Hey Guys!
This is my first fanfiction - I just sort of thought of this idea so yeah. Enjoy!
Noah Puckerman had been friends with Rachel Berry since the start of high school, and noticed changes in her across a very long period of time. Her hair had changed, her clothes had changed, her personality had changed and most importantly her physicality had changed.
Rachel cowered in the corner of the bathroom as the drunken man took another swing at her. Tears were falling now and she could feel them falling into her hands. Blow after blow she felt, until he left, and all was silent.
She stayed there in the dark for hours, until the first light of day shone through the window. She made an attempt to get up, but failed. She crawled to the door and winced in pain at the sting in her leg. She listened carefully and couldn't hear a sign of life in the house so she opened the door and hobbled her way up the stairs, and into her room. After locking the door, she collapsed on her bed, and let out quiet sobs while holding her stomach in pain.
She slept for two hours until her alarm went off, and wobbled off her bed and to her cupboard. She found a pair of black jeans and a dark purple shirt. On top of that she put on a heavy grey jacket and made her way to her bathroom. She put on as much make-up as she could to hide the bruises on her face.
This was a common occurrence for Rachel. Nearly every night, her foster fathers would be waiting at home for her, drunk, and would sometimes beat her if she was late. This time, she was late because she was staying late at glee to help some of the girls with their range and pitch, to her expense.
She was able to walk now, and if you didn't look too closely, the bruises were covered very well. She had been dealing with this sort of thing for years, so she was well used to covering it up. She walked down the stairs, to find a note from her fathers.
Hey darling,
We'll be a bit late today because we have a party to get to. Please don't be late again today; you know the consequences. Make sure to complete all of your chores, and if you would be a dear and cook dinner as well that would be great. We love you honey, stay safe.
From Gary and Reece.
She took the note back up to her room, and put it in the draw along with all of the others. She packed her bag and walked back downstairs. She heard the doorbell ring, and opened the door to be greeted by her friend.
"Hey Rachel," Puck greeted, "Are you ready?"
"Yeah," she replied, "Let's go."
They drove in silence towards the school and Puck wondered what had gotten in to Rachel these past few months. She used to wear her signature short skirts and animal sweaters but now she always wore dark clothing, covering her legs and arms completely.
He was worried about her. He knew something was wrong. While she used to wear smiles and be open to hugs from him and her other friends, he would rarely see her smile and whenever he went to hug her, she would flinch.
"So Rachel," he asked, "How was your night? What did you do?"
She averted her gaze from outside the window to him; he had clearly interrupted a thought. "Oh, um, you know I just did the usual. I went home and talked to my dads for a while and I just did homework and stuff."
Eventually they reached the school. They had arrived early because Puck had football practice. Rachel didn't mind; she was happy Puck was driving her to school. Sometimes she wondered why she had such a good friend; she didn't deserve one.
While Puck, Finn, Mike, Artie and Sam had their early morning football practice, Rachel watched from the bleaches and was enjoying the fresh air as she knew to make the most of it. She spotted Quinn, Santana and Brittany walking towards her. So she smiled her usual smile, and waved to them.
"Hey Rachel!" Quinn greeted, "You're all by yourself!"
"Yeah but that's okay; I'm used to it."
The three cheerleaders were surprised by her answer and sat down around her; Quinn had sat down beside Rachel while Brittany and Santana sat on the long, metal seat in front of them, facing the other girls.
Santana spoke up. "Hey Rachel, we're going to the mall after school, do you want to come?"
Rachel stiffened a little bit at the thought of her being late. "Uh, sorry guys I have to be home early today, I have a lot of stuff to do; maybe another time?"
"Aww! But I was looking forward to you coming!" Brittany said, "I was going to show you this awesome shop that sells wireless pillows!"
The other three girls let out small laughs. "Sorry B," Santana said, "Maybe you could show her another time?"
"Okay…" The cheerleader sighed.
The four girls remained talking until the bell rang, and they headed off for their classes.
Lunchtime came quickly, and Rachel was heading towards her locker to grab some books so she could study at the library. She approached her locker and grabbed her books. While at her locker, she studied herself in the mirror hanging on the door of her locker and saw the lack of sleep in her eyes, something she couldn't cover up, and the hidden bruises that may seem non-existent to others, but even though she couldn't really see them, they were very noticeable from her perspective.
