A/N: I have to say the overall response to this story is really amazing. I'm really glad that everyone likes it so far. And remember, hit that little purplish button down on the bottom to let me know what you think.
Chapter 3
It's only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdy that you can get tenderness. –Lawrence Durrell
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. –William Blake
"Rachel," Her father starts, pulling up to the side of the school, "before you go in I want to talk to you."
"Yes, daddy?"
"Sweetie, are you ok?"
Her breath involuntarily hitches; I hope he didn't hear. "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" It's an automatic response, one that she's given dozens of times, to both her fathers.
Alan doesn't answer right away, just continues to look at her. Rachel has to actively fight the urge to squirm. "Daddy, I have to get to school."
"School doesn't start for another half hour, you'll be okay for a few minutes." He replied. "Rachel, you've been extraordinarily quiet for the last few months, you don't seem to get the same enjoyment out of singing that you used to, you spend far too much time alone." Rachel swallows thickly, she does not like where this is going. "Dad and I are worried about you."
"Daddy, I said that I'm fine." It sounds artificial, even to her.
"Sweetheart, Dad and I think that you should see someone. Dr. Stevenson is a friend of mine; she specializes in teens."
"No."
"Rachel."
"No. Just because I don't act the way Dad and you want does not mean that I have to go see a psychiatrist."
"Rachel…"
"I don't need to see anyone, I'm fine." She gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her. She hears her father calling her, but she refuses to turn around, Today is already going terribly.
Storming though the school she sees Finn talking to a blonde girl that she thinks might be a junior standing directly in front of her locker. Of course. "Excuse me."
The girl didn't move, "I said, 'excuse me.'"
When the blonde still didn't move Rachel shoved her way between them to get to her locker. "Excuse you." The girl hissed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. The same way you must not have heard me when I asked you, politely, to move over."
The girl rolled her eyes and walked away. "The hell, Rachel?"
"Oh, so you're talking to me now, Finn?" The look she gave him had him gulping. "Is there something you'd like to say to me?"
"Uh, no?" He muttered.
"Figures." Rummaging through her locker she can see Finn walk away, turning to look at her quizzically over his shoulder.
"So, you're pretty scary when you're pissed."
"What?"
Puck grinned down at her, "That look you shot Hudson, I'm pretty sure he just shit his pants. It was kinda hot."
"You find Finn defecating on himself hot?" Wrinkling her nose she continued, "You might want to see someone about that."
"Cute, Berry." Puck replied shaking his head. "See you later."
"Goodbye, Noah." Grabbing her history notebook Rachel turned to head to class, only to get a face full of blue raspberry slushie.
"Loser." She can't see him, but she knows it was David Karofsky.
Sputtering slightly Rachel wipes the sugary syrup out of her eyes. She can hear the other kids in the hall laughing at her, but she's found that any kind of reaction, aside from changing her clothes, will just give them more to laugh at.
Twenty minutes later she's rushing into her history class, only five minutes late, thankfully. "You're late, Rachel."
"Sorry, Ms. Crowley."
"It's alright, just take a seat."
Sighing Rachel slips into her desk and pulls out her homework. She closes her eyes and breaths heavily through her nose when she sees the blue spots staining it. It's seven forty five in the morning and I already can't wait until today is over.
At twelve thirty Rachel headed to the auditorium for lunch, she hasn't been in the cafeteria in months. The first time she tried it after the baby incident no less than three lunches had been "accidently" dropped into her lap. Pulling open the door she can her music, it's not something she's familiar with, something very heavy on the bass.
Narrowing her eyes as she peers in she can see the red and white uniforms of the Cheerios on stage. "Of course. Of course they have practice during my lunch period." Not knowing where else to go Rachel ducks into the choir room, the library is not an option right now, she's starving and the librarian would have her head on a silver platter for even attempting to eat.
