Rachel was walking to Emma's office Thursday afternoon. The thought of being on Broadway or any big show was giving her butterflies that were a hundred times worse than when she went to try out for West Side Story. She was wishing Noah was with her for this but knew he was at work. He had the greatest week so far working with Shelby. Rachel had planned on making a surprise visit after her meeting hoping to meet her.
Emma worked for an agency that had 4 other agents in the company. Rachel opened the door into the waiting room of the office and walked up to the secretary. "Hello, my name is Rachel Berry. I am here to see Emma." The secretary looked at the computer and then back at Rachel "Yes Emma will be right with you. Please have a seat." Twenty minutes later Emma came walking into the waiting room to greet Rachel. "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting Rachel. Please follow me to my office." The two of them walked down a short hall and then entered the last office on the left. "Please have a seat" Emma motioned Rachel as she herself took a seat behind her desk. "Ok let's get right down to it. I'm very certain you have heard of a show called Wicked, am I right?" Emma asked. "Yes of course. It is one of the most brilliant shows currently on Broadway." Rachel said with her heart starting to skip a few beats. "Well the actress who is playing Elphaba is retiring at the end of the year to be a full time mom. Her understudy will be taking over then and she has signed a three year contract with the production. Now the production will have to replace the understudy for her though. This is where you come in. Would you be interested in auditioning for the understudy role and signing a three year contract?" Rachel thought she didn't hear Emma right at first which caused a minute for her to answer. "Are you kidding me? This is a dream role of mine! Of course I would love to audition!" Rachel was trying hard to sit still and Emma was trying hard not to laugh. "Well great. The auditions will take place at the theater downstairs here and it is a week from this Saturday at noon. There are 10 ladies auditioning but I think you have the best shot. "Emma said as she stood up and opened her office door. "It was great to see you again Rachel." "You too, Emma. Thank you again" Rachel had to try hard not to run and jump all the way to Noah's studio.
"Do you think she bought enough decorations?" Mike asked looking at all the stuff Rachel had bought for the party the next night. The table was completely covered and Tina had volunteered herself and Mike to do all the decorating figuring Rachel would be a wreck today because of the meeting. "Rachel always goes big for all holidays. Just wait until Christmas/Hanukah time. You will think a snow globe threw up on you." Tina said laughing trying to untangle some of the spider webbing. "What time do you think she will be back?" Mike asked. "Probably not for awhile, she was going to stop by the studio to try and meet Shelby. Rachel has always loved her music and the idea of meeting her idol has been driving her nuts all week. Worse than normal" Tina told Mike as she threw him a bag of fake blood to drip over some of the decorations. Mike had a sick look across his face then."Blah, there is a reason I'm not a doctor!" Mike said causing them both to laugh.
Rachel reached Noah's studio and walked back to the control room. She had been there numerous times with Noah before, so everyone there knew who she was. "Hey Brad, How's it going today?" Rachel asked the guy working the controls as she sat down in an empty chair. "Not too bad today Rachel, they are working on the last run through right now." Brad replied. Rachel looked through the glass then and saw Noah sitting on a tall stool playing his guitar with all of his focus. In the middle of the room was a tall dark haired lady who was singing into the microphone. Rachel went completely speechless. She had never wanted to meet a celebrity so much in her life and she was walking distance away from her. The music had stopped then and she heard Shelby say thanks to everyone as they started to pack up. Brad looked over to Rachel then "You can go on in now." That was all she needed to hear. She burst through the door and ran right up to Noah giving a hug. "Hey babe, How long have you been waiting? What happened at the meeting?" He asked sitting back down on the stool. "I have only been here a minute of two. Emma wants me to audition for the understudy role of Elphaba for three years!" Rachel was bouncing again then. Noah wrapped his arms around her "That is amazing babe" Noah looked up and saw Shelby finishing a conversation with the drummer and let Rachel go. "Hey come here" Noah pulled Rachel's hand and led her to where Shelby was standing. "Shelby, this is my girlfriend Rachel. She is probably your biggest fan ever." Noah said introducing them. Shelby held her hand out for Rachel to shake. "It is an honor to meet you Rachel. Noah has mentioned you many times this week. He is quite proud of you and he said you had a big meeting today with an agent." Rachel flushed slightly. "It's an amazing honor to meet you too Mrs. Corcoran. My meeting went surprisingly well thank you. I'm auditioning for Elphaba's understudy." Shelby smiled bigger then. "Please, call me Shelby. Elphaba is a great character to play. I'm sure you know I was the original." "Yes I know. My dad's used to play that soundtrack for me all the time when I was younger. They would tell me I looked the part and would look even better green. It was kind of a silly stupid joke we had." Rachel said realizing she was rambling. Shelby had a worried look on her face then. "Rachel, sorry I don't think I caught your last name." Rachel was surprised by the statement but replied. "Oh yes sorry. My last name is Berry. My other dad's last name is Schatz and they both agreed long before I was born that it was too common so they stuck with Berry." Shelby now looked almost sick. "Shelby, are you alright? Do you need me to get you anything?" Noah asked worried. "No I'm fine. Just need some fresh air" She said as she quickly walked out the door leaving Noah and Rachel to just stare at each other.
