Rachel sighed as she closed her locker door and made her way down to the choir room. The last couple of months had been really hard on her. What with finding about Finn and Santana's "getting it on" just before Sectionals and Finn breaking up with her after he found out she had kissed Noah, you could say she was little tired of everything. Rachel had so many bitter feelings swirling around inside of her, it felt like a storm was raging inside of her and no matter what she did nothing made it go away. Not even singing helped to get rid of the emotions that kept her awake at night and disrupted her focus on her goals and on herself.

She arrived at the Glee room and took a seat. Mercedes came in and sat next to her.

"What's the matter with you, diva?" Mercedes asked. The two girls and Kurt had become friends this year and now Mercedes was one of Rachel's close friends.

"Nothing, Mercedes," Rachel said quietly.

"Yeah right, this isn't you Rachel. Don't think I haven't noticed a change in your personality. You used to be all take-no-prisoners in here, and annoying as it is, that's what keeps the club motivated. But you haven't been doing that lately. Hell, you haven't been making suggestions for songs for Nationals and whenever someone says something nasty about you, you act like you don't even notice. It's like you don't care anymore," Mercedes said, seriously concerned for her friend and fellow diva.

"I've never cared Mercedes. About Glee club, yes, but as to what people say about me, I'm so used to it, I don't even notice it anymore," Rachel said, the lie rolling easily off her tongue.

Mercedes opened her mouth to argue back, but just then the rest of the club came in followed by Mr. Schuester.

"Okay guys, we've won Regionals and our next stop is Nationals in New York, and we are going to face Vocal Adrenaline since we won Regionals. We need some ideas on potential songs we could sing. Any ideas? Rachel?" Mr Schuester asked, clapping his hands together.

"Sorry , I don't have any ideas, "Rachel said as she shook her head.

"Is it really that or have you finally realized that the club's already got a director and we don't need your suggestions that are always lame anyways?" asked Santana.

"Apparently you weren't listening. I. Don' . . Do you need me to say it a third time or do you want me to draw you a picture?" Rachel asked, with no emotion in her voice at all. Everyone in the room was shocked. Rachel never talked to anyone like that.

"Don't talk that way to me, Berry. Especially since I'm higher up on the food chain than you are and I dress better than you do. I look hip, whereas you look like someone whose fashion sense is grandmother and choirgirl combined," Santana sneered. Rachel stood up and turned around to face Santana and the rest of the Glee club.

"How is the way I just talked to you any different than the way you, Quinn, and Brittany have talked to and treated me for the last two years?" The bitter feelings Rachel had were starting to awaken; she could feel their power taking hold of her.

"So what? We treat you better than most would and the way Vocal Adrenaline treated you last year after Jesse broke your heart," Santana reiterated.

"Oh really? How is throwing slushies on me any different than throwing eggs at me? And if you guys treat me better than most people, then why don't I see any of you standing up for me? Or apologizing for what you guys have done to me?" Rachel countered as she turned to face the fiery Latina, her brown eyes sparking.

"We don't need to apologize to you. Even though Quinn and Britt and I aren't on the Cheerios anymore, we're still higher than you are," Santana said, smirking nastily.

"Santana's right, Rachel. About everything, we do treat you better than most people, and your style is terrible," Finn said. Rachel rounded on him.

"I know you think my style is terrible, Finn. After all, didn't I watch you laugh and agree with Brittany and Santana earlier this year when they insulted me? But you don't treat me any better than the rest of the people at this school and Vocal Adrenaline and Jesse put together. Actually, you are just as bad as Jesse is, if not worse!" Rachel snapped. Rachel looked at to see if he was going to step in. But he seemed just as shocked as everyone else at her outburst.

"What do you mean, Rachel?" Mr. Schue asked.

"I mean that both Finn and Jesse are spineless cowards with no backbone at all, because neither of them stood up for me once. I mean, what kind of person tells someone that they love them and then cracks an egg on their forehead? And as for Finn, when he and I went to pick out a Christmas tree after the choir room got trashed, he . . ." Rachel had to stop for a minute and shake her head to keep the tears from coming and take a deep shaky breath.

"He left me in the tree lot, alone, with no way home and my cell phone," she finished weakly.

"Yeah, and then Rachel called me to come and pick her up," Noah said, a hard edge of anger in his voice. Rachel looked at Mr. Schue, but he was looking at Finn, with disappointment all over his face.

"Is that true, Finn?"

"Yeah, but. . ." Finn said in a weak effort to defend himself.

"But nothing, Finn. You know that the stunt you pulled that night was beyond wrong. What would you have done if something had happened to Rachel? If she had been attacked, or mugged, or raped, or all three at once? She's tiny, and I could be wrong, but I'm not confident that she's strong enough to fight off an attacker," Noah said.

"What's it to you?" Finn asked.

"I care about Rachel. And she doesn't deserve any of the bullshit that you've been spewing to her for the last year," Noah said flatly, he was feeling the way he had in the green room before Sectionals and he had been the only one to come to Rachel's defense out of the entire club.

"You used to pick on her," Santana pointed out, not happy that her ex was still clearly carrying a torch for the smaller brunette.

"Yeah, used to being the keywords, Santana. I apologized to her. And if you or Quinn or Brittany had any decency at all and Hudson for that matter, you guys would apologize to her," Noah snapped. looked at the clock.

