AN:
I know I keep saying this but I want to thank you all for reading/reviewing/adding to alerts. A few of you have said you don't want this to be a pucklerry or Finchel fic. I ship both but its not where I want to take this fic, I want it to be purely about Rachel and friendships. What would people like to see in the sense of Rachel's living arrangements? It's something I can't decide what should happen. Any opinions? I'm open to them, seeing as it probably won't be decided for a while yet. Anyway here's the next part, hope you like it! I don't have a beat for this so if anyones up for the job it would be great!
It didn't take long for whole group to turn up at Quinn's house. Finn was the last to show up, he walked into the house with his hands tucked into his pockets. He headed over and went and sat down with Kurt.
"Mr Schuester's on his way, I figured he should be here too" Quinn told the group as she bought in a tray of drinks for her friends and handed them around.
"What actually happened? I mean no offence but you two aren't exactly bffs, why is she here?" Mercedes piped up as she leaned forward taking one of the drinks from the tray. Quinn sighed and looked to Santana.
"Long story short, I left my bag in the choir room, went to get it and found Berry all zoned out. I called Quinn because she's much better at dealing with these things than me" Santana said with a light shrug as she looked back to Quinn to finish the story.
"I didn't know what else to do so I bought her back here" Quinn said with a small sigh as she looked to the faces of her friends who seemed just as lost as she was. They were still kids, they shouldn't have to deal with half the issues they had been dealt. The sound of the doorbell ringing shook Quinn from her thoughts. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw Mr. Schuester standing there. The older man gave her a smile and lightly squeezed her shoulder before following her into the living room. As they entered the room, Will saw all of the glee club kids sitting around.
"Hey guys" he spoke as he glanced around not seeing the main reason for them all being there. "Where is she?" he asked as he looked round to Quinn who motioned up with her head.
"She's lying down, I checked on her half hour ago, she was out of it" Quinn told him as the pair went and sat down.
"Mr Schue, what happens to her now? I mean she doesn't have any other relatives does she?" Tina asked as she looked around the group, all clearly feeling guilty at not knowing the answer.
"Well she's 16, she could legally file for emancipation at this age so it's possible they'd let her live on her own if she doesn't it would mean foster care if she has no other relatives" he told the group with a sad expression. He didn't like either of those options for Rachel.
"There's always Shelby" Puck spoke up but the group remained silent, they all knew that she was probably the last person Rachel would want to live with.
"What about Shelby?"
The group all turned their heads to the door where they saw Rachel Berry standing. Rachel eyed them all individually as she continued to stand still, slightly leaning against the door frame. She saw Will start to get up and move over towards her. Stiffening her body slightly, she held her hands up in front of her.
"I'm fine" she quickly spoke as she wrapped her arms around herself almost as if she was protecting herself. Will continued to walk over to her and placed his hand on her arm.
"Rachel, Quinn told us what happened." He spoke but Rachel just stared at him blankly not saying anything. Her eyes wandered over to Finn who was sat there staring down to the floor.
"I need to go home" she suddenly quipped as she turned and headed towards the door but stopped when she heard Quinn yell her name.
"Rachel you can't go home" the blonde cried as she walked over to the tiny brunette and tried to pull on her arm.
"Why do you care? None of you even like me" Rachel spat as she shook her arm from Quinn's grip, her eyes once again looked at each of the group, she felt her anger rising up.
"Rach, that's not..." Mercedes started but was instantly cut off by Rachel.
"Don't you dare tell me that's not true! All the name calling...the looks...the laughing behind my back...I can't take it anymore! I can't be around people that don't accept me for who I am, like me for what I am and make me feel like a piece of crap on a daily basis. Fuck you all" she screamed, her eyes landed on Finn's who had finally decided to look at her. Rachel shook her head in anger and threw her arms up dramatically as she turned around and stormed towards the door.
"Fuck you all" she repeated again as she slammed the door shut behind her and began to run off down the street. The rest of the glee club sat around silently looking at each other. They knew she was grieving but what she had said was all true. They knew they constantly teased her but she never seemed to stick up for herself so they continued on with it, never once thinking about how it made her feel. Will turned around to look at the kids who were sat speechless at Rachel's outburst.
"We should probably split up and find her. It's going to get dark soon and there's a weather warning in place" he told them as he reached for his coat.
"She shouldn't be alone. It's her birthday today. She shouldn't be alone on her birthday" Brittany spoke sadly as she stood up and held her hand out to Artie. Quinn looked at her blonde friend before her eyes fell upon the calendar on the wall. She was right. December 18th. It was Berry's birthday. Quinn felt a tear fall down her face as she shook her head and judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, they had forgotten too.
"As if this day couldn't get any worse" she muttered, her heart breaking for Rachel. As Quinn stood, the rest of the group followed her out of the door as they headed off in separate directions to find Rachel.
