Hey everyone! Thanks for all your positive reception to The Future. I've done lots of writing and honestly feel that The Future was one of the best pieces I've ever written. Plus I had so much fun writing it I just had to write another Glee fanfic!

So, here's my second Glee fanfic, New Directions Takes a Bite Out of the Big Apple. Laugh at the title if you want, I tried to think of something catchy. This is the story of New Directions' week at Nationals. Rachel and Finn are still struggling with their feelings for each other while Quinn tries to get to be prom queen using Finn as her King, Brittany and Santana are together, Puck and Lauren & Mike and Tina are still together. Kurt and Blaine have transferred to McKinley. Rachel, Sam, Artie and Mercedes are all single.

Enjoy the first chapter!

Chapter 1: Roommates

The alarm clock went off, alerting Rachel that it was time to wake up. Her bags were packed for Nationals and the plane would be leaving for New York in a few hours. Rachel hesitantly admitted to herself that she wasn't looking forward to Nationals.

She knew she should be. She should be excited that they won Regionals and were going to Nationals in New York.

Honestly, last year was better for her. Yes, they'd lost Regionals, but that night, Finn had told her that he loved her. She'd rather not make it to Nationals and be with Finn than go to Nationals and not be with Finn.

To make matters worse, she and Finn would be singing "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith on the Nationals stage. A romantic love song. The only thing that made Rachel worse than seeing Finn with Quinn was having to sing romantic songs with him and not have him love her. (Mr. Schue complained Rachel didn't sound in love with Finn when she sang it. She wasn't interested in professing her love to Finn anymore. Not until he was willing to start professing his love to her.)

Finn didn't seem into Quinn. Really, Quinn didn't seem into Finn, either. She seemed to just want an attractive running mate for Prom King and Queen.

Why was Rachel so determined to get Finn back? He was the only person who saw who Rachel truly was. He saw beyond her diva-like exterior and knew she was actually a very kind girl. He brought out the best in her and inspired her to be a better person. He made her feel good on a bad day.

Those, Rachel thought, were good enough reasons to try to get Finn back, but she didn't want to do all the pursuing. Maybe space was what he needed.

"Rachel, are you ready?"

Rachel turned to see her dad standing in the doorway and was snapped back into reality.

"Almost," Rachel said. She pulled back her hair in a ponytail and put on a cardigan. She had a quick breakfast and then got in the car with her dad and drove to the airport. She was silent the whole way there.

"Are you okay?" her dad asked on the way there.

"Yeah, just tired." Rachel and her dad pulled into the airport. Rachel unloaded her suitcase and said goodbye to her dad. Then she headed inside to meet up with the Glee club.

"We didn't expect you to be this late, Rachel," Mr. Schue said.

"You said get here at 7, it's 6:50," Rachel yawned.

"Well, everyone else got here pretty early. Guess no one can withstand the excitement." Mr. Schue turned to Ms. Holliday. "Now we're just waiting on Finn." He turned back to the group. "Kurt, why didn't Finn come with you and Blaine?"

"Blaine's parents only let him drive one passenger," Kurt said, kissing Blaine. Kurt had come back to New Directions a week after Regionals and a few days later, Blaine transferred to McKinley as well.

Rachel put her bag on the luggage cart and headed to join the group.

"Hi, Rachel," Quinn said with a smile Rachel knew was fake. Rachel didn't even say hi back to Quinn, she wasn't falling for that again. Right before Regionals, Quinn had pretended to be Rachel's friend, only for Rachel to discover that Quinn was using Finn to be elected Prom King and Queen. That inspired Rachel to write an original song, "Get It Right," for Regionals, which had been a real crowd-pleaser. New Directions had won Regionals, meaning they were going to Nationals in New York City. Since then, Quinn had continued to act nice with Rachel, but Rachel wasn't buying it.

