A/N: I haven't written a fic for such a popular fandom before (my other fic is for the book 'TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY' by Jay Asher, which everyone should read, and that section on FF just started) so I was shocked to get so many emails about people subscribing to this story and favoriting it, so thank you so much to all of the readers who added or reviewed this! You make me so happy :) And now I give you Chapter 2. I've decided to put a part of the lyric from whatever song is sung in the chapter as the title, so you may be able to figure out what songs the glee club will be singing. If a chapter doesn't have a new song, I'll just take a lyric from the past chapter. I'm still trying to introduce the characters in this chapter, but Puck and Abby meet in this one so that's a plus. Hope you enjoy :)
Chapter 2: Amistad
When that brown-haired chick walked in the room, it felt like a light went off in Puck's head. This is the reason you're in glee, he thought he heard a voice say somewhere in the back of his mind.
Fine by me, he smirked and thought in return. She's kinda hot...even if she looks young. Eh, maybe she's a freshman. If the whole point of me staying in glee is so I can get into her pants, I'm more than okay with that.
Unfortuately, somewhere deep inside of Puck, someone was screaming that this girl was not put in Noah Puckerman's life so that she could be one more notch on his bedpost. He couldn't help but feel like there was something more important he had to do for this girl. Something bigger. Something life-changing. Something...else.
"So, the Berkley family just transferred here from South Bend, Indiana-" Go Irish, Puck noted, "-and she was involved in a lot of community theatre while she was there. She just started here today...well, not really. She hasn't been to any classes yet, but we caught her in time for her to start with us today. She's already auditioned, and I can already tell you guys are really going to love her." Abby blushed, showing a tiny hint of rosy pink on her nervous pale cheeks. "So, Abby, I think you'll fit in really well, and you'll make lots of new friends in this group..." Mr. Schue kept going on and on, seemingly never stopping to take a breath- Puck was contemplating finding a gun and shooting himself in the face after the first five minutes until he realized he could just shoot Schuster in the face, which would ease the pain of everyone in the room- until he finally heard the Spanish teacher say, "So, Abby, tell us a little about yourself." and saw the attention shift to the short brunette standing next to Mr. Schue.
There was an awkward moment as Abby simply stood there, saying nothing. When she finally spoke after what seemed like an hour of silence, Puck huffed out a breath of air.
"So...I'm Abby, and like Mr. Schuster said, I'm new here. I'm a freshman, I'm fifteen, and I really don't want to be talking right now. Could we just move on?" The group in front of her let out a quiet laugh, attempting to make her feel more comfortable.
Mr. Shuster gave her one of his 'heartwarming smiles', as he'd heard Brittany call it once, and responded, "Sure. Actually, why don't you just sing for us?"
After what she'd just been through, Puck figured the second the words flew out of Schuster's mouth, this Abby chick would be bolting out the door. Much to his- and everyone else in the room- surprise, her eyes lit up and color began coming back to her face.
"Sure, I'll do that. What do you want me to sing?"
Abby Berkley stepped over to the piano, each foot hitting the ground in time with her mental rhythm. This is the second time I've done this today, she thought. After having to do it on the stage last time, this should be a piece of cake. She decided to sing a different song than the one she had sung on stage a few minutes prior- she wanted to show this teacher exactly what she was capable of doing. She looked over at the piano player and smiled.
"Do you know the song 'The Way We Were'?" She looks at him, and sees his eyebrows raise.
"You mean the Streisand song? That's pretty high, don't you think?"
She smiles- not a cocky smile, not even a knowing smile, just a true smile- while thinking 'Baby, I can do it, don't worry about me. I may not have much under control in my life, but my voice is one thing I have got.'
"That's the one," she answers sweetly, and he shrugs.
"All right." He seemed a bit wary, but placed his fingers on the keys.
And so it begins.
As he watched the girl belting out those high notes at the end of some song- some song by Barbara Walters or whatever the lady's name was, as he vaguely recalled from the short relationship he'd had with Berry- he only had thought running through his mind.
Holy shit.
How was this girl supposed to be the reason he stayed in glee if all she was going to do was bask in the spotlight center stage? She'd probably turn out to be some psycho diva just like Rachel "I'm a star so don't fuckwith me" Berry. Then again...Puck looked over and noticed that as soon as the song ended, she went back to being that little embarrassed girl who had walked in the room a few minutes ago. She seemed almost...humble. He didn't know that it was possible for someone with a voice like that to actually not brag about it afterwards. Well, she's got one enemy in this room already, Puck thought to himself and looked over to see a red-faced Rachel Berry. If he squinted his eyes and turned his head just a little to the right, he could swear he saw smoke coming out of her ears. Maybe that's why I'm still here, he joked to himself. I have to make sure Berry doesn't kill this girl in her sleep.
