DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: This fic is dedicated to Ally, for being the best muse on my payroll.

Rebel Yell

Chapter One: Fall From Grace

She could remember that day like it had happened yesterday.

She'd been a sophomore at the time, and it was about halfway through the most torturous school year of her life when a scandal that would never be forgotten rocked the school to it's core . At the time, she had been a nobody; no one spoke to her or wanted to have anything to do with a loser like her. If she were anybody else in William McKinely High School, she would have been attacked by slushies every single day of her life by the jocks and popular kids who loved to torture her.

But instead of slushies the bullies used words against her, and frankly she couldn't tell what was worse. It was too risky when her father, LeRoy Berry, was the head judge in the Lima court system and was willing to throw anyone in jail for assault against his beloved daughter. No, instead of ice cold sugary drinks in her face, she had to hear the constant whispers about herself and her fathers as they slandered their good name around the halls of the school. Rumors couldn't be traced, so the abuse continued relentlessly and no one was able to stop it.

It's not like she had done anything wrong; not many people supported the first openly gay judge in Lima's history, and Rachel suffered greatly because of it at the hands of her peers. Friendless and alone, she turned to her one passion, music, in order to soothe the longing she felt for some kind of connection. The closest thing she had to a friend at WMHS was her cousin Noah, but she didn't want to burden him with her problems. His mother was her father Hiram's sister, and because they had different last names, he'd escaped the torture that the kids usually reserved for her. As a jock himself he was pretty popular, and she didn't want to ruin his reputation by being too clingy. He was known to help her out sometimes, and while she appreciated it, she would rather suffer in silence and save him the trouble.

She tried not to let the constant torment bother her. It was going to be a stunning chapter in her memoir one day, when she was a cherished superstar of the stage and screen.

It was her ambitious daydreams that got her through her toughest days at school; she knew that she was better than Lima, Ohio, and thoroughly planned on escaping the town when she graduated, but it still brought her great sorrow to be the subject of so much torture. She looked at herself in the mirror of the girl's bathroom, reapplying her mascara as dark tear tracks still lingered on her skin. The hateful words were repeating in her head; loser, man hands, stubbles, pathetic, prude. Just because she had a wholesome image to uphold for the sake of her father didn't mean that she was frigid, but they looked at her clothes and her lack of boyfriend and assumed she was nothing more than a freak. It's not like she could prove them wrong. Cleaning her face off, she looked at herself in the mirror and made a promise that she would never let anyone hold her back from achieving her dreams.

It was then that she'd heard the commotion in the hallways. Someone was screaming, a guy by the sound of the masculine bellowing, and when she peeked her head out of the ladies room she was privy to a sight that would be burned into her brain forever.

Finn Hudson, the star quarterback for the football team and ex-boyfriend of Quinn Fabray the Homecoming Queen, was standing in the hallway surrounded by Principal Figgins, Miss Pillsbury, and three of the school's security guards, looking like he wanted to run for the exit, attack the teachers, or both. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the look of anguish on his face as they surrounded him and tried to get him to calm down. She didn't know what was happening, and tried to catch as many details as possible.

"Finn, please just relax," Figgins said slowly.

"I won't fucking relax!" He screamed and Rachel flinched at his language. Finn Hudson was a senior, and up to that point was every girl in McKinley's dream boyfriend. He was popular, he was handsome, he was sweet. He had a smile that could light up a room and dimples that she wanted to dive into and swim in. At over six feet he was the tallest boy she knew, with playful chestnut eyes and thick brown hair. He had been the star of so many of her fantasies over the past year that she had lost count of them all, despite the fact that he didn't even know she existed.

But she had never seen him act like this before. Finn had once been the star of the school, the golden boy of Lima, Ohio, but over the past few weeks she had started to hear rumors about him; mean, spiteful rumors that people usually spread about her. Something had happened to him, a problem at home they expected, and according to the gossips he snapped, fell off of the deep end, and was on drugs. Apparently he had dumped Quinn in a rage, and turned his back on football and most of his friends from the team. She didn't believe the rumors of course; who would think such things about Finn Hudson? But in front of her very eyes she could see him unraveling, and for a moment she wondered if the whispers were true.

"This whole school can burn in hell for all I care," he yelled once more as people began to fill the halls, attracted by the noise. Seeing so many people surrounding him must have made him even more angry, because he punched the glass wall of Miss Pillsbury's office, shattering the pane into thousands of pieces as people gasped and stared at him. She had the best view of Finn's face, standing right across the hall from him, and for a single breathtaking moment she made eye contact with him, and could see the overwhelming agony in his expression. It made a shiver trail down her spine as he faced the administrators once more.

"Finn, we want to help you, but you need to open up to us," Miss Pillsbury said calmly, but the security guards were closing in on him, and she could almost see his control snap in front of her eyes.

