When he was seven, Finn Hudson got into his first playground fight. It wasn't his fault. Really. Some bigger kids were teasing the little girl that always wore her hair in pigtails. Finn didn't now her name, but he knew her voice (Her rendition for Catch a Falling Star at the school's talent show had blown away his seven-year-old mind.). He could see the girl was in tears. These were the big boys. They were two years older and twice the size of the average second grader. None of the kids wanted to interfere, prefering to sit quietly and pretend nothing was happening. Still, he had found himself shuffling his feet closer to the scene. They had her cornered near the wall of the school building and she had her hands on her hips. Although there were tears, her eyes were flashing.
"You boys are big bullies and I'm telling on you!" He winced, wondering how she didn't know that telling on the bigger kids never get you anything but more trouble. The biggest boy there was Karofsky and he new the kid liked to step on a cat's tail for fun.
"Oooh I'm sooo scared! Who're you gonna tell? Your daddies? Are they gonna give me their gay cooties?" Finn didn't now what gay cooties were, but they must be bad because the girl gasped dramatically.
"They do not have cooties and you're stupid!" she yelled. The boys laughed and tightened their circle around her. He could barely see her over their bodies but he thought she probably didn't realize that she couldn't just leave anymore.
"You have two dads? Cool!" Finn turned around, trying to locate the source of that voice before he realized that everyone was staring at him. The girl was looking at him, her brown eyes huge. He felt warm all over.
"Well, look what we got here. Finn Hudson. My old man says your mom works the night shift." Dave Karofsky was winking. Finn had no idea what he was talking about, and he didn't think that Dave Karofsky knew what he was talking about. But that didn't matter. He knew Dave wasn't being nice.
"I don't even have one dad," he continued, looking straight at the girl, ignoring Dave Karofsky and his two friends. "It must be really awesome to have two dads." She smiled at him, and he thought she was really pretty. He could see her stand a bit straighter, and he was glad for about five seconds before he saw stars and found himself on his back, his face inches away from the foot of the see-saw. He heard the girl shrieking. Even when she screamed, it sounded like music. He looked up to see Dave Karofsky smirking.
"Your mom must suck so bad for you to want two faggy parents."
"Shut up Karofsky," he snarled because nobody gets to say his mom sucks. Nobody.
"Yeah? Make me." Finn felt the sand underneath his fingers. Grabbing a handful, he threw it in Dave Karofsky's face. For such a big bully, Dave Karofsky sure screamed like a girl. It was pandemonium after that. He knew he punched one of Dave Karofsky's friends but he didn't know who, and he didn't know where. But they were ganging up on him, and although the girl had bit one of the boys' arm, he'd just yelped and pushed her away.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard an ear-piercing shriek coming from his right. Finn turned his face to see the new boy running towards them with a huge stick in his hands.
"Feel the wrath of the Puckerman doofuses!" the boy yelled with a manic gleam in his eyes that somehow managed to alarm the elder boys, but not by much. The new boy managed to whack Dave Karofsky in the stomach before the smaller of the two goons grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Dave Karofsky was groaning on the floor, doubled over in pain. Out of practically nowhere, the girl in the pig-tail appeared and stomped on his feet.
"My dads don't condone violence but you are a neanderthal and it is always polite to abide by other people's customs," she told the groaning boy primly. Finn had no idea what she just said or what nendatal was, but it was awesome to watch. This was happening while the smaller goon held the new boy by the collar and the larger one was trying to pull his fist back for a punch while Finn had his arms around the boy's body to hold him back. A loud whistle caused everything to come to a screeching halt.
"Stop this madness at once!" It was miss Pemberley and her voice was like thunder which surprised Finn, because she always seemed so nice. He turned around to see his class teacher looking at them with murder in her eyes. Mister Fenton was behind her. Finn was scared of Mister Fenton. He taught the third graders. He didn't seem to like kids very much. And right then he was looking at Dave Karofsky and his friends like he would love nothing more than to beat them up.
"You three!," he barked. "Come with me!" The older boys had meekly stood up to follow him.
"Finn Hudson! Noah Puckerman! Rachel Berry! Tell me what happened. The rest of you, inside!" The other kids ran into their classes while Finn stood, staring at his shoes. He looked up to see the new kid roll his eyes.
"It's Puck not Noah," he said, making a face.
They got into a lot of trouble. By trouble he meant that the school called his mom and he had to go to the school nurse. And medicine hurt! But the nurse said that it served him right so he didn't say anything. But Puck screamed like a girl, which Finn thought was funny.
"Thanks man," he said after the nurse was gone. Puck shrugged and said nothing. "Why'd you help me?"
"Moms are awesome," was all he said. Well, there was no arguing with that, was there?
When his mom came, she had looked like she just ran a marathon and her hair wasn't in the bun she wore this morning. She took one look at him and sighed.
"What am I going to do with you Finn?" she had asked, exasperated. Finn felt the familiar guilt he feels whenever he gets his mother into trouble. But the girl, her name was Rachel Berry, had stood up from the corner where she was sitting and told his mother that Finn was a hero and had bravely defended her honour. He didn't know what she was talking about, but it made his mom smile and he got ice cream afterwards, which was just plain awesome. He figured that fights aren't so bad if you get to have ice cream afterwards. And Puck was awesome!