Old Habits Die Hard

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or it's characters.

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Now that Rachel was staying she had to re-evaluate her plan. Thanks to Noah she now knew what her former glee club waned. Unfortunately for them apologizing was something she refused to do. That didn't mean she couldn't let them think that. In fact she planned to do anything to make them think an apology was right around the corner. By the time they figured out that she wasn't there to gain their friendship back she would be long gone.

The plan was simple. Make them all think she was there to be their friend again, and make them believe she had the sincerest of intentions. At the reunion she would request to make a speech about her wonderful "friends" and she would take the mic and stare down at them with a smile on her face. Then she would proceed to tell them exactly what she thinks of them, tell them to stick it, and walk out the building laughing at the look that would be on their faces. This time she would leave Lima as the girl who stood up for herself, and not just a loser. Of course she was planning on excluding some people from this plan. Mainly she wanted to call Santana, Quinn, and Finn. Of course Mercedes wasn't the nicest person to her either, and Brittany wasn't exactly Miss Innocent either. The only problem was that she wasn't sure how to get them to really talk to her without her leading with an apology. She needed a way into the group, and she knew the one person who could help her. That was why in a hour she would be meeting Noah at Breadsticks. She felt awful about using him this way, especially since he was willing to welcome her back with no hard feelings, but she came here with a goal. A goal that she put before a movie deal!

To say she knew that carrying out the plan held a risk was an understatement. At best she would earn everyone's respect (except of course the people she was planning to destroy), and walk away with a life changing movie deal. At worst not only would the plan fail and everyone would hate her even more, but she would also lose the deal to someone more available than she was at the moment. Any sane person would snatch up the movie deal and run. Too bad she was Rachel Berry, who had too much pride to ever leave with everyone thinking she was the same girl they knew ten years ago. Part of her knew she was acting the exact way old Rachel Berry acted. The Rachel Berry who had no friends, and only cared about herself, and her future. The other part told her she needed this closure. She needed everyone to realize their put downs only made her better.

Looking at the clock she realized she had fifteen minutes before she had to leave. The time she spent on her outfit was almost embarrassing. For a moment she felt like a high school girl trying on ever outfit to find the perfect one for her date. Of course she wasn't a high school girl and this wasn't a date. Funny enough in her high school days she was one of the few girls that didn't accompany Noah to Breadsticks. Instead most of their brief dating period consisted of making out and working on their mash up. There were times she wished she had taken their relationship more seriously. She had gone into the relationship using him as a replacement for Finn. She had spent most her time in high school on Finn and wish she didn't. All the things she could've done with that time instead of putting time into a relationship that was doomed. Of course she didn't regret Finn, and he would always be her first love, but that didn't mean she couldn't wish she had done things differently. Looking over herself once more, she realized she needed to get going. To her surprise Noah was there before her. As he waved her over to the table, she spent the short walk looking around. Like everyplace else in this town it looked the same as it had when she left.

"Hello Noah."

"Nice dress Berry". Rolling her eyes she sat down. He wore a pair of dark jeans and a nice t shirt that was a bit snug. Not that she was complaining because the shirt clung to his nice body giving her a great view.

"Thank you for taking time to meet, Noah as I'm sure you probably had things to do, and it means a lot to me that you are willing to help me."

"Still using more words than you need too I see. She felt her face heat up. Naw it's cool I didn't have plans tonight. Anyway still all that vegan crap?"

"It's not crap Noah, and being vegan provides a healthy and wholesome lifestyle."

"Well to me its crap and I need meat to live." There was no point with arguing with him. Neither mind would be changed. She could recall the number of times they had this same conversation.

"About that dress do I get to see you out of it later?"

"Same Noah Puckerman I see."

"That doesn't answer the question Berry?" She wanted to both slap and kiss the smirk off his face. Something about his crass bad boy nature had always turned her on, and it was clear that their time apart hadn't made a difference. However she couldn't fall for this now. Now that she would be leaving in a few days, and the fact that she was using him for her own benefits. Ignoring his previous statement she decided to turn this conversation in the right direction.

"So how have you been doing? What's your life like now"? He gave a lazy shrug before answering,

"I still work at Burt's car shop with Finn. I own half of it since Finn took over after Burt's retirement. I'm still single"; he said giving her a wink," nothing as exciting as you've been through."

"So I've been thinking about what you said and I want to get to know everyone again. It was wrong for me to run off and not look back and I was hoping you could help me earn everyone's forgiveness." She needed to start as soon as possible.

"So can I get you anything to drink"? Rachel looked away from Noah to see a waitress. One that looked very familiar. A quick look at her name tag told Rachel exactly who she was. Misty Roth former Cheerio and someone who helped make her life hell back in freshman year." Oh how they mighty have fallen" she though. It put a smile on her face to see someone who caused her so many problems was now working as a waitress, serving her.

"You're Rachel Berry. Remember we went to school together."

"Um"? Rachel questioned. She wouldn't give Misty the satisfaction of letting her know she knew exactly who she was. Misty, we had Spanish class together. Frowning a bit Rachel shook her head." I'm sorry I just don't remember you".

"Oh", Misty said her face falling. "Well it's been some years so it's completely understandable." Giving her a smile Rachel told her she wanted water while Noah ordered beer. With the promise of being back soon Misty walked away.

"If you want everyone to welcome you back you can't do things like that".

"Pardon me?" She asked confused.

"You knew exactly who she was, but you're acting that way to get back at her. You left Lima acting like you were better than everyone and you returned acting better than everyone. Not that I'm complaining, if anyone deserved to make it outside of Lima it's you, but that doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way." It was at the moment Rachel realized how much he changed. Back in school he wouldn't have gone out of his way to help someone with their problem without there being any benefits for him. Not that she was known for her selfless acts either, but still. He was being so sincere in the way he was trying to help her that she felt even worse.

"So how should I act? I don't want to act pathetic like I use to. I'm a different person now."

"You seem like the same old Berry to me, just calmer. I'm not asking you to change who you are, I'm just asking you to mean it. If you're doing this just to make yourself better than you're better just leaving things the way they are." He told her what she needed to do; the only problem was how to mean something you didn't really mean?

AN: It's been a while hasn't it? Sorry I've been house hunting for the last few weeks. Anyway I hope you liked this chapter. I'm going to ask that a few more people review even if it's just two or three words. Also if you're on tumblr come find me I need to follow more people ( you have to copy and paste because ff won't let us link anymore): .com/

Til next time.