She took a seat off to the side and turned on her iPod. Quinn, Brittany and Santana were laughing in one corner of the seating area. In another area, Artie, Tina, Mike and Mercedes were watching a video on Artie's iPod. A few rows down, Kurt was looking at a fashion magazine, asking Blaine if he thought he'd look good in this or that. Puck had his arm around Lauren and was talking with Sam. Then Finn walked in and sat next to Rachel.

"Hey," Finn said. "What's up?"

Rachel shrugged.

"I thought you'd be all excited about Nationals," Finn said.

"I am, I guess," Rachel said. "I'm nervous, too." She didn't want to tell Finn how she really felt, how much she missed him and how badly she wanted to be back with him. She'd pretty much avoided him since Regionals.

"You're going to do great," Finn said. "You always do."

"Whatever," Rachel said. "So, how's everything going with Quinn?"

"It's okay," Finn said. "All she thinks or talks about is the whole Prom Queen thing."

Before Rachel had a chance to respond, Mr. Schue and Ms. Holliday told the group it was time to board the plane. Rachel had been assigned her own seat, which was probably for the better. She slept on the flight to New York and before she knew it, she was awoken with an announcement over the loudspeaker: "Welcome to New York City. The plane is landing. Please file out in a straight line when given the signal. You can retrieve your luggage at Gate G."

The plane landed and the group filed out of the plane, meeting up after they got their luggage.

"Oh my God!" Kurt exclaimed as they waited for their bus to the hotel. "We're in the fashion capital of the world. I want to go shopping. RIGHT NOW!"

The other boys groaned.

"You can go shopping during some breaks, Kurt," Mr. Schue said.

"Where's the big apple?" Brittany asked, looking around.

"We're in it, hun," Santana said.

"Really?" Brittany looked around some more. "This doesn't look like an apple."

"No, Brittany." Even Santana looked annoyed. "The Big Apple is a NICKNAME for New York."

"Oh." Brittany looked disappointed.

"Okay, our shuttle bus is here to take us to the hotel," Ms. Holiday said. "Everyone get your luggage."

The group boarded the shuttle bus and rode down the streets of New York to their hotel, the Millenium Hilton. New York was an amazing city and Rachel tried to picture herself living here, as a star on Broadway, in a few years.

The bus pulled in front of the hotel and the group was greeted by a doorman. Inside, the hotel was VERY impressive. It had a marble tile floor and a huge fountain and chandelier. The furniture in the lobby was made of silk.

"Welcome to the Millenium Hilton Hotel," a hotel representative said. "Is this the New Directions?"

"That's us," Mr. Schue said. He turned to the kids. "You guys can sit down and I'll get your keys."

"No!" the representative said. "I need to talk to them about our policies for school groups. Kids, put your luggage over there and label it. The bellhops will take it to your room. Then I need to talk to you."

"Fine," Mr. Schue said, heading to the check-in table. The students labeled their luggage and put it in the designated area, then went back to talk to the staff member.

"Okay, we've had some bad experience with school groups in the past, so I'm going to tell you about our policies," the hotel representative barked. "Two rooms on each floor. One boys room and one girls room. You may not go visit friends in rooms on other floors. We have an hour set aside for you guys to use the pool every day. You have designated tables in the breakfast area. No drugs or alcohol, and you must be on your floor by 10 p.m. and in your rooms by 11 p.m. EVERY night unless you are off-site and your teacher tells us otherwise. We aren't putting up with crap from school groups anymore. We've gotten too many complaints and if you violate any of our policies, you'll need to find a new hotel. Everyone got it?"

The group rolled their eyes and nodded.

"Good. I trust you will follow our policies. I'll give you your room assignments and keys now. Your teacher gave us the roommate assignments based on your requests, so no, we did not decide who you're rooming with.

"On the 10th floor: Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez, you're in Room 1021. Mike Chang and Artie Abrams, you're in Room 1022.

"On the 11th floor: Lauren Zizes, Mercedes Jones and Tina Cohen-Chang, you're in Room 1111. Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson, you're in Room 1112."

