In every good show the leading lady has a rival, someone who the audience is drawn to hate, someone the star fights with more than anyone, someone who always creates conflict for our hero.

The Rachel Berry show was no exception to that rule.

Enter Quinn Fabray. Tall, blonde, blue-eyed, effortlessly beautiful, a member of our glee club, and captain of the Cheerios; Quinn was literally everything that Rachel wasn’t.

Quinn was one of the few people who broke rank. Back in middle school, Quinn was one of us, small, timid, unpopular, a sidekick. But when high school hit, she broke away from her role and decided to become her own person, her own star. She joined the Cheerios later that year and climbed her way to the top of the social pyramid.

And just as Rachel had Tina and I as her wingmen, Quinn had Santana and Brittany. Santana was a strikingly beautiful Latina girl with long black hair and equally black eyes. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think she was one of the devil’s little helpers.  Brittany was her opposite and also her “secret” girlfriend. Her deep blue eyes were always following Quinn and Santana’s every move but she was the epitome of a dumb blonde. The three of them were on the Cheerios together and were commonly known as the Unholy Trinity.

But it wasn’t just the fact that Quinn was a threat to Rachel in the choir room that was the problem; it was Finn. Finn and Quinn had dated from our freshman to our sophomore years. But then Rachel came along and stole away Finn and his affections to live happily ever after. However, Quinn wouldn’t let that happen. She still believed that she could bring Finn around and have him love her again.

I didn’t know what it was with that boy! All the girls seemed to love him, but I didn’t get it. Maybe it was because I had to live with him and his awful corn chip smell.

“What?! Mr. Schue, you can’t be serious!” Quinn argued one afternoon in glee club.

“Quinn, I’m not saying that you’re not as talented as Rachel, I’m just saying that her soprano might be better suited for this song than your smooth alto.”

A typical afternoon in the New Direction family.  Mr. Schuster announced his choice for the Los Angeles Nationals this year; putting Rachel in the lead spot, yet again. Of course, that didn’t go over so well with the Unholy Trinity.

“This is rigged, I swear!” Quinn snapped. “Why can’t you pick a song that fits anyone’s voice other than Rachel’s?”

She had a point.

“Quinn, calm down.” Tina piped in, going to Rachel’s side on instinct.

“You calm down, Mulan,” Santana bellowed, “or I’ll go all Hun invasion on your ass!”

“Hey, watch it, Satan!” I added. It may not have been my fight, but it was my job to defend Rachel (and in this case Tina) in an argument.

Santana bristled at the nickname.

“Wait, if Mulan is here, does that mean I get to meet Mushu?” Brittany asked Santana. “Because he needs to teach Lord Tubbington how to breathe fire for my bonfire this weekend.”

Sometimes, I wondered if Brittany ever really knew what was going on.

“Quinn, it’s not a big deal,” Finn said from his seat on the other side of Rachel.

Quinn’s eyes went soft when she looked at Finn and she plastered a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Finn. You’re clearly just blinded by the fact that you’re dating that witch.”

“Excuse me, who are you calling a witch, Fabray?” I growled stepping forward.

“Can it, queer!” Santana barked.

“Bite me, Satan!” Oh yeah. I would do anything to defend my leading lady. Silently, in the back of my mind, I felt as though Blaine would have disapproved of my putting everything on the line for Rachel yet again. But, it’s my job as supporting character, so I pushed the thought away.

“Rachel is a witch? Can she help me with my Time Turner then?” Brittany gawked, as she played with the necklace in question. “It hasn’t been working for some reason.”

“Britt, that’s just a clock necklace,” Santana said, patting her hand.

“No, it’s a Time Turner, Tana! How else did Lord Tubbington get here? He’s from the future.”

“Britt, no…”

“You just can’t accept the fact that Finn chose me over you,” Rachel grumbled.

Quinn’s gaze changed from adoring to deadly in a second. She glared at Rachel with daggers in her eyes. “And you can’t accept the fact that I’m better than you! You keep yourself in the lead because you don’t want everyone to see that I’m better!”

