Lima, Thy name is Noah
Prologue
Noah Puckerman had secrets.
He envied Kurt Hummel. It was a simple fact, that diva had a strength Puck didn't have. No matter how many times you throw him in a dumpster, or ruin his Alexander McQueen jacket with a slushie, or slammed him into lockers, or borderline sexually harass him, he bounced back. Noah, thought in his place, he'd just stay down. Kurt maybe the daintiest looking man in Lima, Ohio, but he had more strength than Puckerman's guns.
Noah wished he had his strength. Then perhaps he'd be happy. Noah had been "Puck" for so long, he didn't know how to be Noah. Looking in the mirror most mornings, he questioned who he was - where was the curly hair? The wire frame glasses he needed to read? Where was the guy his sister looked up too. Because it certainly wasn't the bully, who gave slushie-facials and dumpster dived the dorks of McKinley, and it most certainly wasn't the man-whore whose had just about every girl and cougar in this tiny little shit hole of a town.
But he knew the source. Noah cared about what people thought about him. If he was badass, no one would mess with him. If he was badass, he was popular. If he was badass, the whole damn world was opened to him. But sitting on his bed, staring at the wall, he didn't want the damn world. Because it was moments like these that all his secrets seemed to be crushing him.
He could hear his mother in the room next to him crying and he hated it. There was nothing he could do, all he managed to do was make her cry, drink, and yell. Was that why the curls were gone and the mohawk was born? If he was badass, then he wasn't some pussy like his father. He supposed it began here. The moment Puck was born and Noah was subdued, hog-tied, and throne into a closet and locked there. If he was less like his father, looked less like his father, then maybe his mother would be happier, wouldn't drink, wouldn't yell. If Noah was 'badass' at home, then he was badass everywhere else.
He didn't want to be badass anymore. What good would his badass persona have in the 'real' world? When he left this Podunk town, no one would care if he was the most badass person in Lima. If he didn't stop being 'badass' how was he ever going to leave Lima? Perhaps that was why he was getting up from his bed and walking towards his the bathroom.
He stood silently beneath the florescent lights, his dark eyes gazing at himself in the mirror. Puck shone brightly in the image, but it was the haunt in the eyes, a desperation that he made the choice. And he watched himself in the mirror in some weird kind of fascination as he shaved off his mohawk. With each strand falling, it felt like he could breathe again - he knew in a few hours he'd probably think everything to come will suffocate him.
That proverbial closet was being opened and Noah was being let out into the light again - he just hoped, Noah had the strength to deal with this choice. Because tomorrow, everything will change.