I know my timeline might be a little off, in terms of college applications due dates, the length of the football season, and college recruitment for Finn, so I've decided to take some creative liberties. We're only in early November and we still have the rest of their senior year to get through! This is probably why One Tree Hill went with basketball as the main sport lol. They could really drag it out if they wanted to!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The chapter title comes from the song "I've Got Dreams to Remember" by Otis Redding. This song was the title of episode 3x12 of One Tree Hill.

Juggling her books in the crook of one arm, Rachel kept her eyes on the checklist she had in her hand. It was the checklist she had created sophomore year of high school, right after her teachers had mentioned they should start thinking about where they wanted to attend college. Rachel had demanded her fathers take her to New York City that weekend, where they spent hours going from campus to campus, trying to determine where the best theater program was. Thankfully, in a city like New York, she had plenty of options to choose from.

College applications were due to go out soon. Rachel wasn't worried about being accepted to any of the programs she had selected—her grades were stellar, her resume was loaded with activities, and her theater background had been built since she was four years old. Being accepted into college wasn't the issue.

It was trying to figure out the college situation with Finn.

That in and of itself wasn't even an issue. It was simply a discussion that they needed to have, a decision that they needed to make together. In the early days of their marriage, they had briefly discussed college. The only decision they had made at that time was that they would be going together.

Rachel had never settled on a dream college, she just had her entire dream in general—to be in New York City, and to take Broadway by storm. That was always the plan. According to Christopher Hudson, Finn was supposed to go to Ohio State and then move on to the NFL. Of course, Finn's dream was to make it to the NFL. He had been playing football his whole life, practically, and was very, very good at it. His time at First Down over the summer was just the first step towards his NFL dreams, as an overwhelming number of students that attended that camp ended up being drafted into the NFL.

It was only later that Rachel found out that Finn never cared to end up at Ohio State. He knew that it was a great school, of course, with a fantastic football program that had churned out many players that made it to the NFL. It was as if since his father had drilled into him from a young age that the ultimate goal was for Finn to end up at Ohio State, he felt nothing but apathy for that school. He had told Rachel that he wanted to play football in college, of course, but he had been talking to Beiste about other programs that were interested in him, outside of Ohio.

As applications needed to go out soon, and Finn was in the middle of recruitment, it was a decision that they needed to make, and soon. And even though this was big, and life-changing, Rachel felt hope that everything was going to be okay. She and Finn had already weathered one major storm; they could handle anything, now.

Rachel was so lost in her train of thought, she was completely startled when a familiar, calloused hand wrapped around her arm and tugged her into an empty classroom. She only got a brief glimpse of Finn's smiling face before his lips were on hers.

Rachel forgot about everything as she dropped her books and her checklist and wound her arms around Finn's neck, holding him close as she returned his kiss. She smiled against his lips, thinking about how they had spent the past two weeks running around, making out in as many places as possible, as if they had just started dating.

In a way, they kind of had just started dating again. After so many months apart, they had to re-learn one another, become comfortable with one another in that intimate way once again. They still hadn't slept together yet, but Rachel knew that the anticipation was killing both of them. That special moment wasn't going to be very far off.

Their kiss broke off naturally, and Rachel set her head against Finn's chest as she snuggled closer to him. "We haven't done this since we first started dating. I kind of missed it."

Laughing, Finn said, "You make us sound like we're an old married couple."

Joining in on Finn's laughter, Rachel poked his chest. "We kind of are, aren't we?"

Finn hugged Rachel close again, and then pulled back to begin scooping up everything that Rachel dropped. He gathered her books into a neat pile and set the checklist on top, taking in the list of colleges and where she was at in the application process.

"Guess we've got something to talk about, don't we?" Finn noted as he tapped the piece of paper with his index finger. He scanned the list quickly, taking in NYU, NYADA, Pace University, and Columbia. There were a few other colleges listed as well, along with a pro-con list on their theater programs. Finn grinned. His wife was nothing if not thorough.

Deciding to go with levity, Rachel said, "Yeah, where we're going to spend the next four years of our lives seems like something we should talk about."

Finn gave her a half amused look as he settled into one of the desks in the empty classroom. Pointing at where she had Columbia University listed, Finn said, "You know, Columbia was looking to recruit me. They came to one of the games last week. According to Coach, they want to extend an offer."

Rachel blinked and tried not the let the surprise show on her face. "Columbia?" she finally managed in what she thought was an incredibly neutral tone. "Really?" When Finn raised an eyebrow at her, Rachel flushed and blurted, "Not that you couldn't get into Columbia if you didn't want to, Finn!"

Finally cutting her some slack, Finn said, "Don't worry, Rach, Columbia definitely doesn't want me because of my grades. I mean, they've gotten a lot better, but they're nowhere near Ivy League level. They're just looking to build their football program and a lot of the players at the expensive private schools have signed at Harvard and Yale and Penn."

Deciding to let the Columbia thing go for right now, Rachel joined Finn at the desk next to his. They both had free periods at the moment, so she guessed that now was as good a time as any to try and figure this out. "What other schools have tried to recruit you?"

"Ohio State, of course," Finn said with grimace.

