Closer Than You Think Chapter 1, a glee fanfic

Prologue

For years she wondered who he could be, and now she knew it. Flowers, letters, gifts. She had already received everything.
Four years. For four damn years, he was just a mystery, a dream, a fantasy. But now, it was all real.
He made her feel special, like she was the most important thing in the world. She thought that it was impossible that that kind of a guy could exist, and instead there he was.
Maybe she was mulling too much.
Maybe she just had to jump, forget all worries and put aside the fateful "what if?"
She was full of questions, questions addressed to herself.

What was she feeling?
What did she really want?
What did she have to do?

Chapter One

"First day of senior year."

This was all Rachel could think of while walking along the halls of William McKinley High.
She'd always been the girl with big dreams and aspirations. She knew what and where she wanted to be when she grew up, and that place had a name: Broadway.
She wanted to show everybody that in a small body like hers, a strong voice was hiding, ready to astound everyone.
She wasn't full of herself; well, not really. She was just confident about her talent and having strong self-esteem wasn't entirely wrong.
Many thought that this would have changed over the years, but it hadn't. Even now, in her last year of high school, she was still the same ambitious Jewish girl, often unbearable, with two gay dads, who lived in the small town of Lima, Ohio.

Such a description makes you think about a girl who is marginalized often targeted by her peers but, strangely, not in this case.
Well, one could not say that she was the most popular girl in school. Boys didn't line up to go out with her, but she didn't receive slushies in the face every morning, either. Perhaps that was because Principal Figgins had finally decided to put an end to these acts of bullying. Or maybe because being the best friend of the captain of the cheerleaders kinda helped her reputation.

"Rachel!" A girl's voice could be heard could be heard along the entire corridor. Rachel turned around in front of her locker and greeted her best friend with a huge smile.

"Quinn," she said, hugging her tightly. "How was your summer?"

She and Quinn hadn't seen each other since their junior year had ended. Rachel had been too busy practicing because she wanted to go to NYADA next year.
At first, she had been thoroughly convinced of wanting to go to Juilliard like one of her greatest sources of inspiration, Pattie Lupone, but after discovering that the school no longer had a section for musical theater, she was forced to change the idea.
However despite the fact that Juilliard was no longer an option, nothing would prevent her from moving to New York. Nothing would prevent her from becoming the star that she knew she was.
So that summer she decided to spend each day the same way. She woke up, did the usual morning practices, ate, sang, and went back to sleep.

"Screw my summer and tell me more about yours," Quinn said happily. "Did he keep writing to you or not?"

Okay, maybe she'd received some mail and had read it during a break or two.

Rachel rolled her eyes playfully and pretended that she didn't hear the question. She knew that Quinn was curious, but honestly, she didn't like talking about her love life, if you could call it that. It's not that she didn't want to share what was going on. She wouldn't deceive, that's all.
She should have known that it wouldn't have been so easy to avoid the subject. Quinn continued to ask her questions and beg her to tell her everything. She could be very persistent when she wanted to be, and Rachel, exhausted, couldn't help but resign.

"Fine," she sighed. It was evident that it was useless to continue to keep silent. "He wrote me and sent me flowers all summer long. Happy?" she said as she took her books. She was glad that her locker was on the same floor as her first class; at least she should not have to struggle to reach the classroom.

"You know, you're so lucky." Quinn said out of the blue.

"Lucky? Why is that, exactly?" Rachel thought.

"Not everyone can say they have a secret admirer. I'd like one, myself." Quinn replied soon after, as if she knew what Rachel was thinking.

"At least you have a boyfriend." Rachel murmured almost as if she were talking to herself. She didn't want to show that she was a bit jealous of the fact that her best friend had someone to go out with, to do the whole holding hands thing with and, you know, to kiss.

Sure, Quinn has a boyfriend who used to sleep with the entire school. A boyfriend who curses a disproportionate number of times in one sentence. A boyfriend who can really be a dork sometimes. But still a boyfriend. A boyfriend with a horrible haircut, in Rachel's opinion. How could anyone find a mohawk attractive?

"Hey, babe."

The deep voice of a boy interrupted the two girls' conversation and he kissed the cheerleader right on the lips, without even acknowledging Rachel's presence.

"Puck," Quinn said, pulling him away slightly, but still smiling. "We're at school. Plus, we were having a conversation."

Rachel couldn't help but rolled her eyes when she saw Puck complain. "'Sup, Berry?" He said coldly. It was obvious that he would have preferred to spend his time with his girlfriend rather than listening to a conversation between girls. Rachel couldn't blame him, he was a guy.

"Noah."

"Fuck Berry, how many times do I have to tell you? It's Puck, The Puckerman." Rachel couldn't help but giggle. She wondered how an eighteen year old might like to be called that, plus he thought that being the hottest guy in the school gives him the right to talk to her as he pleased.

During their sophomore year of high school, she even remembered that he had asked her out on a date, but was also reminded why he had done it, and why she had refused. It may not seem so, but after all, Puck was a good guy, and he had asked her go out just to do his mother a favor; she'd wanted her son to date a Jew like him. But this motivation wasn't enough to accept his invitation, and already, he was completely into Quinn so it wouldn't have even been fair to say yes.

Even though she has never said it out loud, Rachel often noticed the way Puck stared at Quinn when he thought the other wasn't looking. He showed to everyone his hard side but, for some reason, with Quinn, he softened. He looked at her like she was the most precious thing in this world and Rachel couldn't help but wish that there would be a boy somewhere who would look at her the same way.

Too bad this sweet side of Puck was immediately muffled as soon as he opened his mouth.

