Two shot AU: Puckleberry and Babygate never happened, Rachel doesn't moon after Finn, she's in Glee but she isn't close to any of them.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the show, sadly
Rachel Berry doesn't lie. She just doesn't always correct people when they assume wrong about her life. Such as when she brings up she has two fathers. It's not her fault that people believe that she is well cared for by said parents when the truth is she hasn't seen them or the inside of her home in four years. Also, people thinking Rachel wears super short skirts and horribly ugly sweaters because she's making a statement that she doesn't care what people think. She wants them to think that so she doesn't correct them and say it's actually because it's the only things the small clothing give away has that fit her.
Rachel declines rides home everyday from Tina not because she likes the exercise and the fresh air, as she claims but because she doesn't want to explain why she gets dropped off at the dance studio and doesn't need a ride home.
See the truth is, that Rachel Berry's after school activities do not, in fact, involve singing lessons and dance lessons, or at least not lessons for herself. Rachel's after school activities involved teaching dance classes, giving vocal lessons and cleaning up the dance studio. She spent all of her free time with these jobs because they paid her room and board at the dance studio, where she had lived for the past four years, ever since her parents kicked her out for 'not being the daughter they wanted', saying they wanted to get on with their lives and forget the mistake they made in having her in the first place.
Nobody at school knows any of this. As far as they are concerned, she is just that crazy diva that everyone picks on. No one sees that she is only this driven and determined to be the best because it's the only way to make a life for herself. None of them understand what it's like for her because they all have a home to go to after school, a bed they don't have to work for to sleep in, someone to cook for them and someone to love them. Rachel Berry? She has none of that. She's one hundred percent alone in her life so it's not her fault that she's a little insane in her need for perfection. In her life, it's not insane, it's necessary.
That day at school, starts like any other. Rachel gets up at 5, gets ready and gives a dance lesson from 6 to 7. She then showers and rushes to school, getting there in time to put her books in her locker and runs to the library to finish any homework she has left from the day before.
She then leaves to head to homeroom, this is where she's reminded how much of a persona non grata she is in this school and is introduced to a slushy facial.
When any of her fellow glee mates gets slushied in front of her, she's the first to help them out but when she gets slushied, none of them ever stepped up to help. At least none had before. The first situation that should have told her things were about to change happened at this point. She left the library and headed to her homeroom, like every day and like most days, Karofsky and his goons came by and threw slushies on her. There she stood covered in the sticky colored ice, wiping the syrup out of her eyes before bending down to pick up the books she had dropped when she saw a hand holding a book out to her.
She followed the hand up to a face and was surprised to see Mike standing there, frowning. She then heard the bang and straightened up, quickly and turning around to see Karofsky and his right hand man, Andrews pinned to the lockers by Noah and Matt.
"Never again," Noah growled at them.
Rachel's eyebrows shot up, as she tried to understand what was happening. She turned to Mike, taking the book from his still outstretched hand, "Thank you Michael. I'm going to go get cleaned up, now. Thank Noah and Mathew for me." And with that she hurried back to her locker before he could say anything.
Once at her locker, she remembered that today was laundry day so she hadn't brought a spare set of clothes.
She banged her head against her locker before closing it and slipping into the nearest girls washroom. She quickly washed her hair and face off before deciding to just head back to the dance studio. She wouldn't normally skip class, but she couldn't walk around in these clothes. She figured she'd walk there, change and come back in time for her afternoon classes.
She headed out of the washroom and to the doors that lead to outside. She didn't realize that there was anyone following her until she got halfway across the parking lot.
"Berry" She heard and quickly turned to see Noah standing there, hands in his pockets, staring at her.
"Can I help you with something, Noah? She asked.
"Where are you going?" He asked instead of answering her.
"I forgot to bring a spare set of clothes so I'm going to run home and change" She answered, not looking at him.
"Come back, I have a spare jersey and Chang has a pair of shorts that'll fit you if you tie the string up tight"
Rachel was already shaking her head, "It's fine, Noah. I'll just run home and be back in time for afternoon classes. It's not a big deal."
Noah rolled his eyes, "We both know that you don't want to miss class. You shouldn't let those assholes do that to you."
She kept her mouth shut, not reminding him that up until a few months ago, he was one of those assholes and just nodded her assent.
