Thanks to anyone that left a review.
I don't own anything besides the idea.
All mistakes are mine.
Rachel picked up the remaining of her books and stood up to face the cheerleader.
The taller brunette just stared at the small singer.
"Santana?" Rachel asked tentatively. Still cautious the Latina after all of these years. "Are you okay?"
"Holy shit..." She mumbled to herself. She took in the small girls' appearance. Rachel was wearing black skinny jeans, a white V-neck, and grey suspenders hanging loosely from her jeans. Nothing like the sweaters and skirts she used to wear. Her face was a lot more defined and she had grown a couple of inches. She was still short, but she did grow a little.
"Santana is there a reason you're looking at me like that? I mean I know I havent seen you in a-"
Smack!
Rachel's cheek stung with pain. Before she could sooth the pain in her cheek, Santana had her arms wrapped around Rachel.
"I'm sorry" She heard Santana whisper.
To say Rachel was shocked would be an understatement. Three years ago, Santana would never have apologized to Rachel about anything. Rachel being the person that she is, comforted her freshman tormentor.
"It's okay. I think I kinda deserved that." Rachel told her truthfully.
"What class do you have right now?" Santana asked pulling away from Rachel.
"Uh AP Chemistry I think"
"Skip it, we have a lot to talk about."
"Wont you get in trouble by coach Sylvester?"
Santana shrugged. "Nothing I can't handle. C'mon"
Rachel followed the Latina to the auditorium doors. She laughed at the face Santana pulled when she realized the doors were locked. "Usually the doors are unlocked." She muttered to herself.
Rachel stepped up and looked at the cheerleader. "Don't freak out ok?"
"Why would I freak out?" Rachel lifted her shirt up a little revealing part of her toned stomach and grabbed the switchblade that was clipped to her jeans. Santana's eyes widened when she saw the blade flick up. "What the fuck Berry? Why do you have a fucking-" Rachel quickly covered her mouth to stop Santana from speaking.
"Will you keep your voice down. I have it for protection purposes only...And breaking into places but that's besides the point. My father's didn't want me coming here by myself without some type of protection. A gun would be too extreme so they let me have this." Rachel explained.
The latina nodded and Rachel released her. "Wait, you came here by yourself?" She asked when her mouth was released.
"I'll explain it later." Rachel said as she put the blade into the key hole of the door and kicked it in a specific spot. Rachel held the door opened for a shocked Santana.
"Okay, now how did you do that?"
"Just something I picked up from Noah." Rachel said shrugging.
Both girls walked into the auditorium and onto the stage. Santana waited patiently as Rachel looked around their surroundings.
"I missed this." The singer said.
They both seated themselves on the floor with their legs hanging off the edge of the stage.
"Why did you leave?" Santana asked after a couple of minutes of silence.
"My fathers thought they would be protecting me if we moved." Rachel said.
"Because of the slushies?"
"The slushies, the name-calling, the pranks." Rachel said "But now I get why you did all of that. I was annoying."
"No Rachel." Santana interrupted. "We shouldn't have done what we did just because you we annoying as hell. It was wrong and I was stupid for ever doing it. I just... I was so mad at everyone. Especially you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. The whole school knew you were gay but you still held your head up high. Through all of the bullying that they did to you. I wanted to take you down and make you feel scared. So you would know how it feels like to be scared of something. But you wouldn't budge." She took a deep break before continuing. "I'm sorry about all of that. I know you probably won't ever forgive me but I just want you to know that I have changed. If you could find it in your heart to give me another chance, I won't let you down."
"When did you turn into such a sap?" Rachel teased.
Santana playfully shoved the smaller girl. "Shut up. I'm still a bitch." They laughed before Rachel started talking.
"I forgive you." Santana smiled and tackled the girl into a hug.
Once they pulled back, Santana started firing away questions. "Why didn't you tell us you were leaving?"
Rachel knew she was talking about her, Brittany, and Quinn.
"I didn't think you guys would care. And plus, it was kind of a sudden thing. Apparently my birth mother was moving into town. My fathers didn't want me to have any contact with her so we moved. They didn't tell me that part until a few months ago." Rachel explained. "They only gave me a week and I only told the other glee kids. I didn't bother telling you, Brittany, or Quinn because you guys hated me."
"Brittany was sad you left. She said she wouldn't be able to see a dwarf around school anymore." Santana said with a chuckle. The look in her eyes showed admiration for the blonde she was thinking about. The Latina shook her head and focused on Rachel again.
