Rachel couldn't help the fact that she was nervous for her first day at Carmel. Her mom tried to calm her down but nothing was working so far. She hadn't been nervous until they had gone out to get her uniform. It had suddenly hit her that she was going to Carmel instead of McKinley when she had saw the uniform.
She was still nervous for when the New Directions would find out that she was going to Carmel and joining Vocal Adrenaline.
She looked over at her closet doors where her uniform had been hung up by her mother earlier. She also already had a Vocal Adrenaline duffle and practice gear sitting by her new backpack on the floor by her desk.
She had been sitting there, looking at all of her stuff, for five minutes before she noticed that her mom was watching her from the doorway. She had a sympathetic look on her face.
"Honey, please calm down. It's not going to be that bad." Her mom tried to soothe her. They keyword here is tried.
"I can't. People at my old school didn't like me. What if the kids at Carmel don't like me either?"
"You will make friends the kids in VA already want to get to know you. At the very least you don't have to worry about bullying, Carmel has a no tolerance policy for bullying."
"That and you scare the crap out of them." Rachel plainly stated. Her mom rolled her eyes at her.
"What about when the New Directions come after me? I know they will. They went after this girl who left last year. She is now in therapy."
"I'm not sure about that yet. Trust me, the members of VA have already accepted you as family. They wouldn't let anything happen to you."
Shelby could tell that her daughter was still nervous about starting at a new school. There wasn't much she could do about it. She was starting to worry more about what the New Directions would do. Will Shuester had called her already to accuse her of transferring Rachel just to ruin them. She thought back to the conversation they had early yesterday.
"Shelby Corcoran." She said as she answered her phone.
"How dare you infiltrate my club!" He said without introducing himself.
"Excuse me?" She asked.
""You used your own daughter to infiltrate my club and to get our secrets. Then you take her, our star performer, and put her in Vocal Adrenaline!" He finished yelling.
"I did not. Rachel only attended McKinley because her fathers lived in the district. She wanted to leave your club to go to mine, even if she wasn't forced to switch schools!" She had yelled. "You and all the students bullied my daughter. She was covered in bruises from the bullying when she finally told me. And for your information, Rachel never talked to me about what you all were doing. We hardly would talk about glee. As far as you say that she was your star performer, ha! You would put her in the back as soon as one of your other students would complain. Rachel is in her rightful place now since she is in Vocal Adrenaline." She hung up on him.
She knew that his students would know first thing tomorrow if they didn't already know that Rachel had transferred. The members of VA knew not to engage in any members of the New Directions without her consent. She wanted to save any funking of the competition for later. Preferably when they can incorporate Rachel into the group to funk the other club. She could really make them regret how they treated her daughter.
She walked away from Rachel's room and went downstairs. She sighed when she saw the details of the will sitting on her desk in her office.
"Might as well start working on some of those things now." She thought. She looked through the details of the will. Obviously she had been given full custody of Rachel. The barn had been signed over to her since Rachel was still a minor. Their house and cars were sold and the money from it went into a trust fund for Rachel. The driver that they employed to drive Rachel around will still be employed so that when she was busy, Rachel could still get to where she needed to be.
Shelby sighed at what little she knew. She knew that a lot more details needed to be ironed out in all of this. She just hoped that it would be figured out soon.
…
The next day arrived quickly and all too soon Rachel found herself getting ready to go to her first class at Carmel. Rachel nervously left her mother's office when the first bell rang for everyone to go to first period. She double checked her schedule to see that her first class of the day was World Literature. She made her way to the English hall on the second floor. Luckily for her, she had visited her mom at work several times so she knew where she was going. When she got into the classroom, she got excited when she saw who the teacher was. It was her godmother, Sydney.
Sydney and her mom had been childhood best friends and stayed in touch throughout the years. Eventually Sydney came to teach at Carmel. She was like another aunt to Rachel.
Sydney looked up at her when she had walked in and got up from her desk to give her a hug.
"Rachel, sweetie, it's good to see you."
"You too." She replied to the older woman.
Sydney turned to the nearby bookshelf and grabbed a textbook.
