Their junior year seemed to go by faster than any other year in high school. One blink and the first semester had ended; two blinks and people were already talking about prom.

It scared Finn to think that in less than a year, he would be hearing back from college, having to decide what his future was and everything. It was intimidating, to say the least. Finn never really thought about his future. He always thought about football and video games and girls. College was never really a priority in the back of his mind.

Even though all Quinn could do was remind him about how important college was.

"It's where you decide your future," she told him, trying to convince him that college was a good idea. "I mean, you might not be able to go to school with me, but at least you'll be able to get an education."

He never chose to say anything to Quinn after she had said that to him. Quinn was always ready or bigger, better things in life. She already knew that she was going to be applying at all of the Ivy League schools; Harvard, Yale, Princeton.

He just so happened to be the person who was with her while she figured all of it out.

Finn and Quinn had started to drift apart, anyway. They didn't get into arguments or anything, but they spent less time together. Quinn started to spend more time with Santana and Brittany and less time with him – which he didn't mind. The clinginess of her had worn off, and he didn't mind it in the least.

It gave him more independence to do what he wanted, anyway.

And without always being wrapped around Quinn's finger, Rachel no longer seemed so untouchable to him. Granted, she had a boyfriend of her own and seemed content with whatever kind of relationship she was fostering with him, but Finn still saw Quinn's absence in his life as an opportunity to at least talk to Rachel more often. She was a nice girl; he just never got the chance to see her at her best like other people did.

:.:.:

Finn had chemistry class with Rachel second semester. It was good for him, too, because Finn wasn't good at chemistry. Having Rachel as his lab partner (which he had quickly assigned to himself at the beginning of the semester, much to Rachel's chagrin) made him feel like he actually had a shot at passing the class come June.

She talked to him sometimes. Not often, but every once and a while she would bring up something other than their chemistry worksheets and they would have a real conversation.

One afternoon, she came into class wearing a bright red crewneck t shirt – paired with her instantly recognizable pleated skirt and knee-high socks. It only caught his eye because Rachel never wore t shirts. He could count off on one hand the amount of times that she wore anything other than a dress or a skirt to school.

Not that he was always paying attention to what Rachel was wearing, or anything.

As she sat down next to him, she noticed how the front of her shirt had the words Oliver! written across it in big black letters.

(Okay, so he was totally checking out her boobs in her shirt. He just so happened to notice was what written across it and it piqued his interest.)

"What's up with your shirt?" He asked, watching Rachel as she sat down next to him, folding her skirt beneath her. "I've never really seen you wear a t shirt before."

He watched her as she organized her books in front of her, pulling out the pink pen she wrote with every day. She looked like she didn't want to talk to him – ad he couldn't really blame her, either. Quinn wasn't with him, though. Maybe she liked him just as long as he wasn't with Quinn.

"It's for the musicals," she finally said, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "We open tonight."

Finn smiled slightly opening his notebook for the class. "Oh," he said, looking back at her. "That's really cool, Rachel. What's the show?"

"Oliver," she said, still not bothering to look at him. "I'm playing Nancy."

Finn didn't really know who that was, but he figured that it was the lead – or whoever wasn't Oliver, anyway.

"Oh," he said, laughing nervously. "Cool." There was a long pause between them, Rachel still not bothering to look at him.

"Is, um… your boyfriend going?"

She turned to face him, now actually interested in what they were talking about. Finn never spent tons of time walking to Rachel, but he figured that if he wanted to pique her interest, he could talk about her boyfriend. He didn't remember his name, but he knew that she still had a boyfriend. Some big shot who went to Boston Conservatory – which, according to Rachel, was a really big deal. She was completely head over heels for him, and he knew that she was crazy about him.

"He is," she said, beaming proudly. "Tonight, actually." She still didn't say much to him, and he felt bad. He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable around him or anything like that. Besides, there's something about Rachel that makes him want to impress her – or at least win her approval. She seemed so sure of what she wanted to do with her life and had her head straight on her shoulders. The more time he spent around Rachel, the more he realized how great she was.

