A/N: OK I don't do many a/n's but I need to this for chapter. It is short for a reason, it is the bridge between the first half and the second half of the story. I've never had to do something like this before for a fic, so please be kind. I hope this works.
Despite taking Melatonin, doing relaxing yoga, taking a warm bath with lavender oil for relaxation, and even drinking warm milk Rachel was still tossing and turning in bed, her body in a fitful sleep. Ever since prom, Rachel's sleep had become anything but restful, despite falling asleep every night. From what she learned from her fathers and her former dorm mates, she was constantly tossing, turning and writhing on her bed; sometimes yelling or mumbling in her sleep, talking to someone in her dreams. Despite waking up from sleep, she never felt rested, often feeling like she had just run several miles or done a complete run through of a play.
It was only October and she now had the dorm to herself since all three of her dorm mates had moved out due to her sleeping habits. Everything was fine during the day, and as they got ready for bed, but when Rachel fell asleep all hell broke loose according to her former dorm mates. Rachel would toss and turn, often grunting and moaning as she did, throwing her comforter off of her. On top of that, she would talk or yell in her sleep, often muffled non-distinct words. Every once in a while she would let out a rather pleasurable scream causing her roommates to cover their heads with their pillows, not wanting to hear her ecstasy. One of them, Samantha, had the gall to tell her one morning after a particularly bad night, that Rachel was a "screamer" when she had an orgasm, and having done it twice in one night, caused Samantha to wake up and lose a lot of sleep. The worst part for Rachel though was the fact she didn't remember anything from the dreams outside of visual fragments, and the only one that really stayed with her in her waking hours were emotive whiskey eyes. She could never remember anything else though.
Tonight appeared to be the beginning of another active night with Rachel tossing and turning, throwing her comforter onto the floor, but not even waking from the coolness of the dorm room. That was another reason Rachel kept losing dorm mates, she kept the thermostat set at, as one described it, "Arctic freezer level" at all times, and to top it off a fan would blow or the window was cracked so there was a constant breeze on top of the frigid temperature. At the beginning when it was the hot and sweltering month of August, there was no problem with being frozen, but as the months progressed and the temperatures cooled off, the frigid temperatures that Rachel kept the dorm wasn't appreciated but she would ignore their complaints. For Rachel, she was comfortable and more at ease when she felt a soft breeze at cooler temperatures. The warmer the room was, the more anxious she became fearing that something bad would happen.
As the cool breeze swept over her and her tossing and turning slowed down to where she was still, her breathing became rapid and shallow, and if she still had a roommate, they would have heard her utter a single breathy word, "Finn."
Rachel was at the center of the field, standing on the red M for McKinley, going through her sound check for her performance of the National Anthem and McKinley's school song for the night's football game. Everything had to be perfect, that was the hallmark of a Rachel Berry performance, so she had dragged Jacob Ben Israel out to the field after school to make sure the outdoor stadium's sound system was up to her high expectations. Rachel stood on the red M, her large pink hat protecting her from the sun as she watched Jacob Ben Israel work the soundboard once again, "Rachel, my tiny songbird, I need you to start at the top again. I'm still getting feedback when you hit that high note during the anthem. Do you need any more help warming up my lovely? I'll be happy to assist you." Rachel rolled her eyes and screwed up her face in disgust at the look of teenage pornographic lust on Jacob's face. It only got worse as Jacob tried to waggle his eyebrows suggestively at her and only looked like Joan Rivers trying to show surprise.
"No Jacob, I'm perfectly warmed up. Just get back behind the soundboard and I'll start the beginning bars again. You do your job and I'll do mine." As she flipped on her bedazzled microphone, she noticed a blue truck pull out from behind the stadium. Not paying any more attention, she listened to the beginning notes and started to sing so Jacob could get the sound perfect. As she finished the anthem, she looked at Jacob expectantly, "No pitchiness or tinnieness for this performance Jacob. Every performance I give must be above perfection since one never knows when a talent scout of casting director may be in your audience. If for some reason that there is pitchiness or tinieness in my performance tonight, I'll tell the jocks that you took naked pictures of their girlfriends and are going to put them on your blog."
"You wouldn't dare. You're too nice of a person Rachel Berry." Jacob tried to call her bluff.
Rachel scoffed at him as he looked at her expectantly, "Jacob. While you fill your life with meaningless gossip and innuendo; my singing and performing are my entire life. I will have nothing stand in my way of reaching stardom, and if I had no issue sending someone to a closed crack house, do you really think I'd have an issue with putting the jocks onto you?" She watched the faro's boy visibly gulp as he went back to his computer and soundboard, working his magic. As she worked the stand to fit her height, she saw the blue truck come back behind the stadium and a minute later a red jersey appeared behind Jacob as he messed with this computer and soundboard. Rachel pulled her hat down more and squinted to get a better look and saw Finn Hudson, number 5, the quarterback, the most popular guy at McKinley, and her best friend's dad's girlfriend's son putting his large hand on Jacob's shoulder, causing the weasely boy to jump, "Hey Jewfro, Coach Sylvester needs you. Something about if the sound and pyrotechnics aren't right for the half-time show for the Cheerios she would be removing your brain the ancient Egyptian way?"
