Teenage Dirtbag

Her boyfriend's a dick
He brings a gun to school
And he'd simply kick
My ass if he knew the truth

Wheatus

WARNING: Some mentions of a suicide.

The paper he had in his hand was suddenly furiously snatched away the minute he met up with her. Rachel wasn't even reading it thoroughly, just letting her eyes sweep over it, catching bits and phrases here and there. She didn't need to read the whole thing. The title was enough to tell her everything about the article's contents and spin.

The Secret Life and Loves of Rachel Berry

by Jacob Ben Israel

What do you see when you glimpse the girl known as Rachel Barbra Berry? There's been much controversy thanks to the combination of her modest argyle sweaters and socks, matched with those scraps of fabric that can hardly claim to be skirts these days. Is she really the conservative type? You'd think that if you only looked at her flawless academics and club participation. However, much can be said about leanings towards her more deviant nature, and her short, short skirts are only the beginning...

Viciously, she shredded the paper in her hand.

"You know, I wasn't done reading that," Sam remarked dryly.

"This is the world's smallest violin, Sam," Rachel said, rubbing her thumb and pointer finger together in his direction, "You and I both know that, that trash, is posted online for all and sunder to see."

"Don't worry about it," he said reassuringly, letting his arm fall across her shoulders as they walked.

"How can I not?" She fumed. "I'm being publicly made out to be a heartless harlot who has been stringing Noah along while having another man on the side. I'm not even a Broadway star yet and already I am experiencing slander. Girls like Santana Lopez do many times worse and there's not a thing about them."

"So it's Noah now?' he asked, his expression innocent but she knew better, "Anyways, how often does this kid, Jacob, write this kind of stuff about you?"

"Weekly basis," she mumbled, "He even has a poll running on how long it will be before I give in and say yes to Noah. There's another on how long it will be before I instigate a fight with someone. Absolutely ridiculous if you ask me."

"Well, you remember our agreement don't you? No fighting."

"Self-defense is allowed, correct?"

"Yes," Sam replied, "So who is Finn Hudson? He was mentioned in that article too."

If it was possible, Rachel's mood got stormier.

"He's the new male lead for New Directions." She frowned. "Finn is attractive in a... well, dopey, unassuming sort of way. And his voice is excellent, if a bit rough, and I have high hopes for him. But that's it. I feel nothing for him beyond that. He may be nicer than the average jock, but..."

"But what?"

"He has a girlfriend. Who is a Cheerio. The way everyone seems see it, I'm still a horrible tramp whose trying to steal him away from his wonderful girlfriend. And it's nothing like that at all. And, I mean, it's not like he and I have anything in common, what with me being me and him being him and well, I know he'd never be interested in someone like me..."

"So you do like him."

"How could you possibly come to that conclusion?" He gave her a look and she wilted underneath it. "Am I really that transparent?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he laughed, shooting a smile down at her.

Sighing, Rachel closed her eyes and let her head fall against his chest.

"This sucks."

"That's high school for you. One more year, though, and I'll be done with the drama."

That managed to get a chuckle out of her.

"For you maybe. Don't forget, I still have about three more years worth of the drama."

"Buck up. You're an actress Rachel, drama is you're thing."

Any comeback she was planning was interrupted when she felt herself being yanked away from Sam. Her eyes flew open and she took in what was going on. Noah Puckerman had her wrist held tightly in his hand. Peering around Noah, Sam had his back against the wall looking as stunned as she did. She tried to look back up at Noah, but it was hard to see his face because he had her behind him as if he was making himself a physical barrier between her and Sam. Experimentally, she wiggled her arm to see if the grip on her wrist would come off. It didn't.

"Noah, if you could please unhand me, I'd truly appreciate it. I was on my way to class and you are delaying me."

"You and me Berry, we need to talk," Puck said, as if she hadn't spoken at all.

"Hey." Sam took a careful step forward, his hand out. "She told you to let her go."

"Stay out of this Sasquatch," Puck snarled, pointing at the taller male threateningly. He looked back at Rachel, "Seriously, we need to talk. In private." His eyes slid over Sam. "No civvies."

Her face went pale.

"Do you know what it is?" she asked fearfully.

"Berry!" Puck hissed, motioning at their confused third party.

"For the love of-" Rachel took a deep breath. "Sam knows about that, so anything you have to say, you can say it in front of him."

For a second, Puck seemed like he wouldn't, his expression mutinous as he glared at Sam then at her. Finally, he released her and took a step back so he could speak to both of them.

"It's probably a ghost," Puck guessed, sounding more than a bit reluctant, "The EMF meters hooked up in the computer lab were going haywire the last time I saw them when I went hunting for nerds to throw in dumpsters."