Ohio State had been the school that Chris had pushed for Finn to attend his entire life. It was close enough to Lima that Chris would still be able to control every aspect of Finn's training and play if he wanted to. For obvious reasons, Finn wanted to avoid that. There were so many good schools with good football teams. Ohio State certainly wasn't the only one, and Finn wanted to look at all of his options.

What with the rather nasty run-in at Anne's Café after Halloween and the fact that Finn had seen Chris carrying on with some twenty-something young woman in the middle of the car dealership, Finn wasn't exactly keen on considering his father's opinion on where to go to college at this point.

"And Notre Dame, but you know I have no interest in going there," Finn continued. "Michigan and Clemson had reached out to Coach over the summer, but I told her that they were too far away for me to consider."

Rachel bit her lip and looked down, her cheeks flushing with pleasure. Even when things were at their worst between them, Finn still hadn't given up hope that they would end up fixing things. It just made her love him all the more.

Finn was smiling warmly at her once she looked up again, and he continued. "I told Coach I was really hoping to go to school in New York, as close to the city as I could get. So we've been talking to Cornell, Fordham, and Syracuse. There's also this smaller college that has been reaching out to Coach that I've been considering, called McKinley College. They, um…" To Rachel's surprise, his cheeks flushed. "They have a really good education program."

"You want to be a teacher?" Rachel asked. She reached over, taking Finn's hand in hers. She didn't know why she had never thought of it before, because it seemed like the perfect career choice for Finn.

"I mean, the NFL is my ultimate goal," Finn said. "But if that doesn't work out, or I don't make it—"

"You'll make it!" Rachel said vehemently. She knew that, obviously, not everyone made it to the NFL. But she had no doubt that Finn would, and she wanted him to know that she believed in him.

Finn smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "If I don't, I thought it would be good to have a backup plan. And McKinley College is in the city, even closer to NYU and NYADA then Fordham is."

Rachel bit her lip, hesitating on the question that she really wanted to ask Finn. Leaning forward, he tapped the tip of her nose before he stroked his finger against her temple. She sighed and leaned into his touch, closing her eyes.

"Tell me what's going on up here, Rach," he coaxed.

"I just… I want you to be sure that you want to play football in the city," she finally said. "There are other colleges in New York with really good programs, or even something outside the city, that would be sure to get you on track for the NFL. I don't want you to miss out on that just because you want to stay in the city for me."

It felt like an immense relief to get this off of her chest. This was the conversation that they should have had last May, this was the way that they should have been communicating all along. It felt good to talk to Finn like this, to share her worries and her dreams with him and have him share the same with her.

Honestly, it made her feel a little stupid for the way everything had went down at the end of their junior year, and the following summer. She didn't know what she had been so afraid of then, but she had spent a lot of time thinking about it and had finally unearthed the feelings she had buried so deep: while it had felt so right to marry Finn so young, she had also known that it had been an incredibly impulsive decision.

Rachel Berry didn't do impulsive. Everything was always planned, always thought out and meticulously executed. And then Finn Hudson had come barreling into her life, and she hadn't planned on falling in love with him. She certainly hadn't planned on marrying him at seventeen. But she did. And at the back of her mind, she had felt this pressure to succeed in her marriage, to prove everyone wrong and show them all that their despite their young ages, this marriage could work out and would last.

So when the Funny Girl and the First Down debacle had come up, Rachel had worried, deep down, that this would be the thing to break their marriage. That their differing dreams would somehow cause their relationship to end. In hindsight, she knew it was ridiculous. Two people could be in a fulfilling relationship and still achieve all of their professional goals. Sometimes that required one person to give more than the other; sometimes it meant that they both had to sacrifice. It didn't matter, as long as they did it together.

Her fear of failure had held her back. She could see now that the two things were not mutually exclusive, that she and Finn could have their marriage and their dreams so long as they chose to work at them, together. And that's what they were choosing now.

They had talked about their summer apart, about a week after they finally kissed again. Finn had revealed that he had been so afraid of holding Rachel back, he had instead shut down completely. He didn't want to lose her because he wasn't good enough for her (when Rachel had heard that, she had spent half an hour detailing very specifically why that wasn't at all true), so he had instead swung the pendulum the complete opposite way and overcompensated by putting Rachel on the train.

That had been a separate conversation that had taken a whole other night. They had talked very seriously about the heartbreak that day incurred, and they had both shed tears over it. In the end, after a lot of tears and even some yelling, Finn and Rachel had both promised to never, ever do something like that ever again.

Now that all of that was behind them, the decision of where to go to college hardly felt insurmountable. Finn cupped his hand against Rachel's cheek, stroking his thumb tenderly as he smiled at her.

"Rach, the cool thing about football is that I can play it anywhere. There's only one Broadway, and that's where you need to be when we go to college. I'm not worried about finding a place to play football."

Rachel stared into Finn's eyes, assessing those warm, brown depths. After a long moment of study, she knew that he was absolutely, one hundred percent, telling the truth. She covered his hand with hers and grinned at him, feeling excitement at the future that they were building together.

