Rachel Barbra Berry. Singer and Actress extraordinaire. Hailing from small town Lima, Ohio. Residing in New York City and attending 'New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts'. NYADA, for short. Currently situated on the end of a bench, in the middle of Central Park, feeling ridiculously sorry for herself.

She shook her head once and then again a few seconds later; as if, if only she shook it enough, she might be able to shake off the nagging doubts that clung stubbornly to her mind. She shook her head again and then looked up; people were staring. She supposed she must look a sorry sight, having barely moved in over an hour, and occasionally muttering to herself. It didn't bother her that much that people were watching; she was used to people staring at her as if she were crazy. People used to stare at her like that all the time in High School. They'd been wrong then, she hadn't been crazy... well okay maybe she'd acted a little insane at times, but did it matter? She had escaped, and she was here in New York, chasing her dream, just like she'd always told them she would. If it had taken a little crazy to get her this far, it was surely worth it right?

That was what she kept telling herself as she desperately tried to shake away her fears, her insecurities, and the disappointments that New York had handed her so far. She told herself that things would be better once lessons started, she told herself that she would learn to navigate the city better, and that she and her roommate would soon be good friends; hadn't she become best friends with Quinn Fabray? Surely Lola couldn't be that difficult to win around. She also told herself she didn't miss Lima. That she didn't miss that stupid little school with its jocks and cheerleaders, its ridiculous teachers, and the daily fear of taking a slushie to the face. Okay, she really didn't miss the slushies, but somehow she couldn't put McKinely High out of her mind. She did miss it, strange though it was to admit it. She missed it a lot. Mostly she missed the little choir room; and the people in it.

Quinn had said she could visit her at Yale whenever she wanted, but she knew that her best friend had only just moved herself into her dorm room. If her facebook statuses were anything to go by, she was in no fit state to be putting Rachel up for a night or two. School back home had already started back up and Tina, Blaine, Brittany, Artie, Sam and Sugar might already be gathered together with their new Glee club recruits. After a summer of hard work Kurt had scored an internship at a small fashion designers office. He was based in New York, but they ran him ragged and he was taking a much deserved weekend off to visit his Dad; and Blaine of course. She hadn't heard from Mercedes in about a month, but she supposed she was still trying to make it across the country in California. Tina had sent her an email recently, going into gushing detail about how Mike had already managed to impress his instructors. Santana had dipped off the radar entirely, but Rachel had never been sure of keeping in contact with the ex-cheerleader. Puck was always threatening to fly out and visit her, but so far hadn't been able to find them time; apparently his pool business had taken off in a big way, to everyone's surprise, including his... and then there was Finn.

She sighed loudly and pulled out her cellphone, staring into it at the face of her ex-boyfriend, still the background on her homepage even though they'd broken up months ago now. She'd heard from him, a few times; mostly he was just letting her know that he was okay. He hadn't called, only ever sent texts or emails; maybe he was scared of awkward silences. She told herself this was right, and that she was over it, but perhaps that was the biggest lie of all; certainly every time she tried to bring herself to change that background photo, she somehow always ended up just turning off the phone and slipping it back into her pocket. She wondered if he missed her, like she missed him. She wondered if the army was everything he'd wanted it to be, or whether he was just as disappointed with his path so far as she was.

"Current or Ex?"

The voice at her shoulder made her jump, and nearly drop the phone; she scrambled at it, ensuring she has her grip back before turning to glare at the grinning boy now sitting next to her. He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place him.

"Do you have a habit of sneaking up on strangers and prying into their personal business?" She asked. He looked hurt.

"We're not strangers!" he said, pouting ever so slightly. Rachel just rolled her eyes and turned away again, turning the phone off and putting it in the pocket of her skirt.
"Well, I don't know you, so if you don't mind..." she made a shooing motion with her hands, but he didn't seem to pay any notice to her.

"Obviously I didn't make as lasting an impression as Rachel Berry, the girl who's going to leave all of her classmates in the dust and be the next Barbra Streisand," He continued, and when Rachel only blinked at him in confusion he sighed, "That's discouraging. Ah well, best to introduce myself again, my name's Brody, Brody Weston, fellow NYADA student, teaching assistant, and quite probably your leading man some day," he held out a hand, and Rachel shook it feeling suddenly very sheepish. They'd only had their induction lecture this morning, and once she'd had her turn at introducing herself, she'd barely paid attention to anyone else in the class, including the lecturers and their assistants.

