A/N: Thank you for the response. Sorry for the short chapters. I will try to make ones longer as much as I can.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee/Characters.
Talking with Mr. Schue took time much longer than she'd imagined. But she was Rachel Berry. She somehow managed to be in time. Glancing at her watch, satisfied. At 4:58, she slid herself into the studio, which name happened to be 'Hell Gate'.
"Hi, what can I help for you?"
An older woman with a big stock bun on the top of her head, dressing multi fluorescent colored geometric pattern shirts and yellow pants, greeted smile sweetly as Rachel smoothed her skirt and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Hello, I am Rachel Berry. I'm supposed to meet David here at 5." She offered her hand, relieved she didn't find the unfriendly blonde woman anywhere.
"I'm Macy, studio engineer slash occasional receptionist. You know where his office is, right?" Rachel nodded. Macy came out of the front desk and nudged her small back, pointing to the direction. "So you have free access."
"Thank you, Macy."
Standing in front of his closed door, Rachel assured her bag strap over her shoulder, then knocked.
"Come in!"
Rachel slowly wrenched the door open, poked her head into his office. "Hello, David."
"Hi." David rose from his chair, gesturing to a chair on the opposite side of the desk. "Sorry for such short notice."
"Oh, no, don't be. I'm the one who should be sorry, since I asked a big favour." Rachel bit her lower lip. "Um, you didn't mention how much I should pay for this yesterday."
"Forget about that." David dismissed her with his waving hand. "I used to write my own songs. Sharing my knowledge could be good for me to be honest. It's refreshing, you know, to meet new people and talk about music."
Rachel nodded appreciatively, drifting her eyes over the shelf behind him. "Wow, you like Broadway?" Her eyes lit up as she caught sight of a spine which was written "The Jason Robert Brown Collection", pointing the book with her finger.
It got her more excited. "I'm going to be a star on Broadway." She smiled from ear to ear, straightening up herself proudly, tucking a pile of her hair behind her ear. "I didn't imagine you could be interested in Broadway."
David chuckled warmly, turning around, reaching the book down. "I'd be lying if I said I'm a huge fan." He added quickly as her smiled faded with 'o' shaped mouth. "I've not watched Broadway works as many as I assume you have," he flipped through the book, "but I really like his works, songwriting wise." He looked up from the book. "Besides, I'm very open to any type of music."
They spent time to get to know each other a while. Rachel learnt that David was born and raised in Lima, graduated from the Ohio State University school of music, but was back to Lima after graduation to help his older brother Matthew who owned the studio.
She also found out that his band name was 'Woody's Four' which was derived from a pizza place around campus where he, his best friend/bandmate/roommate Morgan and old members of his band from the college used to go to gab.
"So, I assume that you play piano, and-" Rachel asked, pointing the guitar on the corner of the office.
"Yeah, I play guitar, too. My main instrument is piano, but-" David twisted his upper body, reaching the guitar from the corner, twanging a little, "with guitar, you can write a song wherever you are, unlike piano, you know, you can carry around. How about you?"
"I play piano, too."
"Then we better meet at a place where has a piano. At my place or the studio." David suggested.
"Oh. But I've not completed lyrics yet. I've not write down one word yet to be honest. I've undecided which story I'd like to speak of should put into lyrics." Rachel confessed, fidgeting a little. "So, I can go wherever you suggest. I and my friends always meet at Lima Bean. If you have a regular place to go, you know, coffee house or somewhere, I drive to come." She was nervous as she heard 'his place'. Besides, David was too kind. She couldn't take him up too much on it.
"In the matter of songwriting, I recommend you to start working on music composition before lyrics. In my opinion, it's more difficult to compose a melody to go with the lyrics, especially if you think melody is as important as lyrics."
David's cell phone went off as he was about continue to speak. "Hey, Kate… Right… No, it's still on… Uh-huh… Okay, I'll come over-," he checked his watch and looked down at a paper sheet on the desk, "in 30 minutes… Sounds good… Okay… Love you, too. Bye." He hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket. He looked at Rachel. "Sorry."
Rachel shook her head, thinking if a person on the other end of the line was his girlfriend. He looked like in his late twenties, he was very nice, he was handsome. Of course, he should have a girlfriend. But was she the mean blonde receptionist? She wasn't at the front desk today. Nuh, she didn't have to be…
Rachel, forcus. Be professional.
