A/N: I was gonna wait til I got a review to post another chapter, but I figured that most people that read Glee fics anymore probably won't see a low word count story. So I'll give it a boost with another chapter!
Just a warning that characters might seem a bit unlikeable at first, even the main ones. That's because I want to explore them becoming less selfish and more open in gradual amounts. I like slow-build character development and I'm experimenting with writing styles.
…
The next morning, Rachel woke up shaky and exhausted. Methodically, she did her morning workout, and then she did her makeup to cover the bags under her eyes and make her skin glow. With a bright show smile at her reflection, she turned and started loading up her trolly, careful not to crumple any of her papers. Making her way into the kitchen, she gathered the ingredients to make herself a protein shake to wake herself up. Of their own accord, her eyes drifted towards the window facing the backyard and she couldn't stop herself from scanning the fence. The paper wasn't there anymore. Whoever had left it there hadn't wanted it to remain there, or the wind blew it away, she wasn't sure. She turned on her heel and walked out of the kitchen, taking her keys from the hook beside the door and locking the house on her way out.
The drive to school was short, which was fortunate as she wasn't entirely focused. No one paid her any attention as she made her way silently to her locker, which was much better than getting a slushy to the face. Those seemed to have stopped. When she spun the combination on the lock and pulled the metal door open, a piece of folded-up paper fell into her hands, almost as though she were waiting for it.
A loud clearing of the throat behind her made her shove the note in her binder with a start, feeling a spike of adrenaline shooting through her as she reeled around to face a sheepish Finn. "Um...sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," he muttered, face flushed.
"Hello, Finn," she greeted blankly. Her mind was solely focused on their recent breakup and his subsequent reaction and accusations following. Finn seemed to read that off her face because he looked away guiltily.
"I just wanted to like...apologize and stuff. I know you and Puck are friends now or whatever, I overreacted and I totally would have deserved to have Puck smash my face into those lockers. It wasn't cool." Finn shuffled his feet and stared at the lockers beside Rachel's head, not quite making eye contact with her.
"Thank you for apologizing," Rachel sighed, her shoulders losing some of their tension. "You were incredibly out of line and rude to both me and Noah."
"How do you really expect me to not believe you're into him when you're the only one who calls him Noah besides his mom?" Finn practically spat, face contorting.
"I don't see how you don't, considering you claim to be friends with him," Rachel shrugged and turned to shut her locker. "Noah and I aren't dating or fooling around. We are friends and I am happy to just be friends with him. He is a wonderful friend."
"He knocked my girlfriend up. Great friend," he muttered with a glower.
"Admittedly not his shining moment," Rachel conceded, turning to face him slowly, "but he apologized and has tried making amends."
"By becoming besties with my girlfriend?" Finn demanded with a sneer.
"Ex-girlfriend," Rachel corrected.
His face turned a splotchy shade of red, but he didn't comment on her correction. "You were my girlfriend at the time," he grumbled petulantly.
"I don't know what you want me to say, Finn, I'm just friends with him. Me and Noah...just get each other, once you get past all the surface stuff. Don't you understand that I need someone like that in my life, that doesn't want anything else from me but that?"
"Yeah, I guess," Finn said, his lips barely open and he seemed to be speaking through his teeth. "I doubt that's all he wants from you though. It's Puck," he reasoned.
"Noah," she stressed. "Has completely assured me, as I have him, that we are not compatible romantically and have no interest in going down that road again."
Finn snorted. "That's cause Noah," he mocked, "doesn't do 'romantic'" he sarcastically quoted the word. "He just has sex with people."
"Well, Noah and I are not having sex, not that it would be any of your business anymore, anyway, Finn," she returned, narrowing her eyes at him.
Finn sighed at the reminder, his shoulders dropping. "Look, can we please talk about this, Rach? I'm really sorry about the whole Santana thing. I wasn't thinking and I just…"
"You did it because you wanted to hurt her and I'm not okay with that," Rachel shook her head quickly, trying to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. "Don't you get that what you did was a hate crime, Finn? You publicly outed and shamed her for her sexuality like it was something wrong like she should feel bad for it, and, God, how could you think that? Kurt is your brother!"
