Hey guys, so here's the next chapter, real quick I just wanted to give a big shout out and thank you to everybody who read, reviewed, alerted, did whatever it was that you did. So thanks, it means the world, really! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter, I'll try to get the next one up as quick as I can.
Chapter 2
In Between the White Lines
(Rachel Berry)
Every Friday during third period, in that last grueling hour before William McKinley High School finally dismissed their students to embark on their cherished lunch break, Rachel Berry had a free period block scheduled into her otherwise hectic repertoire of school work.
And even though your average, every day student at William McKinley High School would have openly embraced the first opportunity that they had to tack an extra fifty seven minutes onto their lunch, your average, every day student at William McKinley High School also would have already known that Rachel Berry was a lot of things, but your average, every day student at William McKinley High School was not one of them.
It didn't take the aspiring young star very long to discover that for one blissful hour between 9:55 a.m. and 10:46 a.m., the normally over-crowded auditorium, primarily packed with mediocre choir students and burnt out musical wannabe's was completely, and utterly empty.
And contraire to popular belief, Rachel Berry loved an empty auditorium almost as much as she enjoyed a full one.
Inside of an empty auditorium, Rachel became brand new. Inside of an empty auditorium, she could assume the shape of anybody, dream to be any person that she wished to become.
Inside of an empty auditorium for a brief hour every Friday morning, Rachel Berry became God.
She stood within the stage's vast center, glowing underneath the brightest spotlight, embracing the change as she transformed from Rachel Berry, William McKinley High School sophomore, long-term resident of Lima, Ohio, the girl that nobody talked to, the kid that had learned to bring an extra pair of clothes to school every day just in case the first had been destroyed by an unexpected slushee attack into Rachel Barbra Berry, New York City's rising breakout Broadway star, the girl who everybody talked about, the kid who everybody knew was going to make it big one day…
Closing her eyes, she contracted her stomach muscles harshly against her diaphragm, pushing her voice upwards towards its absolute threshold and beyond in an effort to reach that coveted high F as she raised her arms high above her head, her perfectly tuned ears poised as the noise of her own voice bounced off of the auditorium and straight back to her…
"I thought I would find you here."
Rachel's eyes snapped abruptly open, the haze of her dream state fading almost as quickly as it had appeared as a distantly familiar voice rang through her ears from somewhere within the back of the auditorium.
The girl's head snapped quickly sideways, her arms lowering and her face relaxing into a deep set frown as her eyes focused on the form of none other than her own mother; you know, the mother that she hadn't seen, hadn't even heard from since that fateful day well over a week ago now; that day where Shelby Corcoran had single handedly managed to take every single dream that her daughter had ever had and literally stomp all over them, forcing her to watch as the woman coached somebody else's children and celebrated the victory that she knew should have belonged to her while simultaneously ignoring her own aching flesh and blood standing mere feet away.
"What are you doing here?" A hint of malice glistened off of the edge of Rachel's tongue, but although Rachel truly had believed that her getting snippy with Shelby would have made her feel at least a little bit better, it hadn't; in fact, it didn't even come close.
Shelby didn't respond to her hostility immediately. Instead, she took her time, sauntering towards the piano and perching herself upon the cushioned bench before slowly crossing her right leg over the left; a strategic motion designed to silently inform Rachel that she was willing to stay as long as was necessary.
"I don't have class until noon, and I happen to know that you have a free period right now."
"That's kind of creepy." Rachel informed her, standing her ground firmly, keeping her guard elevated in preparation for the strong likelihood that the only reason that her mother had come to visit her here today was to continue to beat the dead horse by emphasizing her desire to have absolutely nothing to do with her.
"Get used to it, I am your mother."
Rachel couldn't help the slight scoff that escaped from her throat in response to the comment as she crossed her arms tightly across her chest… It was nice to know that Shelby was willing to consider herself her mother only when it was convenient for her to do so.