“Girls, girls! Please!” Mr. Schue finally interjected. “Quinn, I’m sorry, but my word is final. Unless Rachel resigns from her position and gives it so someone else-”

“Which will never happen,” Santana said under her breath.

“-then there is nothing to discuss.”

“Can you believe her?” Rachel scoffed the next day, leaning against a row of lockers.

I was kneeling down, looking into the mirror as I engulfed my head in a layer of hairspray. Clicking the top back on, I shook my head sympathetically.

“No, I can’t,” I said standing. “Quinn was completely out of line, as usual.”

“I just can’t understand why she hates me so much. It’s not like I made Finn fall in love with me and I can’t help it if I’m more talented than her.”

“It’s not your fault, Rachel.”

Even though it totally was.

“Kurt!” My eyes widened as I turned quickly to find Blaine jogging up to us. His curly dark hair bounced along with him and it made my heart flutter with each movement. Blaine looked into my still open locker with a smile. “I see the mall is still open.”

I blushed, shutting the door with my foot.

“Kurt?” Rachel said annoyed, “Who is this?”

“Oh, Rachel I’m sorry! Rachel this is-”

“The name’s Blaine, Blaine Anderson, aka Kurt’s faithful and infatuated shadow.”

I blushed again.

“My name is Rachel Berry, future Broadway star. I love your shirt, Blaine, wherever did you get it?”

Oh no. There it was. Rachel was putting the moves on Blaine, but not in the cheating-on-Finn sort of way. She would never. She was too deeply in love with the big lug. No, Rachel was doing something entirely different. She was using her charm to win over Blaine and secure him in her impressive line of worshipers. It wasn’t fair; Blaine didn’t stand a chance against her charms. I just wish I could have had him, even as just a friend of my own-

“Hey Kurt,” Blaine chimed, pulling me out of my misery. “Thank you so much for letting me borrow Wuthering Heights.” He turned to face only me, blocking Rachel. She scoffed in outrage. Blaine pulled the book in question out of his bag. “I can finally cross that off my list.”

“You finished it already?” I gawked.

“What can I say? I’m a fast reader.”

“I’m impressed, Mr. Anderson. In that case, I can give you Moby Dick tomorrow if you like.”

“That sounds like a euphemism for something,” Blaine winked.

I could feel my eyes widen at the comment and my cheeks burn.

Rachel beside me gasped audibly.

“Kidding!” He laughed, “I’m kidding. I would love to have your dick.”

“Blaine!”

Blaine clutched his stomach in laughter. “Kidding! Man, Kurt you have got to lighten up. But I’ve got to leave for now. I’ve got, uh, something to, uh, do. I’ll see you later, alright?”

With that, Blaine clapped me affectionately on my shoulder and raced down the hall.

“That was weird,” I said to myself as I watched him go.

“Who was that, Kurt?” Rachel squawked.

“Oh, no one,” I sighed.

“That was not “no one”. Did you see the way he looked at you? Did you hear the way he spoke to you?”

“Not really,” I lied.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed, Kurt. Unless they’re throwing slushies, people tend to look right past you.”

Maybe it’s because I’m always next to you, you self-centered brat. But of course I didn’t say that. Instead I said, “It’s just because my star doesn’t shine quite as bright as yours.”

“But him, that guy, he didn’t,” she said, as she narrowed her eye in the direction Blaine had disappeared.

“Rachel, you’re not making sense.”

“That guy. He only noticed you. It was like you were the only person here.”

I tried my best to hide my blush as I scoffed at her. “Oh please, Rachel, your drama queen is showing.”

“Really! Have you hung out much?”

“Not really-”

“Do you like him?”

“Wha- no! Rachel, I’ve only known him for a couple of weeks!”

“And you haven’t introduced me yet.”

“Well I did just now.”

“All the more reason to get to know him better,” she smiled.

Wait, was Rachel giving me permission to spend more time with Blaine? “Rachel,”

“Look, Kurt, I’m just saying, that boy looks at you like you’re some kind of precious gem he covets or something. Just keep that in consideration.”