"It wasn't like that, Rach, I wasn't thinking like that!" he protested.
"Who you think you are and who you actually are, are two different people, Finn Hudson," she told him angrily, voice shaking with emotion. "Can you just...please go. I'm sorry. It hurts too much to talk to you right now." Quickly she turned and headed down the hallway, passing by Santana and Brittany who were both watching her go with serious looks on their faces. Rachel barely saw them through the blur of tears in her eyes, as she pulled out all her acting ability in order to stop her face from crumpling.
Rachel was the first to enter her first-period class and she took her seat with a heavy sigh and dropped her head back on the desk behind her, staring up at the fluorescent lights and blinking away the wetness in the corners of her eyes. It was only a minute or two before she saw a perky blonde ponytail swing into the corner of her vision before Brittany's face was all she could see because the girl was taking the desk behind her with a grin.
Rachel squeaked and darted into a sitting position apologizing profusely but frowning. "Brittany, you're not in this class," she told the girl carefully.
Brittany continued to grin and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't remember what classes I have and I lost my schedule, so I kinda just go to whatever class I want to. I'm also pretty sure this is my new first period and the teacher will add my name to the roster without question and my schedule will get changed to match."
Rachel widened her eyes and stared at the girl in stunned silence. "Why?" she finally asked when it looked like Brittany wasn't going to elaborate.
"Cause I'm a Cheerio, duh." Brittany laughed. "They like...have to, or else Coach Sylvester will get really mad and start...world war three or something."
"Why did you choose this as your first period?" Rachel tilted her head curiously.
"I followed you here." The girl shrugged again. "I don't even know what class this is," she added in a whisper.
"It's History," Rachel frowned, looking around the room as people started to file in and stare openly.
Brittany wrinkled her nose and waved to one of the cheerios walking through the door. The short girl paused, shot Rachel an incredulous and slightly disgusted look, then turned back to Brittany with her face screwed up, like she was questioning the girl's sanity. "I'm not good with like...remembering names and dates and stuff. This class is awful," Brittany finally sighed when the short cheerio took her seat.
"Well...You obviously don't have to have this as your first period," Rachel pointed out, pulling her materials out of her bag as the warning bell rang.
"I know, but I followed you here, so it's okay. Besides, you could totally help me pass this class. You help me remember lyrics and stuff all the time," Brittany added dismissively.
"Right," she nodded her head slowly, feeling confused and only a little trepidatious. "Why did you follow me here?" she finally asked when the curiosity became too much.
"Cause you're like...awesome. I totally watched when you broke up with Finn in the middle of the hallway because of how mean he was to Santana. Then you did it again this morning and you looked really sad when you passed by me and San, so I decided to go to class with you," she grinned brightly and pulled a notebook out of her bag. "I don't have a History book."
"We can share," Rachel replied softly.
"Cool," Brittany grabbed her stuff and sat at the table next to Rachel, instead of behind her. She leaned her head forward and lowered her voice. "San is really happy that you stood up for her because what Finn did was bullying, but she's super embarrassed because we all kind of treat you terribly and she feels bad now. Don't tell her I told you that though, cause she'll deny it."
"...Okay?" Rachel's eyebrows hit her hairline.
"Don't be surprised if she tries to talk to you… and don't be surprised if she gets mean cause she's really vulnerable right now," Brittany's tone turned very serious and she leveled Rachel with a look that was far smarter than she seemed to be.
"I understand, Brittany, and thank you for explaining. I'll try not to be hurt if she says anything untoward," she nodded minutely. Her brain raced with panic, fear, and curiosity. How would a somewhat civil conversation between her and Santana turn out? It hadn't crossed her mind that Santana would have something to say about her standing up to Finn. She hadn't thought about Santana's reactions or feelings at all. She'd been just as bad as Finn. Santana was probably furious with her.
"Cool, cause I totally want to be friends with you. I didn't before because Santana and Quinn told me that you...hunt unicorns or something like that, but I think they just didn't want me to like you. I see that now." Rachel flushed with irritation. "It's okay though because I think Quinn is like...secretly trying to be your BFF and Santana is totally chill now."