"Is that why you came back? To try to find your birth mom?"
"Sort of" Rachel said getting comfortable on the stage floor. "The summer before my senior year, my fathers told me we moved to keep me from meeting my birth mother. I didn't really have an interest in meeting her. But when they gave me the option of moving back here for the school year, I jumped at the chance because I had lost touch with everyone. I wanted to see how everyone was doing. They couldn't come because they have much better jobs than the ones they had here in Lime, so they made a few calls and talked to some people. They settled everything with the school and now I'm here. This is my last chance to see everyone until we go our separate ways for college."
Rachel looked at Santana and saw the look in her eyes.
"What?" Rachel asked.
"That might be a little harder than you think." Santana said.
"Why?"
The taller girl took a deep breath. "When you left... how do I word this?... Everything got fucked up."
"Define 'fucked up'." Rachel demanded.
"The glee club no longer exists." There was silence. Then...
"WHAT? How did this happen?"
"Berry calm down." Rachel took some deep breaths before asking "What happened?"
"After you left, glee club wasn't the same. People kept getting into arguments, we lost competitions. I guess we all realized that we needed you around to win and keep us from killing each other. Anyway, High school is never complete without drama. And there was a lot of drama. It got to a point where Mr. Shue wasn't able to control anything. Everyday people would get into arguments about solo's and whatever. One day, one final event caused the club to fall apart. People quit so Mr. Shue canceled glee club. After that, everyone went their separate ways. No one really talks to each other anymore. Except Britt and Artie. But only cause they are dating." The last part caused the Latina to hold back tears.
"What happened with everyone?" Rachel couldn't help but ask,
"Finn and Puck got into a huge fight. It turned into an actual fist fight. They were the first ones to quit glee. They are still on the football team but their constant fighting causes them to lose all of the games. Mike buried himself in school work. Being Asian and all he's now the top student in our class. He's now past of the nerd crew.
Kurt transferred schools. He came out and was bullied more than her usually was so his parent made him transfer. Mercedes found a new group of friends to gossip with.
Tina and Artie broke up. Tina now focuses her attention in school and being goth. She hangs out with the few goth kids here at school. Brittany asked out Artie and he said yes. Gosh I was so stupid. I messed up everything with her"
"What happened between you guys? Last time I saw you guys you were-" Rachel stopped herself before she revealed that she say them kissing. "you were fine"
"Things were complicated between us. I didn't want to admit my feelings for her so we just kinda hooked up every once in a while. She was still my best friend, but last year she wanted things to become serious between us. I wasn't ready for that so I told her we couldn't. She got mad and told me to only talk to her when I was ready. But I was too late. I came out to my parents. They were fine with it. My abuela wasn't, she practically disowned me. I came to school and told her I loved her. I was too late because she had already moved on to Artie." A single tear escaped her eye but she quickly wiped it away.
The bell rang signaling the end of the period.
"I think we should go." Santana said getting up.
Once they stepped out of the doors, they heard a loud once booming through a megaphone.
"Stop right there Mini-Barbra!" Rachel spun around and watched as Sue Sylvester walked towards her in a blue tracksuit. "I have been waiting three years to finally be able to punish you."
"What does she need to be punished for?" Santana asked
"Well, my head Cheerio, Three years ago, this tiny girl threw a water balloon at my back the day before winter break. I started to chase her down but she escaped. I was going to punish her when we got back from break but she never came back. Until now."
"How do you know it was her?"
"Because she is the only who wears those hideous sweaters and skirts." Sue replied.
"It could have been any other student in this-"
"Santana it's fine. I did it." She said looking directly into Sue's eyes.
"Come to the field after school and wear your gym clothes. I'm going to make you go through the toughest cheerio workout I have created."
"Fine" Rachel said not backing down.
"What the hell Berry? Do you know what you got yourself into?"
"No, but don't worry, I can handle it." Rachel said confidently.
Just then, Rachel say a mohawked head in the crowd of students. She locked eyes with her friend from childhood. Before she could take a step towards him, he bolted.
Santana, oblivious to what just happened, turned to Rachel and asked what her next class was.
The rest of the morning flew by. The other students took a liking to Rachel. She was cool enough to talk to the guys, and the girls enjoyed her company. No one seemed to remember that she was the school loser in the past.
When lunch came she went back to the auditorium and played the piano for the entire period.
Rachel saw Puck a few more times. Whenever he saw her, he bolted.
Rachel was getting frustrated trying to track down the resident badass.
Not once did she see the blonde she really wanted to see.