"I just wanted to talk to you." Shelby spoke again; her tone softening with the recognition of the fact that Rachel hadn't been particularly receptive to what she'd believed to be a well placed joke.
"About what?"
"I don't know," She offered the younger girl before her the slightest of shrugs, "Life." Her words achieved nothing more than the production of an elicit response from Rachel who immediately raised two suspicious eyebrows towards the woman's general direction…
She just couldn't help but wonder why Shelby had suddenly become so interested.
"Listen," Shelby sighed, a desperate firmness behind her voice, "I just wanted to make sure that you were alright."
"I'm fine," Rachel lied, speaking just a little bit too quickly to be completely convincing.
"Good," Shelby nodded absently, drifting off only briefly before snapping to attention once again. "You were amazing at Regionals you know…" She shifted the topic of conversation, watching as before her, Rachel stared defiantly forward, struggling to maintain her stone cold glare amidst the tears stinging at the back of her eyes in response to the mere memory of that day; the day that she would rather forget more than any other in her entire life. "I was proud of you, Rachel… really, I was."
The younger girl finally forced herself to tear her gaze from that of her mother's, afraid that if she held onto it for even a fraction of a second longer, she would no longer be able to contain her threatening tears.
Suddenly, she was struggling to so much as inhale; her chest seemed impossibly tight as she attempted several coordinated, deep breaths, just trying to focus on her expanding lungs…
Breathe in, and breathe out… breathe in, breathe out.
In the back of her throat, a subconscious sniffle involuntarily escaped from between her slightly parted lips, the only noise that she could manage in response to the phrase that she had been waiting to hear for her entire life… her mother telling her that she was proud of her…
"How's Beth?" Rachel forced herself to change the subject, worried that had she found herself getting sucked too deeply downward into this bog of maternal praise, she would only be let down once again by this woman before her.
"She's doing well… getting big already." Shelby accepted Rachel's tactic of avoidance towards her compliment for what it was, playing along despite her desperate effort to regain some of the trust that she had since lost with the girl, "She's staying over at her grandmother's right now… your grandmother too, I guess that would technically make her."
"I… I have a grandmother?" Rachel slipped before she could stop herself, feeling her guard drop and diminish in an instant, but she didn't care… something else had come in to overpower both her, as well as that damn filter in her brain, unsuccessfully distinguishing between the things that she should be saying versus the things that she shouldn't be.
The thing was Rachel Berry had never had a grandmother before.
"Of course you do." Shelby spoke with a nod and the smallest of laughs as she pushed herself upwards and off of the safety of the piano bench she had previously been sitting upon, finally risking taking several steps closer towards Rachel, "Marie, her name is… and you know, you remind me a lot of her… you have her eyes."
Rachel knew that it was wrong for her to be allowing herself to get sucked in like this so easily… She knew that she was probably doing nothing more beyond setting herself up for disappointment once again.
But still, she craved the answers to the questions that had plagued her maternal family tree for nearly two decades now, and now that she had finally began putting all the pieces together; well she wasn't so sure that she could stop.
And of course, at this point, she wanted Shelby to keep on talking almost as much as she wanted her to just shut the hell up already.
"Do you have any other family?" She watched carefully as she noticed her mother's features contort in their struggle to retain a sense of neutrality despite her overwhelming desire to smile towards the yearning behind her child's eyes.
"I have a sister," She finally nodded, "Sandra… she's two years younger than me but about two million years smarter."
"Do they know about me?" Rachel dropped her eyes to the floor, feeling a sudden and overwhelming sense of guilt towards her curiosity, nervous that she may have overstepped her boundaries in asking such a question… But whether or not Shelby reciprocated in Rachel's hesitancy would forever remain a mystery, because her mother's eyes remained neutral as she offered Rachel a curt nod overshadowed by her response.
"They do."
Eyes slanting slightly upwards once again, she surged with a sudden sense of pride towards the fact that her mother at least cared for her enough to acknowledge her mere existence towards the people who mattered the most to her.
