My Imaginary Friend - Rachel/Quinn - Prologue
Leroy smiled and ducked back into the kitchen.
"Is she talking to her imaginary friend again?" Hiram asked as he piled some mashed potatoes onto a small plate.
"I think it's cute," Leroy huffed.
"I never said it wasn't cute. What's his name again?"
"Quinn."
---
"I don't want to be the father! Why do I always have to be the father?" Rachel groaned as she stomped her foot against the floor.
"Because there's a mommy and a daddy and a baby. And Mr. Monkey is the baby and I'm the mommy so you're the daddy."
"Why can't I be the baby," she said as she stuck her thumb in her mouth and proceeded to suck on it.
Quinn strode over to her and pulled her hand away from her mouth. "No, you're too old to be the baby. So you'll be the father and I'll be your wife."
At this the brunette perked up and smiled at Quinn. "Okay, but I want to be the mommy."
Quinn let out a deep grunt of frustration. "Rach, you are so frustrating. You're the daddy, I'm the mommy. The end."
Rachel frowned, but inside she was overjoyed at the nickname Quinn had bestowed upon her. "Well, why can't there be two mommies?" She plopped down onto a chair and crossed her arms in defiance.
"Rachel, that's silly. There's always a mommy and a daddy."
"Nu uh, I have two daddies, so why can't someone have two mommies."
Quinn's face scrunched in thought.
"Fine, you can be the mommy too then."
"Good," Rachel said as she jumped up and hugged her friend.
Quinn's cheeks would have blushed if you could have seen them. But she's imaginary.
---
It was Rachel's fifth birthday and her father's had thrown her a Broadway themed party. There were a bunch of kids from the neighborhood that she'd never met before. One in particular kept tugging on her pigtails, Noah was his name, and so she retreated into her playhouse to get away from him.
She sat on her little yellow chair and silently cried to herself, trying to act like a big girl because she was five now and that meant she would be going to school soon. And big girls don't cry.
"What's wrong?"
Startled Rachel nearly choked on her tears. She wiped away her tears and then cleaned her hands on her dress. She flatten out the wrinkles and then stood, composed.
"Nothing. I - um, nothing. I was merely practicing my remarkable ability to cry on cue and judging by your reaction it was spot on. So you shouldn't be worried, because clearly nothing is wrong."
"You're a liar."
Rachel was wordless. Normally that little speech would have earned her a pat on the head for her advanced vocabulary, or at least shocked looks from parents. But no, Quinn saw right through her act. She always did, and that kind of bugged Rachel.
"Fine. I was crying. Happy?"
"No."
There was silence and Rachel took in the blonde's appearance. She was wearing a simple blue dress with white frill and it made Rachel kind of jealous for how good she looked.
Quinn broke the silence. "What happened?"
Rachel took in a deep breath and held it. When she could no longer hold it in she blurted out, "It's my fifth birthday and my daddies invited a bunch of people I don't even know, and the singer was completely off key when she sang Funny Girl and I know I could have done better. And then some kid were complaining that the food sucked because there weren't any hot dogs or hamburgers, because as you know I'm a vegetarian. And then this boy named Puck kept pulling on my pig tails and it really hurt and I told him to stop but then he just did it more. And I don't want to be spending my birthday with all these people I don't know because I'd rather spend it with you."
Rachel clasped her hands to her mouth in shock at the last sentence. Quinn had a huge grin plastered across her face. She took a deep breath and then replied, "You wanted to spend it with me?"
Rachel removed her hands, the blush still present. She twisted her feet in the ground and avoided Quinn's eye. "O-Of course Quinn. You, you're my, you're my, b-b-best friend." And which that Rachel began to cry again.
Quinn ran forward and engulfed her in a hug, wiping away the tears with her right hand as her left hand lifted Rachel's face to look at her. "You're my best friend too." And she kissed Rachel on the cheek, causing her to blush even harder.
Quinn stepped back and quickly changed the subject. "Well, it's still your birthday. Why don't we play something?"
Rachel sniffed an gave Quinn an appreciative smile. "Let's play pirates!"
Quinn smiled.
"Okay, you can be my wrench."
Rachel gasped. "Hey, who says you're not my wrench!"
