The beginning of Puckleberry and the Mr Schue apology. It might take me a while to upload the next chapter (just a couple of days) as I haven't actually written it in my notebook yet so please bear with me. Your reviews are amazing, thank you Enjoy :)
Chapter 9
"You wanted to see me?" Rachel stepped into the auditorium where Noah was waiting for her.
"Yeah, uh please sit down." Noah was nervous, he'd only asked Rachel out once and they hadn't even lasted a week. "You remember when you told me that the school called us Puckleberry while we were dating?"
"Yeah. You said that it was a lame nickname."
"Well, what if I decided that I actually liked the idea and that I only said that cause you were with Jesse?"
"I'd be confused as to why you're saying this now and not then."
"What I'm trying to ask Rach, will you go out to dinner with me sometime?"
"Like a date?"
"Yeah, and before you ask I'm not asking you just to get you back to the New Directions. When you broke up it was because you had feelings for Finn and I had to focus on Quinn and the baby, even if she didn't want me to and no one knew that she was mine, I felt like I couldn't be with anyone else which is why I didn't fight for our relationship. Now I can be with whoever I want."
"And that's me?" Rachel pointed to herself. "But I'm not beautiful or popular or even sexy like Quinn and Santana, why would you want me?"
"Girls like them are a dime-a-dozen, you're one in a million, there's no other girl like you. You're perfect, your beautiful and sexy without even trying."
Rachel sat on his lap like the time she helped to clean his hair when he received his first slushy. "I'd love to go to dinner with you Noah." She linked her hands around the back of his neck and smiled.
He pulled her closer and she rested her head on his shoulders. "Have any of the others apologised yet?"
"Well…"
FLASHBACK
"Hey Rachel? Can we talk?" She turned to find Mike standing nervously at the table she was sitting at in the library.
"Sure Michael, have a seat." Mike sat nervously as she finished her sentence and put her pen down. "What's up?"
"I know that you and I have never really spoken because of our popularity differences but I just want to say how sorry I am for everything; ignoring you, not taking the chance to get to know you properly and for everything I put you through with the whole miscarriage thing." He began. "It's just you're so intimidating and yet so small, you have these big dreams and your whole life planned out the way you want it and the rest of us can't even decide what we're going to do for summer vacation. I envy that about you Rachel."
"I don't understand, how can you envy someone who's lower on the social food chain than you?"
"My father has my life planned out for me, everything. Who I'm going to marry, what college I go to, what hospital I'll work at. Everything. I think that's why when we were teasing you before you got kicked out, I never defended you, because I was jealous and I'm so sorry."
"Your father doesn't choose who you fall in love with or what career you want, you want to dance, not be a doctor. My daddy's father said that he had to become a lawyer in a big city, but after he met my dad he found that he wanted to become a financial advisor. My grandfather had no choice but to accept it or he'd lose his only son, your dad will have to do the same." Rachel told him. "I accept your apology Michael, I'd like to get to know you better."
"I'd like that too Rachel. Oh that reminds me, I got this for you." He held a small box. "Open it."
Inside was a silver chain with a star pendant and Chinese letters engraved.
"It spells your name." He explained.
"I love it thank you Michael." She reached over and gave him a hug before putting the necklace on.
END FLASHBACK
"And that's how it went. Matthew's was similar, but he gave me this vegan cookie he bought in the bakery. And Artie well he had a different way of apologising…"
FLASHBACK
"Uh Rachel, I don't have a lot of time right now, I'm late for detention and all but I'd like to give you this." Artie came up to her and handed her a disk.
"Thank you. I'm sorry you all got detention."
"Hey we deserved it, we treated you horribly after Quinn miscarried." He rebuffed. "Look I gotta go, Coach Sylvester is on detention duty today. I'll see you tomorrow." He rolled away.
Rachel looked down at the disk in her hands, she was intrigued so she went to the AV room to watch it.
"Hey Rachel, I know that I have all these phrases I copy from rappers and others but right now I don't have those, just me." Artie was sitting in the choir room. "Remember when you first joined Glee club, you were the last to audition and the rest of us had already kinda clicked as friends, well I took one look at you and made a horrible judgement; that you were a spoilt little rich girl with two dads and didn't understand what it was like to go through pain. After our first rehearsal, when we sang 'Rocking the Boat' I added another judgement, you wanted everything to go your way, you wanted all of the solos, didn't care about our input and threw a temper tantrum when you didn't get your own way." Rachel frowned, she really was that bad wasn't she? "Well I was only right about some of those judgements, especially after you were the only one not to complain about being in a wheelchair to see how life was like for me, you even raised the most money for me to come with you guys to Sectionals, I don't know what you or Puck put in your cookies and cupcakes but they were awesome, well I know what Puck put in his." They shared a laugh. "I want to apologise Rachel, for every judgement I made about you, I think the only one I actually got right was that you have two dads. I really want to apologise for the despicable behaviour I've been showing the last month, it was another judgement that I made, that you wanted Finn and was willing to ruin his relationship with Quinn to do it, he told us that it wasn't you who told him. I was wrong and I admit that whole-heartedly. This is for you Rachel." He pulled our his guitar and began strumming.
Will you listen to my story?It'll just be a minuteHow can I explain?What ever happened hereNever meant to hurt youHow could I cause you so much pain?When I say I'm sorryWill you believe me?Listen to my storySay you wont leave meWhen I say I'm sorryCan you forgive me?When I say I'll always be thereWill you believeWill you believe me?All the words that I come up withThey're like gasoline on flamesThere's no excuseNo explainationBelive meIf I could I'd undo what I did wrongI'd give away all that I ownWhen I say I'm sorryWill you believe me?Listen to my storySay you wont leave meWhen I say I'm sorryCan you forgive me?When I say I'll always be thereWill you believeWill you believe me?If I told youI've been cleaning my soulAnd if I promised youI'll regain controlWill you open your doorAnd let me in?Take me for who I amAnd not for who I've been?Who I've been...When I say I'm sorryWill you believe me?Listen to my storySay you wont leave meWhen I say I'm sorryCan you forgive me?When I say I'll always be thereWill you believe?When I say I'm sorry(When I say I'm sorry)When I say I'm sorry(When I say I'm sorry)When I say I'm sorryCan you forgive me?When I say I'll always be thereWill you believe?
"I thought that you didn't know pain but then I saw your pain every time we made fun of you in Glee club or shot down your ideas, I now see that you only wanted what was best for the club, you're the reason we won Sectionals not Finn showing up last minute. I'll understand if you never forgive me and I'll accept that, but please know that I mean every word of my apology. You're a star Rachel, you need to shine brightly and all we've been doing is bringing you down." The video feed cut off, Rachel had tears in her eyes, no one had ever sung a song like that for her, Noah sang Sweet Caroline and that was kind of their song now but no one else had done this for her. She had to find Artie and tell him that she forgives him.
'Shoot he's in detention. Hmm maybe I could get Coach Sylvester to give him a note.' She wrote a simple note. 'I forgive you Artie, thank you for the song it was lovely, you have an amazing voice and I hope you get to rap your way around the world someday.' She also put her cell phone number down, that meant that now her parents, Vocal Adrenaline, Noah, Santana, Brittany, Tina, Mike, Matt and now Artie had her new number. She ran to the detention room and knocked, Coach Sylvester gestured her to come in and she quietly whispered to give the note to Artie before leaving.
She watched in the little window as Coach Sylvester handed Artie the note and he read it, he smile grew when she saw him smile and look up mouthing 'thank you' to her before she left.
END FLASHBACK
"Wow, I never thought Artie would sing for you." Noah commented. "That's my job." He joked.
"Looks like you have competition Noah." Rachel smiled.
"So that just leaves Finn, Quinn, Kurt and Mercedes. Which I don't get because it was her idea to make things right with you through song but so far we haven't practiced anything."
"Maybe they're waiting until after Regionals?"
"But Quinn's suspended after Regionals, she won't be allowed on school grounds to do it and Mercedes was saying about doing it in front of the school."
"Well, neither of them have spoken to me since the video incident. Nor have they seeked me out."
"I hate to ask, but what about you coming back to the Glee club."
"I've though about it; I missed it so much when I got kicked out and all I want to do is come back, but with it being so close to Regionals and the end of the year I think it's best if I come back in September. Besides, if I come back you guys get another year whether you place or not, but no one else is supposed to know that." she smiled. "And that doesn't mean you can slack off in rehearsals either. Oh, and Coach Sylvester wants me to be a Cheerio next semester too."
"You'd be awesome as a Cheerio babe. Now I gotta go and plan our date."
"I need to get to Ms Pillsbury's office, Mr Schue wants to speak with me and I'm a little nervous so I asked if she could be near." Rachel got up. "Don't go overboard on the date planning Noah, you know me; I don't like big first dates."
"Don't worry I won't." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll walk with you to Ms Pillsbury's office, let me know how it goes ok?"
"Sure." She smiled as they left hand in hand, a natural feeling for them, Karofsky and Azimio saw them and nodded approvingly before going back to their conversation. "I'll see you later Noah."
"Eight o'clock ok for you?"
"Perfect." He walked away and she couldn't help but look at his backside before taking a deep breath and knocking on the guidance councillor's door where Ms Pillsbury was waiting with Mr Schue. "Sorry I'm a little late." She sat down next to Mr Schue.
"It's no problem Rachel, we were just discussing plans for summer vacation." Ms Pillsbury smiled. "Do you have any?"
"Well, I'll be going to LA with Jesse and my mom to help him get settled in for college so we'll be gone for about a week or so, then mom wants me to meet her family in New York, but most of the time I'll be spending time with my dads before they have to go on their business trips."
"Sounds wonderful." Ms Pillsbury beamed. "Now Rachel, to the matter at hand. Mr Schuester here has something that he wishes to discuss with you, now I'm going to be just outside so if you need me just call ok."
Rachel nodded as Ms Pillsbury got up and left. 'The last time Mr Schue wanted a word he kicked me out of the Glee club.' Rachel breathed. 'Stop it Rachel, things have changed now, everyone knows the truth. You did nothing wrong.'
There was silence for a few moments before Mr Schue cleared his throat.
"First of all Rachel I want to apologise; for always thinking the worst of you, for letting the others make fun of you in the team and never doing anything to stop them, then allowing them to continue after we kicked you out and even doing it myself. I never gave you a chance to talk that day."
"Thank you, I accept."
"I also want to apologise for saying that your Broadway dream is impossible; I was jealous because I had big dreams like that when I was in high school but I never had the drive to actually do it. I want to add that I should never have used you as a scape-goat for my problems with Terri and her lies, I let my personal feelings get in the way because I saw myself and Terri in Finn and Quinn and once Terri's lie came out I saw you as Terri; trying to ruin everything and that was wrong."
"I forgive you Mr Schue."
"And I understand if you don't want to come back to the New Directions but we would really like you to return to the family."
'He's really sorry, they all are, well maybe not Quinn, Kurt and Mercedes but the rest are really sincere, even though I have yet to get a proper apology out of Finn. Oh how I've missed Glee.' "Can I come back in September?"
"Of course, you don't even have to ask." He pulled her into a fatherly hug and she began to cry. "What's wrong?"
"I got you and the club into so much trouble and you're all apologising to me, I feel like it should be the other way around." She cried.
"No Rachel, we got ourselves in this trouble. If you hadn't spoken to Figgins I would've lost my job and my teaching licence and I'd deserve it. Don't blame yourself, no one else does."
'Quinn does, she's always glaring at me like she's planning something else.' Rachel mentally added.
Ms Pillsbury came back in, she had been watching the whole time and knew what Mr Schue wanted to say. "All done? Good. Now Rachel if you don't mind I'd like to talk to Mr Schuester a little more please."
"Sure." She got up and went to the door. 'They're totally dating. Whoa ease up there Berry, you're beginning to sound like Santana.' She left and closed the door behind her.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"So why haven't you two apologised yet?" Noah cornered Kurt and Mercedes as Kurt's locker. "You're the ones who said we needed to fix this."
"Actually you'll find that was Mike, Mercedes just agreed and said we should do it in song form, however there aren't many apology songs without messages of love in them." Kurt began. "And besides, we all know that as soon as every one apologises she'll come back and steal all of the solos again and all the spotlight, it'll be just like before. She was rude and obnoxious and petty when she didn't get her own way."
"She didn't have to publicly humiliate us in front of our parents that we treated her so badly for nothing. I'm grounded throughout the summer, that's all of my plans ruined now." Mercedes complained.
"Mine too. I've never seen my father so furious. He took away my magazine subscriptions and my interior decorating book." Kurt looked to Mercedes. "He's still getting used to the idea of me coming out openly."
"I don't believe this. You're blaming her for showing the truth to stop the bullying that you did in the first place?" 'These two need their heads examined.'
"You blamed her too, you were right there with us when we bullied her." Kurt argued.
"I never actually did anything though did I? I didn't stop it and I should've done but I didn't do anything to hurt her. You two need to do what's best for the team, we need Rachel because she's the best, she has more talent in her pinky finger than the two of you combined. She's never going to come back if you two can't pull your heads out of your asses and see that you're ruining our chances for next year." Noah stormed off.
"Hello Puck." Quinn greeted him as he turned the corner.
"Don't talk to me Fabray, I have nothing to say to you." He began to walk past her.
"Why? Worried that Rachel will see us together and run to Finn now that he's back on the market?" He stopped as she taunted him. "look I really need to talk to you."
"Not interested, good luck finding someone to help you now." He continued to walk away from her, he had a date to plan. 'Rachel would never do that, she told me last week that she's had no feelings for him for months, ever since we broke up.'
'Stupid Berry. Stupid Puck. I'll just have to deal with her myself, unless I can rely on Kurt and Mercedes.' Quinn glared after him before storming off to her next class.