He motioned her back inside the school and headed to the boys locker room. He motioned her to stay where she was and slipped inside the locker room, grabbing the promised clothes and coming out to hand them to her. She walked into the girls locker room that was across from the one he had came out of and quickly changed into the clothes he had given her.
Even with tying the shorts as tight as the could be and tying a knot in the side of the shirt, she still looked like she was swimming in the clothes but at least they were clean. Walking out, she was surprised to see Noah waiting for her.
He smirked at her, "Looking good, Berry"
She rolled her eyes, "I seriously doubt that Noah, but thank you for the clothes anyway. I'll bring your jersey back tomorrow"
He shrugged, "Not a big deal"
They stood there, awkwardly for a few moments before Rachel finally asked what she'd been dying to know since the incident, never one to beat around the bush she bluntly asked, "Why did you guys help me?"
Noah shrugged again, looking at her saying "You're one of our teammates. No one does that shit to our team."
She shook her head, "Try again"
"What?" He asked, confused.
"Noah, I've been your 'Teammate' for months, these slushies have been happening the whole time, so if that was the truth it would have happened months ago."
He frowned at her but didn't deny she was right, instead he said, "We should have stopped it months ago, but we're stopping it now. Gotta start somewhere"
She knew he was avoiding a real answer but also knew that was the best she'd get so she nodded, giving him a small smile, "Whatever the reason, I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm going to head to class"
He nodded, "See ya"
And with that they went their separate ways. The rest of the morning, Rachel pretended not to hear the whispers about her in 'Puck's jersey' and about the boys threatening the hockey team earlier. She went on with her day as normal as she could.
Come lunch, she went through the line, grabbing a salad and a water as usual and walking to her table in the back corner. Same as every other day this past year.
Second difference happened then. She heard trays sliding on to her table with her. When she looked up, she saw Matt and Mike sliding in across from her.
Matt smiled at her and Mike said, "Hey Rach, what's up?" As if he sat there everyday.
"Hello, Michael, Mathew. Did you need something?"
Matt shook his head and again Mike spoke up, "Nah, we're good. How're you doing?"
She cocked an eyebrow at that but replied, "I'm doing fine, thank you."
And went back to eating her lunch halfway listening to Mike prattle on about some new musical group he had started listening too. Another tray slid beside her and she didn't even have to look up to know it was Noah. She did look up however and there his green eyes were, smiling over at her."Sup, Berry? Chang driving you crazy yet?"
She gave him a small smile and shook her head, "Michael has been perfectly wonderful company"
Noah chuckled, "You must be tuning him out like the rest of us then, if you think that"
Mike glared at him and threw a fry at his head in response, which Noah just grabbed and popped into his mouth, causing Mike to glare harder.
Rachel watched the whole exchange amused but also confused as to why they were suddenly hanging around her.
She listened to their conversations, talking when forced but observing mostly and she was surprised at how easy they all were around each other and her. In Glee none of them talked much. Matt and Mike said maybe ten words between them in practice and Noah only spoke to flirt or intimidate but here Mike was a regular chatterbox and though still quiet, Matt talked more at that lunch period then she'd heard him talk all year in glee. Noah was the real surprise because she saw he was genuinely enjoying the conversations, the banter and the mini food fights. He wasn't acting at all like the badass persona he put on for most people but more like a regular teenage boy goofing with his friends. It was fascinating to her.
When the lunch bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, Mike grabbed her trash and put it on his tray. She thanked him, hopping up to go to her locker. She realized she was being followed so she turned and saw Matt walking beside her.
They walked side by side to her locker, not saying anything but they got there, he leaned against the locker next to hers and waited for her to grab her books for her next class.
"Matt? Can I ask you something?"
He nodded so she went on, "Why do you three suddenly feel the need to be around me?"
He frowned and she knew he wasn't going to answer her but he surprised her, "We just realized how hard this year must have been on you."
She cocked an eyebrow at him before asking, "What do you mean?"
He shrugged, looking down at his feet, "Everyone in glee has at least one person that they can go to if something bad happens, like a slushy or whatever. San and Brit are joined at the hip, Quinn and Finn are the golden couple, Mercedes and Kurt are diva soul mates, Artie and Tina are together, and Mike, Puck and I have been friends since pre school but you don't really talk to anyone. You're there if someone out here gets slushied or thrown in the dumpster but when it happens to you, you just go clean yourself off and go on with your day. No one else seems to notice but Mike and I were talking about it after glee the other day and then we told Puck and well here we are. Everyone needs a friend"
Rachel took a moment to process that the quiet boy in front of her, had indeed given her this speech, before she allowed the speech to sink in and for the first time since her parents had kicked her out, she felt the threat of tears prickling behind her eyes. She turned away so he wouldn't see it but was to slow and he had. He put his arm around her shoulder.
