27I feel so awful that it's been months since I've updated. I've just finished editing all of the other chapters, since yaknow, they clearly needed revision. I know I'm not great with sticking to things, but when I look back at it and all of your lovely reviews, you all just inspire me. I want to thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for having patience with me!
Rachel walks into school feeling more confident than ever. She finally has friends to back her up. She sees San and Britt at Santana's locker and Rachel starts to walk over there. Suddenly, she feels something cold hit the back of her head. She automatically knows it's a slushy. It starts dripping down her back and coating her hair. She turns around and sees Karofsky holding the cup and Quinn laughing behind him.
Rachel is mortified. Santana and Brittany turn and see Rachel covered in the raspberry slushy. Rachel flees to the bathroom without a glance.
Santana screams, "Rachel, wait!" And they run after her.
They walk in and find Rachel struggling to breathe at the sink. Santana runs over and tries to calm Rachel down and instructs her to breathe in and out.
"Rachel, where's your other set of clothes?" Brittany asks.
"In my locker," Rachel mumbles. Brittany staggers out the bathroom and runs to grab her other pair of clothes and her makeup bag. After grabbing them, she sees Quinn and Kurt laughing and Brittany sees red. She normally doesn't get mad, so it's such a rare sight to see the animated blonde get worked up over anything.
"What's your problem Quinn? Why are you so mean to Rachel?! She didn't do anything to you! And you, Kurt! How could you let Rachel to be bullied after you've felt what it's like to be bullied yourself? I don't understand how you both could be so mean," Brittany frowns.
Quinn laughing says, "You're so damn naïve Britt. This is high school; only the strong survive. If you haven't noticed, Manhands isn't popular and no one can stand the thought of talking to her, let alone being her friend."
"But I'm her friend," Brittany mumbles.
"You should get rid of her while you still can," Kurt responds, "She's not worth it."
"No. You are not worth it. You ditched her when she needed you most and she's been all alone for years. You both think you can just stomp on her feelings like they mean nothing, but newsflash, she's a person. She's not a punching bag that you can use whenever you need to feel better about yourself. She's a person and she has feelings, whether you care about them or not." Brittany was in a blind rage at this point.
Kurt looked shocked, but Quinn started cruelly laughing, "Yeah, whatever Britt. I promise I won't be here when you and Santana come crawling back to me because you realized what a mistake it was to become friends with that thing. Let's go Kurt." With that, they left.
Brittany can't even stomach the thought of being Quinn's friend again, after all that she's done. Only people out of their right mind would want to be friends with her. Or for the social power. Brittany sighs and heads back to the bathroom.
"What took you so long Britt?" San wonders.
"Oh, it just took me a while to get Rach's locker open," Brittany sheepishly grins and hands Rachel the clothes.
Rachel smiles graciously and takes the clothes from Brittany and enters a stall to change. She removes the icy, argyle sweater and skirt and exchanges them for jeans and a more chic sweater from Forever 21. She exits the stall and Santana has her crouch in front of the sink. Santana rinses Rachel's hair and melts all of the ice out. She towel dries Rachel's hair and decides to style it into a French braid, while Brittany applies makeup to Rachel's bruises.
Once finished, Rachel takes a look at herself in the mirror and is overwhelmed with happiness. She smiles gratefully at San and Britt and they all head to first period.
Rachel isn't bothered again, until lunch. She's heading to lunch right after English, when one of the Cheerios purposely puts their foot out and before Rachel can stop herself, she's face planting. Every bruise on her body aches when she hits the floor. She yelps in pain, while the Cheerios gather around her, cruelly laughing. She looks up into the eyes of Quinn and she sees no remorse in her hazel eyes.
Suddenly, she hears Brittany, "Rachel! Are you okay!? Rach!"
San and Britt help Rachel to her feet and Santana tells Brittany to take Rachel to the nurse and she'll meet up. Brittany agrees and leads Rachel away.
Once Rachel's out of sight, Santana pounces. "What fucking game do you think you're playing here Quinn? Do you think it's fun to hurt people because they're happy and you're a bitter bitch? Finnocence not enough of a man to keep a needy bitch like you content? No other guy would ever put up with your shit; you're lucky Frankenteen can't see past your looks. If he could, he'd dump your sorry ass in a heartbeat. I'm only going to tell you one more time, stay the fuck away from Rachel."
Quinn scoffs and looks at her, already bored, while checking out her nails.
Santana can't conceal her rage. She turns around and heads to the nurse before she really does something she might regret.
The nurse is checking out Rachel's nose when Santana comes back.
"You're okay, Rachel. It's not broken; it should bruise in a day or two, but you have nothing to worry about." The nurse says to Rachel. Rachel smiles gratefully at the nurse and thanks her.
