AN- Sorry, guys! For a minute there, I posted the wrong draft! Here's the correct version.
Rachel Berry had always thought she was a little bit psychic. She would have weird dreams, visions or flashes of intuition, and they would come true. Her daddies told her it was merely her advanced intelligence—it allowed her to pick up on and process minute clues around her—but Rachel had known it was something more. Until recently, that is. Recently, her dreams had been crazy, and she had been repeatedly blindsided by life.
She kept dreaming that she was a little girl, and she had a mother who looked just like her. They were dancing and singing together on a stage with a blinding spotlight. Holding her mother's hand and singing made Rachel's heart feel full and happy, until her mother tripped her. Rachel would fall onto the stage and cry. Her mother looked sad, but just watched as her little girl cried, sprawled in the spotlight's glare. Rachel woke with that tingling feeling she got before a dream came true, but Rachel didn't even have a mother, so the feeling made no sense.
Nights she didn't dream about her nonexistent mother, she dreamt about Noah. In those dreams, he held her hand as they walked down the halls at school. He sang to her and did things that made Rachel blush the next morning at breakfast. Those dreams also gave Rachel the fateful feeling, but they couldn't be right!
When Quinn had first moved in with the Berries, Rachel had been sure Quinn and Finn would get back together and she would be with Puck. Instead, the chasm between Quinn and Finn had grown, and for the first time, Rachel saw the spark between the mohawked "stud" and the former president of the chastity club.
Puck still flirted with other girls and teased Quinn about getting fat, while Quinn called him a loser and a slut, but the affection between them was clear, and it was growing. Rachel would see Puck rubbing Quinn's feet, caressing her belly, or singing to the fetus. Quinn would try to play it off, rolling her eyes, but Rachel could tell the blond was touched as she played with Puck's mohawk. Rachel felt a twinge of jealousy, but she was also happy for the family-to-be, and decided to move on from her dreams of Noah.
Besides, Rachel had Finn. Since sectionals, she had made it a point to hang out with the moping boy to cheer him up. Hanging out had eventually shifted to going out. One day, Finn looked at Rachel like she was his whole world. Then he smiled a big, pure smile and kissed her. That was the day Rachel knew Finn was her boyfriend.
Finally, Rachel had possessed everything she ever wanted. She had friends (Noah and Quinn), the perfect boyfriend (Finn Hudson: quarterback, captain of the basketball team and male lead of New Directions), and a choir that was on the rise. Rachel basked in the warm happiness of goals achieved.
Rachel brushed it off when she saw how Finn gazed at Quinn in the halls or in glee practice. It gave her a funny feeling, but she told herself it was just jealousy. She tried not to feel crushed when Finn looked embarrassed as she cheered for him during a basketball game, or when he stood her up for a few dates. He has a lot on his mind. Grief and depression can affect memory, and at his best Finn is a bit absent-minded. Instead of getting angry, she'd made Finn a calendar to help him remember their dates.
Then, out of nowhere, he broke up with her. She'd had no visions, no dreams that this was coming. Rachel responded to the breakup by informing Finn of his obvious motivations, and told him why his choice was a mistake. "It's like you're in my head right now," Finn had replied, looking scared, but he was transparent. Rachel knew it didn't take extrasensory perception to understand the inner workings of Finn Hudson.
Maybe she wasn't so special. Maybe the past dreams that came true were coincidences or self-fulfilling prophecies. Maybe her clear, sure visions of a Broadway future were just ordinary dreams, like anyone else's. That's what Rachel Berry was pondering as she flipped through a stack of music, only to be shocked again by life in the form of Jesse St James, male lead of Vocal Adrenaline.
AN: Don't worry: the Puckleberry Train is not permanently derailed. It's just delayed a bit. I'm trying to mash together what happened in "Hell-o" with what I'd been planning in my head. I'm still trying to figure out how AU I'm going to have to go. Wish me luck!