"They know that when I got out of college I applied to be a surrogate to a lovely, respectful couple. They know that in December of that year I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and they know that by that point I had already signed the contract stating that legally, I wasn't allowed to make contact with you until your 18th birthday… My mother was so upset with me after she'd learned that part of the deal… she didn't speak to me for months…" Shelby relayed her brief story, her face dancing with a shimmer of pain. "I think that my mother might just be the only other person in this entire world who wanted to meet you just as much as I did; and after… well after she found out that I wouldn't be able to have any more children, well I think that desire just increased tenfold."
Rachel could practically feel her heart swelling painfully inside of her chest… somewhere out there; there was a woman who loved her, who yearned for her presence and she didn't even know who she was…
"The only thing that they don't know is that I had begun looking for you late last year… that I found you." She trailed off in her explanation, watching as Rachel slowly began biting her tongue against the overwhelming whirlwind of questions, spinning circles inside of her mind in their desire to be released… There was just so many of them and so little time to address them all.
After all, Rachel and Shelby did have sixteen years to catch up on.
"So… Beth is doing well, I'm guessing…" Rachel extended her slim arm upwards; quickly swiping a single finger underneath her right eyelid before Shelby could spot the lone tear that she had allowed to escape, cleverly extending upon the initial topic of conversation before she could allow things to get too out of control.
"Oh yeah," Shelby assured her with a confident nod, "She keeps me up all night crying, she's already a little diva… Plus, she's got a pretty good set of lungs on her… she takes after her sister with that one…"
As Shelby had previously expected, her statement registered an instantaneous response from Rachel, whose head had snapped upwards so quickly that her neck cracked loud enough for the older woman to hear it from her position all the way across the stage.
"Me?" She asked, pointing a skeptical finger deep inside of her own chest, half expecting Shelby to tell her no, of course she hadn't been talking about her, and in fact, that she was stupid for so much as thinking that to be the case.
"Of course you," Shelby reinforced, nodding her head firmly against Rachel's hesitancy towards believing her, "Who else would I be talking about?"
For a moment, Rachel considered her mother's question before finally settling with a shrug of her shoulders as she turned her back away from her mother… This all just seemed very unnatural to her, this sudden bombardment of maternal support on account of the fact that apart from her fathers, Rachel Berry had never really had a true family before…
It wasn't exactly a secret amidst her community that Rachel was the absolute pride and joy of her two gay dads… Her dad, Leroy was the only child of a cocaine addict and a deadbeat, and had quickly established himself as a lawyer strictly out of the sake of principle, leaving the family that he had never truly known far behind in his wake.
Meanwhile, her daddy Leroy had had a loving set of parents whose main fault rested in the fact that they had spent a lifetime longing for a daughter, refusing to stop trying until they were up to their necks with five boys and an eventual uterine cancer diagnosis managed to kill any hopes they had had for a girl while simultaneously killing any hopes of Rachel ever knowing her grandmother as well…
Yes, Rachel Berry had grown up the only girl in a strikingly male-populated family, which was exactly the reason why she couldn't help but allow the ghost of a smile to sneak from behind soft features as she acknowledged the fact that she had just managed to gain a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, and a sister all within a matter of minutes.
"I guess… I guess I just, I don't know… I thought that after you adopted Beth, that now that you had a baby that… that maybe you just figured that you wouldn't need me anymore." Rachel spoke, her cheeks glowing with embarrassment as the small smirk that had lit up her face mere moments ago disappeared.
"Rachel…" From beneath her veil of shame, she listened to her mother start what could have been a comprehensible sentence had she found the means by which to finish it. "I know that things have been… strange." Shelby started slowly, picking her words carefully as she progressed forward, "But you have to know that you will always be my first daughter… my only biological daughter really, if you want to start getting technical about things."
Rachel smirked upwards towards the comment, sneaking a sheepish glance towards Shelby in the acknowledgment of the fact that the older woman had just openly recognized her as her daughter for the first time.
