#ch: Rachel

[hannahssimblr]

“Um, hi, is that Jude Turner?” Comes a voice, trembling with anticipation. It’s a girl whose voice I do not know. 

“Uh huh.”

“Jude Turner, as in-” more giggles, “-Clóda Kearney’s boyfriend?”

“Not exactly, why?” I sit forward.

“Oh, you’re not her boyfriend, okay, well she said-” 

Someone else grabs the phone, “is she lying? Is she lying about that then? We just had to check.”

“Who is this?”

“She said that you’re together, we saw pictures of you but Clóda always makes stuff up, we wanted to find out for ourselves,” there is more girlish laughter, followed by kissy noises and I deduce that there must be at least three of them. Maybe more. The one on the line continues, “she told us that you had sex.”

“Oh! Jude!” Someone imitates in the background, “He’s so fine! And he’s just the best kisser too, he’s so gentle and he holds me in his arms for ages!” They all squeal with salacious excitement while I shrivel with embarrassment, “Well-”

“And she says that you climbed the balcony at her house and came in and stayed all night,” comes a new voice, “Is that where you did it? She said it was so romantic. And that you were going to go to America and buy her expensive gifts.”

“Oh, so much jewellery and perfume and clothes and makeup!” Someone sings.

“It’s all fake,” another adds, “She’s definitely faking it, like there’s no way.”

I listen to them and their stupid teenage girl antics for a while, their unintelligible babble like a group of twelve year olds chortling in shocked delight at the idea of someone having ungodly, sinful sex, and this feels like one of those moments where dating truly doesn't feel all that worth it.

“And if it’s true, then why?” says a voice, who I suddenly recognise as Rachel. “She’s such a bitch.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say eventually. “I don’t know about any of this.”

There is a cacophony of screams, “I knew it!” Someone yelps, and I hang up the phone and then switch it completely off before I have to hear any more. 

My hands are trembling as I chuck it away from me, across the table and onto the other couch where it wedges itself between the seat cushion and the back and then I try to pretend that nothing has happened. It’s fine, I’ll just… 

I’ll just try to finish the movie. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[jacobsullivan]

closed starter | @earthwindandraen Jake + Rachel At the Werewolf BBQ.

Two plates, piled high, with every entree and side dish offered. Some items, coined casseroles, salads, and varying layers of dip, of questionable contents. Starved after a busy day of games, played with the full force of his physical and magical abilities, Jacob couldn't put his food away fast enough. He didn't stop to look up, not even once, during his first plate. It was only when he moved on to his second that his eyes even lifted beyond the top of a toasted hamburger bun. An aura of unique and interesting color came into his vision, momentarily drawing his curiosity. It was weird to stare, he remembered, only after staring for too long. "You......uh..... gonna eat that?" He asked in an attempt to make an explanation up.

[marley-rose]

📲 rachel

MARLEY: quick q, what's that purpley lipstick shade you sometimes wear called? not that i stare you down trying to figure it out, i just, you know, wondered about it. @destinedstarlet

[marley-rose]

hi, pretty. welcome back! the only coffee place i know is the bean, but they can probably accommodate you just fine, right? i'm hoping to get signed sometime within the next year...so far things are looking good, i might have some announcements soon.

Well, it’s official—I’ve finally unpacked everything, and my office is starting to feel like home! I’m particularly proud of the gallery wall I’ve created, featuring all my favorite Playbills. It’s truly a statement piece, and if you ask nicely, I might even give you a little tour. I believe in surrounding myself with inspiration for my peers and my students alike, and what better way than to showcase the productions that shaped me into the star I am today?

For those of you who don’t know me yet—though I can’t imagine there are many—I’m Rachel Barbara Berry✩, a proud alumna of PSU and now one of your amazing new Performing Arts professors. I’ve spent years on the Broadway stage, honing my craft and living my dream, and now I’m here to help all of you do the same. My journey has been filled with triumphs, challenges, and a few Tony nominations, and I’m excited to bring all of that experience to the classroom.

