"Shut up, Puckerman!" Rachel growled. "This isn't some government conspiracy, it's show choir. Shelby is not acting as a double-agent to try to poach me for Vocal Adrenaline. That doesn't even make sense!"

"I'm just calling it as I see it," Puck replied coolly. "I just find it highly suspicious that she's trying to reconnect with you the moment we won Sectionals knowing that VA has to go up against us at Regionals. She's spooked, Berry. And you're probably going to jump ship."

"Forget glee club for a second," Kurt chimed in "I just can't believe that your mom is the Shelby Corcoran. I have an iPod Shuffle dedicated exclusively to selections from 'Wicked.' This is amazing. Can you get me an autograph, Rachel?"

"Yeah I'm not even gonna lie, 'Defying Gravity' is a little too vanilla for me, but damn can she sing," Mercedes added. "I'm gonna need you to ask her for some tips on how to belt too, Berry."

It's been a little over a week since Rachel met Shelby formally. It was now the following Monday and Rachel impulsively decided to share her news with Quinn as they walked into school that morning, which Kurt overheard in the hallway and proceeded to divulge to Mercedes, who promptly told Tina and Artie, who passed it along to Brittany and Santana, the latter of whom complained about it to Puck, who happened to mention it to the rest of the football guys.

By the time lunch came rolling around, the glee club was in anarchy discussing the bombshell revelation. Most members of the New Directions had come straight to the choir room during the lunch hour to get the scoop directly from Rachel. Half of them were accusing Shelby of using the young singer for Vocal Adrenaline purposes and the other half were starstruck and wanted the lowdown on the famous Broadway star.

Rachel, internally, was in chaos. She hasn't fared any better since the brunch with her parents. If she was being honest, she had completely turned on her promise to be open with her mom and dads about how she was feeling. Instead, she's dug herself into an emotional hole that seemed to grow more abysmal with every passing day. Logically, Rachel knew that all she had to do was discuss any of this with any of her parents and she would probably feel better, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to talk to them.

Rachel had a great time with Shelby the day they had brunch. After they got ice cream, they camped out on the couch and watched a Barbra Streisand double feature that afternoon, which was mostly Rachel and Shelby acting out all the parts and singing to each other around the living room, much to the amusement of Hiram and Leroy. Then, they went out to dinner at Breadstix, just the two of them, and Shelby patiently answered every question Rachel had about theatre and Broadway. It was perfect. Rachel hasn't had that much fun since before the divorce and definitely since before they moved. Being with her mom was easy and comfortable. She can definitely tell that Shelby is strict and tough, but she also had such a warm, fun, and loving personality. Her mom was so much better than she could've ever dreamed of and it made her so happy and so sad at the same time. But lately, it frustrated Rachel more than anything else and that frustration was rapidly turning into anger.

She still can't comprehend why everyone thought it was okay to keep them apart. It's not like her parents all hated each other. They were friends. Why couldn't she have had all three of them in her life this entire time? And it's not to say that her dads weren't enough, but Rachel also couldn't lie and say that she never once wished she had a mother. There were so many times growing up where she needed a mom. There were so many times just in the last year where she stayed up at night and thought about the one thing that she was missing. She knows that her parents all thought they were just doing what was best for her, but she still can't help feeling like she was robbed. And as furious that it's made her, it's also made her feel unbelievably guilty.

Shelby was being really wonderful and patient and yet Rachel spent the last week shutting her out. It's not that she was doing it on purpose, she was just so overwhelmed and didn't know how to process anything or how to begin to navigate this new relationship with her mom. So, she's adopted her go-to strategy of repressing all of her emotions like she had been doing since her life fell apart with her fathers' divorce. It was an Oscar-worthy performance in Rachel's opinion. But it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to play the part. She knew she was on the precipice of losing control but she didn't even know where to begin to walk it back.