"Bu- but Rachel demands perfection for her performance and I haven't yet got the sound system to perfectly enhance her singing, so I really can't…" Rachel watched as Finn Hudson did something subtly enough that caused Jacob to wince in pain, and then the large quarterback leaned down and whispered something that caused Jacob to quickly grab his laptop and take off to the practice field yelling behind him, "Rachel, my sweet, I'll be back in 30 minutes so we can continue with our sound check."
Rachel rolled her eyes and yelled back as she ignored Finn Hudson as he moved closer to her, "I'm not your sweet anything Jacob!" When she looked back, she saw that Finn was now just a few yards away, but since she was still annoyed at him for getting rid of Jacob, she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot rather impatiently, "Would you care to explain why you decided to get rid of my sound boy? I need to have the sound system perfect for my performance tonight, and if it's not, you will rue the day you messed with me Finn Hudson." She shook her finger at him like she was scolding a small child, and only got a smirk in response.
She watched warily as the quarterback walked even closer to her, giving her a one shoulder shrug as the smirk played on his lips, "I heard you sing as I drove by and I needed to know who had the voice of heaven."
His admission left her perplexed, he had only heard her sing a few bars from a football field away and he wanted to meet her? The perplexed look on Rachel's face must have shown "I literally heard your voice over my radio and traffic and I just had to find the person that could sing like that. I know this'll sound creepy, but even for that brief bit, your voice moved me."
Rachel didn't want to seem too eager to get to know Finn Hudson; he was one of the jocks that didn't care for the glee group, so she worked to appear rather unimpressed by him, as she looked over at the end zone. "You know, if you hung out with Kurt, you wouldn't need to get to know me because you already would, and you would have recognized my talent." As she finished, she looked up and he was towering directly over her, making her feel much smaller than her five foot two frame actually was, a soft smile on his face as his whiskey eyes were bright and mischievous.
"I do hang out with Kurt, at home, and if you ever came over then we would have met, but he's always going over to your house for his spa sleepovers." She felt his cold breath on her face as he talked, just a whisper away from her. Before she could even think of a response, he had closed the gap, his eyes going from a glowing whiskey to a deep stormy green, and his lips meeting her softly in a kiss as his hands settled on her hips. His lips were cool against hers. When he pulled back, all she could do was stare into his now green eyes and whisper, "Finn."
When the sun finally woke her up, Rachel found her comforter again on the floor, her pillow now at her feet and a cool breeze running over her skin. She sat up and huffed in annoyance at the mess her bed was in and the fact that she still felt tired. The constant restless sleep was starting to affect her and her mood. She was crabbier than usual and would find herself falling asleep for a power nap during lectures. This wasn't good for her at all, but nothing seemed to work. Rachel wanted to call Kurt for a sympathetic ear but even he was getting annoyed with her complaining about her lack of restful sleep. If she started to talk about it he would mumble something about her seeing a counselor and getting drugs.
Standing up, she grabbed her comforter off the floor and quickly made her bed and walked towards her window where she had left it cracked through the evening. She allowed the cool breeze from it wash over her, calming her frayed nerves and relaxing her, making her think that everything was going to be just fine. She looked out onto the quad and how the orange and yellows of the sunrise washed over the golden oranges of the maple tree leaves, and sighed. Despite being at her dream school in her dream city to work towards her dream career, she just didn't feel content or at peace.
Her iPhone binged that she had a new text taking her out of her thoughts. She ran over to its dock and grabbed it with the hope it was a good morning text from Kurt, instead finding a reminder text from Brody. He was reminding her that they were meeting at Crawford Theatre for lunch to run through the scene that their group was doing for midterms. A smile formed as she looked at the x's and o's following the message. Brody was a cute upperclassman whose eye she had caught. It was very flattering that he went above and beyond to make sure she was doing her best work. She had to admit she had a crush on the upperclassman, even though Kurt seemed to thoroughly despise him for some unknown reason, and she always felt like she was being unfaithful to someone. She would just shake that feeling off though, since she and Jesse had broken up the fall of their senior year.
As she finished getting ready, she heard one more bing and saw a good morning text from Kurt. Now that her morning was complete, she grabbed her bag and her purse, and she smiled at the thought of what a good day it was going to be for her as she closed the door behind her.