"Here is your textbook. Feel free to sit anywhere, I don't have assigned seating. Just remember to call me Mrs. Payne instead of Sydney. I'm like your mother, I can't have kids thinking I have a soft side." She said with a wink. With that being said, Rachel decided to sit in the back of the room. It would be harder for everyone to look at her then. They wouldn't be able to turn around without getting caught.
Students started to rush in to avoid being late. Sydney quickly called role and then started the class in a discussion on Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism.
Rachel got a little excited when she realized that she had seen something with the same name that Kristin Chenowith was acting in. She played Cunegonde.
The class started discussing how Candide had an innocent view of the world in the story so far due to his lack of knowledge of the outside world. He had only known the place he had grown up in.
It seemed like no time had passed before that bell rang. Rachel was amazed at how engaged the other kids in the class had been in the discussion. At McKinley nobody would join in. Basically, all the teachers did there was lecture the entire time.
"Rachel," Sydney called. "What class do you have next?"
She pulled her schedule out of her bag to look.
"Umm..it looks like I have theatre."
"I know you'll enjoy that. Well, you better head on. I'll see you later sweetie."
With that, Rachel quickly headed out to go to the theatre classroom. Which was actually a cool classroom in what could be considered part of the basement of the school.
Theatre seemed even shorter than her lit class. So far her classes seem really cool. Her next two classes, math and Spanish, breezed by. Luckily for her, she had a free period then lunch and then for her last class of the day, she had her mom's class. Since she knew her mom had a free period during her lunch, she decided to eat with her mom in her office.
"Hey Baby." Shelby said as Rachel walked into her classroom. "How has your day been?"
"Good. Aunt Syd is my lit teacher." Her mom smiled at that.
"That's great. Are you ready for Vocal Adrenaline?" She asked.
"Yep. But first I'm ready to eat. Can I eat with you?"
"Sure honey. Go on into my office. I will be there in a second."
Rachel grabbed her things and made her way into the office on the other side of the hallway from the choir room. After dumping her bags into a corner of the room, she sat down and started eating the salad she had brought from home. She didn't have to wait long for her mom to show up.
"Okay, so after this last period, Max is going to take you to the barn for your lesson. I will pick you up from the barn after my meeting this afternoon."
"Okay..wait! I don't have any breeches at the barn." Rachel piped up.
"You will have time to stop by the house and change."
Rachel calmed down a bit at that. They spend the rest of their lunch with small chit chat between them. Talking about anything from horses and horse shows to what broadway musical they would like to see.
Soon enough, it was time for last period and time for Vocal Adrenaline.
The students started filing into the choir room. Shelby strode out of her office to address the group.
"Well guys, I think I've managed to make McKinley's glee club unable to make it anywhere near nationals."
"How did you do that Ms.C?" Her male lead, Jesse, asked.
Rachel saw her mom gesture for her to walk out, so she did. She tried not to show any hesitance as she did. The entire group looked shocked.
"Yes!" A few of them cheered. "The New Directions have no chance now!"
There were even more cheers after that.
"Okay guys. I've decided that Rachel will be our new female lead. But for now, we need to keep this quiet. We will likely get flack from the New Directions for "stealing" Rachel." She saw Rachel, along with many of her other singers, roll her eyes at her being stolen from McKinley.
"What about Giselle?" One of the girls asked.
"Giselle showed me that she no longer deserved to have the lead." She stared down the group. "You guys know that how you act outside of the school still influences how the public views this group. Well, she decided to ignore that and behave however she wanted in front of some very prominent people in this area. Some who happen to be boosters of this program. Unfortunately, her behavior happened to get Rachel injured in the process and have to be in the hospital."
"Ms. Corcoran?" Another girl asked.
"Yes Haley?"
"Please tell us that Giselle is gone."
"Yes, she is gone."
The group cheered. She wasn't too shocked at that. Giselle had been a tyrant to the entire group.
"Are the boosters mad?" Another student asked.
"Not anymore. They were appeased when I let Giselle go. They were pleased to find out that Rachel was going to be going in her place. Anyway, enough about that. We need to start preparing for Regionals."
Rachel was relieved that the club took her replacing Giselle well. She had expected some fighting like what would have happened if she was still in the New Directions. But then again, who in their right mind would want to fight her mother?
