This chapter was meant to be uploaded yesterday, but i left it open on the computer and my mum managed to delete half of it!

Let me just start of this chapter by saying I think Rachel is the most talented person in the world, Lea Michele has an amazing voice, there is no one like her. Whatever I write in this chapter is mealy for effect. I do think she is talented!

And also the songs the students sing in this chapter are all from nowadays, but let's use our imagination and pretend that they were released ten years from now :) Ok ill stop blabbing on now.

I do not own glee...

"Ain't nothing going to break my stride, nobody´s going to slow me down, Oh no, I have got to keep on moving" Rachel Berry alarm clock played. Unlike her sixteen year old self used to, she did not get up straight away. Her elliptical had not been touched in weeks; she was currently using it as a coat rack. She hit the snooze button, and snuggled into bed for another ten minutes of rest. This was not Rachel Berry like behaviour, she was ashamed of herself. But the truth was she just didn't have enough heart or will power to do it anymore. Her quirky mood she used to emit had now all but disappeared. After twenty auditions in a row, each telling her she was not good enough, she kind of lost all hope of living.

Ok maybe she was over reacting, but she just could not be motivated to try anymore. She had gone through high school being the star of the show all the time, no one's talent was anywhere near to hers, she out shone them all without even trying. Then when she left to live in New York, and go to NYU's performing arts centre she was still quite a star there. Sure there were students who were equally as talented as her, and those who were slightly better, but she never felt incompetent. She always got high marks in all her exams she took, and her teachers told her she was destined for greatness. Why is it then after auditioning for every single Broadway show she could she was still unknown? Was it that she wasn't trying hard enough? No, that couldn't be the answer; she always put one hundred and ten percent into everything she attempted, so she couldn't possibly try any harder. She practiced constantly, quite often giving herself throat problems or getting complaints from her neighbours that she needed to keep the noise down. It simply must be that she wasn't talented enough; she found that hard to accept. When she was in high school and they lost a competition she could always blame it on the other members of the group for not pulling their weight properly and not performing to their highest standard, but this time she was the only one to blame. She couldn't be not talented enough, how is that even possible!

Eventually after ten minutes and her alarm going off for the second time that morning, Rachel got herself out of bed and headed for the shower. She had to go to work at ten o'clock. She was a waitress in a cheap restaurant in central New York; this was the only way she could earn enough money to pay her bills since she wasn't getting hired for any jobs. The job was hell, her boss was horrible, and he reminded her of a male version of the old cheerleading coach from her high school. He shouted at her for every little thing she did wrong, and never ever said anything nice to her. Numerous times she had considered quitting, but if she did that it would be impossible to find another job, there were so many people in New York that were in her exact situation. So, unwillingly Rachel got on the cramped subway and headed off to work.

BREAK!

"Move it Rachel, get your act together or we will be looking for a new waitress by the end of the day!" Her boss shouted.

"Sorry sir, it won't happen again, I was merely talking a small break I've been working for three hours straight," Rachel apologised.

"No excuses, now get out there and serve some customers, we don't pay you to sit around!" He shouted back.

This is how her entire day went, for the next few weeks and then for the next few months. Each and every day the same. Getting threats of being fired, being shouted at, being told she was worthless, until eventually she snapped. Two months after this chapter started Rachel was working in the restaurant again nearing the end of her shift, her boss was in an exceptionally miserable mood tonight and Rachel was having the worst time she had ever experienced working there.

"COME ON RACHEL, YOUR TERRIBLE! MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Her boss shouted, the vein in his neck budging out making him look even more ferocious than ever before.

"I'm trying! I'm working as hard as I can, it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing, I am working the hardest out of everyone here!" She shouted back.

"How dare you shout at me, I am your boss, your pathetic, you will never achieve anything!" He shouted even louder than before. So loud Rachel was sure the customers out in the restaurant would have heard. But that was it, the final straw, right at that moment Rachel snapped.

"I will shout if I want, all you ever do is shout at me, I don't see you shouting at anyone else, I am so sick of you, I have took your shouting for the whole year I've worked here and I have had it up to here! I'm better than this, I can achieve more than this, I deserve better!" Rachel shouted, by now a crowd of employees had gathered around the scene.