Rach, San, and Britt make their way out of the nurse's office and head to the rest of lunch. They sit at their own table. Whenever San looks around, she can briefly see Quinn glaring. The sight alone makes her want to slap that look off of that bitch's face.
Rachel and Brittany are animatedly talking, when Mike, Matt, and Noah approach their table.
"Is it all right if we sit here?" Mike asks. Brittany nods enthusiastically, while Rach and San look at them curiously.
The boys sit down and Brittany immediately begins a conversation. Rachel zones out during most of the conversation as she feels slightly uneasy. She's felt that way around most guys after the incident. She doesn't know Matt or Mike very well and they make her nervous. They seem nice enough but she's never gotten to know them outside of Glee Club. Noah could never make Rachel feel nervous though. They've been going to the same Temple for years and his mother has always been so kind to Rachel whenever they saw each other.
Rachel breaks out of her trance and senses there's a pair of eyes trained on her. She looks to her right and there's Noah staring at her with concern. His eyebrows are furrowed and he seems to be concentrating on something. Rachel looks away and continues to eat her vanilla yogurt.
Lunch ends pretty quickly and the rest of the day flies by for Rachel. She didn't receive another slushy and she had Britt and San by her side most of the day. And now it's time for Glee. Rachel feels a slight sense of dread, but it isn't as strong as it usually is. She feels more confident walking in there. She has more friends and she's never felt better.
That is, until Mercedes and Kurt walk in.
Mercedes walks right up to Rachel and sneers, "I see Manhands has finally gotten herself a sense of style. You think you're all that now that you had someone help you pick out better clothes and you have two friends? Face it, you're still a nobody. A worthless, pathetic nobody."
Kurt smirks, while Rachel tries not to let her harsh words bother her.
"Wheezy, what the hell did I tell you earlier? Just because I only said it to Quinn doesn't mean that shit doesn't apply to you and Lady Hummel," Santana sneers.
"I'd watch your back, Sandbags," Quinn buts in.
"You think I'm fucking afraid of you Quinn?" Santana spits her name out like poison.
"Santana, I think you better just back off, alright," Finn interjects.
"Did anyone ask you fetus face? No? Then stay out of shit that isn't your business," Santana sneers. Finn looks like he's about to object, when Mr. Schue walks in.
"Alright guys, the theme this week is family," he writes the theme on the board, while half the club rolls their eyes. Mr. Schuester turns around to face the class. "Everyone in this club is a family. We care for each other as we care for our actual families. This week, we're going to celebrate how much we care for our little family here," he says excitedly.
Brittany raises her hand and he calls on her. "Why would the theme be family if not everyone here is nice?" Britt asks, confused.
Mr. Schue looks taken aback as he answers, "Brittany, that is untrue. I have never seen any act of bullying in this club."
Santana rolls her eyes, "Then you must be blind. It's pretty hard not to notice the exclusion in this club."
"What are you talking about Santana? I would never allow any form of harassment in this club," Mr. Schue protests.
"Then you're clearly not paying enough attention. You only see what you wanna see," Santana drawls.
"I don't tolerate bullying and I've never seen any form of it in this club."
"Are you fucking kidding me?! You say you've never seen any form of bullying in this class? It happens every day, and hell, most of the time you join in. Rachel is subjected to yours and everyone else's bitching and judgment every day and you don't think that's a form of bullying?! You all attacked her while she never did anything to you. She was weak and defenseless and you used that to your advantage and that's fucking sick," Santana explodes.
"But you did the same thing to her! What makes you think you're so different from us?" Kurt shouts at Santana.
"It's quite simple, Porcelain. I realized what I used to do to Rachel was wrong. I apologized to her and I was lucky enough that she accepted my apology. I wanted to make amends with her. What do you think people are gonna say about you in ten years? That you were a nice person? That you helped everyone who needed it? You can hope for that, but chances are quite slim at this point. Ten years from now, people will remember you as a cruel person who fed off of other's pain. Is that how you really want to be remembered?" Santana rants.
Everyone looks at her shocked, even Mr. Schue.
"You know what Rach, come on, we're leaving." Rach and Britt stand to join Santana as she leaves.
"Wait up! We're coming too," Noah shouts as Mike, Matt, and he run to catch up, "That asshole doesn't know anything. He doesn't deserve someone as talented as you Rach."
Rachel's heart warms at that and she smiles softly at Noah. She's still in shock. No one has ever stuck up for her like they have. It puts this dazzling smile on her face and gives her hope. Hope that these friends will stick by her through anything. Hope that her luck will improve. Hope that she never has to go through the pain of being alone ever again. This is the first time that Rachel's had hope in years and nothing could remove the smile from her face.
I still really am sorry for such slow ass updating :( I hope I'll do better! Please leave me any reviews that could help me :) ilysm