"Okay guys, our duet is going to be "For Good" with Rachel and Haley." Both girls smiled. "The solo will be Jesse singing "One Song Glory". I am still deciding what the group number will be. So I will let the rest of you go. Rachel, Jesse, and Haley, I need to speak with you three for a few but then I will let you guys go." The rest of the club grabbed their bags and left. "Okay guys, we will be practicing these songs in the mornings so we can focus on the group song in the afternoon. We will start in the morning at 6am. Don't be late. You all may go." Jesse and Haley grabbed their things and headed out into the hallway. Rachel went up to hug her mom before leaving.
"I love you momma." She said.
"I love you too, Boo." Her mom replied while patting her backside lovingly like she did when Rachel was little, knowing it calmed the girl down. "Honey, go on. Max is waiting for you. I'll pick you up at 6."
"Okay Momma." Rachel replied, grabbing her stuff and heading out the door. She hurried to the front of the school and quickly found Max in the Range Rover. She threw her stuff in and climbed in after it.
"Hi Max!"
"Hey Ray! How do you like your new school?" He asked while pulling out of the parking lot.
"It's pretty nice. I just like being closer to momma and also not dealing with the people in my old club."
Max nodded, knowing how the kids in her old club had treated her.
"Well it sounds like Carmel is far better suited for you."
"Yeah, it is." She smiled.
Max finally pulled into the long driveway of the house.
"Hurry and change so we can get you to the barn, okay?"
She nodded and grabbed her things before hopping out of the car. She quickly entered the house, disabled the alarm, and ran upstairs to change. She grabbed a pair of breeches and switched them out with her skirt, then pulled on a pair of zocks. She then switched the shirt of her uniform out with an Ariat polo. She ran back downstairs and left after setting the alarm.
"Okay, I'm ready." She told Max while hopping into the car.
He pulled out of the garage and went back down the driveway.
"Who are you riding today Ray?" He asked as he pulled out into the road.
"I honestly don't know. Mom said I'm riding whoever Holly tells me to."
It wasn't long before they were next to the fence line of the farm. She was slightly amused when she saw that more "slow" signs had been added. Max pulled into Rachel's reserved spot.
Rachel hopped out as she called, "Bye Max!" and walked into the front door of the barn. She quickly found her way into the tackroom and to her locker. Opening her locker she was surprised to find little gifts and get well cards. She laughed a little bit. She loves their boarders and did not expect them to leave her gifts. She decided she'd come back and look at them later. She grabbed her boots and helmet, and closed her locker. After putting on her gear she walked out and saw that Wicked was tacked up and waiting for her in the tack stall. "Hey Buddy. Let's go. Take care of me today, okay?" She asked him as she led the gelding out of the barn.
"Diva!" Holly called as the lesson she was teaching ended. "It's good to see you back."
"Hey, it's good to be back."
"How was your first day at Carmel?" Holly asked.
"It was good. Much better than McKinley."
"Is your mom much calmer now that she can keep an eye on you at school too?"
"Have you met my mother?" She asked as she mounted. "She's never very calm when it comes to me being anywhere other than by her side." She said as she warmed up Wicked.
"That's very true." Holly admitted. "Okay, we are only working on the flat today." Rachel only nodded in response. "Drop your stirrups. Posting trot!"
….
After an hour of her lesson, Rachel's muscles were burning.
"You did well today." Holly told her.
"Thank you." Rachel said as she dismounted and gave her a hug.
"Go and give Wicked to one of the grooms, clean the gifts out of your locker, and meet your mom, she's here already. She looks a little anxious to make sure you are alright."
Rachel looked over to the observation deck and had to agree that her mom looked somewhat anxious.
Before giving Wicked to one of the grooms, she ran up her stirrup irons and slipped him a mint. He lapped it up from her hand gratefully. She handed her reins over to the groom standing nearby. She met her mom by the barn door.
"You looked good, Honey."
"Thanks Momma." She replied as they walked into the tackroom. She sat down and pulled off her boots and took off her helmet before opening her locker. Her mom was shocked at how stuffed it was with gifts.
