It took me a little longer to upload the next chapter, and I'm afraid it will stay the same for the next couple of weeks. School has started again, and although I love writing, I don't find that much time anymore. Luckily, I still have some chapters on my laptop ... but I pressure myself to first finish another one before I can upload the next, just making sure I don't bail on this fanfic in the middle :)

Thank you so much for the reviews! I can't believe how great you are (partly) in predicting my intensions ;)

Beth hadn't told them yet.

Most of her teammates were highly protective about glee club, she could only imagine what would happen if she told them she was moving. Voluntarily. She'd loved performing, she'd loved belonging, but she didn't exactly love Vocal Adrenaline.

Sometimes those guys were a little over the top when it came to their pride and everything. And it would definitely hurt their pride to know that one of their best singers would run off to the competition.

"No eggs, please" she whispered, thinking of a tradition of intimidating enemies. She would turn into one for most of them soon.

"What?" Jackie asked irritated and turned around.

They were waiting behind the curtains to get out, doing the closing number.

The other clubs had been decent, but no more than that. Vocal Adrenaline could beat them without even trying.

"Just nervous" she answered under her breath pressing her eyelids together for the last seconds out of the spotlight.

Not nervous at all. She probably couldn't care less.

After the weekend she would be out anyways. Since she realized that, there was no reason to pretend anymore. She would leave what became her safe harbor as well as her prison.

Beth could let loose now, there was no point convincing herself it was actually fun to be with Vocal Adrenaline.

Yes, the competition still was a little fun. But they had overdone the songs so much that it wasn't even a little bit exciting.

Too bad she'd never realized before, how senseless VA actually was.

Beth performed without any emotion. There was no need to. Her voice and her steps blurred into a forced dream sequence on stage. Not even the slight grin from Aaron was cheering her up.

She´d fallen.

When they stood there waiting for the results to be announced, though, she saw her mom sitting right in the third row, smiling at her. She felt a little better then.

"And this years Sectional Champion is … Vocal Adrenaline!"

The enthusiastic voice didn´t announce anything new, but the winning glee club still cried out in joy.

Beth forced a happy mask on her face as she hugged the girls and boys around her. She risked another glance to her mom.

Surprisingly, Shelby was only absently clapping, talking to a woman at her right side who had the exact same hair as her.

She wondered who it was. Her mom wasn´t the kind of person to make random friends in show choir audiences, so the woman must be an acquaintance.

Mr. St. James made the round, shaking everyone´s hand politely, sometimes adding a few words.

"Beth", he started when he reached her, "What were you doing? You were flickering like an old light bulb, not shining like a star!"

His tone was a mixture of anger, resignation and disappointment. "I take it you don't want another solo spot for Regionals then", he added.

Beth didn't plan to tell in that fixed moment, but the words slipped out too easily.

"I don't care, I'm moving."

"What?" It seemed like the entire world stood still to that announcement, even though only Abby and Kyle overheard it next to Mr. St. James, with Kyle being polite enough to just walk off, pretending he didn't notice anything.

"Why hasn't Shelby told me?", the director asked in disbelief, his hand reaching up to pull his hair.

She just looked to the ground, ignoring Abby's wild stare, hoping he would disappear.

He didn't.

"So, where are you moving to?" She noticed the lurking sound of his voice, but she' never imagined he would react that way.

"Lima", she'd answered before thinking and he exploded.

"You're going to those NEW DIRECTIONS?" He dragged her off the stage, as single people left in the audience started to glare at them.

"You're afraid we will loose, huh? Running away, aren't you? Don't even think of coming back, you will not be welcomed here again! Join those Lima Losers if that makes you happy!"

St. James inhaled three times to calm down, finding that soft voice again he used for the most cruel comments.

"Good luck with that. Of course that's in your genes. I'm sure they'll appreciate you talent. Just don't get too big-headed, will you? I'll go and find your mom, if she's aware what she's doing to her precious little girl."

With an ice-cold glare he turned around and walked in the audience.

What was that with the genes?

Beth had a very bad feeling about this. After a few moments of recovery she went after him as he quickly made his way up the rows to the doors.

Her knees were shaky, making it hard to keep up with his pace.