Maybe she needed a college boyfriend because she was above high school guys.

"How long have you guys been together?" He asked, wringing his hands together underneath the table. He shouldn't have asked her. For all he knew, she was going to go off on some wild tangent about how much she loved her boyfriend and couldn't live without him, making him feel like shit in the proves.

"Almost six months," she told him, turning to look at him for the first time. He watched her as she smiled sweetly, looking like she was really happy with herself. It was like it was the first time she had realized that she had been seeing whoever she was seeing for as long as she had been.

"We're really happy together," she told him, almost boastfully. "He comes down here almost every weekend and sometimes my parents let me go up to see him when we have a three-day weekend or something." Finn looked at her and smiled, watching as she sat up in her chair.

Finn didn't know why he kept on asking her questions about her relationship, but he did.

"Are you guys going out tonight after the show, then?"

"Yeah," Rachel said, her voice falling back into what it had been bored. "He told me that he had something special planned for us, or something."

Finn looked at her as she opened up her notebook, eyes scanning her notes from the lesson from the day before. Clearly, Rachel didn't understand the implications behind what her boyfriend was talking about, or she knew just as well as he did and wanted to be polite about everything.

Chances were that she just wanted to be polite.

"Oh, um, that's great, Rachel," he told her, starting to drum his fingers on the table. "I'm sure you guys have a lot of fun when you see each other – you know, considering that he's always busy in college and everything."

She smiled and started to write down the equation they were supposed to balance that their teacher had written on the whiteboard. Finn looked up at the board and copied it down along with her, he just didn't follow through with the other steps necessary needed to actually completethe problem.

"I really like him," she told him, almost proud of the fact that she had been able to say what she had said. Finn's mouth crooked into a small smile and he looked back down at her notebook.

She was busy sketching little test tubes and beakers in her notebook next to the equation she had just balanced, and he was… failing.

No, really. He was failing chemistry and he didn't really know what to do about it.

Finn picked up his pencil and started to write a number next to one of the chemicals, but before he could continue, Rachel stopped him.

"Do you want help with that?"

He nodded his head and leaned back in his chair, watching as Rachel pulled her chair closer to him, leaning over his notebook. She used her pen to cross out what he had written, pink scribbles filling his notebook as he watched her work on whatever she was working on.

Rachel backed away from the notebook and sat up straight in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest like she was proud of what she had just done.

"There," she said, setting her pen down in front of her own notebook. "You just balanced it wrong. You always have to remember where the elements are on the periodic table, that's all." She gestured towards the large periodic table on the wall to the side of the room. "You're not that bad at chemistry, Finn, you just need to practice. That's all."

Finn looked at her and smiled, watching as she looked proud with herself.

"You should be a chemist," he told her, smiling.

Unfortunately, Rachel's smile didn't stay for long. Instead she looked exhausted; like what Finn had said was something completely wrong.

"No," she said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, chemistry's great, but I don't want to be a chemist." Finn laughed and she grabbed her pen again, scribbling in her notebook once more. "One day, Finn, I swear… I'm going to be a Broadway star."

Finn looked at her and smiled, laughing slightly. She spoke about it like it was so serious; grabbing her chest and eyes going wide and not laughing in the slightest.

On anyone else, Finn would think that whatever they were doing was crazy. But it was different with Rachel. With Rachel, it didn't seem like she acted that way simply to get attention or to seem different from the other girls they went to school with.

Rachel seemed like she actually wanted what she chased after.

"Like, an actress, right?"

She started to giggle, hiding her face in her hands for a moment.

"More than an actress," she said, her voice softer. "I want to be a star."

Finn laughed and couldn't look away from her, watching her as she seemed so content with herself. He liked her like this. Happy, smiling, laughing at everything he told her. He had never really had the opportunity to see her like this.

They turned to the front of the classroom as the teacher made their way in front of the whiteboard, beginning to write the answer out to the question Rachel had just answered.

Sure enough, she had been right.

"Well, just don't forget me when you're famous, okay?" Finn asked her, nudging her in the side. Rachel started to laugh and looked at Finn, her face pink.