She turned on her heel and made her way toward her next class, leaving me with that load to deal with. What in the world had she meant just now?

The bell overhead rung loudly, breaking my thoughts. I rushed down the opposite way, hoping I wouldn’t be too late for class.

That afternoon I waltzed into glee club with my usual amount of grace and flair, which is to say, I tripped on my designer shoes upon entering the room.

I took my place next to Rachel who was caught up in playing with Finn’s hair. Finn smirked at her attempt to tame his uncooperative locks.

Tina sat down behind me with a grin, which I returned kindly. Mike wasn’t here today so I had her all to myself.

“How is your Romeo and Juliet project coming?” she asked me.

“Fine, I guess. Both Blaine and I have already read it, so the work isn’t hard at all.”

“Lucky! Danny and McKenzie have no idea what they are doing. It’s like they’ve never read a book before!”

I had to laugh at that. But my mind started to drift elsewhere. At the mention of Blaine, my thoughts clung to the conversation with Rachel earlier that day and her strong reaction to him. Was it such a bad thing that Blaine wanted to spend time with me? I didn’t think so. I actually really liked the idea.

Just then, the sound of footsteps caught my ear and though I don’t know what possessed me to look up, I did.

That’s when Blaine walked in, into our choir room. He stood next to Mr. Schue with a huge smile on his face, seemingly pleased about something.

As I stared at him I was sure my eyes were the size of hula-hoops plastered on my face. I could feel my jaw slightly slack jawed, but I couldn’t stop. Tina giggled from behind to me.

On cue, Mr. Schue clapped his hands to get our attention.

No. No, I would not pay attention to him, no. I couldn’t stop staring at Blaine.

“Okay, everyone,” Mr. Schue started, “I’d like to introduce our newest member, Mr. Blaine Anderson!”

The New Directions clapped politely for him, but I couldn’t. It was as if someone had tied weights to my arms. I couldn’t move or look away.

“I hope that Blaine will be a great contributing factor to winning Nationals in LA in a few months!” Mr. Schue finished.

“And by contributing factor, you mean harmonizing in the back while I sing lead,” Rachel grumbled. It was clear that Rachel didn’t seem to like Blaine.

I could slap her, I really could, for how rude she was being to him.

“I’m so glad to be here, guys. We’re going to wipe the floor with the competition!” Blaine exclaimed.

I could kiss him for how sweet and unaffected he was by any of it.

“He looks like one of those guys from Narnia,” Brittany said to Santana.

“Who?” Her girlfriend responded.

“You know, the little people from Narnia. The Hobbits!”

“Britt, no,” Artie sighed. “That’s Lord of the Rings.”

“The Hobbit is a lord? Like Lord Tubbington?”

“No, like the movie, Lord of the Rings,” he tried to explain.

“Is that a wedding show?”

Blaine took a seat in the chair on the other side of me, the side unoccupied by Rachel. How had that worked out? How was there an empty seat next to me today of all days? How did I get so lucky?

Oh, he was looking at me.

“You joined glee?” I asked, still in shock, my eyes growing only wider. “Why?”

“You said you would give anything to have a solo,” Blaine whispered into my ear. “I’m here to make that happen.”

“Wait a minute,” Quinn piped in. “Did I just hear you Rachel say that we’re going to sway in the background while she steals the spot light, again?”

“Here we go,” I said under my breath.

“Huh?” Blaine asked.

“It’s only right,” Rachel said confidently.

“There is nothing right about that!” Quinn snapped.

And it was on. The battle between the two leading ladies had begun, well, I guess continued. It never actually ended between those two. Quinn fought tooth and nail against Rachel, again as Brittany and Santana backed her up. Rachel, once again playing the victim, had Tina and I on her side. It was only natural for us to jump to her aid when she called for it.

But one thing that didn’t escape my notice during the line of fire and insults, was Blaine. He sat back quietly, watching the whole thing unfold, and what did he watch most, but of course, me. Every snap I made, every retort I called, Blaine was there, watching me like a hawk. I didn’t understand it and I wouldn’t, until later.