On another note, does anyone know of a good vegan-friendly coffee place around here? I’m devastated to report that my favorite spot from my student days is no longer around. It’s a tragedy, really. I’m on a quest to find a new place that understands the art of a perfect soy latte, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I’m eager to get to know all of you and hear about your own passions and ambitions. Feel free to stop by my office anytime—for advice, a chat about musical theater, or just to admire my Playbill collection. Let’s make this semester one for the books!!

[etenniettes]

[bangelgifs]

Willow Rosenberg being Captain of the Bangel Ship

[hephaestn]

Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot and Rachel Shenton as Helen Alderson All Creatures Great and Small (2020) — Season 2, Episode 2

[blaineshq]

Oh, I'd love to see those! It must have been such an incredible experience. And I am forever jealous that you went to New York. We absolutely will and I can't wait! It's going to be perfect. The Philippines was absolutely amazing. It's such a gorgeous place and I've done as much exploring as I could between family visits. And I may or may not have had a bit of a summer romance with this Italian guy.

Well, how about later today? It would be an honor to be your leading man, Rachel! I think putting on a production is a perfect idea and I'll do anything I can to help you make it happen! Is there a show in particular that you have in mind?

I would have loved to have you front row center, but don't worry - I have pictures and videos and I can show you as many as you want. How was the Philippines? Did you have fun? New York, when I got to go to the city, was of course incredible and I can't wait for us to take it over together next year. There's not a doubt in my mind we will.

We can absolutely do a coffee, and the sooner the better - while Finn may be my better half in the choir room, I'm determined to get our drama club to put on a production this year, and I refuse to let Sue or Figgins or anyone else stop me. And in order to do that, I need a leading man. What do you say, will you be my partner in showstopping crime?

[meowmeow1meow]

local celebrities make the news again

[xmenuniverse]

Rachel Grey in Rise of the Powers of X #2 (2024), art by R. B. Silva.

[hannahssimblr]

As the sun sets and the waves glitter in the pink light we four sit on the crest of the dunes, obsessed by our attempts to open the crown seals of our beer bottles with Shane’s keys. It's been twenty minutes and nothing has happened, we just watch him, bored, as he fumbles it over and over again.

“There’s a knack to it,” he keeps saying, “You'll see,” and then makes a big show of trying to prove himself as the key lamely flicks off the glass neck and barely dents the cap. 

“We can try using a shoe,” Joe suggests. “I did it before at a party, like. You’re meant to put the bottle inside it and then thump it on a wall and then the cap just, like, comes right off somehow.”

“How would that work?” Jen tuts, “The cap is bent onto the thing, you’re not going to knock it off by ramming it into a wall, are you? Think about the science of it.”

“We also don’t have a wall,” I point out and flick the little aluminium cap with my nail. I think about the consequences of opening it with my teeth and wonder what kind of fit my dad would have if I chipped a tooth, pierced my ears and shaved my head all in one day.

Joe shrugs, “I’m just throwing out suggestions here, lads. And if you’ve no better ideas then-”

“I’ve almost got it,” Shane grunts just as the key flies out of his hand and lands somewhere in the sand beside us.

“Ugh! Joe,” Jen cries with resignation, “Just go up to the surf shack and ask Anthony for a bottle opener. Let’s admit defeat here. You can tell him it’s for lemonade or some shit, I don’t care.”

I cringe, “Oh God, don’t send him up there, if Anthony knows we’re hanging around up here then…”

“Then what?”

“Like, do you think he’ll send Liam up to hang out with us again?”

Jen hesitates, “Well, maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll be too busy to come this time.”

I groan, “When is Liam ever busy in the evening though?”

“Well I feel sorry for him.”

Joe scoffs, “For Liam? Do you guys remember that time that we told him we’d rolled him a special joint but it was actually just bits of grass and herbs from Jude’s kitchen? And he thought he was high and started rolling around on the carpet and everything?”