Looking around she didn't see Mr. Shue so, sighing, she sat down at the piano. She's plunking keys randomly and slowly picking at her lunch. Frustrated she gets up, throws her garbage into the pail, stares at it a moment before kicking it. "Why does everyone hate me? I didn't do anything wrong. Sure, I told everyone about Noah being the father of Quinn's baby, and granted it wasn't my secret to tell, but come on. It's not like I cheated on my boyfriend with his best friend, then lied for months about who the father was. The only people who have any sort of right to be mad at me are Noah and Quinn. And neither of them do, Noah's my friend, sort of, and Quinn just ignores me, which, really is better than she used to do before. Then there's Mr. Shue, which makes even less sense. What could I have possibly done for him not to like me? That whole, silly, crush thing was months ago."
Taking a deep breath Rachel closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "God."
Sitting back down at he piano she began to play in earnest, singing softly.
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very Mad World
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
She lets the last few notes linger, hauntingly, in the air. Wiping the tears roughly from her eyes as the bell rings she grabs her things and walks out of the room. She never notices that Mr. Shue is staring from the doorway to his office.
By the time Rachel walks into her seventh period biology class she's decided that the best part of her day had been narrowly avoiding being doused by a slushie a second time that day.
"I'm surprised you're here today, RuPaul."
She has to actively fight putting her head down on the desk as she watches Santana and another Cheerio walk by. Why wouldn't I be here? The only days I ever miss are…. No! No, no no.
"Okay, everyone." Rachel looked towards the small teacher. "I'm going to pass around a piece of paper. Write down the name of the person you would like to be your lab partner for the next quarter." Crap.
She'd conveniently been sick the last two times they'd had to pick their own lab partners. Rachel held her breath and sighed in relief when Ms. Scott started the paper on the other side of the room. I'm going to be the last to get it. At least I can say everyone else had a partner already when it gets to me. Rachel felt her stomach clench as the paper made its rounds. Ms. Scott was saying something about a project, but Rachel wasn't paying attention. I hate lab partner day.
Grabbing the paper from the boy sitting in front of her, Rachel didn't bother looking at the pairings before bringing the paper to the front of the class. "Here you are Ms. Scott."
"Thank you, Rachel." The teacher looked down at the paper. "Alright guys, everyone up. I'm going to tell you which table you're at." Groans filled the classroom as people began gathering their belongings. "Really? I let you pick your own partners, but you're going to give me a hard time about this?"
"Back right, Santana and Traci." Rachel watched as the two Cheerios made their way over to their seats. "Back middle, Puck and Rachel." Rachel felt her eyes go wide; she just hoped that they weren't really bugging out of her head.
"Coming?" She looked over to Puck, nodded her head slightly, following him across the room. "Weren't you wearing something else this morning?"
She could feel the stares of the other kids as she took her seat next to him. "Hmm? Oh, yes. Slushie. You picked me as a lab partner?"
"No shit. Who Slushied you?"
"It doesn't matter, it happens all the time. Which is why I keep an extra set of clothes in my locker. Why did you pick me?"
He really wants to press the Slushie issue, but she seems hell bent on moving on, "Are we really going over this shit again?"
"Noah."
"Dude, you are the smartest person in this fucking class. Why wouldn't I want to be your partner?" She just looks at him skeptically. "Listen, I have a proposition for you."
"What kind of proposition?"
He snickers at her very apparent cynicism. " I need to get some of my grades up so that my other will at least stop riding me over that."
"Okay, and what do I get out of it?" He grins wickedly in response. "Noah." She says exasperated.
"Fine, if you don't want to do me, I'll help you with math."
"What?"
"Look, I'm fucking awesome in math." She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "I am, it's my bitch." He says it so casually that she has to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud.
"I'll think about it."
"Come on, Berry. You help me at things I suck at, I help you at things you suck at." He grins lecherously again. "Speaking of sucking things." She coughs, "So, how 'bout that gag reflex, huh, still nonexistent?"
She turns to look at him, mouth agape. "Berry, looking at me like that, really helping with the imagery, so thanks for the deposit."
"The deposit?" She manages after regaining the power of speech.
"Yep, to the spank bank."
She looks blankly at him, "Spank bank."
"You know…" He makes two quick motions by his crotch with his right hand.
Her eyes go wide again before she closes them. It takes about five seconds before she can open them again, "You are seriously depraved."
"Alright, everyone up here." Ms. Scott calls from the front of the room.