"I'm always going to care about you Rachel."Shelby assured her, the smile behind her voice fading into a serious undertone. "So listen, the real reason that I came down here to talk to you today was that… well, I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days now, and… well, I would be honored Rachel, if you would be Beth's godmother."
For what seemed like the millionth time in the past minute alone, Rachel's glassy, doe-like eyes widened large within their sockets as her mouth dropped open in her shock.
Whatever she had been expecting Shelby to say, it had not been that.
"Really?"
"Really… I'm willing to bet the world that you would make an amazing godmother… and an amazing big sister too."
"I think that I would like that." Rachel nodded simply, a smile slowly formulating across the distance of her face resulting in the room glowing brighter than any stage light could ever make it, allowing it to linger only briefly before her expression crunched into a look of deep thought in response to her mind racing with the incessant, immediate ideas on how to go about her newly appointed role.
"I'm guessing that you've already presented Beth with the basics. Of course, there are your three B's; Bach, Beethoven and Brahms… but you can't forget to expand beyond that; Vivaldi, Handle, Mozart, Tchaikovsky… Of course, she might still have a couple of months left in her before she can truly start appreciating the classics, so I recommend a healthy dose of Phantom of the Opera combined with some Les Mis to start with… oh, and in order to extend a full appreciation of Sondheim in the future, I think that Into the Woods would be your best starting point and then you can just move up from there… Now, I entered my first singing competition at three months, but I believe that with the proper motivation, she'll be okay to wait another month or two, and then…"
"Rachel!" Shelby stopped the girl dead in her tracks, probably out of fear that the girl's head would positively pop off from all of the excitement had she allowed her to keep going.
The younger girl silenced instantly, wide-eyed and blue in the face; a direct result of her refusal to so much as breathe in between the words that she had just spewed out of her mouth at a mile a minute.
"How about we talk about his over dinner… maybe tonight?" Shelby offered, watching as Rachel nodded her head up and down in her acceptance of Shelby's offer.
"Okay," She complied, "It would give me enough time to complete my proposal on the appropriate activities that I think that we should enroll Beth in anyway. Plus, I might be able to come up with a suitable timeline of events… I can probably make it up to the age of five or six by tonight if I started right away…"
"That sounds perfect." Shelby nodded towards her, not even bothering to waste her breath by informing the girl that none of that would actually be necessary. She would humor her – for now, that is. "I'll pick you up?"
"I get out of dance at 6:00." Rachel informed her, her head bobbling up and down dramatically upon her thin neck.
"Then I'll see you at seven." Shelby compromised, "How does that sound?"
"It sounds good."Rachel nodded towards her as her words were swallowed behind the shrill ringing of loud bell indicative of the end of the class period, and subsequently, Rachel's free time… Instinctively, she looked downwards towards her left wrist directly at her watch; 10:46 a.m.
"Well, I gotta go… I scheduled a meeting for the glee club at lunch." Rachel explained quickly, packing her binder full of dutifully prepared sheet music back into her backpack. "We have to start scheduling summer rehearsal in order to make sure that we're fully prepared for when Regionals come around next year because I have every intention on absolutely creaming Vocal Adrenaline."
"Well I'm looking forward to cheering you on from the audience." Shelby voiced her approval towards the idea of the defeat of her former glee club, watching as Rachel flung her bag over her shoulders.
There was a brief moment in which the girl paused, closing her eyes temporarily in her hesitation as her mind scrambled, completely unsure as to what exactly it was that her next move should be.
It was several more long, tense seconds later that Rachel's muscles finally decided to act spontaneously on their own accord, pushing her body in closer towards her mother's where, before she'd even known what she was doing, she had her arms wrapped around Shelby's neck and her head buried deep into her hair as she closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, just taking in the potent scent of her perfume.