Oh no, Rachel thought. This means I'm sharing a room with Quinn. Well, maybe I got my own room.

"On the 12th floor: Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray, you're in Room 1233. Noah Puckerman, Sam Evans and Finn Hudson, you're in Room 1234."

Rachel tried not to look upset as the hotel representative announced her sentence. She barely heard as they were told Mr. Schue and Ms. Holliday's room was on the 13th floor. The luggage had been brought up to their rooms, but their school group policies were so strict, they all even had to take different elevators to their rooms! Tenth floor residents took Elevator 1, eleventh floor residents took Elevator 2 and twelfth floor residents took Elevator 3.

Rachel boarded Elevator 3 with Finn, Puck, Sam and Quinn. "I'm so excited we're roomies!" Quinn said as soon as they were on the elevator.

"Really?" Rachel said. "I would have thought you WOULDN'T want to room together."

"Are you kidding?" Quinn said. "Well, first of all, we knew Brittana would HAVE room together and the fat girls would want room together, so that just leaves you and me. And second, maybe this can be an opportunity for us to bond and move on from all the drama."

"Aren't the hotel policies stupid?" Puck asked. "I mean, seriously, what do they think we're going to do if we go on another floor?"

"I don't mind, really," Finn said. "I like everyone on our floor, so I don't mind staying on it."

"We did get the three hottest guys on our floor," Quinn giggled.

"And we got the two hottest girls on our floor," Puck said. "I think the twelfth floor is the sexy floor."

The elevator reached the twelfth floor. As the door opened and the teenagers got off, Sam whispered to Rachel, "You can come into our room anytime if Quinn's a bitch."

"Thanks," Rachel whispered.

"RACHEL! Come see our room!" Rachel heard Quinn scream.

"See you guys," Rachel said to the boys as they went into their room and she unlocked her own room. She didn't know how she would get through sharing a room with Quinn for a week.

The room was one of the nicest hotel rooms Rachel had ever seen. The two beds were high enough up that you needed a small staircase to climb on to them. They had navy blue blankets with a silver pattern and a bunch of pillows. Their bags had been delivered to the room. The table looked like it was made of marble and the chairs were lined with satin. Even the TV looked nice. On the table was a basket filled with cheese, crackers and fruit. Next to the basket of food was a cake with "WELCOME TO NEW YORK" on it.

"This is adorable!" Quinn gushed. "We're getting the star treatment!"

"We probably have to pay to eat this stuff," Rachel said.

"I don't care, I'm eating it," Quinn said. "Which bed do you want, Rach?"

"It doesn't matter," Rachel said, cringing. Rach was Finn's nickname for her.

"Okay, then I'll take the one by the window," Quinn said, still pacing around. "And look at the bathroom! We have a JACUZZI! Is this the best hotel room you've ever stayed in or what?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Hey Quinn, why are you being all nice to me all of a sudden?"

"Look, Rachel," Quinn said. "It was wrong of me to be mean to you in the past. You're really pretty and really talented and when you look past your overbearing desire for fame, you're actually really nice and really cool. I asked to be your roommate specifically so we could patch things up."

"Are you sure this isn't a repeat of the incident before Regionals?" Rachel asked.

Before Quinn had a chance to answer, the phone rang. "That's odd," Quinn said. "Who would be calling?"

"I'll get it," Rachel said. She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Quinny Poo!" an unfamiliar boy's voice said. "Arrived in New York okay, baby?"

"I'm sorry?" Rachel said. "This isn't Quinn."

"Oh, you're her roommate?" the voice said. "Could you get her for me?"

"Of course," Rachel said. "Quinn, telephone."

"Thanks," Quinn took the phone and began talking into it. "Oh, hey Danny! What's up, what's up, what's up? Oh, I miss you already too! I know, once prom's over we don't need to keep this a secret anymore..."

Rachel gasped silently. Quinn had a secret boyfriend! Or at least that was what this sounded like...