A/N: This chapter is Rachel's POV from the age of fifteen, the next one will be Finn's at the same point in time!

Disclaimer: See last chapters.

Never Alone

Chapter Seven

Rachel moved to sit in her usual place under the tree, pulling out a book as she bit down on her lip and looked around. High school had been harder than she ever thought it would be, and at fifteen years old, she was struggling to actually find some sort of identity. Finn had found his quickly, and easily, and just as he had found that, he forgot about her. The thought broke her heart, as she searched the school grounds for him, spotting him throwing some kid in a dumpster, his football uniform standing out as he high fived his best friends; who just happened to be the very people who used to bully the two of them just years previously. Now, a sophomore in high school, she had just gotten used to the loneliness. People thought she was weird, never really understanding why sometimes, she had to leave school to go to appointments, or why she mostly kept to herself. She had tried to make friends, she had tried to fit in with the crowd but it had been too difficult – she had lost too much time when she wasn't in school, and because her only friend had been Finn, she had no one to move up to high school with when the time came.

They had lasted an entire week into high school, before Finn came up to her, his friends pushing him along as they laughed and smirked, their laughter only getting louder when she had burst into tears and run off. He wanted to move on from her, she was holding him back, he needed to do things by himself and she would just have to wait until he was ready to be with her. She didn't wait, though, she didn't hold her breath as she just watched him date cheerleaders, and score goals, and bully the kids with less popularity than he. And she would never forget the day he threw a slushy in her face, his undeniable smirk but a sense of sadness in his eyes that she could only try and push back. It broke her heart to know how little he thought of her now, how she was nothing to him. The years of friendship were gone, and after almost two years in high school now, she knew it would never come back.

She ran her fingers through her long hair, a faint trace of a smile on her face as she sighed and leaned back against the tree. She still treasured the memories she had shared with the person who used to be her best friend, but now, at the same time, it all broke her heart to think about what they had, and what they could have. It was gone, he had forgotten about it and she knew she had to at least try and move on from him. Her parents, and Carole had long since stopped speaking, another thing that broke her heart because the two families had been so close, another thing damaged by high school, she guessed. It was just something that happened, her dads had told her as Shelby held her when she cried.

At the beginning of sophomore year, cancer cells had been found on one of her appointments, and she found herself wondering if it would ever be over. If her body would just keep creating something that would end up killing her, and she would have no choice but to let it happen, instead of fighting it all the time. Luckily, it was over as quickly as it came about, but at the same time, when Finn heard the news, she had hoped it would have been enough to make him come check on her. It hadn't been, and the next day when she got back from a few weeks out of school to recover, she was met with a slushy in her face from his girlfriend. He didn't even look her way, or ask her if she was okay and she knew right then that popularity would always come first.

She took a deep breath, frowning when a shadow blocked her view of the book before she looked up and gave the person in front of her a small smile. She liked Mr Schue; he was the Spanish teacher, and now the director for the New Directions, and as much as she had wanted to join so she could sing again, she had refrained from doing so. She hadn't wanted to hold back a group of talented people, in case she got sick again. "Hello, Mr Schuester." She slowly came to a stand, tucking her book away in her bag, trying to remember if she had forgotten anything for his Spanish class – no, she had done her homework, she was sure of it.

The curly haired man just grinned at the girl before he motioned for her to walk with him, "I want you to join Glee club." He finally said, giving her a small smile when she shook her head, "I know you're nervous about it, I know you have told me a million times over that you don't want to, and I know why but… I really think it will be good for you." He had seen her get slushied, he had heard the names she was called, he had seen her sitting on her own ever since she got to the school and he knew the New Directions would be somewhere she finally felt as though she belonged. It was just a case of getting the shy, loner girl to actually want to be a part of the club that he thought would be fantastic for her.

The brunette was really tired of telling him no, over and over again as she just sighed and shook her head, "I don't know, I mean… you all have a group dynamic already, and I don't want to get in the way of that." She was in classes with some of the Glee kids, and she knew there wasn't too many of them – Mercedes, Kurt, Tina, Mike and Artie made up the Glee club that had been running for about half the school year, already, and she wasn't even sure how to blend into that. But, the dismissal of her words from the teacher only made her want to run away as he put a hand on her shoulder, stopping them both in their tracks, "Can you please give it a try? You could make friends, and have fun and it's always worth a try, right?" She had to admit that he made a point, as she slowly bit down on her lip and nodded her head, wishing she didn't regret the decision.

~ .. ~

The slushies came more regularly now, the laughing and the name calling as she walked down the hallway, instead of just being the invisible girl she had been since Freshman year. But, she didn't mind it because for the first time in her entire life, she had a group of friends. There weren't many of them, not enough to perform in a competition or anything like that, but they were happy in Glee club, the choir room was their home and she found herself smiling as she walked down the hallways of McKinley High. She had read somewhere, something about happiness playing a key part in a patient's recovery from cancer, and she honestly believed it now. She went to sleepovers, she actually left the house to hang out with people, it was the most amazing feeling since Finn had abandoned her in his need for popularity.

Rachel smiled at her best friend as she wiped the slushy from his eyes, wetting the towel she held in her hands as she moved onto the rest of his face. Kurt was truly a wonderful friend, they were both outcasts for something they couldn't help – she had been sick her entire life, leaving her left out of all the games, and making friends, and essential parts of school life and Kurt, he was gay. And in a small town like Lima, it was like being sick, and no one wanted to catch it. Both of them had been thrown onto the outskirts, and had found each other thanks to music. She was moving on with her life, moving on to a life without Finn.