"Wow…our boarders are great people." She said with an amazed look on her face.
"Yeah, they really are." Rachel agreed wholeheartedly. Luckily for her, she had a tote bag in her locker so she could take everything home. Rachel finished gathering the gifts a put her riding stuff away. She went out to find where her mom went while she had been putting her things away. She found her out at the car, on the phone. She put her bag in the back before hopping into the front seat.
"I've got to go Syd. Rach just got into the car. Yeah, I know. Okay, bye." After hanging up the phone, she turned to Rachel. "You ready?" She asked.
"Yep." Rachel replied back happily.
"So what in the world did everyone fill your locker with?"
"A lot of Starbucks cards, Dover certificates, Personally Preppy, candy, Zocks, and a lot more."
"Oh my." Her mom was shocked. "Be sure to tell them thank you."
"I will Momma."
It was five thirty by the time they arrived home.
"What do you want for dinner, Boo?" Her mom asked her as they walked into the kitchen.
"Breakfast."
"Good choice. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs it is." Shelby said as she started pulling out the ingredients. An hour later the two of them were stuffed.
"I'm going to go upstairs." Rachel said as she stood up from the table.
"Bring your homework down here." Her mom told her.
"I don't have any." She replied.
"Okay then, we can do your vocal lesson now."
"What? Why now?"
"Because I say so, that's why." Her mom replied with the cliché answer. Rachel went to argue but that was until she saw the look on her mother's face.
"Fine." She sighed. It wasn't that she didn't want to do the work. She was just exhausted from the day she had had.
After she did some warm ups she started working on "The Wizard and I". Her mom wanted her to work on more belting numbers other than "Don't Rain On My Parade". Next on her list to work on was Defying Gravity and Always Starting Over. She was especially excited to work on Always Starting Over since it is from a newer musical. Eventually she would be able to sing it.
They worked on The Wizard and I for an hour and a half.
"You are doing well Boo." Her mom hugged her .
"Thanks."
"Before long you will be much better than Jesse. Don't tell him but, you are already a better actor and singer than him." Rachel smiled at that. Praise from her mom like that isn't said lightly. If her mom praises her voice, she actually means it.
"Now, I want you to sing Quiet from Matilda." With that, all color disappeared from Rachel's face.
"What?"
"Just kidding…for now." Her mom said.
"For now? You want me to sing it eventually?"
"Yeah, but first we will have to work on your singing with an accent." Rachel knew her mom wasn't kidding about that.
"But…Momma wouldn't it be a little weird for me to sing a song from a character that is a little kid?"
"Not really. You're built smaller which makes it easier for you to pull it off."
"Okay Mom." She sighed. She knew that eventually she would have no choice over what she sang. It would all be up to her mom. Deep down she knew her mom just wanted to challenge her but sometimes it sucks that her mom had been her voice teacher sing she was little. Her mom knew just how much she could already do and was going to expand it more. Yeah, it would help her in the long run but, right now it just seemed like a lot. She was expected to do well in riding and now she was expected to put in a lot of work for Vocal Adrenaline. Thinking about all of her responsibilities made her anxious. Her breathing got shorter and quicker.
"Boo, calm down." Shelby had Rachel lean against her. "Feel my breathing. Slow and steady. Easy, honey. In and out, deep breaths." She could feel Rachel start to calm down. But, it wasn't quick enough. "Come on Boo, you need to take some medicine." She led Rachel to the kitchen and got the girl one of the prescribed anti-anxiety pills. She had to coax the girl into taking it. She could tell when it had started to kick in. Rachel started to calm down and seemed to be getting sleepy. "Boo, it has been a while since you've had an attack. What sent that one off?" She asked.
"All of my responsibilities. It's too much Momma. Everyone expects me to be the best and win. What if I don't win?" She cried. Her medication was keeping her from getting too worked up again.
"Oh Honey, I don't expect you to win. I just want you to do your best and have fun. As long as you do that, I'm happy, sweetheart." Her mom told her while rubbing her back.
"I don't want to let you or my dads down."
"Honey, you could never let me or your fathers down. I am so proud of you and I know that your dads are too."