"Whenever we remember the way were," Abby beautifully finished the song and got a rather large round of applause from the rest of the people in the room (including one boy with far too many products in his hair wiping a tear from his eye and rising to his feet as he applauded). She smiled, ducking her head slightly as her cheeks suddenly found themselves red as cherries.
"What did I tell you?" she heard her teacher's voice say. She looked around and was pleased to see many smiling faces looking up at her (save for a cheerleader and the blonde next to her who were already in a huddle whispering with one another and the brunette in the front giving her a menacing death glare). She looked around the room, trying to figure out exactly where she should sit, when Mr. Schuster gave her a pat on the back and told her, "Why don't you go sit over there, in between Puck and Kurt?" Looking over, she saw the boy who she feared would soon set off the room's smoke alarm and the boy two seats over beginning to stand up.
"We're over here," she heard the one on the right- was he Puck or Kurt?- tell her, and she hurried over.
As she made her way to sit down, Mr. Schuster began to talk about sectionals, and continued speaking until-
"WILLIAM!" Abby noticed a scowl covered Mr. Schuster's face before he replaced it with an unreadable expression, looking at the group and exclaiming, "You guys talk amongst yourselves for a minute. I've got to go see what Sue wants." Groaning, he stepped out of the room.
"Hi, Abby, I'm Kurt," the boy on her right gave her a bright smile and began speaking to her. "You just blew that song out of the water. Would you do me a favor and take every solo you possibly can? I can't stand to hear Rachel bragging about how she has all of the solos for one more minute."
"Uh," Abby stammered, "Well...I'll audition. I don't know if I'll get them, but I'll audition, if you want me to."
"Trust me, you'll get them," she heard a low voice on her left mumble. She turned around and was face to face with a boy sporting a letter jacket and a mohawk. Kurt let out a fake gasp to her left. "Noah Puckerman speaks! And it's not an insult!" Then, turning to Abby, he added, "You must be magic. How did you get him to give you a compliment?" The boy on her left- Noah, Kurt had said- reached behind her head and promptly smacked Kurt on his head. Not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to let him know, shut up, and to ruffle his hair. Kurt's attention suddenly went to his hair and he ran over to the blonde, long legged cheerleader, begging her to fix his "beautiful locks".
"So, you're Noah?" Abby asked the boy next to her. He mumbled something before turning away. Not quite catching it, she began questioning him.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you, what was that?"
"Puck," he answered. "No one calls me Noah, I go by Puck."
Puck? she thought. What kind of a name is Puck? Oh, I get it, he probably figures it's a more macho name than Noah. Personally, she had already decided she liked Noah better than Puck. It made him seem more...was mature a good word? She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice when he turned around to face her again.
"Hello? Snap out of it," he spoke quietly, waving his hand in front of her face. She broke out of her reverie and made eye contact with him.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I was just thinking."
"About?" he prodded.
"I think Noah's a better name than Puck. It makes you seem more adult."
Puck looked at her for a moment before replying. "You know what? If you're gonna knock Berry off her pedestal, you can call me whatever the hell you want."
She smiled for a brief moment, so brief that if you blinked you would miss it- but Puck didn't- and held out her hand. "Noah it is, then."
"So, talk to me. I don't want to hear all that 'I just moved here from Hicktown, Indiana' shit, tell me something real about you."
He watched her expression change from listening intently to annoyed at the slam on her old hometown to a dark look in her eyes for a millisecond before she began thinking.
"Let's see...my mom died two years ago in a car wreck. I was in the car with her, but all that happened to me was a broken left arm and right ankle. Not that bad considering what could have happened." She then began gazing off into the distance, almost in a trance.
Whoa, thought Puck. I wasn't expecting that. Not 'Oh, yeah, by the way, my mom's dead. But it's cool.'
"I'm...well, I'm really sorry," Puck said awkwardly as he tried to figure out exactly how to change the subject. Luckily for him (or unluckily, considering the circumstances), he didn't need to come up with any more plans as Rachel Berry walked over and sat down in Kurt's vacant seat.
