Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter...it totally made my whole week :)
Thanks again to my amazing beta Scarlett88 for making this story even better!
Enjoy and please leave a review after...i love to know what you think!
Chapter Four
When Beth's alarm clock went off Monday morning she was already awake. She had barely even slept five hours that whole weekend because every time she closed her eyes she could see and feel him on top of her. Normally she could push the events of her weekends with Jim to the back of her mind but now she was struggling.
She slowly got out of bed and went into her bathroom. When she looked in the mirror she noticed how big the dark circles under her eyes had gotten. She knew she was probably going to have to load on the make-up. She put her hair wavy blonde locks into a ponytail, too tired to do anything else with it. She picked out a pair of jeans and her favorite pink jacket and put them on before making her way into the kitchen.
"Good morning baby," Shelby said to her daughter as Beth took a seat at the kitchen table. She put a plate of pancakes in front of the teenager and was surprised to see that her daughter did not dig in right away.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Shelby asked raising an eyebrow at her daughter. "Pancakes are your favorite and you haven't even touched them."
"I'm just not that hungry," Beth answered. The truth was she hadn't eaten anything since Friday night and she knew if she forced herself eat something she would end up vomiting it up so she didn't even bother.
"Are you sick?" Shelby asked, her chocolate eyes filled with worry.
"No I just ate a big dinner at Emerson's last night," Beth lied. Her mom accepted that as a reasonable excuse. Shelby sat down and took Beth's pancakes, eating them herself.
"So I didn't get a chance last night to ask you how your weekend was," Shelby said.
Beth used all her power to keep herself from shuddering. She put on her best fake smile and lied. "Oh it was great. Emerson and I went to the movies Friday night with Jake and Andrew and I spent all of Saturday working on my solo." The truth was Beth had not worked on her solo the whole weekend, which was very out of character for her. She had always been the most devoted member of the current glee club.
"That's my girl," Shelby said standing up and placing a kiss on the top of her daughter's head.
"How was New York?" Beth asked, eager to change the subject.
"I actually wanted to talk to you about that," Shelby said.
Beth furrowed her brows. "What about?"
"Well it's actually a long conversation that there is no time for before school," Shelby explained. "I thought maybe the two of us could have dinner tonight and talk about it."
"I guess," Beth said giving her mom a weird look. She didn't know what this was about but it was starting to kind of freak her out.
Beth looked at her watch before standing up from the table. "I've got to go mom, I'll see you tonight." She gave her mom a kiss on the cheek before grabbing her backpack and heading out to her car.
When she arrived at school she went to homeroom and then algebra first period and then glee second period.
Beth was so tired, though, she barely even participated in glee, which was very rare for her. Even though she was only a sophomore she was without a doubt the best singer in there and definitely the most dedicated.
Beth couldn't stop replaying the events of that weekend over and over in her head like a never ending movie reel. She also couldn't stop thinking about her talk with Quinn and now her mom had news to tell her tonight. Beth felt like if it was anything big she might explode. This was all just too much for one person to handle in a single week.
"Beth are you feeling okay?" Mr. Schuster asked her when he noticed she wasn't participating in the vocal exercises.
"Yea, I'm just tired is all," she said.
"Do you want to go and talk in the hall for a minute?" He said it as a question but the way his voice sounded it was definitely a command. Beth knew better than to say no so she nodded and headed towards the choir doors.
"Shane, you're in charge until I get back," Mr. Schuster yelled to the leading male singer. "Just finish the exercises and I should be back in a minute." Shane nodded and Mr. Schuster joined Beth out in the hall.
"Beth I know you've had a lot on your mind lately. I know learning all this new information about your birth parents can be a bit much. I was just wondering if you are okay, if you want to talk about it?" He looked at her with worry in his eyes. Beth wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell everyone these days but she couldn't find a way for the words to escape her mouth.
