Summary: An AU prompt fulfillment. A Quick story based on "A Walk To Remember."
A/N: Ok.. so I want to dedicate this story to cutegron from Tumblr who requested it. :)
A/N 2: I don't know if I like this first chapter all that much. I went through about four different type of acts of rebellion to start this story off, but I finally settled on the one below. I just don't know how I feel about it. I want to base it closely to the movie, but with a few differences that won't take Puck/Quinn out of character. I've never written an AU fic like this before, so please bare with me. I'm terrified right now.
A/N 3: Please review! Feel free to request some things from the movie that you would like to be incorporated into the story. I will definitely try to add them in. Also, if you'd like to give some constructive advice, please do so!
A/N 4: This is the final one, I swear! This story is not beta'd, which means that I am looking for one. If you are one or know one, please let me know! :)
I do not own Glee or A Walk To Remember. I am merely borrowing Glee's characters and AWTR's storyline for my own and others' amusement. xxoo
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." – Albert Camus
It all starts with a long fall, an arrest and a trip to Lima Memorial.
Noah Puckerman and his group of friends – Santana Lopez, Dave Karofsky, Azimio, Brittany Pierce and Mike Chang – were known for rebellion. Born and raised in the small town of Lima, Ohio, they had to search for their own entertainment when boredom struck. It was up to them whether the entertainment was going to be good or otherwise. Puck and his friends were never up to anything good.
And on this particular night, they were searching for trouble.
After spending less than twenty-minutes at the McKinley High School homecoming dance, they decided to ditch for something better. Finn Hudson – Puck's ex best friend since he dated one of the school's outcasts, Rachel Berry, the year before – had been trying to get back into the group again, and Puck was having none of it. At first.
You see, Finn was very concerned about his popularity. A lot of what he did in love revolved around it – like it did with many high school students – and sometimes his judgment became clouded when he was presented with an opportunity to have his popularity raised a few points.
With nothing else to do on a Friday night, how could Puck pass up on an opportunity to see Finn do something stupid all for the sake of hanging out with him again?
"Hey Finn," Puck called out to the taller boy when he spotted him walking across the parking lot.
Finn stopped, and his hesitance rolled off of him in waves. The entire group could feel it, and any normal person would choose that as an indication to change their mind and just forget about the entire idea.
Puck wasn't just any normal person, though. Once he got an idea in his head, he wasn't going to back down from it. He was a bad ass. He didn't back down from anything. That was his reputation, at least.
"Yeah," Finn called back, spinning around to face Puck slowly. He knew that whatever Puck was going to suggest was going to get him in trouble. He just didn't have the strength to keep from going along with it.
Puck walked up to meet the taller boy by his car. Placing his hand against the side, he leaned nonchalantly on the car. "I have an idea."
"An…idea," Finn asked hesitantly. He didn't like the sound of that. "What kind of idea, Puck?"
Puck shrugged his shoulders, and then walked around to the passenger side of Finn's car before getting in without an invitation. "Hey San," he called out to his ex girlfriend who was staring in confusion from across the parking lot. "Follow us in my car," he elaborated before shutting himself in Finn's mom's Nissan Sentra.
Finn slid into the drivers' seat and shut the door. He sat silently, debating whether he should even ask his next question. Curiosity and fear got the best of him, though, and he did. "Where are we going, Puck?"
"We're gonna jump off the old bridge off of Mills Avenue," Puck said as nonchalantly as if he were talking about the weather.
Finn's eyes grew comically wide. "The one hanging over the Econ River? Isn't that kind of dangerous? That's an old fucking bridge, and there are 'no trespassing' signs covering the place."
Puck reached beside him to grab his seat belt. He buckled himself in and then leaned the seat back a little bit. "Relax, man. I've done it before." He hadn't. "It's not that far of a drop and it's not like the river is fuckin' shallow. You're the one who said you wanted to hang out with us again, right?" He stared at his ex-best friend expectantly.
Finn stared back at Puck for a few long moments. He was trying to figure out how serious the guy was. He'd known Puck since kindergarten, and while Puck had always been the wild and crazy type. He was always the daredevil who was willing to do anything to either make people look at him as if her were crazy or just for a rush. That side of him had only gotten worse after his dad left when they were in sixth grade. Finn had always known better than to follow Puck into his acts of rebellion, but he did miss their close friendship. It had been weird living the last year and not being able to call his best friend whenever he was bored or having a hard time with something. They'd never really been the type of friends to share many emotions or anything like that, but they used to hang out every day. Finn would do anything to go back to that close friendship at this point.
So he nodded his head without thought, started his mother's car and began driving toward the abandoned bridge off of Mills Avenue. "Alright, fine. Let go."
Puck flashed Finn his biggest smile, and sat back to enjoy the ride across town.
Thirty minutes later, after parking all of their cars on the dirt road outside of the "No Trespassing" sign and gate, the whole group was walking out towards the abandoned bridge.
"Doesn't the Sheriff own this property now," Dave Karofsky called from the back of the line.
"Yeah, he lives in a house just beyond the trees over that way," Azimio answered him, turning to point behind them. He turned back to face Puck, who was leading them all over the closed gate. "Not that I mind getting into a little trouble, but don't you think we should pick a place that's not this close to the Sheriff's house?"
"Shut the fuck up, you two," Santana whispered harshly. "My man knows what he's doing," she said after they all finished hiking down to the edge of the river. "He never gets caught, do you baby?" She pressed herself against the side of Puck as if you didn't have any room to stand anywhere else.