Both Sam and Rachel pulled faces at Puck's admittance of nerd abuse, but dismissed their distaste of his behavior to think over more pressing matters, like the ghost.

"Wait, this guy knows about hunting Rachel?" Sam asked, "I thought Brittany was the only one of your friends who knew."

"Well, Noah and I..." Rachel paused. "You remember how you got upset about me hunting on my own?"

"Yeah..." Sam answered, not liking where this was going.

"I sort of haven't been hunting alone. Noah comes and helps me out."

His face immediately grew angry. Rachel recognized it as one of what Dean had dubbed as Sam's "bitch faces." She sighed, knowing for the second time since Sam had arrived at McKinley, that she was totally in for it once they were alone. There wasn't much time to think on how screwed she was, because the three teens heard a scream coming from down the hall. In a second, they were all sprinting in the direction it had come from, Sam in the lead, Rachel a couple of steps behind him. Puck was at her side giving her a look that was asking her several questions at once. She tried to ignore it as she followed Sam, trying to convey to Puck that they were going to be deferring to Sam on this one. They finally arrived at origin of the noise which was an office. Its door flung open and inside it was a mess. Rachel had her hand ghosting over the place just under her skirt where she kept a knife strapped on her thigh and hidden at all times. Both of the males did something similar themselves, also armed and at the ready.

It was Miss Pillsbury's office.

"Miss Pillsbury!" Rachel yelled, stepping inside and pulling out her knife.

"Wh-who's there?" came a weak response.

Scanning the room, she caught a flash of red and movement just beyond the desk. She rushed over to find the counselor huddled between her desk and the wall, shaking uncontrollably. Her hair and clothes were out of order, and her eyes were wide and crazed with fear. In her hands was clutched a letter opener, now pointed at Rachel.

"Miss Pillsbury," Rachel said, quickly hiding the knife and holding her hands out to the woman and speaking in a soothing voice.

The woman flinched at the movement, but didn't lower the letter opener.

"Miss Pillsbury," the girl repeated, "It's me. Rachel Berry. You know me. I come in here many times a week to talk to you about why I keep getting detentions."

A nod. Moving very slowly, Rachel got down to the frightened woman's level.

"I need you to not point that at me." The woman's grip on her weapon only tightened. "You don't have to let go of it, you can keep it if it makes you feel safer. But you need to not point it at me. I'm here to help you Miss Pillsbury."

Finally, the redhead seemed to be calming down. She did as Rachel said and lowered the letter opener, though she kept it in her hands.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Rachel finally asked.

"You'll think I'm crazy," Miss Pillsbury said, her eyes falling down to look at the knife.

"Why?" Sam asked, speaking for the first time.

Spooked, Miss Pillsbury shot to her feet, back still to the wall. She stared at Sam for a while, then at Puck, barely recognizing either boy.

"It's okay," Rachel said, stepping forward and laying a cautious hand on the woman's shoulder. She would have put it on her arm or hand, but she was worried if she touched the woman's exposed skin, it would be the last straw for the jumpy counselor's frazzled nerves, "Sam and Noah are here to help as well. Now I need you to tell me, no matter how crazy you think it is, what happened."

The counselor took a shuddering breath, glanced at all three teens, and proceeded to tell them. Rachel felt her heart go out to Miss Pillsbury. It had been a ghost attack, not that Miss Pillsbury knew that yet. Even worse was that the ghost was someone Miss Pillsbury knew. An old student from McKinley High who had committed suicide. It had happened years ago, before Rachel herself had come to McKinley High. But Miss Pillsbury had been here. She'd been counseling the student, Alex Hanks, who had been going through a hard time with school. Things had been a lot like they were now, vicious school bullies, teachers who didn't care enough, and of course, there was Sue Sylvester, the ray of sunshine that she was. Alex, who had also been experiencing troubles at home, just got to a point where he could no longer deal. He'd killed himself on campus.

Obviously, considering the awful way he died, he'd finally progressed into becoming a vengeful spirit.

One that was now targeting Miss Pillsbury.

"And-And," Miss Pillsbury sobbed, "He came at me. Really fast, flashing in and out. Yelling and screaming, 'You didn't help me!' I don't know why, but when I grabbed the letter opener to defend myself and waved it at him, he vanished. He...He disappeared right in front of my eyes."

Then Miss Pillsbury dissolved into tears and hysteria once more.

It took them some time, but they managed to coax as much information out of her as they could about Alex. In particular, information on what had been done with his body after his death. It was a little troubling to find out that his parents had had him cremated. That made it difficult trying to figure out just what they needed to salt and burn to remove his spirit from this plane. Rachel had herself excused from school so she could accompany Miss Pillsbury home. Her reasoning to the Glee club was that the counselor was going through some family issues and needed someone to talk to. Mr. Shuester had offered to accompany her, but Rachel managed to convince him that it wouldn't be necessary. Both Sam and Puck knew that it was because someone needed to watch Miss Pillsbury. She was shaken and in danger of another attack. If she was at home and Rachel was there watching over her, she'd be safer.

