It took them a few weeks to notice it.

Which was actually kinda surprising, considering just exactly how perceptive Rachel was with any and everything that had to do with music. The woman was borderline obsessive about it, honestly. Just last week, she was seen skipping throughout the hallways, a gigantic smile on those weirdly large lips of hers and a binder that looked like it weighed a thousand pounds, stuffed full of sheet music with different-colored post-it notes sticking out of it. She seemed almost weightless as she traversed the hallways, mouthing the words to a song that only she could hear. One of the mindless high school drones that always seemed to line the hallways snickered and stuck their foot out, catching her mid-skip.

She took an impressive tumble to the ground, a blurred mass of flyaway brown hair and pink argyle sweater. Her papers flew from their binder, floating and whizzing like birds through the air, before gently floating down and being trampled in the mass of people that was the hallways of Mckinley High. She was currently crouched on the ground, blindly snatching any extra papers that she could and shoving them back into her binder.

"I bet that people won't behave like this in New York," she muttered under her breath, "I bet that there, everyone helps everyone, no matter what!" She continued her quiet rant as she scrambled around on the dirty floors of the high school, offering up half-hearted apologies to the multiple students who were struggling not to trip over her.

"Thoughtless, incorrigible, oh, yes, sorry, yes, please watch your step-oh." She blinked in surprise as she felt a warm hand cover her own, spreading sudden tingles up her arms. She slowly raised her head, suddenly incredibly nervous-a feeling that Rachel "Star" Berry was not used to.

"H-hi there," Rachel breathed out, drinking in the beautiful piece of human before her. Slender legs with heavily muscled thighs, clad in black jeans and a dark green hoodie, the apparition before her was the Willy Wonka of eye candy. With his shaggy dark hair and the face-obscuring hood, it was rather hard to discern any of his physical features. From Rachel's rather compromised position on the floor, she could only see a shy smile beaming out from the shadows of his hood.

Rachel took a moment to regain her breath. God, that boy–well, what she could see of him, at least–was H–O–T.

It took Rachel a moment to realize that she was staring. Her cheeks burned, and she shook herself for a second.

"Um," she tried again, seeing as the smiling boy still hadn't answered her, "I'm Rachel. Berry, that is. Rachel Berry." The boy's smile quirked into a smirk at her stumbling introduction. Rachel mentally cursed herself for her nervous demeanor. A star couldn't stutter at someone just because they were attractive!

Still, the boy remained silent, with his face tilted in her general direction. With a small nod downwards, Rachel realized that his hand was still covering hers, and she felt her cheeks flush again.

"This is, uh, the part where you introduce yourself." Rachel murmured.

The boy tilted his head slightly, before lifting his hand and making a complicated twirling motion with his hands and fingers.

"Um," Rachel said, dumbfounded. "What?" The boy seemed to sigh, then pointed at his throat and mimed talking by flapping his hand open and closed, with his thumb below the rest of his fingers. He then shook his head from side to side.

With a start, Rachel realized what his weird "dance" was. The boy was using sign language.

"Oh," she breathed, "Can you not talk?" The guy nodded.

Briefly, Rachel imagined a world where she wouldn't be able to sing, to talk, to shout, and her mouth opened in horror. She wouldn't be able to sing. To pour out her heart in the most meaningful way that she knew how to. To talk, discuss, to admit love, to scream in anger or fear or frustration. He wouldn't be able to do that. He could move around, or use hand language, sure, but who else knew sign language? Basically no one. It was a rare skill to have. Rachel Berry's talent lay with her voice, and everything else had always come second to her.

Her voice was her everything, and this boy...he didn't have that.

"That's horrible," she finally said, looking at him with sympathy. He gave a little smile and shrugged, as if saying, "oh well". He passed a bundle of papers over to her, having successfully collected them from the floor. He rose with the lithe grace of a tiger, gave a little wave, and turned away. Rachel shot up from the floor and grabbed his arm, ignoring the sudden tense of his muscles underneath his clothing.

"Hey," she said, "If you're new here, you can come sit with me and my friends at lunch, if you want. We can show you around after." He looked down at her, with a face still shadowed by his thick hoodie. He gave her another soft smile that slowly seemed to melt into a frown. He gave her one last, long glance and shook his head in the universal symbol for "No,". He turned and rushed down the now-empty hallway, finally turning the corner that led to the music rooms.

Rachel stood there, dumbfounded. He had seemed so nice at first, too. Maybe he didn't want to become infected with the loser-status that automatically came from being associated with Glee? But no, that couldn't be it. He had, after all, stopped to help her pick up her papers, and she was the most notorious gleek of all of them. She sent one last, long, glance after Harry, jumping slightly as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of third period.

Scowling, Rachel raced off to History, deciding to contemplate McKinley's newest mystery student later.