A/N: Disclaimer- I do not own Glee or any of it's characters. This is a work of fiction and any similarities and references are completely coincidental or used solely to mimic realism.

A/N 2: This story will fluctuate between Rachel's p.o.v. and Quinn's.

Rachel's p.o.v.

The flight attendant awakens her before the plane touches down and she begins to gather her belongings. Her watch reads three o'clock, which means it is noon here in Los Angeles, California. She grabs her bag from the baggage claim and rolls it to her cab. The driver puts her bags in the trunk and then drives her to her destination for the next month, a Hilton Homewood suite that she booked before leaving New York. Rachel saved up quite a bit of money to travel to L.A. from her two-year stint in an original role on Broadway. She began the workshop while still in college and stayed with the show for two years after it started on Broadway. Now she was ready to venture out to Hollywood to look for work as an actor.

Her suite at the Hilton is exactly as described, very homelike. There is a kitchenette with a fridge and stove. There is a living room with couches and a bedroom with a queen-sized bed. The bathroom is spacious with a whirlpool tub and shower. It is a lot bigger than her apartment back in New York. Rachel settles in and unpacks her bags before calling Kurt to let him know that she made it to L.A.

After talking to Kurt for a while, Rachel decides to take a nap before going out and exploring the city. She wakes up a couple of hours later, showers and then gets dressed. It is supposedly winter here, but it seems as if L.A. did not get the memo so she puts on some tight jeans, an off shoulder tee paired with black ballet flats because she will be doing a lot of walking. She also puts on her over-sized Chanel sunglasses before heading out. She asks the cab driver about tourist attractions and he gives her a L.A. tour guide that she peruses before asking to go to the walk of fame.

She stops in her tracks when she sees it, the star she has been waiting to see her entire life. She takes out her camera and snaps a picture of Barbra Streisand's star. Rachel feels embarrassed tearing up over a star on the sidewalk while people nonchalantly pass over them without a second look. She cannot believe that she made it all the way to Hollywood from New York, just like Barbra. She feels like there is nothing she cannot do here. One day she will have a star of her own on this very street, hopefully it is near Barbra's. That, would be divine, she thinks. A homeless man bumps into her effectively knocking her out of her daydream and startling her at the same time. She apologizes even though he bumped into her and carries on walking down the historic street taking pictures only every once in a while.

The sun begins to set around five pm and Rachel realizes that she has not eaten much since she left New York. She consults the tour guide for local restaurants and decides to go to Geisha House for some sushi. She loves it so much that she orders some sushi to take back to the hotel with her. Rachel almost forgets that she has to call for a taxi instead of hailing one as she does back home. That will take some getting used to. She pops her food into the fridge, changes into pajamas and goes to bed around nine o'clock.

The sun shines brightly through the blinds causing a ribbon of light to wake Rachel up by shining across her eyes. She will have to get used to the sun being present all of the time here in L.A. She gets up and checks the clock, it is eight o'clock am so she grabs her cell and dials up her friend April that works at GS Management. The GS stands for Gold Star, and that is one of the main reasons Rachel decided to work with this management company.

"GS Management this is April speaking,"

"Hello April, this is Rachel Berry,"

"Hey Rachel, are you in L.A. yet because we received your headshots and I have a few auditions set up for you."

"Wow, yes I got in yesterday. So do you need me to come in?"

"Yes Mrs. Nolan wants to meet with you to see what you have to work with, style wise. You know how it is."

"Okay, do you have any tips for what she might want me to wear?"

"Right, um, okay try to keep things simple, no baggy clothes or chunky jewelry. You don't want to wear any busy patterns." Rachel learned that lesson back in college when she showed up to an audition wearing an argyle sweater. The casting director tore her to pieces over her outfit and she remembers going back to her dorm crying and bagging up all of her sweaters and plaid vowing never to wear them again.

"Got it. What about color? Is there something that she hates to see?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure just don't go too dark, she wants to be able to see your shape."

"Okay, thank you so much April this means a lot to me."

"You're welcome and come in around one pm okay, after she has eaten her lunch. You should be good to go after that. Good luck."

"Thank you again, bye." She runs over to her closet to search through her clothes to see if anything she has meets the criteria.

She eats her free breakfast that she special ordered vegan then she takes a shower and spends some time fluffing her natural curls back into shape. She carefully applies some simple makeup and puts on her outfit, a short skirt to show off her legs and a form fitting white top to keep things simple. She wears her only pair of black stiletto Louboutin heels to give herself some height. She is out the door by noon and takes a taxi to GS arriving fifteen minutes later.

Before walking through the doors she takes a few minutes to calm down and give herself a little pep talk. She jumps up and down a little like she would before going on stage to ease her nerves. After a few more deep breaths, she walks in and tells the receptionist her name and she is told to go into a waiting room. There are three people already sitting in the waiting room. One guy and two girls, all sitting down reading through magazines so Rachel grabs one and does the same. Those people get called in one by one as others arrive to take their places. Rachel feels herself grow more on edge when she sees a girl exit Mrs. Nolan's office in tears.

A man whom she guesses is Mrs. Nolan's assistant, calls her name and she stands up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt as she walks towards the door. He leads her through another door that reads 'Tammy Nolan Talent Manager' on the door. She is a woman about forty-five to fifty years of age, blond, dressed in expensive looking clothes. She looks Rachel up and down before asking her to take a seat. Rachel cannot read the blank expression on her face, so she assumes the worst.

