Rachel walked into the choir room and was about to sit in her normal seat when Schuester walked in.
"Oh, no, Rachel, you'll sit in the front so you can make your announcement," he said, patting the stool in front of the piano as he passed it. He then stood behind the piano, jotting down the word 'Farewells' on the board.
"Is that this week's lesson?" she asked.
"Yes it is. It's kind of directed to you, I guess. I would have done it with Kurt, but I had no warning, and I couldn't really plan it," he admitted. Slowly, Glee kids started trickling in, and a nervous pit formed in the pit of her stomach. Once everyone was present and in their seats, Mr. Schue stepped into the middle of the room.
"Guys, I… Well, Rachel has some bad news. I'll let her tell you," he said, and melted into the background. Rachel stood up and smoothed her skirt nervously.
As eyes settled on Rachel, a ripple of whispers spread throughout the group; it was obvious she was hurt, and they were probably guessing what happened.
"Rach, are you okay?" Mercedes asked in worry. Rachel smiled at her friend and nodded slightly.
"I'm a little sore and shaken, but I'm getting by. Thanks, Cedes," she said. She sat back down on the stool; standing for too long hurt her ankle. "Today I was a little late to first period. Someone had held me up to insult me," Rachel sent an accusatory glare toward Santana before getting back to the subject at hand, "and on my way, I ran into Karofsky. He seemed to have reverted back to his ignoramus state, and he attacked me. He pushed me once or twice, and he would have hit me, if Mr. Schuester hadn't heard me screaming at him. My daddies decided that McKinley was too dangerous, and… I'm transferring to Carmel. Today is my last day."
Enraged protests broke out. Some people (Noah, Mercedes, and Tina) were upset that Rachel was leaving. The rest of the class, however, were only sad her voice was leaving.
"Okay, we can get by without her at sectionals, but we need her at Regionals!"
"We lost a member, we can't compete!"
"What are we going to do? Carmel already has Sunshine, now the have Rachel? We're doomed!"
"Guys!" Mr. Schue's voice echoed easily over the students'. His face was red. "I'm disappointed in you! Rachel is the victim of assault, and your number one concern is Regionals? You guys, we already have Sue's budget, and while I know how much winning Regionals would mean, we have to put each other first!"
"It's only Manhands! Nobody likes her, anyway," Santana said easily.
"Shut up, Satan, nobody likes you either!" Rachel smiled sweetly at Lauren for sticking up for her like that. The girl simply nodded in response.
"Do I have to show you how we do it on the wrong side of town again?"
"Oh, you mean show me kicking your ass again? No thanks, I'm good."
"Oh, hell no—" Santana jumped toward Lauren, but Noah grabbed her around the waist, and despite the fight Santana was putting up, easily got her to sit back down.
"Look," Rachel shouted, getting the attention back on her. "I know that most of you only care about my talent versus my personality, but I felt it only fair to tell you guys goodbye. I guess I'll leave, then."
Rachel walked out the door slowly (which, to regular people, was a normal pace), wishing someone would stop her, beg her to stay, have one last hurrah with the glee club she had helped flourish.
Nobody did.
When Rachel got home, she collapsed on her bed and just lied there. She was kind of in a funk.
She had given her all for that glee club! Without her, New Directions might not even have existed! Sure, they might have scraped together enough members to compete, but there was no way they would've won Sectionals last year, and that was all it would take for the show choir to crumble.
After an hour of just lying there, doing absolutely nothing, Rachel stood up and walked over to her closet. She was getting a fresh start with Carmel (if Sunshine hadn't spread rumors of the maniac who sent her to an inactive crackhouse), and she wanted to really make a good name for herself there. She needed a good outfit to prove it.
She dug through her closet slowly, examining each and every item, and instantly forming an entire outfit in her mind. Finally, she came upon the perfect dress.
It was knee length, and a nice bright red, with black polka dots and a vintage flair to it. It was perfectly Rachel Berry.
She hung the dress on a hook on the wall and turned to her computer. Although she only had thirty Facebook friends, she still updated often. She tapped her fingers gently on the trackpad, trying to think of a perfect way to sum up her leaving McKinley into one status. It needed to be dramatic, it needed to be wistful, but most importantly, it needed to be hopeful. Finally, it struck her, and she typed enthusiastically.
Rachel BerryI will miss my days at McKinley, for it was the path that drove me further in my quest for stardom. That chapter is closed, and a new one, which I pray will be good, is now beginning.
Satisfied with her post, Rachel shut her computer and slid back on the bed. She lifted her pink phone and smiled brightly as the 'New Message' icon flashed on the screen.
My life sucks, thought you might like to know.
The number was unfamiliar to her, so she guessed it was someone she didn't know, a number change, or just someone whose number she had never possessed. She replied hesitantly.
Who is this?
She never got a reply.
When Rachel drove up to Carmel the next day, her stomach was in knots. She maneuvered through the parking lot, picking a spot near the back so she could have the whole walk to the school to collect herself.
'I am Rachel Barbra Berry,' she thought, giving herself a mental prep-talk, 'I can handle anything! I have endured slushie facials, constant insults, demeaning nicknames, and physical assault. I can handle this!'
She quickened her pace as she entered the throng of students. She kept her cast-encased arm (she had gotten it last night- it was bright pink and covered in gold star stickers) close to her ribs, overly worried that someone would hit it and injure her further. But maybe she didn't have to do those kind of things at Carmel; she remembered someone saying things were bigger and better here. Maybe they were right.
