Hey everyone! I posted this story yesterday, and was overwhelmed with the response, so thank you so much! Because of the amazing response to my first chapter, I went straight on to write the second. I really hope you enjoy this. Please review at the end, it means so much to me. Big shoutout to my incredible beta reader, Rebecca Ripple, who is my inspiration and good friend. Enjoy!
The blonde girl opened one eye at the sound of her alarm. She yawned loudly and leant over to turn it off. Stretching, Quinn felt a small smile tug at her lips. It was the first day of high school. And Quinn was ready. She couldn't wait to start cheerleading. It was the one thing about high school that had always appealed to her. Quinn had been dancing since she was five years old. She used to dance every single day, but now that schedule had relaxed somewhat.
Quinn got out of bed, and went over to her calendar, where she crossed off the last day of the holidays. She put on her favourite jeans and a tank top. She spent 20 minutes straightening her curly hair, which she had always hated. Looking in the mirror, she studied herself. She didn't particularly like what she saw, but now that her hair was straightened, and because of the nose job she got a few years ago, it was acceptable. Giving her hair one final flick, Quinn grabbed her bag and left, excited but undoubtedly scared for the day to come.
A couple of suburbs over, a certain brunette was still asleep. She had forgotten to set her alarm the night before, and she never woke up on time without it. Rachel moved around in her bed as she slowly awakened. She turned over and rubbed her eyes, looking over at her clock to see the time. When she saw that she had five minutes to get ready and get to school, she woke up immediately. "Oh, my god!" She exclaimed, pulling the covers off herself and getting out of the bed. She shook her head momentarily at her own stupidity for not setting the alarm, and made her way to her wardrobe. Looking at her options, Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Oh bugger it." Rachel faced the mirror as she conjured up a purple skirt and t-shirt to wear on her first day of high school. She did her hair in a similar manner; in one flick it was completely untangled and brushed. She didn't always use her powers this excessively, but she didn't want to risk being late for school. Rachel looked around for her bag and when she found it, took it and closed her eyes. The school was a good twenty minutes by bus, but she could get there instantly if she concentrated. She had only used teleportation a handful of times before, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Rachel arrived just outside the school. She looked all around her, making sure no one had noticed. She sighed with relief when no one seemed to have seen her. She walked into the school, smiling from the excitement of finally starting high school. She looked over at the main building, imagining what her next four years would be like. She didn't have many friends, she could never replace Quinn, and refused to get close to anyone new because she didn't want to have to leave them.
Quinn had arrived in her car a few minutes before. She had been wandering around until she saw Brittany, who she knew from dancing. She put up her hand to wave. "Hey Britt!" She smiled, relieved to have found someone she knew. Standing next to her was a brunette that didn't look as familiar.
"Hey Quinn!" Brittany smiled and waved back as Quinn walked towards them. "This is Santana. Santana, this is Quinn." Santana gave Quinn the onceover. Quinn felt rather exposed under her glare.
"Okay, she can hang out with us for now." Santana decided finally. "But if someone better comes along, you're out, princess." Quinn didn't know what to say. She realised that she had just gained a friendship group- maybe. Brittany clapped enthusiastically.
Quinn cleared her throat, trying to think of something impressive to say. "Same for you, Satana, is it?" Santana laughed, but it wasn't a warm laugh.
"I like your attitude, Quill." Quinn almost corrected her out of instinct but then realised that the brunette had done it on purpose. "But keep in mind, I make the rules around here. So if you want to hang out with us, you can't just do anything and hang out with anybody."
Quinn gulped, nodding solemnly. "Understood." She said.
Brittany smiled and jumped up and down. "This year is going to be so fun!" And for the first time in a long time, Quinn thought so too. But before she could say so, the bell rang, and they were forced to say their goodbyes and go to homeroom.
Rachel arrived at her first class early, and took a seat at the front of the classroom. The class was Math, which Rachel had always loved because she was so good at it. She didn't notice when the rest of the class came in, because she was too busy reorganizing her math folder. When the bell rang to start the class, the teacher called the class to attention.
"Alright class. Welcome to Advanced Mathematics. I am Ms Pert, and I will be your teacher this year. Now, I know the textbooks haven't arrived yet, so to start off I've put together these sheets as a kind of revision from middle school. You may complete them in pairs." The teacher started handing out the sheets as the rest of the class paired up. Rachel was perfectly content to do the work by herself, she found it a lot easier to concentrate. She took a pen out of her pencil case and looked down at the sheets.
"Hi, do you mind if we work together?" Rachel sighed, and looked up to see who her new partner was. Rachel almost dropped her pen when the girl whose eyes she looked into looked awfully familiar.
"I- euh, yeah that's fine. Great." Rachel mumbled, staring at the blonde. Quinn smiled back at her.
"Cool. Thanks." She sat down, and then said in a sort of panic, "I do have friends, by the way, they just aren't in this class." Quinn said, feeling the need to prove she prove she wasn't a loser.
Rachel was still in shock, but she covered it up with a smile. She couldn't get over how different Quinn was. In fact, if it weren't for her beautiful green eyes, Rachel may not have even been able to recognise her.
"Don't worry, I believe you Quinn." Rachel said, not realising her mistake. But Quinn did. She looked at Rachel strangely.
"Um, how did you know my name?" She asked, hoping she hadn't just stumbled upon a crazy stalker. Rachel's eyes widened as she inwardly cursed herself.
