A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the prologue, it really meant a lot! Anyway, it's a bit late, but here's the first chapter, and it's shorter than the prologue.
Rachel woke up from her bed when her alarm went off at the usual time, and she slowly sat up and silenced it. She looked around her new room for a moment, taking it in the morning light, before going to her elliptical. She knew she was never pretty face-wise, but if there was one thing she was back in New York and now, it was fit and healthy.
When she was done with her morning exercise and shower, she walked downstairs and saw Shelby sitting at the table. She looked up when Rachel came down and smiled at her as she took a sip of her coffee. Well, so far she was keeping up with her promise.
"Did you sleep well, sweetie?" Shelby asked as she went through the newspaper.
"Yeah," Rachel said as she prepared her own breakfast. Shelby wasn't even like her, and wasn't much of a cook anyway. After Shelby's few attempts when she was around more in New York, Rachel decided she would cook her own food. When Rachel went to the table to eat she looked at the newspaper. "Is there even anything good?" She didn't think a place like Ohio could have anything interesting in their newspaper.
"Not really." Shelby made a face and muttered something about it being boring. When they were done, Shelby decided to drive Rachel the first day before she drove on her own, much to Rachel's protests. The drive was short, and Shelby ruffled her hair with a goodbye when they arrived at the parking lot.
Rachel rolled her eyes as she left the car and entered the school feeling all too uncomfortable. She felt eyes staring at her as she made her way to the principle's office and she knew every student was watching her. Sighing, she hurried to the office so she can get her things and get to class faster. Once she got her schedule a faculty member dropped a pile of books on the desk and she raised her eyebrows.
She looked up at the woman, only to see him looking at her expectantly and she looked back down at the large and heavy looking stack. Seriously? Well, she mused, at least they were prepared for her arrival. Not that she minded, and she was sure she was strong enough to hold them for a little bit, but she knew the new kid walking down the hall with books was a disaster waiting to happen. The woman sighed and turned to a boy with a Mohawk sitting in the chair with an annoyed look on his face.
"Puckerman." The mohawked boy looked up and the woman motioned her to Rachel. "Help her carry her books and show her around, and I'll have Figgins excuse you this time." The boy, Puckerman, stood up with a grin and walked to the two.
"Hell yeah," She cleared her throat and his grin disappeared slightly. "I mean, yes ma'am." She turned back to her computer, ignoring the two students and he turned back to Rachel.
"Noah Puckerman, but everyone calls me Puck. You can call me whatever you want, hot Jew." He said with a wink. Rachel rolled her eyes before looking up at him questioning as she grabbed the top half of her books.
"Rachel Berry. How did you know I was Jewish?" Puck grabbed the books from her hands and turned around slightly to grab the rest.
"I see them a mile away. Plus, face it; we're the hottest piece of meat around." He said with a wink, before walking off. Rachel had to suppress yet another eye roll. She wondered if that was a crude attempt of a compliment to her or just him. She walked forward and grabbed her paper with locker information.
"This way, Noah." She said, missing the frown on his face. The walk to her locker was in silence, or well, silence between them as the rest of the school talked loudly about her as if she wasn't there. When she reached her locker and once she opened it she turned around to see Puck pouting slightly. "What?" She asked.
"Why do you call me Noah?" He grumbled setting the books down and handing her one by one.
"Because that's your name? Or at least that is what I assume is your name, since that's what you introduced yourself as."
"Dude, no one but my mom calls me Noah. I prefer Puck." They had put all the books in her locker quickly, and she was looking at her schedule again.
"Yes well, I am sure your mother would want people to call you that since that's the name she chose for you, rather than the name you chose for yourself. Besides, I'm not too fond of calling people nicknames, I don't really mind having a nickname myself, only because I can't force people to call me a certain way. As long as the nickname isn't too bad I don't mind. Well, I think I can be on my own the rest of the way." She turned around to Puck, to see him looking at her with his hands in his pocket and a grin.
"Damn. That was a lot to say, you weren't that talkative before." Rachel shrugged and Puck shook his head. "Whatever, you sure you're okay? I mean I can take you to classes. After all, it got me out of getting in trouble with Figgins, so it's the least I can do."
"I am perfectly capable of reading room numbers, and I have not only my schedule but also a map of the school. Though I don't think I need it. I will see you later, Noah." Puck just shrugged and walked off with a wave.
Rachel sighed and walked off to the direction of class, but not before she felt something cold hit her directly in the face. She gasped in surprise and wiped her eyes as she heard students laugh around her.
"Welcome to McKinley High, new kid!" She looked up to see a football player high fiving another one before walking off with a smug grin.
"Damn, he got you good." Rachel turned her head to the direction of the voice to see a black girl looking at her up and down. She looked back up at Rachel and pointed herself. "Mercedes Jones. Now let's get you cleaned up." Mercedes led her to the nearest bathroom and began helping Rachel wipe the slushy off. "So, what's your name?"
