Hi there!
This is the opening to the main story which will start during season 2.
I want to set a few things straight before I begin,
It is most definitely AU, and I need to outline a few events that have or haven't happened in the show.
This will be set around Never Been Kissed; however I want to move Furt forward (or at least the wedding and the death threat to before episode 6).
Puck and Finn became 'best' friends during freshman year. They didn't know each other previously.
Baby gate happened
The Karofsky kiss happened before Kurt met Blaine (between Duets and The RHGS). But Kurt hasn't mentioned or told anyone about it. IT WENT EXACTLY THE SAME WAS AS IT DID IN THE SHOW, just without Blaine's influence.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or its characters. So enjoy. I'll try not to make ALL of the AN's extremely long.
Lima is a small town. Everyone felt little. The houses were small and nothing exciting ever happened there. The Upper East Side of Lima was even smaller. But everything felt so big there. Big houses. Big gates. Big people.
So when the only people a small girl can play with are four boys, then of course she was going to play with them.
It was a sunny day at the park. Generally the playground was deserted, for a lack of better word. It almost seemed like there was a shortage of children in the Upper East Side, but there was. Most of the last generation of children had grown up and moved on with their lives.
There was a little girl, about the age of five, swinging slowly on one of the lowered leather swings watching four little boys kick around a shiny soccer ball. Her red coat swallowed her tiny frame, but she was adamant that she had to match her coat with the red beret on her head. She kicked her legs back and forth, staring wistfully at the boys, tiny fingers curled around the chain tightly.
How she wanted to play with them.
Her daddies watched her from where they lay on a red and black picnic blanket across the field, reading books in the cool shade, peeking over the edges to watch their only daughter swing by herself. Rachel Berry had never really had many other people to play with at the park. There were never any really nice little girls there to play with her. They were all at the other park on the other side of town and it was too far to go, according to her daddies. The ones that did come to the park sometimes weren't very nice at all; they pushed her over or called her mean names.
And then there was one day when one of the boys playing soccer yelled at a mean little boy who pushed her over and made her cry. The shortest one, if she recalled, came over and made the mean little boy leave her alone, then her helped her up and went back to his ball. They never really talked or played together, but she always smiled at them and they always smiled back at her.
So she swang. By herself. Watching four little boys kick their ball. A tear rolled down her cheek.
She was so lonely.
The boys – one with dark skin, one of an oriental decent, one with very definite Spanish features and a curly headed boy – chased after each other, attempting to kick the ball through make shift tree goals.
The smallest of the four, the curly headed boy, tripped over one of the other boy's legs, sending him sprawling across the grass. His companions stopped their chase to laugh at him, amused by their friend's down fall.
"Wes!" The small boy cried in anguish, patting the grass off of his torn up jeans and straightening his bow tie. "What did you do that for?"
The oriental boy, Wes, snickered, "I dunno, Blaine."
Blaine glared at his friend and then his two other companions as they dropped to the ground in hysterics, because of course, tripping was hilarious to five year old boys. "Let's just finish our game," Blaine put his hands on his hips.
Wes looked at his friends, his gaze resting on the dark skinned boy. "David, do you want to keep beating Blainers and Thaddy?"
David grinned, "Let's go."
"Who says you're winning?" whined Thad, the Spanish boy.
"Because I'm keeping score," Wes replied bluntly. "And I say we're winning. We have 3 points," he held up four fingers, "and you have 2."
"Nu uh."
"Yeah."
"Nah."
"Yeah."
"Nah."
"Yeah."
"Nah."
"Nah."
"Yeah… Damn it!"
"Ha! I win!"
David and Blaine sighed and sat down in the grass, watching as their two friends bickered endlessly. Blaine leant back and closed his eyes, enjoying the wind through his curls. David, on the other hand, was twirling strands of grass into a complicated knot absentmindedly. Blaine sighed deeply, exhaling though his nose. Why did they always have to fight? He knew they didn't really mean it, but they never got to finish their games.
Blaine was brought out of his thoughts when a female voice cut off the two bickering boys. A girl, smaller than Blaine, with long brown hair tied into a low pony tail and red rimmed brown eyes, was standing just in front of them. She looked familiar to him… she was the girl that mean boy Anthony kept picking on.
"Um... but he's right," the girl pointed at Thad. "He's on 3 points and you're only on 2."
Thad and Wes stared at her in shock, their jaws hanging agape. David smiled at her and stood up, towering over her small frame. "Who are you?" he asked, tilting his head.
The girl smiled up at him with a toothy grin. "My name is Rachel Berry."
"Hi Rachel Berry! My name's David and that's Blaine, Thad and Wes." David pointed at his friends, tilting his head to the side. "Wes and Thad like to fight a lot, but it's okay because me and Blaine are still their friends. We love them lots."