She hasn't seen her mom since the day they had brunch. Shelby got her number before she left that night and they've been texting occasionally. Shelby also called her every night to ask her about her day and to say goodnight. Maybe it would've annoyed any other teenager, but in all honesty, Rachel loved it. She relished in the good morning texts and the inquiries of how her day was going. She also really enjoyed speaking to her mom at night and her voice being the last thing she heard before she went to sleep. Shelby had also invited her to go out this past weekend and they made plans to go to dinner and a movie Saturday night, but Rachel canceled last minute. She didn't intend to but her dad left for Chicago that day and saying goodbye to him always felt like getting punched in the gut. She still wasn't used to being away from him. But of course, instead of just telling her mom that, she lied and told her she was sick. And as she was laying in bed feeling sorry for herself, Quinn randomly asked to hang out that night and Rachel agreed deciding that maybe it'd help for her to talk to a friend about everything that was going on. However that plan went out the window when Quinn also invited Brittany and Santana to come to the Lima Bean with them.

The next day, she felt so awful about lying to her mom that she ignored all of Shelby's texts. She almost didn't pick up her call last night but her craving for her mom's attention won out. She wished she hadn't though because Shelby sounded incredibly concerned on the phone yesterday. She even asked Rachel if everything was okay between them. She sounded so sad that Rachel had to quickly placate her and hang up before she could start crying.

This morning, she woke up in a cold sweat feeling sick to her stomach and bouts of intense nausea keep hitting her. Maybe it was karma for lying about being sick but she knew that it was more likely the stress that was rapidly mounting. Everything felt like a 20-foot wave was crashing into her. Repeatedly. Trying to find something to hold on to, she precipitously told Quinn about finding out that Shelby was her mom. However, that turned out to be just another one of Rachel's glaring mistakes in the last week. Instead of receiving comfort from her new friend, she was getting a public interrogation from the glee club, and she didn't even have any idea on how the news had spread that quickly.

"I, for one, could care less if Israeli Pippi Longstockings jumped ship to join her mommy on VA," Santana said, effectively pulling Rachel away from her thoughts. "That's a betrayal I'd welcome any day."

Quinn and Brittany instantly shot their carelessly blunt best friend a disapproving look and Santana shrugged in response.

"What? I just try to be really, really honest with people when I think that they suck. You know? No one gets it."

"That's not nice, San," Brittany replied. "But we don't have to worry about that because you're not going anywhere, right Rachel?"

They all looked at Rachel curiously but the team's star singer froze. She's been so wrapped up with all of her other conflicting emotions that she hadn't even stopped to think about how her and her mom were in rival glee clubs and how they had to compete with one another.

"Well maybe Rachel won't even have a choice," Artie pondered. "You know, I heard a rumor that Coach Corcoran makes Vocal Adrenaline practice for eight hours every night with only one five-minute break to chug a Red Bull. She's ruthless. She could just force Rachel to join VA against her will."

Rachel felt her entire face heat up all the way to the tips of her ears. She was trying to keep her cool but she was fuming now.

"No," Quinn interjected quickly, sensing Rachel's impending blow-up. "Shelby's not like that all. Yeah she's a hardass, but she wouldn't force Rachel to do anything she doesn't want to do. She's actually a really nice person."

The entire club, Rachel included, whipped their head to look at Quinn in surprise. Rachel felt like the rug was just pulled out from under her.

"You know Shelby Corcoran? Like personally?" Kurt said in amazement. "How is everyone connected to this woman?!"

"Um—yeah," Quinn admitted nervously as she shifted anxiously on her feet. "Shelby's sister Kim and my sister Frannie are best friends. The Corcorans are our neighbors and our parents have known each other forever."

Shelby? Quinn was on a first name basis with her mom? Their families know each other? Rachel was blindsided. When she told Quinn her news earlier her friend gave her an incomprehensible look and hastily promised that she'd talk to her about it later.

"You've been living next door to a celebrity your entire life and you didn't think to tell me?" Santana questioned.

"Well Shelby doesn't live there," Quinn explained. "Her parents do but our parents are really close and we all have dinner and stuff together sometimes. And Shelby and her family are really private and my parents always warned me about sharing stuff about them with other people. I don't know, anyway, that's not my point. I'm just saying that Shelby is a regular person and she's actually pretty cool, so I don't think she's going to be forcing Rachel to do anything."