As she closed her locker, she was met with an icy, cold, sticky substance and watched as Karofsky and Azimino walked away, exchanging a hi-five. Don't worry Rachel; you deserve this. She thought.
She grabbed the spare change of clothes from her locker and walked quickly to the bathroom, hopefully avoiding some embarrassment. Once inside the girl's bathroom, Rachel grabbed the chair sitting in the corner and rinsed her hair with the cold water. After flinching a little from the cold touch, she successfully rinsed most of the raspberry slushie off herself and entered the nearest cubicle to get changed.
"So Rachel," the counsellor asked her, "how are you going?"
Rachel wondered why she was here. Ms Pillsbury was great to talk to but she didn't have any problems that she needed to talk about, at least, none that anyone except herself knew of.
"I'm great." She replied, looking around the room covered in anti-bullying posters and such.
Emma smiled. "You're probably wondering why you're here?"
"Uh, yeah I guess." Rachel said, moving her gaze to the many pamphlets that were on display.
"I just want to have a little chat with you, okay?" Emma said kindly.
"Okay?" Rachel said more as a question than a statement.
"I notice that you've changed your style? What brought that on? I loved the clothes that you used to wear." She asked sweetly.
Rachel looked down at her dark jeans and the dark jacket that she put on after the slushie incident at lunch. "Well I just wanted a change, something different you know?"
Emma smiled; something she did a lot of. "Mmhmm. I understand." There was a silence for a few seconds until Rachel spoke up. "So, do you call all of the students here at random or just a select few?"
Emma was a little startled by the question and wasn't quite sure how to answer. She could say that she asked all the students at some stage or she could tell her that a certain someone recommended that she have a chat with Emma.
"Well, I often pick random students." She replied. "Maybe if they've changed their style, like you have or are a little different I like to talk to them to see what inspired this change or to see if something is wrong." This wasn't a lie, but this wasn't why Rachel was called up.
Rachel considered this for a few moments. "Oh, okay."
"So how is life at home?" Emma asked.
Rachel was unaware at how much body language she was revealing to Emma and folded her arms tightly into her chest when Emma asked the question. "Uh, it's normal."
"Okay," Emma smiled, "What sort of stuff do you get up to at home? Do you go out with your dad's sometimes?"
Rachel kept her gaze wandering around the room. "Yeah sometimes. I usually sing and do homework and normal things teens do I guess."
Emma reached for her hand sanitiser and it made a squirt noise when she applied it. "Okay. Do you ever get into fights with your fathers?"
Rachel cringed. "No, not really." She lied.
Emma looked at Rachel and then to her watch. "Well Rachel, we've run out of time but I would like to see you again next week around the same time. Is that okay?"
Rachel wore her fake smile. "Yeah, that's fine."
Emma got up from her seat and lead Rachel over to the door. "See you next week Rachel. It was a pleasure talking to you."
Rachel kept her smile plastered on her face. "You too, bye."
Rachel strode out of Emma's office and waved to Mr Schuester as he walked by. She was heading toward the student car park as it was nearly the end of fourth period and she thought that she may as well wait at the car for Puck.
As she was walking out of the main school door, she heard a "LOSER!" escape a cheerleader's mouth that was walking past. She accepted the fact that she was a loser a long time ago and just thought of the snide comments as people informing her of the truth.
She walked the long way to Puck's car and she had nearly reached it when she heard the bell ring. It only took Puck about ten minutes to reach his car, and as he approached it, Rachel could see that he was in a bad mood.
"Hey Noah, are you okay?" She asked.
He just grunted and unlocked the car. After they had both gotten in they headed towards Rachel's house. Puck held onto the steering wheel tightly and Rachel could see that he was upset. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked sweetly.
He looked towards her and back at the road. "It's just Karofsky and his followers."
She smiled. "Don't worry about them. They're knuckle heads."
He let out a sigh. "Look Rach, you don't know what happened. I was in the locker room and I don't think they noticed me because they came in laughing about the look on your face after they slushied you, and how you're a loser and other bad things."
She places her hand briefly on his shoulder. "It's okay," she says, "I'm used to that. Just don't get into any fights or anything because that could lead to bad consequences."
He smirks. "I may have punched him. But don't worry, I didn't get caught."
Rachel lets out a giggle. "Of course you did. You're lucky nobody caught you!" She puts on a serious tone. "Thank you Noah, for sticking up for me."
He smiles. "Any time."