After studying the girl, Thad smiled curiously at the girl, putting his chubby hand on her petite shoulder. "Have you been crying?"
Rachel turned her face away from them, hurriedly wiping her eyes and rubbing her nose. "N-No," she stammered.
"Why were you crying?" Blaine asked inquisitively. He didn't like it when people cried; they should smile all the time, like he tried to do. "Is it because you're all alone? We always see you sitting by yourself. You should've come over to play with us."
Rachel looked at him, wide eyed, but nodded her head slowly. "Yes," she whispered. "No one is here to play with me and I thought you'd be like Anthony."
Blaine shook his head slowly and his smile brightened. "Anthony's mean. My mommy told me to never be mean to other people, especially girls, because they're small and nice and stuff."
Wes grinned. "Yeah, we'll play with you!"
"Right!" David agreed, putting his arm around Rachel's shoulder. "You can be our new best friend!"
"R-rea-really?" Rachel sniffed.
Blaine laughed at her, "Yes!"
"It will be fun." Thad agreed, passing her the soccer ball. "Do you know how to play?"
When Rachel didn't answer, the four boys began to watch her as she studied the ball. Her eyes moving from the ball to them and then back again. Slowly she started to smile. Dropping the ball she kicked it as far as she could, chasing after it with the boys in close pursuit, all laughing happily.
Rachel felt happy, because, for the first time ever, she had friends to play with.
Though the Upper East Side community was small, the Jewish population in Lima was even smaller. Most people belonged to the Christian churches or just didn't go all together. Everyone in the Jewish community was very close.
Rachel, gripping both of her fathers' hands, walked out of the synagogue in her pretty navy blue dress and with a black ribbon tied in her hair. The small courtyard out the front of the building was full of people talking after the service.
Her fathers' directed her over to an unfamiliar women and an unfamiliar little boy. He looked about the same age as Rachel; she was six now and was small with a thin frame. He looked like he'd snap if a gust of wind blew him too hard. He was wearing a worn T-shirt and a pair of brown pants that Rachel thought matched his dark hair and dark eyes. He was idly kicking a stone with his foot while his mother talked to the Rabbi. He looked up when Rachel and her fathers approached.
Rachel smiled at him. He stared back.
Her daddies smiled at the boy's mother and shook her hand. "Welcome to Lima," her black father said brightly. He was always the more outgoing of the two, warmly greeting anyone new to the community and making sure they found somewhere to fit in. "I'm Leroy Berry this is my husband Hiram and our daughter Rachel. Welcome to the community."
The woman, surprised by their friendliness, returned their handshake and smiled brightly. "Oh, hello! It's lovely to meet you. I'm Deborah Puckerman, but please call me Debbie. This is my son Noah. We just moved from Columbus."
"Well, it's a small community," Hiram, Rachel's smaller white father, smiled. "You'll get to know everyone pretty quickly. Rachel, would you like to go take Noah and play for a little while? I'd like to talk to Debbie for a moment."
Rachel smiled and grabbed Noah's hand, much to his shock. "Come on, Noah, I know this really cool place." She tugged him across the clearing and towards a really big tree she usually went to after temple. She pointed to the lowest branch that was flatter than the others. "We have to climb up there."
The boy grunted but followed, straightening the wire framed glasses resting on his nose. "What's so cool about a dumb tree, anyway?"
Rachel grinned at him, but didn't say anything. Rather, she stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled, something she'd become very good at in the past year. Four heads popped up from a nearby bush, twigs lodged in the boys' hair and mud streaked across their cheeks. Rachel turned back to Noah, "It's not the tree," she smiled and looked at her friends from above. "It's them."
Noah looked at the new boys. He eyed them warily. Wes saw him first. "Who's that Rachie?"
Rachel swung her legs back and forth. "This is Noah. He's from Columbus and just moved here."
Thad smiled and sat next to the girl, resting his head on her shoulder. Rachel hugged his torso tightly, winding her small arms around his chest. "Hi there!"
Noah looked back, slightly taken back by the four boys outgoing personalities. He watched as a curly haired kid bounced up and down next to Rachel, handing her a lollipop. Then the boy looked at him and out stretched his hand. "Do you want one?" Noah looked at him and then the candy, smiling. He nodded his head and took the offered treat, putting it in his mouth. Blaine grinned brightly, sucking his own grape lollipop, and flashing a toothy, dye stained smile.
"Thank you," he said with his mouth full; his mother always told him to say please and thank you – it was manners after all. Rachel looked at him in disgust and the boys laughed.
"You should come and play with us sometimes," David said, nodding his head in agreement with himself.
There were three exclamations of agreement. Noah smiled at them all and nodded. Maybe they would be best friends, he thought. Remembering how most of the other boys wouldn't play with him because he was too little before he moved.