Instead of bringing up the almost tears however he said, "Come on let's get to class."
Just like that, Rachel made three new friends. She never realized how hard it was to have friends however. Because even though at school, she got used to having the three around and the rest of the school quickly learned to leave her alone, she was having more and more problems explaining why she couldn't hang out after school.
One day, a couple months into their friendship, Noah was particularly insistent. "Come on, Berry, cut lessons just this once and come over. I'll even rent the new Wicked Dvd and watch it without making any insulting comments."
She rolled her eyes at the bait but answered the same as everyday, "I can't just ditch my lessons, Noah. I've explained this to you, time and time again."
"You're explanations are bull shit, Berry and you know it. You have lessons everyday, including weekends. When you're not at lessons you're supposedly studying but refuse to study with us, or you're sleeping. Friends hang out you know."
She sighed but was saved from answering by Mike, "Dude, lay off. When she has time she'll hang out, right Rach?"
She smiled gratefully at Mike, nodding affirmative, "Of course, I would love to hang out with you outside of school. When I get a break form my lessons, you three will be the first I call, promise"
Mike seemed satisfied with that, as did Matt. Noah wasn't but he didn't argue right then, just made plans for future arguments.
Once Rachel headed to class, Mike turned to them, "We're following her after school today."
Now was Noah's turn to be shocked, "We're what?"
"Obviously she's hiding something from us and the only way to help her deal with it, is to know what it is and the only way to know what it is, is to follow her so we're following her." Mike reasoned.
Noah smirked then, "And here I thought you were going soft for Berry. You were really just turning into an evil mastermind."
Mike rolled his eyes, "I prefer ninja but whatever"
Puck and Matt snorted at that but didn't say anything to the contrary.
The school day passed quickly and Rachel ran out of school quickly, as usual, heading to the dance studio. She was unaware of the trio of boys following behind her. She got to the dance studio and quickly got ready for her first vocal lesson of the day. From the hours of 4 to 9 she gave three vocal lessons at an hour long a piece and one hour long dancing class with 20 students and one personal dancing lesson. Once they were all finished she walked out of the studio and went to the closet for the broom and dust pan, quickly cleaning up the studio and by 10 was ready to go to her room, eat a quick dinner and do some homework. That's what she planned to do but when she walked out the back of the studio to the stairs the led to the apartment above the studio, she was surprised to hear footsteps coming up the stairs behind her. Turning around she saw the three boys, all looking at her with questions in their eyes as well as concern.
Sighing she motioned them inside, figuring that she should have realized they'd do this eventually. Honestly she was surprised it took them this long.
Walking over to her mini fridge, she grabbed a bottle of water out of it and waited for the questions. After about five minutes of silence, Mike broke it, "You live here?"She nodded.
"Why?" He asked, confused.
"For how long?" Noah asked right after.
"Four years," she replied, making all their jaws drop.
"We were in 7th grade four years ago" Mike said, as if she didn't realize that.
She nodded, "I know"
Matt was the one that got wise and said, "Tell us everything"
She glared at him a little, why did he have to be the smart one? She thought to herself. Before quickly spilling out the story of her parents kicking her out and the owner of the dance studio taking her in as long as she helped out around the studio.
"So basically, they get free child labor for the price of you staying in this apartment?" Noah asked, sounding appalled at the thought.
"You've been working these hours and going to school for four years?" Mike asked, impressed and sad at the same time.
"You've been doing all this alone." Matt stated, frowning.
Noah hugged her, "I'm so sorry I was such an asshole to you!"
She pulled away, sharply "The reason I didn't' tell anyone is I don't want any pity. I'm fine. I've been fine for years and I'll continue to be fine"
Mike was the one to pull her to him then, "Rach, it's not pity, it's concern. There's a difference."
She pulled away from him too, still frowning, "I'm fine"
"You're sixteen, you shouldn't be on your own" Noah replied, stubbornly.