"Yeah, okay Nostra Stella. Whatever you say."
---
"Quinn!" The five-year old screamed as she sat up in bed. She pulled her stuffed monkey tight to her chest and fought back the tears fighting to fall. "Quinn, Quinn, where are you?" she whimpered.
A branch hit the window and the brunette jumped under the covers closing her eyes tight.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
Rachel began to quietly sing to herself, struggling to forget her nightmare.
To see for certain what I thought I knew
She had been walking down an empty hallway with Quinn by her side, hand in hand.
Far far away, someone was weeping
And then Noah Puckerman came out of nowhere and took Quinn from her. Dragged her away.
But the world was sleeping
And she couldn't move. No matter how much she willed her feet to move she was glued to the spot.
Any dream will do
And so she woke up screaming the blonde's name.
Then she felt a hand on her arm. It began rubbing slow circles along her skin. She opened her eyes and Quinn was there. She could barely make her out in the darkness, but it was her. "I'm here Rach. I'm here. There's nothing to be scared of. It was just a dream."
Rach leapt upon her, embracing her in a tight hug. Quinn let out a quiet giggle and hugged the smaller girl back. She rubbed her back and reassured her everything was going to be okay.
"I had a dream. And you were gone, and I couldn't go to you. And I could, couldn't move. And..."
Quinn cut her off. "Shh, it's okay. It was just a dream. I'm here right now. I'm not going anywhere."
"Stay with me." Rachel blurted out and immediately regretted it. Even in the darkness Quinn could see the blush forming and acted quickly to relieve the brunette's embarrassment. "Of course. Of course, you can sleep with me. I'm not going anywhere."
And with that she pulled Rachel into her arms, and the girl settled into the spot that seemed to have been made just for her. Quinn stroked her hair and soon the quickened breathing become slow and steady and the blonde knew she was asleep.
And in the morning, Quinn was gone.
---
It was Rachel's first day of school and she clung to both her fathers' hands as they led her into her classroom. She had already met her teacher at back to school night, but after that she left with her daddies, today she knew she'd have to go it alone. She swallowed all her fear and stood up straight, not wanting to let on that she was just as nervous as every other kid in there.
She strode right up to the teacher, and held out her hand like Papa had taught her to do. "Hello Mrs. Irving. My name is Rachel Berry. I'm five years old and my favorite color is pink and I'm going to be in your class this year. I'm a strict vegetarian and I'm going to be on Broadway one day."
Mrs. Irving looked pleasantly shocked and took the girl's hand, giving it a firm shake. "Well it's nice to meet you Rachel. I'm sure we're going to have a wonderful year. Is this your father?" she asked referring to the man chatting up another mother, her daddy was off putting her stuff in her desk.
Rachel struggled to smile, her nerves still working against her, and she looked her teacher square in the eye and said, "Yes, that is my Papa. And that's my Daddy." She pointed to Leroy.
"Oh, you have two fathers," she said and left it at that.
Rachel walked over to her Daddy as Noah walked past her to talk to some other boys gathering together.
"Hey guys, I'm Puck. I'm badass."
They all gasped at Puck's profanity, a glimmer of awe in their eyes.
As Rachel watched these proceedings, a rather freakishly tall boy slid up to her. "Um, hi, I'm, um, Finn. It's, uh, really nice to meet you." He stared at his feet the entire time. She was about to reply when Noah interrupted.
"Hey man, you don't want to talk to her. She's a freak. My mom made me go to her birthday party cuz we're both Jewish and she ran off to her playhouse and cried the whole time. Plus her dads are like totally gay."
Finn looked confused, a face he would often wear and said, "Dads? She was more than one. And what's 'gay'?"
Noah smirked and jutted out his chest as some sort of male dominance ritual, "yeah, she's got more than one. And gay means they like worship the Devil or something like that. Don't talk to her or it might rub off on you."
Finn gave her an apologetic look and walked off with Puck to join the rest of the boys.
Rachel tried to keep her composure but Quinn wasn't there to hold her hand and tell her everything would be fine, so she ran over to her Papa and grabbed at his sleeve. "Papa, Papa. I wanna go home. I don't like school. I wanna go home with you and Daddy."