Rachel turned her attention to the lesson as it began, only pausing when she opened her notebook and saw the note she'd jammed in there when Finn approached her earlier. Her vision tunneled until the paper was the only thing she could see, she felt her heart tick faster and her palms instantly began to sweat. 'Stop it', she told herself. 'Someone is playing a prank on you and this is exactly the reaction they want from you.' Swiftly she unfolded the paper and stared at it.
I'm Here.
It was just two words and yet she felt her skin crawl. What did it mean? The person who was in her backyard was at her school? They left the note she thought was from Finn? Her stomach started to churn uncomfortably. Who would play a prank like this on her? She knew she'd found the note at her locker, but she couldn't help lifting her head and scanning the entire room, hoping to lock eyes with someone watching her reaction. No one paid any attention to her except for Brittany who was watching her look around with a furrowed brow.
"What's wrong?" she whispered, "you look totally wild right now."
"Nothing," Rachel responded shakily. She gathered her notebook, leaving her book for Brittany, and left the classroom mid-lecture, her bag wheeling behind her. The entire class froze, the teacher falling silent as they all watched her leave without a word. She was definitely going to get detention for that later but she didn't care. She had to check her locker again.
The hallway was empty, as it should be, considering it was the middle of first period. She couldn't believe that she had gotten up and left like that, without making an excuse or anything. Her heart was racing and her head was pounding and the teacher just didn't seem as important as getting back to her locker. Finn had distracted her this morning, she'd closed her locker without really looking in it after she'd caught the note. Now she was almost frantic to know if there was anything else inside of it.
Her fingers trembled as she spun her combination, pulling the lock down and throwing the door open. With each breath, her chest heaved, like she'd run all the way to her locker, and maybe she had, she couldn't remember the journey there, just the note. Just Finn distracting her this morning. As she stared straight into her locker, her hands tingled painfully. Her knuckles went white as she gripped the metal door.
Sitting, nestled nicely inside of her locker, was the note that had been on her fence the previous night. A little pinhole from the nail proved it was the same one. I'm watching you, Rachel. Next to it, was a fresh mum. Whoever it was, had been at her house this morning before she'd gone to her kitchen. Her hands were hot and her palms were slick. She didn't know what to do. She could only imagine that there was a jock somewhere, laughing hysterically because of how freaked out she was. She couldn't let them win like that. This wouldn't accumulate into anything and they hadn't destroyed her garden, so she could excuse sneaking into her backyard, she supposed. If she ignored them, they would stop.
Rachel slammed her locker with a flick of her wrist and hurried into the nearest bathroom, her heart still racing and her face flushed red. She splashed her face with cold water, patting it dry and staring at her reflection firmly. "You are not going to make a big deal about this," she told herself. "This is just some silly prank meant to scare and, or rile you. This is not something to be scared about. They are smart enough to not hurt you or they risk expulsion or worse." Rachel was almost sure she had herself convinced when the door swung open and Santana stormed in.
The Cheerio pulled up short, looking hesitant. "I thought Britts went to class with you, are you in here crying over Hudson anyway?" she snapped defensively, though her tone belied her concern.
Rachel stared at her curiously. "Brittany did follow me to class. I...um…" she looked down at her hands with a frown. It wasn't like she could tell Santana that she freaked out over a prank, the girl would just laugh at her. "Yeah, I guess I was," she lied, not making eye contact. "I'm better now though, I just needed to get it out of my system."
"Right," Santana's face twisted into a sneer. "Like he's so hard to get over."
"Well I did just break up with him yesterday," Rachel replied. "Just because my feelings for him won't ever be the same doesn't mean I never had them. It hurts to suddenly lose what I thought I had." She had no idea why she was defending herself when she hadn't even been in the bathroom to cry over Finn anyway. "He's not the person I thought he was."
"He's not the person you wanted him to be, he's the same person he always has been," Santana scoffed. "The same person that laughed the last time I said you looked like a bait girl from To Catch a Predator."
Rachel cracked a half-smile at the somewhat teasing tone. "That was an entire year ago, we broke up like...two times after that."
"Sounds healthy," she snorted.
