Guest - I'm working towards a storyline that will see all of Shelby's family coming together, but if there's anything in particular you'd like to see with Shelby's brothers, feel free to let me know. Rachel has alreay spoken about her childhood in past chapters, but again, if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, let me know and I'll work it in.
Rachel and Noah met up with everyone else at lunchtime, "Brittany and Santana shouldn't be long" Quinn told them, the two cheerios the only ones that weren't there yet, "Santana won a huge unicorn for Brittany in the arcade, they've gone to put it back in the car, we talked Brittany out of riding the roller coasters with it.
Shelby and Amy were just sitting down to eat at an Italian restaurant not too far from Shelby's home when her phone beeped, Shelby smiling at the photo Rachel had sent her, a selfie taken by Mike of the group of teens, squashed together to try and fit in the frame, all grinning happily. The picture was followed quickly by a message from her daughter, 'We're having lunch now, we've been on lots of rides, I'm having a really great day Momma, thank you so much for letting me come. I love you xx'
"I think I've got the only teenager that thanks me for letting her go out" Shelby showed Amy the message and the picture, "at her age we just told Mom and Dad we were going out and asked for money."
"Or a ride somewhere" Amy laughed, "give her my love" she said as she saw Shelby typing out a reply. 'I'm glad you're having a great time Baby, you've got nothing to thank me for. I'm having lunch with Aunt Amy, she sends her love. I love you too, I can't wait to hear about your day xx'
Rachel smiled to herself as she scrolled through the pictures on her phone, she was part of a group chat and everyone had been sending pictures to it for everyone to share and she was going to add a couple of her and Puck. She chuckled as she came across the ones he'd taken of them both on the carousel. He'd let Rachel choose the horse she wanted, telling her, "lemme get on then we can take a picture".
"You're not ashamed to have everyone see you on a pony?" Rachel teased, she'd relaxed a little since she and Noah had separated from the rest of the group.
"Nah" he chuckled, "this isn't a pony, he's my stallion" he told her, pulling himself up and swinging his leg over the black horse, gold detailing along the reins and the mane, "we're gonna ride into battle or save some damsel in distress or something else badass" he winked cheekily at her before holding out his hand for Rachel's phone, first taking a picture of Rachel on her horse before turning sideways to take a picture of both of them.
Noah had slipped from his horse with ease once the ride had come to a stop, Rachel on the other hand wasn't so lucky, her horse stopping as far from the ground as was possible. Rachel had no idea how she was going to get down but luckily Noah had seen her predicament and he held out his arms, "jump" he told her, "I'll catch you." And he did, he helped Rachel from the horse, making sure she was firmly on the ground before removing his hands from her waist.
After lunch they all decided to go on some more rides together, heading first for a boat ride aimed at children, the colourful boats traveling slowly through displays of various fairytales. It was Brittany's idea, the group wanted something calm so soon after they'd eaten and she'd insisted that would be the perfect ride.
They headed for the log flume next but Rachel felt her anxiety getting the better of her as they walked towards the ride. "Rachel?" Quinn frowned when she noticed Rachel seemed a little reluctant to join them, that she was hanging back a little, "are you okay?"
"I erm, I might sit this one out." she didn't want to admit it because she thought it was stupid, but she was worried about falling out.
"Okay, want me to wait with you?" she asked, "we could go on something else while everyone else goes on this."
Rachel shook her head, "you don't have to do that, you should go on and…"
"If I'm honest, I don't really want to get soaked, I know it's warm enough to dry off quickly but not getting wet in the first place seems preferable."
"Okay, but only if you're sure."
"I am" Quinn nodded before telling everyone else, "Rachel and I are going to give this one a miss, let us know when you're done and we'll come back and meet you."
Noah checked that Rachel was okay, but other than that, nobody seemed to mind that Quinn and Rachel didn't want to go on the log flume and Rachel guessed that Noah was right, there were so many of them that it didn't matter if they didn't all want to do the same thing.
"Have you been on the swings yet?" Quinn asked Rachek as they walked away from the log flume.
Rachel shook her head, "the swings?"
"Yeah, you sit in a chair and it lifts you up and swings you round in a circle, it's not scary or anything, want to go see?"
"Sure" Rachel nodded, following Quinn through the crowds towards the ride.
Just like Quinn said, the ride didn't look scary at all, so they joined the back of the line, the fact the swings held a lot of people for each turn meaning that it moved quite quickly, "you're coming back to Glee right?" Quinn asked as they stood in line. "Your Mom too? She made us work harder than Mr Schue ever has, and I know he means well and he does his best but I don't think we'd have won nationals without her kicking our butts into shape."
Rachel smiled and nodded, "I'd like to come back" she told Quinn, "and my Mom hasn't said anything about not helping Mr Schue again, but it's up to him."