"If you can do better, why are you here? Don't think I don't know what you want; you want to be on Broadway. Well listen up chick, YOUR NOT GOING TO ACHIVE THAT DREAM!" He shouted at her.

"Maybe I won't, I don't know, but I know one thing for sure, I QUIT!" she shouted throwing her apron on the floor for dramatic effect. As she stormed out the kitchen she heard cheers coming from inside, her fellow employees were cheering her on. She mustn't be the only one that's sick of it. She couldn't take it anymore, the rejection, being upset all the time. She was going to go back to the happiest time of her life, and she knew exactly where that was. Home, Ohio!

BREAK!

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" Mr Schue said, as she walked into his office two weeks later.

"Well Mr Schue, as I'm sure you have worked out my dreams of becoming a Broadway star has not worked out the way I expected. The world obviously does not see my greatness the way I do. So I have come to beg you to please consider hiring me to work at the school as a teacher. I know I don't have a teaching degree, but I do have one in music, and you know yourself I am an extremely hard worker," Rachel told him. She could feel the disappointment erupting from her mouth, this was not what she wanted, but it would do. Glee club was the happiest time of her life, so why not come back here. Plus a teacher's salary was ok.

"Sure Rachel, how did you know we were looking for a new music teacher?" Mr Schue asked.

"I always come prepared Mr Schue, you must remember that," She replied.

"Ahh yes, I should of thought of that, well of course you can have the job. You can start Monday if you like." He told her.

"Thank you Mr Schue, Ohh my god that's amazing!" Rachel almost screamed.

"Hey Rachel, wait, let's have a chat, how are the rest of the club, I haven't seen any of them since, well forever," he said.

"I honestly don't know, i didn't keep in touch with anyone after school," she confessed.

"Not even Finn?" Mr Schue said horrified.

"Unfortunately no, I had no time to," Rachel explained.

"Ahh, I see, well I will see you Monday then."

And with that Rachel walked out to her car, as soon as she got in her car she burst into tears. How could she not prepare herself for that, of course Mr Schue would want know how everyone was, but what could she tell him. Half of the club hated her anyway, they always did, and the other half she just didn't bother to make an effort after school with. The only person in that club that had ever truly liked her was Finn, and even she stopped talking to him. She didn't mean to hurt him; she loved him for Christ sake. When everything with her university went mental, she had hardly any free time. She tried calling him, but every time she almost worked up the guts to ring and apologise and explain why she didn't call, she chickened out. After a while she just gave up all hope, thinking he would have moved on by now. She never did, she has never forgotten one Finn Hudson, he has stayed in her heart ever since.

After she had composed herself she drove home and collapsed on her bed, and remained there for the remainder of the night, reminiscing about the good old days.

BREAK!

When Monday morning came Rachel was ecstatic. For the first time in months she had the will power to drag herself out of bed as soon as she heard her alarm, go on her elliptical for half an hour and have her protein shake. She got in the shower, and for the first time in ages, she sang. She forgot how good it felt to just express her feelings though the power of her voice. She let her emotions run free, and after immersing her body in the heat from the water she felt as wide awake as ever. She drove to the school early enough to find her way around again and get her bearings on what she had to do. Mr Schue informed her that she had to teach music to the students, but warned her that not all of them were as passionate about the arts as they would like. She entered her classroom with minutes to scare before the first bell went. She could see students walking to their locker outside her open door, and her nerves started to kick in. What if they didn't like her? She would hate to be that teacher that everyone resented and hated their lessons. She had to connect with them in some way, especially if they weren't all very enthusiastic about the subject matter. She had prepared a minute by minute lesson plan for each lesson she was going to teach, she had the prospectus printed out so she knew exactly what they needed to learn. Truthfully she was very excited about the prospect of teaching students what she had lived her life in since she was five. Music was truly her passion. Should she sit at the desk or by the grand piano, which one would give of a better impression to the class as they walked in? She decided on the piano, so she sat down and opened the lid. She tapped the keys slowly, playing out the tune to 'Don't cry of me Argentina'. The bell went for first lesson and Rachel prepared to get ready for her first lesson. Her plan was to pretend she was immersed in playing the piano and not notice the students walk in. So she carried on tapping out the tune on the piano. Slowly but surely the first few students arrived, she tried not to look at them but she could see them all staring at her. Eventually, all the class had arrived and took their seats. Rachel looked up, pretending to act surprised.