"You're right, it wasn't. I thought...you know...girls mature faster than boys. I figured that yeah, he had feelings for me and so he'd get his immaturity out of his system and we could eventually be mature together, having chosen each other. I am...admittedly, a hopeless romantic," Rachel sighed. "I was waiting for something that was never going to happen and I kept brushing off every time he hurt me because I promised myself it would eventually be amazing."
Santana looked away with a frown and Rachel could see the internal war written all over her face. "Look, I get it," Santana finally snapped. "Sometimes you put expectations on someone who can't live up to them and they disappoint you and it sucks. You and Frankenteen made better friends anyway. You bring out the worst in each other," she finished with a mutter.
"I suppose you're right," Rachel agreed thoughtfully.
"I guess I wanted to say thank you. Might as well say it now that you're apparently haunting the bathrooms like Moaning Myrtle." Rachel bit her lip with a tight smile. "I didn't believe Britts when she told me you broke up with Finept because of what he did to me. I didn't think you'd let him go, even for something like that. When it turned out to be true, I guess I felt bad." Santana snapped her mouth shut and tightened her ponytail, folding her arms over her chest and shrugging her shoulders. "You're a good person despite being a selfish brat and it pisses me off because I'm awful to everyone."
"I'm sorry you're always angry, Santana. Hopefully, now that you don't have to hide part of yourself, that will get better for you," Rachel sighed, ignoring the sting from the pointed insult. "I think everyone will be okay once they leave this high school. It's poison."
"Yeah, maybe," she agreed, moving towards a stall. "Just… don't let him talk his way back in, alright? You're better than that."
"Thank you," Rachel blinked in surprise, her spine straightening. Santana nodded sharply and entered the stall. Rachel left the bathroom quickly, not wanting to listen to the girl use the toilet.
A quick look at the clock told her there were still fifteen minutes of class left. She sighed and squared her shoulders. She'd have to face the music sooner or later but she didn't think she dared to walk back into the classroom with no explanation. Still, she felt bad about Brittany following her to class only to be left there with Rachel's book and no excuse. She had to go back.
She drug her feet and entered the classroom just as everyone was rustling around to put their things away. She hovered uncertainly by the teacher's desk. "I'm sorry for running out. Someone pulled a prank on me and I didn't handle it very well," she told the teacher primly.
The teacher eyed her over his glasses and then sighed. "Do not make this a habit, Ms. Berry." He told her and motioned her back toward her seat for the final minutes of class.
She slid into her seat next to Brittany with her eyes downcast. "Hey, what happened?" Brittany asked curiously. "I like...tried to follow along in your book, but I don't think the teacher was reading from it, so I don't really know what this class is about."
"Sorry," Rachel murmured. "I wasn't feeling good so I had to go to the bathroom, then Santana walked in and we talked."
"You're sick? You're not pregnant, are you? Oh my god, is it Finn's? Like for real this time?" Brittany's eyes widened comically.
"What? No!" Rachel hissed. "I never had sex with Finn," she protested, "and I'm certainly not pregnant. I was just upset."
"Oh right, cause Finn is mean and was bullying you this morning," Brittany nodded knowingly.
Rachel nodded absently and accepted her book back from Brittany as the bell rang. They walked out into the hall together and Brittany bade her goodbye as she ran off down the hallway to greet Santana who was standing at the end, waiting for her. They linked pinkies and strolled off toward Santana's second-period class. When she was sure the blonde was gone, she pulled out the crumpled note from her binder and looked it over again, the simple two words chilling her skin all over again, despite what she kept telling herself.
Who would pull this kind of prank?
...
By the time lunch rolled around, Rachel was exhausted. After not getting much sleep the night before, and being on constant alert all day in fear of retribution for her lack of response to the prank, she was ready to just go home and go to bed. It wasn't like she could skip the second half of her day though. She spent a couple of minutes by herself in the bathroom after everyone had gone to the cafeteria to eat. Once again, she stared at her reflection in the mirror, trying to compose herself with a pep talk. However, the words died in her throat when she realized how ragged she looked. Her skin had gone sallow, probably from lack of sleep. Her hair was mussed on one side where she kept running her hand through it while subtly looking everywhere for someone watching her. No one ever was. A little bit of red was starting to creep into her tired eyes, making them look bloodshot and angry.