"I hope she does! She has better ideas for song choices too, I mean, there was some great music in the 80s, but Mr Schue seems to think that's the only decade that made music."
"My Mom listens to a lot of cheesy 90s pop" Rachel told Quinn, "we might end with a Backstreet boys/N*sync mash up or something."
Quinn laughed, "well it'd be a change from Journey that's for sure!"
The crowds seemed to thin out a little in the early evening, so the group of teens decided to ride the most popular rides again, trying to fit in as much as possible before they had to leave so they could be home in time for their curfews.
"Are you getting something?" Brittany asked Rachel as they walked round the gift shop at the end of the day.
Rachel shook her head, "I don't think so, I don't…"
"You need to get something" Puck butted in, "your Mom said you had to treat yourself."
Rachel eventually relented, she'd brought home some postcards from Mexico with pictures of the area they'd stayed in, so she bought herself some postcards with photos of the rides on too, and then, with a little more encouragement from her friends, bought herself a hoodie with the park logo on and a magnet for her Mom, remembering that Shelby had bought herself one on their vacation, that the refrigerator was covered in magnets from various locations.
They said goodbye in the parking lot, all agreeing that they'd do something else soon before splitting up to go to their cars and drive home.
"I've got something for you" Puck told Rachel once they were in his truck, he didn't say anything, just handed her a bag from the gift shop. Rachel frowned as she took the bag from him, "you can look" he told her.
"What…" Rachel's confusion grew as she pulled a flat cardboard envelope from the bag. "Oh" she couldn't stop her tears as she realised she was holding copies of all the on ride photos from the day.
"I remember you saying your Mom bought you a memory box for your birthday" he admitted, "and they did a package where you could get a copy of all the photos, you pick them out after the ride but you don't have to pick them up until the end of the day. I erm, I thought you could put those in your box. And Matt bought his ticket here, that's in there too, he didn't forget to buy it online, I asked if someone would get a ticket when we got here so you could have one for your box."
"Noah" Rachel felt tears rolling down her cheeks and reached up to wipe them away, a little overwhelmed that her friends had gone to so much trouble for her, "this is…"
"I know you've had a shit past Rachel, and I, I hate that I was a part of that, but there's nothing I can do to change that. But I want to make sure that things are different from now on. Things are going to be better Rachel, and I want you to have things to remind you of the good times, so when you're having a bad day, you've got something to remind you how different things are now."
"I don't… I…" she had no words to express how she felt, "thank you."
"Come here" Noah opened his arms, reaching over the centre console to hug Rachel tightly, "now" he wiped at her tears with his thumbs, "get your seatbelt on so we can make a move, I don't want to have to face the wrath of your Mom if you're late for curfew." He held up a finger to stop her saying anything, "and before you start to panic, I'm joking, we'll be back in Lima before 11, we've got plenty of time. There's nothing to worry about."
As much as Rachel had enjoyed the day, she was both mentally and physically exhausted and, although she wanted to stay awake to keep Noah company on the drive home, her eyes began to get heavy and, just ten minutes from the theme park, she found herself unable to keep her eyes open any longer.
Noah had seen Rachel's head lolling slightly as she fought to stay awake, and he couldn't help but smile when he glanced over and saw she'd stopped fighting and fallen asleep. He waited until he stopped at a red light before reaching for his jacket and gently laying it over her to keep her warm as she slept.
Puck sighed and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, glancing at the clock on the dashboard before reaching for his phone. They'd hit traffic a while ago and it was now looking unlikely that they'd be back in Lima before 11.30. He'd had a text from Santana not long after he stopped, she and Brittany were in Quinn's car and they were a few minutes ahead of Noah and Rachel, she'd told him there'd been a huge accident, at least 5 vehicles involved and it looked like they could be stuck for a while.
Shelby had given Puck her cell phone number with the instruction that he was only to use it in an emergency and, whilst this wasn't an emergency, he was sure she wouldn't mind him ringing her. "Miss C? It's Noah" she answered after the second ring.
"Noah" Shelby frowned, glancing at the clock, it was almost 11pm, why was he phoning her and not her daughter, "is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine" he didn't want her to panic, "Rachel's asleep so I'm calling to let you know there's been an accident on the freeway, we've been sat here for almost thirty minutes and barely moved so I don't think she's going to make it home for her curfew. I thought if I woke her to call you she'd just worry about being home late so I've left her to sleep and called you myself."
"Okay" Shelby relaxed a little knowing her daughter was safe, "I think you're right, letting her sleep is probably for the best" she agreed with Noah, if Rachel knew she was going to miss her curfew she'd probably start to panic even though she couldn't do anything about it, "do you know how long you'll be once you start moving again?"
