This one shot is dedicated to my awesome pen pal CeciltheGleek because it's her birthday today! Seriously, you rock. :) You're the best pen pal and friend a girl could ask for! Have a great birthday!
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. I do, however, own the yummy glee cookie I made last night (I know you're secretly jealous :p).
"OUCH!"
Five year old Rachel Berry felt her world turn sideways as she stumbled over her feet, landing hard on her knees on the cold concrete pavement. It was recess time and in a frenzied excitement, Rachel wanted to be the first one to get to the prized swings. But her enthusiasm was short lived when she unexpectedly took a tumble into the ground, jolts of pain suddenly erupting all over her tiny body.
Shifting to a more comfortable position, Rachel gingerly lifted her knee so she could inspect the damage. As soon as her eyes spotted the first drop of blood, the pain became all too real. Before she could help it, she felt hot tears begin to well up in her eyes, her bottom lip quivering slightly. Rachel tried her best to avoid the pain and to be a strong girl, just like her daddies always told her she was, but it was hard.
What made matters worse was that her brand new red shoes, the ones that she had begged ages for because they reminded her of Dorothy's from The Wizard of Oz, were now scuffed and covered with dust. Even her pristine white dress couldn't escape the onslaught of the dirt and grime from the ground. As Rachel tried to brush the dirt off of her, the stinging sensation in her knee became even more intense and a few stray tears found themselves streaming down her face in a slow but steady path.
But it wasn't until Rachel saw a hoard of boys come by that she hurriedly wiped her face void of tears and really tried to remain calm. She wasn't about to let other people think she was a wimp.
"Aww, the little baby is crying because she got a booboo. Do you want mommy to kiss it for you?" A round of boisterous laughter followed, making Rachel feel even worse about her situation.
Looking up, Rachel's eyes locked onto those of her assailant. She didn't recognize him at all, meaning that he probably wasn't in her class. Despite not knowing exactly who he was, Rachel could tell that he was the leader of his posse. His arms were crossed over his chest in a way to make him appear tougher and his brown haired mohawk made him look all the more intimidating.
But that wasn't about to stop Rachel from retorting back. "I'm not a baby!" she cried adamantly, and if she could stomp her foot without it hurting, she would, "I'm a lady!"
"Puck, stop picking on her," another brown haired kid said softly, urging his friend to leave. Aha! Rachel recognized this face.
It was Finn, the boy who sat at her table during class. When they first got their assigned seats, Rachel didn't really care about Finn, but after a while, she realized that he wasn't too bad. He even once shared his box of crayons with her when she lost hers. As far as she was concerned, that was the true test of friendship. He was her chivalrous crayon sharer. Plus, he was the only friend she had. She figured that everybody else was just intimidated by her ambition to become a Broadway legend. Finn was the only one who actually understood, or was at least willing to listen to her dreams. But he never played with her much during recess, besides talking to her when they had time in class. He always liked hanging around his best friends, one of whom was apparently this boy Puck.
"Why are you sticking up for her Finn?" Puck asked in a taunting way, "She's a freak, that's what everyone says. And she probably has cooties." All of the boys made a squeamish face but Rachel didn't understand why.
"I do not!" Rachel squealed, now crossing her arms. She didn't like this Puck guy much.
Before Finn had a chance to respond, Puck's eyes grew big all of a sudden as he teased, "I know why! Finn luurves her." Puck laughed along with all of the other boys as they joined in a raucous chorus of "Finn has a girlfriend, Finn has a girlfriend!"
Rachel saw Finn's face grow hot with embarrassment as he slapped Puck's arm, saying loudly, "She's not my girlfriend!" But Puck and his crowd didn't stop with the taunting, provoking Finn to further exclaim, "She's not even my friend!"
To these words, Rachel's heart sunk.
The one person who she thought was her friend now admitted his true alliance with the other boys. Everything seemed to be going wrong today. First it was the scraped knee, then the dirty clothing, and now one less friend, her only friend. To be honest, the pain from her hurt knee paled in comparison to the grief she felt from losing Finn. Rachel didn't understand why the world was out to get her today, so she just sat on the ground, motionless, as the group of chattering boys gradually walked away.
She wallowed in her five year old misery for a while, looking over her shoulder every once in a while to see if maybe the swings were open so she didn't look like such an outcast. As she glanced at the playground for the tenth time in four minutes, Rachel felt someone shuffling towards her from behind her. When she turned around, she was surprised to see Finn standing before her with his hands behind his back, looking oddly nervous and restless. He was obviously fiddling with something behind his back, but that didn't interest Rachel much. At first she was happy to see a familiar face, but after remembering the fact that he was not her friend anymore, Rachel sighed, "What do you want?"
Finn bent down and sat on the ground next to her so that they were at an equal eye level. "I feel bad about what happened." Rachel didn't really want to hear much of it, but she let him continue anyway. At least he was a human and could feel bad for people. Unlike Puck. Now there was a person who could get on someone's nerves.
"I wanted to make it up to you so here," Finn quickly said as he handed over the thing he had been playing with in his hands to Rachel.
It was a band-aid.
"I stole it from the nurse's office after I snuck away from Puck," Finn revealed, "I never meant to hurt your feelings."
"Does this mean we're friends again?" Rachel asked quietly, hoping to hear the answer she wanted to hear.
"Yeah, we're cool," Finn replied before he noticed that Rachel hadn't put the band-aid on her booboo. Taking the band-aid back from her, he ripped off the wrapper and excess plastic so that the sides of the band-aid were nice and sticky. With great caution, he carefully placed the bandage right on her cut. Then he brought his mouth closer to her knee and kissed it gently.
"That's what my mommy does when I hurt myself," Finn said innocently, "It always makes me feel better."
Glad that she finally had her friend back, Rachel beamed at him. Her crayon theory proved right. He was a keeper after all.
I know it isn't perfect, but it's specifically written for my gleeky pen pal :) I've spent most of my energy on making a birthday present instead of writing my other fics, but I'll try to continue them if you're following them. I've been really busy with college applications, school, etc and I don't particularly want to "forfeit" my future for fanfics right now, but trust me, I'm trying my hardest to update! :D I haven't stopped loving Glee!
Love and imaginary cookies to all! :)