"You know," Blaine whispered, leaning in to peer at Noah's face. It was beginning to scare him with how close the other boy was leaning in. But Blaine just smiled as if Noah wasn't uncomfortable at all. "You look like Harry Potter. My mum is reading me the first book. It's my favourite book ever."
"I've never read it," Noah admitted, ducking his head with a shallow smile.
Blaine and the other boys gasped but slyly grinned, a look passing between them, an unspoken agreement. Wes turned to Noah, patting him dutifully on the head, "We'll have to let you read them with us. Maybe you could even see the movie with us; we've watched it hundreds of times ever since Blaine got the video for his birthday!"
Noah's shy smile grew more confident. "Okay," he said meekly.
That was how the four friends adopted Noah into their little group.
The years ticked by slowly, and the group of six spent every waking moment they could together. Eventually, traditions like the weekly Sunday dinner, combined holidays or vacations and irrelevant trivial things developed. As their children's bonds grew, so did those of the parents. The Berry, Puckerman, Anderson, Montgomery, Sullivan and Harwood families became one big clan, supporting each other in any way needed.
The day James Puckerman left was one of the worst in the "clan's" history. James had always been a bit of an antisocial man, opting to boycott such gatherings for the closest bar he could find. Debbie could feel him getting more and more restless. Ari had only been in the world for two months when James decided that he'd had enough, packed up his belongings and walked out the door.
The day had started just like any other; the boys and Rachel were sprawled across the various couches in the Puckerman living room, watching the television as Aladdin found the giant cave of treasure. From the back of the house they could faintly hear Ari crying and muffled voices that were steadily rising.
The friends knew what would happen next. Debbie would put Ari in her crib, or hand her to Noah, with the beginning of a bruise or cut forming on her face, before disappearing into her room to cry. It broke their hearts, Noah's especially because for a long time he looked up to his dad. He was his role model, until the man found more interest in a bottle of alcohol than his own family.
Still… today was different. While they still heard the tell-tale noises of James' fist colliding with Debbie's face and her muffled sobs, there was also loud shuffling and the hasty noises of a zip being closed.
"Daddy?" Noah asked, tugging on the man's shirt curiously as he stomped pointedly towards the door - red faced and fuming no less - looking from his face to the duffle bag in his hand. "Where are you going?"
"Away," James snapped, not making eye contact with his son.
Noah tilted his head and frowned, his brow creasing in confusion, "But what about me and Mom and Ari?"
James frowned and gripped the boy's shoulder, yanking him away. "None of you are my concern anymore, so go back and play with your little friends."
"What does that mean?"
"That you're all worthless and I'm getting out before you bring me down with you! You'll never grow up to be anything useful. You, for example, are too scrawny and pathetic; it's not like you can fight or stand up for yourself. Enjoy your life kid, because from now on, I'm out of here."
"I swear," Noah growled darkly, his eyes narrowed and chest tall, as the pieces finally began to click inside his young mind. "If you ever show your face around here again…"
"You'll what?" James chuckled harshly, glaring down at his eight year old son. He could tell that his friends had paused the movie and were now watching as Noah finally stood up to his father. He could also see that the Montgomery and Sullivan kids were itching, as if they were also itching to jump up and yell at him, but Rachel, Blaine and Thad held them back. Noah had to do this on his own. "You're still a pipsqueak, kid."
"But I won't be for forever. I'm going to become bigger and stronger than you ever were to protect Mom and Ari from men like you. I'll train every day so that if I ever see you again I'll punch you square in the nose. I know you hit her, because she cries whenever she doesn't think I'm listening and that makes me want to cry, but I know she'd want me to be strong for her. I'll be a better man than you ever were, because I know what's right and wrong, unlike you. You shouldn't hit girls, 'specially not Mommy - you shouldn't hit her like you do and I'm… I'm glad you're leaving. I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
"Why you little punk…" James hissed, but Noah had already turned away, shuffling back into the living room with a tear dripping down his face. Rachel opened her arms and enveloped Noah in a wordless hug while he sobbed violently, just as James threw open the door and stormed out. The others knew that it'd be a long time before either Noah or Debbie got over the shock and hurt, but their families would be there right beside them helping and supporting them, cooking them meals or even just being there to keep them company.
"Goodbye, Daddy," Noah whispered hoarsely. "I'll miss you."
Over the years they'd play together in the park, with their soccer ball. But when it was time for high school four of the boys headed off to a private boys school nearby, whereas Rachel and Noah went to one of the public schools in the area.
Noah couldn't afford the private school the other four were going too, and Rachel, despite her daddies' money, decided she wanted to be with Noah if she couldn't go to school with her other friends. Both headed to William McKinely.