"I don't know" he said honestly, "maybe 30 or 40 minutes? We've already passed the place we stopped at this morning and that was about an hour out of Lima."
"Okay, if you can, let me know when you start moving again, but don't call me if you're driving."
"It's okay" he told her, "I've got Bluetooth, my Ma made me have it installed."
"Okay, well, drive safely Noah, and thank you for letting me know."
As promised, Puck kept Shelby updated and it had just gone midnight when he let her know the traffic was moving again, and almost 1am when Rachel quietly let herself into the house, "Hey" Shelby walked through to meet her in the hall, "have you had a good day?"
"Are you, are you mad?" Rachel's voice shook, "I'm sorry I was late, I didn't even know, I fell asleep, I'm sorry and…"
"Hey, no." Shelby cut Rachel off, "I'm not mad, Noah called me, he told me you were stuck in traffic and that you'd fallen asleep, he kept me updated he'd even called Shelby to let her know that the diversion he had to take meant he'd had to stop to get more gas for his truck, Shelby telling him to take her credit card from Rachel's purse and use it to fill up the vehicle. "You're safe and I knew where you were, you didn't deliberately stay out late. I'm not angry."
Rachel visibly relaxed, "I wanted to be home on time Momma."
"I know, and from what Noah told me, you would have been if it wasn't for the traffic. So please don't worry, I know this wasn't your fault and I wont hold it against you, you'll be allowed to go out with your friends again in future. Now, it's really late so how about we get in bed and you can tell me all about your day."
Rachel was already settled in bed when Shelby came out of the bathroom, she'd turned off the main light and the room was lit just by the small side light by the bed, "I'm sorry I kept you up" she said as she saw Shelby yawn as she slipped under the covers.
"Nonsense, I wanted to stay up for you. If I'd have been that tired I'd have come up to bed before you got back, now, how was your day."
They laid facing each other, Shelby unable to stop her smile as Rachel enthused about her day, telling her Mom all about her trip, about the rides, the things her friends had said and done, and Shelby loved hearing her daughter sound so happy.
"Can I, can I talk to you about something?" Rachel asked after a moments pause.
"Of course Baby, you can talk to me about anything."
Rachel was silent for a while as she thought about what she wanted to say, "today" she said quietly, "we, we went on a few things all together and then, then everyone went off in little groups and we were with Matt and Brittany and Santana and Quinn, but then they went off too and it was just me and Noah…"
"Okay" Shelby gently prompted her daughter to continue.
"It got really busy, there were a lot of people and Noah, he, he grabbed my hand, I, I don't know if he knew I was starting to feel anxious or if he just didn't want to lose me in the crowd, but then, when it wasn't so busy anymore, he, he kept holding my hand." Shelby couldn't help but smile into the darkness as Rachel continued, "and he, he remembered that you bought me the memory box for my birthday Momma, so he bought all the photos from the rides and gave them to me. He even asked if someone would buy their ticket at the park so I could have a ticket to put in there too. And then I fell asleep in the truck on the way home, he woke me when we got back here and I, he, he'd put his jacket over me and then he said it was late so he, he walked me to the door, he said he wanted to make sure I got in safely and he, he kissed me on the cheek when he said goodbye."
"He…"Shelby was a little shocked to hear Noah had kissed her daughter, even if it was only on the cheek, but she tried to hide her surprise, not wanting Rachel to think she was angry, "how do you feel about that?" Shelby asked softly, reaching out across the bed to brush Rachel's hair back from her face, "about him holding your hand and kissing you."
"I, I kinda liked it" Rachel admitted shyly, "but I… I don't know why he'd do that."
Shelby smiled, "he obviously cares a lot about you Rachel, and I know he's the only one that can say this for sure, but to me, it sounds like he might like you as more than a friend."
"He, he has a crush on me?" Rachel sounded surprised, "why? Why would anyone…" shshe couldn't understand why anyone would have a crush on her, she was a loser, she had too much baggage.
"Well" Shelby didn't let Rachel dwell on her thoughts for too much longer, "you're beautiful for a start, but if we ignore the physical, you're kind, compassionate, you've got such a big heart Rachel."
Rachel reached out, fingertips curling around the hem of Shelby's shirt, "what, what do I do?"
Shelby smiled at her daughter's innocence. "You can either talk to him, ask him how he feels, or you can just wait and see what happens."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I…" Rachel yawned, "I don't know. I think I just want to go to sleep and maybe think about it tomorrow."
Shelby nodded and brushed her lips against Rachel's forehead, it was getting close to 2am, she couldn't blame Rachel for wanting to sleep, "close your eyes and get some sleep then Darling, I don't think Noah's going anywhere, and neither am I, we can talk about this whenever you're ready."