Mike and Tina were on their way to Quinn's office Friday afternoon. This was the first time Mike had seen Tina in professional clothes. "Is it weird that I miss the yoga pants and skull shirts?" Mike asked as they were walking. Tina was wearing a black pencil shirt with a light purple button down shirt. She had dyed her highlights the other day to be purple; she claimed it was to match her costume better. "No it's not weird. Just wait till tomorrow and I will be back to normal." Tina replied as they walked into the building. Quinn's office was on the third floor and the secretary told them to go right on in. Sitting down in the chairs, they waited silently for Quinn to finish on the phone.
"Hey guys, glad you could make it. Tina I must say I love the purple highlights." Quinn said as she hung the phone up. "Thanks, we are having a big Halloween party tonight. You should come if you have nothing else going on. Anyway, I'm dressing up as Mulan because it's a sexy Disney character theme and my dress is pink and purple. So the blue would have clashed big time." Tina said causing Quinn to chuckle. "Well first off thank you for the invite and I might stop by after I get done with work. Second of all, I am chuckling because I want to talk to both of you about a project Disney is working on. They want to take four classic movies and turn them into Broadway performances. Each show will be going for three months and will last for three years. One of the shows will be Mulan and it will be on stage during the summer months. Not trying to be racist, but the producers wanted you Mike to be a part of the production from day one. Then when I saw you both perform at the invitational, I knew we would need both of you. Now I think you would be great as the leads but obviously you need to have great vocals. Will that be a challenge for either of you?" Tina chimed in then "No I was co captain of my school's Glee club and we had gone to Nationals three times." Mike looked a little more scared "I'm not completely great but Tina and her roommate have volunteered to help with that." Quinn looked please then. "Great! Be here next Saturday at 11 and you can show the producers what you can do. They have a lot of confidence that you two will end up being the headliners for this show. So I will see you then and will try to make it to the costume party tonight." Quinn said as Mike and Tina stood up to leave.
"I can't believe you guys have your audition next Saturday too. We have to go celebrate afterwards!" Rachel said while Tina was working on her makeup. "Sounds like a plan to me" Tina replied. Mike was busy finishing up the food while the girls were trying to put the finishing touches on their costumes. Tina had her hair up in a high bun with her short kimono dress that was pink, purple, and red. It was the closest one they could find to look like Mulan's dress in the movie. Rachel had her hair in pigtails with red ribbon and found a blue corset type top with a yellow shirt. "What time is Puck supposed to be here?" Mike asked from the kitchen. "He doesn't get off work until 7. So he should be here right before everyone starts to get here. He left his costume here so he could change when he gets here. He was kind of afraid to walk around New York dressed as Prince Charming." Rachel replied as Tina finished her makeup.
Noah and the rest of the band were sitting around waiting for Shelby to show up. The other band members had decided to go wait in the dressing room while Noah just sat there playing around on his guitar when he heard the door open. He looked up and saw Shelby stumbling in. "Hey Shelby, all the guys are in the other room. I will go get them." Noah stood up and started to walk over to the door when Shelby had tripped so he had to catch her." You are so s-strong Noah." Shelby slurred out. "Are you drunk?" Noah asked. "No I'm not drunk I just think you are super cute Mr. Noah. Plus, it's Halloween. You are supposed to have a good time today." Shelby said still clinging on to Noah. "Shelby you are drunk. I'm going to go get Brad and tell him we can't record today." Noah said starting to move but then Shelby reached her hands up around Noah's head and pushed their lips together. It took Noah a minute to pull Shelby off of him. "What the hell Shelby? I have a girlfriend, you met her yesterday." Noah said pissed now. "I know you have a girlfriend. I'm very much aware that you are dating my daughter." Shelby answered with a hiccup. Noah was stunned "You're what?" "My daughter. About 20 years ago I was in a bad place and saw an ad for two guys wanting to hire someone to have their baby for them. They paid me enough so I could come up here and start my own career. I should have realized the second I saw her that she was my baby. We look exactly alike." Noah started to think about it then and realized they did look identical except one was 20 years older. Brad came in the room then with Shelby's assistant "Ok Shelby, it's time to go sleep this off." Brad looked at Noah then. "I will see you Monday after school. Have a good weekend.
I don't own anything Glee just love the show! I will start the next chapter with the Halloween party. Thank you guys so much for reading this story! Please let me know what you are thinking about it so far! Thanks