She went around the city, interviewing people about their views on love. She found that little kids say that to have love you have to be a princess, like in the movies. Teenagers think love comes with everyone you kiss. Adults have slowly lost faith in it as the majority of people in New York city are alone or with the wrong person and elderly folk begin to believe in it again once it's gone.
"I totally love him. I know I do. He's super great! And one time he even bought me dinner! We went to the super bowl and be bought me a hot dog – totally cute right?" said a small 15 year old girl. "Am I going to be on T.V for this?"
"N-no. I'm a magazine columnist. I don't work at any T.V stations. But thank you for your time…"
Rachel shook the girl's hand. Her eyes dilated and she saw a boy. A boy playing video games all alone in his room.
"Are you alright, lady? You went all funny"
"Yes. Yeah, I'm fine" said Rachel as she walked away. How could these two meet? She asked herself. Then she decided. She would be at a concert and he would be there too, standing in line behind her. About to enter the concert, she would hand the man her ticket and he would tell her that it's fake and she has to leave. She would refuse and state that she paid for that ticket fair and square. Before she is escorted off the premises by bodyguards this boy would offer his ticket so that she could go in, admitting that he wasn't a big fan anyway. Completely flabbergasted, she would say that she couldn't let him do that, but she could let him buy her dinner. And off they will go.
"Nice," she said to herself as she walked away from another unsuspecting client.
Next on the list was a primary school. She was going to go into a class room of little children and ask them what they think love is. That way she could get a broader view on when love really begins.
She walked up the steps of her old primary school and went to the front desk. To her surprise, the same lady that was there less than 20 years ago was still there.
"Hi, I'm Rachel Berry from Women's Life magazine. I'm here to speak to a class," said Rachel, putting on her business woman voice.
"Oh! The columnist! Yes, you'll be going into Mr Hudson's class. It's just down the hall to your left," said the old lady.
Rachel began walking down the hallway. It smelt like paste and cookies – it smelt like childhood. She got to the end of the hallway and turned left. A tall, young man was standing at the whiteboard spelling words like 'ham-bur-ger' and 'en-ve-lope'.
"Those are some pretty big words for some pretty small children, don't you think?" she said, flashing her perfect smile.
He turned around, his eyes instantly locked on hers. He couldn't believe how perfect she was. He had expected an old, cynical lady – but the woman right in front of him was beautiful.
"I'm Rachel Berry. I'm here from Women's Life magazine…" she said.
"Yes! Hi! We've been expecting you, haven't we kids," said the handsome man, "everyone say hello to…Miss Berry"
A wave of noise came over the room as all the children said 'hi Miss Berry' out of sync.
"Oh, you can all just call me Rachel," she said with a smile.
Another wave of noise repeated, as the children corrected themselves and called her Rachel.
"So! Miss Berry, what can we do for you today?" he said, feeling oddly nervous. Why was he feeling like this? He was probably hungry. That must be it.
"Rachel," she said, correcting him, "and I'm here to ask you guys about love. Does anyone know what that is?"
"That's a bit of a serious topic for such small children, don't you think Miss Berry?" interrupted Mr Hudson.
"If they can spell words like hamburger and envelope, I think they'll do just fine" she joked.
To her surprise, the beautiful teacher laughed with her. A little girl put her hand up and Rachel smiled at her, gesturing for her to speak her mind.
"Love is what Cinderella has. And The Little Mermaid," proud of herself, the girl sat back down.
"What about your parents?" said Rachel, making notes.
"My parents don't have love?" the little girl replied matter-of-factly, "my mom isn't a mermaid and my daddy isn't a prince! You have to be a princess to have love. Everyone knows that."
A little boy began to speak, "my mom says my dad and her used to have love, but then he lost it and found it with his secretary. You just got to be careful where you put it so you don't lose it I guess. If my dad hadn't lost it, he would still come to my baseball games. That's what my mom said."
"Wow," whispered Rachel as she turned to look at the teacher, to see if he was ok about all of this.
"Now kids," began Mr Hudson, "remember that…love is something that happens when you're a little bit older. But there are a million different types of love! You all love your parents and I'm sure if you have a brother or a sister you would love them too! You love your grandparents and you can even love your friends. I think what Miss Berry here is asking about, is the love that you find with someone who isn't your family. The love that you find with the person you want to marry."
Unable to find the reason why he continually insisted on calling her 'Miss Berry', she found the opportunity to leave while she could.
"You all did really well today, thank you. You helped me a lot!" She turned to the teacher and smiled at him. He smiled back. He had such a charming smile – and he was so great with those kids. She could tell they all loved him, he was a role model. "Thank you, Mr Hudson, thanks for your time. I'll let you get back to teaching these kids smart words."
He chuckled and held out his hand, not wanting to be rude. Rachel wasn't exactly in the mood to match-make again but she had no choice. She shook his hand and her eyes dilated. She saw white. Everything was white and her heart was practically beating out of her chest. She collapsed to her knees and finally snapped out of it. She looked around at all the children staring at her.
The teacher bent down on his knees, held her arm and said "are you alright? Do I need to get the nurse?"
"No…no I'm fine," she managed to say. She looked up at him, into his beautiful eyes and smiled. Her mother told her this would happen. When you touch someone and you see white, it means they are your soul mate. She had finally found hers in a world full of billions of people – and he was right in front of her. But she couldn't just hit on him in front of all these kids. She had to find a way to talk to him again.
She slowly stood up, "I think I'm just hungry", she said, not taking her eyes away from his. They were both standing now but his hands stayed glued to her arms. They were just inches away from one another.
"Mr Hudson and Rachel sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" sang the children, unaware of the powerful moment they had so innocently interrupted.
She took a deep breath and looked away from him, "I really should go. Again, thank you."
She turned to walk out of the door when she heard her mother's voice in her head, 'when you meet him Rachel, don't let him pass you by.'
"You know," Rachel began, "you had some fairly good perspective on love. I would love to interview you another time, just to see what else you have to say…"
"Miss Berry…" said the teacher, looking down.
"Rachel," she corrected, once again.
"I...I… would love to. I mean, why not, right? You said you were hungry? Lunch is about five minutes away. The staff room isn't very exciting though…"
"Sounds perfect." She said, smiling.
It was happening. It was all happening perfectly. They were going to have lunch. They were going to talk and bond and then lunch would lead to dinner and dinner would lead to the kiss good night and the 'want to come up?' speech. Which, of course would then lead to marriage and babies and she could pass her gift onto who ever she wishes.
She had promised herself not to place the gift on her own daughter. Unlike her mother and grandmother before her, she did not like her gift. She hated it. It was exciting at first, of course, but it was a hassle.
Now finally, a perfect guy had come into her life by coincidence – she couldn't have planned it better herself.
please reveiw so i know which way you guys want this to go :)
thankyou everyone for reading and putting me on alert! so nice!