Underneath her arms, she felt Shelby tense momentarily underneath the sheer unexpectedness of Rachel's sudden attack, and for a split second, Rachel panicked, terrified that she had made the wrong move, subsequently screwing up all of the progress that her and her mother had just made to begin with, but finally, Shelby relaxed into the embrace, reaching up and pressing her hands firmly against Rachel's back as she shifted her body so that her daughter's head slid perfectly into the crook between Shelby's shoulder and her neck.
Together, their bodies fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, so perfect that they were literally forced to pry themselves apart from each other, afraid that if they didn't, they would simply just hold onto that position for the rest of their lives.
"Go ahead," Shelby's fingers slid painfully from her daughter's shoulders, nodding her out of the auditorium, "You don't want to be late for your own meeting."
Rachel smirked upwards towards her mother, her eyes lingering on the ones so identical to her own for one last split second before she turned, racing down the stage steps and reaching halfway up the aisle before stopping, mid stride to twist in a slow 180° circle so that she could turn to face Shelby once again.
"Thanks," She spoke softly, a tone of genuineness lingering behind her voice, "For everything, I mean…"
"You're very welcome," Shelby responded alongside a firm nod, "Now go." Motioning with her hands, she shooed the younger girl outward, watching as she followed her mother's direction with a strict obedience, scurrying the remainder of the length up the aisle and into the hall, pleased with the manner by which this day had been progressing forwards so far, and eager to see what was to later come of it.
Early on a Saturday morning in a small town in northwestern Ohio, long before the boys riding their bikes threw their rolled up newspapers in front of every driveway in town, littering the sidewalks with the yearbook photos of fourteen smiling ghosts silhouetted behind the words "Unspeakable Tragedy," before all of the over-achieving early morning joggers shut off their alarms and simply decided to sleep in that morning, and before fourteen lifeless bodies were removed from the broken shell of their old high school, veiled by the cover of vacuum-sealed plastic black bags, a woman sat, wide awake and stiff straight at her desk, nothing but the faint glow of a miniature lamp at her side to guide her motions as she entered a new day with a feeling of emptiness, jumping as her cell phone rang at her side; the call that would tell her whether or not her child had survived the night.
But even before that; early on a Friday morning in a small town in northwestern Ohio, long before the boys riding their bikes threw their rolled up newspapers in front of every driveway in town, littering the sidewalks with the yearbook photos of fourteen beaming seniors silhouetted behind the words "Destined for Greatness: William McKinley's Senior Class Prepares for Graduation," before all of the over-achieving early morning joggers rose to beat the hot summer's sun as they lapped the brand new, two million dollar track circling William McKinley High School's football field, and before either Jacob Ben-Israel or Suzy Pepper ever loaded a single bullet into a single gun, a teenager sat, wide awake and stiff straight at her desk, nothing but the faint glow of a miniature lamp at her side to guide her motions as she entered a new day with a feeling of hopeful promise, jumping as her cell phone rang at her side; the alarm signaling for her to get up and start a new day… even though she had already been awake for hours.
Rachel Berry had always been known for her motivation, but it was only after Regionals that it had exploded into proportions beyond that which even she had ever experienced... She wasn't about to waste any more opportunities to prove to the world just how good that she… that they could really be.
But as the sun rose, peaking gently through the spaces between the blinds, shimmering brightly against her windows, not even Rachel Berry could have imagined the extent of what that day would have in store for them all…
It would have been impossible for her to have guessed that by 10:00, she would have made peace with the woman that she had been struggling to call her mother for the past month, that by 10:15, she would feel as if she had finally located somewhere which she belonged. She would have called you crazy if you'd said that by 10:30, she would have acquired a grandmother as well as an aunt for the first time in her entire life, or that once 10:45 rolled around, she would not only have a beautiful baby sister, but a loving goddaughter as well.