"Ohh sorry, I didn't hear the bell go, hello I'm your new music teacher Miss Berry," Rachel said, feeling pretty proud of her acting performance.

"Hello Miss Berry," some of the class chanted, unenthusiastically.

"Ohh come on guys, I'm sure you can do better than that, now again louder and happier please," she insisted.

"Hello Miss Berry," the class repeated, much louder this time and everyone joined in.
"Excellent, now could you sing it, this is music class after all." Rachel asked.

The class sang the phrase and automatically Rachel could pick up some talent voices. One footballer sat at the back had quite a good voice, but he was too busy messing around with his friends to be paying any attention to the lessons. Another small footballer, sat at the front away from the others had a very good voice, to be honest more than good, his voice was outstanding. There was also a blonde girl sat next to him who had a very talented voice as well. This put a lot of hope into Rachel, that she wasn't teaching a class full of tone deaf morons, just a class full of tone deaf morons minus three.

"Very good, " she said, "now there's our vocal warm up for the lesson finished, I won't make you do a full onto day as the lesson is going to be pretty easy" she told them. Normally Rachel would have insisted everyone do a full warm up as to not damage their voices, but she didn't want to seem to exhausting in her first ever lesson so she just left it at that, even though they had not warmed up their voices at all.

"Don't worry I'm not going to make you do those stupid name games, where everyone tells me their name, I hate them, I'm sure I'll learn your names soon enough." Rachel said, many members of the class liked this as they smiled and laughed. "All were going to do in today's lesson is divide into groups and prepare a song to sing at the end of the lesson, you can sing anything you want, just be warned nothing inappropriate, I am not afraid of giving out detentions on my first lesson, ok get going" Rachel said.

As Rachel would have expected all the footballers went together, so she didn't expect much work from them to get done, the girls divided into two massive groups and the rest of the boys went together. All that was left was the small blonde girl, still sat in her seat at the front of the class. Rachel walked over to her.

"Aren't you going to join a group?" Rachel asked, sitting down next to her.

"No one would want me in their group; I've not really got any friends in this class, well any at all really. I talk to the footballer who sits next to me occasionally in class but he's a footballer so he scares me." The girl admitted.

"Ohh I know what you mean, I was exactly like you in high school, in fact I went here. Do they still slushy people?" Rachel said.

"Almost every other day, I keep spare clothes in my locker just in case, " The girl said.

"What's your name?" Rachel asked.

"Becca Miles, miss," Becca said. Rachel could see a lot of herself in Becca, she was basically this generations her. It was pretty scary.

"Well Becca, do you want to sing with me this lesson, I really want an excuse to sing in front of this class, and if not ill just be forced to do my rendition of 'Don't rain on my parade'" Rachel told suggested.

"That would be great miss thank you, what should we sing?" Becca asked.

"Well what kind of music do you like?" Rachel said.

"I don't really like much modern music, the majority of it is rap, and I hate that. I like older artists and Broadway songs, but I think if we sing anything like that I will just be bullied more," Becca admitted.

"Well, erm, we could sing 'The only exception' by Paramore, have you heard it, it would fit well in both our ranges."
"Ohh, yes i have heard that song, and everyone would know it, let's do that." Becca said cheerfully.

"Ok then let's get started." Rachel said excitedly.

BREAK!

"Cos girl you're amazing just the way you are," the small footballer sang. Rachel had seen all the groups perform; it was just the footballers left then her and Becca. The rest of the footballers were just stood behind the smaller one just humming the tune. Rachel was very impressed with the effort the footballer was putting into the song, she had not seen a footballer like music this much since, well let's not go into that. The whole class seemed to be enjoying it, all the girl were staring at one football player, probably the one they each had a crush on, but majority of their eyes were on the small one. When the song finished the class burst into applause, all the boys in the class congratulating the football players and each girl trying to catch one of their attention.

"Quiet down please, everyone take your seats," Rachel shouted. The class went back to their seats and listened to what she was about to say.

"That was very well done boys, what's your name son?" She asked the small footballer.

"Zack Parker ma'am," he said.