"Momma it's still a lot of pressure." She said sadly.
"Well how about we lessen the number of dance, gymnastics and theatre classes. You might just be taking too much on at once. This way, you can have time to do it all." Her mom suggested.
She nodded at the suggestion. She agreed with her mom. "Okay Momma." She mumbled sleepily.
"Come on Boo. You need to take a quick shower before you go to sleep." She was helped up the stairs and led into the bathroom. "I will go get you some pajamas."
"Okay." She quietly replied as her mom walked out. She quickly hopped into the shower and when she got back out, her mom had left her some clothes on the counter. She quickly got dressed then went and crawled into bed.
"You okay?" Her mom asked. She nodded
"I hate how the medicine makes me feel." She sighed.
"I know honey. You need that medicine though. Sometimes your attacks are just too strong for you to calm down quick enough."
"I know." She sighed. Growing up, before she had been prescribed medicine, she had been admitted to the hospital many times due to passing out during a panic attack.
"Come here baby." Rachel snuggled into her mom's side.
Shelby ran her hands through her daughter's long brunette hair. It was helping the medicine pull Rachel closer to sleep. She was struggling to stay awake at this point. "Baby, go ahead to sleep. You need it."
"Okay mommy." Rachel slurred to her mom. She wasn't quite sure what she was agreeing to at this point. She was too far gone.
Once Rachel was asleep, Shelby got up and tucked the blankets around Rachel. She kissed the girl on the head before leaving the room, quietly shutting the door behind her. Looking at the clock on the wall in the hallway, she sighed. It was only eight o'clock. It seemed so much later than that. She was exhausted after the day she had. She spent most of the day worrying about Rachel worrying about Rachel. She was only slightly less worried when Rachel was with her. It concerned her that her daughter's panic attacks were picking back up. It had been a while since she had needed to give Rachel medicine for one, Rachel had not have an attack this strong in a while. Maybe they were picking back up and getting worse because of the death of Hiram and Leroy. Seeing her daughter that panicked broke her heart. The girl was clearly doing too much. She was going to lessen the load her daughter had to carry. First thing in the morning she was going to contact the people she needed to speak to and lesson the amount of classes Rachel had after school. Since she was already going to be working with Rachel as far as singing goes, she decided to just cancel those lessons completely. She then lessoned the amount of dance classes Rachel would be taking. For a while Rachel won't be able, time-wise, to have her acting classes. Gymnastics will be lessened too. The only things she will not touch is riding and Vocal Adrenaline. Unlike what most people believed, she did not run her students into the ground. Her students were driven performers who wanted to get things done. Because of that her practices rarely went over two hours unless they were having their lock-in rehearsals.
For riding, Rachel rides almost everyday. The only day she doesn't ride is Monday. That was really only because she and Rachel's fathers had told the stubborn girl that she needed to give herself a break and since she was on ponies at the time, the ponies a break as well. Since then, it was usually only Mondays that she took off. A lot of it depended on what else was going on.
She was glad that Rachel was going to lessen the amount of things on her plate. It would probably help if she could get Rachel to just have fun with some of her friends. Like Haley and Jesse and then Emma, a friend who also rides. Emma's parents had moved her horses to their barn shortly after it had been built. They had left their previous barn because Emma had progressed farther than what they taught, much like Rachel. They both show in the equitation along with hunters and jumpers. They go to almost every show together and are extremely close even though they are each other's competition.
After sitting in the kitchen, pondering for a while, Shelby decided that she might as well go to bed. She has an early morning tomorrow. After taking a quick shower, she sighed in relief as she crawled into bed after setting her alarm. It wasn't long until she fell asleep as well.
Five came much too soon for Shelby. She groaned at her alarm before shutting it off. Crawling out of bed, she grabbed some clothes before going to take a shower. After showering and getting dressed, she woke up Rachel who seemed exhausted still but excited for her first Vocal Adrenaline practice.
"Come on Boo, you need to put on your VA practice gear. I will put your bags and uniform in the car. Don't worry about breakfast. We will pick some up on the way to the school."
"Okay Momma." She heard Rachel mumble.
