A/N: Prompt: "Back to the Beginning"
Rachel Berry and Noah Puckerman were friends before they even knew what the word friends meant. They lived 3 houses from each other and around the corner lived Rachel's cousin Matt Rutherford. Across the street from Matt lived Mike Chang and next door to Mike was Finn Hudson. There were no girls Rachel's age in the neighbor so she grew up with all guys as friends, but still managed to be a very girly girl.
Skip forward to middle school and life is horrible for Rachel Berry. Noah, Matt, Mike, and Finn are still her friends but they have no idea what the girls are like. They're catty and mean for no reason. Rachel tried to lie low, but she doesn't always want to sit around watching the them play wall ball and hear them tell jokes about poop and farts. But for some reason Santana Lopez decided she didn't like Rachel and now if any girl talks to Rachel, it's considered social suicide.
But one day in the middle of 7th grade, Santana decided that Rachel could be friends with them. She didn't know why, but she was happy and wasn't going to question it. She started eating lunch with Santana and the other popular girls and would walk around with them at recess. Whenever she would look over at Noah, he would give her thumbs up and she would just smile back at him.
They invite her to Quinn Fabray's 12th birthday party and it's going to be Rachel's first boy/girl party. I mean, all of Rachel's best friends are boys so it shouldn't make her nervous, but this is different. Noah, Matt, Mike, and Finn are all going too, so she feels a little better knowing they'll be there.
The party is fine and she thinks she's having fun. She's not sure because she's never been to a party like this before. Every once in a while some of the girls will look at her and start whispering. She's trying not to think that their talking about her.
Later Santana announces that they all need to sit in a circle because they're going to play spin the bottle. Rachel has never kissed anyone so she's really nervous. She shares a look with Noah quickly before walking over and sees him blush. She doesn't know why he's blushing because he's already kissed 3 girls.
Before Rachel can sit down, Santana takes her arm and stops her, "Rachel, you can't play."
Rachel freezes and sees that everyone is completely silent and looking at them.
"What? Why?" Rachel finally sputters out.
"Because you can't play spin the bottle when nobody wants to kiss you. You're a loser and you're ugly."
Rachel can't see much through the tears in her eyes, but all she can hear are girls laughing. She just runs out of the house as fast as she can.
She's only two blocks away when Noah catches up with her. She won't look at him, but he follows her anyway. They end up at the park by their houses because Rachel doesn't want to explain this to her dads.
She goes straight to the swings once they get to the park and Noah sits in the one next hers. They don't talk for a couple minutes because Noah knows Rachel well enough to know she needs to cry a little longer. Once enough time passes, he clears his throat and tells her, "Matt called Santana a bitch in front of everyone and then all the boys left the party".
Rachel lets out a tiny laugh especially because everyone knows that Santana has a crush on Matt.
"She is a bitch, Rach. Don't listen to her or to any of them."
"They're just so mean to me and I don't know why. They're the ones that are popular and pretty and I'm the ugly loser, so why can't they just leave me alone?"
"You're not a loser and you're not ugly"
"You don't have to say that, Noah."
"No, Rachel" he says then waits until she looks at him, "You're like, you're really really pretty."
Then he puts his hand right above Rachel's on the chain of her swing. He slowly brings it down until it covers her small hand. She never thought Noah was ugly, but right now she's realizing how cute he is. He leans over and presses his lips to hers. Rachel closes her eyes tight as she has the most perfect first kiss.
Rachel opens her eyes when Noah pulls away and she sees that his face is as red as hers feels. She giggles and unwraps her hand from the chain so she can wrap it around Noah's and he shoots her a smile.
Monday at school the boys are constantly around her because they don't want anyone to mess with her. But instead of walking around with a frown, she's walking around with a smile because of a kiss from Noah Puckerman.
The only place she goes to alone is the girl's lavatory. When she leaves the stall she sees Quinn at the sinks. Her stomach drops and she almost runs out of the bathroom before she thinks how disgusting it is to not wash your hands. She just hopes Quinn doesn't notice her and she can get in and out.
But Quinn sees her right away and before Rachel decides to just skip washing her hands and dash, Quinn blurts out, "I'm sorry."
Rachel stops, completely shocked and jaw dropped.
So Quinn continues, "I didn't know Santana was going to do that. I should have known she was up to something."
"Why should I believe you? This could just be some new plan to do something worse to me. And you were never nice to me before."
