Disclaimer: Characters belong to Ryan Murphy and Fox.

A huge thanks to the wonderful sandra-wfg for beta'ing this chapter. This story would be filled with grammar errors if it weren't for you. :-)

Quick note: I hope this answers your questions about Rachel's decision to move. Enjoy!

Chapter Six

Rachel sat at the counter with her two fathers. They both stared at her with confusion.

"Would you like to explain your note?" Her father, Leroy, asked bluntly.

"I want to move," she replied sounding confident.

Hiram, her other father, tilted his head. "Baby, only a couple weeks ago you were singing a different tune."

Flashback

It had only been a week since the Finchel Break Up 2.0 had happened. Rachel lay in her bed crying as she replayed everything that had led up to it. Santana's brutal confession, couples therapy, kissing Noah, telling Finn, being broken up by Finn. She closed her eyes as more tears leaked out.

There was a knock on the door. Had Finn come over to apologize? Rachel sat up as the door opened...

Only to reveal her fathers looking at her. She could see the panic and fear in their eyes but she just flopped back against her pillow.

"Leave me alone," she sniffled quietly.

"Oh, honey," Hiram sighed as he rushed over to her.

Rachel cried harder.

Leroy, her other father, sat on her other side. The three of them lay in Rachel's bed for the rest of the day. Her fathers, trying their best to comfort her, while Rachel cried over the fact that she'd never be with Finn again.

The next night, all of them sat at dinner. Rachel, barely eating, moved her salad and pasta around with her fork. She only looked up when she heard her father, Leroy, sigh.

"Is everything okay, Dad?" She asked quietly.

He shook his head, "No, Rachel. Everything is not okay. You're not okay."

Rachel bit her lip but didn't respond. There was no way she'd be able to lie in front of them.

"Your dad and I were talking this morning while you were at school," Leroy spoke cautiously as if he were afraid that Rachel would react harshly to what he was about to say, "and we were thinking that maybe it'd be best if we left Lima. We could move somewhere – anywhere, really – where you could be happy."

Rachel's head shot up. Moving? Why in the world would they move?

She shook her head, "No, daddy. I'm not moving."

He sighed, "I know you're trying to be strong about this but enough is enough. It's not healthy to go to school every day only to be taken home halfway because of the anxiety attacks. It also isn't good for you to go to bed every night crying over that stupid boy."

"And moving will make everything better?" Rachel replied bitterly.

Both of her fathers nodded.

"We could go to New York City and enroll you in one of those art schools you've dreamed of going to. You'd have so many more opportunities if we'd move," her other father, Hiram, spoke up.

"What about your jobs? I can't just expect you guys to up and quit. And what about selling the house? There's no way someone would want to buy a house in Lima, Ohio." Rachel shook her head. "We can't move. I'll move on from Finn, I promise. I just need some time."

End Flashback

Rachel sighed as she thought of the disapproving looks her fathers had given her.

"I just really need to get out of Lima," Rachel began speaking, "I realized that there is nothing in this small town that will help me become to the Broadway star I want to be."

She felt her father, Leroy, staring at her. She stared back hoping that he'd see the honesty of her words. He nodded slowly and held up a piece of paper. She quickly realized it was the note that she had written last night.

"You said that this decision wasn't made out of and I quote, 'No, this isn't a decision made out of emotions. I've thought about it a lot and as mentioned above, tonight helped me put things into perspective.' Rachel, as much as we'd love to believe you, your father and I can't help but think it was. You've made no mention of ever thinking about moving since the night we mentioned it. Whenever we asked you about it, you just shrugged it off and changed the subject."

Rachel didn't reply right away.

"I know I haven't voiced my opinion on moving since you mentioned it, but I can promise you that I did. I thought about it every time someone pu–" she shook her head, "–glared at me in the hallway or 'accidently' bumped into me causing my books to fall everywhere. But I pushed those thoughts away. I didn't want to be weak enough to run away. I didn't want those students to deem me pathetic because I couldn't handle a little bullying. So I stayed in hope that they would stop. Every time I ignored their taunts, I hoped that they'd get over harassing me – maybe even apologize. It worked, too. Two people have already apologized to me –"

Her father, Leroy, interrupted her, "If everyone is being so nice to you, then why do you want to move?"