"Sorry, I wasn't exactly at my best this morning," she said dropping his hand; he just grinned at her again.
"Well, if that speech this morning was you not at your best, we really might have to watch out," he replied. Rachel gave him a small smile. She'd practised her introduction to her new class in the mirror for about three hours the night before, her dads had conference called in to help her write it and had given her tips on how best to deliver it to ensure everyone would remember her. It was good to know she'd achieved her goal... the first bit of really good news she'd had in weeks.

"So," he said, "Is it long distance blues or a bad break up?"

Rachel didn't glare this time, but the smile on her face did disappear. "You know you're very forward,"
Brody shrugged offering "I'm an actor," as his only explanation for prying into her personal life, "And I didn't get into NYADA by pulling punches or not knowing my competition." That brought the smile back to her face again. "So this is you upping your game after failing utterly at making an impression this morning?" He just shrugged again.

"Maybe," he said, "Maybe I'm lying and I just want to know if you're single,"
"I thought we were competition,"
The grin widened, "There's no rule saying you can't date your competition,"
"Believe me when I say it's not exactly recommended,"
"Bad break up then,"
Rachel laughed despite herself. Brody's eye's crinkled slightly at the edges, obviously pleased to have made her laugh. He was cute, she thought, all spiky hair and blue eyes and smiles. It had been a while since anyone had flirted with her so openly. Finn had never really been a flirter... when he tried it often just made her giggle at how silly he sounded; mostly he just thought she was giggling at what he said rather than how he said it, and she wasn't hugely concerned with correcting him. Ironically the last person to really flirt with her had probably been Jesse.

"That's a whole other story actually," She replied boldly, laughing again at his dramatic gasp.
"The plot grows thicker; you're a very intriguing lady Miss Berry," said Brody, folding his hands in his lap and scooting slightly closer to her on the bench. Rachel sighed lightly, letting her smiles slip away again as her worries started to push their way back into her momentarily distracted mind.
"Not really," she said, looking up at the tops of the trees and the shining buildings beyond them, "Actually I'm starting to feel far too ordinary for a place like this,"

"New York not exactly what you hoped it would be?"
She shook her head, staring back down into her lap. "I guess I thought I'd get the hang of it straight away. That I'd get here and just know it, and thrive and take it by storm and just move on from everything back home." She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes, and was surprised to find he wasn't smiling anymore. He was listening, really listening, and far from looking like she was acting crazy or worrying over something stupid, he looked like he sympathised. When he didn't say anything she carried on, already feeling better for having someone to talk to about it. She hadn't wanted to bother her other friends, and most of them probably wouldn't have understood anyway, and she didn't want to worry or disappoint her dads; they were so proud of her.

"He's my ex." She said with a sigh, pulling the phone out of her pocket again and turning on the screen, tilting it to show him the picture, "He broke up with me before I came here, he told me he'd hold me back, that it was better for me that we break up." She shook her head, swallowing hard to stop herself from crying. She'd promised herself that whatever else she did or didn't do, she wouldn't cry over the break-up anymore. "I know he was trying to do what was best for me, but it just felt like a rejection, like he didn't believe in me enough to make it work, and then I came here and I thought if I could just find myself here, it wouldn't matter. I'd have my dream. And then I got here, and I was just alone, and my roommate hates me already, I'm pretty sure my dance instructor already has me down to fail, and everyone I love is so far away, and I have no idea how to get anywhere, so I keep getting lost, and... This was everything I ever wanted, New York was everything I wanted, and I guess it feels like even New York is rejecting me," She finished a little out of breath, having gone from practically a whisper to her usual loud and impassioned tones throughout the course of the speech.