Perfect, Rachel thought. Quinn doesn't only know her mom, but she knows Shelby's entire family as well. She can add jealousy to her already overflowing bottle of emotions.

"Yeah, but I wish she would," Santana said dejectedly.

"Guys quit it," Finn said diplomatically. "Give Rachel a break. She just found out who her who mom is and I'm sure she's not even thinking about switching glee clubs or anything."

He gave her an apologetic look and she smiled at him appreciatively. Apart from Quinn, Finn and sometimes Kurt were the only ones who have tried to get to know her. He stopped a rogue slushie from hitting her during the first week of school and he's been sort of looking out for her ever since.

Moving to Lima and starting high school at McKinley has been a rough adjustment for her, to say the least. Rachel knows that she has a unique personality and that she can, at times, be borderline overbearing. But she can't help it. She is who she is. And she wants what she wants. And that was fine in Chicago where she had a group of friends that she grew up with who had grown to understand her and accept for better and for worse. But she didn't have that in Lima. It was such a small town that everyone has been friends and have known each other since pre-school. She definitely felt like an outsider and she knew that she didn't mesh well with a lot of her peers.

She spent most of her first month here with her head down and mostly kept to herself, until her Spanish teacher Mr. Schuester asked her if she was interested in joining his newly-formed glee club. Rachel was in the auditorium one day rehearsing selections from the seminal classic, "Les Miserables," and he walked into her singing "On My Own." He asked her to be New Direction's team captain on the spot. She agreed heeding her dads encouragement to get involved in extracurricular activities and figured that maybe she'd be able to make a friend or two who at least enjoyed singing and dancing like she did.

A week or so later, she was performing at Sectionals. Ever since then and especially since they won, Rachel went from walking the hallways alone to her teammates stopping by to say hi to her at her locker. Quinn also started hanging out with her more. They had glee and a few classes together and they kind of clicked naturally. Rachel would say that she's probably her only real friend at the moment. She knew most of the team probably just saw her as an acquaintance and the rest most likely just tolerated her for her talent. Either way, joining the New Directions was the first thing in Lima that's given her joy and has made her feel excited again. Performing "Don't Rain On My Parade" in front of a packed auditorium and unexpectedly winning with the New Directions pulled Rachel out of the haze that she felt like she was living in since she left Chicago. She was finally starting to feel like herself again. And she didn't want to mess that up.

"No, I'm not going anywhere," Rachel decided. The entire room shifted their gaze to the brunette who finally spoke up. "My allegiance is with the New Directions and I'm not going to let Shelby or anyone else convince me otherwise."

There. Rachel doesn't want to dwell on it anymore. Rachel Barbra Berry was a lot of things, but one thing that she is most definitely not is a quitter. She knew she started something with the New Directions. She could feel that they were building something special together and she didn't want to walk away from that now. Not for Shelby, not for anyone else.

"I'm not buying it," Puck countered, squinting his eyes at Rachel in suspicion. "We're screwed."

"Same," Santana readily agreed. "Prove it to us. Prove to us that you're really on our side and that you're not just going to go and run your little hobbit legs off to go join your mom's team the first chance you get."

"How!" Rachel yelled in frustration, her anger rising. "Me and Shelby haven't even talked about show choir! She hasn't even asked me to join her team. How do you want me to prove it to you? What do you want me to do?"

A few members of the New Directions took a step back at Rachel's rightful outburst. Quinn swallowed thickly not liking where this was leading.

"I know!" Puck said excitedly. "You can go and do some deep background on Vocal Adrenaline. You know, do some recon, to see what they're up to for Regionals."

"Puck, man, you gotta lay off the spy movies," Finn said trying to rein in his friend. "Rachel's right, it's not that serious, it's just show choir. And Mr. Schue's not going to like it if he finds out we're spying on other teams."

"Shut up, dude. Spy movies are awesome. And I don't know about all of you—I mean yeah, we're good, but us winning Sectionals was also kind of a fluke. We had no idea what we were doing and we're not going to get to the next level by randomly letting Rachel belt out show tunes and singing Journey songs. We need all the help we can get to win Regionals, and I've already sacrificed too much of my reputation for us to be a one-hit wonder team."