Over the next few weeks Puck makes it a point of popping up in unexpected places to ask her if she's thought about his proposition, but in true Puck fashion, does it in the lewdest ways possible, she blushes every time.
Friday afternoon finds Rachel rummaging through her locker and Finn doing the same, five lockers down. Yes. Puck thinks sneaking behind Rachel. "Come to my house, Berry, you know you want to do it."
She jumps slightly and sees Finn storming away as she turns. "You did that on purpose."
"What, you know you want geometry help and you can help me in bio.... and English."
"You made people think we're meeting up to have sex."
"No, I didn't. I just know you want to get it done."
"Stop it."
He can see her fighting to keep the corners of her mouth from turning up. "I can't tonight. I have dance class."
He rolls his eyes at her, "Like that takes more than an hour."
"Three."
He follows her as she walks from the building, "What the fuck are you doing in dance that takes three hours? My kid sister's class is like forty five minutes."
"I take three different classes on Fridays. As such, I'm at the studio for a couple of hours."
"Seriously?"
"If I'm going to make it in New York, I have to be more that just a singer. And you can't just be good at something. Everyone who's attempting to get onto Broadway is good, you have to have something that makes you special."
"You've heard you sing, right?"
"What? That doesn't even make sense, of course I've heard myself sing."
"Then you know you're set." She blinked in response. "So, text me, so that we can work out a time. I really need this, my mother is really flipping a shit."
"Fine, I'll text you when I get home tonight."
"Excellent. I knew you'd give in."
She can't help herself, "I bet you say that to all the girls."
He just gapes at her, "You know, you've done that to me a couple of times now, but every time, I just can't fucking believe it."
"I don't know what you're referring to."
"Isn't this adorable, the freak and the douche bag."
Both turned to see Santana standing halfway down the hallway with her arms crossed. "No one asked you, Slutty McGee. Don't you have some guy to go bang?"
"It's no wonder that's the only friend you have these days Puck. If you could stop being an asshole for five minutes, which I know is a challenge for you, you might get some normal friends again. You know, ones that don't make you a bigger loser than you are now."
"Fuck off, Lopez."
"Think about it." Santana turned, red and white skirt swishing around her.
"She's right, you know." Rachel said softly. "Being friends with me isn't good for anyone's reputation."
"Like I care what those fuckers think." He scoffs.
"You really don't care about what you're friends think?"
"They're not friends, not real ones anyway. They fucking dropped me the second I made a mistake. And, yes, I know that it was one huge ass mistake. I mean, I could understand Finn, 'cause obviously he should be pissed. But everyone else? What the hell? I didn't do anything to them."
She's just staring at him with a funny look on her face, not saying anything, it's kinda fucking creepy. "What?"
"Its…. Nothing. I'll text you later to set up a time."
He's lying on his bed playing 'Assassin's Creed' later that night when his mother calls up the stairs. "Noah, I'm running behind, can you pick Eden up at dance?"
He'd like nothing more than to be able to say 'No,' but there's the whole baby thing and he really doesn't think he's going to be able to say no to his mother for years. "Yeah, I'll go get her."
He grins when he sees her leaving the dance studio as he's walking out with his sister. "Hey, kid, go sit in the car for a sec."
"Why?"
"Because, I said so. Here's the keys. Don't touch anything though. I have to go talk to someone." He chucks the keys at Eden, snickering slightly when she drops them. "Nice catch kid."
"Jerk." She mutters sticking her tongue out at him.
Rachel's got her back to him and he is grateful. She's got on some sort of back bodysuit, pink tights and some sort of see through pink skirt. It's fucking awesome. Well, it's fucking awesome until the man that she's talking to starts looking at him funny. "Daddy?"
Shit! I'm checking out her ass while she's talking to her father. And her father knows I'm staring at her ass. "Hey, Ber… Rachel."
Surprised, Rachel turns around. "Oh, my god. Why are you everywhere."
"Rachel!" Her father sounds appalled.
"Sorry. Daddy, this is Noah Puckerman. Noah, this is my father, Alan Berry."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Berry." Puck likes this father better than the other one. One, he's taller than this one, so he's pretty sure he can take him and two this one isn't staring at him like he wishes he were dead. "Rachel, can I talk to you a sec?"