"I think Noah is a wonderful name. Your parents named you that so no matter what you say, to me, you're Noah." She said emphasizing the name while a little smirk on her face popped up. Rachel saw the boy ready to shout, but before he could answer, Quinn pulled him toward her. She didn't want to start the new year listening to her boyfriend and her best friend discuss for stupid things. Plus, she preferred to talk about something else.

"Rachel, don't try to change the topic. Before Puck came here we were talking about him."

"Wait, who?" Puck asked confused. They didn't even bother to answer to him 'cause they both knew that it would take a few minutes to turn on the little light that he had in his head. "No way. That creepy guy's still all over you?" he finally asked after few moments of wondering who they were talking about.

It was Rachel's business, for heaven's sake! Why couldn't they understand that?

She loved her friends, really, but discussing the same topic over and over again, not so much.
Rachel was a pretty reserved girl and didn't want to flaunt what he'd written to her to everybody.
She couldn't tell this to Quinn, of course. She was her best friend, after all, and she knew that, even though Quinn was sweet, as soon as she got angry, it was better to keep her away.

It all started in the first year of high school when Rachel found a note in the locker. She thought it was a mistake, or even worse, a joke, and rather to her surprise, it wasn't so. A boy, a real boy, had written to her a little poetry. The first of many.
If only Rachel had known before, she certainly wouldn't open the letter in front of her best friend who, enthusiastic, couldn't help but tell to everyone that Rachel Berry has a secret admirer.
However, Rachel tried not to make this their usual topic of conversation, but Quinn didn't think like her.
Sometimes she didn't understand where all this interest had emerged. She knew that sooner or later he would get tired of someone like her, so what was the point of continuing to fantasize about this story?

Rachel kept looking at the watch while waiting for the bell rang. She couldn't take any more of Puck and Quinn's teasing, even though she knew that they hadn't bad intentions.

"We just want to see you happy." It was the usual phrase they repeated to her. They were so convinced that if she had even tried to find out who her suitor was, at this point, she would already have a boyfriend. Having to listen day after day the usual sentences was quite exasperating.

Luckily it didn't take long to hear the sound of the bell.

Rachel breathed a sigh of relief and took this opportunity as a perfect excuse to stop, even just only briefly, their conversation. Before Quinn could protest further, Rachel closed the locker and turned immediately to go to class when she suddenly bumped into a big figure who made her drop her books by accident.

"Fantastic way to start the year," she thought sarcastically as she stooped to pick up her books. Her frustration had now reached its limit, or so she thought until a few simple words made change her mind.

"Are these books too heavy for a midget like you?"

Rachel clenched her eyes hoping to have heard wrong, but that husky voice accompanied by that tone of mockery would have recognized it anywhere, unfortunately. She'd known the speaker since she was born.
She knew that tone was like a challenge. He had used it on purpose to annoy her. She was not, however, going to give him that satisfaction. She didn't want to ruin this day again. Just keep calm, she repeated to herself. After taking a deep breath and biting her tongue, Rachel finally looked up.
She wasn't surprised when that damn smirk was printed on his face, showing his visible dimple, and her chocolate eyes met those amber.

Great.

A/N: Uhm, well, yeah. Hi!

I know that this chapter kinda sucks and it's also boring and short and I apologize if some of you are somewhat confused. I'm writing this story mainly because to me it's like an "escape." A few minutes to forget about everything and everyone.

It's my very first experience as a writer of fanfiction multichapter therefore I accept any constructive criticism. At first, I posted this fanfiction on YouTube (dreaminginbig a.k.a. imagleeber a.k.a. tolololelo) in a completely different style.

Since this is an AU story, characters can be quite OOC although I'll try to keep many of their original characteristics.
Please leave a review if you have time, just to let me know if you want me to continue this story.
I want to apologize for any mistakes related to education in American schools but, since I live in Italy, I don't know how things work in the USA.

Anyway I wanna thank my beta Rebecca Ripple. I know that she had a hard job to do considering that there have been countless grammatical mistakes, so thank you so much. You're amazing!

I would like to open a parenthesis to say how difficult it is to write in a moment like this. As we all know after what happened to Cory, sorry but I still cannot write it, we're all going through a period of shit. I do not think that we will overcome it soon, actually I know it for sure.

Cory was and still is my hero, no matter what. He was the only person I've ever considered my idol and I feel like dying inside more and more each day.

I've never believed in love. I'm serious. I thought it was all bullshit and the happy ending exist only in the movies, and maybe it is so. But looking at Monchele I had changed my mind. They were two people who had met and after a long wait they finally decided to be together. To allow the one to the other of loving. I don't give a fuck of what others thought or said. Cory and Lea are the proof that true love exists. I wanted a story like their too and now, I'm starting to stop believing that it will ever happen. I know he wouldn't want us to start to be negative but I can't help it. He was always cheerful and lived every single day like it was his last because "life's too short to be serious."

I'll miss him. I already miss him.

I feel an incredible emptiness inside of me and writing is one of the few things that can distract me in some way. To not think about how much life sucks. How much it's unfair and the fact that many probably will judge him or remember him only for his death makes me sick.
He was the best and perhaps the truer person ever that's why I beg you with all my heart to never forget the good deeds he has done, the love he gave us and the way he has inspired us.

All my prayers are for him. For his family, Ann, who has lost a wonderful son and Shaun, who has lost an incredible brother. For all the gleeks out there, who have lost their lifesaver. For the glee cast, who has lost a huge part of their famigleea. For Cory's true friends and for Lea, who has lost the love of her life.

I dedicate the first chapter and the whole story to him: Cory Allan Michael Monteith. Thanks for everything.