Chapter -4-
A/N: Glad you are all still with me, thanks for the reviews and alerts it means a lot. Please enjoy
Happy Halloween to those who partake,
By the time Rachel and Finn were in their sophomore year of high school, things between them had changed, oh they were still best friends, but as they grew their ideas about image and popularity changed. Finn was starting to mix with the popular kids and had joined the football team successfully gaining the position of quarterback, which gained him automatic entry to all the cool parties and respect of their peers at school, whereas Rachel had joined a couple of the less popular after school clubs like drama and choir, and was beginning to feel left out of her best friend's life. It didn't help that she was in the advanced classes at school while Finn was just in the regular ones, they were finding the time they could spend together was becoming less and less, plus the crowd Finn was now part of had some new threats to the 'Finchel' friendship.
They came up with the name Finchel (a combination of Fin -n and Ra- chel) one day in the summer, when they were just hanging out by the pool in the Berry backyard and both loved it, Finn said it sound like a yummy snack, which made Rachel break into a fit of the giggles and ask him "if he ever thought about anything else but filling his belly", his answer was to suddenly lunge at her grabbing her around her waist and tickling her till she begged him to stop.
He said "well if you would grow a bit more like me you would need to eat all the time too" when he let up, they ended up with Finn laying on top of her, their bodies pressed together and electric currents shooting through their bare skin where it touched. The second their eyes connected something inside them was asking a question that neither fully understood nor knew the answer to but really wanted to find out.
Rachel impulsively breathed out "You know you can kiss me if you want to."
Finn in response and with no hesitation at all whispered "I want to."
The minute their lips connected in the softest most pure kiss either had ever dreamt of something inside Finn's chest flipped over and he felt strange, but real happy as well. He couldn't explain it. He also felt a stirring in his swim shorts. Rachel was feeling as though she was floating and had an inkling of what was happening to Finn, but was loathe stop, thrilling inside that she could do this to him. Instead she brought her hands up and ran her tiny fingers through Finn's hair playing a little with the tuft at the back of his head that never laid flat no matter what he did to it, murmuring his name against his lips. She was shocked then, when Finn suddenly jumped up pressed his hands over his groin, and ran indoors, saying he wasn't feeling well and was going to go home. She tried calling and sending him text messages all afternoon and evening but got no answer. She was worried that she had been to forward and had scared him away.
The new obstacles were in the shape of a blonde with bright green eyes named Quinn Fabray, portraying to a tee the good chaste Christian girl, who seemed to be too good to be true. But from the first time they spoke Rachel knew deep down that this girl would make trouble for her. Rachel wasn't sure where she stood with Finn sometimes, as he often made excuses for not eating with her at lunch on the couple of days they had the same lunch time, or waiting for her after school to walk home together like they had been doing since 5th grade, saying that his coach wanted the team to practice more and didn't talk to her much at school either.
When they did spend time together at school he was always in the company of Noah Puckerman, who apparently refused to answer to anything other than 'Puck' nowadays, he had grown to be a tough bad ass. Long gone was the little boy who had cried for his momma on the first day of school. He had shaved his hair into a mo-hawk and began wearing sleeveless t- shirts and leather jackets and showed the other kids he was not to be messed with. He was also on the football team and as such spent a lot of time in the gym and weight room the end result was a well toned upper body with emphasis on his arms which he flexed at every occasion to show off 'his guns'. If anyone was either brave or silly enough to answer back to him or try to stand up to him. They were immediately thrown into a dumpster or had their head shoved into a toilet bowl, and 95% of the time it was not always a clean one.
More often than not he was accompanied by, the tight and extremely short, red and white cheerleader uniform clad (I'm better than the rest of you so get out of my way losers) Quinn Fabray. Who spent her time without Finn noticing, sending Rachel mean looks and hanging all over Puckerman, a sly look on her flawless alabaster face while flirting with Finn. He had, had another growth spurt, reaching an impressive 6'3in, along with his height his body had filled out and with all the training for football had become very solid and well built (can she say sexy?) It was no surprise to Rachel though, as she had known it all along but he was turning out to be incredibly handsome with his cute side smile that showed his dimples off beautifully, his soft brown eyes and even the sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose, and the couple of random birth marks on his left cheek (that Rachel wanted to play connect-n- kiss the dots). He was now very much taller than Rachel who hadn't really grown much at all. But anytime Rachel found herself alone with Quinn the entire time blonde kept asking about Finn, things like.
