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If Rachel Berry could go back in time and change one moment, it would be the very first day of sixth grade. No, not because she was stuffed in a locker, or any ridiculous cliché like that. But it was the first day she ever laid eyes on Quinn Fabray.

Rachel had always had a problem with staring. She couldn't help it. She'd just start getting bored during class and she'd look around and before she knew it she was suddenly staring someone down. It had always been a problem, but regardless of the staring, Rachel still got straight A's, so there was really no room for complaining. She had been with the same group of people since kindergarten and they all knew of Rachel's staring problems, so they were used to it.

But that very first day of sixth grade was different.

She wasn't with those kids anymore. The summer before, her and her mother had had some personal troubles and so she was now staying with her two gay uncles. She didn't really mind. Sure, she missed her mom terribly and hoped they would be reunited sometime soon, but she loved and missed her uncles and she was happy to be able to see them again, regardless of the circumstances. Rachel had forgotten to work in the fact that this was new kids and they didn't know about her staring. And by the time she thought about it, it was far too late.

It started in fourth period; Social studies.

Rachel had been trying her hardest to pay attention to what the teacher was rambling on about, but she just couldn't. She felt a strong urge to look to the right and it seemed like the air was pushing her head right, daring her to look. She resisted for the first part but she couldn't resist forever, and eventually she looked right.

And then she saw her.

She was so pretty. Despite her past of being a victim of bullying and failed friendships, she couldn't help but feel her hopes rising as she pictured the two of them best friends. She wore no make-up except for a light lip gloss that made her lips glitter if the light shined right. Her blond curls seemed to frame her face in one layer, while the rest waved down her shoulders, slightly to her chest. She wore a lime green tank top that had bedazzled jewels on them, and a white-button mini jacket that gave her a classy look. Her huge hazel eyes seemed to be smiling at Rachel, calling her. Come to me, Rachel, come to me. Come. She wore a pair of light blue jeans that were slightly ripped at the knee. Not trashy ripped at the knee like some pair of jeans (which somehow girls were convinced looked "cute") but really just a hole. But that hole was enough. That hole showed the slightest bit of skin and Rachel's eyes decided to zero in on the patch

of skin against her will. No. Stop. This is why people didn't like you before. Look. Away. But then the blond seemed to tease her as she leaned towards the boy next to her and smiled at something he said, and Rachel smiled, too.

She looked away a second too late.

From that day on, Rachel was pegged as the freaky lesbian girl.


Through that one stare, Quinn was convinced her and Rachel had sent a secret message to each other. If any message passing had been passed telepathically from Rachel to Quinn, Rachel would have thought it would have been want to be friends? But that was not Quinn got. Rachel guessed Quinn guessed something along the lines of I think you're really hot, wanna hook up? This was not what Rachel's intent was at all. More like Noah Puckerman right there. All she had wanted was a friend; it was a new town, a new school, practically a new life. She had wanted someone to explain how things went here. Instead she got the reputation of a lesbian, and she learned the hard way how things went in this town.

It was no matter if it was middle school or high school, the social ladder was pretty much the same. Only in high school, they were a lot harder on the social outcasts and supposed gays. Everyone at WMHS seemed to fall in clans. Some found their friends in sixth grade, and some found them in kindergarten, and you stick with them until some scandal comes by and one of you gets your fifteen minutes of high school popularity. With the clans it went from Social Burnouts, Underdogs Who Had Major Potential to Be Cool, to Goths, to Music Nerds, to I Am Your Social God You Worship Me Popular.

And then there was Rachel.

Rachel wasn't sure where she fell into the social ladder. She hated labels, and she most certainly did not want to label herself. But she knew full-well where Quinn (and everyone else, for that matter) would put her. Lower than Social Burnout. A low so low they didn't even give it a stupid label, but most people just referred to it as the Rachel Berry because no one was as un-cool as she was.

Their words were hurtful, yes. And while it did Christian Rachel with no friends, wounds skin deep, and potential depression, Rachel knew it would all be worth it in the long run. Because unlike cruel, hateful people like Quinn Fabray, Rachel would actually make a name for herself. She would end up on Broadway with her secretly amazing voice, and she'd go on to tell her stories years later on Ellen of how, yes, shockingly, she was bullied as a kid but she got through it, and look where she is now! She would give hope to the seemingly hopeless. Like Lady GaGa, but better.

And karma would nip Quinn in the butt, and Rachel would get the last laugh, and Quinn would finally understand what she put Rachel through all those years.


Authors Note: So this is more like an Introduction to the actual story. And yes, I actually will continue this one, I swear. :) Gah, I just love Rachel and Quinn as a couple. They will never happen, but even an actual friendship would do wonders for us Faberry lovers, right?