Hiram excused himself from the conversation he was having and bent down to look Rachel in the eyes. "Hey, sweetie, what's wrong? Tell Papa."
Rachel shook her head and said, "Nothing. I just don't like it here. Can't I just start next year?"
"Hey, hey, hey my little diva. We talked about this. It's time for you to start school so you can learn lots of big kid things and then you'll be all smart and grown up and you can go take over Broadway." His face broke out in a grin and he poked his daughter in the side. "Besides, you don't wanna hang out with me and Daddy. We're really boring. We're probably just gonna sit around the house and stare at the walls cuz we're that boring. You'll be begging us to go to school."
Rachel giggled and wiped away a tear that had been forming. "Okay."
"Okay?" Hiram asked. Rachel nodded. "Okay. Let's go make sure your Daddy is organizing your supplies correctly.
"Color order!" they both said at the same time. Rachel snickered and let her Papa lead her over to her desk. Maybe school wouldn't be that bad.
She was wrong.
---
Everyday Rachel would go to school, except weekends and holidays of course, and then she would come home. And that was what kept her going, because when she came home she and Quinn would play games, or watch TV, and sometimes they even talked about boys - though that wasn't Rachel's favorite subject. This afternoon in particular they were working on homework. Rachel had to read two chapters in her "Learn to Read" book and Quinn had some addition problems to work on. Quinn was actually really smart, which kind of made Rachel jealous, but then again, it was just another thing to love about the blonde.
Love. Rachel knew what the word meant. She'd heard Daddy say it to Papa and she said it about things like "Les Miserable" and "Barbra Streisand." And she knew she liked Quinn just as much as she loved those things, so she had to love Quinn. It made sense.
The blonde looked up from her math sheet to see a spaced out Rachel. "Hey, Earth to Rach," she said. Rachel was snapped out of her thinking and she looked over at Quinn. "Houston, we have contact!"
Rachel smiled and threw a pillow at her. She ducked and threw one back at the brunette. "Hey, not fair!" Rachel protested.
"Yeah? You wanna know what's not fair?" Quinn slowly inched towards her on her knees. And then she leapt on the brunette and started tickling her sides.
"Hey! You know I'm really ticklish. Stop it Quinn. That's not fair!" She said as she secretly enjoyed it.
"Exactly"
Eventually the blonde gave up and fell onto her back, tickling was rather exhausting you see. Rachel joined her, struggling to catch her breath.
"Quinn..." Rachel asked timidly.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"I love you."
Quinn sat up and turned towards Rachel. Rachel then followed.
"Rach, you're my best friend, so of course I love you too." Rachel looked relieved and attacked her with a hug. "You're my best friend too."
She pulled away and returned to her back. "You're my only friend." But she whispered that and the blonde didn't hear."
"What?" Quinn asked as she too fell to her backside.
"Nothing."
And then Quinn took Rachel's hand in hers and Rachel smiled that smile that was only reserved for Quinn.
Yeah, Rachel loved Quinn.
It made sense.
---
When Rachel started the second grade, everything would change.
It was the third week after Winter Break and they'd been given a writing assignment "Write about your best friend." Today was Rachel's day to read hers aloud and she'd been practicing all weekend. Her fathers applauded her, remarking at how fearless she was and reminding her what an amazing actress she would make one day. She just beamed at them and started over. By Sunday, they all felt like they could recite it from memory.
She spent lunch going over it again and again, too nervous to eat her soy butter and strawberry jelly sandwich on vegan bread. When the bell rang she jumped a foot in the air. The class began to file back in from playing in the snow and she was already at her desk, muttering her paper to herself.
"Alright class, now it's time for more of our stories. Let's see, who's turn is it." The teacher pulled out her list, adjusting the glasses on her nose. "Ah, yes, Miss. Berry. Come to the front of the class, Rachel. No need to be nervous."
She wasn't nervous. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself. Rachel stood up, flatten out her plaid skirt and adjusting her argyle sweater. She strode to the front with confidence and began.
"My best friend's name is Quinn. She has blonde hair and hazel eyes. That means they're green but with little freckles of brown. Especially her right eye. She's the same age as me and I've known her for like, ever."
Her teacher cleared her throat at the use of the word "like," but Rachel payed no attention.
