Did You Hear About Rachel Berry?

by Dante Andy Anderson

Did you hear about Rachel Berry? She had a baby at NYADA. She did? Yes. And what did she do? She sacrificed everything to keep it and she lost almost everything.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT RACHEL BERRY?

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this Storyline and plot. Glee (TV Series), Thai Commercial by WACOL, Glee Fan Trailers on Youtube, All Music mentioned all belong to their respective labels and what not.

Rating: PG

Warning: Contains child abandonment and Mentions of a Character Death. There are possible triggers in this, I do not know all of them. Do Not Read if you're easily offended.

Plot: Did you hear about Rachel Berry? She had a baby at NYADA. She did? Yes. And what did she do? She sacrificed everything to keep it and she lost almost everything.

Genre: Drama

Era: AU - POST WMHS

Ships: None.

AN: This plot was stuck in my head all day, even at work, so I had to write it down. It was inspired by the Wacol Ad that pretty much features a mother and her child - the slogan was something along the lines of 'Every Woman is beautiful'.

Just to let you all know, that this story is mainly a speech that is given by one of the characters in the story.
The story is a ONE-SHOT.

I hope you will enjoy this short tale.

From Dante Andy Anderson.

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May 15th 2029:

Seventeen year old June Barbra Berry was fidgeting nervously in her seat as everyone started to crowd into the school's auditorium.
It was senior graduation at Mark Carlton Academy in New York City and she was considered the school's valedictorian.
So she had to have a speech prepared.
For the last few weeks she was terrified about what she wanted to say, but now she knew with certainty what she was going to talk about.

She was going to talk about life and its unpredictability;
but mostly she was going to tell the story of her hero. Her mother, Rachel Berry.
She looked over the sea of students and saw Rachel sitting down, waving at her. June waved enthusiastically back at her mother before smiling brightly and sitting down in her seat, ready to graduate and be free from high school.
As the ceremony began time went by faster than she anticipated, perhaps it was because she was nervous that she was about to reveal the one part of her life that no one knew about apart from her mother, even though Rachel was famous now, no one knew anything about June and Rachel had kept it that way until now. June had asked her permission to talk about it.

At home Rachel had wondered why now, but all June would tell her was that it was part of her valedictorian speech and she didn't want to ruin it.
Rachel eventually agreed.
Finally it was time for her to stand up in front of her peers.
She smiled as she brushed part of her blonde hair back and looked out directly at her mother who was smiling back at her, giving her a thumbs up and reminding her to be brave and smile herself.
June smiled as she cleared her throat and began her speech.

"Hi Class of 2029, what can I say apart from the fact that we made it," she started as everyone cheered, "We made it through this war known as High School and as we take our first big step into the big wide world, I feel that we should talk about life and how it can be unpredictable,"

Everyone was quiet as they watched the seventeen year old gather her thoughts.

"I want to talk about how life can hurl things at you you never thought it would; and I want to tell you about a hero that I have admired since I was a baby, my mother, Rachel Berry," June said as she smiled at Rachel who had put a hand over her heart and had tears in her eyes.

Everyone waited as June continued her speech, "Most of you will think it's because my mother is a famous actress now and that she's rich;
but it's not, my Mom could be the poorest of the poor and she'd still be my hero, why?
Because she saved me, and she did it when she had the most to lose, it was a time when she was still about eighteen years old and she was starting her second year at NYADA;
It was a time when dreams were possible, she was auditioning for her favourite play in the world, Funny Girl,
She eventually found out that she got the role and she was so excited to begin rehearsals;
Life was going well;
but then she got the worse news imaginable, the love of her life Finn Hudson, died;
It wasn't expected and no one saw it coming,
Everyone wanted to know why and how he died,
My Uncle Kurt summed it up the best for me though, 'Who cares about how he died? Care about how he lived,'
In life we look too much at how someone died and not how they lived;
I was told that Finn was a good man, a great man, and he did good things,
No, he wasn't perfect, he made mistakes, he said things he shouldn't have,
He did things he probably shouldn't have,
But all in all, he was a good man;
When my Mom got news that he died,
To say that she was devastated would be like saying Mount Everest is too small to climb,
For those of you who don't understand what I mean, it means that she was so devastated that she didn't eat, she didn't sleep, she just was,"

June could see tears tracking down the face of her mother and few others in the room, but she continued anyway.

"This was all before she had me;
My Mom was just a few months away from nineteen years old when she had me,
It was another unexpected thing;
And she had a choice to make, keep me or get rid of me;
Needless to say she kept me, despite everyone telling her that she was making a very stupid choice in doing so;
That is only the beginning of why she is my hero;
Not too long after me, she was dealt another blow,
The production team didn't want to have a young mother, so they had plans to get rid of her until someone said that they could use this as an angle to get more seats in the audience,
But my Mom refused, she said that she wouldn't let them use me as a tool to further their popularity or hers,
They could use her all they wanted, but they had to keep me out of it,
So they fired her,
My grandfathers at the time didn't understand why she had kept me,
But all she would tell them was that when she looked at me gazing back up at her, she just couldn't let me go,
So they tried to help, but she was mostly on her own,
She had to move out of her apartment with Uncle Kurt and she got a smaller apartment on her own,
It wasn't fancy, but it was home,
And it made sure I wouldn't wake Uncle Kurt up from his beauty sleep when I cried at three in the morning,"

People giggled at that, Kurt Hummel was well known as a diva who loved his beauty sleep, he said so many times when he was being interviewed.