"You can't help me anymore. I'm done with you, and I'm done with this school." With a grimace Finn pushed past the adults and strolled right past her, her eyes fixated on the single tear that fell from his eyes as he stormed out of school, never to be seen in it's halls again.

That was how Finn Hudson had fallen from grace.

For some reason, Rachel Berry remembered that day every time she saw him parked outside of the school. It had happened so long ago that she was surprised she still remembered all the details; Rachel was a senior now, and Finn Hudson had dropped out of school about two years ago. She thought it strange, however, that he still hung out around school grounds, despite the fact that he was 20 years old. He was forbidden from entering the school itself, but every day she heard his motorcycle circling the property, and saw him parked on the corner, hanging with his friends. Not many kids from his senior class were living in town anymore, but he still had a few friends who were underclassmen, Puck included. She never asked her cousin about Finn, though, keeping her tiny crush to herself after all these years. Sure, he might be the town pariah, but he was still just as handsome as ever, and she was so curious about him that it canceled out all the horrible things that her father said about him at the dinner table.

"He's a criminal! One day we're going to be able to pin these petit crimes on him and we'll get him behind bars where he belongs! Did I mention he was on probation for possession? Cops pulled him over for speeding on his bike and if he'd had an extra gram of weed on him we could have booked him for intent to sell."

She shook her father's voice out of her head as she saw him smoking by his bike, puffs of smoke escaping his nose and mouth while she tried not to stare at him. He looked like James Dean leaning next to his motorcycle with a cigarette hanging on his lips, his leather jacket clinging to his broad, muscled frame. He wore a simple white t-shirt with black jeans and combat boots and to be honest, the entire bad-boy image he projected made her weak at the knees, something she would never admit out loud. Her fathers would lock her in her room for the rest of her life if they knew about their perfect daughter's crush on Finn Hudson, the town criminal.

Her fathers meant the world to her, and she loved them more than anything, but Rachel was the first person to admit that they were seriously overprotective of her, to the point where they rarely let her out of their sight. It's not like she had many friends, or hot dates to worry about, but being the daughter of a judge wasn't easy. They had an image to uphold around town, and her father experienced on a daily basis what really happened out on the streets to kids, so he had reason to worry. While she knew in her heart that they were trying to protect her, she couldn't deny that they were ridiculously closed-minded for an openly gay couple in politics.

It didn't matter much anymore. She had turned 17 a few months ago (she hated having such a late birthday and perpetually felt childish and young), and in June she was graduating and moving to New York no matter what her fathers said. All she had to do was find a way to break the news to them and hope that they didn't disown her before summer.

She walked out of the school into the springtime sun, feeling the lingering breeze on her face as she crossed the campus and headed for her car. In her periphery she saw Finn by his bike, whistling at the under aged girls that walked by him and flirted salaciously. She didn't want to believe the rumors about Finn, but they were everywhere, even after so much time had passed since he dropped out; according to the masses he hooked up with random girls but never dated, sold drugs, got kicked out of his mother's house and apparently didn't give a damn about anything but himself. Just what had happened to him two years ago that had changed him so drastically?

She didn't know, but it was still a hard pill for Rachel to swallow; she didn't like thinking ill of anyone, but the proof was in front of her eyes as a tiny blonde junior cuddled up to his side with a smile and a twirl of her hair. Part of her thought it was disgusting for a 20 year old to be flirting with a high school girl.

The other part of her was jealous that she wasn't the one he was flirting with.

But who would flirt with me?, she thought to herself as she made her way to her car. Rachel knew her strengths and weaknesses; she was very proud of the maturity she possessed at such a young age, and could admit with no reserves that she wasn't the prettiest girl in town. Throughout her high school career she'd only had one serious boyfriend, Jesse, and he had broken her heart at the end of sophomore year before he'd moved away to college. Since then she'd had one failed crush on Blaine, a boy who turned out to be gay, and after that she gave up on finding love in high school altogether. College was the place to find boys, she told herself. College boys were more mature and level headed than the immature pigs in her hometown and all she had to do was bide her time and wait for graduation.

Over the years school stopped being as torturous as it had been when she was a sophomore, with Puck's help of course, but she was never going to be the most popular girl in school and still dreamed of her escape from Ohio. In order to stay busy, she gave vocal lessons to some kids around town after school and had to be at Mrs. Reyes' house at four, but her buzzing cell phone stopped her from climbing into her car and driving away from WMHS. She answered the call when she saw it was from her father.

"Who else would it be?" She grumbled under her breath as she answered the call. The only other friends she had besides Noah were Blaine and his boyfriend, Kurt. "Hello?"