"Hello, Abby, Noah." Rachel nodded her head to acknowledge Puck's presence before turning to face her new competition. "I'm Rachel. I just wanted to inform you that your solo was very impressive for a freshman."
Wait a second. Why isn't Berry trying to strangle her with her bare hands?
"However, there were many errors that I would be more than happy to help you with. After all, I lived through those errors when I was in the sixth grade and have therefore perfected them."
Really? That's the best she's got? I figured she'd be attempting murder by now. But all she's got is a watered-down insult that wouldn't hurt my eight year old sister?
"Thanks, Rachel. I really appreciate the offer. I may have to take you up on it. I'd love to hear you sing. I'm sure I have a lot to learn from you." Abby smiled a genuine smile up at Rachel, who had plastered on her face one of the least sincere smiles Puck had ever seen in his life. She looked like one of those crazy-ass killers that wound up going to the psycho ward instead of a jail cell. Her eyes were wide and she was attempting to show every possible tooth. If this is your attempt at acting happy, then babe, you can kiss Broadway goodbye, Puck thought to himself. Rachel stared at Abby in silence for a moment longer then broke her gaze as Mr. Schuster stepped into the room, murmuring something about murdering cheer coaches in their sleep. Puck, along with the rest of the glee club, began counting the minutes before she diva-stomped out of the room for the millionth time. Surprisingly, the moment didn't come. Mr. Schuster once again addressed the classroom.
"Sorry about that, guys. Now, let's get down to work."
Puck stared at Abby in silence for a moment as Mr. Schuster passed out music before asking her in a hushed tone, "How did you do it?"
Abby looked up from the first sheet of "You Found Me" she had been studying and turned her gaze to Puck. "What are you talking about?"
"Rachel," he stated. "How did you keep your cool while she was looking at you like she was the Joker from that Batman movie?"
Abby shrugged. "I'm used to it."
"You're used to people looking at you with crazy eyes?"
Puck never got a response because at that moment, the piano started and Mr. Schuster took in a breath, about to say the five words that everyone had come to know and hate.
"Finn, Rachel, you're on lead."
Puck inwardly groaned. If he heard those two sing one more love song together, he just might have to set himself on fire. All of a sudden, he was speaking without thinking and the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
"Mr. Schue?"
The music stopped and their teacher turned his head and looked at him. "Yes, Puck?"
"Can I try the lead?"
Wait, what?
I did not just say that.
Did I?
...
Shit.
After looking around and seeing many faces glazed with bits of shock, Abby came to the conclusion that Noah Puckerman did not try out for leads very often. Kurt, who had returned to his seat after Mr. Schuster began talking, leaned over and whispered to Abby, "Why don't you ask to sing? We want you to take Rachel down. Why don't you start now?"
She hesitantly raised her hand. "Mr. Schuster?"
"Yeah, Abby?"
She looked around. Every face in the room was watching her, but her eyes were drawn to the brunette who no longer had anger in her eyes, but a look of defeat. She knows I'm going to try and take the solo, Abby thought, and she knows he'll let me try it out.
"I was just wondering if you had the sheet music for the other songs you guys have working on."
She could feel Kurt glaring holes into the back of her head as Mr. Schuster warmly replied, "Oh, I forgot about that! Sorry. Brittany, Santana? Could you guys sneak into Sue's office and copy your music?" the two girls stood up to leave and Abby slunk back down in her seat.
I'm not one of those people. I'm not going to take something that doesn't belong to me.
Puck felt a little deflated as the new girl's question flew out of her mouth. For a split second, he thought she was going to ask if she could sing the lead with him. Now he was stuck singing with Berry. This was the first time he'd sung to Berry since the 'Sweet Caroline' incident. Puck shuddered remembering his brief relationship with the leading female voice of New Directions. Never again, he promised himself. Too weird. Still, he had asked to sing the solo, and he couldn't just back out now. He began the first verse with an "I found God, on the corner of First and Amistad" and ended singing in unison on the final line with Rachel, "to find me, to find me". He had been hoping that his voice would suck so badly Schue would pull him out, but he knew he sounded fantastic. Way better than Finn ever could, he could tell that by looking over and seeing a jealous expression across Finn's face.
Woah. Noah could sing. She didn't think his voice would sound so...soothing. It didn't mix with his appearance at all. She supposed it didn't always sound that way when he sang, that he could probably make his voice much more forceful if need be, but she was glad it did on this particular song.
"Great job, guys," Mr. Schuster snapped her out of her thoughts with a compliment to the soloists.