"For the next five years she worked hard in the diner and looked after me,
People began to whisper about her as she would rush out of class to pick me up from a babysitter, or a friend,
They would say, "'Did you hear about Rachel Berry?'
'Oh my god, what a slut, she had a baby,'
'I bet it was with that Brody guy,'
'I heard it was with the producer, that's why they fired her, because she got pregnant,'
'If you ask me she should have gotten rid of it, what an idiot,'
The other students began to bully her and push her around because of me,
her grades weren't matching and eventually NYADA told her that she couldn't stay with them anymore,
She was kicked out, another unexpected thing in life;
But she persevered, she kept going even when it was hard,
She fed me, she clothed me, she taught me about Broadway and music,
She kept going, never stopping unless it was to spend time with me,
The whispering never stopped, but she didn't care;
I was her little girl and nothing would change that,
Nothing would stop her from loving me,
I heard Uncle Kurt say to her once, 'Why don't you tell everyone the truth about June?';
Because at that stage, not even he knew how I came about,
My mother looked at him and asked back, 'What truth?'
'About how she came to be, everyone is talking bad about you,'
My mother said one of the most amazing and selfless things I ever heard,
She said, 'As long as they aren't talking bad about June then that's okay,'"

June paused as she looked at Rachel who was smiling with tears falling her face as she wiped them.

"My Mom sacrificed her dreams for me, she sacrificed what she loved so that I could live,
Because not only is that what a hero does, it is what a Mom does,
Life was hard and it was unpredictable,
She knew that you can't control circumstance, but you can control how you react to it,
So she chose to keep me,
Despite being told that she was a fool to do so,
Despite the fact that people were being horrible about her behind her back,
Despite the fact that every day she was terrified that she wouldn't be a good mother,
But she was and she is, she's a fantastic mother,
Because of her I grew up happy, unaware of the looks and the talking,
But as you get older, it's harder to ignore the looks and whispers people direct your way,
I started to hear people whispering , "Did you hear about Rachel Berry?"
When I was twelve I finally asked her why they talked about her like that.
I wanted the truth, so my Mom sat me down and told me the biggest bombshell of my life,"

People were on the edge of their seats, those who were a fan of the one and only Rachel Berry would finally know how June came to be.
Others were just interested in knowing.

"I was a dumpster baby," June said as everyone gasped and muttered before quietening down, "I don't know who my birth mother or birth father are, they just put me in dirty piece of luggage and left me by the dumpster in an alleyway to die,
I don't know what their reason was,
I guess I'll never know,
By pure chance my Mom was walking home from a exhausting practice and had a soy latte on her way home,
She needed to throw her cup away and I had started crying very loudly;
She gasped and picked me up, holding me close and trying to keep me warm;
She took me to the police station, but they couldn't do anything,
In the end she was given a choice, I could be adopted out, foster cared or she could take me home,
Being only eighteen, you have to wonder why they even bothered giving her the option of keeping me,
You have to wonder how the law worked that way because in all sense it shouldn't have worked,
I should have been left at an orphanage and adopted out,
But it worked out for,
My mom told me that she took one look at me with my little nose and green eyes and little sprouts of blonde hair and she was hooked,
She couldn't let me go, so she took me home, and has loved and cared for me ever since, despite what people have been telling her,
She took a great risk in loving me because she knew that she could lose everything she ever dreamed of, but she loved me anyway,"

June smiled at that point as she shuffled her papers a bit and continued, "I grew up incredibly happy,
I remember our bath times together, I remember the time I tried on her make up and made a mess,
I remember trying to make her breakfast pancakes for Mother's Day and I ended up using eggs by accident and she got sick,
but she still loved me even though I made her eat something she didn't agree with eating,
I remember the time she would still play with me even though she was dead tired from working over time because we nearly couldn't afford rent,
I remember how even when I was bad, she still loved me,
You all know now that life eventually worked in her favour,
When I was about seven, she was cast in a television show, and then a movie,
And since then she has graced your screens,
We still live simple because it is the life we love,
Sure we're no longer in a cramp and somewhat dirty apartment,
Which by the way was not my fault Mom, it was the cockroaches and the squirrel, I swear,"

Everyone laughed at that as Rachel giggled at her and waved her hand dismissively at her daughter.

June smiled as she continued to the last part of her speech,
"My Mom taught me that life can be unpredictable, you can be experiencing the best thing in your life only to have it taken away in a second,
So you have to treasure what you have,
Love those around you,
And if you can't, at least respect them, no matter how hard,
My Mom taught me that it's good to have dreams, but it's important to make sure you have a plan,
But be prepared for the unexpected plans,
So I say to you Class of 2029, live life as you should, be grateful for what you have and be prepared for the unexpected,
because sometimes the unexpected things in life are what you end up loving the most,
At least that's what my Mom always says whenever she talks about me,
So I wish you the best in your life, enjoy it, live it and be prepared for the unexpected ride,
Thank you,"

The room broke out into an applause as June walked down the steps and took her seat.
After the graduation, she was promptly hugged by her mother.
"I'm so proud of you baby," Rachel said as she hugged her daughter close.
"Thank you Mommy," June said as she hugged her mother back, "I love you very much,"
"And I love you too baby girl, with all of my heart,"