"Thanks Mr. Schuster but I think I'll be fine," she said giving him her award-winning fake smile. Beth figured she would be famous one day because she had gotten so good at acting it was like second-nature to her by now.
"Okay well if you ever change your mind you know where my office is," he said. He was about to put his hand on her shoulder for reassurance when Beth suddenly flinched and backed away. She quickly walked back into the classroom, leaving Mr. Schuster alone in the hallway confused.
Beth silently cursed herself for what she did in the hallway. She couldn't help it though. When she saw his hand coming towards her she couldn't help but picture him coming to touch her. Before she knew what she was doing she flinched and backed away. She was embarrassed by her actions so she ran inside the classroom, hoping he wouldn't come in and ask her about it in front of everyone.
She was relieved when he walked in and acted as if nothing happened but she couldn't help but notice him look over at her every couple minutes, trying to figure out what that whole thing was about.
X-X-X-X-X
Will Schuster arrived home from work that afternoon to find his stunning wife hard at work in the kitchen. "Hello beautiful," she said pulling the redhead into a deep kiss.
"Eeeeww that's gross." Will and his wife, Emma, quickly pulled away from each other at the sound of their daughter's voice. Will just laughed but Emma looked a little flustered. He knew his wife had problems with PDA, especially in front of their daughter.
"No it's not because I love your mama," Will said walking over to his little girl and swooping her into his arms, her orange curls falling in front of her tiny face. "And I love you too," he said before he gave his little girl a kiss on the cheek. She giggled and hugged her daddy tight.
"Dinner's ready," Emma said breaking up the love fest. Will set his daughter down so she could go wash up for dinner. He looked over to see his wife setting the table, obviously still upset about what had just happened.
"Oh it's not going to kill the girl to see her parents kiss," Will said as he walked closer to her.
"I know I just don't like it is all," she said shaking her head. Will decided he didn't want to press the issue. His wife suffered from OCD and even though she has gotten a lot better over the years he knew she was still sensitive about the whole thing.
"I'm sorry," he said kissing her forehead gently. "It won't happen again."
"Good," she said sitting down at the table. Will joined her and a minute later they were also joined by their daughter.
"So Sophey how was school today?" he asked his eight year old.
She started on some story about a kid who cut some girl's hair but Will really wasn't listening. He couldn't help but think about Beth and the way she had acted earlier. Was he out of line putting his hand on her shoulder? Will asked knew Beth had a lot going on in her life right now, maybe she was just antsy. He considered talking to Emma about what happened. She was the school's guidance counselor after all; maybe she could talk to Beth.
When dinner was over Will bathed Sophey and read her a story before putting her to bed. When he was done he wasn't surprised to see that his wife was still in the kitchen cleaning the dishes. She didn't trust dish washers or anyone else to wash her dishes besides herself. She was the only one who knew how to clean them the way she liked and although it was nice for Will to never have to clean he sometimes felt guilty about all the work she did around the house.
"Em, I need to talk to you about something," he said walking over to the sink where his wife was. She nodded for him to go on. "Well you know Beth Corcoran right? She's in my glee club."
"Yes," she answered as she scrubbed a pot for the fourth time.
"Well you probably know then that she's the daughter of Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman." Emma nodded again and Will continued. "Well on Thursday night her mom told her all about her adoption and she came to me on Friday asking me about it so I told her everything I knew about her birth parents and I guess it was a lot to take in because today at glee she was very spacey and quiet which is very unlike her."
Emma nodded knowing where this conversation was going. "And you want me to talk to her about it?"
"That would be great," he said gently placing a kiss on her cheek. He was about to go and grade papers when he suddenly remembered what happened in the hallway that afternoon. He decided against telling his wife about it, figuring it was nothing. He shrugged to himself before heading into the living room to grade those papers.
X-X-X-X-X
Beth was nervous about dinner with her mom that night. She didn't know what her mom wanted to tell her. Beth hoped and prayed that she was going to tell Beth she was leaving Jim but all hope diminished when she remembered how happy her mom and Jim were when she arrived home the previous night.