"Okay," she told him, giggling sweetly. "I promise."

:.:.:

"So, we should start thinking about what our color scheme is going to be for prom," Quinn told Finn later that day. School had ended and she was making her way to her locker, putting her books away for the day. "I was thinking Tiffany blue, but if you had any ideas-"

"I'm going to the musical tonight," Finn said, interrupting her. He watched as Quinn stopped in her tracks, looking up at Finn with a furrowed brow. "I don't know if you want to go with or not, but I'm going." He sighed and watched as Quinn bit down on her bottom lip, looking more furious every second her took to talk to her. "It's supposed to be really good, anyway." He paused, shoving his hands in his pockets nervously. "I'll buy your ticket?"

Quinn slammed her locker shut and crossed her arms over her chest. "This is because of her, isn't it?"

Finn looked at her, confused.

"What?"

"This is because of Rachel Berry and you liking her, or whatever." She rolled her eyes and swung her backpack over her shoulder. "I don't see why you love her so much, Finn. She's gross and doesn't care about anything besides singing and dancing."

Finn sighed and looked at Quinn, feeling his anger boil up inside of him. He normally wasn't one who got angry at the little things (or at least he tried not to be), but he was angry. He seemed to be angrier and angrier at Quinn lately, but it had never gotten that bad until then. He didn't know why, either. Quinn had always been someone he liked spending his time around.

Over time, she had just turned into someone he didn't want to be with at all.

"Well, I'm going to go," he said, his voice becoming harsher. "I really want to see it, and so what if I want to see Rachel in it? I'm sure she's going to be really good."

Quinn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest furiously.

"You need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid she's giving you and step out of the little Broadway dream she's pulled you into," she warned him, fury buried in her voice. "We're in high school, Finn. None of us are going to grow up and become Broadway stars, or celebrities, or win American Idol, okay? We're normal people stuck in a normal town, and she doesn't understand that. The least you can do is stay away from her so you don't end up crazy like her."

Finn sighed and looked down at Quinn, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, and what happens if I don't?"

Quinn looked at him, scoffing lightly. "You can forget having me as your girlfriend."

Quinn stormed away from him, walking out the doors with her blonde hair following behind her in a mess.

Finn watched her and sighed, turning around to make his way to his own locker.

Maybe losing Quinn wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. If anything, he would be doing it for Rachel.

Unfortunately, someone had already beaten him to the punch when it came to dating Rachel. And judging by the way she spoke about her Broadway-bound Boston Conservatory boyfriend, he wasn't going to get a chance to spend any time with her any time soon.

:.:.:

He ended up going to the musical that night, alone. There really wasn't anyone he could go with; none of his friends cared about anything that didn't have to do with any of the athletic events at their school.

He got a seat that was closer to the audience, but by the time the show started, the auditorium was packed. Finn was surprised that so many people had shown up, and part of him wondered how many of them were people that Rachel knew.

For all he knew, Rachel had invited a bunch of people that they didn't even go to school with to see her – people who probably treated her with a lot more respect than the people at their own school did. Maybe they appreciated her for being able to sing so well and actually knowing what she wanted to do with her life instead of the rest of the people they knew; all debating whether or not to go to real estate school or not once they graduated.

When the lights went down the entire auditorium went silent, and Finn was kind of surprised when Rachel didn't come out on stage right away. Judging by how highly she spoke of the musical and how excited she was to play her part of 'Nancy,' or whatever it was. He couldn't really remember.

After following the story of whoever it was that player Oliver, however (some fifth grader from the elementary school, he later learned), Finn recognized it when Rachel walked on stage alongside another girl who was somehow shorter than her (something he didn't think was medically possible), wearing what he thought was the tightest thing he had ever seen her in.

It was a long, floor-length red dress with sleeves that ended just above her elbows, a corset pulling her waist in and giving her an ample chest and made her hips look wider.

If she wore something like that school every day, Finn would have been lying if he had said that he didn't like it.

