You're My Best Friend and I Love You

Spoilers: AU Glee that kind of follows the show. SPN including pre-series, and the timeline has been bumped forward a little so Sam is the same age as the Glee cast.
Summary: It started out just another short year at a new school. In the aftermath of case, it blossoms into long distance relationship that changes them forever.
AN: The chapters will be varying length ficclet flashes into the development of Sam and Rachel's relationship as friends. It'll be written in seven parts.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or SPN.

Part I: Outcasts

Help!

I need somebody

-The Beatles

She'd been nine. Even at that age she was generally unaccepted by most people. Regardless, she went through everything with a smile and her head held high. She'd never achieve anything if she let other people bullying her get her down. Rachel Berry had her eyes on the prize at the end of the road. Stardom, adoration. What did the opinion of her immature peers mean to her? If they didn't know true greatness when they saw it, they were simply missing out. But she did crave some human company every now and then, of friend variety. Her dads were the best friends and parents she could ask for, but they couldn't always be there for her. Especially at school where she was a real loner. Singing by herself on the swing set only got her so far. Sometimes she got pushed off and there was no one there to defend her or help her get back up.

That is, until the first day of fourth grade. Rachel had already mentally prepared herself to be on the receiving end of verbal abuse. And she was. The girls liked to tell her clothing was ugly and her hair looked bad but it was all sticks and stones. However, she hadn't been prepared for a different kind of abuse. When she had tried to go color by herself at one of the benches, one of the boys, Terrence Parker, stole her coloring book and started throwing ripped out pages into the mud. She watched him do it, upset but resigned to the fact that it was going to happen whether she fought it or not. Terrence was big. She was littler than almost everyone else. There was nothing she could do to fight him.

And then suddenly, she couldn't see Terrence in front of her anymore, because someone taller than her was obstructing her vision. Not understanding what was going, she tried to see around the boy and noticed that Terrence was on his back and the other boy had her coloring book in his hands. He quickly turned around, pushed it into her hands and ran off. That left her alone with Terrence who was still on the floor, also trying to figure out what had just happened. When the teacher asked them what was going on, Terrence fled, saying he'd tripped and Rachel just told her that she didn't know.

Things like that kept on happening. Whenever one of the boys on the playground started pushing her around or stealing her things, the mystery boy would show up and make them leave her alone. Every time she found herself crying somewhere with a scraped knee, he'd be there with band-aids and wet paper towels to clean her up and send her on her way. But he always disappeared once she was back in the right mind to try and talk to him. After a little snooping, she found out who he was. He was new in school and his name was Sam Winchester. Apparently, from what she could pick up from eavesdropping on some of the gossiping girls, they thought he was really cute but a total geek and weirdo. All he did was read a whole lot and didn't really talk to anyone.

A loner. Just like her.

If there was one thing that drove Rachel, it was unfailing optimism. She'd been let down before. Time and time again, she'd extended her hand in friendship and gotten shut down and her heart pulled off her sleeve and stamped on. This time, though, the nine year-old knew it was different. Sam Winchester was different. So the minute Ms. Topolsky let the class out for recess, she found the bench Sam always sat at and primly took a seat at one end of the bench right on the edge, waiting for him. It didn't take very long for him to show up. She saw him walking towards her, head down, book tucked under his arm. When he finally looked up, saw her sitting there waiting for him on his bench, he froze. Rachel wanted to laugh at how stricken his expression was. Skittish, like if she made just the wrong move, he'd bolt like a scared animal.

So she waited. Didn't say anything or do anything to beckon him closer. It took Herculean effort on her part, because she wanted nothing more than to march straight up to him and give him an enormous hug and thank him over and over again for being nice to her. But she had more control than that. And she really, really, really wanted him to be her friend. That meant no scaring him off. Rachel had learned from past experience that being too forward with boys at this age often resulted in the opposite of what you wanted.

He eyed her warily for a couple of minutes, before going to sit at the opposite end of the bench. Not once did he take his eyes off of her as he did so. In fact, for the rest of recess, though it appeared like he was reading his book, Sam was constantly sparing her sideways glances through the fringe of his hair. While delighted to find that the usual suspects decided to leave her alone all throughout that recess, she was disappointed that Sam didn't try to talk to her. Her disappointment didn't last long when she came to the most obvious conclusion, to her own mind, that Sam was probably shy. That of course would only make her job to befriend him more difficult. But she admitted it was a cute trait, and was nonetheless committed. Her dads had taught her to work hard for what she wanted. She'd already sat through one recess silently. She could stand to do so for a while longer. Because if she worked hard, she'd always get what she wanted.

Last Edited: 4-11-12