Yes, as Rachel Berry rang in the rising sun introducing the warm, bright morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010, she had already been expecting a day filled with unprecedented surprises, but not even she could have expected just what those surprised were that awaited not only her, but the rest of Lima, Ohio as well…
For example, she hadn't been expecting to be hustling busily through the overcrowded hallways of William McKinley High School at approximately 10:46 a.m., cursing herself for her tardiness towards the glee club meeting that she herself had scheduled a day in advance in her effort to lay the blueprint for an entire year's worth of rehearsals that she had already spent countless sleepless nights preparing for…
But like it or not, there she was, glaring intently at the rows of clocks hanging above the heads of a hundred rushing students as they flipped simultaneously from 10:46 to 10:47, with her still no closer to her destination than she had been the moment she'd left the auditorium.
Powering angrily down the hallway, she began pushing her miniscule frame through the crowds, following the tide as the mass shoved her forwards just as 10:47 became 10:48.
It was only when a glistening 10:49 shined across her eyes that Rachel Berry had finally decided to roll up her sleeves and broaden her shoulders in her preparation to resort to physical violence in her effort to get to where she needed to be, because Rachel Berry was a woman on a mission; and once she got a plan firmly affixed in the back of her head, there was nothing in front of her that could get into her way.
Jutting her elbows out sideways, she began to jab at the ribs of every sorry sucker that crossed her overly-determined, overly-motivated path, but just as suddenly as she had started, she was once again forced to a stop.
It was 10:50 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 when Rachel Berry's thoughts finally strayed from the idea of her hopes, her dreams, and her glee club…
It was 10:50 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th 2010 when the first of a series of elongated, overwhelmingly loud echoes filled her eardrums with an uncomfortable throbbing and a loud buzz that rang across her head, lingering even long after the mysterious sound dissipated into the wind.
It was 10:50 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 that Rachel Berry's small body flinched involuntarily, reeling underneath the pressure of the unexpected explosion.
Her well-trained ears remained firmly poised, extending in its anticipation of hearing the noise again, but her thoughts didn't linger on this possibility; she'd already had a basic idea of the noise's source, and at the time, she'd believed this basic idea to be a very good one.
The senior class at William McKinley High School had a very affluent annual tradition; a competition – if you will – amongst the students stating that whoever could plan and carry out the cleverest senior prank before the last day of the calendar school year would be rewarded with the hard liquor of his or her choice at the grade's most anticipated graduation party of the summer…
And now that the school year was rapidly beginning to dwindle downwards, leaving the time frame of competition diminishing alongside it, students had begun scrambling, desperate to earn the title that they believed themselves to be awarded.
Bizarre, Neanderthal-like antics such as this had been commonplace within William McKinley's narrow walls for the past week or so now, and although Rachel frowned upon such ridiculous displays of immaturity, she opted to remain constantly aware on account of the fact that from her low-lying rung at the bottom of the social ladder, the brunt of all pranks were more often than not directed towards her, and she wanted to be ready for them for when they were.
Sighing heavily, she shook her head in her disappointment as the noise erupted once more from the adjacent hallway, closer the second time, but fading quicker into an eerie silence that lingered for several seconds in which you could positively hear a pin dropping against the crowded hall floors before it was broken by a single, shrill scream which had caught Rachel's attention instantly, mainly due to the fact that it had been off pitch.
It was 10:52 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 when it had happened again, but this time had been different; this time, Rachel felt herself stiffening, her senses overloading with the sounds of strangled screams and pounding footsteps as a thousand scattering teenagers stampeded back the way they had just come, the nearing, mysterious bangs sending what seemed like the entire student body of William McKinley High School into a state of muddled chaos.
Rachel had found herself completely shell-shocked in both fear and confusion. Her mind was scrambling, but she couldn't' seem to find it in her to produce a comprehensive thought that may entice any sort of bodily response.
So instead, she simply stood her ground, watching terrified as the horde of her fellow classmates pushed around her, running as quickly as their legs could carry them as they looked back over their shoulders every couple of seconds or so just to make sure that whatever it was that they were running from hadn't been following.