Rachel smiled sadly at him, "it's not enough, Daddy. Even though they apologized and they're being nice to me – it just isn't enough to take back everything that happened. Finn and I got into a fight yesterday and I just realized that I can't do it anymore. That no matter how I act at McKinley, I'll never get any kind of respect."

It was silent for a few moments before one of them spoke.

"Okay, then. We'll move at the end of the school year. Is that fine with you?" Hiram, asked.

Rachel nodded enthusiastically. She ran up to her room and went over to the calendar that hung on her wall:

June 2nd, 2011

Last day of McKinley High School!

xXx

That Monday, Rachel couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. She hadn't felt this happy since the day before she and Finn had broken up.

"Hey girl, what's with the Cheshire Grin you're working?" Mercedes asked.

Rachel smiled at her and closed her locker. "I'm just in a really good mood, that's all."

Mercedes laughed, "I heard what happened Friday night. You finally let Finn have it, huh?"

She shrugged in response.

Mercedes, getting the point, changed the topic. "So Kurt wants to throw a diva sleep over for all three of us. You in?"

"Of course. All I need to know is when and where," Rachel replied happily.

"We're thinking of doing it next Friday at my place. If you want, he can come pick you up on his way to my house."

"That sounds awesome, Mercedes," Rachel smiled.

They walked into the cafeteria, grabbed their food, and went over to Rachel's – or now, their – table. Noah was already sitting there and Rachel tilted her head when she saw the newest members sitting there.

Artie, Brittany, Tina and Mike all sat at the table. Mike was talking to Noah while Artie taught Brittany how to use the internet on her phone. Tina smiled at Rachel and was the first to speak to her.

"Um, hey Rachel. I hope you don't mind – we all decided to eat lunch with you."

Everyone stopped talking and looked up to watch Rachel react.

She smiled, "That sounds really nice, Tina."

The lunch went over really well and Rachel let herself bask in this happiness. She knew they all had to apologize for everything but it didn't matter.

Noah scooted his chair by her and glanced at her.

"We good, Berry?" he asked softly.

"Of course, Puckerman."

He grinned and bumped his shoulder against hers.

"So I heard that you and Finn had a confrontation."

She laughed, "How does everyone find these things out so quickly?"

"Ask Kurt!" Mercedes chimed in before going back to her conversation with Tina.

Rachel shook her head. "Yeah, Finn and I had a talk. He tried to apologize for what he said to me but then he started getting angry that I didn't accept his apology which made me angry so I yelled at him."

She glanced at Noah to see him speechless.

"You actually yelled at Finn? You called him out on all his shit?"

"Language," Rachel teased him, "But…yes, I called him out on all of his crap. I was just so tired of it."

Noah nodded. "Yeah, yeah. He deserves it, Rach. That was badass of you."

She blushed and looked down. She didn't really think of the implications of her telling Finn off. She was just so angry with the way he was treating her.

She looked past the group she was eating with and looked at the Gleeks' table. No one was sitting there. She looked over at the jocks table and found Quinn, Sam, Santana and Finn sitting there. When her eyes met Finn's gaze, she looked away.

Noah distracted her with a new topic.

"So you need to pick our duet song. It's due Friday and I had a song but Mike talked me out of singing it."

Rachel furrowed her eyebrows. "What song did you choose?"

"Love the Way You Lie by Eminem. I wanted to rap and you could sing that Rihanna chick's part."

"Well then why can't we sing it?" Rachel felt embarrassed that she didn't know the song. She couldn't even think of a time that she had listen to rap besides the songs the Gleeks performed.

"You know how you just yelled at me for cussing?" Noah asked.

Rachel nodded in response.

"Then you definitely don't want to sing the song. Besides the cussing, the song is a little violent."

"How violent?" She questioned dumbly.

He shook his head. "Look the lyrics up yourself."

"I feel so out of the loop," she whined which caused him to laugh. "Well what song should we sing then? I only have songs that should be used for solos."

"Well isn't there any way we can turn them into duets? We can take turns singing the verses."

Rachel smiled at his creativity. "I like that, Noah. I did have a song chosen before you asked me to do the duet with you."

"You did? Were you going to perform it?"

No. "Yes," she lied.

He snorted. She rolled her eyes and grabbed her Glee binder. She flipped through it and found the page. She took it out of her binder and handed it over to Noah. She laughed as he read the artist's name and winced.