"Go ahead, sweetie. I'll meet you at the car."
"Yes, Noah."
"You ready to stop sucking?" He leans in close, hand on her hip, and whispers in her ear, "Or start, for that matter."
He laughs as the flush starts, somewhere below the neckline of her bodysuit, up her chest and neck and spreads to her cheeks. "Why do you do that?"
"Because your reactions are hilarious."
"I hate you."
"Nah. You like it."
"Noah!" He hears his sister whine from his truck.
"Looks like I gotta got. I'll talk to you later, Berry."
"Goodbye, Noah."
He waits until she turns around, starts walking to her dad's car. "Hey, Berry?" When she turns again, "I really like that thing you're wearing."
She can hear him laughing as she stomps to the car, climbing in. "What was that all about?"
"It's nothing." She can't quite keep the smile off her face.
"It didn't look like nothing, sweetie."
"Daddy. We're friends, we have a couple of the same classes and we're in glee together. You and Dad wanted me to have more friends over the house, so there you go. Noah and I were making plans for tomorrow."
"No."
"What?" Rachel responds in surprise.
"No."
"You and Dad wanted me to have people over, so I'm having someone over and now you don't want me to have him over."
"It's not that I don't want you to have friends to the house Rachel, I do, but not him. Especially if your dad and I aren't going to be home."
"You're not going to be home tomorrow?"
"I have to give a lecture on astrocytomas at OSU tomorrow, Dad and I are staying overnight. So, no you cannot have that boy over."
"What's wrong with that boy? You don't even know him." Rachel replied, barely keeping herself from yelling.
As soon as her father pulled into the driveway Rachel stormed out of the car and into the house, slamming the front door behind her. "Rachel?" Her dad asked curiously.
"RACHEL BARBARA BERRY! I AM NOT DONE TALKING TO YOU."
"Alan? What's going on?"
"Well, I'm done talking to you."
"Rachel! Do not talk to your father that way. What has gotten into you?" Richard asked surprised.
"Noah Puckerman." Alan replied.
Rachel watched as her dad sputtered angrily, "NOT LITTERLY. HE'S MY FRIEND. HE WANTED HELP IN ENGLISH, SO I AM GOING TO TUTOR HIM." Even through the anger, she knows telling her dads that Noah wants help in biology would not go over well right now.
"It's not happening Rachel."
"Dad! You're just as bad as Daddy. You two don't even know him."
"We know enough, young lady. This is a small town; word gets around about that Fabray girl, women twice his age. And if you keep speaking to us like this you will be grounded." Alan said.
"For two people who hate gossip so much, you certainly seem to enjoy spreading it around."
"THAT'S IT. WE ARE YOUR PARENTS, NOT YOUR FRIENDS. YOU DONOT GET TO SPEAK TO US LIKE THAT. GO TO YOUR ROOM, WHERE YOU CAN SPEND THE REST OF THE WEEKEND." Richard yelled.
She's watching the vein throbbing in her father's forehead with growing fascination and she's so angry herself that she can't help pushing him further. "FINE, I'LL TELL HIM WE CAN'T STUDY TOGETHER. I HOPE YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING HAPPY."
She's not sure who's the most surprised by her language, her dad, her daddy, or herself. Either way, figuring she has about ten seconds before they recover she turns on her heel and stomps her way up to her bedroom. She hears her daddy yell that instead of just being grounded for the weekend that she's now grounded for the month, just as she slams the door behind her. She turns the lock with a satisfying snick and shoves her iPod into the dock.
Spinning the wheel until she finds the band she wants. Perfect, they may be my guilty pleasure, but both Dad and Daddy hate them. She turns the volume up just as the lyrics kick in. "I, I'm driving back on black, just got my license back. I go this feeling in m veins, this train is coming off the track. I'll ask polite if the devil needs a ride, because the angel on my right ain't hanging out with me tonight."
Flopping onto her bed she pulls out her phone. You'll never guess what just happened.
And to give credit where credit is due: the song Rachel sings is "Mad World" by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules. The one she listens to is "Animals" by Nickelback