As the rehearsal went on, Abby found herself wishing more and more she had volunteered to sing that solo.
"Great rehearsal today, guys. We'll have to start messing with choreography to add Abby in tomorrow." Mr. Schuster told the group on his way out the door. Abby couldn't figure out if she was right or not, but she could swear she saw him following after a redheaded blur after he left the room.
As everyone walked out of the room, she went to collect her newly copied music from on top of the piano. Directly behind the baby grand was a mirror, which Abby discovered as she began to pick up the music. She immediately whipped her head around, facing the opposite direction of the mirror as fast as she possibly could. She wanted nothing less in the world than to see her reflection. Her gaze, looking anywhere but the mirror, flew to something she hadn't seen in the room before.
A guitar in what looked to be beautiful condition was propped up on a metal music stand in the opposite corner of the room as the piano. She walked over and strummed once on every string, tuning the guitar to perfection. She hadn't seen her own guitar since who knows when- her dad probably sold it in a garage sale half a year ago- and she missed it like crazy. She had been itching for her delicate fingers to hold a pick again, for them to strum the strings of the guitar and let her float away into her music.
She looked on the floor- because where there's a guitar, there have to be accessories- and much to her luck, found a pick and a capo. Attempting to remember what she learned over the internet a few years back, she placed the capo on the third fret and prayed it was the right one.
As she started to play and the chords blended with her voice perfectly, she could feel herself beginning to drift away into a happier time in her life. This was the version she created of her then favorite song- one of the twelve songs she heard on the radio the day she and her mother got in that car accident- slower and more beautifully tragic.
"I found God on the corner of First and Amistad..."
Puck was sitting in his car with the keys in the ignition, ready to leave when suddenly-
Dammit.
This was the 4th day in a row he'd forgotten to go pick up his guitar from the choir room. Considering the way that room was insulated, it was probably way out of tune by now. He slammed the door of his truck (after almost locking his keys in his car, mind you) and grumbled his way back to the McKinley High choir room, stopping in the music wing hallway when he heard music. No, not just music. When he heard, without any other way to describe it, amazing music.
"Where were you, when everything was falling apart? All my days were spent by the telephone that never rang, and all I needed was a call that never came to the corner of First and Amistad."
"Why'd you have to wait to find me, to find me?"
Puck stepped in the doors, ready to discover who sang that song with that much raw talent and pain. He wasn't all that surprised when he found Abigail Berkley sitting cross legged with a guitar in her lap on the choir room floor. He would have recognized everyone else's voices in glee in a heartbeat, so it only made sense that it had been her. Her back was currently facing him, and he derived she had not noticed him in the room yet. Trying not to scare the life out of her, he cleared his throat. She sat up in surprise and whipped around, eyes widening as she came face to face with Puck.
"Noah...hey. How long have you been standing there?" He could tell she was embarrassed. He just couldn't figure out why. She had nothing to be embarrassed about as far as he was concerned.
"Long enough to know that Berry shouldn't have that solo." She smiled, obviously flattered and embarrassed at the same time, and a faint blush graced her cheeks.
"Thanks," she almost laughed out. "But Rachel has a better stage presence with the song. My version wouldn't wow an audience like hers would."
He took a step closer.
"Do I not count as an audience? Because it definitely wowed me." He smirked at her as she stood up, placing the guitar back where she found it and walking to the door to leave.
"Oh, and Berkley?"
Her hair flew as she turned her head to look back at him. "Yeah?"
"That's my guitar."
A/N: Here's to hoping this makes sense. And yes. I know 'The Way We Were' is sung by Barbra Streisand, but you can't expect Puck to remember that.
So there's Abby's mom's story. Well, a summarized version of it. Before you ask, no, that is not what's wrong with Abby. It caused what's wrong with her, but it's not her dark secret. Feel free to PM me with what you think the secret is :)
No, I don't hate Rachel. In fact, PuckBerry is my love and obsession. But I didn't realize until after I finished this that I had made Rachel a real bitch. So I apologize.
Also- I apologize greatly for the language. In reality, I rarely swear. (Okay, so I had a period of time when the words would slip by accident- a lot- but they rarely ever do anymore) The only time I do is if there's a swear word in a Broadway song. However, with Puck, I try and get into his mind when I write the fic, and his mind is crazy when it comes to language. So I feel guilty, but the author in me doesn't. Does that make any sense at all?
Reviews make my day, if you'd be so kind. (:
