AU. Rachel Berry is lead of Vocal Adrenaline. Jesse St. James is lead of New Directions and Mr. Schue's son. (Brittany gave me this inspiration when she asked if Jesse was his son, she's hilarious and awesome. And they have different last names, because, well… I suppose Jesse took his mother's name or something) It's kind of as if Rachel and Jesse have switched places...oh, well, you'll see. And beware, some of the characters might be much, much different they you know them. Mostly Jesse's POV. The first 2 chapters are well known scenarios, after that it goes a complete different direction than on the show. Oh, and, yeah, I don't own squat!

Jesse St. James, lead of the McKinley High show choir New Directions, was entering the doors of the Eastern Ohio Show Choir Sectionals with his father, Will Schuester. Since Will was coach of New Directions, which had just won the Western Ohio Sectionals, they had decided to come and check out the competition. They knew that their biggest rival was Carmel High School's choir Vocal Adrenaline, the three-time national show choir champions. New Directions was in no way as good as them but they tried. First of all, they were a much smaller school – meaning smaller budget, fewer students, less sponsors. But that doesn't mean we're any less talented or determined as them, Mr. Schue always told the glee clubbers. Though Jesse knew that he really was the only one who was a Vocal Adrenaline-level member of the club. The rest were either good singers or good dancers but not both. And of course, none of them were as purpose driven and ambitious as one Jesse St. James. He knew he was destined to be a star and was willing to do anything to achieve his goal. Yes, he knew that being in New Directions wouldn't buy him a great rep but he focused more on his individual performing. He'd been taking vocal lessons for as long as he could remember, as well as being in a band he had put together with his friends, which was oh so cleverly called "Saint James". One of Jesse's biggest role models was Freddy Mercury, so he had built up his band upon the premises of Queen. Stating the obvious, he was the songwriter, lead singer, pianist and manager of the band, which made him feel proud that he had the time for all of that. He had big plans for himself, and right now he was just in New Directions because of his dad and it was at least a start for the road to stardom.

Will and Jesse made their way to the auditorium but not without greeting some important people who didn't even really know who they were. They took their seats - 8th row, right on the corner where the two cross-aisles met.

„Perfect", Jesse said, sitting down and getting comfortable „we'll have space to stretch our legs". He hadn't even opened the program to see what was up. He liked to try and recognize the songs once they started to play.

The show was starting. Jesse found the first two performances quite boring; the first was a reformatory school choir. First, their costumes were horrendous, the color being not really orange, not really brown. What they were doing on stage couldn't be really called choreography, more like just trying to move with the rhythm, which they mostly failed. They sang 3 songs with titles that all included the words „Jesus" and „balloons". They all looked like they were waiting for somebody from the audience to stand up and shoot them.

„Too bad I don't have a gun." Jesse thought. That's how awful he thought they were.

The second choir at least resembled something close to an actual show choir, their costumes were deep green and steps were somewhat in sync with each other, though their songs were awful, too. They were far outdated and not even considered classics.

„This song should be arrested for the crime of sucking," Jesse whispered to his dad.

Mr. Schue just gave him a look that any father would give his son after he says such a thing. But he also kind of agreed deep down.

You see, Jesse was a perfectionist, he was passionate, a bit obsessive, completely arrogant, yet hard working and most importantly, he was very talented and good at what he did. He had his hopes set on being a Broadway star, so he also had a bit of a diva complexion. The only reason he had come here was because of Vocal Adrenaline, he had to see what their deal was this year. He knew the rest would be complete torture with his absolute hearing.

Jesse and Will both were feeling better about their chances at Regionals right about now. But then it was Vocal Adrenaline's turn. The auditorium became darker, the lights dimming. The stage was empty. There was total silence. Suddenly, the saw the lights shined to the back of the auditorium and everyone heard a spectacular female voice belt out, accompanied by the orchestra:

Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter.

Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter

Everybody turned around to see the owner of this fantastic, energetic voice. Jesse looked and saw a beautiful, petite young girl in a black dress with a red waist band and long, brown hair marching down the aisle next to him singing with such emotion and passion. He of course recognized the song immediately, for there wasn't a musical that Jesse hadn't seen (at least that's what he says, who knows if it's actually true).

Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!

Will opened his eyes wide and raised his eyebrows in amazement, turning to look at Jesse but he was too busy staring at the girl singing.

"Wow, she's amazing…" Jesse muttered as he kept staring at the girl, that was coming closer and closer, singing her heart out. Sure, he had been to a couple of Broadway shows and seen people with equal talent but that was Broadway, he didn't expect anything less. Though he hadn't expected a high school girl from Ohio would have such amazing talent. She was almost as good as him, which was the most surprising part. He hadn't even noticed that his mouth was slightly open in awe until she was right on his corner, looking him straight in the eyes and singing

Your turn at bat, sir,

At least I didn't fake it hat, sir.