With a sigh, Rachel forwent the pep talk and launched straight into making herself look presentable. Maybe this was the point of the prank; to watch her degrade rapidly over the course of the day while she stressed about who it was. She squeezed eye drops into her eyes and blinked them away, feeling relief that she wasn't even aware she needed when the sandpaper feeling started to disappear from her eyelids. She brushed out her hair until it lay shining and perfect over her shoulders. There was nothing she could do about her skin, but at least it didn't clash with her dress. No way Kurt wouldn't point it out though.
Rachel contemplated skipping lunch entirely and just going to the music room to practice, but she'd walked out on Breakfast this morning and eating was important to remain healthy. She couldn't miss another meal, even if her stomach felt particularly squirmy and not hungry. With a resigned sigh, she looked herself over in the mirror and then gave her reflection a hard look. "Do not stress out about this, Rachel. You're better than this. You're going to leave this town and it's not going to matter. In five years, this isn't going to matter. No one is going to hurt you. You will survive this and be stronger. Do not turn into a mess."
"Do you always talk to yourself, Hobbit? That's the second time I've walked in on you talking to the mirror," Santana strolled into the bathroom with Brittany behind her. Brittany immediately perked up.
"We were looking for you!" Brittany said excitedly.
"No we weren't," Santana snapped, and folded her arms over her chest, glancing sideways.
"Ok, I was looking for you," Brittany corrected easily, not phased at all by Santana's ire. "Santana followed me."
"Oh," Rachel responded blankly, confused but curious.
"So… what's with the whole mirror thing," Santana repeated pointedly.
"Sometimes, I'm the only one that actually listens to me," she remarked wryly. "I was giving myself a pep talk, I seem to be having a rather bad day."
Brittany frowned and stepped forward seriously. "Is Finn still being mean to you?"
Rachel smiled tentatively. "I haven't seen Finn since before first period, though no doubt he'll be waiting to talk to me at lunch. I'm sure he's already talked Kurt into pulling me aside. He's not really being mean to me, just persistent," she added with a forced chuckle.
"He accused you of sleeping with Puck, so he could have a reason to break up with you… after you broke up with him," Brittany responded slowly. "I'm not the brightest person, but even I know that's bullying… and dumb."
Santana snorted loudly but draped an arm around Brittany's shoulders. "You are incredibly bright, Britts, it's not your fault that your genius goes far beyond standardized learning."
"I smacked him. At least he didn't hit me back," Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
"Puck would have definitely killed him if he'd done that, Finnocence isn't that stupid," Santana scoffed.
"You should come to lunch with us," Brittany said decisively. "Then Kurt can't pull you away, cause we won't let him."
"What? No," Santana shook her head firmly and glared at her BFF.
"Well...I mean… why not?" Brittany shrugged. "She's my friend now, right? At least we can sit at the Gleek table with them, right San?" she blinked her wide eyes rapidly and Santana sighed. Rachel watched with a smile as Santana wrestled with herself and gritted her teeth against her final decision.
"Fine. Berry, get your bag, you're coming to lunch with us!" she barked.
...
When they entered the lunchroom, Rachel felt like all the noise had dimmed around her even though she could tell people were still animatedly talking to each other with full mouths of food. She watched Kurt rise from their table, eye Santana and Brittany, and then retake his seat with a frown, waiting for her to come to him instead.
Rachel watched as a grin spread out across Santana's face and it made her uneasy like the girl was stalking her prey instead of smiling nicely. "Looks like Lady Hummel got the message," Santana snarked as they entered the lunch line.
"Please don't call him that," Rachel sighed. "Don't you think it's a little hypocritical to call someone out on who they are based on their sexuality? And while I know he chooses to join the girl side of competitions when Mr. Shue insists on breaking us up by gender for some reason, I can imagine that being called names like Lady might hurt his feelings. "
"Whoa whoa whoa, I didn't get like...half of that because honestly, you started sounding like a Peanuts teacher but back off, Berry. You don't get to tell me what I can and can't say about people just because you stuck up for me and Brittany wants to play Happy Tree Friends with you." She scoffed and narrowed her eyes.
