Disclaimer: All characters belong to the creators of the show. Reviews would be appreciated it. This is the first chapter in a multi-chapter fic!
Three slushies before fifth period. That must be a new record for the jocks, Rachel thought as she wiped the sticky grape flavored substance from her eyes and let out a quiet huff, blinking owlishly as she watched the hulking football players high fiving and laughing as they walked away from where Rachel stood, in a purple puddle.
"Neanderthals", she muttered under her breath as she marched the three feet to her locker, dripping the awfully sticky grape slushy onto the white linoleum floor. She could care less about the mess, the janitors were used to mopping up the ice and flavored syrup combo. She just wanted to get her bag and disappear from sight before Karofsky and his sidekicks could go for the ultimate high score with a fourth slushie.
Normally, if someone got slushied this far in the school day, they would just go home and spare the trouble of getting cleaned up. But not Rachel Berry. Rachel Berry had a practically pristine attendance record and she wasn't about to have it be ruined simply because she happened to be a form of entertainment for future Lima losers and/or jail inmates.
Grabbing her small bag of necessities (soap, shampoo, tissues in case of tears, the usual) along with the clothes she normally wore in phys. ed because she was out of replacement outfits,since she had unfortunately only packed for two incidents instead of one (she should just ask the janitors if she could use one of the storage rooms as a closet from now on) she decided to make her way to the locker room.
Washing her hair in the tiny bathroom sink was too much of a complicated task and after doing it twice already, she decided to opt for the more practical solution: the showers. If she was lucky, they'd be deserted at the moment and she could get in a quick shower before her next class.
Five minutes later, the temporarily sticky and obviously annoyed brunette quietly slipped into the girls' locker room that was situated next to the gymnasium and sighed in relief when she found it to be completely empty. The last thing she needed was to walk into a room full of girls and be ridiculed yet again.
Wasting no time, she dropped her small bag onto a nearby bench by the shower stalls and began to strip, one sticky item at a time.
Her woolly owl sweater and skirt, both drenched with the liquid, were rapidly stuffed into a plastic shopping bag that she would bring home and try her best to get the stains out, though sometimes she had to throw the clothes out all together, but that was mostly when she had the misfortune of receiving a cherry flavored slushy, aka: the ruiner of all clothes.
However, slushies and wool did not mix very well and although the stains were a pain in the ass to get out, Rachel had learned a few practical tricks with baking soda.
Her panties and bra were next and she was somehow grateful to find that they had been unsoiled, because sitting through her next class, going commando in gym shorts would have most likely been uncomfortable.
Tossing the matching baby blue cotton garments onto the bench and kicking off her knee socks as quickly as possible before someone could walk in and see her stark naked (another thing that would give the ruthless bullies ammunition against her), she grabbed her soap and washcloth before stepping into the nearest stall, pulling the flimsy white curtain closed and immediately turning on the water, letting out a quiet sigh as the hot spray washed over her sticky, purple stained skin.
She could already see the diluted purple color begin to swirl down the shower drain as she stood there for a moment with her head under the running water as she closed her eyes.
In her mind, she was reliving the three consecutive slushies of the day: lime, raspberry and then grape. Each of them were like an icy slap to the face and as her brain replayed the laughter of the jocks as well as everyone else that happened to be standing in the hallway at that time, she felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks, mixing with the shower water and cursed softly to herself.
See, everyone thought that Rachel Berry didn't cry. That she took the bullying with her head up high and didn't let it get to her. But after receiving three Big Gulps to the face in the span of just a few hours, even Rachel Berry had to shed a few tears. But she wouldn't let herself sob, no. Sobbing would be admitting defeat to the jocks.
Sniffling on the other hand was totally allowed, and the sniffling, combined with the sound of the water hitting the shower tiles, was exactly why she didn't hear the sound of the locker room door opening on the other side of the room as a certain blonde slipped inside, using the locker room as refuge as well.
Quinn, clad in the standard red and white uniform, had escaped to the locker rooms after running off the field during Cheerios practice.
Her excuse had been a migraine, but in reality, she just needed to get away for a few minutes. It was only her second week back on the squad after finally being allowed to rejoin following the whole pregnancy debacle. She thought that going back to the Cheerios would fix that empty feeling inside of her and make her happy again because she'd regain her social status and everything would be right in the world, as it should be.
