IMPORTANT A/N (please read): So, when I started this, I had plans for it to be a full fledged one shot that would stand alone, but then I sort of lost my initial drive for it, so drabble it is! Sorry it took me so long to update, lack of inspiration. Which leads me to my next point... prompts! I love love love love love prompts. Please give me prompts to fill for this story. Or just give me prompts in general to write, but specifically if you follow this story, puck/rachel prompts! I'll take any kind: just a single word, and image, based on a movie, give me a sentence or a piece of dialogue.. anything! So if you like this collection, and would like to see it updated more frequently, please prompt me.
The first time Rachel Berry ever speaks to Noah Puckerman, it's in between sobs on a playground outside of the JCC at age five.
She had been sitting next to the slide, practicing her autograph in a pink little notebook with gold stars on the cover over and over and over again when he ran past. She looked up and smiled because even though they'd never spoken, the other day when Jacob sat next to her, he pushed Jacob out of the seat before taking it. She's never had a friend before, but she thinks he could be her first.
So when he comes up and spills grape juice all over her head and drenches the notebook with Rachel Berry * written perfectly thirty times, she blinks a few times in confusion. And then she burst into tears.
She's sobbing loudly and uncontrollably and through her tears she can see his face wearing an expression of alarm. He crouches down in front of her and pries the notebook from her hands, and attempts to wipe the juice from the page. That only makes it worse, the ink smearing all over the place. She wails and she wails and doesn't stop until all of a sudden he's hugging her. She quiets and tenses in his arms.
"Wh- what are you doing?" She says. He just poured something on top of her head and now he's hugging her. What is going on?
He pulls back and speaks "I'm sorry, Rachel. I was just mean to you because I like you and wanted you to see me. I didn't want you to cry though. Seeing you cry makes me sad. Please don't hate me." He's pouting and she's gigging because he likes her. No boy has ever liked her before. It makes her feel funny in her tummy.
She grabs her hand in his and smiles brightly, displaying the gaps where her two front teeth should be.
"It's okay! I'd never hate you."
X
Ten years later, after he's poured another grape beverage down her face, that's what she's thinking of. "I was just mean to you because I like you and wanted you to see me." She looks at the cackling students around her and wonders if the same rules still apply. Would her crying still make him sad? Would that make him stop this now daily ritual?
She thinks the answer might be yes, but she can't test the theory. She doesn't want to give these other kids the satisfaction.
A/N: Enjoy it? If so, drop me a line! I adore reviews and would really appreciate it. Also, raeganb123: (i'm writing this to you here because I know you follow this story, thanks for that by the way) I AM working on your finn/rachel prompt. I started it, but am having trouble getting it to come out like I hoped, but just know that I didn't forget about it!