She let out a distinct grunt of pain as one of her fellow peers' elbows caught her around her middle, knocking the wind straight out of her lungs while simultaneously pushing her aside where a cluster of students trapped her into the corner as they attempted to shove, hit, and kick their way to safety.
It was 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 when the crowd finally thinned to a level in which Rachel found the room to straighten herself upwards, pausing in her search for answers towards what had just caused that mass pandemonium.
It was 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 that Rachel Berry had finally discovered the source of the noise, only to wish that she hadn't.
It was 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010 that Rachel Berry would learn the difference between a practical joke and a senseless act of tragedy.
But by then it had already been too late.
Straightening her spine fully upright, Rachel brushed the dust from her jeans before taking two large steps forward, ready to follow the large mass of students towards the main doors before a strangled cry like no other noise Rachel had ever heard before stopped her dead in her tracks.
At first, she had been convinced that the sound had been produced from some type of dying animal, because whatever it was, there was no way that it could have possibly been emitted by a human being…
But if there was one lesson that Rachel Berry was about to learn, it was that absolutely anything was possible, because before 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010, Rachel Berry also would have deemed it impossible for her to watch as one of her fellow classmates stumbled around the corner of the hallway of her high school with blood dripping from a bullet hole in his neck…
But there he was.
Rachel could literally feel her eyes widening with fear as her knees began to shake uncontrollably to the point that she knew she was no longer capable of so much as walking, let alone running in the other direction towards safety…
And for the first time in her entire life, Rachel finally understood exactly what the phrase 'scared stiff' actually meant, because for the first time in her entire life, Rachel found herself completely frozen in time.
All she could do was stand, feeling as her stomach took a sickening plunge straight downwards and into her feet as the realization of the scene surrounding her quickly overwhelmed each one of her senses, making it so that she was suddenly very painfully aware of her surroundings, painfully aware that both hers, as well as the rest of the 4,239 students and faculty at William McKinley High School's lives had just changed forever.
In September of 2009, Jamie Porter had finally found himself a senior at William McKinley High School.
Early in the start of the school year, he had managed to achieve a quick rise in popularity after he had become the first person of William McKinley High School's class of 2011 to turn 18, so that after spending three years as a hopeless loser, he managed to embrace the fact that he could be well liked as long as he obliged to his fellow senior's every requests of buying them cigarettes and Play Boy magazines at the local 711.
But at 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010, none of that seemed to matter anymore, because at 10:53 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 4th, 2010, Jamie Porter had erased every social label that he had desperately been trying to put behind him for the past four years now in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, Jamie Porter wasn't the kid willing to distribute illegal goods to minors anymore, or the loser whose bargaining chip into college was the fact that he had spent the past three years as the low brass captain of the marching band…
No, Jamie Porter wasn't much of anything anymore; he was simply just… bleeding… and somehow, he had managed to stumble directly into the line of vision of none other than Rachel Berry herself, who stood horrified with her mouth agape as she watched the blood ooze so thick and so prominently from his body that she couldn't even tell exactly where it was that it was coming from.
Horror stricken, Rachel couldn't find the power within her body to move. All she could do was watch as this young man, so child like in his vulnerability, staggered towards her several more paces, extending his blood-smeared hand in her direction and whispering his incomprehensible final plea for help before finally losing his footing, falling face forwards and motionless against the cold linoleum floor, a mere ten feet in front of her.
"Rachel Berry!"
The sound of her own name echoing loudly across the hall forced her to jump, her eyes snapping away from the boy on the ground and towards the length of the hallway in an effort to identify the source of the noise.
Her body shaking with the adrenaline spurred by fear, Rachel's terrified brown eyes locked with Suzy Pepper's piercing black ones as they glittered with malice behind the thick glass of her bifocals.
She recognized the threat in front of her for what it was instantaneously, feeling as her legs automatically shuffled the rest of her body backwards in a last desperate attempt to move herself out of the shooting range of a crazed teenager with a vendetta in her heart and a sawed off shotgun in her hands.