"First of all, that cartoon is violent and offensive and Brittany would never do that to me. Second of all, I didn't just do it for you. What Finn did to you was wrong. It was a hate crime even if he doesn't see it that way. It personally hurt and offended me that he would do such a thing considering how much he cares about Kurt and how much he knows my dads. If it had been you or anyone else, I still would have broken up with him for what he did."
"I can't believe you literally speak in paragraphs," was all Santana muttered with an annoyed roll of her eyes as they paid for their food and headed toward the table full of Glee kids.
They sat down with their lunch and began to eat quietly, not paying attention to the people that had paused and were currently staring at them expectantly. Like they were just going to come out and say why Rachel had walked into the room sandwiched between two Cheerios. Brittany looked from her lunch to the glee kids, to Rachel who was staring at her plate but not really touching it. She frowned and looked around again.
"I don't get it," the blonde finally sighed. "What's so interesting about Rachel?"
Several snickers rose around the table and Rachel's cheeks flamed with embarrassment, her head dipping lower. Brittany frowned again and turned to Santana for help with pleading eyes.
"That's what we were kinda wondering, Britt," Artie said cautiously. "You guys don't walk in with Rachel. Ever."
"That's none of your business, next-gen Transformer," Santana snapped, then screwed up her face and bit her lip. "Stop staring like you have a deficiency and eat your food before you spill it on yourself like a sloppy baby," she finally muttered and went back to her tray.
"Rachel's my friend now," Brittany added, scooting her chair closer. Rachel just really wished she could disappear into the floor. "She's really awesome and totally interesting. Yeah, I got the joke," she added when everyone looked fairly guilty.
"Rachel, can I talk to you?" Kurt asked quickly, jumping in before anyone else had the chance to either embarrass her further or question Brittany's sanity.
"She wants to eat lunch, Hummel," Santana rumbled through a mouthful of salad. "We've got like maybe ten minutes left before next period."
"I do believe I asked Rachel and that she is perfectly capable of responding on her own," Kurt replied icily.
Rachel was still slightly smiling over the fact that Santana had dropped the 'Lady' in front of Hummel. "What? Oh. Sorry, Kurt. I'm not done eating yet, maybe we can talk after lunch on the way to class?" she suggested instead.
He frowned, nodding stiffly, and went back to his meal with his lips pursed. Blaine gave him a sideways look and reached for his hand with a soothing smile. He shot Rachel an apologetic look and shrugged. Finn, thankfully, was not at the table. He, at least, was smart enough to spend his lunch period with his football friends rather than face both Rachel and Santana's wrath at the glee table.
Tina shook her head finally, with a huff of irritation, and drew Rachel into a conversation about the week's Glee Solo assignment. Tina had a couple of ideas floating around in her head and she was now in the stages of matching her song choices up to her voice and picking which one sounded best in the shortest amount of time. She went on to bemoan the fact that Mr. Shue only gives them a couple of days to figure out a song for the assignment before he requests performances and a lot of them can't practice enough in a couple of days to work out a brand new number with the band, choreography, and memorization. Rachel nodded along with her enthusiastic chatter and contributed her own opinions from the numerous vocal lessons she took year-round. The biggest lessons were "Always practice, even when there is no reason to", and "Always have back-up songs in your repertoire", which Rachel pretty much had an arsenal full. She could probably perform at the drop of a hat every day for a year or more.
When lunch ended, Kurt swept Rachel up before Brittany could even stand and they walked down the hall to their shared class, arms linked. "We need to talk," he murmured close to her ear. "I'm not here to plead Finn's case," he promised her when her body tensed.
"Okay," she took a deep breath and nodded.
"I haven't spoken to Finn since he outed Santana, you know how against that I am," Kurt added significantly. "That's probably why he wasn't at the lunch table. He's been trying to talk to me for a couple of days and I am so frustrated with him. Blaine says that Finn is just dopey and he doesn't realize that his actions have more of a ripple effect and a bigger meaning than he thinks he does and I truly believe that. But it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."
"I am tired of being 'accidentally' hurt by Finn," Rachel sighed, tightening her grip on her trolley handle.
"He needs to grow up," Kurt muttered. "I can't believe I ever had a crush on him. I guess he makes a decent brother though," he shrugged.
"He will eventually make it up to you, he may even make it up to me and we'll be friends again, but I don't know if I could ever be with him again," Rachel frowned.