"Quinn is always there for me. She makes me happy when I'm sad, and makes me laugh all the time. One time, we set up traps around my house like in that movie, "Home Alone." Quinn loves gymnastics. And she's really good at it. She won some championship or something like that. She tells me that one day she's gonna go to the Olympics. She's my best friend because she gets me and is never mean to me, like some people."
She shot a glare at Puck.
"We've decided we're gonna go to college together and then live together, because boys are stupid and we wouldn't want to live with one. It'll be hard to balance my career on Broadway and her Olympic training, but we'll do it because we love each other."
And with that she finished. The class was silent, and as she was about to return to her seat, her teacher piped up. "That was very lovely Rachel. Where does Quinn live? Does she go to school here?"
Rachel looked confused. She actually didn't know the answer. "I don't know Mrs. James. She doesn't go here, and I don't really know where she lives."
This perplexed the aging teacher. "Well, then how do you know her?"
Rachel knew the answer to that. "She came to me when I was sad, and she comes when I need her, or just when I'm bored and want someone to play with."
'Oh my God, she's your imaginary friend. Oh, that is too good. Berry's still got an imaginary friend!" Puck shouted as he jumped up from his seat. "Does your daddy still wipe your butt too?"
Mrs. James shot him a stern look.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he corrected, "You have two daddies. So which one does it for you?"
Rachel's face was slowing turning purple with rage. She ran over to Puck and slapped him clear across his face. The class fell silent. "I'll have you know Noah that I am perfectly capable of using the toilet all by myself and have been since the age of three. And Quinn is not imaginary. She is entirely real. And I would introduce you to her, but she is so much better than you and I would not want to hurt her eyes for having to look at your ugly face. You're just jealous that I have a father at all."
That was the last straw for Puck. Not only had she called him "Noah" but she had mocked the fact that his father had left his mother rather recently. "You know what Berry, I'm glad I haven't met this friend of yours." He made air quotation marks at the word 'friend,' "Because any friend of yours must be a loser because that's what you are. You're a loser. A friendless loser whose only friends are in her imagination. And your nose is too big for your face." He added the last part as a side note.
At this point, Mrs. James tried to interject, but was quite old and Puck was rather large for his age, so she just slunk back into her seat as so many teachers in Ohio do. "You've got no friends, you're never going to have any friends, because you're a freak. Friendless freak. Friendless freak. Friendless freak." He began to chant it and slowly the rest of the class joined in. First it was Karofsky, then Azimio. Finn seemed to be pretending to say it, but the action alone spoke volumes. Rachel shook with the urge to cry and then she ran out of the room, tears starting to stream.
She ran all the way home, which wasn't that far considering how small a town Lima, Ohio was. When she got there she ran around to the back and into her playhouse. She had grown quite a bit since the age of five, and now as an eight year old it was rather cramped.
"Snap out of this" She thought to herself. "You can't worry about what other people think of you. What's that song Papa was singing? Oh yeah."
When you're smiling, when you're smiling. The whole world smiles with you.
She fought back the tears and forced a smile on her face.
"What's wrong?"
The brunette jumped, which was an extraordinary feat in the small plastic house. In the corner, sitting on the little yellow chair like so many times before was Quinn. Rachel could tell that she had been crying too, but didn't press her.
"Nothing. Just go away. You're not real. You're in my imagination and you're making everyone hate me."
The blonde let out a small whimper and Rachel could tell she was on the verge of tears. It broke Rachel's heart but then she realized this was all in her head, so really she was breaking her own heart. And she thought about how she deserved it for being so weird and for seeing things that weren't there.
"Rachel, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong? I'm really sorry if I did. Just please don't leave me. I don't think I can handle someone else leaving me." A single tear slide down her face as she begged the brunette to stay.
Rachel wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab her. To pull her into her arms and tell her that everything was okay, and that she had done nothing wrong. She was perfect, but who was she kidding. None of this was real. And so she closed her eyes.
"You're not real. You're not real. You're not real. You're only in my imagination. You don't make sense. You're not real. Go away. I don't want to imagine you anymore. Just go away. I can't stand to see you upset. And you're not even real. So just go away."
And then she opened her eyes. And the blonde was gone.