"Could I see you at the end please," she said. "Right and now for our last act, I have agreed to sing with Becca for her performance."

"You're going to sing miss, I didn't know music teachers could sing," a boy asked, the class laughed.

"You bet I can sing, what you think got me this job," Rachel joked, and the class laughed again. Rachel really did hope they liked her, and they weren't just laughing out of pity. "Right come on Becca lets show them what we've got."

Becca and Rachel each took their places at the front of the class. Becca took a deep breathe as she was obviously nervous, and Rachel just stood their smiling, to confident of her singing talent to feel nervous. Finally Becca was ready to sing and she signalled to Rachel to start playing the song on the piano.

Becca sang the first verse.

"When I was younger
I saw my daddy cry
And curse at the wind
He broke his own heart
And I watched
As he tried to reassemble it"

The whole sat there listening to this shy girl who got bullied everyday sing her heart out in front of them all. She seemed like she had no fears at this moment. Rachel joined in with her on the second verse.

"And my momma swore that
She would never let herself forget
And that was the day that I promised
I'd never sing of love
If it does not exist"

When Rachel joined in the class went silent, jaws dropped and hairs stood up on the back of the students necks. Their voices truly did sound great together, but even the class could tell Rachel was the more talented of the two singers. They carried on with the rest of the song alternating between Becca singing and them both; Rachel even sang a few lines on her own. She had insisted Becca take the lead the most, but Becca made her sing the harder lines. When they had finished they both looked at each other and the class was silent. Suddenly they burst into applause yet again.

"Ohh my god miss that was amazing."

"How can you sing like that miss?"

The whole class was filled with the sound of compliments for Rachel, and Becca was just sat there feeling rejected.

"Thank you class, but Becca was the one who organized all this, I just suggested the song." Rachel said trying to make them acknowledge her.

The remainder of the class was spent with Rachel telling the students what they would be studying for the remainder of the year. As the students left Zack stayed behind as Rachel had asked to see him. He looked nervous, probably thinking he was in trouble for some reason. Becca also stayed behind waiting till Rachel was done talking to Zack.

"You wanted to see me miss?" Zack asked.

"Yes, I just wanted to say you have a spectacular voice Zack, I didn't want to say that in front of the class incase I embarrassed you."

"Thank you miss, you know you're a really cool teacher," Zack told her.

"Really, ohh thank god, I was worried you all thought I was weird," Rachel admitted.

"No, really we all loved you, all of us!" Zack told her.

Thank you Zack," Rachel said pleased. "Im sorry for keeping you appoligise to your next teacher on by behalf."

"Erm, Miss there's just one thing I wanted to ask you, would it be possible if in future you didn't let us pick groups, my fellow footballers make me go with them, but I'm quite interested in music and I don't think I will be getting full benefit with them." Zack asked.

"Sure of course, I could tell you were the only one in that group who cared. Do they make fun of you because you like music?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, but I don't care. I'm a good kicker so they wouldn't ever be too cruel to me, I don't really care what they think." Zack said.

"That's a great attitude to have, well see you next lesson" Rachel said smiling.
"See you miss" Zack said turning to collect this bag from his seat, as he reached the table he paused to look at Becca, Rachel was sure she heard him mumble that she did really well, and the walk out the class quickly.

"You want to talk to me Becca, won't you be late for your next lesson?" Rachel said.

"Ohh I have a free period anyway, miss I wanted to ask if you would consider tutoring me, nothing big just a few lessons a week to help me improve my singing, I'm sure my parents would pay you." Becca suggested.

"That's a great idea, of course I will, no need to pay me, how about we do Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, should we start this week" Rachel asked.
"Yes please miss, thank you!" Becca said cheerfully.

"No problem Becca, well that means our first lesson will be tomorrow, I'll see you then just meet me in the choir room. I enjoyed singing with you today," Rachel told her.

"Me to miss, see you later," she said smiling, and she walked out the class.

Rachel was so pleased, she impressed her first class, and she didn't have a class till after lunch now. That gives her plenty of time to prepare what to do next lesson. She had a feeling she could enjoy this life.

Well there you go, sorry I updated late. Next chapter is again Rachel. I can feel Zack and Becca becoming big characters in this story, leave me a review telling me what you think. Thank you, ill update soon.