"Suzy…" Rachel responded simply, her voice whispering through the crack between her barely opened lips in a soft, high-pitched squeak before falling into a distant silence.
For the first time in her entire life, Rachel Berry was speechless.
Behind her, she felt as her back collided with the solid wall behind her with a dull thump, indicating that she had run out of room to back away, that she had suddenly found herself completely and utterly trapped.
"I warned you Berry." Suzy told her, her arm steady as she raised the firearm resting between her still hands and pulled the hammer backwards so that the resulting click burned like fire through Rachel's veins. "He was supposed to be mine. Mr. Schuester was supposed to be mine!"
Tears formed along the undersides of Rachel's eyes as she shook her head vigorously and pressed her body more firmly against the solid wall behind her, desperately willing herself to simply sink through the tiles and towards safety.
"He can be!" Rachel blurted when she found her former escape plan rendered unsuccessful, choosing instead to try her luck at pleading desperately for mercy, raising her arms high into the air and above her head, claiming her stance of vulnerability, emphasizing the fact that she had absolutely nowhere to go and nothing that she could think to do to get herself out of this one. "You can be Suzy… it… it doesn't have to be like this."
Maintaining the rigid eye contact Rachel was currently holding with Suzy Pepper, she refused to look away even as she caught a glimpse of Jamie Porter writhing with pain on the ground besides her through her peripherals…
Her natural instinct was screaming at her to turn, to run towards him, to run towards the exit doors, to run anywhere, but she didn't, terrified that even the slightest of motions would spook Suzy into becoming trigger-happy.
"No," Suzy finally responded after a long moment of silence that seemed to have lasted forever, "It does have to be this way."
Barely able to process the finality of Suzy's tone, her thoughts were overshadowed in an instant by an eruption of successive gunfire.
Rachel's vision narrowed in on the spark that had shot from the barrel of the weapon in front of her, her eyes dancing along the red, white, orange and yellow of the brief fire before the crack of the pressure wave colliding with the atmosphere as the bullet flew from its chamber distracted her, creating a sharp explosion so resounding that Rachel couldn't even hear her own thoughts over it.
But for all intents and purposes, that might have been for the best.
It felt as if the entire world had slowed down. Rachel was absolutely positive that she could literally see the bullets dancing spirals in midair as they soared closer and closer towards her general direction.
But she had found herself paralyzed; there was absolutely nothing that she could do, nothing that she could say, nothing that she could expect… except of course unless you counted the expectation that she was about to be hurt very, very badly.
It was 10:55 a.m. on a Friday morning in early June when four slugs were fired from the barrel of a Remington 1100 Tactical Shotgun, but it was only milliseconds later that they struck, plunging themselves into Rachel's chest with rapid succession; one, after the other, after the other, after the other, each hitting its intended target with a painful accuracy.
Yes, Friday June 4th, 2010 was shaping up to be just as unexpected a day as Rachel Berry could have ever possibly imagined and beyond…
It would have been impossible for her to have guessed that by 10:00, she would have made peace with the woman that she had been struggling to call her mother for the past month, that by 10:15, she would feel as if she had finally located somewhere which she belonged. She would have called you crazy if you'd said that by 10:30, she would have acquired a grandmother as well as an aunt for the first time in her entire life, or that once 10:45 rolled around, she would not only have a beautiful baby sister, but a loving goddaughter as well.
No, if you had only asked, Rachel Berry never would have guessed that by the time all of her morning classes had ended for the day, she would have acquired four new relatives to her rapidly growing family, just like she never would have guessed that by the time lunch had reared its ugly head at William McKinley High School, she would have acquired four new bullets to her chest as well…
But as Rachel Berry fell backwards against the hard, linoleum floor of an empty corridor along the second floor of William McKinley High School's west wing in the late morning hours of Friday, June 4th, 2010, too stunned to speak and too numb to move as a puddle of blood flourished underneath her body, draining the life rapidly from it, it seemed that everything that she had least expected, had been everything that she had gotten anyway.