"Santana, you never told me what happened to Quinn." Rachel said when they were at the singers locker.
"Rachel... Quinn had the biggest downfall out of all of us."
"What happened?"
"It's really not my place to say anything. All I can say is, she went through some rough shit. I tried to help her. I tried so hard to be there for her, but she just kept pushing people away. We got into a fight and she quit the cheerios. Now she hangs out with the Skanks."
"Skanks?"
"Yeah, they hang out under the bleachers and smoke and stuff."
"Stuff? Like drugs?"
"Maybe, like I said, Quinn has had it rough for a while now."
After school, Rachel walked to the field towards Coach Sylvester.
"Alright ladies, give me three warm up laps. Berry you get to do ten."
Rachel didn't try to argue, she ran the ten laps while searching for a certain football player. When Puck took off his helmet, Rachel memorized his jersey number so she could confront him later.
The workout was brutal. but Rachel made sure not to show how tired she truly was. At one point Sue made Rachel do 50 push-ups with Brittany sitting on her back. Brittany was supposed to keep count but kept messing up. Eventually She counted to 50 but Rachel was sure she did twice as much.
"Berry, two more laps then you can go."
When Rachel finished her laps the football players were still practicing. The tiny girl didn't care. She just walked up to Puck and forced him to look at her.
"Noah, What is your problem?" The other football players stood around watching the interaction.
"Rachel what do you want?"
"Why are you ignoring me?"
"I'm talking to you aren't I?" he asked harshly.
"I meant when I was gone. We used to talk every day. Then you stopped answering my calls and texts."
"I was busy."
"Bullshit. Tell me the truth."
"You want the truth?" he yelled.
"Yes tell me the truth. What caused you to cut me off of your life completely?"
"I slept with Quinn!" He yelled throwing his helmet on the ground. By now the Cheerios were watching as well.
Rachel stood motionless for a few moments before turning around and starting to wok away.
"So now you're running away from the truth. You confront me, but when I deliver a blow, you can't handle. That's exactly what made you the school loser in the first place. You're a coward." Puck yelled at Rachel's retreating back.
"Don't you dare talk to me like you know me! You have been out of my life for three years. You don't know shit about the things I have been through." Rachel yelled while turning around.
"You want to know what I did to Quinn when she was on my bed?" Puck asked
"What the hell happened to you?" Rachel asked not believing that the guy before her was once her best friend.
"I fucked her. I fucked her so hard, she was screaming my name when she came. I bet you never got any action while in New york. No one would want to hook up with a dyke like you. Especially one with faggot dads." Puck said.
Rachel saw red. She tackled the boy to the ground and swung her arm. Punching him in the face once before she was being pulled away from him by two football players. "Don't you dare bring my fathers into this Puckerman."
"You know, Quinn isn't the same anymore. Your little princess has turned to shit." Rachel managed to break free and tackled Puck to the ground once again. Hitting him in the jaw.
Once again she was being pulled off of him.
"Rachel stop it. You could get suspended." Rachel heard the familiar voice of Finn say to her.
"Wait till I get my hand on you. I'll go Lima Heights on your ass."
She turned and saw Brittany holding back a angry Santana.
"Alright enough!" Coach Sylvester yelled through her megaphone. "Berry go get cleaned off."
Rachel didn't leave though. She watched as Puck picked up a football from the ground and looked off at the distance. Rachel followed his line of sight and saw a girl with pink hair walking towards the parking lot.
"Let's see little miss 'fall-from-grace' fall on her face shall we?"
Rachel noticed two things in that moment. One, The girl with the pink hair was Quinn. And Two, Puck was aiming the ball to hit her.
Rachel managed to get out of the hands holding her back just as Puck threw the ball.
Rachel ran. Her legs were burning from the workout she just went through but she ignored the pain.
She kept her eye on the ball and sped up. She realized then that Puck might have tricked her into thinking it was Quinn. Whoever it was, she was going to make sure the ball didn't hit them.
The girl turned around when she heard footsteps running towards her.
Rachel jumped and caught the ball just in time. She fell to the ground and tried to catch her breath.
She could faintly hear cheering from the field where the football players and the Cheerios were.
She watched the clouds in the blue white sky for a while before it was being blocked. Rachel's eyes adjusted a little and looked up to see a beautiful face, framed by pink hair, looking down at her with worried eyes. Rachel's breath caught on her throat when she saw the hazel eyes.
"Are you okay?" The girl asked.
"I'm... I'm perfect Quinn."
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