"Does he talk about me? I've seen him watching me you know hobbit, I think Finn and I would make a great couple we are both very attractive popular people, and you and I both know Manhands that image is the most important thing in high school and with Finn Hudson as MY boyfriend I will be the most popular girl in school and it would guarantee me the junior prom queen crown next year, so you are wasting your time chasing him he is so much better than you. You and your toddler clothes and freaky music clubs will only bring him down."
Rachel was astounded at the words leaving the other girls mouth "Look here Quinn Finn and I have been best friends since the first grade, so don't think you can just come prancing in here and take him away from me, and why do you feel it necessary to call me such mean names I've never done anything to you?"
"Because treasure trail, we both know I am going to be the most popular girl in school, and being a cheerleader, means Finn will need a beautiful girl on his arm to show the rest of you theatre and music geek, losers at this school who will be running the place, now do us all a favour and go away, because all you are doing by hanging around Finn's feet like a sad pathetic dwarf is bringing down his rep and embarrassing your midget self but then again I suppose even negative attention is more than you are used to."
And with that she spins on her designer white tennis shoe heel and saunters off, her tiny cheerleader skirt bouncing against her butt, her perfectly styled pony tail swinging from side to side. Leaving Rachel in tears, she is shaking because deep down she knows the hateful words the blonde spoke are at least partly true, but knows her and Finn share something deep and true and it just doesn't go away that easily. Rachel didn't realise how much time had past so when she hears her name being called she panics, scrubbing her palms over her cheeks to wipe the tears, her head bent searching in her bag for a tissue to blow her nose with.
"Rach what are you doing? I've been looking for you everywhere I thought we were going to go bowling and if we don't hurry we will miss the best lane and some other person with nab your favourite pink ball."
As soon as he stops in front of her and hears her hicuppy breaths, he immediately becomes concerned and cups her chin with one large hand and lifts her face, he sees the tears clinging to her long dark eyelashes and her big beautiful brown eyes red and threatening to expel more tears.
"Rach what happened? Did someone hurt you? Please tell me so I know who to punch."
"I'm fine Finn, but I'm sorry I don't feel much like bowling tonight I think I'll just go home and have an early night, but don't let me stop you, maybe you should take one of your new best friends, someone that won't hurt your reputation. I'll see you on Monday maybe, bye Finn." and with that she turns around and runs away down the hallway and out the big red door.
Poor Finn is speechless, not sure what is going on with his best friend, so he sighs and slumps his shoulders shuffling down the hallway in the same direction as Rachel and out of the school building to wait for the bus, he looks all around for the tiny brunette that makes him feel all sorts of weird, not weird like scary bad weird, but good, happy, tingly, exciting weird but doesn't see her, so the ride home is a lonely one. Once he gets home he decides that he isn't really feeling bowling anymore either, so just goes to his room dumps his bag and kicks off his sneakers, and thinks some music might help him straighten his mind which has been all over the place since he and Rachel shared that amazing kiss and he got over excited and he raced off like a freakin' idiot leaving her with her face in her hands and her shoulders shaking like she was crying. He had never felt like that before but once he thought about it later he realised what the feelings meant, but wasn't sure how to tell Rach that he was having grown up feelings for her. Plus he didn't want to do anything that would spoil what they had at the moment; they were only 15 and 16 afterall. He decided to give her sometime to calm down over the weekend and would talk to her at school on Monday.
When Finn's brand new dark red cell phone, beeps with a new message notification, later that night he jumps up off his bed and grabs it off his desk. Hoping it is Rach, but he is disappointed to see it wasn't, he didn't recognise the number but opened it out of curiosity and read the message
'Hi Finn, I'm free and was thinking u could take me 2 the movies Saturday nite
and we can spend time 2gether afta if you know what I mean ;)
We would b gr8 2gether, 2 popular good looking people
We can rule the school
Ttyl Quinn xxx
Finn isn't sure how Quinn got his number but he is 100% certain he doesn't want to take her to the movies now or ever, or have anything to do with her apart from friendship. Because firstly, he was starting to figure out the feelings he was having for his best girl Rach, and secondly if he were to go out with another girl it would upset Rach. He doesn't want to do that because he knows that the two of them share something very special and deep, and even though they are only high school sophomores, he can't ever see himself wanting another girl, the way he thinks about his tiny beautiful, brunette princess.