"I never thought I'd say this," Artie said carefully. "But Puck's right. I've been reading the national show choir message boards and if we want to win, Vocal Adrenaline is the team to beat. Coach Corcoran is no joke. Everybody's been saying that they have a third national championship in the bag—since June and they hadn't even won their second national title yet. Not to mention, they've got the support to do so with their crazy booster club. I mean get this—everybody on VA got Range Rovers last year for winning Regionals."

"Mr. Schue once gave me a loose tic tac that he found on the bottom of his bag," Brittany said casually.

"Ew Britt, what?" Santana grimaced. "But Wheels and Puckerman make a lot of sense. I've put in too much effort at this point for us to go back to losing. I want to win. Whatever it takes."

The rest of the team broke out in chatter amongst themselves and Rachel felt like the room was spinning. As much as she'd hate to admit it, Puck and Santana had a point. They wouldn't win it all unless they started being strategic and competitive. She'd been telling Mr. Schue for a few weeks now that they were being too complacent and had to be more cutthroat and innovative. Of course, now that her teammates were catching on, they were willing to throw her under the bus in order to push the team forward. This is not what Rachel had in mind when she shared her news with Quinn this morning.

"Alright, so me and Puck decided that you should try to sneak into Vocal Adrenaline's rehearsal today Berry," Santana proclaimed loudly over everyone else's conversations. "And we think that you should be the one to go and gather information for us because one, you're small and dwarf-like, so it'll be easy for you to sneak around and two, if you get caught, I don't know, just bat an eyelash or something and I'm sure your new mother would be more than willing to forgive you."

"Santana, stop," Quinn protested. "Rachel, you don't have to go and prove yourself. That's dumb. We're not some cult. Besides, Finn's right and we shouldn't be spying on other teams. Shelby wouldn't like that and we'll probably get in trouble with Mr. Schue."

"Whatever, I'll do it," Rachel decided. She was tired of arguing about it. "But! Someone has to come with me because I'm not going to face the wrath of Shelby Corcoran alone if we get caught."

"Rachel, wait. Please stop and think about this for a second," Quinn pleaded. She was trying so hard to get her impulsive friend to see reason. "I don't think you understand, I know Shelby and she really won't appreciate the sneaking around."

"No, Quinn!" Rachel barked. "I know you and my mother are apparently best friends, but I'm going and it'll be fine, and we can use whatever I find out to help us win Regionals. Whatever it takes, right."

Quinn winced at the hostile reply and Rachel felt bad immediately for yelling. She knew she was thinking irrationally at this point but she was also being fueled by an overflow of emotions, mainly the jealousy she still felt over the fact that the one and only friend she made here of course had to have a relationship with the mother that was kept from her for 13 years. It hurts Rachel that Quinn can say with certainty that she knows what her mom does or doesn't like and that she can't. Even though she knows it's just common sense to realize that her mom definitely won't appreciate the sneaking around, but still. It was the principle of the thing for Rachel. And against her better judgment, she was genuinely curious about what Vocal Adrenaline was up to.

"I'm sorry," Rachel apologized, lowering her voice and looked at Quinn for forgiveness. "I know you're just looking out for me Quinn, but I don't know, it'll be fine, right? We won't get caught."

"Famous last words," Mercedes whispered to Kurt.

"Fine," Quinn groaned. "You're so stubborn, but I'll come with. I think you'll probably need a witness for when Shelby kills you."

"Great," Rachel replied happily and she looked over at the rest of the team. "Anyone else?"

Everybody instantly stepped back with the exception of Puck, Santana, and Mercedes.

"Totally would but can't," Puck said. "We have football practice right after school, so you're going to have to go on on this operation without me. Let's all meet back here tomorrow morning though so we can debrief."

"And as much as I would like to see this end in an inevitable disaster, I also can't come since I have detention after school for throwing a slushie in Jacob Ben Israel's creepy little face," Santana shrugged. "No regrets."

Quinn and Rachel looked at Mercedes, the last woman standing, who was sporting a huge smile on her face.

"Oh you can bet your ass that I need to see how this plays out," Mercedes said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"How are we even going to get there?" Quinn asked, pointing out a flaw in their plan. "None of us can drive and I don't think there's a bus that runs to Carmel."

