Seven-year-old Lucy Fabray had played alone at recess for as long as she could remember. She was shy, and it seemed whenever she got up enough courage to play tag with the other first-graders they always pushed her to the ground, knocking her big, round glasses off, and then called her "four-eyes" as she knelt in the tanbark groping around for the frames she could no longer see. Nobody ever helped her. So every day she would run over to the playground and head straight for the monkey bars. She was good at swinging across the monkey bars–the rough calluses on her palms were a testament to that–and she didn't need any friends to enjoy flying from one paint-chipped metal bar to another.
One day, as Lucy reached out with her right hand for the next bar, her left hand slipped and she fell to the ground, landing hard on her back. The tanbark softened her fall, but it still hurt. She started crying quietly, but none of the yard supervisors took any notice. She rolled over and started feeling the ground for her glasses. They had fallen off again.
"Are you okay?" a girl's voice asked.
Lucy looked up into the brown eyes of a blurred face she didn't recognize.
"Who are you?" she replied, choking back her tears.
"I'm Rachel Berry. Are you okay?"
"You're not going to call me four-eyes?"
"Did your glasses fall off? Let me help yo-look they're right here!" Rachel exclaimed as she plucked the wire frames out of the tanbark and handed them back to their owner.
Lucy cracked a small smile and wiped the tears from her cheeks, pushing the glasses back onto her face.
"Do you want to eat lunch with me later?" Rachel asked. "My Daddy makes really good cookies. I'll share one with you."
"Okay," Lucy answered hesitantly, hazel eyes wide with the offer of companionship. This was the password. Rachel started babbling, asking questions and answering them, never pausing long enough to let Lucy get a word in.
"What's your name? I just moved here yesterday. I'm in Ms. Jefferson's class. What class are you in? Come on, let's go down the slide. What do you like to do? I like to sing. I'm going to be a Broadway star someday. Do you know what Broadway is?"
Rachel offered her hand to Lucy, "Come on! Let's go down the slide. Aren't you coming?"
Lucy grinned widely, grabbed Rachel's hand, gripping as if she would never let go, stood up, and answered, "I'm Lucy. Let's go down the slide. Let's be friends."
Rachel smiled back, swinging their intertwined hands as she spoke, "Aren't we friends already?"