"Hello Rachel, let's see, my name is Tammy Nolan and I see you have been working on Broadway for a while. What kind of work you lookin' for here in L.A.?"

"Well, um as you said I have been on Broadway for several years now and I wanted to come to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. I am mostly known for my vocal abilities but I want to gain some notoriety as an actor, singularly."

"Okay, so TV, movies, you want romantic or comedy? Are you funny? Can you dance?"

"I will take whatever I can get at first and yes I find myself to be quite funny, but I may need to work on my dancing."

"Alright, stand up so I can take a look at you," Rachel swallows thickly and stands up. Tammy guides her to hold her arms out and then to turn around a few times. Tammy has her assistant come in and snap some pictures of her and then she is told to sit back down.

"Okay I have a few suggestions for you. First and foremost, you need to straighten your hair, it's too curly. Hold back on the tanning and I need you to tighten up your midsection a little bit, you know add some crunches into your regiment. Your legs are gorgeous, thank you for wearing that skirt. Umm, but I have to honest with you, you may have a hard time with some casting directors because of your look."

"My look?"

"Yes, I mean you're very, ethnic. You look like so many different races, and you could probably pull off Latino, but to be real, most directors are looking for skinny white girls with big boobs. I know, it may sound discouraging, but I'm going to help you out as much as I can, okay."

"Okay,"

"So, it was nice to meet you, I'll have my assistant Josh call you up with your first audition as soon as possible."

"It was nice to meet you too Mrs. Nolan. Thank you very much for your time." Rachel lets go of a breath that she did not know she had been holding in when she leaves the building. She almost begins to hyperventilate but she tries to calm herself before she bursts into tears in the middle of the sidewalk. Her cab ride back to the hotel allows her to simmer on the information that she hasn't fully processed. It is not the first time Rachel has been told that she looked a bit too ethnic, she lost out on a few roles on Broadway because of it. But when Tammy Nolan, the biggest talent agent in Hollywood tells you something like that, she knows what she is talking about. She is friends with every prominent casting director in L.A. She knows a lot of producers, directors and actors in the industry. If you want to make it, you need to be under her management.

Rachel goes to Target and buys a hair straightening iron and an Ab-flexor machine that she saw on TV the other night. She also plans to go to the hotel's gym when she gets back. After using the elliptical for thirty minutes, she heads back up to her room and takes a long hot bath to ease her sore muscles. She eats that sushi from yesterday for dinner and then she decides to do her hair. It has been a long time since she last straightened her hair. She gets through most of it before her arms get tired but she powers through it and finishes before going to bed.

It has been a couple of weeks since her first audition and today is her very first callback. She and another girl are being considered for a guest spot on a sit-com. She dresses in a revealing top to be sure that the casting will know that she can be sexy. When she arrives, the other walks out and smirks at her on her way out. She is also brunette, but much taller and thinner than Rachel. She does the read through and they tell her that they will call her. She knows by now not to get her hopes up about any of these auditions but this was her first callback so she holds out a little hope. A week later and no call has Rachel feeling extremely nervous about her chances out here.

Money is becoming an issue since she decided to rent a car this month as well as her Homewood suite costs. It is going on her third month in L.A. and Rachel has been mildly depressed from the constant rejection she feels every time she does not get the part. There is no one here to complain to in Hollywood, you just have to suck it up and keep trying. That is becoming increasingly more difficult as time goes on with no revenue to keep her stable. She has a hard time finding cheap vegan food choices at the grocery store, so she stocks up on veggies when they go on sale from time to time. She hadn't considered the high price of renting a car for a month, good thing she got a hybrid, otherwise she would have to worry about gas as well.

She calls up April in the middle of March to ask about alternative sources of income for clients of GS management.

"Hello April, this is Rachel Berry,"

"Oh how's it going? You get another callback?"

"Unfortunately no, but I was calling to ask if you had any options for me to make some money out here."

"Oh sure, I actually have the perfect job. It is easy and you make a lot of money for little work."

"It's not anything unsavory is it?"

"What? Ha-ha, no silly, it's a babysitting job."

"Oh great, sign me up then. I have never done it before, but it can't be that hard."

"Okay cool, it's a company called CFS and it stands for Christian Family Services so don't mention that you're Jewish and you should be gold okay."

"Okay," April gives Rachel the number to call the company and they ask her for her information over the phone. Rachel feels a little wary about giving out her social security number but the woman on the phone tells her it is for a background check. She tells Rachel that they will call her in a week to let her know if she has been approved.

She gets the call at eight o'clock in the morning on a Wednesday and almost missed it because she had been asleep. CFS had approved her for their services and she got a job for that night. The family lives in Beverly Hills and she had to use an intercom to be let into the gates to get to the house. The man and woman are dressed in classy evening wear and introduce themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. She is also introduced to little James and Jennifer ages five and seven years old. CFS already provided her with a file on the family that includes any allergy information and emergency contacts so they leave after a brief goodbye to their kids.

Rachel allows them to watch cartoons until eight o'clock pm and then she helps them get ready for bed and they are asleep by nine. This allows her two hours of lounging around a mansion by herself. She could get used to this. When the Johnson's arrive back home, they go upstairs to check on the kids and Mr. Johnson comes back down and hands her a hundred dollar bill. She was told that she could accept tips even though she gets paid through the company, but had no idea it would be that much. She will be able to stay in L.A. for a long time with this kind of work. It isn't exactly what she wants in the long run, but it'll have to do in the mean time.