Whatever it was it was probably going to be pretty big because her mom was taking her out to a restaurant so they could talk about it just the two of them. Beth let out a sigh of relief; at least it was one less night she would have to spend with Jim.
The mother and daughter were sitting at the table together making small talk when Beth decided to be the one to start the conversation. "So what did you want to tell me?" Beth asked anxiously.
"Well I know this news is going to come as quite a shock to you and I don't want you to me mad at me for not telling you earlier but trust me I had my reasons and…"
Beth cut her mom off. "Mom enough rambling just tell me what it is," Beth said out of frustration and curiosity.
"Well, I've been lying to you about New York," she started and Beth quickly became more anxious about where this conversation was headed. "I mean I have been going to New York," Shelby continued, "I just haven't been going with people from work."
"Who have you been going with then?" Beth asked curious as to what any of this had to do with her.
"I've been going alone actually….to meet up with somebody."
Beth gasped. Was her mom having an affair? "With whom?" she wondered.
"Well that's what I wanted to tell you." Shelby took a deep breath before continuing, not sure how her daughter would take the news. "Beth, you have a sister."
Beth's jaw dropped. That was so far off what she was expecting her mom to say that it took her a second or two to process it.
"I have a sister?" Beth repeated just to see if she had heard right.
Shelby nodded. "Her name is Rachel and she lives in New York. She's been doing plays on Broadway ever since you were seven so once a month I head up there to see her show and catch up with her."
"W…why didn't you tell me?" Beth wondered. "Why haven't you mentioned her? I mean there are no photographs of her in the house or anything…"
"That's because I gave her up for adoption when I had her," Shelby said interrupting her daughter.
This was all too much for Beth. She had just found out about her birth parents and now she had a sister? How many other people were going to randomly appear in her life? And her mom had given her sister up for adoption? Why would she give a baby up for adoption and then adopt one? Had she just adopted Beth to replace the empty hole in her heart she had after giving up Rachel? Was she just some sort of consolation prize to the real daughter she always regretted giving away? All these thoughts were swarming through Beth's head and she tried to slow down and comprehend each one.
"The reason I'm telling you this now," Shelby continued, "is because Rachel is coming into town next week to visit her dads and she said she would really like to meet you."
"Wait," Beth said trying to process all this information. "Why haven't you told me about this before?
Shelby sighed. "I've always wanted to tell you Beth but I was scared you wouldn't understand so I wanted to wait until you were older and more capable of comprehending this whole situation. She's wanted to meet you for years now but I always said it wasn't the right time and now, well, she's coming into town and I figured why not?"
"I just can't believe I have a sister," Beth said astonished. Ever since Beth was five she's wanted a little brother or sister to play with and keep her company but her mom had always told her it was impossible that she wasn't able to have kids and that Beth was her miracle baby. Now she was learning that her mom had lied to her?
"I thought you couldn't have kids." Beth pointed out.
"Well I can't anymore. A couple years after Rachel was born there was an incident and I had to have surgery and well, that was that."
Beth nodded. "Well when does she want to meet?"
Shelby's face lit up. "So you want to meet her?"
"I might as well," Beth said. "I mean I've always wanted a sister and who am I to turn one away." Beth laughed lightly trying to ease the tension that had grown between her and her mom.
"Oh Beth I'm so happy," Shelby smiled as she pulled her daughter into a hug. "And I know Rachel will be happy too; she's coming in town on Friday and would like to have dinner with us that night." "Sounds good," Beth smiled.
That night Beth lay in her bed trying to comprehend the events of that night. She had a sister who lived in New York and did Broadway plays. That was Beth's dream to be on Broadway some day and now she knew someone who was.
Beth was so caught up in all the sister stuff that she didn't even have time to think about Jim and for the first time in days she slept though the whole night without any nightmares.