"Rachel Berry, and is that sort of thing common?" Mercedes laughed as she tried to wipe some of the slushy off Rachel's clothing, to which she scrunched up her face at.
"It's called a facial slushy, and if you're on the bottom of the food chain, yeah it is." Rachel frowned as she looked in the mirror and picked the last bits of ice out of her hair.
"That's horrible. Do you get them a lot?" Mercedes opened her mouth to replay but Rachel began talking again in nervousness. "Not that you are on the "bottom of the food chain" as you say. I mean, you can be very popular for all I know, but-"
"It's alright. And yeah, I do," Mercedes shrugged. "That's what happens when you're in Glee club."
"Glee Club?"
"I'll tell you later, before we're even more late." Rachel looked at her confused and Mercedes laughed. "Girl, the bell rang when you got hit by that slushy. Probably too shocked to notice." When they went out to the hallway, sure enough the last of students were walking to class. Rachel and Mercedes went their separate ways, and when Rachel went to her class, all the students were in their seats. She looked at the teacher, who introduced himself as Mr. Schuester, and he looked out at the class.
"Class, we have a new student, Rachel Berry." He looked at the row of desks before speaking out again. "Santana, raise your hand." Rachel froze a bit at the name, looking forward to see a girl with dark hair and a tan complexion look up from her paper in annoyance.
"Why?" Mr. Schuester looked back at Rachel and point at Santana.
"Rachel, please sit there for today." The Latina suddenly spoke up before Rachel could move.
"No way, Britt sits there."
"Brittany's absent, so it's just for today Santana." Santana rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in defeat. Mr. Shuester nudged Rachel forward and the petite brunette slowly made her way to her temporary desk. Along the way she saw Puck, who gave her a wink. Finally, she sat at the desk and Santana slightly leaned farther away from Rachel. Rachel frowned and looked down at the desk.
"Um," She spoke softly; Santana whipped her head up and glared at Rachel. Rachel instinctively shuddered a little bit under the stare, it seemed so familiar…too familiar. "I'm sorry about taking your friend's desk, Bri-"
"Listen Manhands Berry," Rachel frowned at the name and looked at her hands self-consciously. "I'm going to pretend to listen, you're going to do whatever you do, we don't talk to each other, and tomorrow we'll forget this ever happened." Rachel nodded dumbly and Santana leaned back in her chair, looking down at her paper again.
Rachel sighed and grabbed a notebook, looking up at the board to write notes. She kept finding herself looking at the girl next to her though, and she looked down at Santana's paper curiously. She raised an eyebrow when she found Santana drawing instead of writing notes. Santana felt Rachel staring and looked up again. Rachel quickly looked back to the front of the class.
Santana. She hadn't heard that name since she was seven years old, going onto eight. That was nine years ago. There was no way she'd meet the same Santana again. But that stare the Latina gave her was so painfully familiar, and whenever Rachel just glanced at her, she looked so familiar.
The bell suddenly rang and Santana shot up from her desk and walked away as fast as she could, nearly knocking over a blond cheerio that was coming her way. The blond looked at Santana then at Rachel with a raised eyebrow before following after the girl. Rachel sighed and slowly put her things away when Puck walked up to her.
"Damn, what'd you do, other than sit in Brittany's seat?" Rachel sighed again as she picked up her backpack and followed Puck out the room.
"Who's Brittany? Santana…" Just saying her name again brought back memories and feelings she thought she'd never feel again. "Santana didn't even let me finish saying her name."
"Oh, Brittany is Santana's best friend. The second they met they clicked." Puck emphasized with a snap and took Rachel's schedule out of her hands. Usually Rachel would yell at someone who did that, but she was too busy in thought to notice.
"Hey, you have lunch too. Sweet, I'll walk you over there." He looked back up from the paper and stopped when he noticed Rachel had stopped earlier. She had her brow furrowed and was biting her lip nervously.
"Um…When did Santana and Brittany meet?" Puck looked at her in confusion.
"Uh, does it matter when? I mean they met and-"
"Noah, please." There was a desperate tone to her voice that Puck just nodded and grabbed her elbow to lead her to the side of the hallway, out of the way of other students.
"Well, me and Brittany went to the same middle school, so we both met her around the same time. So we were like, nine." Rachel's throat suddenly felt dry. "She moved here from another place or something."
"Did she ever tell you where she was before she moved here?" Puck shrugged.
"Nah, she always avoided telling people about her past. Maybe Brittany knows, but there's no way anyone could ask her." Rachel suddenly felt sick and she couldn't move. She was right. That Santana was her Santana, the one she left years ago. Here she was again, but she obviously didn't recognize her at all, and that made Rachel feel worse. She unconsciously gripped her backpack tighter.
She had met Santana again; the only person who had made her feel loved other than her dead parents. Santana, who didn't remember her at all. No, she was going to make Santana remember her, one way or another.