I smirk and Jen thumps my arm hard because I’m the only boy she can reach. “Youse are all mean,” she says, even though she wasn’t there so she doesn’t actually know how funny it was. “Liam is nice, he’s just trying to make friends.”

Joe laughs, “Here I’ll go up to the surf shack and tell him we’re playing truth or dare again. Dare him to talk about something that’s not surfing or that time his da brought him to Australia, for once.”

“Piss off Joe, just go get the bottle opener. I don’t care if Liam comes over. You can all challenge yourselves and be nice to him for once, you dickheads.”

When he leaves I prod her knee, “Since when are you so nice, hm?”

“I’ve always been nice, I don't know what you’re on about.”

“Yeah Jen,” I roll my eyes, “You’re an angel.”

A bottle cap suddenly flies down the dune between us, followed by a satisfying pop. “Got it,” sighs Shane. “Finally.”

A short time later Joe comes back with the bottle opener, but is perplexed to find us already drinking. 

“Shane got the key thing to work,” I explain. “But thanks for going anyway.”

“Aw what? I had to talk to Anthony for ages when I was there. He asked me about school and everything.”

“Oh no,” Shane hands him an open bottle as he plonks onto the sand, “and Liam?”

“Dunno, wasn’t there. Didn’t see him anyway.”

“Good,” I mutter, and Jen elbows me sharply in the ribs and hisses, “Well he would have been welcome if he was there, right Judie?”

“Right.”

“Wait I forgot something,” Joe digs around in his hoodie pocket and pulls out a little bag, “I ran into my brother on the way to the shack, he was coming back from work. Gave me this,” he flicks it and dangles it in front of us as though it’s something more exciting than the three euros worth of the worst quality hash that money can buy. 

“Giz that,” Shane snatches it out of his hand and peers at it closely, “Man that’s basically just weed dust.”

“Enough to feel something off it though.”

“Hardly.”

“Well either you want some or you don’t.”

Shane flicks the dregs of his beer onto the sand and then launches the glass bottle into the marram grass, “Yeah, fine so.”

Joe glances at Jen, “You in?”

“Yep.”

“Jude?”

I hesitate, “Nah, man, I’ll just stick with the beer for now, thanks.”

Shane laughs, “Jude gets sick off weed.”

“Seriously?”

I cringe, “Not all the time.”

Jen is laughing then, “Jude gets sick off everything. Once we were inhaling permanent marker fumes in first year and he went and got sick out the changing room window, and there was that time that he had a shot of tequila-”

Bile rises immediately in my throat at the memory, “Yeah, thanks, I don’t want to think about it.”

She cackles, “Oh come on, and that time in the playground when we-” I dive toward her to push her into the sand and start poking her ribs where I know she’s ticklish so that she has to stop talking about it. 

“Stop!” She shrieks, “God, stop!”

“Are you gonna shut up? Huh?”

“Yes, yes I swear!” and as she lies there gasping for air I fidget with the laces of my shoes and the frayed thread of my shorts with jerky, trembling fingers. I don’t want anyone to know about the things we used to do in the playground. They wouldn’t find it as funny as Jen does. Or, in a worst case scenario they might be intrigued and want to know more about all of the things that I hate talking about the most. 

“Do you get sick off beer too, man?” Joe says, “‘Cause my brother says that Americans can’t hold their beer at all. That they get drunk off nothing. Is that you?”

“Your brother? What does he know? Didn’t he get his head stuck between the railings on Wexford bridge and have to be cut out by the fire brigade?”

“Twice, yeah,” Joe laments, “He’s got big ears, like.”