And she didn't see her again...for 6 years.
Chapter One
"Is she talking to her imaginary friend again?" Hiram asked as he piled some mashed potatoes onto a small plate.
"I think it's cute," Leroy huffed.
"I never said it wasn't cute. What's his name again?"
"Quinn."
---
"I don't want to be the father! Why do I always have to be the father?" Rachel groaned as she stomped her foot against the floor.
"Because there's a mommy and a daddy and a baby. And Mr. Monkey is the baby and I'm the mommy so you're the daddy."
"Why can't I be the baby," she said as she stuck her thumb in her mouth and proceeded to suck on it.
Quinn strode over to her and pulled her hand away from her mouth. "No, you're too old to be the baby. So you'll be the father and I'll be your wife."
At this the brunette perked up and smiled at Quinn. "Okay, but I want to be the mommy."
Quinn let out a deep grunt of frustration. "Rach, you are so frustrating. You're the daddy, I'm the mommy. The end."
Rachel frowned, but inside she was overjoyed at the nickname Quinn had bestowed upon her. "Well, why can't there be two mommies?" She plopped down onto a chair and crossed her arms in defiance.
"Rachel, that's silly. There's always a mommy and a daddy."
"Nu uh, I have two daddies, so why can't someone have two mommies."
Quinn's face scrunched in thought.
"Fine, you can be the mommy too then."
"Good," Rachel said as she jumped up and hugged her friend.
Quinn's cheeks would have blushed if you could have seen them. But she's imaginary.
---
It was Rachel's fifth birthday and her father's had thrown her a Broadway themed party. There were a bunch of kids from the neighborhood that she'd never met before. One in particular kept tugging on her pigtails, Noah was his name, and so she retreated into her playhouse to get away from him.
She sat on her little yellow chair and silently cried to herself, trying to act like a big girl because she was five now and that meant she would be going to school soon. And big girls don't cry.
"What's wrong?"
Startled Rachel nearly choked on her tears. She wiped away her tears and then cleaned her hands on her dress. She flatten out the wrinkles and then stood, composed.
"Nothing. I - um, nothing. I was merely practicing my remarkable ability to cry on cue and judging by your reaction it was spot on. So you shouldn't be worried, because clearly nothing is wrong."
"You're a liar."
Rachel was wordless. Normally that little speech would have earned her a pat on the head for her advanced vocabulary, or at least shocked looks from parents. But no, Quinn saw right through her act. She always did, and that kind of bugged Rachel.
"Fine. I was crying. Happy?"
"No."
There was silence and Rachel took in the blonde's appearance. She was wearing a simple blue dress with white frill and it made Rachel kind of jealous for how good she looked.
Quinn broke the silence. "What happened?"
Rachel took in a deep breath and held it. When she could no longer hold it in she blurted out, "It's my fifth birthday and my daddies invited a bunch of people I don't even know, and the singer was completely off key when she sang Funny Girl and I know I could have done better. And then some kid were complaining that the food sucked because there weren't any hot dogs or hamburgers, because as you know I'm a vegetarian. And then this boy named Puck kept pulling on my pig tails and it really hurt and I told him to stop but then he just did it more. And I don't want to be spending my birthday with all these people I don't know because I'd rather spend it with you."
Rachel clasped her hands to her mouth in shock at the last sentence. Quinn had a huge grin plastered across her face. She took a deep breath and then replied, "You wanted to spend it with me?"
Rachel removed her hands, the blush still present. She twisted her feet in the ground and avoided Quinn's eye. "O-Of course Quinn. You, you're my, you're my, b-b-best friend." And which that Rachel began to cry again.
Quinn ran forward and engulfed her in a hug, wiping away the tears with her right hand as her left hand lifted Rachel's face to look at her. "You're my best friend too." And she kissed Rachel on the cheek, causing her to blush even harder.
Quinn stepped back and quickly changed the subject. "Well, it's still your birthday. Why don't we play something?"
Rachel sniffed an gave Quinn an appreciative smile. "Let's play pirates!"
Quinn smiled.
"Okay, you can be my wrench."
Rachel gasped. "Hey, who says you're not my wrench!"
"Yeah, okay Nostra Stella. Whatever you say."