He asked his mom one day what she thought these weird feelings he got when ever Rach was around meant, and she told him it was his heart figuring out that Rachel was his soul mate, and sometimes even at a young age when you meet the right one you just know. It's like it was planned out by a higher being or written in the stars, and not everyone is lucky enough to find their match so early in life.
He takes a few minutes to think of a nice way to let the blonde down, without sounding like a jerk, but then she seemed to just assume he would just do what she asked, and get together with her, anyway he hasn't enough money, to spend on anyone that is Rach. So in answer he composes a simple message.
Sorry quinn can't do movies with u sat or anytime, and anyway I'm interested in someone else.
Finn Hudson
Finn reads the message again before pressing send but before he turns off his bed lamp and settles down for the night, decides to send Rach a message just to check that she is ok, he has no trouble thinking about what he wants to say as his fingers fly over the key pad.
Hey Rach, are you ok?
If I've done something to upset you I'm real sorry,
But I don't understand what you meant by other people being better for my rep than you.
I want to spend time with you and don't care what other people think.
You are my best girl always
Please talk to me it makes me sad when you are :(
3 you always, your finny xxxx
As the two message fly through cyber space, they are received with two completely different reactions.
In the pale blue expensively decorated bedroom on Dudley road, Quinn Fabray's green eyes narrow in anger as she reads the 19 words on the screen of her top of the range cell. Mumbling to herself,
"How dare that boy to turn me down, especially for that freaky ugly midget loser Manhands, well Finn Hudson you haven't heard the last of me I have decided that you are the only boy at this damn school who can get me the prom crowns in the next two years ' and keep my status as the most popular girl. And if I have to be a bitch and tread on the losers then that's what I will do, especially the likes of that loser, freakenberry"
"So watch out hobbit, I am Quinn Fabray and I always get what I want!"
Meanwhile in her pretty soft lemon room on Wildwood Avenue, Rachel Berry was just finishing up her nightly routine of bathing and moisturising, when her sparkly pink cell let her know via a tune from Funny girl (my man) that she had received a new text message, immediately recognising it as the ring tone for Finn. She jumps away from her dressing table and flips open the phone, tears springing from her big brown eyes as she reads. As she hugs the phone to her chest the feelings she has been having for her tall handsome best friend suddenly make themselves perfectly obvious and she realises that her friendship has turned to love, and somehow knows he feels the same but also that his rep and need to be liked and popular might get in the way of them doing any thing about their feelings. Once she has calmed down and wiped her tears, she tries to focus on the little screen through blurry eyes to answer him. She finds it easier to put her thoughts into words at that moment than tell him to his face what she is feeling.
Hi Finn, I'm ok, thanks
You haven't done anything wrong, so please don't worry about it
I guess I'm being silly, I just miss our finchel time is all, we hardly ever spend any time together now you are in the 'cool' group,
I know those other kids don't like me hanging around with you, and I don't want to do anything to hurt your rep or mess up your chances with the football team
But remember I'll always be here for you even if you don't want me.
Just remember the promise we made in 6th grade.
I love you Finn, you are my person
Your Rach xxxx
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Straightening his neck and back from where he was bent over his soulascope, Percy is now angrily pacing his office glaring at Ruben, who shrugs unsympathetically at the livid tone of his mentor, " I stand by my choices Percy and if they are as perfect for each other as you seem to think they are … then eventually they will get together won't they? I personally think you are getting too involved in this assignment, maybe it's time you took a holiday?"
Percy just stars aghast at Ruben words, shakes his head and takes a deep breath
"Do you see what you have set in motion Ruben; can you now understand what has happened to those two kids? They are destined to be part of something very special but now because you wanted to show off in front of the boss and big note yourself... If they are forced to be apart while selfish, untruthful and totally wrong people get in the way… Percy is so angry he can't even string his sentences together properly. This is why Ruben we have to be very careful with the matching of soul mates. You had better hope that they can find their way and work out this problem, because I swear on the north star if what you have done stops them figuring out they are destined to be true soul mates, I will have you punished so severely that you will not know what day of the millennium it is, now get out of my sight!"
A/N: Oh no is there going to be trouble for our Finn and Rachel…? Or will they show them all that NO-ONE messes with our Finchel!
Please let me know your thoughts. I just hope the scenes I have in my head for this story, translate well into words that you guys will want to keep reading.
Thanks for all the continued support.