"Yea, but I've never been that mean. And you know how it goes, if you don't go with Santana she goes against you. I really am sorry."
"Well thank you for the apology. If you could all just leave me alone from now on that will be fine with me."
Quinn sighs, "Okay."
Rachel leaves the bathroom on edge. As much as Quinn seems like she means what she's saying, Rachel's not going to put too much stock into it.
Rachel and Noah haven't said anything to anyone about the kiss they shared but he keeps sending her smiles and holding her hand when no one is looking. Rachel's starting to get worried he doesn't want anyone seeing because he's embarrassed by her.
As they walk to their houses from the bus stop, Rachel sees Noah watch Matt, Mike, and Finn disappear around the corner before he grabs her hand. He smiles at her but she just looks away, pulls her hand away, and stops walking.
"Why won't you hold my hand in front of anyone? Are you embarrassed by me, Noah?"
"What? No!"
Rachel looks at Noah, arms folded across her chest, as she waits for an explanation.
"Matt punched Mike last summer, in the face, for kissing your cousin Bianca. And he only kissed her on the cheek."
Rachel giggles as Noah's face goes red. "Don't worry, I'll take care of Matt. He always listens to me."
Puck nods and smiles, taking Rachel's hand again.
The next morning at the bus stop, Rachel walks right up to Noah and kisses him on the cheek. He smiles before he remembers that Matt is standing across from him. Before either of them can say (or do) anything, Rachel points at Matt and says, "Stop it."
Matt huffs and nods. Rachel smiles and kisses Noah's cheek again.
During math class, Rachel gets a note from Noah. Normally she'd be angry because he shouldn't be interrupting her studies, but she's too giddy to remember to be mad. She opens the note and smiles as she reads the messy boy handwriting that asks, "Be my girlfriend?" With a box for yes and a box for no. Rachel looks through her Spacemaker, takes out her hot pink gel pen, and marks and "X" in the yes box, then draws a heart around it.
After weeks of being left alone, Santana finally attacks. Rachel is not surprised by that, but she is surprised when Quinn is the person that comes to her defense.
Quinn and Santana have a huge blowout right in the hallway and Santana blacklists Quinn from the group. Once all is said and done, Quinn tells Rachel she doesn't care. She was sick of Santana being such a bitch and bossing everyone around. She also said that Santana wasn't close to good enough to make Varsity Cheerleading as a freshmen when they get to high school and she knows that she is, so she'll see who will be the popular one when they all get to high school.
It's finally summer and Rachel couldn't be happier.
Santana still tortures her (or tries to) but she's found her first real girl friend in Quinn.
She's always had Matt, Mike, and Finn.
And she's always had Noah, but now he's more.
Rachel hasn't let Noah do more than kiss her. With out tongue. But the truth is, the furthest Noah's ever gone was French kiss a girl at day camp last summer and got to feel her bra strap, so she doesn't feel bad for him.
Part of the reason is because Rachel is nervous and is scared she's going to do it wrong. But Quinn has an older sister, Darcy, and one day she tells them all about it. She explains everything, makes them watch the kissing scenes in movies, and tells them to practice on their hands. So, Rachel's been practicing for two weeks and she thinks she's ready.
After dinner, Rachel tells Noah she wants to go to the park with him. She drags him over to a picnic table and they sit down. Noah smiles and leans in and kisses her. Before he can pull away, Rachel wraps her hand around the back of his neck to keep him there. She tilts her head like Darcy said she should and Noah gets the clue and places his hand on her hip. He tilts his head the other way and darts his tongue out to meet hers.
Rachel thinks this wasn't as hard as she thought it was going to be. She also never thought she'd ever enjoy having someone else's tongue in her mouth, but she is finding this quite enjoyable.
After a couple minutes they pull apart and Noah says, "That was awesome."
Rachel smiles, "Was is okay? Did I do it right?"
Noah nods and has this grin on his face that she only sees after he wins Mario Cart.
"We can keep doing it if you want", Rachel says as she nervously tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear.
"Really?", Noah asks with a mix of surprise and excitement.
"Yea, I liked it" Rachel tells him as she blushes.
Noah doesn't wait a second longer before leaning in and kissing her again.
Rachel and Noah spend the whole summer kissing.
Then they spend all of high school kissing and then some.
They spend some years after that apart, kissing other people.
In the end though, Rachel and Noah spend the rest of their lives kissing. (And then some.)