"Where do you want to go?" Finn asked. "Kurt hasn't shut up about NYADA since he visited there over the summer, so I'm guessing that's a pretty prestigious school."

"It is," Rachel agreed. "But honestly, that school is at the bottom of my list. Shelby got me to do a tour there over the summer and everyone was just a little too stuck up for my tastes." She wrinkled her nose. "I love theater and everything that comes with it, but I also want to have fun while I'm doing it. I had so much anxiety just walking on to NYADA's campus."

"Do you have a top choice, then?"

Rachel pulled her list towards her and scanned it, but the truth was, she had made up her mind already. "Honestly, I'd be happy at any of these schools. But I think my top choice is… NYU." At Finn's amused smile and arched eyebrows, Rachel rushed to add, "I worked closely with their summer program during Funny Girl and I just… I liked the teachers and the way the program felt. It just seems like a good fit."

"At the program Jesse is at."

Rachel sighed. "Finn…"

"No, I know. He's actually… he's a good guy. Don't tell him I said that!" Finn ran a hand through his already messy hair. "I know I have to let this go, but I don't think there will ever be a time that I won't find Jesse St. James to be at least a little annoying."

That made Rachel laugh, and she left the desk she was sitting in to drop herself in Finn's lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his face down to hers. "So that's it, then? We're looking at schools in New York City?"

"That's it," Finn agreed. "We can find a place to live between both campuses when… when the time comes."

Rachel smiled shyly at Finn. They weren't living together again yet, but Rachel had a feeling that by the time the holidays rolled around, they'd be spending a lot of nights together. From the smoldering look in Finn's eyes, she knew that he was thinking the same thing.

Checking the time on her phone, Rachel gave Finn a sly look. "We still have twenty minutes of our free period, you know."

Shifting Rachel in his lap so that she was now straddling him, Finn tangled his fingers in Rachel's loose hair and tilted her head back. "Guess we better make good use of that time, then," he murmured before his lips came down over hers.

Quinn was intently flipping through her copy of Macbeth. She had a quiz on acts two and three of the play in about ten minutes, and she wanted to make sure that she was prepared. Just because college applications were almost due, didn't mean she was going to slack on her grades.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the familiar silhouette of Puck. He was approaching the table with determined strides, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. Quinn spared a brief moment to look up from her book and smile at him.

"Hey, Puck," she murmured absently. Her eyes returned to the book, and she highlighted a passage, even though she was no longer really paying attention. She felt the tingle of awareness at the back of her neck that was always present whenever Puck was around. He was entirely too distracting, and Quinn had spent a lot of time trying not to let Puck know that.

"Do you want to go out with me tonight?"

Macbeth completely forgotten, Quinn let her book fall close as she looked up at Puck with wide eyes. She was completely frozen, gaping at Puck in a comic imitation of a fish. She was silent for so long that Puck was actually starting to get a little nervous.

He had seen Quinn studying in the courtyard and had marched right up to her, deciding that his brother and best friend were right: enough was enough. It was time for him to really make a move and tell Quinn how he rally felt, especially after all of the drama from last year was finally over. With all of the time they had been spending together, especially as they did their best to push Finn and Rachel into romantic situations, Puck had thought that Quinn was feeling the same way he did. She was so quiet now, though, so surprised, that Puck was losing some of his confidence. It wasn't a very familiar feeling for him.

Maybe she hadn't heard him correctly. "Quinn, would you like to—"

"Yes."

"What?"

Quinn licked her lips and stood up. "Yes. I'd like to go out with you."

"Oh. Okay. Cool."

Puck grinned at her, and Quinn smiled widely in return. Somewhere in the distance, the bell rang. Quinn noted it absently, even though she had a quiz to get to. She wasn't too worried, since she was an excellent student and her teacher would let her take it later if she needed to. Puck wasn't making a move to go to his next class, either. In fact, he reached out and took her hand, looking as if he was going to haul her towards him and kiss her.

"You weirdos!"

The exclamation came from across the courtyard. Both Quinn and Puck turned towards the sound, not at all surprised to find Finn, Rachel, and Santana watching them with amused grins. Finn was the one who had yelled, and Quinn immediately dissolved into laughter. After everything they had put Finn and Rachel through, they totally deserved whatever the now happy couple would dish out.

"Fuck you!" Puck shouted across the courtyard, even though it wasn't entirely empty yet. He wasn't worried about getting detention, however, since he was one of the stars of the football team. Who would dream of putting him in detention?

"Puckerman!" This time, the yell came from right behind him. Puck grimaced and slowly turned around to find Coach Beiste standing behind him, her arms across her chest as she tapped her foot.

Yeah, he hadn't considered that his own coach might give him detention.

The whole college discussion between Nathan and Haley on One Tree Hill was a little more drawn out and angsty, and I didn't want to have that here. Of course, McKinley College is a made-up school, invented for the purposes of this story. There aren't exactly a ton of football schools in NYC that were reasonably close to NYU, and I just couldn't see Finn at Columbia. At this point, this is assuming Finn has already done his research on where he would like to go, and had talked to multiple recruiters/coaches at this point. I might have fudged some details with college recruitment here, but I think we can all allow me some creative license with this story. Thanks for reading!