---
"Quinn!" The five-year old screamed as she sat up in bed. She pulled her stuffed monkey tight to her chest and fought back the tears fighting to fall. "Quinn, Quinn, where are you?" she whimpered.
A branch hit the window and the brunette jumped under the covers closing her eyes tight.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
Rachel began to quietly sing to herself, struggling to forget her nightmare.
To see for certain what I thought I knew
She had been walking down an empty hallway with Quinn by her side, hand in hand.
Far far away, someone was weeping
And then Noah Puckerman came out of nowhere and took Quinn from her. Dragged her away.
But the world was sleeping
And she couldn't move. No matter how much she willed her feet to move she was glued to the spot.
Any dream will do
And so she woke up screaming the blonde's name.
Then she felt a hand on her arm. It began rubbing slow circles along her skin. She opened her eyes and Quinn was there. She could barely make her out in the darkness, but it was her. "I'm here Rach. I'm here. There's nothing to be scared of. It was just a dream."
Rach leapt upon her, embracing her in a tight hug. Quinn let out a quiet giggle and hugged the smaller girl back. She rubbed her back and reassured her everything was going to be okay.
"I had a dream. And you were gone, and I couldn't go to you. And I could, couldn't move. And..."
Quinn cut her off. "Shh, it's okay. It was just a dream. I'm here right now. I'm not going anywhere."
"Stay with me." Rachel blurted out and immediately regretted it. Even in the darkness Quinn could see the blush forming and acted quickly to relieve the brunette's embarrassment. "Of course. Of course, you can sleep with me. I'm not going anywhere."
And with that she pulled Rachel into her arms, and the girl settled into the spot that seemed to have been made just for her. Quinn stroked her hair and soon the quickened breathing become slow and steady and the blonde knew she was asleep.
And in the morning, Quinn was gone.
---
It was Rachel's first day of school and she clung to both her fathers' hands as they led her into her classroom. She had already met her teacher at back to school night, but after that she left with her daddies, today she knew she'd have to go it alone. She swallowed all her fear and stood up straight, not wanting to let on that she was just as nervous as every other kid in there.
She strode right up to the teacher, and held out her hand like Papa had taught her to do. "Hello Mrs. Irving. My name is Rachel Berry. I'm five years old and my favorite color is pink and I'm going to be in your class this year. I'm a strict vegetarian and I'm going to be on Broadway one day."
Mrs. Irving looked pleasantly shocked and took the girl's hand, giving it a firm shake. "Well it's nice to meet you Rachel. I'm sure we're going to have a wonderful year. Is this your father?" she asked referring to the man chatting up another mother, her daddy was off putting her stuff in her desk.
Rachel struggled to smile, her nerves still working against her, and she looked her teacher square in the eye and said, "Yes, that is my Papa. And that's my Daddy." She pointed to Leroy.
"Oh, you have two fathers," she said and left it at that.
Rachel walked over to her Daddy as Noah walked past her to talk to some other boys gathering together.
"Hey guys, I'm Puck. I'm badass."
They all gasped at Puck's profanity, a glimmer of awe in their eyes.
As Rachel watched these proceedings, a rather freakishly tall boy slid up to her. "Um, hi, I'm, um, Finn. It's, uh, really nice to meet you." He stared at his feet the entire time. She was about to reply when Noah interrupted.
"Hey man, you don't want to talk to her. She's a freak. My mom made me go to her birthday party cuz we're both Jewish and she ran off to her playhouse and cried the whole time. Plus her dads are like totally gay."
Finn looked confused, a face he would often wear and said, "Dads? She was more than one. And what's 'gay'?"
Noah smirked and jutted out his chest as some sort of male dominance ritual, "yeah, she's got more than one. And gay means they like worship the Devil or something like that. Don't talk to her or it might rub off on you."
Finn gave her an apologetic look and walked off with Puck to join the rest of the boys.
Rachel tried to keep her composure but Quinn wasn't there to hold her hand and tell her everything would be fine, so she ran over to her Papa and grabbed at his sleeve. "Papa, Papa. I wanna go home. I don't like school. I wanna go home with you and Daddy."
Hiram excused himself from the conversation he was having and bent down to look Rachel in the eyes. "Hey, sweetie, what's wrong? Tell Papa."