As if on cue, her stomach rambled. They both forgot the time completely. It's almost 7:30.
David raised his eyebrow. "How time flies, huh?"
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to take your time this much." Rachel apologized, jumping up from the chair. "I have to go anyway. Dinner is waiting for me."
"Okay, let's call it a day. Well, I had a great time." David offered his hand and opened the door of his office for her.
"Me too. Thank you for today." She took his hand, shaking vigorously. "I'll try to do some melodies first for the next time." Rachel followed his lead to the studio front door. Macy was still at the desk.
Rachel faced about him. "Thank you, again. See you next time." And she looked toward Macy, waving her hand. "Bye, Macy."
"Bye, Rachel." David and Macy said in unison, waving their hand too.
David saw Rachel skipping (literally) toward her car before he closed the door. He turned his head to Macy, chuckling. "High school, full of dream, full of hope, full of energy. I wish I could be like her in high school."
"Yes, you were. You can still be, if you want to be." Macy patted his shoulder, giving him a meaningful glance.
On Saturday afternoon, Rachel was waiting for Kurt at Lima Bean, staring at a blank page of her notebook, nibbling the end of her pencil. Her head was full of thoughts about songwriting. Melody before lyrics. Hmm. Writing a solo, she was definitely going to make it ballad which she could belt out perfectly. But what type of tune should be sounded?
Immersing herself in various thoughts for an original song, she missed Kurt and Blaine walking into the shop hand in hand.
"Hello, Rachel."
Rachel snapped out of her thought by Kurt's voice. She looked up from the blank page before her gaze met the two familiar faces. "Hello, Kurt. Hi, Blaine."
"Hi, Rachel. You don't mind my joining you two?" Blaine asked.
"Oh, no, no. Not at all." Rachel glared at Kurt, pretending to be mad at him. "I knew that you would tell him about it!"
"Of course, I did. Telling the truth is very important for relationships." Kurt said matte-of-factly, sitting on an armchair on the opposite side of Rachel, so did Blain next to Kurt.
"Mercedes called me last night. It seemed like Mr. Schue pulled off. She was really excited." Kurt wrinkled his nose, remembering the conversation. "On top of that, she got me an earful about an idea for her solo for hours."
"Only for an hour, wasn't it?" Blaine pointed out.
Kurt glared at his boyfriend, protesting. "Still. It's enough time for my ear to swollen." Rachel and Blaine giggled. Kurt turned his face to Rachel. "You know, she might give you a run for her money."
"Bring it." She smirked. "I have a goooood feeling about this"
"Ooooohh, is it because of the tutor who you mentioned in your text?" Kurt clapped his hands animatedly. "What does he look like? Spill, I need details."
"He's…," she paused, picturing David in mind, "um, he's an intellectual-sexy kind of guy. I don't know how old he is, but I assume that he's twenty-six? seven? or something. Graduated from OSU, school of music. The Hell Gate studio co-owner. He sing, play piano and guitar. He is in a band. And I think he has a girlfriend."
"You think?" Blaine raised his eyebrow, sipping his coffee.
"Yeah, he got a phone call from a woman named Kate while we were talking in his office." Rachel said nonchalantly.
"She might be just a friend of his. It's early to give up!" Kurt bantered.
"What are you talking about? I'm not interested in David! Even if I was, he is much older and I'm just a baby for him." Rachel pouted, crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Kate women is probably his girlfriend because he said 'love you, too' before he hung up. Besides, I'm still heart broken. Right now, no need distraction, focus on my original song. So don't push me that way."
"Fair enough." Kurt nodded affirmatively. "Speaking of which, did you talk to Finn?"
"No. Did you?" Rachel asked.
"No. Yes. He asked if I knew your resignation last night. But I said no."
Rachel sighed. "I'm sorry. I'll try not to get you be torn between us." She looked down at her hands on the table.
"It's fine. It would happen if you two were still a couple, you know, since we three are friends in the first place." Kurt put his hand on hers. Rachel nodded.
"Okay, let's have a fun. How about going see movie?" Blaine suggested, trying to shake off a bad mood. Rachel and Kurt affirmed.
Kurt linked an arm with Blaine, the other with Rachel, walking out of Lima Bean, leaving Rachel's sad sigh behind.
Any thoughts?