Quinn Fabray HATED those Gold Stars, really hated them. It was as if Rachel did it just to spite her—just to provide a constant reminder of what she had lost.
Quinn and Rachel became best friends the day Quinn moved to Lima. Quinn was eager to make friends and Rachel was willing to let her.
The friendship continued through elementary school with the addition of Santana and Brittany. Although Santana didn't like to admit it, the four were almost inseparable. Things shook up in seventh grade, unfortunately. Quinn, Santana, and Brittany wanted to be popular in High School and Brittany had figured out the way; they would join the Cheerio's.
"Well, I'm good at dance and Santana is really strong and you're a great leader," she said.
"What about Rachel?"
"We can help her so she's good enough to make the squad!"
"Ok, let's go check out their practice after school tomorrow."
The four of them made their way to the football field the next day and took a seat on the bleachers. For the next two hours no one said a word, concentrating too much on the near-flawless routines and Coach Sylvester's remarks ("You think this is hard, try watching you pathetic failures, that's hard!").
"Wow, that was intense," Brittany said when it was all over.
"Yeah, we're going to need to practice a lot," Santana suggested.
"My sister used to cheer, I'll call her and see if she has any tips for us and Berry can get some books from the library and write a compendium on it," Quinn teased.
When Rachel didn't respond, the group turned to face her. Rachel sat, motionless, for a moment before answering.
"I'm not doing this."
"What?"
"I am nowhere near coordinated for this, no matter how graceful I may be and how many dance competitions I may have won. Coach Sylvester does not have an encouraging mantra at all and I for one will not let myself be verbally abused in a setting where I should be free to learn and grow. Furthermore—"
"The only way to not be verbally abused is to be popular. The only way to be popular is to be on the Cheerio's," Santana retorted.
"I'm sure we could find an equally-cool activity to participate in, perhaps Glee or Softball."
"Sorry, Rach, the kids in glee get slushies THROWN on them and the softball team is practical anonymity," Quinn sympathized.
"Rachel, you have to do it! Otherwise Q, S, and I will be practicing like every day and won't have any time to hang out with you," Brittany pleaded.
"And if you decide to be a complete loser, we might not be able to be friends with you at all," Santana added.
"Well, I'm not doing it," Rachel replied with resolve.
"Fine," Santana huffed, "we're out. Let's go, Brittany."
And with that, Santana and Brittany walked down the bleachers as Quinn waved good bye to them. When she turned to face Rachel, the girl launched into a full-on rant.
"Are you really going to do this, Quinn? I thought you were the leader but you're letting peer pressure push you around. You don't need to be popular, you really don't."
"Look, we can still hang out and stuff. I just really want to have a good high school experience and this is going to be part of it."
"We'll hang out once you've come back to your senses," Rachel said before executing a complete diva storm-out.
Quinn made her way to the school and wandered the halls before finding Coach Sylvester's office. She confidently strutted in, not even glancing around the room as she sat down and stared the coach in the eye.
"I'm Quinn Fabray, I'm in seventh grade, and I'd like to come to your cheerleading practices," she said with no show of emotion.
Sue was slightly taken aback by the confidence in the girl and simply replied, "And why would I let you do that?"
"Because, you would have one guaranteed good athlete for four years and you wouldn't have to spend as much time shifting from year-to-year as you'd have someone capable of being captain."
"What makes you think you have the ability to become the captain of the Cheerio's? Training for my second-in-commands includes an hour of practice outside of regular practice."
"Then I'll start showing up for it on Monday," Quinn replied before leaving.
And she did. It was brutal but Sue respected her, sometimes even praised her. Sue was like an addiction—the praise was better than any high and the criticism worse than any craving she could dream up. With three hours of practice every day and showing Brittany and Santana some steps afterwards, she hardly even had time to think about Rachel. By the end of eighth grade, Quinn could do perfect toe-touches in her sleep. Sue rewarded her by making her the captain as a freshman, an unprecedented accomplishment in McKinley history.
She ran the school now and that came with certain responsibilities. So when she saw that little gold star that made her want to give up those responsibilities she called Rachel names, convinced boys to throw slushies at her, and did whatever she could to break the girl's resolve. But Quinn knew more than anyone that Rachel had the drive to overcome anything so the star stayed. Quinn could almost deal with it until she saw the little star on Glee's new sign-up sheet after Sue told her she would be infiltrating the club, which only brought up all the repressed emotions she had in the last two years.
