"No Lucy remember the walk I taught you, shoulders back, head high, like everyone else is beneath you" her mother coached. Lucy frowned as she concentrated sticking out her tongue as she did so.
Walking carefully like her mother taught her she was sure she was doing it right at least until a hand came down walloping her bottom.
"Don't stick your tongue out like that, Fabrarys do not stick their tongues out." He mother scolded. Lucys' head dropped.
"Sorry mother" she apologised sticking her tongue in. Her bottom was really sore a few tears escaped. A slap sounded
"Fabrays don't cry" Judy shouted. Lucy hastily wiped the tears away, she took a deep breath and walked just like her mother finishing what was a near perfect walk she turned to face her mother.
"Better, course not as good as your sister" her mother muttered walking out of the room. Leaving 6 year old Lucy standing there ashamed fighting back tears, she would never be as good as Frannie.
Chapter 2
"Lucy, it says here you didn't get first place in that dance competition?" Russell Fabray questioned reading in her dance troop's monthly news leaflet.
"I tried daddy" Lucy cried. She had practiced and practiced but some girl from Lima Ohio had beaten her. She got second place which in a state competition with a thousand girls competing was pretty good.
"Fabray's don't try Fabray's win, go to your room now" he insisted when Lucy didn't move he grabbed her arm dragging her up the stairs. She cried earning herself a slap across the face. On reaching her room he threw her inside locking the door from the outside. Inside the room Lucy picked herself up cradling her arm, she didn't cry instead picked herself up with all the elegance she could. Fabray's don't cry, Fabray's don't lose. It was a lesson 7 year old Lucy was learning that and she would never be as perfect as Frannie.
Quickly bored of sitting there Lucy decided to play Barbie. Carefully she dressed them making sure it was pretty Barbie had to attract Ken after all.
"No no no Barbie you don't walk properly" Lucy moaned at her doll. Using her Ken doll she slapped her Barbie. "You got to be perfect"
With that in mind she started practicing her dance routine again it was going to be perfect, everything had to be perfect. She was a Fabray, she would be perfect. With renewed energy she began practicing her routine. She would never come second again.
Church was an essential part of the Fabray week. Every Wednesday was bible study, Friday was choir practice, Saturday they would volunteer to help the 'undesirables' such as the homeless or elderly. All the time Russell would remind Lucy that soup kitchens were what happened when people weren't perfect. Sunday was the big day in the Fabray house. They would get there early to give out bibles and the choir books. Lucy was always in the choir with Frannie and both would be expected to be pitch perfect. Occasionally they had solos or readings which Russell orchestrated.
It was a Sunday before Christmas Lucy was given the big solo part. Silent night as the church silenced she began to sing. It echoed of the wall giving it a magical quality until she got to the high point her voice cracked unable to hit the note, she winced but continued through the song pretending that she didn't see the furious looks that her father was sending. After church instead of attending the normal coffee meet they went straight home. The drive was silent only when the front door slammed shut did Russell's tirade began.
"How dare you embarrass us like that, you're a disgrace." He slapped her hard she fell to the floor grasping her cheek. She didn't cry instead cowered on the floor. "What were you thinking?" he demanded.
"I'm sorry daddy, I messed up again" Lucy said keeping her eyes on the floor. Her meekness appeased him.
"You should be sorry, why can't you do anything right, I can't even look at you right now go to your room and don't even think about eating, your putting on weight, they'll be calling you fatbray soon" he mocked. Lucy bowed her head ashamed, at 10 the puberty hormones were hitting her with fat. She walked up the stairs using the Fabray walk not crying with two new rules, don't sing flat and don't mess up in church.
Cheerleading club was her solution, her path to perfection. While high school had cheerios her new middle school had minio's. She joined for fitness making 2 fast friends Brittany and Santana, her weight dropped as her fitness increased. Then one day she was standing on the top of the pyramid when a rouge football came from nowhere. It hit her face, she faltered but didn't fall off the pyramid. The blood poured down her face, but she didn't stop. The routine had to be perfect.
Her coach called it to a halt noticing the blood. The pyramid dissolved. At the bottom her coach met her towel in her hand.
"Let me have a look Lucy, oh wow, I think you broke your nose." The coach exclaimed as the towel came away with blood.
"It's fine I can continue with practice" Lucy protested wiping the blood away.
"No you can't, Santana get me some ice, Becki call an ambulance" Coach yelled. Another coach came over,
"That's the fighting spirit that I like let me look" She took Lucy's face into her hands,
"Definitely broken, I'll escort her, Melanie suicides" She called ordering her older team to run drills.
The ambulance came and loaded Lucy in.
"I'm coach Sue I teach the high school team." The new coach introduced. Of course Lucy knew who she was everyone did.
"I know"
"We have called your parents" Sue offered. Lucy nodded reluctantly she knew her dad would be furious at her for her non perfect face.
At the hospital Sue watched impressed as Lucy submitted to all their tests without flinching or crying. This girl was hard core perfect for her cheerio's.
"When do you graduate?" Sue asked curiously, she had seen the girl get hit with the ball and continue with her routine it was exactly that dedication she wanted on her team.
"2 years ma'am" Lucy replied. Sue frowned she did not like to wait.
"I want you on the Cheerios, from now on you'll attend our practices instead" she ordered.
With that small order Lucy's life changed her parents became proud of her youngest cheerio ever they even paid for the nose job her mother insisted she needed, the extra pounds fell off with all the training and she decided. She didn't feel like a Lucy loser anymore, she was Quinn it rhymed with win, much better.