After giving the girl a soft pat on the backside she walked away from the bed. Before leaving the room she heard a loud thump. What she saw when she turned around made her laugh hysterically. Apparently Rachel decided to take the expression of "roll out of bed" literally. She was tangled in a mass of blankets on the floor.
"Stop laughing at me. It's not funny Mommy." Rachel whined at her. She stepped forward to help her daughter get untangled from the bedding.
"I'm sorry Honey. When I told you to get up I didn't think you would literally roll out of bed." Rachel just glared at her. She just rose her eyebrow and Rachel shrunk back. "Don't give me that look little miss. I invented that look, get up and get ready. We need to get going." With that being said, she left her daughter's room.
After collecting her and Rachel's belongings and putting them in the car, she quickly fed the dogs. Rachel was then coming down the stairs, throwing her long hair up into a ponytail, dressed in her Vocal Adrenaline gear.
"It's weird for me to see you wearing that logo, Boo."
Rachel smirked at her. "It probably doesn't feel as weird for you as it does me. It almost feels wrong to be wearing it. I'm still used to having red and white as my school colors."
Shelby couldn't help but laugh. "Remember when you did all-star cheer? You were so confused as to what color were your colors or not. Then you wanted to move from your gym to go to North Carolina because you liked teal better."
Rachel blushed. "I forgot about that. Why did I quit? I don't remember."
"You moved up to the "A circuit". You wouldn't have been able to go to all of the competitions for either sport so we had you choose what one you wanted to stay with."
Rachel nodded at that answer. "Makes sense." She said as they got in the car.
"What do you want for breakfast?" She asked her daughter.
"Umm.. Dunkin. I want a Cappuccino Blast."
"What do you want to eat, you're not just having coffee." She added when Rachel went to say that she wasn't hungry.
Rachel sighed. "Egg and cheese sandwich."
She quickly ordered their food and paid for it. They ate on the way to Carmel. After parking the car they got out and grabbed their things from the back. Rachel had her backpack and VA duffle and Shelby had her computer bag with all her work inside.
They entered the school and Shelby unlocked the choir room door, letting then in. Rachel started getting ready for her practice by starting her vocal warmups. Shelby took her things into her office and started to answer some emails while waiting for the other two students to arrive.
Rachel had just finished warming up when Jesse came in.
"Jesse, start warming up." They could hear Shelby call.
Haley arrived a few minutes later. "I guess I'll warmup now…" She said since she saw Jesse warming up.
"Good idea." Rachel told the other girl.
A few minutes later her mom came out of her office. "Okay guys, I want to work on "For Good" first. But, before we do that I want to let you three know that Vocal Adrenaline was asked to do an event at a horse show in the area next weekend. I want you three to perform a few songs. None of the ones that are on our Regionals set list obviously, but almost anything else."
Rachel was excited for this performance. She couldn't wait to pick out songs to perform. Plus, she was going to be competing at that show anyway.
After running through each of the songs multiple times, the three singers were ready to go change into their uniforms. "You guys can go. Have a good day, I'll see you this afternoon." Shelby bid them farewell.
Rachel and Haley hurried into the women's dressing room. They both changed and started to fix their hair and makeup. "Hey Rachel, can I braid your hair for you?" Haley asked.
"Sure." Haley made quick work of braiding Rachel's long hair. Rachel was pleased with the result. "Thanks." She smiled at Haley.
"You're welcome. Hey do you want to eat lunch with me today? I'm going off campus with Jesse."
"Are we allowed to do that?" She didn't want to get in trouble with her mom.
"Yeah, well if you're in Vocal Adrenaline that it. You're mom doesn't care as long as we stay safe and aren't late to class."
"Okay I'll go."
"Great! Meet me here at the beginning of lunch." She ran off down the hall.
Walking to her literature class she started noticing more things about the school. Obviously, since it is an arts school it is very expressive. Yes, it has sports teams but the focus is more on its arts based activities. Even in the core classes they let you use are to study or to present something. You can sing about the subject or paint something or do anything else you could think of. It amazed her how differently this school ran in comparison to how McKinley worked…or didn't work. Walking into literature she was shocked to see Sydney dressed as Candide from Voltaire's story. She wasn't expecting that today.
