Rachel hurried on through the waterlogged park, a reasonably heavy bag of shopping in one hand and an admittedly overlarge umbrella clutched tightly in the other. Why on earth she'd agreed to visit the supermarket in this ungodly weather, she had no idea. All she wanted now was to get warm and dry, quickly!
As she neared the gate, Rachel noticed something very strange. On the bench ahead of her was a young girl, who looked around the same age as herself, curled into herself. There was something about that girl that concerned Rachel, but she just couldn't think what.
She noticed the straggly blonde hair; the slightly rounded stomach; that all too familiar blue and white dress… Rachel's heart leapt into her mouth as she realised who the poor girl was.
Quinn Fabray.
The perfect head cheerleader; the most popular girl in school; the girl with the perfect boyfriend and the perfect life. That's who Quinn Fabray used to be.
But over the past few weeks, Rachel had realised that Quinn's life is far from perfect. Pregnant at 16 to her boyfriend's best mate; thrown out of her house by her devout Christian parents; rejected by the popular kids; kicked off the Cheerios; thrown out of her boyfriends' house; and now quite possibly homeless, Rachel noticed, as she saw the small pink bag at the blonde's feet. This wasn't the old Quinn; this was a new, broken, lonely Quinn who just needed somebody to be there.
Rachel wasted no time in getting to Quinn; abandoning her shopping she sprinted as fast as she could.
"Quinn?" her voice was barely above a whisper, but the blonde seemed to recognize the sound as she rolled onto her side and her brown eyes, so full of sorrow, connected with Rachel's.
"Rachel," breathed Quinn, a great sense of relief passing through her that someone was there. "Rachel… I never meant for any of this to happen. Any of it… I promise I didn't mean to." Tears were streaming down her pale face, mingling with the rain that had drenched her skin.
Rachel reached out her hand in support to her fellow glee-clubber.
"I know, Quinn." She sounded so sympathetic that Quinn felt even guiltier for everything she had done; she didn't deserve Rachel's sympathy. "Come on, I know you don't have a place to stay so you're coming back with me. It's not good for you or the baby, being outside in the cold and the rain."
She helped Quinn to her feet, wrapped an arm round her back as a support and opened the umbrella over their heads. The young girl was shaking uncontrollably, though whether that was from the cold or the crying Rachel didn't know.
They walked quietly, no noise could be heard apart from their feet pounding in the puddles and the shaking sobs issuing from Quinn's mouth. Neither of them had ever had a proper conversation before apart from that one time at her locker. Quinn eventually broke the silence by uttering two simple words… "Thank you."