Rachel shook her head and said, "Nothing. I just don't like it here. Can't I just start next year?"
"Hey, hey, hey my little diva. We talked about this. It's time for you to start school so you can learn lots of big kid things and then you'll be all smart and grown up and you can go take over Broadway." His face broke out in a grin and he poked his daughter in the side. "Besides, you don't wanna hang out with me and Daddy. We're really boring. We're probably just gonna sit around the house and stare at the walls cuz we're that boring. You'll be begging us to go to school."
Rachel giggled and wiped away a tear that had been forming. "Okay."
"Okay?" Hiram asked. Rachel nodded. "Okay. Let's go make sure your Daddy is organizing your supplies correctly.
"Color order!" they both said at the same time. Rachel snickered and let her Papa lead her over to her desk. Maybe school wouldn't be that bad.
She was wrong.
---
Everyday Rachel would go to school, except weekends and holidays of course, and then she would come home. And that was what kept her going, because when she came home she and Quinn would play games, or watch TV, and sometimes they even talked about boys - though that wasn't Rachel's favorite subject. This afternoon in particular they were working on homework. Rachel had to read two chapters in her "Learn to Read" book and Quinn had some addition problems to work on. Quinn was actually really smart, which kind of made Rachel jealous, but then again, it was just another thing to love about the blonde.
Love. Rachel knew what the word meant. She'd heard Daddy say it to Papa and she said it about things like "Les Miserable" and "Barbra Streisand." And she knew she liked Quinn just as much as she loved those things, so she had to love Quinn. It made sense.
The blonde looked up from her math sheet to see a spaced out Rachel. "Hey, Earth to Rach," she said. Rachel was snapped out of her thinking and she looked over at Quinn. "Houston, we have contact!"
Rachel smiled and threw a pillow at her. She ducked and threw one back at the brunette. "Hey, not fair!" Rachel protested.
"Yeah? You wanna know what's not fair?" Quinn slowly inched towards her on her knees. And then she leapt on the brunette and started tickling her sides.
"Hey! You know I'm really ticklish. Stop it Quinn. That's not fair!" She said as she secretly enjoyed it.
"Exactly"
Eventually the blonde gave up and fell onto her back, tickling was rather exhausting you see. Rachel joined her, struggling to catch her breath.
"Quinn..." Rachel asked timidly.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"I love you."
Quinn sat up and turned towards Rachel. Rachel then followed.
"Rach, you're my best friend, so of course I love you too." Rachel looked relieved and attacked her with a hug. "You're my best friend too."
She pulled away and returned to her back. "You're my only friend." But she whispered that and the blonde didn't hear."
"What?" Quinn asked as she too fell to her backside.
"Nothing."
And then Quinn took Rachel's hand in hers and Rachel smiled that smile that was only reserved for Quinn.
Yeah, Rachel loved Quinn.
It made sense.
---
When Rachel started the second grade, everything would change.
It was the third week after Winter Break and they'd been given a writing assignment "Write about your best friend." Today was Rachel's day to read hers aloud and she'd been practicing all weekend. Her fathers applauded her, remarking at how fearless she was and reminding her what an amazing actress she would make one day. She just beamed at them and started over. By Sunday, they all felt like they could recite it from memory.
She spent lunch going over it again and again, too nervous to eat her soy butter and strawberry jelly sandwich on vegan bread. When the bell rang she jumped a foot in the air. The class began to file back in from playing in the snow and she was already at her desk, muttering her paper to herself.
"Alright class, now it's time for more of our stories. Let's see, who's turn is it." The teacher pulled out her list, adjusting the glasses on her nose. "Ah, yes, Miss. Berry. Come to the front of the class, Rachel. No need to be nervous."
She wasn't nervous. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself. Rachel stood up, flatten out her plaid skirt and adjusting her argyle sweater. She strode to the front with confidence and began.
"My best friend's name is Quinn. She has blonde hair and hazel eyes. That means they're green but with little freckles of brown. Especially her right eye. She's the same age as me and I've known her for like, ever."
Her teacher cleared her throat at the use of the word "like," but Rachel payed no attention.