"Really? Her of all people?"

Rachel laughed. "Just read the lyrics. I think it'd work for the subject."

He scanned them and she knew she had won as his eyes softened during the lyrics.

"Whatever, I guess we can sing it. But we have to change the tune and make it tougher – none of this pansy feel-bad-for-me-because-I'm-so-sad tune that I know is already set to it."

"But the music is what makes the song even more emotional. If you took the lyrics out of it and just listened to the music, you'd find heartbreak and anger mixed together," she tried to reason but stopped when she saw the blank stare Noah gave her.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Rachel ignored Santana's glares, Karofsky's threats to slushee her, and any other bad thing that tried to ruin her good day.

When Glee practice rolled around, Rachel walked in feeling confident. She saw Mercedes and Tina waving over to her.

"We saved you a seat," Tina told her.

Rachel felt her throat tighten up and she knew she was going to cry. She sat down in the seat next to Mercedes and smiled at both the girls. Mercedes patted her knee.

"We have your back now okay?" It wasn't lost on Rachel that it sounded more like a command.

Mr. Schue started up class and announced that Ms. Holiday would be helping them out today. Rachel knew it was an excuse for them to spend more time together but she couldn't find it in her to find it inappropriate.

Once everyone was free to move about, Rachel got up to walk over to Noah. She stopped though when Finn walked in front of her.

"Rachel, I have something to say to you," Finn said quietly.

She crossed her arms. "Save it, Finn. I'm done talking to you."

He groaned, "it's important, though. You have to know how sorry I am for everything I did."

She laughed harshly. "Really Finn? Are you sorry because you actually feel sorry or because I called you out?"

"What the hell does that mean? Of course I'm sorry because I feel sorry or whatever you mean by that…"

She closed her eyes. "Finn, just leave me alone. Why do you have to torment me ruthlessly?"

"So trying to fix things between you and me means I'm tormenting you?" She could hear his voice rise.

"Nothing can be fixed between us. You made that clear when you broke up with me, started dating Santana, and told everyone to ignore me!" she snapped.

"Is everything okay here?" she looked up to see Noah glaring at Finn.

Finn glared back. "Everything's fine, Puck. Go work on your song or whatever."

"I would love to but I can't do that when you're talking to my partner."

"Partner?" Finn looked at Rachel and back at Puck. "What the hell, Rachel?"

Rachel glared at him. "Don't you dare turn this on me, Finn. We aren't together. You have no control over who I sing with!"

"Why him, Rachel? Are you trying to make me jealous or some stupid thing like that?"

Rachel could feel her face turn beet red. She didn't want to fight with Finn. Why did he have to ruin her day? Damnit, why did she let him ruin her day?

"Let's go, Noah. We have to work on our song." She grabbed Noah's arm and led him over to the other side of the room.

She was trembling and took deep breaths.

"Is everything okay, Rach?" Noah asked again.

"Of course. I just need a moment, okay?" she asked desperately.

After a few minutes and a lot of deep breaths, she felt her heart-beat slow down and the sweat go away. It was the first time she had prevented an anxiety attack. She grinned at Noah.

The rest of practice they spent time working on their duet. Rachel was surprised by how good they sounded for only an hour of practice. Once again, she thought of how well she and Noah's voices worked together.

Mr. Schue came over to them at one point and watched them sing the last few verses of the song.

"That was amazing, guys. I can't wait to see the whole thing on Friday."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue." They replied in unison.

After practice ended, Rachel walked with her new friends out to the parking lot. She looked over to see her father waiting for her. She said her round of goodbyes and walked over to his car.

Once inside, she turned and looked at him.

"Are those your friends? I didn't know six people now equaled two friends." His tone was playful.

"Dad…" she warned just as playfully.

"You still want to move?" He asked as they left the parking lot and headed towards home.

Rachel didn't miss a beat. "Of course, I do. Like I said before – these new friendships aren't enough to keep me here."

A/N: Thank you all for the continued support this story! I grin like a crazy person every time I get a message about a review/favorite/story alert. As always, a teaser will be sent out for the next chapter. Make sure your PM is enabled.

Next chapter is one of my favorites: Rachel and Puck perform their duet - how will Finn react?

Until then, I leave you with sassy!Rachel. :-)