And on the first "sir" she smiled, winked at Jesse and leaned in, put her hands lightly on each of his armrests. She was doing this because she was turning at the corner, it was obviously staged, and Jesse was just the one lucky person who happened to be sitting there but he was so mesmerized by this "Young Barbara" as he has already nicknamed her in his head, that he didn't realize it. A bit embarrassed he snapped out of his daze and closed his mouth, trying to put on an indifferent face but before he knew it she was already long gone at the end of his row and strutting her way back and on to the stage.

I'm the rose of sheer perfection

Young Barbara sang as lively as you could imagine. The energy she radiated was enough to set the whole room on fire, the passion burning in her eyes, the emotion in her face… everything agreed with Jesse as he muttered to himself again.

"Oh yes, she sure is…" He couldn't help but wonder who this girl was and why hadn't he ever heard of her before? She didn't look so young, about 17 or so, obviously not a freshman. But this was actually the first time he had seen Vocal Adrenaline perform this year, so that was probably the reason. Perhaps she was new to the group or something.

Will glanced at Jesse and smiled, though he wasn't sure if he liked that Jesse was crushing on the lead of their rival team.

"I bet it's just professional admiration. I'm sure that's how Jesse himself would put it." Mr. Schue thought. He also was blown away by this young diva, and without knowing he was slowly sinking in his seat, the thought of them getting crushed at Regionals already being embedded in his mind.

Hey, Mister Arstein, here I a-a-a-a-a-am!

"Mister Arnstein, pff" Jesse thought and shrugged. He always believed Omar Sharif wasn't vocally capable enough to play Mr. Arnstein, so he'd never liked this line at all. But the singing goddess continued to impress with such fierceness in her eyes, and practically shaking the whole auditorium with her strong voice, as Jesse got Goosebumps all over, which didn't go away for until the song was over.

The two numbers that followed were absolutely surreal, as the rest of the group joined their lead vocalist on stage, all dressed in red and black, looking a bit devilish. The choreography, the vocals, the production was truly amazing. The style was completely different, one song they did was Amy Winehouse's "Rehab", which Jesse found quite surprising, since he couldn't imagine how a group could change genres so quickly but they pulled it off perfectly. There was no doubt they would win tonight, which they in fact did. It was obvious to everyone why they were national champions, they were great. Even better than great. A pinch of jealousy made its way into Jesse's mixed feeling about this situation. He admired them just as much as resented them for being so good, he knew New Directions had no chance but he had other things on his mind at the moment.

This is where Mr. Schue and Jesse started worrying, though Mr. Schue a bit more, since Jesse was still noticeably drooling over the lead singer. It was rare to see Jesse this way, he'd always thought that girls were a waste of time, none of them were good enough for him, so he just focused on his performing. Not that anyone would really want to date Jesse, almost everybody at school thought of him as an annoying and obnoxious glee club geek. Yet he had set his sights on the most popular girl in McKinley and the lead female vocalist of New Directions, Quinn Fabray, mostly because he thought they would make a power couple. She was beautiful, smart, and was generally nice to Jesse, which was rare. Even though she thought he was a little out of his mind, she tried to accept him. But Quinn's vocals just weren't that strong, they didn't blend well with Jesse's (he always overpowered her), even though she was a great performer. She never missed a step or delivered an unrealistically looking smile on stage. But this girl, this Young Barbara was something else entirely. He needed to find out who she was. Heck, he hadn't realized it yet but he wanted to sing with her, he started to get that itchy feeling you get when you want something you don't want to want, if that makes any sense. Yes, her performance was flawed but no one could truly live up to Real Barbara. She was still fantastic, and who knows how great she'll be when she's older.

The competition had ended, the trophies presented and the cheering of Vocal Adrenaline faded out. The audience got up and left in a hurry, as if there was something extremely important happening outside.

"Hey dad, there's Shelby Corcoran, their vocal coach, go introduce yourself and find out who that girl was," Jesse pleaded, as he pointed to the tall, beautiful brunette standing by the stage, being congratulated by the other coaches. "Please! It's just professional admiration," he added before his dad even had a chance to object, because Jesse knew he would.

Will sighed and agreed. As he was making his way up to her, Jesse sat back down and pretended to read the program. Only then it occurred to him that Young Barbara's name was probably in there. He flinched as the thought came to him and quickly browsed through the booklet in his hands. And sure enough, there it was.

"Carmel High School's Vocal Adrenaline:

'Don't rain on my parade' – performed by Rachel Berry"

"Rachel Berry, Rachel Berry, what a beautiful, beautiful name…" he thought to himself.

There was a gold star after her name, he wasn't sure what it meant but he decided it was a metaphor for her being a star. And metaphors were important.

"Well that went well," Will said as he returned from his meeting with Shelby, "She told me she found it hard to consider us competition and made some strange comment about my hair and lesbians. Oh, and that was her daughter, Rachel Berry."

"Her…daughter?" a surprised Jesse asked.

"Yeah. What a coincidence, huh?" Will said, as he urged Jesse to get up and leave, since almost everyone else had gone.

"A coincidence indeed…" a stunned Jesse replied, as he walked out of the auditorium, oblivious to everything around him, thinking about this new development.