“I heard he got his head stuck in the window bars of the boys school in town too,” Shane pipes up, and Jen starting giggling into her collar until she can’t hold back anymore and collapses in a fit of raucous laughter, and then Shane does, and I do too, while Joe protests and tries to explain to us that his brother was just doing it to be funny, and how there’s actually nothing wrong with him despite what we may think. Tears blur my eyes with laughter , and every time I think I can stop I’ll catch eyes with Jen or see Shane’s red face and I’ll laugh all over again, and so Joe huffs and plonks onto the ground with us and starts to roll a clumsy joint in silence. 

“Hey guys, what’s so funny?”

A familiar voice causes Shane to jump to rigid attention and bring a self conscious hand to smooth down his cowlick, and it’s from looking at him that I know that Clóda is here. Everyone springs to attention whenever she shows up.

She stands at the bottom of the dune like some kind of vision with her straight blonde hair swishing around to her mid back and slim legs extending out from the shortest denim shorts that I’ve ever seen on a girl, and yet they don’t look tacky on her. Nothing looks tacky on Clóda, and I’m so busy looking at Clóda in her non-tacky shorts that I don’t even notice her friend until she introduces her. 

“This is my friend from school, Rachel,” She says. Rachel has blue makeup on her eyes. That’s all I notice, because my eyes have slid back to Clóda again and the way her mouth moves when she says, “We were just going for a walk. Are you guys up to much?”

“Smoking a joint if you want some,” says Joe.

She pulls a face, but Shane jumps in quickly, “We’re not actually, he got some shit hash from somewhere but none of us want it. Here, we’re just having a few beers and talking and stuff if you want to hang out.”

And Joe throws his hands up incredulously and mutters to himself as he stuffs his wonky, unlit joint back into his pocket in defeat and disappointment that nobody wants to get semi stoned on the accumulated remnants of the dust from his brother’s friend’s weed grinder tonight.

But it’s okay for everyone else, because Clóda and Rachel do want to hang out, and they scale the dunes to sit with us, and luckily by now Shane has perfected the art of popping bottle caps off with his house keys so that he can impress them both and be equally impressed with himself. I consider starting a bet with Jen to guess how long it will take for him to slip the fact that he plays centre field on his local football team into the conversation but decide against it in case she accuses me of being mean and the girls hear her.

“Nice earrings,” Rachel sits down to my left, and I know that she probably intends it as some sort of insult, maybe even a flirtatious insult but I don’t really care about what Rachel, Clóda’s friend from school, thinks about my earrings. 

“Thanks,” I say, “they’re from Claire’s Accessories,” which makes her laugh, and she scoots in closer to me, “What’s your name?”

“Jude.”

“There’s a girl in my school called Jude.”

“Right, well I guess you’ve found two of the girliest things about me in the first minute of meeting me.”

She laughs again even though it wasn’t that funny, and Jen, to my right, laughs privately to herself too. “Hehe,” She imitates in a high pitched voice as Rachel turns to take a beer from Shane. “She fancies you.”

“I don’t care.”

There’s a gust of cool air on my head as my cap is whipped from me, “I like your hat,” Clóda says. She puts it on and leans down to rub her hand over the surface of my shorn head, “But I don’t like your new hair. When did you shave it off?”

I peer at her and smile. I don’t care about Rachel, but Clóda? Clóda does wild things to my insides. “Are you saying you liked my old hair?”

A shrug, “Yeah it was alright. I just preferred it.”

“I might have left it how it was if I’d known that.”

She blushes and giggles, and Shane looks at me, and as I look back at him a muscle twitches in his cheek. I shrug. What are you gonna do? I can’t help it if the girls I like usually seem to like me back. I’m lucky like that. 

Rachel grabs the hat to distract her and puts it on backwards, and she pulls a stupid face and then they giggle and wrestle each other for it while Shane and Joe watch them with fascination. 

“Oh, okay, they both fancy you,” Jen hisses, “surprise surprise.”

“Are you jealous?”

She rolls her eyes, “Please, I’ve lost all hope of finding one single lesbian in this whole town. I’m the only gay for ten miles. I’ll just die alone this summer as I predicted.”