"The teacher called role before. So, um this first question, do we use the sine or cosine rule?" Rachel quickly distracted, hoping Quinn wouldn't notice that the teacher hadn't, in fact, called role. The blonde looked down at the sheet, breathing in slightly as she thought.
"Cosine. We're given 2 sides and an angle."
"Oh yeah." Rachel confirmed although she was still staring at Quinn. Why would she change herself? What happened to those beautiful curls? And that nose that was so cute? Quinn lifted her eyes to Rachel and giggled awkwardly when she caught her staring at her.
"I'm sorry, you know my name, but what's yours?" she asked politely, noticing that the brunette was very pretty.
"I'm Rachel, Rachel B-." As Rachel said it, her words caught in her throat. It felt so odd introducing herself to the girl who was once her best friend. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Rachel Berry."
Quinn smiled. "It's nice to meet you Rachel." Rachel tried to speak, but didn't have any words to say. So she simply nodded, and they continued with the math questions in relative silence.
Towards the end of the class, Quinn looked over the sheets that they had finished before anyone else in the class. "Wow, you're quite the mathematician." Rachel looked down to the floor at the compliment, blushing slightly.
"You're just as good," she said truthfully. Rachel wasn't one to lie if she didn't have to. "Are you thinking of being a Math teacher or something?"
Quinn laughed. "Me, a teacher? I don't think so." She shook her head and wrote both their names at the top of the page. Rachel pretended not to notice that Quinn had written 'Rachael' instead of 'Rachel' because it was a hurtful reminder that she was a complete stranger to Quinn.
"So what do you want to be?" Rachel was intrigued. She had heard Quinn talk about wanting to be a teacher when she was little. It stung a little to know that wasn't the case anymore, or to Quinn, may never have been the case. Not because Rachel had some strange desire for her to become a teacher, but because it occurred to her that she didn't know Quinn quite as well as she thought she did. Had the memories that replaced those of Rachel made Quinn a completely different person? It seemed logical. They had spent the majority of their time together. It made sense that whatever she remembered as her past had made the blonde have different ideas and had changed her personality. Thinking this, Rachel wanted to cry. For the first time ever -even though Quinn was sitting right next to her- Rachel felt as if she had completely lost her best friend. There was no getting her back.
"I don't know." Quinn admitted, bringing Rachel back to the present. She thought for a second, and then grinned. "Well I've been dancing since I was five, maybe I'll continue that in some form." She smiled at the thought of dancing, but Rachel just stared back at her, confused.
"I didn't know you danced." Now it was Quinn's turn to look confused.
"What?"
"I just meant that, um- You don't strike me as a dancer." Rachel tried to cover up, but the girl sitting next to her seemed saddened by the statement. Her shoulders dropped and she avoided Rachel's gaze.
"Gee, thanks." Quinn muttered bitterly. The bell rang as she said it and she stood up, turning to walk away.
"Wait, Quinn, I didn't mean it. You look like a dancer, I just-" Rachel cursed under her breath. Not one conversation with her and she'd already blown it.
"It was, ah- nice to meet you Rachel," Quinn said in a forced tone before she walked away.
As she watched the blonde walk away from her yet again, Rachel couldn't help but think that maybe not Quinn not liking her was for the best. After all, she'd lived without her for more than five years, she could last another four. What she couldn't control was the feeling that crept into her chest whenever the blonde was around. A feeling she'd since forgotten, but was returning fast.
Quinn smiled enthusiastically when she saw Brittany and Santana walking towards her, but then remembered what Santana had said that morning, and tried to play it cool. "Hey," she said in what she hoped sounded like false sweetness.
"Hi, Quinn. How you liking high school?" Santana stood with her hand on her hip and Quinn couldn't help but be the slightest bit attracted to her. But no one knew she was gay, so she knew that being Santana's friend would mean that she'd continuously have to monitor her gazing.
"It's been really good, all the classes are quite fun, and the teachers-" Quinn stopped at the look she was getting from Santana, and realised where she had gone wrong. "I mean- it's okay I guess. I saw a few cute boys but nothing exceptional. And just looking at that cafeteria food made me want to be sick." Quinn searched for approval in the brunette's face. Santana looked somewhat unconvinced but nodded all the same. Britt simply smiled and started playing with her hair.
"Oh look." Santana rolled her eyes in the direction of a girl nearby. Quinn whipped her head around to see who she was referring to, and recognised the figure of Rachel, the girl in her Math class. "It's Berry. It's seems that she has been mixing up the fashion dos and don'ts even more than usual this year." Santana did not care that Rachel could hear her, in fact, she seemed to be counting on it. Quinn could see Rachel's head shrink into her shoulders even though she was now facing the opposite direction. Santana snickered, and Quinn laughed awkwardly, too. She wasn't going to throw away a friendship with Santana (whom, she had found out, was a favourite for head cheerleader) because of some nerdy girl who thought she didn't have the right look for a dancer. Tryouts were tomorrow and Quinn needed all the help she could get.
Rachel's heart sunk when she heard that laugh that she knew all too well. Quinn was not only now friends with Santana- Rachel's number one tormentor in middle school- she was also laughing at Rachel. Like all those years of them playing together and sharing their deepest secrets with each other never even happened. 'Oh wait,' Rachel thought bitterly as she walked away. 'They didn't.'
Awww poor Rach. Please, please let me know your thoughts on this. I would love to answer any questions you may have or take any suggestions! Huge thank you to EveryKurtHasHisSam, loo (guest), gllover22, Lisa418 (guest), musicalwolf89, and Guest for reviewing! You guys made me smile so much :D
Until next time, Lauren xoxo