Rachel sweeped the halls, looking for her locker. She finally found it, smiling at the pretty shade of powder blue. She tried the combination, and after a few times (her left hand kept messing up, and she couldn't exactly use her right that well), it opened, revealing a layer of dust as thick as her notebooks. Rachel grimaced and brought out her old lace handkerchief, brushing most of it away. She folded her dusty hanky and placed it in the back corner; she would bring it home and wash it that night.
"Wait, Berry?" an astounded, barely-familiar voice said from behind her. Rachel spun around, and dread pooled in her stomach as she saw Andrea Cohen approaching her at a rate Flash would envy. "Berry, what are you doing here? You… You don't go here now, do you?"
Rachel wrung her hands nervously- a slightly difficult task, thanks to her cast- and nodded. "My dads made me transfer."
"Huh," Andrea said, and Rachel couldn't really read her expression. "Are you joining Vocal Adrenaline?"
"I wouldn't join if my talent depended on it," Rachel said angrily, slamming her locker and storming away. Andrea matched her manic pace easily.
"Listen, I know you." Andrea paused. "Well, I know Jesse, and he's exactly like you. So, if you apply the theory of relativity, I know you. Anyway, I know you would join Vocal Adrenaline if your talent depended on it."
"Don't compare me to him. Ever," Rachel spat, her shoulders practically shaking with rage. "I'm a good person, unlike him—"
"Yeah, because good people send innocent strangers to crackhouses all the time," Andrea oozed sarcasm.
"Inactive! It was an inactive crackhouse!"
"So you actually did it?" Andrea's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "Wow, I thought the freak midget was lying. I always hoped she wasn't, though."
"Why, you wanted to confirm your Crazy Berry theories? I get it, to you guys I'm a joke, but honestly—" Rachel was about to launch into a rant when Andrea cut her off with a laugh.
"Crazy? That was genius! I hate that girl. She's all sunshine and rainbows, and she wouldn't even let us funkify the other teams! Of course, Jesse agreed with her, he's all hung up about last time. If someone even mentions eggs, he flips out," she laughed, and her eyes were filled with mirth.
"Wait, what say would Jesse have in funkification? He's in California right now, living it up at UCLA," Rachel asked. Maybe he was like a long-distance co-coach?
"Oh, wow. You mean you don't know?" Andrea's voice dropped in volume, and she looked sad. "Jesse was failed. Goolsby wanted him, and he failed him to keep him here. It killed him. Lost his scholarship, can't get into a four year, nothing. The only reason he's still here is because he wants to make up his grade and get into a two year."
Rachel couldn't quell her sympathy; even though she hated Jesse, nobody deserved that. "Oh, poor Jesse…."
"I know. I told Goolsby that if he did that to me, I'd sue him. I'm graduating this year, screw Vocal Adrenaline," she said proudly. Rachel managed to crack a grin.
"Well, go you. That's just another good reason for me to abstain from joining, though. I won't get into Juilliard if I fail; they do look at merit, not just talent, and there is no way I'm risking it," she said simply.
"You want to go to Juilliard, too?" Andrea asked. They started walking down the hall, to where, Rachel didn't know. She simply followed, thankful to have someone to talk to. "I'm going for the dance program, and maybe I'll do music. I would do drama, if I wanted to make a fool of myself."
"Oh, I want to do all three," Rachel said happily, "My whole life, essentially, is performing. I'm a triple-threat."
"And so modest, as well," Andrea said dryly. "You know Berry, you aren't that bad. I mean, a little loud, and smarmy, but if you ignore that, not bad."
Rachel smiled and shrugged. "Thanks. You're the first one to think that in a while. I—"
Suddenly, something Andrea had said finally sunk in. Jesse had been failed. Jesse had been failed. He was still at Carmel. She was now at Carmel. No, no, no. He was supposed to be on the other side of the country!
"Oh, god. He's here," she whispered. Andrea's smile slid off her face as she eyed Rachel wearily.
"Yeah, I already said that," she said slowly.
"I know, I just… It hadn't sunk in yet! I wasn't really thinking about what it meant, just how it affected Jesse. Now I realize how it affects me!" Rachel waved her hands nervously. "Oh god, oh god, oh god!"
"Calm down, Rachel, you're a junior, he's a senior. You probably won't have classes with him, and you can sit on the opposite side of the school from him during lunch. I won't even tell him you're here. I mean, sure, he'll find out, eventually. But I can prolong it for you."
Rachel smiled in surprise; this girl had hated her guts less than a year ago, and now she was offering to help? She liked Carmel already.
The bell rang, and the shrill sound made Rachel jump out of her skin. She lifted her schedule to her face. "Okay, room K114. AP Psych. Wonderful! Thanks for the help, Andrea!"
"No problem," she said easily. A shock look crossed her face as a realization hit her with the force of a Mac truck. "Rachel, wait!" Rachel didn't hear her. She entered the class and handed her teacher the paperwork, a blinding, 'I'm-amazing' smile spreading across her face. He took the paper and skimmed the text before signing it on the dotted line adjacent to his course's name. "Okay, Miss Berry, I'm Mr. Castorena. You can have a seat next to…" he scanned the class, looking for an empty seat. She didn't really care enough to look; she didn't know the kids, how was she supposed to assess if it was a good or bad spot?
The teacher smiled. "Ah, well, my job is easy. Only one open spot, next to Mr. St. James. You can sit there."
Rachel whirled around, her stomach dropping to her knees as she met equally shocked bright green eyes.
Mwua ha ha ha ha ha }:)
Am I evil? I dunno. Do I need ten reviews to update? That I do know.
YES.
By the way, guys, my other story, The Power of Music, has officially been adopted by D. Kenedy. I feel in my gut she's gonna do GREAT with the story, so check it out! :D
So, ten reviews. And thanks to everyone who reviewed last time. You guys rock my socks, yo :)
Cheers!
-Harlot