"You're not singing along."

Rachel snapped out of her daze at the accusation in Kurt's sharp voice. "Come Sail Away" was blaring on the car's radio, and he was looking at her expectantly. The two of them usually shrieked out the lyrics whenever they heard songs like this one, Kurt being surprisingly good at hitting the high notes, but Rachel had barely noticed the song come on.

"I'm sorry," she said immediately. "I'm just—I'm a little nervous."

"Rachel Berry has never been stage-fright in her life," Kurt declared, reaching out and turning down the volume of the radio. "She'd better not start now."

She bit her lip, nonetheless appreciating her best friend's unwavering confidence in her. "This anxiety is far from performance-related. Do you realize the kind of stars with whom I'm now going to be interacting? Quinn Fabray is the youngest Emmy nominee in history. My resumé can't even begin to compete with that."

"Your resumé is as long as my torso. You've been a star for ten years, Rachel. You don't need to worry about Fabray and her alleged talent."

As they pulled into a parking spot, Rachel adjusted her headband carefully in the rearview mirror. "Alleged talent? The academy has recognized her as a superior artist of her craft. There's nothing alleged about it."

Kurt turned off the engine and looked candidly at her. "Her character got a rape story line this past season. That's critic fodder. She'd have to be terrible in order to not get a nod for that."

"You think?"

"I think you can act the thongs off of them all. Of course I'm just a little biased."

She laughed, put her hand on his shoulder. "Thanks, Kurt." She took a few deep breaths. "This is such an opportunity."

"Playing Noah Puckerman's brand new stepsister? Of course! Just don't fall in love with him, I hear he's lethal with the ladies. With good reason, I know." Rachel knew he was remembering one of the many scenes shoehorned into the show just to give Puckerman's character Weston more shirtless time. Kurt had absolutely gone nuts when Weston had joined the swim team in season two, because it meant regular exposure to Puckerman's abs.

"I have no intention of becoming infatuated with such a notorious—" she tried to think of a word that wasn't too rude, but could still get her point across.

"Man-slut?" Kurt finished for her after a moment's pause. "He seduced the skirt off of Brittany Ashford, and now she and Mike are no longer the multi-racial golden couple of teenaged romances."

"It doesn't matter. I'm sure Noah and I will be engaging in a platonic, professional, business relationship only. I'm too young to be dating anyway."

"Sweetie, every other eighteen-year-old girl on the planet would disagree with you. And so would those journalists. You know they're just waiting for you to get yourself knocked up."

"Do you think the fame thing is going to get worse? Now that I'm starring on "Four Years" with the press' favorite teenagers?"

"It's going to get much worse, but it's nothing you can't handle. Just…well, do what the press don't want you to do, and you'll be fine."

"So no sex, drugs or dating?" she joked.

"That's my girl."

Kurt escorted her to the front of the building, gave her a hug, and then left. She felt very small as she entered the office building and made her way to the seventh floor.

"Rachel!" a loud voice sounded over the noise when she got to her destination. She smiled broadly as she instantly recognized Will Schuester, the executive producer. He had been present at her final call-back audition. "Everyone, the lady of the hour!"

She looked around frantically, recognizing the seven main cast members of "Four Years." Finn Hudson, Mercedes Jones, Tina Cohen-Chang, Matt Rutherford, Santana Lopez. Quinn Fabray. Noah Puckerman. These teenagers were different from her. She had grown up in the spotlight, yes, but her most recent role had been her playing a thirteen-year-old. She was still a child-star in the eyes of the world.

The first thing offered to her by the cast was a single catcall, and she turned to its initiator.

Noah Puckerman.

"Calm down, guys," Mr. Schuester commanded, as whistles from the men followed the catcall. "What did I say about making Rachel feel as comfortable as possible?"

"You're even prettier in person," she heard, and she flipped around to find Finn Hudson standing right behind her and looking shyly at the ground. That broke her out of her reverie instantly, perhaps because it was a glimpse of just how normal they all actually were. The fact that Finn could admire a girl like her for her physical appearance…

"Way to 'make her comfortable', Finn," Mercedes blared from across the room. The others laughed.

"She probably gets it all the time."

Rachel immediately fixed her eyes on this speaker. Noah Puckerman made his way across the room, subtle swagger to his gait and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Right?"

She found herself completely speechless. How did one respond to a comment like that, especially from the country's hottest young stud?

"Not as often as you might think," she finally managed. "The world knows me as the little girl who played Batman's illegitimate daughter in the highest domestic-grossing film of all time, and I imagine it's a formidable challenge for most people to adjust to the idea of me being—an adult?"

He had a half-smile that was more of a smirk than anything, but it made something twinge in her stomach despite everything she had ever heard about this boy. "They don't know what they're missing, 'cause you're about the furthest thing from a little girl I've ever seen."

Her face flushed red. "You must be Noah." She tried to be as cold as possible. She would not be one of the countless people to fall for him.

"I go by Puck," he said, extending his hand.

She refused to shake it. "I don't approve of nicknames. They're juvenile."

There was dead silence in the room, as Rachel noticed that Mr. Schuester had left the kids to their own devices. The temperature dropped about twelve degrees. She was proud of herself.

"Right then, Rach," he replied, retracting his hand.

"And I know exactly who and what you are," she continued, ignoring his blatant slight on her and relieved that she appeared to be regaining some of her characteristic boldness. "And what you do to respectable young women such as myself."

His eyes widened, as a general "ooh," sounded throughout the room.

"I just thought I'd take the moment to advise you not to waste your time, and to establish where you stand with me." She folded her arms to emphasize her point.

Mercedes began applauding. Tina and Santana joined in.

"It's about time someone stuck it to his ego," Mercedes said, approaching her and linking their arms together. "You know, I think we're gonna be great friends."

Rachel smiled as broadly as she was capable of. "I'm relieved to hear it." They began walking to the refreshment table, away from the two boys.

But in spite of herself she turned back to exchange a glance with Noah "Puck" Puckerman, and the predatory sneer on his face communicated graphically to her that they were far from finished.


Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot to me, especially when people comment on how I'm doing with maintaining the characters' canon personalities. I would like to know, for the purposes of planning future chapters, whether too many people would drop out if I changed the rating to M. I would totally understand if people were uncomfortable with it. Thanks!