"Okay guys, it's clear we aren't going to get that much done today. You're dismissed," he said, rubbing his hand over his eyes. Rachel was the first one out the door. She ran to her locker and grabbed her bag, then dashed to the parking lot and jumped into her car. Thank goodness her dads were away on business. She hated for them to see her like this.

That evening, Rachel had a hot bubble bath, hoping that it would help to calm her down. She climbed out and slathered herself in body lotion, and then pulled on her favourite nightgown and bathrobe. She tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill over, but it didn't do any good. She sat down on the bathroom floor and rested her head on her knees and let the tears come. She cried for twenty minutes, and then pulled herself together and braided her hair off to one side. She stood up and headed downstairs to the living room. She put Tangled into the DVD player and curled up under a blanket.

She was about halfway through the movie when she saw headlights turn into her driveway. She quickly stopped the movie and turned off the TV. She hurried to make sure the doors were locked, and then ran up the stairs into her bedroom.

Rachel locked herself in the bathroom and vowed to stay there until whoever it was went away. After about twenty minutes, she unlocked the door and poked her head out to listen. There were very loud knocks on the front door. She decided to go downstairs and tell whoever it was to go away. She picked up the baseball bat that she kept in her room and held it at the ready. She walked slowly down the stairs and then walked to the window on the right side. There was someone on the other side of the door. She unlocked the door and slowly pulled it open, holding the baseball bat in front of her.

"What the hell is that for?" asked Quinn. Rachel's mouth dropped open.

This was something she wasn't expecting. Quinn Fabray, her rival, was standing on her doorstep? Rachel closed her mouth and swallowed.

"In case I needed to take whoever it was on the other side of the door out. What are you doing here Quinn and what do you want? The first time you were here, I got the impression you didn't want to be here at all. And the second time you were over you had ulterior motives," Rachel said as she placed the bat against the wall.

"Can I just come in? I've been standing out here for the last half an hour," Quinn pleaded.

Rachel hesitated, then opened the door further and stepped back so that Quinn could enter. Rachel closed the door behind Quinn. The two girls stood looking at each other.

"Can I offer you anything? Tea? Water? Coffee?" Rachel asked.

"Um, tea would be nice. Thank you." Rachel nodded and gestured for Quinn to go and sit down in the living room.

Quinn sat down on the couch and looked around. The last couple of times she had been to the Berries house, she had just gone down to the basement and up to Rachel's room; she hadn't really looked at the living room. There were pictures of Rachel and her dads on the walls and on the hearth. Rachel came in and set a mug of tea in front of Quinn. Rachel sat in the armchair across from Quinn and looked at her guest. Quinn took a sip of tea, and then spoke.

"After rehearsal this afternoon, I went home and had a really long talk with my mom."

"About what exactly?" Rachel asked.

"I told her about how I've bullied you and your rant this afternoon. She wasn't happy that I've bullied you, and she asked why I did it. I told her because I thought that's what being popular meant. I thought being popular meant picking on people that you considered below you." Rachel nodded.

"I see. And what did she say?"

"She said being popular meant using your power for the greater good and reaching out to kids that don't have many friends," Quinn admitted, the memory of her mother's disappointed and disapproving face fresh in her mind.

"I can't say if she's right or not, because I'm not the most popular person, but last year when you were pregnant, I extended my friendship to you, Quinn. You were nice to everyone else in the Glee Club, but you weren't nice to me. You tossed what I offered right back in my face. How do you think that made me feel?" Rachel asked, she could feel the tears coming up again.

"Rachel, I'd lost everything. I lost my captaincy of the Cheerios, I got kicked out of my home when my parents found out I was pregnant, and I lost Finn. I treated you the way I did because I was trying to hang on to what little I had left. But I agree with you. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did," Quinn confessed and Rachel nodded.

"You know, when you joined Glee Club, I thought maybe we could become friends. But as you put it before Regionals, I'm just living in a schoolgirl fantasy and I need to get it right. I wish I could hate you, but for some reason, I don't," she admitted.

"With the way I've treated you, I'm surprised that you don't hate me," Quinn said.

"Well, it doesn't matter. In case you couldn't tell this afternoon, I'm done with Finn. You can have him if you want him." Rachel stood up. "Let's just face it Quinn. I'm always going to be sloppy seconds to you. Because you had both Finn and Noah first," Rachel said quietly.

"Rachel, please. I didn't come here to antagonize you more. I came here to ask for your forgiveness. I know what I've done is wrong, and I was hoping we could start over and maybe try and be friends," said Quinn pleadingly.

"I need some time to think about it, Quinn. This is all a little sudden. I'll let you know in Glee Club on Monday," Rachel said honestly. Quinn nodded, understanding that this was as far as she was going to get and stood up to leave.

"Thank you for the tea," she said politely. Rachel nodded and saw Quinn to the door. After Rachel closed the door behind Quinn, Quinn wished that she and Rachel could have made a little more progress, but it was a start.

Author's Note: I know this is a little bit different from my other story, but this plot bunny has been hopping around in my head for a while now. Anyways. Loved it? Hated it? I promise the Puckleberry will really start happening in the next chapter.

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