Puck rolled his eyes and pushed her off of him. "Yeah, I never get caught," he answered forcefully. "But you forget that we broke up, San. I'm not 'your man' anymore, so…shut the fuck up yourself." He turned back to face Finn, not noticing the hurt look on Santana's face. It's not like he cared anyway. "You and I are going to jump together, alright dude?"
Finn looked up the embankment toward the bridge. He nodded, seeing that it really wasn't that high. "Alright."
Puck nodded back, and then turned to wink at his other friends. He wasn't planning on jumping himself. "You guys are going to stand down here by the edge and help us out if anything goes wrong, ok?"
Azimio, Karofsky and Mike all nodded in agreement.
"Let's go, dude," Puck said, turning back to Finn. He pulled his shirt off as they walked to the edge of the bridge. Puck could see Finn swallowing hard as he looked at the bridge. From up there, it did look like a higher jump than it did from the bottom.
"This is a swinging bridge, and it's like a hundred year old, dude. It doesn't look that sturdy," Finn said, stripping his dress clothes down to his boxers. "Are you sure it'll hold," he asked, tapping his foot on the edge of the bridge.
Puck waved him off carelessly. "I told you, man. I've done this before. The bridge is fine. Let's just get on there," he answered, giving Finn a push toward the bridge.
Finn nodded and then took a step out onto the bridge. It creaked and made little cracking noises, but other than that, nothing happened to it so he took another step. That caused the same affect, so he continued. "It hasn't given out yet," Finn called over his shoulder. Once he'd gotten to the middle of the bridge, he turned to face the direction that he'd come. "What the fuck, dude," he shouted when he saw Puck still standing on the dirt beside the bridge. "You're supposed to jump, too!"
"I know that, you fuckin' idiot," Puck said, taking a step onto the bridge. "I was just making sure that the bridge would hold with the both of us at the same time is all," he said before taking another quick step.
"You're a liar, Puck. You never jumped off this bridge in the summer time. I'm not a fucking idiot. You're just trying to make me look like a fool," Finn returned angrily. He took a step back in the direction he'd come, resolved to just climb back down and leave, at the same time that Puck took another heavy step toward the middle of the bridge. "Being your friend again isn't worth this shit! I'm done."
Puck opened his mouth to argue right back, when he was interrupted by a loud crack. In the next second, the bridge was no longer beneath him, and Finn – who had just been standing in front of him – was screaming as he fell, his foot somehow caught in the bridge between broken planks of wood. Puck hit the water hard in the next second, his knee burning as it smacked against a rock under the water.
Finn wasn't that lucky. Because his foot was caught in the bridge, his head hit a tree at the edge of the river before his foot finally broke free and he went tumbling head first into the river. Everything went black for him from there.
"He's hurt, Puck," Brittany shouted from the side of the river at the same time that Santana could be heard shouting "Are you alright?"
Puck stood shakily in the river, and then turned to look for Finn. He'd meant to freak the guy out with a long jump into the river. He hadn't meant for something bad to actually happen to him. "Finn," he screamed when he saw his old friend floating face down in the river. He swam quickly to grab him just as bright lights began shining down toward the river from above.
"What are you kids doing down there," the angry voice of Lima's town Sheriff could be heard from above. "What have you done to the bridge? You need to come out of there now!"
"We have to get out of here," Santana shouted down to Puck.
"Yeah, man. We're going to get arrested," Mike shouted as well.
By the time Puck had gotten Finn, whose head was bleeding profusely, to the side of the river, all of his friends were gone.
He looked up to see the lights from their cars as they backed out to leave the dirt road above them shining. "My mom's going to be so pissed at me," he muttered under his breath as he checked Finn for a pulse. When he felt one, he laid him against the side of the river. "I'm sorry, Finn. I have to go. Help is coming," Puck said quietly. He stood and began limping quickly up to the road.
He didn't make it that far.
Before he could reach the edge of the trees, a hand reached out and grabbed him.
"Gotcha, kid," Sheriff Thatcher said, slapping a pair of handcuffs around Puck's wrists.
Damnit.
"Wake up, Noah," Puck's mother shouted at her son before yanking the covers off of him.
"Mom," he whined, attempting to yank them back out of her hand. "School isn't for another two hours."
"School is an hour early for you today, young man. You're going to march your butt into Principal Figgins' office and receive your punishment."
"I already received my damn punishment, mom! I've got to fill community service hours, remember?" Why the hell was she doing to him? Hadn't he been punished enough?
As if hearing his thoughts, Ms. Puckerman shook her head and began a rant. The same rant he'd been hearing since being released from juvie that weekend. "Noah Puckerman! Your friend Finn is laid up in a hospital bed with a broken wrist, a massive concussion and a scraped up face. That boy could have died, and you could have too! You're lucky that all you got was a sprained knee and community service!" She stomped her foot before throwing a clean change of clothes and a towel onto the bed beside her son.
"What the hell does any of this have to do with school, Ma," Puck asked, sitting up to get out of the bed.
"I'll tell you what it has to do with school, young man!" Deborah Puckeman stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head in disappointment. (She'd been doing that all weekend). "You're going to go to the meeting I scheduled for you with Principal Figgins, and you are going to take the community service choices he gives you. You are going to fulfill them, and you will like it," she shouted before stomping back out of the room.
Puck knew better than to argue with his mother any longer. He may be a badass, but he didn't have a death wish. He was ready and riding in her car (she'd taken his truck damn away) to school thirty minutes later.
An hour after that, he was stomping out of Figgins' office with a sour look on his face. His community service consisted of replacing Finn in the glee club while he was in the hospital, tutoring a bunch of moron middle schoolers on Saturdays and participating in the school's annual silent auction.
Fuck his life.