"And what am I suppose to do then?" She snapped, "Make myself a ward of the state and let them put me in some foster home or another for the next two years? No thank you"
"Come stay with me" He replied, not raising his voice to her tone.
Her mouth dropped, "What?"
"Come stay with me. My mom would love you and my sister already idolizes you from our concerts."
She shook her head, "There is no way I would impose on you or your family like that, Noah. I'm just fine where I am."
Matt was the one that said, "He's right, Rachel. If not with him then with one of us. All of our families would take you in when they heard what was going on with you. You're exhausting yourself with how you're going. It's not right"
"Not you too" she groaned at him, "I cannot impose on anyone like that. My own family couldn't stand to live with me" She reminded them.
"They're douche bags" Noah replied and then added, "I'm not taking no for an answer, Berry. Pick one of us, it doesn't have to be me but you're coming home with us, tonight. If you argue I'll just tell my mom what's going on and your choice goes out the window because she'll be down here before I can finish the story, guaranteed"
She glared at him, "Why can't you take no for an answer?"
He smirked at her, "No one tells Puckzilla no"
She rolled her eyes at the ridiculous nickname but finally sighed. "Are you sure?"
They all grinned at her, realizing they had won for once. It was rare to win an argument with Rachel Berry. "YES" They all said.
"Well why don't you three go talk to your families and decide what's best, while I pack?" She suggested, reasonably.
They all nodded in agreement, "We'll be back in an hour" Noah said, she nodded, hugging all three of them as they left.
Once they were gone, she did pack…a bag and started to head out the door. Right when she got down the stairs though she heard, "Going somewhere, Berry?"
She jumped at the sound of Noah's voice, "Noah, you scared me."
"I asked you a question" He replied.
She frowned but didn't answer, just said, "I thought you were going to talk to your mother.
"I realized it'd be easier to call." He shrugged, "she said you were to come home with me and we'd set you up in the guest room. I was coming up to tell you when I saw your door open."
She sighed, "I'm sorry, Noah. I just really don't like the feeling of imposing on someone's family. Especially for two years. That's a long time."
Noah shrugged, "I think it'll be kinda cool and Dani'll love having an older sister around to do chick things with. Mom works a lot so she's stuck with me most days."
Giving up, she nodded, "Alright but if it gets to be to much, promise you'll tell me so I don't overstay my welcome?"
He nodded, "Of course, Berry. I'll kick your ass out when I'm tired of you, and then get my ass kicked by my mother for kicking a girl out on the streets. Sounds like a plan" He said sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes but said, "Let's go. You should call Mike and Matt"
"Already did. Their parents were all for you going to their houses too, so you really did have a choice."
"Looks like I'm stuck with you now, though huh?" She teased.
He grinned and threw his arm around her, grabbing her bag with his other hand "Yep, mom's already got the wedding planned."
That made her stopped and sputtered, "What?"
He laughed then, "Joking, Berry. Well sort of. I told her you were Jewish and it kind of got her super excited and automatically assuming that us being two hot Jews and all, will fall to the fates of being together" He winked at her then.
She laughed then too, and they continued to walk the few blocks to his house.
Inside, she looked around, "Where's your family?"
"Mom's working, like I said and the brat's hanging out with Lopez's little sister for the night."
"Oh" She said, as she followed him to her new bedroom.
"Yep you're stuck with me for the night" He teased, "Any idea what we could do with the time?"
She rolled her eyes, "Noah, it's 12 am and I haven't started my homework yet. I'm exhausted and starving, sex is the last thing on my mind."
It was his turn to be shocked that she was so blunt about it, but he quickly recovered and said, "But once all of those problems are fixed, sex will be on your mind?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.
She gave him the look that comment deserved before saying, "Where's the kitchen?"
He sighed, but led her to the kitchen and watched her make spaghetti for the two of them.
"I thought you were vegetarian" He said, as he watched her make meat sauce.
"Salads are cheaper to get" She replied, shrugging as she finished dinner.
They ate in silence and then he left her to do her homework and get some sleep. He didn't wake her up for school the next day however. His mom had told him for the two of them to stay home so she could meet her new house daughter.
Second part is already half written but I'm already up way later than I should be, this story started playing in my head as soon as I put up It's not you, It's them and lay down so I got up and started typing and now it's 6 so I cut it off because i'm getting up in 3 hours. I'll write the rest tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed :)