A/N Hi, it came to my attention that chapter 2 had not upload properly. So this is the definitive version of the chapter that should be readable. Thank you all for reading.

Rachel woke up the early the next day due to the throbbing sensation in her back, she opened her eyes slowly to see what time it was, upon seeing that it was almost 6:30, she decided to start her morning routine. Due to her many hobbies Rachel had to make sure she was on top of her health. She needed excellent cardio to extend her vocal range and she needed to be toned to finally be able to land her tumbling in gymnastics.

To say that not many people knew that Rachel was a gymnast was an understatement. Her father had enrolled her when she was 3 years old and she had fallen in love with the sport. It was structure as well as being utterly liberating. Other than when she was on stage, Rachel never quite felt as free as when she was in the gym practicing. Since there wasn't a gymnastic club in nowhere Lima, Ohio, her fathers had to drive all the way to Akron in order for her to do the sport. Hence why nobody knew that she did gymnastics for so many years. Parents in Lima were not so dedicated to drive their kid around to do gymnastics, so Rachel had never seen one of her classmate at the gym.

She quicky jumped on her elliptical to start on her cardio. After an intense 30 minutes, she went into the bathroom to get in the shower. She slowly peeled away the bandages on her back with as much care as she could since she had to bend her arm in a weird way in order to get a grab on the bandages. The mark left by the belt stinged a little, but she didn't pay them much attention before taking a quick cold shower. There had no point on dwelling on them, she had been there before and wallowing in self-pity did not make the healing process any faster.

After her shower she changed into one of the sweater her fathers insisted that she just looked so lovely in as well as a plaided skirt and tights because even though a lady should not wear jeans, it doesn't mean that she could show her bare legs. Even though it was still early , she ran downstair to have her breakfast before it was time to leave. The drive to school was quiet like most morning. Her father was not much of a talker and Rachel didn't mind. How was she supposed to have a conversation with the man when the giant elephant in the room wasn't allowed to be mentioned.

It happened once that Rachel had mention her punishments to an adult. It was her music teacher in first grade. She had noticed her lower back which sported a big red welts the size of her father's belt. She had asked Rachel where it came from and the little girl had casually mentioned that she was just punish sometimes because she wasn't always a nice girl at home. The teacher had reported the incident to the principal who took the liberty to talk to the Berry men. A week later, the school had a new music teacher, as well as a new principal, and a little Rachel walking around school still wearing the marks left from her punishment for talking. Ever since, Rachel had done everything in her power to make sure that it would never happen again.

The drive to school was quick and Rachel was walking in the hallways of her high school, still deep in her thought. So deep, in fact, that she did not noticed the three girls dress in cheerios uniform parting the hallways of William McKinley high like the red sea. Once she finally noticed them, it was too late, she had already collided with the kind and tall blonde cheerleader. She tried to apologized but it did not calm the rage she could see in the Latina's eyes, who was right beside the girl she had just pumped into. She tried to dodge the attack that came her way, but Rachel realized that she had been too slow once she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, pushing her backward. Santana pushed Rachel until the small brunette's back hit the rows of lockers. Rachel winced in pain, her sweater rubbing on her battered back painfully.

Then, Santana dipped her voiced so that the people around her would not hear what she was about to say: "You better never touch Brittany ever again do you understand?"

Before Rachel could answer to the threat she heard someone speak in her defense: "Santana leave her alone, you're hurting her", said Brittany

"That's exactly the point", Santana said while giving another hard shove.

"Santana! I told you to stop the violence!"

Brittany's demand must have went through the angry girl because her hold loosen a little bit.

Sensing that the situation could rise quickly out of control the cheerleading captain said: "Yeah S, you should stop. Britani is fine and man hands is totally not worth getting in trouble for.."

Santana agreed and slowly let go of Rachel before storming out in direction of her first class. Rachel was still propped against the locker, trying to regain her composure. Once she felt like she was ready, she quickly made her way to class because she didn't want to get in any trouble for being late.

The first part of her day went rather uneventfully but she still felt like Santana did not forget the interaction they had this morning. If the death glares she received all morning were not a good enough clue, the slushie she received square in her face upon entering the cafeteria to go grab her lunch certainly was. The cold froze her in place and she was stunned in this position for several minutes. Her brain was telling her to run to the bathroom to avoid further humiliation in front of her peers, but her body would not cooperate. After several minutes, she was finally able to open her eyes and the white noise that was ringing in her ears finally subsided to be replaced by the laughter of the entire student body. Before she could turn around to run, a hand wrapped around her wrists to drag her to the nearest bathroom. She only let herself turn around to see who had save her from this humiliation once she heard the door lock. She was not surprised to see the angry face of Noah Puckerman, his fists tightly clenched against his side, ready to avenge Rachel for the slushy she just received.

She meet Noah at the synagogue when she was 5 years old. It was a weekly occurrence for the Berry's to go every Sundays, but for the first time since they started going, Rachel noticed a young boy that looked around her age, following a small woman carrying a little baby girl. Later, Rachel learned that the boy's father had just passed the month before when his mother decided to turn back to religion and faith in the hope of finding peace for her family. Noah and Rachel became friends really quickly despite her fathers' disproval. The small family was living in Lima Heights which was not a place he wanted his daughter to interact with, but he quickly realized that his daughter had her mind set on befriending this little boy. The two families went to church and spent holidays together ever since. They grew up together. Noah was at Rachel bed side the time she had pneumonia and she was at his when he broke his arm. They were inseparable and even though they had grown apart since starting high school due to busy schedule they still considered each other like siblings.

"Who did this to you", said Noah with clenched teeth, "because I swear to God I am going to punch them square in the face"

"I won't tell you who did this Noah and I don't want you to get in trouble because of me. Instead could you do me a favor?"

"Yeah… Of course, anything"

"Can you go in my locker and bring me back my gym bag please?"

Noah did not even take the time to respond that he was out of the bathroom running to Rachel locker. Fortunately, they were in the bathroom near it so she didn't have to wait for long. Once she opened her bag, however, her blood ran cold. She dig around frantically and even empty her whole bag. She swear she had put extra close in it, but the only thing she found was a pair of short she didn't use in her last gym class. Noah saw the panic in her face and handed her his sweater before leaving the bathroom to let have her privacy while she changed. Rachel took a deep breath to calm her nerves. It wasn't a big deal it was only some clothes she must have forgotten to refill her bag last week. Once she was finally calm enough, she changed and cleaned herself up. The sweater was way too big for her petit shape, but it was very comfortable and smelled like Noah which calmed her some more. She felt protected in it.

She went to her last two classes and before she knew it she was on her way to her father's car. Sha was thinking about her English assignment when her thoughts were brutally interrupted.

"What are you wearing Rachel.", asked Hiram with fire in his eyes.

"I am just wearing my gym clothes, I-I spilled my lunch on myself during lunch break", even though she knew her father would not be happy about her lie she certainly did not want to explain to her father that, about everyone in school hated her and that the was bullied nearly every day. After all, his reputation was everything and she was about a hundred percent sure that he would not be happy to learn he had a loser daughter.

"Oh my God Rachel, why are you so stupid! Are you even trying to do anything right, because from my point of view, your father and I are giving you everything you could ever wish for and you don't seem really grateful for that. What are you trying to do? Making sure that you ruin everything that we built?"

Rachel wanted to apologize, but was not able too since her father kept going on and on about what a disappointment she was. To be honest though, she did not listened to a word of what the man said after he asked her why she kept ruining everything.

That evening, Hiram did not wait after diner to finally punish the girl. She had barely closed the door behind her that he grabbed her by the upper arm, and making his way toward the study. He didn't even let her take her sweaters off, doing it himself just like when she was younger. Her father then pinned her on the wall, face first, and unbuckled his belt. He hit until he couldn't anymore, too exhausted. This timed her hit her 24 times, for "spilling her lunch on herself", for wearing inappropriate clothing at school, for humiliating him in front of all his kids colleagues… He hit her for every mistakes she made and everything he could not control at work. Hitting her until the red he was seeing was not from the rage he was feeling, but form the blood that was running on his daughter's back.

The worst of it was, even when Rachel was crying, hungry from skipping lunch and dinner, and hurt form her punishment and her school life. Leroy never came to tend to her wounds or give her an encouraging smile.