Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: It's been a little while since I've updated, so I apologize. Here's Reason Eight. Please review!

Reason Eight

"Can we stop watching these stupid DVD's?" Quinn complained. "This is freaky! We've seen ours, so we don't have to stay."

"You can go if you want, Quinn." Mr. Schue said, pointing to the door as he spoke. "No one is keeping you here."

Before Quinn could respond, Rachel's face reappeared on the screen as the next DVD began. She looked very pretty, her thick, brown hair was pulled back and when she smiled you could see her gleaming white teeth. She appeared to be sitting in the choir room, filming on a portable camcorder.

I've always appreciated music lyrics. I found writing songs to be a good way to get out my emotions. At first I wasn't very good, you've may have heard "Only Child" and "My Headband", but as time progressed I found myself able to dig deeper into my heart and soul, write lyrics that truly reflected my deepest, darkest feelings.

Until one of them was stolen.

"Oh my God," Quinn gasped.

"What is it?" Puck asked, trying to grab Quinn's hand. She yanked it away and glared before responding.

"I think I know who this is about."

If you're in glee club…I think you'll recall this song.

On the DVD, Rachel cleared her throat and began to sing. Sure enough, the members of New Directions had heard the song before. It had been a beautiful original song one of the glee clubbers had written, composed and performed for them a few months ago when they were writing songs for Regionals. The song had been their opener at the competition, where they had won first place easily, supposedly because of that song alone.

And it hadn't been Rachel who shown it to them.

As I record these DVD's, I'm learning new things, not only about myself, but also about you. As I continue, I discover even deeper connections. These stories are all connected. Some I've told you, others I've kept to myself. You may have even discovered some I haven't.

In reality, the New Directions could barely keep up with this twisted web of deceit Rachel was talking about.

I hope that my last words on this tape will be beautiful, will move you and make you wonder what could've been.

I've been thinking about singing. But it's just a thought.

The members of New Directions actually really wanted to hear Rachel sing again. They never realized how much they'd miss her amazing voice if it was to suddenly disappear, until it did.

I really stopped writing songs when I didn't want to know myself anymore.

If you hear a song that makes you cry, and you don't want to cry, you just stop listening to the song. But you can never stop hearing the noise in your head. You can never avoid looking in a mirror for the rest of your life.

You can't stop your heart from singing, if that's what it really wants.

When I decided to try writing songs again, it was four months ago. Just before Regionals. I figured, not only could it make me happier, it could really help out the team. So when I found out there was a local workshop on songwriting, I decided to sign up. It was supposed to teach you to love music, to celebrate it, to cherish it. And also to love, celebrate, and cherish yourself through music.

Rachel frowned.

But it was nothing like that. The people there wrote lots of dark stuff, exactly what I wanted to get away from. They wrote about heartache, cheating boyfriends, cutting, abortion, and, worst of all, death. It was depressing. And my songwriting was getting worse.

"Let us see your deepest and your darkest!" said the middle aged woman who led the group, Mrs. Blackburn. She had seemed like such a sweet woman at first, smiley and pretty and plump, but it turns out she was an immigrant who had spent the first fifteen years of her life in the middle of a war, had been divorced twice, and lost three kids in a freak car accident.

Poor Mrs. Blackburn.

Some of the kids had seen Mrs. Blackburn around town. She was almost fifty, and although she seemed innocent enough and was known for writing great songs, she was often ranting about depressing events from her "tragic and catastrophic" life. Sometimes she would burst out into songs she had made up on the spot about such "tragic and catastrophic" events.

Nothing good came out of that group. And guess what? Someone from our school was also a member, one of the girls in glee club. I'm sure you've heard of her, she used to be quite the Miss Popular before her life was ruined by an unwanted pregnancy sophomore year.

Quinn. She was talking about Quinn.

Quinn Fabray. Hey Q, I bet you wonder why I'm mentioning this certain event. I mean, out of all the times you were a bitch to me, and there were a lot, why this one? You didn't do anything terribly wrong. You didn't think it was a big deal, did you?

The song. The song Rachel had sung on the DVD, the same song Quinn had performed for the glee club before Regionals. The song was Rachel's.

Would you like to hear the last song I wrote before quitting songwriting for good? I know you have. Hint, hint: I just sang it.

Yes, that song was mine. I wrote it. Not Quinn.

One time, after our songwriting session, Quinn and I looked at each other's lyrics. Quinn's handwriting was big and loopy, so it took me a while to read, but her songs were amazing. Every single one was good enough to be written by a professional songwriter. But hey, she's been through a lot of crap in her life, so she must have a lot of pain to express.

So did I, but I never really got a chance to express it myself.

One of my songs really interested Quinn. She asked me about it. I was vague, but she could explain to me exactly the song's meaning. I got a little defensive when she told me I wasn't talking about the world, that I was talking about myself.

I was defensive because Quinn was right.

When Quinn said she had written an original song, and I heard her utter the first lyric in Glee, I knew instantly that it was my song. Except, Quinn had changed the music so it was more pop. I had envisioned the song to be soft, sad, peaceful, not a trashy Britney Spears-like dance beat.

Mr. Schue then asked us what we thought Quinn had been thinking when she wrote the song. All of the kids in Glee guessed, but you were all wrong. Quinn lied through her teeth and said Noah was right, winking at him as she did, even though Noah's explanation was the farthest from the truth. It was rather vulgar, so I'd rather not repeat it. I politely raised my hand and said: "Maybe Quinn wasn't happy with herself when she wrote it."

Quinn gulped and turned her pretty little head towards me, her eyes glistening with tears. "Yeah…" You whispered. "Exactly. I feel that way now."

And then I stormed out of the room.

When Regionals came, Mr. Schue had me sing backup for Quinn when she sang my song, "Soul Alone." If just hearing Quinn steal my song and sing it in front of everyone wasn't bad enough, I had to stand in the shadows and make her look good. In the last chorus, I burst into tears and ran off the stage. I was so humiliated, I felt so betrayed. No one found me, so Santana had to sing my solo in "Loser Like Me". While the second song was performed I was sitting under a staircase, bawling. I emerged by the end of "Light Up The World". Quinn gave me an apologetic glance as I walked up the side of the stage, humming the lyrics to myself to prevent me from crying again. Afterwards, Quinn tried to talk to me, but I simply said: "Congratulations. You were amazing. That song was amazing." And the I left. Quinn never talked to me about it again.

I felt so mocked.

Quinn half rose in her seat, anxious to leave, when Rachel uttered her final words on the DVD.

Stay around Quinn, you won't believe where your name comes up again.

Mr. Schue turned off the DVD and reached over to turn on the AC. "Go home," He ordered. "Anyone interested in watching more DVD's, come back at three. Dismissed."