"You don't have to be," Kurt responded as they entered their class.
...
Rachel unlocked her front door at the end of the school day and entered with an exhausted groan, putting her things away by the front door in an orderly fashion. Her hands shook and her heart leapt into her throat as her eyes darted towards the kitchen. Would there be something else in her backyard? Maybe the prank was over after the note that morning and her reaction to it...
Still, she hesitantly eased her way into the kitchen, casting a glance at the discarded items she'd left out for breakfast. With a dry throat and a tight chest, she peeked through the curtains hanging over the window in the back door. Her eyes rapidly scanned the lawn and the garden, but none of that was out of place. Her eyes traveled the fence, blowing out a heavy breath when she saw nothing. That had to mean it was over, right? Whoever it had been, had their fun and she could just forget about the stupid prank. Sure, it'd take a few days, but she'd forget about it.
As a precaution, she triple-checked all of the locks in the house again before taking her bag up the stairs to her bedroom to start her homework. Hours passed as she sat cross-legged on her bed with several notebooks scattered in front of her as she worked on several different assignments at the same time. It never made sense to anyone else, but one of the key points of successful memorization tricks was never finishing a single task all at once because the brain was more likely to forget and write off already completed tasks. So she'd do a couple of math questions and move on to History, then work on some Science, and the essay she was writing for English on the laptop behind her. The system worked for her and it kept her mind constantly working and busy.
The time was 7:08 when her phone chirped, alerting her to a text message. Kurt generally preferred calling, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that it could be him, so she scooped up her phone curiously. The number didn't show up, but she opened up the message anyway, her curiosity getting the better of her.
'Love the lacy white panties. Watching you at lunch was so hot today.'
She froze, her hands instantly slicking with sweat and she had to grip the phone twice as hard as it started to slide from her hand. She could feel her heart racing in her chest, even as she cursed her reaction. Someone was just trying to get a rise out of her and she was giving it to them, even if they couldn't see it. She didn't even have to look to know that she was, of course, wearing lacy white underwear. They were her favorite and they were boy cut so the panty line wouldn't be visible through her skirt. That this person knew what they looked like at all meant they had to have seen underneath her skirt at some point. She felt kind of sick. The rush of nausea made her leap off the bed and start pacing the floor.
With trembling hands, she sent: 'I think you have the wrong number.'
Immediately the reply came. 'I think not, Rachel Berry.'
She gasped, clutching her chest which had tightened considerably. She felt like she had just run a mile in three seconds. There was no way that she was going to respond to that text, she just had to distract herself. She ignored the fact that she was still pivoting on the balls of her feet as she paced around the room. Absently she started rearranging her desk, though she left the task alone when she continued to feel agitated. It was too hot in her room. She opened the window and turned the fan on even though a fall breeze was starting to seep throughout the room. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail when she continued to feel sweat building up along every inch of her skin.
Taking a deep breath, Rachel pushed it out forcefully. "Get a grip, Rachel. This isn't the worst prank you've ever been subject to." Yet, she still felt dirty somehow. Watched. She couldn't get the feeling of eyes off of her. The one place she hadn't been gazing around for someone staring at her and they had apparently been watching her the entire time.
She needed a better distraction.
Rachel threw on a pair of workout clothes and made sure her ponytail was tight as she nestled her iPod into the docking station and turned on her workout playlist. She climbed the elliptical and set to work, singing along with the music until she'd pushed herself beyond breathing properly. Then she pushed harder. The burn in her legs and the melody of the music was all she focused on and when her foot slipped off the pedal and she nearly went flying off the side, she finally decided that it was time to stop and relax. She was surprised to note that almost two hours had gone by. She'd never exercised for that long before.
Rachel could definitely feel it as she tried to settle her weight on her wobbly legs. Her muscles pulled tight like they were seconds away from cramping up and falling off. She didn't blame them, that was about an hour over her normal workout time and her legs burned even as she held most of the weight up on her elliptical. It took her a couple of minutes to gather herself and then she slowly made her way to the bathroom to clean up before bed. When she made it back, she collapsed onto an empty spot around the notes and books and immediately fell asleep, too exhausted and upset to do anything else.