A/N: This chapter is ridiculously short compared to all the others, but this really was a good stopping point. Not much to say other than enjoy!

The day of her audition, Rachel woke up with an odd excitement filled within her tiny body. She had practiced the song with Tina repeatedly whenever they were both bored or both around the house, and with the approval of Quinn they knew they were both ready for this.

Rachel pulled into the studio lot about fifteen minutes before nine that sunny Tuesday morning.

She put her car in park, taking a deep breath as she grabbed her phone from the cupholder, hearing it begin to vibrate.

"Well hello." She said when she answered. "You're up unusually early." She said, taking a sip of the coffee that she had stopped to get on her way in.

"Well I wanted to wish you good luck." Finn said quietly on the other line.

Rachel smiled. "A text would've sufficed."

"Nah." He said simply.

"Well thank you, that's very cute of you." She said sweetly.

"Are you nervous?" he then asked.

"Yes." She said sighing into the phone. "But I'll be fine."

"You got this." He said reassuringly.

"Do you want me to call you when I'm done?" she asked. "Or will you be asleep again?"

Finn laughed lightly. "I might be, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't."

"Mmmm…okay." She said happily. "I'll talk to you in a bit." She said quietly before they hung up with each other.

Rachel went in and just like last time, she sung her heart out with confidence. The audition felt strangely familiar to the previous time; however, something was different than the last time. Maybe she was just being paranoid. They said they would be in touch and she thanked them all once more when she was finished, and walked out. She never usually sung Journey, but she had been practicing a lot, or at least she thought it was a lot.

'I blew it.' She thought to herself. 'I was too picky; I was trying to be too over the top.' These thoughts continuously ran through her mind all the way home that she almost forgot about Finn. She wanted to talk to him, but a part of her didn't want to be bothered.

Stepping out of the car, she stopped seeing Tina walking out the door. "Are you headed there?" Rachel asked curiously as Tina nodded; excitement in her eyes.

"How did it go?" Tina then asked.

Rachel shrugged. "I think fine. They said they'd be in touch." She said nonchalantly, knowing she felt the complete opposite of 'fine.'

"Good luck! You're going to be fabulous though." Rachel then added as she hugged Tina.

"Thanks, Rachel." Tina had said through a smile, returning the hug before Rachel headed inside.

When she was in her room, she closed the door taking a deep breath, leaning against the door for a second before changing into sweatpants and a NYADA shirt that was about two sizes too big for her.

Crawling into her bed, she reached over for her Ipod, putting the headphones in her ear, tuning out the world as she closed her eyes when the music began. Singing gently along with the words, she closed her eyes, knowing she would probably fall asleep once again soon.

The entire time she ignored her phone, not even seeing it go off on the nightstand next to the bed.

000

"Rachel." She heard, bringing her back into consciousness. Her playlist had stopped playing, but she still had her headphones in her ears, feeling the pain as she quickly brought her hand up, ripping them out of her ear.

She opened her eyes, looking up seeing Finn. "What the hell?" she said shocked, instantly feeling as awake as she'd ever feel. "Why are you here?" she asked suddenly.

Finn looked taken aback. "Whoa, whoa." He said taking a step back. "I'm sorry." He said then.

She shook her head, not understanding so he continued. "I just…got worried." He said quietly. "Sorry, I'll go."

"No, I just don't get…why?" she asked, feeling confused, sitting up.

He shrugged. "You didn't call and well I sort of kept trying to call. Guess I got paranoid." He said.

"Oh." She said, looking at him, feeling awkward. "Just because I don't talk to you for a few hours?" she then asked, saying it in a more harsh tone than intended.

"No. God no." he said looking at her incredulously. "Do you think I'm a psycho?" he then asked.

Rachel smiled. "No, I'm sorry…I know, I said I'd call and I didn't, right?"

"Sort of." He said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Look you're right. I shouldn't have come…" he began before Rachel cut him off.

"When did I say that?" she asked suddenly.

"You implied it." He said with a shrug.

"I didn't." she said, throwing the blankets off of her, standing. She was relieved to see him, and she knew being mean to him over her paranoia over the audition wasn't going to help anything. She sighed, walking up to him, opening her arms as she walked into his large ones.

"Are you okay?" he asked, hugging her tightly, smiling even though she couldn't see.

Rachel nodded. "I'm fine." She said simply.

"Did your audition go well?" he asked when she pulled away.

Rachel shrugged. "Hard to tell."

"Are you just saying that?" he asked then, looking down at her face as she looked at the ground.

She shrugged. "I could've been better. I probably sucked. I don't know." She said.

"Hey, stop. Don't be hard on yourself. I'm sure you did fine." He said reassuringly.

"But you weren't there, you're just saying that." She said.

He shook his head, taking her hand. "No I'm not."

"You've hardly ever heard me sing." She said quickly, stepping back from him, sitting back on the bed as she sighed.

He walked up next to her, sitting next to her, taking her hand once more. "How do you know?"

She looked at him as she scrunched her eyebrows. "What do you mean how do I know? It's me singing and you listening which I don't think happened."

He smiled, pointing his free thumb over towards the poster. "You'd be amazed at the shit you find on youtube." He said.

"Spring Awakening?" she asked curiously, her mouth agape. "Is it really?"

"It is." He said smiling. "Don't think I'm crazy or anything but those few days when we didn't talk right after the night I first met you, I sort of watched parts of it…"

Rachel smiled at how cute he looked in that moment even though he always looked cute. "You did?" she whispered.

Finn nodded. "You're insanely talented." He said simply.

"Are you real?" she then asked, not filtering her thoughts in the slightest.

"Uh…what?" he asked suddenly.

She smiled, shaking her head. "You just come into my life out of nowhere and randomly show up and now here you are, just trying to make me feel better about myself and it's random. It doesn't even feel like real life." She said, looking down at the blankets.

He smiled. "I think I'm here right now…" he said jokingly. "I mean, my heart is still beating. I think I'm alive." He said with his free hand on his chest.

"That's a relief." She joked.

"Yeah, no Edward Cullen stuff going on here." He said as Rachel laughed hard, looking up, throwing her head back.

She looked at him. "But what if I did do poorly? What if I don't get this? I literally have no other plans and I have to make money somehow."

"So you'll do what everyone else here does." He said simply. "Get a temporary job. Besides, I have faith in you." He said shrugging. "I think you're just overanalyzing because it's…you."

Rachel sighed before agreeing, deciding it was no use to sit there in a funk over something she wasn't even certain over.

She looked up at him, before smiling. "When are we leaving?" she then asked, changing the subject.

"What? For San Luis Obispo? I was going to see if Thursday night worked…" he said, his voice trailing off.

Rachel shrugged. "Works for me. What else do I have going on?" she said quietly with a grin.

He smiled before standing. "Let's go do something. Get your mind off of this."

She stood up on the bed, her arms making their way around his neck as he put his arms around her waist, smiling up at her. "I now know what it's like to be your kind of tall." She whispered through a laugh.

He smiled, kissing her lightly before picking her up off of the bed as she laughed. She couldn't wait until the weekend.