Rachel walked to school on the first day back. Her parents used to give her a lift to school everyday. Now she had to find her own way. She didn't mind much. It gave her time to think before she entered McKinley for the first time since her dads died. She didn't think much would be different. No one noticed her before, why would they now? She walked through the school's parking lot and into the building, no one spoke to her, no one seemed to even notice her. She was surprised that she actually liked it for once. As she started to put her things in her locker she was interrupted by Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell. "Rachel," She said, Rachel should've expected this. "Could you please join me in my office?" Rachel silently followed her to her office. "How are you feeling?" She asked as Rachel sat down.

"I've been better." Rachel answered quietly.

"When someone goes through what you have..."

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"That's fine. I'm here to help you, Rachel. Just remember that. If you ever feel like talking, I'm here."

"Thanks." Rachel slowly got out of her chair and headed towards her first period English class. She was the first one there so she sat in the back corner of the room, where she hoped she would go unnoticed. Several other students slowly filed into the class before the bell, after the bell went the class filled up pretty quickly, everyone was excited to be back with their friends and talking about the holidays. Rachel silently sat in the back and looked out the window, not that much was going on out teacher entered the class and started teaching the lesson after calming everybody down. Ten minutes after the lesson had started Puck casually strolled in. Rachel forgot that he was the only Glee club member she had this class with.

"You're late, Puckerman." Mrs. Matthews said as he walked into the classroom.

"Whoops." Puck answered as he walked towards the empty seat next to Rachel.

"You'll be staying behind after class." Mrs. Matthews told him as he sat down. Puck shrugged. When she turned around and started teaching again Puck leant over to Rachel.

"How are you going?" he whispered. Rachel slowly turned to face him.

"Okay."

"You haven't done any work." Puck commented as he looked at the blank page of her open notebook.

"Neither have you." She glanced at the empty table in front of him.

"Yeah, but I never do the work, you always do."

"Maybe I'm trying to be more like you." Rachel said. Puck laughed.

"That'll be the day."

"Puckerman! Berry! Stop talking!" Mrs. Matthews yelled at them, the class turned around. Rachel blushed and looked down, she'd never been yelled at for talking in class before. Puck didn't seem to care, he just gave the evil eye to some geeky looking kids that were looking at him. They turned around quickly. Puck smiled, pleased with himself. The rest of the lesson passed fairly quickly and the bell went, everyone got out of their seats and headed towards the door, except Puck. Rachel looked back at him as she left the room.

"Meet you in the cafeteria." Puck said loud enough for her to hear as she left the room. Rachel made her way to the cafeteria, unnoticed. She got her lunch and headed towards an empty table she spotted in the corner. She had to pass the footballers table, there was no sign of Finn. As she walked past a foot stuck out in front of her and she tripped before she even realized what was happening. Her face landed in her food and she heard laughing coming from behind her. She started to scramble up when she felt someone start to help her up as she heard a loud slam. She got up to see it was Quinn who had run to her side. Rachel turned around to see that the loud bang was Puck slamming Karofsky into the wall.

"Come on." Quinn said as she linked her arm with Rachel's and lead her out of the cafeteria and into the girls bathroom. She could hear loud shouting and yelling coming from the cafeteria. Once they were in the bathroom, Quinn handed Rachel a paper towel and started getting the bits of food out of her hair. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Not really." Rachel replied.

"Do you have a change of clothes?" Quinn said as she looked at the stains on Rachel's shirt.

"No. I usually bring an extra outfit to keep in my locker in case I get slushied, but I didn't really think of it this morning."

"Look, I've got some extra clothes in my locker. Do you want me to go get them for you?"

"That would be great." Rachel said with a small smile.

"Okay, wait here." Quinn said as she quickly left the room to grab her clothes. When she returned she couldn't see Rachel, but she could hear crying coming from inside one of the stalls. "Rachel?" Quinn went up to the door.

"Yes?" Rachel answered between sobs.

"I have the clothes." she said as she hung the dress over the door. Rachel pulled it down and put on the light pink babydoll dress and white cardigan. She came out of the stall with her stained clothes in her arm and red swollen eyes.

"Thank you." Rachel said quietly.

"It's alright." Quinn said as she held open a plastic bag, Rachel dropped her spoiled clothes in. "Those guys are assholes. Don't worry. The only people that like them is themselves, everyone else just pretends to like them because they're scared of them. Do you want to go back to the cafeteria?"

"Not really."

"I have some face wipes in my car, they might help you feel a little cleaner." Quinn said, Rachel nodded and followed Quinn out of the bathroom.

"Why are you being so nice?" Rachel asked as they walked.

"When I was pregnant, you helped me. A lot. Even though I was terrible to you. You've been through a lot and no one deserves to be treated like crap. I just want to be a good person."

"You are a good person." Rachel said "You're sacrificing your popularity by helping me."

"I sacrificed my popularity by joining Glee club, by getting pregnant. It's not all it's cracked up to be."

After Rachel cleaned her face they got out of Quinn's car and headed back into the school as they heard the bell ring. Puck ran up to them as they walked through the door. His face was swollen and red. "Are you alright?" Rachel asked when he stopped in front of them.

"Are you?" he said.

"Yeah. Quinn lent me some spare clothes. What happened?"

"I slammed Karofsky into a wall, then punched him in the face. Yelled a bit. Not much."

"You really didn't have to do that."

"He deserves it."

"I'm going to class now, I'll see you later." Quinn said as she left them alone.

"I know, but you could've gotten in big trouble, or seriously hurt." As they spoke the halls quickly emptied, leaving Puck and Rachel alone.

"I would've. But the teachers let me off. Under the circumstances."

"Lucky you." Rachel replied.

"Hey, I don't want to go to maths. Want to skip?"

"I've never skipped." Rachel said.

"I had never skipped once too."

Sorry for the late update.

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