"I don't know, we can just Uber," Rachel said without thinking about it.

Quinn groaned internally and realized right then and there that her new friendship with Rachel was undoubtedly going to land her in more than just this one sticky situation in the future.

Over at Carmel High School, Coach Corcoran was on a warpath and nobody was safe. Members of Vocal Adrenaline have been spreading the word of their Coach's dour mood all day. It only happened once in a blue moon but the team had an alarm system in place to warn one another because nobody wanted to be a casualty of Shelby Corcoran's legendary fury.

Members of the well-known team were extremely perplexed. Their coach had been in such an unusually pleasant mood recently and even canceled their bi-monthly Saturday practice this past weekend. It was the first time it had ever happened since Shelby took over VA. They all spent the last weekend speculating their coach's change of demeanor. Not that that they thought their coach was necessarily mean. Contrary to popular belief, VA members knew that the lore that followed Shelby Corcoran around was overblown. Yes, she was often intense and expected nothing less than perfection but they knew that was only because nobody believed in them more than their coach did. And that she would support them endlessly to achieve their goals. She was sincerely devoted to her students and in return they were wholeheartedly faithfully to her and readily worked to deliver excellence. In the past couple of weeks, they had noticed a shift in their coach. She was less disciplined and more easygoing. Even weirder was the fact she was being more generous with her praise than normal. More members of VA have received a smile or a "good job" from their coach in the last week than they had in the past two years.

They were all anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop it did this morning when Jesse and Giselle were two minutes late for their private co-lead rehearsal and Coach Corcoran had apparently given them a brutal tongue-lashing about the importance of respecting people's time. Allegedly, Giselle had to skip first and second period because she couldn't stop crying.

It was now the afternoon and they had a full dress rehearsal for their Lady Gaga number. The nervousness was running high across the whole team. Shelby had started rehearsal off with an unexpected lyric check and dismissed anyone who got the the words wrong. Three VA members were already sent home and they were only 20 minutes into practice.

"Claw, claw, up, clap, clap, and five, six, seven, eight," Shelby ordered as she inspected her team's dancing. "And one, two, three, four—"

Something was off.

"Okay, okay. That's enough," she barked at her team to stop.

Frustrated. Shelby was frustrated. And not necessarily with her team, though she thought they were performing too rigidly for her liking. And not even with Rachel, who was the source of her less-than-stellar mood at the moment. She was frustrated with herself and the situation she was in with her daughter.

Her kid was giving her emotional whiplash and it was slowly taking its toll on her. Things between them were up and down and Shelby felt like she was being played like a yo-yo. Not that she was complaining, she'd take a rollercoaster ride with Rachel any day if it meant having her daughter in her life. But it seemed like every step forward they were making was also met with two steps back, and Shelby felt like Rachel just sprinted more than a dozen steps back this past weekend.

In her opinion, their initial meeting went well, her daughter's blow-up included. Rachel seemed to have genuinely enjoyed herself and Shelby considered it one of the best days of her life. She knew she had to be patient and allow Rachel to set the pace of their relationship, so she stuck with her game plan of texting and good night calls. Something as simple as hearing about her kid's day meant the entire world to her. And she thought that Rachel was responding well to the keeping in touch. However, towards the end of the week, the more time lapsed between texts and the shorter their calls became.

Tired of their virtual relationship, Shelby invited her to go out together this past Saturday and was thrilled when Rachel accepted. She even canceled VA practice in order to allow herself to spend as much time as possible with her daughter. Rachel, however, also canceled at the last minute claiming that she was sick. Fueled by a mother's concern, she picked up medicine and soup to deliver to her sick child. She was on her way to check in on her when she got a call from Kim who excitedly shared that she just saw Rachel hanging out with Quinn when her and Frannie stopped by the Lima Bean for a coffee. Shelby asked her sister if Rachel looked sick and Kim said no and proceeded to fawn over how much the mother and daughter looked alike. Shelby felt like a knife just pierced her heart hearing Kim's information.