"Quinn is always there for me. She makes me happy when I'm sad, and makes me laugh all the time. One time, we set up traps around my house like in that movie, "Home Alone." Quinn loves gymnastics. And she's really good at it. She won some championship or something like that. She tells me that one day she's gonna go to the Olympics. She's my best friend because she gets me and is never mean to me, like some people."
She shot a glare at Puck.
"We've decided we're gonna go to college together and then live together, because boys are stupid and we wouldn't want to live with one. It'll be hard to balance my career on Broadway and her Olympic training, but we'll do it because we love each other."
And with that she finished. The class was silent, and as she was about to return to her seat, her teacher piped up. "That was very lovely Rachel. Where does Quinn live? Does she go to school here?"
Rachel looked confused. She actually didn't know the answer. "I don't know Mrs. James. She doesn't go here, and I don't really know where she lives."
This perplexed the aging teacher. "Well, then how do you know her?"
Rachel knew the answer to that. "She came to me when I was sad, and she comes when I need her, or just when I'm bored and want someone to play with."
'Oh my God, she's your imaginary friend. Oh, that is too good. Berry's still got an imaginary friend!" Puck shouted as he jumped up from his seat. "Does your daddy still wipe your butt too?"
Mrs. James shot him a stern look.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he corrected, "You have two daddies. So which one does it for you?"
Rachel's face was slowing turning purple with rage. She ran over to Puck and slapped him clear across his face. The class fell silent. "I'll have you know Noah that I am perfectly capable of using the toilet all by myself and have been since the age of three. And Quinn is not imaginary. She is entirely real. And I would introduce you to her, but she is so much better than you and I would not want to hurt her eyes for having to look at your ugly face. You're just jealous that I have a father at all."
That was the last straw for Puck. Not only had she called him "Noah" but she had mocked the fact that his father had left his mother rather recently. "You know what Berry, I'm glad I haven't met this friend of yours." He made air quotation marks at the word 'friend,' "Because any friend of yours must be a loser because that's what you are. You're a loser. A friendless loser whose only friends are in her imagination. And your nose is too big for your face." He added the last part as a side note.
At this point, Mrs. James tried to interject, but was quite old and Puck was rather large for his age, so she just slunk back into her seat as so many teachers in Ohio do. "You've got no friends, you're never going to have any friends, because you're a freak. Friendless freak. Friendless freak. Friendless freak." He began to chant it and slowly the rest of the class joined in. First it was Karofsky, then Azimio. Finn seemed to be pretending to say it, but the action alone spoke volumes. Rachel shook with the urge to cry and then she ran out of the room, tears starting to stream.
She ran all the way home, which wasn't that far considering how small a town Lima, Ohio was. When she got there she ran around to the back and into her playhouse. She had grown quite a bit since the age of five, and now as an eight year old it was rather cramped.
"Snap out of this" She thought to herself. "You can't worry about what other people think of you. What's that song Papa was singing? Oh yeah."
When you're smiling, when you're smiling. The whole world smiles with you.
She fought back the tears and forced a smile on her face.
"What's wrong?"
The brunette jumped, which was an extraordinary feat in the small plastic house. In the corner, sitting on the little yellow chair like so many times before was Quinn. Rachel could tell that she had been crying too, but didn't press her.
"Nothing. Just go away. You're not real. You're in my imagination and you're making everyone hate me."
The blonde let out a small whimper and Rachel could tell she was on the verge of tears. It broke Rachel's heart but then she realized this was all in her head, so really she was breaking her own heart. And she thought about how she deserved it for being so weird and for seeing things that weren't there.
"Rachel, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong? I'm really sorry if I did. Just please don't leave me. I don't think I can handle someone else leaving me." A single tear slide down her face as she begged the brunette to stay.
Rachel wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab her. To pull her into her arms and tell her that everything was okay, and that she had done nothing wrong. She was perfect, but who was she kidding. None of this was real. And so she closed her eyes.
"You're not real. You're not real. You're not real. You're only in my imagination. You don't make sense. You're not real. Go away. I don't want to imagine you anymore. Just go away. I can't stand to see you upset. And you're not even real. So just go away."
And then she opened her eyes. And the blonde was gone.
And she didn't see her again...for 6 years.
Chapter One