Sorry it's been 3.5 years. I am the worst.
For any new people, Rachel and Quinn are best friends, along with Noah/Puck. They're juniors. It's entirely AU.
It all started with an envelope taped to the outside of her locker.
Rachel wanted to think that, if she knew then what she knew now, things would have gone much smoother.
Then again...she always did have a flair for the dramatic.
Alarm clock ringing out to the song of the day, Rachel groaned before hopping out of bed. She went through her morning ritual with ease and, by the time she sat down for breakfast, she was almost excited for the day. Almost.
To be fair, there wasn't much to complain about; nothing particularly of note had happened to Rachel in quite some time and, while that would have been a gift from the heavens her freshman year, it was a terrible thing for her future memoir. Who wanted to read about the peace and sunshine and happiness of a Broadway star's past? No one! People wanted blood. And tears! But alas, what didn't work for a top-selling biography did work for a generally content state of mind. Rachel sighed—a happy medium would have to suffice.
With a wave goodbye to her father's, she left for another typical day of school.
As always, she arrived earlier than most of her peers—or so she figured—and parked in her normal parking spot. She shot a glance up to the sky and noted that there were no clouds as of yet, and a small smile formed on her lips at the thought of another beautiful day of autumn; Quinn loved autumn. Of course, she loved it in that artsy way that Rachel didn't understand completely, but she did appreciate the way her friend conveyed it. The blonde could go on and on about the crunch of the leaves and cinnamon in the crisp air, but all Rachel saw was the carefree way Quinn would collapse into bales of oranges and reds and yellows. She saw the way her friend breathed differently when she stood there and basked in all the season's glory, and almost sort of relaxed.
Smiling at the thought, Rachel grabbed her bag and headed inside.
It wasn't until she walked into the school building and turned the corner that her morning became anything less than her average day. Missing a step, she noticed a splotch of white among her otherwise tannish locker—a splotch of white that had most certainly not been there when she had left the school property the day before.
While the white rectangle was innocuous in itself, Rachel was far more forgiving toward the student body than she was forgetful—it pained her to first and foremost feel suspicious, but self-preservation was an evolutionary trait for a reason, after all.
Wary of anything out of the ordinary, Rachel slowed her pace down and glanced at her surroundings. No one seemed to be watching, waiting to witness some humiliating prank. Then again, Rachel knew she was being paranoid because no one had bothered her since the end of freshman year when she and Quinn had become friends. It had been a little over a year, but Rachel figured she would just never be completely carefree in a place where she'd been tortured for months on end before relief came in the form of one Quinn Fabray, head cheerleader and Head Bitch in Charge of the high school.
Not that Rachel thought the "bitch" part was necessary, but Quinn always said that appearances needed to be maintained. It also helped that Rachel had never been on the receiving end of the blonde's method of keeping her peers in line. Thank Barbra for small blessings, because she had seen the blonde act outright terrifying at times.
Rachel shuddered, thinking of those hazel eyes striking fear in the very souls of her previous tormentors. Karofsky had never looked so pale.
Approaching her locker, she held a faint hope that the paper was maybe taped to the one next to hers.
It wasn't.
In fact, right on the front of the envelope was a neatly scrawled "Rachel." The script writing was actually impressive, and Rachel would have ruminated more about it if her curiosity hadn't already won her over.
Looking over her shoulder one last time to check for bystanders, and possible culprits, Rachel found the hallways remained empty.
She reached for the envelope, half of her mind telling her it was a bad idea, and turned it over.
"Open me." The cursive remained and Rachel wondered who had written it, as it really was flawless.
She bit her lip, unsure as to what would be inside of the letter. It wasn't as if this was a normal occurrence. However, she figured it couldn't be something bad.
And, in the case that this was some kind of prank, Quinn would take care of it. Quinn. Rachel rolled her eyes at herself for not thinking about texting her best friend in the first place. Taking out her phone, she started her message.
Rachel: Say you are in a situation in which something out of the ordinary has happened. You are ultimately given the choice to make it into something or ignore it and, though it seems as though the situation is harmless, you're not sure if you should proceed. What do you do?
She waited no longer than a few seconds before she received a response.
Quinn: Because that's not at all ambiguous.
Rachel laughed lightly, smiling at her friend and herself.
Rachel: I will ignore your sarcasm this once, but only because I was being rather obtuse.
Quinn: :)
Quinn: Expand?
Rachel: There's an envelope taped to my locker. I don't know if it would be wise for me to open it.
Quinn: That's odd.
Rachel looked down to the envelope she had tucked under her arm so she could text faster. She wasn't sure she could not open it. What if it was important? Someone had put it there for a reason, after all.