But that clearly wasn't the case. Where she once found thrill and excitement in performing and leading the squad, she now found misery. The girls she had once called her 'friends', who had worshipped her and followed her around school, doing her bidding like she had been a queen, now looked at her with mildly contained disapproval and disgust.
With the exception of Santana and Brittany, of course, they now treated her like she was at the bottom of the pyramid and not the fearless team captain she had been only a year prior. She had once been Quinn Fabray: Captain of the nationally ranked Cheerios, President of the Celibacy Club and good Christian daughter. Now she was Quinn Fabray: Ex-captain who got knocked up at sixteen, kicked out by her parents and is most likely going to hell. It didn't have a nice ring to it.
She couldn't take it anymore, which is why she now found herself slipping into the (what appeared to be) empty locker room and locking the door behind her. She didn't want any of the other girls to come after her, especially not Coach Sylvester.
Once she heard the lock click behind her, she sagged against the door and let out a long winded sigh, rubbing the back of her neck. Two weeks in and she was already stiffer than she'd ever been for being out of the swing of things. "This might have been a stupid idea..." she mumbled to herself as she pushed off the door and walked further into the locker room.
She had busted her ass all summer to get back into shape and practically pleaded with Coach Sylvester to let her back on the team, and now that she was on it again, all she wanted to do was get as far away from the judging eyes of her fellow teammates. It was ridiculous.
"Maybe I should have gone to that fancy boarding school in Paris, after all." she murmured as she dropped her Cheerios bag onto the ground and tugged her hair out of the retched tight ponytail,the golden blonde locks flowing down around her tense shoulders.
The idea of her being sent to a boarding school in Europe had been put on the table when news broke out that she was pregnant, and the only reason that her parents didn't end up forcing her to go was because they figured they could keep a better eye on their disappointed of a daughter if she was still in the country.
But Paris would have been nice. She could have started over. She doubted that anyone at Notre-Dame International High School would have called her 'Juno' or 'Tubbers'. A fresh start would be nice just about now. She'd make friends that had no idea she had gotten pregnant at sixteen and was a total disappointment to her ultra religious conservative parents.
"I could totally learn French." she said brightly as she opened her locker to grab her Cheerios jacket before pausing as she heard a sound coming from the other side of the locker room.
She had been so preoccupied talking to herself like some kind of looney that she hadn't realized that the soft pitter-patter was sound of the shower running. This meant that someone was here. Someone that might have heard her talking to herself.
"Great, now people can add 'crazy' to the list of reasons why Quinn Fabray is falling from grace.", she muttered before cursing when she realized that she was still talking to herself. Maybe she really was insane.
Tossing her jacket back into her locker, she closed it with a gentle click, so not to alarm whoever else was in the room before moving towards the shower stalls to investigate.
She only knew one thing so far: it was a girl. Obviously. Since it was the girl's locker room after all. "Way to go, Sherlock.",she breathed out before frowning because again with the talking to herself.
Shaking her head to herself, she practically tip toed across the tiled floor, which was ridiculous because it's not like she was a serial killer sneaking up on her victim or something. And she was allowed to be here, so what the hell was she doing with the whole secret spy act!?
Rolling her eyes to herself, she stopped a few feet away from the only running shower stall and opened her mouth to call out, about to ask the person to reveal their name so she could know who the heck was in here with her.
But before the first syllable could leave her parted pink lips, she noticed two things. The first, was that the water she could see draining at the bottom of the stall was strangely purple colored.
The second, was that on the bench, beside a bag of equally purple stained clothes and a pair of...delicates, which she shamefully looked at for a moment too long, was a small bottle of strawberry scented shampoo. There was only one person she knew that smelled like strawberries every time she walked by her. One tiny, very loud person.
One manicured brow rose as she connected the dots and whirled back towards the shower, where she realized she could hear soft sniffling pouring out from behind the curtain. She stared at said curtain for the longest time before swallowing and licking her surprisingly dried lips.
"Rachel...?",she finally made her voice call out as she slowly picked up the bottle of shampoo from the bench,its sweet scent already tickling her senses. The brunette had obviously forgotten to bring it in with her, and she knew she would need it if her suspicions were correct and the girl was washing off the remains of a slushy attack.
