to do in rehearsals today, Rach." she said. "By tomorrow you should probably be able to participate."

Rachel nodded. "Definitely. Um...I'll see you later, alright? I have to figure out where everything is...this school is huge..."

Shelby stifled a laugh. "A lot bigger than McKinley, huh?"

Rachel nodded again, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. She waved to her mother as she rushed out of the auditorium, her book bag slung across her shoulder.

Jesse came up behind Shelby, practically drowning himself with a bottle of water. Shelby didn't even look at him. "You be good to my daughter." she warned him.

It took him a minute to answer her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to egg her again. Hardly did that the first time...it was mostly the rest of the group..."

"But you helped."

"Yeah, barely..."

"Quit arguing with me, Jesse!" Shelby was getting frustrated. "The point is, you hurt her. DO NOT do it again."

Before he could respond this time, she did one of her famous "storm outs", leaving Jesse to contemplate what his heart was really telling him-something he loathed doing. He did love Rachel, still. He hated them hurting her. But his loyalties had been with Vocal Adrenaline, and Shelby had REALLY wanted to meet her daughter, so he had to help her.

'I have to quit blaming everything on Shelby' he told himself while he walked down the hallway, staring after a very confused and nervous looking Rachel Berry. 'It was all me. I hurt her. But i'll make it up to her...somehow...'. He stood at the corner of the hallway and continued to watch Rachel. She had apparently found her locker, and was putting a lock on it when he walked up to her.

"Hey Rach."

"What do you want, Jesse?" she sighed, putting her bag in the locker and taking out a new notebook, folder, and pencil case before shutting the locker and locking it.

"You have a lot of gold stars on...well everything..." he noticed casually.

"Gold stars are kind of my thing, as you already know." she said pointedly, before spinning around and walking away from him, her face buried in her schedule.

Jesse almost had to jog to catch up to her, walking backwards as opposed to her forward so as to face her while speaking to her. "You know who else loves gold stars?" he asked conversationally.

"...Kurt?" she guessed.

"Shelby." he answered matter-of-factly.

"Well, maybe that's where I got my liking of gold stars from, Jesse. Thank you so much for solving that life mystery for me. Now, could you leave me alone so I can find my classes?"

"What's your first class?" he asked, ripping the schedule out of her hands and going through it before she could try to protest or take it back. "English? You're going the wrong way for that..."

Rachel sighed, spinning around and checking the clock. She had two minutes before she would qualify as "late". "Just...show me where the classroom is, then leave me alone."

Jesse linked his arm with Rachels, spinning her around, and escorting her towards the english classroom. "Whatever you say, Barbra.".

Shelby watched from her office as Rachel and Jesse passed her, arm in arm. Neither one saw her, which she was grateful for, but Rachel looked pretty miserable. Shelby sighed. 'Great.' she thought to herself. 'Perfect. Her first day and she's already feeling horrible. I shouldn't have told Jesse to help her today. If we keep this charade up, Rachel will want to transfer back to McKinley by Friday...'.

She went through a folder of sheet music on her desk, straightening things out, before shutting her office door. She looked around the room, quite obviously stressed. Her walls were lined with trophies, though her Tony Award remained at home. Her bookshelf was filled to the max with piano/vocal selections books, various amounts of printed and copied sheet music, novels that musicals were based on, novels that were based on musicals, and yearbooks from past years. Opening one of the yearbooks, she found an old photograph that she couldn't not smile at. It was a cast picture from when she was in RENT, she was grinning hugely, she was happy. It was a year before Rachel was even thought about. A year before she had given up her baby. No wonder she seemed so jubilant then.

Shelby shook her head and put the picture back where she found it, running her hands through her long brown hair. How in the world was she going to make this work?! She knew deep down that in a few months time she'd probably be fighting over custody of Rachel, which, she also knew deep down, would be pointless, because Rachel would be turning eighteen in three years. She should never have given her baby up...not when she knew that one day she would want Rachel back. Here come the tears. This routine of blaming herself had been going on for fifteen years, but it had become more prominent since Sectionals. Since she saw her baby sing for the first time. Since she first spoke to her baby. She wanted Rachel back, even though it was quite obvious it was too late.

Her silent tears continued to fall, and she wiped them before anybody could see. She wasn't supposed to let herself cry until she got home, and sometimes not even then. She was losing it today, and she needed to gain her composure once more. She was acting weak, and she hated herself for it. Rachel probably didn't want her as a mother anyways. Why would Rachel want a mother that's so weak?! Why would she want a mother who originally chose to give her away for money? It had seemed like a good idea at the time, giving Rachel to such a nice couple who couldn't have a child of their own. Now, Shelby wasn't so sure it was such a good idea after all...

. . . . . .

At the end of the day, Rachel was beat. She had almost forgotten about her dance rehearsal with Jesse, until he threw a unitard at her and smiled. "Come on, Rach." he stated. "We have a lot of work to do, and you still have vocal lessons with your mother later on tonight. She told me to tell you to meet her at her apartment after our rehearsals."

Rachel sighed, exhausted, and wanting to get home so she could finish the thousand pages of homework she had and go to sleep. "I don't even know where she lives." Rachel said, almost at a whine as they entered the studio.

"I told her i'd drop you off." Jesse explained. "Now go and put that on, so we can get out of here faster."

"I already know the moves." Rachel said, exasperated.

"After watching us for an hour?" Jesse said, clearly disbelieving.

Rachel threw the unitard aside and Jesse shrugged, turning on the music. Rachel took a deep breath and perfectly performed all of the dance moves to 'Bad Romance', not missing a beat. Jesse watched, clearly impressed, yet trying not to show it. When she was done, Jesse packed up his stuff and took the CD out of the sound system, handing it to Rachel. She pocketed it, and gave him a superior grin.

"I'll meet you at the car..." he muttered, walking past her and refusing to meet her eyes.

Rachel flashed a grin, knowing that she had the upper hand this time. For once that entire day, she had actually accomplished something. All she could think as she walked out to Jesse's Range Rover was, 'Shelby is going to be so proud of me...I just can't wait to make her proud of me...'.

Starting with Chapter 5, I will be writing the rest of this story in different character POVs. It's easier for me to write in the POV of the character (which will vary between Shelby, Rachel, and maybe even sometimes Jesse or some of the New Direction-ers,) as opposed to writing in the narrative POV that I've been using. Also, the character POV will help you get a better look at each character's particular emotions and feelings. Anyways, tell me what you think! Review! The next update will be as soon as I finish ch.5, (which should be fairly soon). ~~hayleynymphadora