Rachel struggled out of bed Monday morning, forcing herself to keep moving over the amount of pain she was in. Everyone had been noticing her behavior slowly change over the last few months but they all put it down as stress, what with her boyfriend, school, music compositions, Glee club and trying to maintain the new friendships she had because of Glee. None of them new the real reason of course, Rachel had been seeing a new man yes, and she was pretty sure it was love.

They had met a couple of months ago and things were going great, except the last three weeks. At first her boyfriend, Jeph had gotten fired from his part-time job and that night when they went out together he took out all his rage on her, screaming almost the entire night. Everything she said was grounds for a fight and by the time she was home she was so scared that all she could do was cry herself to sleep.

Jeph came by the next day and apologized profusely and like any good girlfriend would she forgave him. However things began to escalate, he was angry most of the time always blaming her for things that couldn't have possibly been her fault and when he wasn't angry all he did was apologize but nonetheless she remained scared most of the time she was with him. Rachel was convinced it was only a short time thing, but the whole situation fast became out of hand.

Rachel hobbled into the bathroom joined to her room and looked at herself in the mirror, the dark circles around her eyes was all the evidence you could need, her lip was swollen with a cut that had bled furiously. She lifted her shirt to see the dark blue and purple bruises on her ribs. Soon enough it would all be over, Jeph would come out of his depressive stage and they would go back to being the great couple they were.

Rachel kept telling herself this, denying anything was wrong when asked. She didn't even care anymore, slipping on a pair of track pants and a t-shirt she applied enough make-up to hide every secret and practiced walking normally before heading to school.

Rachel arrived at the school a little later then she would have liked but with still enough time to get to class, she walked through the school like a meek little child, right now she didn't have enough energy to be her usual peppy self, and it would put her in a lot more pain the she already was. "Hey Rach." Finn had joined her on the short trip down the hall to her locker. "You look tired, whats going on?"

She sighed rather loudly, "good morning Finn, nothing is going on, I'm not tired at all." She forced herself to look up at his face which only sent shooting pains down her back and put on the best fake smile she could.

"Okay, if you say so." He gave her a suspicious look but let it go anyways. "So I'll see you at Glee practice tonight?" Rachel held in a groan and nodded. "Alright awesome." Finn abruptly raised his hand to give one of his football buddies a high five but the sudden movement made Rachel flinch. "You sure your okay?"

"I'm fine Finn, see you after school." Finn let it go turning down a hallway, while Rachel opened her locker. Grabbing the books she needed she headed to class. By lunch time all Rachel wanted to do was go home and sleep but she didn't miss school. Instead she headed to the choir room, sing was the one thing that could actually make her happy at this time. However every time Rachel sang now tears threatened to fall.

How is it possible for one person to have so much control over one person? She sang her heart out on this particular occasion, letting all of her emotions go. If she had been a little quieter she might not have attracted the attention of Noah Puckerman. He stood in the door of the choir room and waited for her to finish. "Whats been going on with you Berry? I haven't been annoyed by you in a while."

"I'm a little stressed but I'm sure I will be fine soon." He moved closer into the room picking up on her tears and the waver in her voice.

"Whoa, is that a black eye Berry? Hitting on some other girls man." Puck couldn't stopping himself from snorting at his own joke. Rachel touched the spot under her eye where her make-up had run.

"It's nothing Noah, if you would please leave me alone now." She tried to sound confident but her voice betrayed her yet again cracking and squeaking the whole way.

"Fine, I was only trying to help." Puck put his hands up in a defensive way and walked backwards out of the room. Rachel stood up, deciding that missing one day of school would be alright she called Jeph and asked him to pick her up.

She waited outside for nearly twenty minutes for Jeph to show up and when he finally pulled up she had to gulp at the look on his face. His nostrils flared and his eyes screamed rage. She got into the car slowly and shut the door, he layed into her screaming how angry he was for making him leave his school to pick her up and having to waist his lunch on her. He raised his hand and slammed it down across her face leaving a bright red hand print before pulling out of the student parking lot.

Neither of them saw Puck watching them from the door or his outrage and anger at what he just saw but it was deffinitly a sure thing that he would pay for ever putting his hand on the women he was secretly in love with.

First Chapter, I will continue but I kept it short to see what you guys think before I commit to it.