Though he didn't show it, Sam was relieved because he knew Rachel would be safer off campus and away from the ghost.

Even if he was incredibly angry with her right now.

Before she'd left with Miss Pillsbury, they'd talked out the details of how the hunt. It was unfortunate that he couldn't call his dad and Dean in. At the moment, they had two hunts that had them on the other side of the state handling a ghoul and a chupacabra a state over after that. They'd be busy handling those two hunts for a couple weeks at least. After this attack on Miss Pillsbury, it wasn't safe to take any chances. Most of the students Alex had gone to school with, his tormentors, had already graduated. That meant there were less people they needed to worry about getting attacked. The down side was that there was plenty of staff was ripe for the picking. All three teens put their money on Miss Sylvester easily being the next victim of Alex. Though none of them were fond of the poisonous woman, they wouldn't let her get preyed upon by an angry ghost, no matter how much she'd deserved it. That was why while Rachel was taking care of the Miss Pillsbury, Sam would have to team up with Puck to take care of Alex tonight. It was an arrangement neither boy was very happy with.

That was how later that night, Sam found himself in the passenger seat of Puck's junked out pick-up truck, glaring at the dashboard and trying to ignore the driver of said vehicle. He already wanted to strangle the kid. He was like a younger, stupider version of Dean, with all of the swagger and obnoxious classic rock to boot. As badly as he wanted to reach over and turn it down, he held back. If the kid were anymore like Dean, Sam would either be sporting a black eye or simply ejected from the car. Most probably the latter, because obviously Puck liked him about as much, if not way less, than he did Puck.

"So what are we burning?" Puck drawled.

"Rachel said there's still a memorial to Alex somewhere in the school. She thinks that maybe there are some belongings of his set up there that are keeping him anchored to the school," Sam answered.

"Torch the kid's stuff, cool."

They sat in silence for the rest of the car ride. Puck pulled into the vacant school parking lot and the two of them made their way in. A quick perusal as they walked confirmed that there was no one on campus, not even the janitors. Once they located the building Rachel had indicated the memorial was located in, they stopped and looked at each other.

"So..."

"Want me to kick the door in? Cause I can totally do that."

Sam gave Puck an incredulous look before tossing his flashlight to the other male and pulling his lock picking kit out from the back pocket of his jeans and starting in on the lock on the door.

"Dude, you know how to pick locks?" Puck asked, not able to keep a trace of awe out of his voice.

"Yeah," Sam replied, "It's something I picked up from my dad."

"You mean your old man taught you how to pick locks? That's kind of cool in a fucked up way."

"It's unfortunately a necessary skill to have to be a good hunter," Sam said, feeling the need to defend his dad to this stranger even if he himself didn't like the fact his dad had taught him it.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

With one last wiggle of the lock pick, there was a clicking sound signalling he'd done it. He pulled it out, tucked it away, and pulled the door open, gesturing for Puck to head in first with a little flourish. The boy seemed to be caught somewhere between admiration and annoyance towards his taller companion. Giving Sam his flashlight back, he trudged in, stalking huffily several feet ahead. Sam followed at a more sedate pace, though he made sure he was close to Puck at all times in case the ghost realized the threat they posed to it and went after them. When they reached the glass cabinet that held Alex's memorial shrine, they took a look at what was there. There was a nice bronze plaque with the boy's name inscribed on it. There was a picture of Alex, a kind of lanky, weak looking kid with a kind, if timid, smile. Some of the items gathered around the plaque included a pair of goggles, some beakers, and a pair of gloves. A Chemistry geek by the looks of it.

"Ugh," Puck mock retched beside him, "A geek. Now that's why he got picked on."

With irritation born half out of reaction to the boy's insensitivity, half from anger at himself for thinking exactly the same thing Puck had said, Sam elbowed Puck in the side. He received a dirty look in turn for it. Puck opened his mouth as if to say something, or swear, when he was thrown into the wall by an invisible force. A second later, the spirit materialized between where Sam stood and Puck had crumpled to the ground. It was Alex. Blood dripped from the apparitions wrists, where they'd been slit when he'd done himself in. Before it could do anything more, Sam had a gun pulled out from the duffel he'd had slung on his shoulder and unloaded a salt round into the thing. It disappeared. Satisfied they were out of danger for at least the next thirty seconds, he handed the gun to Puck and took another out for himself.

"Cover me," he ordered and turned to the glass.

There was no time to try and mess with the lock on the cabinet. Sam lifted the gun and drove it as hard as he could into the glass. It shattered on impact. He grabbed the goggles, the beaker, and the gloves. The sound of gunshots behind him urged him to move faster. Dumping them in a trashcan nearby, he riffled in his bag and pulled out the salt, lighter fluid and matches out. In less than a minute, the contents of the trashcan were set ablaze. He turned to the sound of a fading scream and saw the ghost of Alex burn away. Puck was where he'd left him, breathing quick, heavy breaths, gun slack at his side. Neither needed to exchange any words to know that they needed to high tail it out of there the minute the fire alarms started going off.

The next morning, the school was abuzz with talk of the vandalism and arson that had occurred the night previously. A scathing article was written and posted online by lunch about how whoever had done the deed had fallen to a new low for McKinley, trashing the memorial of a kid who'd committed suicide. Only three students and one faculty member knew the truth. Rachel, Sam, and Puck had all been called into Miss Pillsbury's office at lunch to discuss what happened.

"Now, I'm not sure I fully believe you three when you tell me that you burned down that memorial to exorcise a vengeful spirit," the redhead said with a level, yet somehow accusatory tone of voice that caused both Rachel and Sam, who were good kids at heart, to cringe, "For all I know, you could have used my breakdown yesterday as an excuse to vandalize the school."

"Miss Pillsbury, please, let me-"

"Rachel, I'm not done talking," the counselor interrupted, pointing one silencing finger in Rachel's direction, "It all seems very crazy, ghosts, and hunting, and stuff. But I am willing to give you three the benefit of the doubt. If I reported you, all that would achieve is getting two of you expelled. I don't want to ruin your high school careers, not yours so early on Mr. Puckerman, or yours, Mr. Winchester, during your senior year." She sighed. "Somewhere deep down, I think I believe you. I think that A-Alex...really was there yesterday. Really did attack me. If ghosts are real, and you freed him from haunting McKinley, than I can't thank you enough for finally putting him to rest."

"You're welcome, and thank you Miss Pillsbury," Sam said earnestly.

"Yeah Miss P," Puck agreed, for the first time since coming into the room dropping his negative countenance. He'd been expecting her to nail them for it.

"You three can go now. If something like this ever happens again, I want the three of you to tell me about it. You're just kids. I know you might feel like you need to take care of these things on your own and that we adults won't understand, and most probably won't, but I want to know that if you need help, I'm here."

That said, they exited Miss Pillsbury's office.

"I've got to go," Rachel said the minute they were out, "The others are going to get concerned if they don't see me before lunch's end. I need to make up some sort of explanation as to why I missed most of the rest of school yesterday." She gave both boys a pointed glare. "I'm really proud of the two of you for not killing each other yesterday. Please don't decide today that you want to engage in fisticuffs while my back is turned. Do you hear me?"

Her expression was pleasant, but something in her eyes was decidedly false and sinister.

"Yes Rachel."

"Yes Berry."

"Good. See you later!"

She gave them a sunny smile and skipped off.

"Damn," Puck finally said, his eyes trailing after her as she departed, "She's fucking hot when she gets all subtly threatening like that."

Frowning, Sam smacked the back of Puck's mohawked head.

"Shit, just saying," Puck muttered with a scowl. He stared at Sam thoughtfully for a minute, "I really want to hate you Winchester."

"You don't?" Sam asked, honestly surprised.

"Well, you're kind of an uptight prick, a geek, and you're dating the girl I'm in love with. But I've gotta respect you as a kick ass hunter. You were awesome last night. Even I admit, I'm a badass, but you and Berry are like on some other level of badassery." Puck stopped and turned to face Sam, determined. "But I'm not going to give up on her. Just because I might consider us friends or something right now, doesn't mean I'm above using whatever methods I can to steal her from you. Got it?"

"Sure," Sam said with a chuckle.

"You just wait Winchester. You'll see."

Puck began to walk away.

"You know Puck, she and I aren't really together," Sam called out to him.

The mohawked boy threw an incredulous look over his shoulder at Sam.

"Who do think you're kidding, dude?"

AN: I wrote this chapter thinking about this song. I knew I wanted to do the Puck vs. Sam showdown, but this was the perfect song for it. Oh my golly gosh. So, for all of you expecting a fight between these two, nah sorry. I kind of like Mentor!Sam to Puck more. It might happen later, but I feel like with Puck being a mini Dean, I can't pass up the opportunity. Also, for anyone offended by the suicide I'm sorry. It's actually a little bit of an in memoriam for a favorite character of mine from this show called Roswell who was just killed off. The boy who died shares the same name as the character as well as the last name of the real life actor. I don't own him, he's the property of Katims.

Last Edited: 4-12-12