During the class Sydney acted out Candide's parts with guys playing Cunegonde and other girls playing Pangloss and other male characters. Leaving that class made her really wonder how the rest of her day was going to go.
By the time lunch came around Rachel was amazed how nice this school was compared to her old one. She had fun in her lit class and had gotten a part in her theatre class' play. Before meeting Haley, she ran to her mom's office to let her know that she was going to be with Haley and Jesse. Her mom simply smiled at how she had made friends and handed her a twenty while reminding her not to be for class with a mock stern face on. Rachel just laughed at the look and ran out the door to meet up with her friends. "Mom just reminded me for us to not be late for class.
Jesse laughed. "With her temper, we'd never dare to be late for her class."
Haley turned to her. "How have you made it this far in life without her killing you?"
"Well I have mainly lived with my dads most of my life. Mom was often away because of Vocal Adrenaline. She rarely has had to discipline me but when she did, oh my god, I thought I'd never sit down again."
"What did you do?" Haley asked.
"I didn't listen to my trainer who had told me not to take one of my ponies out on the trail. It had been acting up lately and she needed to work with him. I took him out anyway. It was fine for a little while but then he spooked and took off with me. Eventually I was thrown and blacked out. My family spent hours looking for my after my pony had been found standing outside the barn, fully tacked up. My mom was the one who found me. After being checked out at the hospital, my dads made me go home with mom. They wanted her to handle my punishment because they knew that they wouldn't go through with it."
Both Haley and Jesse were amazed that the girl was still alive to tell the tale.
"What was your punishment?" Jesse asked curiously.
"Well since I wasn't able to sit for a while you can figure out the first part. I was also grounded. Except being grounded with my mom is worse than what you would think."
"What do you mean?" Haley wanted to know.
Rachel sarcastically laughed. "Unless I'm sleeping or in the bathroom, I have to stay in the same room as her and the only thing I can do is read, write, or something else that doesn't include electronics. How else did you think she came up with musical suicides?" They looked at her shocked. "Yep. She came up with those during that grounding."
They pulled into the restaurant's parking lot. "Wow. Well now it makes sense how you're not a conceited bitch. Sorry, we thought that was how you'd be at first. We knew you rode horses and that you are rich. We all just assumed you'd be a horrible person."
Rachel shrugged. "My parents all made sure I wouldn't be that way. Yeah, I am spoiled but I'm not one to take everything for granted."
The three teens ordered their food and sat down at a table.
"So now you are living with your mom?" Jesse asked.
"Yep. Trying extremely hard to not get into trouble."
The other two lightly laughed. Soon their orders came and they quickly ate so they could get back to school in time for class.
Driving back to school they got caught in traffic due to an accident.
"Rachel, your mom might kill us all." Jesse said.
"I'm pretty sure she will." She agreed. "Wait! Turned here, this leads to the back way of getting to school."
"Yes! Hurry Jesse!" Haley yelled.
They soon enough were running through the choir room door right before the late bell rang. Shelby saw the look on her daughter's face, along with the other two's and had to keep herself from laughing. They all look frightened. "That was cutting it close guys. Well you three looked warmed up for the dance routines that we will be working on." She watched the three, whose faces changed to looks of horror. "Just kidding. Go be ready for the group number."
Jesse and Haley hurried off. Rachel gave her a quick hug before joining the rest of the group. After quickly warming up they started working on "On My Way". After their practice was over, the vocals were working nicely. Shelby was already getting routine ideas for the song. They have the competition in the bag. Even before Rachel they were a shoo-in to win. But now, the win was almost cemented into stone.
A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to update. Life has gotten in the way. I've had papers upon papers to write and then my home life as well to deal with. Then I got kind of obsessed with Once Upon A Time and it took over my life. (Dang Netflix) And my Microsoft word has been a pain in the ass. I don't know when the next update will be. I write it out before I type it so it is generally a long process. I have started writing the next chapter though. Also I started getting ideas for a new story that I will be writing. I will still write this one but the new story will give me a reprieve from having to think about the equestrian world for a bit. (it is a sore subject for me right now.) We'll see when I get that story up a running.