I jut out my bottom lip, “poor Jen.”

“Yeah, piss off.” 

Rachel whoops abruptly and loudly near my ear and snatches my beer bottle from the hollow I made for it in the sand. “I’ve your beer now,” she points out, and dangles it in front of my nose. “I’ve your hat and your beer,” 

“I can see that.”

Jen hisses at me, “she just wants you to flirt back. Just go wrestle her for the stupid beer. Don’t embarrass her.”

Clóda thunders down after her, grabs my hat and waves it triumphantly in the air. “I have it now! What are you gonna do?” I get up for her. 

“Hey, now, give me back my hat,” I say, and I wink at Jen, and she winks back, and I chase down the beach after them both. 

Prev // Next

[blaineshq]

I know, Rachel. I know. And I've definitely learned my lesson. It's not like I'm partying all the time, though. You know I usually take excellent care of my voice. And I promise that's exactly what I'm doing. Lemon ginger tea with honey is the only thing I'm drinking right now and I haven't said a single word since. Okay, that's not entirely true. I may have sung a few words in the shower this morning... But it was simply out of habit and I immediately stopped myself, and not just because I sounded worse than my cat. I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one on vocal rest, though. That makes me feel a little less lonely.

I haven't had a chance to see Jesse's setlist yet, but I trust that he knows what he's doing, unlike Mr Schue. And as tempting as going to Figgins sounds, I'm not sure if having any of us in charge would be a good idea. At least not right now, with the amount of drama going on. I'm afraid it might just make things worse. Not to mention that Coach Sylvester will probably see it as the perfect opportunity to have us disbanded for good. I think that working with Mr Schue is probably our best bet, as difficult as it may be sometimes.

I warned you constantly partying was going to come with a cost, and now here we are. I need you, Blaine, so you better not speak a word and drink lots of tea and honey in the next few days.

I've already backed Jesse's set list that he submitted to Schuester, but yours is also strong. Honestly, at this point I'm considering going to Figgins and asking if we can have Schuester removed and replaced so I simply can be officially in charge - maybe then everyone would listen when I speak anyways. And I'd offer to let you play for me, but I'm also on vocal rest - not because it's needed, but because I don't want to risk it before our first big showing with our new large team.

[marnigifshistory]

Midge Maisel + Her Wonderfully Expressive Face In Every Episode

Season One, Episode One “Pilot”

[houseofmarcella]

I got into animorphs a while ago through some youtube videos, but recently (and through the wonderful work of Animorphs Aloud) I’ve been reading through the entire series and it’s genuinely so absurd to me how good these books are. Like… the plots are either spectacularly well done, or funny enough that they’re enjoyable without worry, the characters are all so real in the way they interact with the war and their world, the meta is great, the fight scenes are interesting, the LORE is spectacular… I need more animorphs content like a woman starved KA Applegate you have my heart please write more YA and Adult books you would do great.

[dcmultiverse]

TEEN TITANS (2003–2006) - 1.07 • "Switched"

[blaineshq]

I think that's a great idea, Rachel! Although I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to be there every Saturday morning, I'd be happy to help in any way I can, whether it's dance, vocal practice or even just being your piano man.

I've officially gotten the okay from Mr. Schuester to help those who need a little additional guidance, in order to help us prepare for Sectionals. It is right around the corner, after all, and in order to ensure we make it to a National's trophy, we need to be over prepared for this first competition. So, to those who think they may like some more...traditional vocal practices, or even dance instructions, I'll be in the choir room from 10am til 12pm on Saturday mornings for the foreseeable future. I am also interested in taking on a helping hand in this venture, but I would like you to be honest with yourself about if you're closer to being a tutee or tutor in this subject, so we can side step the uncomfortable conversation where I tell you that no, you don't know enough to help others because, quite frankly, you're only putting in minimal effort and singing along to Taylor Swift in the shower does not quite make an expert out of you.