She performed really well, and the more she went on and sang and made people in the audience come close to crying, the more Finn realized that she wasn't kidding when she had told him that she wanted to become a Broadway star one day. There was something about her that was captivating and spellbinding and wonderful all at the same time, and although Finn didn't know much about theatre and performing and the like, he knew that those were things that people looked for in actors.

He was able to see that it was something she wanted more than anything else in the entire world, and there was a certain sense of pride that he felt swell up in his chest when he watched her sing.

She was happy. And whether or not he liked her or the people he chose to spend his life with thought she was a good person, she was happy. No one could ever take that away from her.

Rachel had never told Finn that there was a scene where her character ultimately got killed by her abusive boyfriend, so he was kind of surprised when it finally happened. Apparently, if he was following the show correctly, Nancy's boyfriend, Bill Sykes, got so mad with her that he beat her to death.

He kind of wanted to applaud for her once she died, but he didn't. The audience was just stunned into silence and didn't do anything when the scene was over.

Finn thought that must have been a good thing. Rachel must have been so good that people couldn't decide on a reaction to give her about her performance.

:.:.:

When the show had ended, Finn hadn't been made aware of the fact that the cast would be greeting the audience out in the lobby as they left, which he was excited about. He wanted to see Rachel and congratulate her for a job well done, and he was pretty sure that she didn't know that he would be there, either.

For all he knew, however, she didn't want him there.

It didn't take him long to find her; using his height to his advantage to scope her out among the crowd. She's the only one in a brilliant red dress.

She paced around for a while, chewing on her thumbnail with her back turned to Finn. He figured she just didn't notice him, so he tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned around faster than the speed of light.

"Hey," he said, waving awkwardly. He watched a large smile lit up her entire face. "You did really good out there, Rachel."

She smiled and tipped her head up to look at him, her hair falling from the bun it had been in. "Oh my God, Finn," she said, her voice heavy and quiet. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I wasn't really doing anything tonight, and I remembered how you were talking about this in chem today, so I figured I would come." She smiled and started laughing sweetly as he looked down at her. "You were really, really good."

"Thank you," she said, blushing slightly. Her eyes moved around him slowly. "You didn't bring Quinn?"

"Oh, um, she was tired," he said, lying. "I didn't want to make her upset."

A look of relief washed over Rachel's face and her smile got even brighter.

"Well, what a great boyfriend you make," she said, reaching out to touch him on the arm. She giggled sweetly and started playing with her hair absentmindedly, Finn watching her as she seemed to get lost in her own thoughts.

He was about to open his mouth and say something when he noticed a figure come up behind her and tap her on the shoulder.

A taller, recognizable figure with a large bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"Hi!" Rachel practically shrieked as she turned around, noticing her boyfriend standing behind her and practically crushing the flowers he had for her as she wrapped herself around him in a tight embrace. Finn watched them as he became a background character and smiled to himself awkwardly, looking down at his feet to pass the time.

Rachel eventually pulled herself from her boyfriend's embrace and turned back to Finn, arms still wrapped around her boyfriend's frame.

"Finn, you remember Jesse, don't you?"

"Yeah," he says plainly, trying to look like she's piqued his interest. She smiles and looks back up at Jesse, laughing as he started to talk about her.

"You're the one from the bar, right?"

Finn nodded. "Yeah."

"These flowers are beautiful," Rachel gushed, smelling the bouquet Jesse had picked out for her. "Aren't they, Finn?"

"Yeah," Finn started, fumbling with his keys in his pocket. "They're really pretty. Stunning."

"Well, I don't think anyone was as beautiful as you were up there, Rach," Jesse said, Finn feeling like he was ready to throw up. "You were perfect."

Rachel stood up on her toes to kiss him and Finn sighed, shifting his weight on his feet nervously. "Well, I should probably get going," he mused, pulling his keys from his pocket. "I need to get home early anyway."

Rachel turned to face Finn again and smiled, waving at him. "Thanks so much for coming, Finn," she said, her voice soft.

Finn smiled.

If anything, he could just be glad that she was happy about him being there.

Rachel being happy was all he really wanted.