Was he going to argue with Shelby? Convince her of staying, so she could still sing and dance for Vocal Adrenaline? Try to talk her out of moving? And was it just because of this stupid VA pride that made him furious about loosing a member, or was it something more personal?

However, she was there soon enough to see him stop puzzled as he spotted the woman with her mom.

Beth silently slipped to her mom's side and took her hand, as the women noticed the two Vocal Adrenaline members approaching.

"Ra … Rachel", St. James murmured, his face turning white instantly.

"Nice to see you, Jesse", the stranger, Rachel, replied. Though her voice was solid, she also seemed to be a little upset about the encounter.

Geez, she looked similar to Shelby. Maybe she wasn't an acquaintance after all, but a distinct family member, a cousin or a niece. Besides Shelby and her demented mother Beth didn't know her adoptive relatives.

"Congratulations, Jesse", Shelby said calmly, successfully disturbing the awkward silence between the two. "I'm taking my daughter home tonight, don't wait for her. Now would you excuse us?"

"Sure", the man stuttered, staying behind as they moved to the exits. Beth had never seen her mean choir director weak like that.

Weird.

She had no time to think about it when Shelby finally hugged her tightly and congratulated her as well. Rachel observed them the entire time, smiling.

Beth felt creeped out, only a little.

"Does she know about me?", Rachel asked Shelby before she could get started on the transmission of the moving-message.

"No", the older woman answered, immediately following with an introduction.

"Honey, this is Rachel. She's an old friend of mine, she lives in New York."

For a few moments Shelby seemed unsure if she should keep telling, but then decided for it.

"You remember about the spy story I told you? She was the New Direction lead singer Jesse was dating for me."

Beth found herself nodding awkwardly. That woman's and Mr. St. James' strange behavior made perfect sense now.

It was still a strange turn of events that her mom was friends with her former competition's lead, though.

"And Rachel, this is my daughter Beth."

Their interaction gave her the feeling that they'd already talked about her and she wasn't that unfamiliar to Rachel.

"Not hard to make out", Rachel smiled and offered her a hand.

"Nice to meet you", Beth said politely and shook it.

Did Shelby already show her pictures?

"You are a very talented performer, Beth", she complimented in return. "There are not many people who get their lines in Vocal Adrenaline's performances."

The two women exchanged an amused look, leaving Beth rather bewildered. They really acted like two old friends – but Shelby hadn't even mentioned Rachel ever before, let alone she'd met her.

And in her early years of life, the ones she couldn't remember, Rachel could've been only a college sophomore, so not much time for history there.

Again, weird.

The remaining way to the cars they were silent.

"Good to see you, Rachel", Shelby said before she unlocked the doors.

Rachel nodded. "Good to see you, too. And it was great to meet Beth. Take care."

She waved them goodbye when they pulled out the parking spot.

"What was she doing there?" Beth asked curiously.

Shelby concentrated on the street, her hands firm around the steering wheel.

"She's taking a one year break from her career on Broadway to stay with her family and friends in Lima, and she decided to help out her former glee club a little bit with scooping out the competition" she explained.

"Wait, she's on Broadway? Could it be possible that … that she … is Rachel Berry?"

"Yeah, that's her last name", Shelby said content, looking straight ahead but seeming rather satisfied to tell.

"And you're saying that so calmly?" Beth almost freaked out. She'd just met a Broadway legend without even noticing it – and she happened to be friends with her mom!

"That's just a lot to process…"

That it was indeed. She leaned back and tried to imagine how her mom was on the phone with Rachel Berry, or skyping, talking about her daughter. Hey, or she'd been her babysitter once?

"Of course that's in your genes."

"… what she's doing to her precious little girl."

"Not hard to make out."

Beth didn't intentionally think about those remarks, but suddenly she remembered the strange tone of St. James' voice, the intuitive expressions on both his and Rachel's faces.

It was in her genes to go to McKinley, Jesse St. James had said.

Rachel Berry had gone there. Rachel Berry knew her mom quite well. Rachel Berry knew her quite well. She'd dated Jesse St. James and broken up with him in the year of Beth's birth and adoption.

Oh god.

A terrible thought dawned to her.