Quinn: The curiosity is killing you isn't it?
It was as if Quinn was reading her thoughts, though she seemed to do that relatively often.
Rachel: A little bit.
Quinn: Just open it, you goof.
Rolling her eyes, Rachel tucked her phone in her pocket and held the envelope before her. Looking down, she ran her finger over the seam before finding the edge and slipping her finger under it. She managed to avoid ripping the writing, but she paused before flipping the lip over. She needed that moment to mentally prepare herself for the possible outcomes.
There was a piece of white computer paper inside and, just as she was about to pull it out, she felt her phone buzz from her pocket. Ignoring it, figuring it was a text from Quinn mocking her, she plucked the paper out with two fingers and placed it over the envelope.
The paper was smooth, folded into thirds, and Rachel could see the hint of printed words with the little bit of light that was showing through. When she unfolded it, she blinked a few times to make sure she had read the words properly.
Yet, even after rubbing both of her eyes a few times, the words had not changed.
21 reasons I am in love with Rachel Berry
And below the words on the page were empty spaces numbered one through twenty-one. Rachel furrowed her eyebrows, unsure of what the paper was supposed to mean. Was it supposed to be insulting, meaning that there were no reasons? Or was she supposed to fill them in?
She turned the paper over, thinking maybe she missed something the first time. When she found nothing she looked inside the envelope, but again found nothing extra. Her shoulders slumped and she was confused—this was not what she had expected.
Her phone buzzed again, so she shook away her thoughts about the letter and tucked it into the front pocket of her bookbag. She'd think more about it later, she decided.
When she looked at her phone, she saw she had two messages from Quinn.
Quinn: Well?
Quinn: Did you look? What was it?
Rarely one to lie, Rachel bit her lip in contemplation. She could be honest, but Quinn would probably be pissed that someone was messing with her and Rachel didn't want her friend to start something when it was really no big deal.
Rachel: Just a blank piece of paper. I'm not sure if I should be concerned or merely confused.
She sighed. The letter made her bookbag feel heavy.
Rachel's hopes of finding out more about the letter, specifically of who wrote it, were diminishing as the day went on. Physics went by as if nothing was out of the ordinary, as did math and Spanish. When lunch came, Rachel had never been more disgruntled. Unfortunately, Quinn had picked up on her mood almost instantaneously and she felt even worse for knowing she was about to lie to her friend for the second time that day. For the second time in their entire friendship, really.
"What's up, Rach?" she asked, all furrowed-eyebrows and soft hazel.
"Nothing." The brunette sat down and opened her lunch. "Just Mr. Shuester failing to teach me any proper Spanish, as per usual."
"You sure?" The blonde didn't seem convinced as she bit into her carrot stick.
Rachel looked away from her sandwich for a moment to look at her friend. She could see the genuine concern in the blonde's eyes and it only succeeded in making her feel worse. She caved.
"Well, the letter has me out of sorts, I suppose." There, she wasn't lying this time.
Quinn hummed, clearly mulling over the mysterious letter Rachel had informed her of earlier.
"Don't let it get to you, I'm sure it was just some weirdo trying to get your attention. Though, I don't know what a blank piece of paper was supposed to accomplish."
Rachel shrugged. "Me neither." Okay, so lying by omission still counted as lying. She ignored the tight feeling in her stomach and took a bite of her sandwich. It didn't taste as good as it should have.
After escaping lunch, Rachel hoped her English class would make her feel a little better. Fortunately, the teacher had decided to just have a student hand out multiple copies of whatever book they were reading and told them all to read up to chapter five by the end of class.
Rachel rolled her eyes, knowing that each chapter was probably only a few pages long. Really, her high school's expectations were nearly insulting.
Accepting the book that plopped onto her desk, Rachel flipped over to the first page of the first chapter and flinched as a small piece of paper fluttered out from between the pages.
She leaned over in her desk to pick up the tiny rectangle and frowned when she brought it close to see what it was.
#1 Her smile
How odd. She wondered what it pertained to, if maybe someone had left it as note for the chapter. However, just as she was about to raise her hand, she noticed something familiar about the words, and almost didn't believe her own thoughts. They were written in script that looked almost identical to the writing that she had seen this morning.
But there was no way…
Rachel's eyes widened as she connected the dots. What was going on? And how had that piece of paper magically found its way into the book that she was randomly assigned. In order to double check, she glanced up and searched for anyone else having found a piece of paper in their book. No one seemed perturbed, nor did she notice someone looking at her. Drat. She had mildly hoped someone would have been watching her to see her reaction.
Her smile.
Well, she figured, there are much worse forms of torture than anonymous compliments.