Not only did Rachel essentially ditch her, she also willingly lied to her. Shelby had been a mom for a week and her kid was already lying to her. What did that say about her as a parent? She was trying to be empathetic to how her daughter was feeling but it was also awfully difficult not to let her insecurities affect her. Shelby thought that she was doing a good job getting to know her daughter. Although they weren't talking about the heavy-hitting topics, Rachel had been communicative and seemed eager enough to get to know Shelby as well. Evidently, she was wrong.

It only took that one phone call to burst her short-lived reunion bubble and let reality sink in. Although she knew better, it didn't take long for her to fall back into her familiar patterns of self-doubt and vulnerability. As much as Rachel had to learn to accept her, Shelby also had to adjust to her new role as a mother but she was struggling. And the ever-perfectionist Shelby Corcoran did not do well when she struggled.

Still, she knew that it wasn't fair for her to be lashing out on everyone around her. A healthy dose of Coach Corcoran fear was good and necessary to push her team but she knew she was walking a fine line with the anxious energy her kids were exuding. It was now time for her to walk it back.

"You guys aren't getting it," she sighed, deciding to shift gears instead of spending the rest of rehearsal barking orders.

"You're letting the costumes do all the work," she began her lecture. "Theatricality isn't about the crazy outfits. It's not enough to douse yourself in gasoline—you have to light yourselves on fire to make it work! It doesn't mean that you have to be a nuclear explosion. It can be like a quiet storm. You just have to radiate emotion, express what's deep inside you. That's what theatricality is truly about."

VA was listening carefully to their coach's sage advice, but they were all still too intimidated to respond. She made a quick decision to adopt an age-old teaching method: show don't tell.

"Do I have to show you?" Shelby asked rhetorically and waited for her team to hustle off the stage. Once she was alone, she looked over at the band. "Funny Girl. E-flat."

Shelby walked to center stage and took an even, steady breath. Whenever things were more than she can bear, she always found solace in music and signing. Shelby's not sure in what she believes in spiritually, but she knew that the stage was her church. It grounded her. It was where she wholeheartedly felt like she belonged.

"Funny.

Did you hear that?

Funny.

Yeah the guy said 'Honey, you're a funny girl.'

That's me

I keep them in stitches

Doubled in half

And though I may be all wrong for a guy

I'm good for a laugh."

Shelby sang slowly and passionately. She surrendered herself to the music and let it transport her somewhere else. She felt everything wash away with every note she sang. Her blurry lines, her messy life always came into focus while she was on stage.

On the receiving end, every single person in the auditorium was captivated by Shelby's singing. She sang meaningfully and expressively. She was truly an astonishing performer.

As she got to the end of the song, Shelby walked towards the front of the stage and looked out into the grand auditorium. She swore she saw movement in the balcony. She looked over at the first two rows on the ground level and all of her kids were accounted for. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Shelby knows the Carmel auditorium like the back of her hand. She's spent more time here than she did anywhere else since she moved back home. She lives, eats, and breathes in this space and she knows when something in here feels off. When she finished the song, she looked up at the balcony level again and definitely saw shadows.

Her VA students began to clap politely, impressed by their coach once again. Shelby gave them a grateful smile in return for their praise.

"Alright guys, we'll discuss what I just talked about in a little bit," Shelby instructed. "Take a five minute break and we'll pick up where we left off."

Shelby walked off the stage and went over to her director's table. She picked up her cell phone and looked at the one new notification. She instantly smirked at the message.

She pocketed her phone and calmly walked down the aisle to exit the auditorium. She pushed open the doors and started to inspect the hallway. She picked up her pace and walked over to the stairs to get second level. As soon as she got to the top landing, she came directly face-to-face with three immensely shocked girls.

Shelby instinctively placed her hand on her hip and countered back with an amused expression.

"Hello, Rachel. Quinn," she simply greeted the two obviously startled teenagers. She turned her gaze to their friend and stuck out her hand.

"I don't believe we've met, I'm Shelby Corcoran," she shook the equally stunned girl's hand. "But I do believe that the three of you are a long way from New Directions practice."

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this! We'll see the aftermath of Rachel's actions in the next chapter and a bit of a breakthrough in Shelby and Rachel's relationship.