There was silence between them for a moment, and Rachel couldn't help glancing at him again, already regretting her outburst and sure that he was wondering how best to get away from her without seeming too rude or insensitive. That tended to be Finn's way of dealing with her emotional outbursts. He wasn't good at thinking on the spot, and she knew she could be kind of intense, so he'd go away to get some breathing room before coming back to comfort her. But Brody wasn't her boyfriend; he barely even knew her. If she had scared him away now, he wasn't likely to come back and for some reason she didn't want that. Even though she'd just met him, he was the first person to actually be friendly to her since she had arrived here, she didn't want to terrify him into never speaking to her again. "Sorry," She muttered as she looked around, "I know I'm sort of intense sometimes,"

He surprised her again by not looking even vaguely scared. "Don't apologise for the thing that is your greatest asset, passion and intensity are tools that can't be given to an actor or actress, they have to possess them already," he said, a small smile working its way back onto his face, "Besides, it sounds to me you've been holding all that in for a long time,"

She smiled weakly back and nodded.

"Look," He said, shifting on the bench again so he was facing her more fully, "You're definitely not the first person to come from a small town and feel a little intimidated by the big city life. I see it all the time, so let me ease your suffering. This city doesn't hate you. It couldn't, you're too alike. I know this will sound stupid coming from someone who is practically a stranger, but from what I've seen of you so far, I can't imagine anyone more equipped to succeed in this city... Except myself of course," Rachel couldn't help a small giggle from leave her mouth, "New York doesn't hate you, and it's not rejecting you. You just got off on the wrong foot is all,"

"But what if I never find the right foot," Rachel said desperately, "What if I never get used to life here?" It was a horrible thought, but one she had been having more and more in recent weeks. She'd never thought in a million years that she might actually wish to be back home in Lima, Ohio, but with everything that she'd been through here in New York, the idea of going back to where things were easy and familiar was so tempting it was almost overwhelming.

"Then you'll fail," Brody replied simply, shrugging his shoulders and making Rachel flinch and hunch her shoulders. Fail. The word wasn't one she had ever allowed herself to even consider. Her whole life she had worked towards success, everything she had done had been to achieve her dreams and make it to Broadway. She didn't want to have to go back home and tell her friends and her fathers that she had failed, that Rachel Berry wasn't good enough, wasn't strong enough to take on New York.

"Well," Brody announced suddenly, pushing himself off the bench and walking a few steps away. Rachel looked sharply up and called after him, "Wait!" she shouted, confused at his sudden departure, "Where are you going?" He turned back around and jerked his head down the path behind him.

"I'm going for a long walk around the city," he replied, "Care to join me,"

She hesitated, eyeing him curiously and wondering why on earth he would want to give up his Saturday afternoon to hang out with a depressed Freshman.

"Why do you...?"
"Listen Rachel, you can sit on that bench and feel sorry for yourself," He said, cutting her off, "Or you can get up and prove to this city that you belong here. You didn't get to NYADA by giving up. Believe me I know, I heard the Dean talking about all the phone calls you left her."

Rachel cringed slightly. Practically getting down on her knees and begging for a second chance after she had crashed and burned during her audition hadn't exactly been her proudest moment. "You heard about that?" She asked.

"That and more, and so did most of the rest of the faculty." He said with a grin, "I'll be honest, a lot of them aren't expecting much from you, they think Dean Tibideaux had a momentary lapse of sanity letting someone who choked into the school." Rachel deflated somewhat; suddenly her dance instructors less than friendly welcome made a lot more sense.

"But a few are more forgiving, and I admit hearing about how much effort you put into a second chance interested me, and then hearing you speak this morning, I knew that choke was just a fluke." He continued, "You have the passion and the drive and I know you must have the talent or that second chance would have meant nothing. But sitting on that bench feeling sorry for yourself because things didn't fall into place straight away is not going to win around the people who have you down to fail before you've begun, and it won't help you fit into this city,"

His words hit home. He was right, she thought, sitting here and wallowing in self-pity and homesickness wasn't going to make the problems go away, all it would get her was a one-way ticket back to Ohio and labelled as the failed actress.

"They say you don't get a second chance at a first impression," She said mildly, glancing up at him. He must have seen something in her eyes, a spark of renewed determination perhaps, because his smile widened and he held out a hand.

"Let's prove em wrong,"

She grinned suddenly, and pushed herself off the bench.

So I wrote this little fic a while before we actually saw the first episode, after the leaked video's of Dean and Lea filming on that park bench. This was my little imagining of what might take place.

xx