As soon as they stopped in their house's driveway, Beth jumped out and almost fled to her room, brushing off the confused face of her mom.

She needed time to think. And something to write on.

In the back of her closet she found a piece of cardboard which she drew out and placed on the desk.

Then she took a marker and wrote "Beth Corcoran" right in the middle. She stopped, meditatively tracing the lines of her name.

Born June 8, 2010, adopted.

She drew a line bottom-up labeled "adoptive mother" and wrote "Shelby Corcoran" on the top.

Former VA director and torturer, now proud mom and house owner.

Beth squared her shoulders and inhaled heavily.

"Jesse St. James" she wrote first, on the right, because it was easier.

Current VA director, senior member in 2009/10.

A faint grin appeared on her face as she added: College dropout.

She connected him with an arrow to his mother.

Visits sometimes – regular contact.

Then another arrow to herself.

Anti-favorite. Gets mad on without reason.

So far, there was nothing new to her. She was used to the way Mr. St. James veered with her, like he held a big personal grudge towards her.

Now she added the newest name. Rachel Berry.

Former ND lead, graduated in 2010/11/12/13?

2013 was very unlikely, though. She couldn't imagine a freshman being both lead at glee club and dating another school's senior.

For a second she thought about putting down something Broadway related, but she didn't care about that any longer, and it didn't add anything to the picture she tried to paint here.

By the time she inserted the double arrow between St. James and Rachel ("dating and break-up in 2010"), her lips were dry.

The "old friends" on the Shelby-Rachel arrow she put in quotations.

Knows her, looks like someone else she knows? Rachel-Beth.

She circled every name in another color, just to delay uttering what she darkly suspected.

First of all, Rachel's appearance and behavior. Secondly, Mr. St. James over-the-top reaction to the McKinley announcement and his shock seeing Rachel.

Was it possible that Rachel Berry was her biological mother?

Beth hated herself for asking this kind of question. She'd said she wouldn't try to find out about her real parents, for crying out loud.

But she had always assumed that Shelby just adopted her as a random child she knew about because of some agency, that she didn't even know that much about her parents in the first place.

Never ever would she have expected other people around to be involved. And now that it seemed obvious, she couldn't help but wondering what kind of a story she was missing here.

Mr. St. James knew something for sure. He said that thing with Lima losers and the genes after all.

Maybe he was her father. Hurting every time when he saw his little girl, not knowing about him at all, visiting to see her, bullying her to at least get any emotions from her.

But then her genes would've pulled her to VA as much as to New Directions. And they didn't date that long, for what she got.

More likely, Rachel had gotten pregnant from some blonde, tall guy at McKinley, Beth looked like – and Stames had found out about it, breaking up with her and leaving a lot of unresolved feelings between them.

And he left, filled with rage about the girl that had turned his live miserable, making her life a living hell when he got the chance.

It was so evident.

Beth scowled on the little mind-map again, before she snatched it as quickly as possible and went to the opposite wall of her room to stuff it underneath some already packed-up clothes, the emotions boiling up in her once again.

She'd never felt so terribly depressed and helpless before. The evidence was out of the picture, she didn't have to look at it anymore.

There was no hint what she was supposed to do now. No personal advisor to tell her that she should just get upstairs and confront Shelby.

It was tearing her apart. On the one hand, she desperately wanted to know if this all was true. On the other hand, she felt so ashamed about her treacherous thoughts and wanted to forget everything.

Maybe she made up the whole thing in her mind. Mr. St. James was mean to everybody. He probably had no clue about her parents and just suggested that they were the only reason for her to feel fine with transferring. He had a history with Lima after all.

And about Rachel … she could've meant it as in "I see what a great family you are".

By the time Shelby called her up for dinner, Beth had re-convinced herself that there was no underline plot about her adoption she was about to discover.

She just had a vivid imagination.

But somewhere deep inside she could feel that there was a story to be told.

A/N: Writing again on the end of the chapter, didn't want to give too many spoilers ;)

Rachel's appearence might come across a little artificial, but I simply had to give the first hints for Shelby's and Beth's backstory. And for Beth'S theory ... I made it up while writing, and after I was finished I was certainly shocked when I realized that she's not the daughter of Rachel. Beth's thoughts are really persuasive.