"Hey Angel, it's Papa. I just wanted to know if you can ask Puck about tonight's dinner. We have to know if Aunt Becca is coming and if they're bringing Sarah. Call me back so I can know for sure."

"Alright, Papa. No problem." Her dad blew her a kiss through the phone and hung up while Rachel pulled herself out of the car. Squinting her eyes around the school grounds, she saw Puck's trademark mohawk heading across the street, directly towards Finn and his crew of friends. Her heart began to hammer in her chest when she summoned the strength to approach them, even though she tried to convince herself that it was merely her cousin and his hooligan friends. With every step that brought her closer to them she played out a different scenario in her head; would Finn notice her? Would he try to flirt with her like he did with all the other girls? Would she be ignored, or worse, humiliated in front of him? For a moment she almost lost her nerve and went back to her car so she could text Puck instead, but her curiosity was spiraling out of control. She needed to know more about Finn. She needed to know if the rumors were true.

She took a deep breath, nodded to herself and crossed the street. She was going to be living in New York all alone next year, and talking to a group of boys in her hometown was child's play in comparison to surviving the big city. So why did she feel so nervous?

She had to steady her voice when it trembled slightly. "Hey Noah," she said simply to her cousin as she approached the group. She recognized some of the guys from around school and her classes; Sam Evans, the current quarterback was hanging with Mike Chang, one of Puck's oldest friends and three other guys she didn't know. Finn rested against his parked bike with a look of boredom on his face while he gave up on flirting with the younger girls. They all stomped off in a huff as the boys greeted Rachel. Finn practically ignored her, not even looking in her direction as she waved her greeting.

Her cousin groaned. "Twelve years we've been going to the same school, Berry, and you still can't call me Puck?"

She shrugged. "Puck is not the name you were given when you were born. Noah is." The other guys laughed and she really didn't mind being around them, but she didn't want to intrude on her cousin's friends and make him feel weird. "I just wanted to know if we were still doing dinner tonight."

"Whoa, Puckerman," Finn finally looked up and stared at Rachel unabashedly with his eyebrows raised in appraisal, almost as if he'd just realized that she had been standing there. "Got a hot date tonight?" She flushed crimson at the thought of being referred to as a 'hot date' by Finn Hudson but Noah ruined her good mood.

"Dude, that's disgusting. This is my cousin Rachel, who I have, like, family dinners with and stuff. Rachel, meet Finn. I don't think you guys know each other."

She enthusiastically held out her hand for him to shake, overwhelmed that they finally had an excuse to meet one another after all those nights spent pining after him for the past three years. "No, I haven't yet made your acquaintance, but I have heard of you. I-I mean," she stuttered wildly, not wanting to make it sound like she believed the rumors about him. "I knew of you back when you were a senior but being two years your junior we never had the opportunity to meet." Her heart was pounding when she realized how foolish she must seem to him, and even though she held out her hand for him to shake, he rudely ignored it and took another drag of his cigarette. She was definitely more pleased to make the acquaintance than he was, if she interpreted his narrowed eyes and sullen demeanor correctly.

"Whatever," he said, his voice sounding bored as he blew smoke rings into the air. She dropped her hand with a frown and turned back to Puck's nicer friends.

"Well, are you coming tonight or not?" She said a bit harshly to her cousin, too offended to cover up her disappointment at their botched meeting. She was foolish to expect anything different from Finn Hudson. She should have just listened to the rumors and stayed away, even if it pained her to admit it after so many years spent crushing on him.

"Yeah, sure Cuz, no need to get your panties in a twist. We'll be there," she nodded once and tried to ignore the crude way he spoke to her. It wasn't his fault that his friends were rude and proved to be terrible influences, and she tried to shake off her disappointment as much as she could.

"Alright, see you tonight," she turned to walk back to her car, waving goodbye to the other boys, when she heard Finn calling after her.

"Hey, Roxy!" She turned to him with her hands on her hips, her patience with him growing thin. If he thought his charming face bought him unlimited patience with her, then he was sorely mistaken.

"It's Rachel."

"Rachel," he repeated with a smirk as he leaned against his bike. His sunglasses covered his eyes and he pulled them off, winking at her. "You want a smoke?" He asked, holding out the packet of cigarettes while balancing his own between his lips.

"No thank you, but I would never." Pushing himself away from his bike, he walked up to her, a cocky swagger in his step as he approached. Despite his dreadful manners and surly attitude, she could feel her pulse quicken as he held her in his stony gaze, his angelic features hiding the devil underneath.

"Why? Too scared?" He taunted her, but she wouldn't take his bait. "I have some weed if tobacco isn't your thing."

"No, I don't smoke at all whatsoever. In fact, I'm doing it to preserve my vocal talents. One day I will be gracing the stage as a Broadway star and my voice must be in perfect condition if I am to achieve all my goals. Smoking would only damage my vocal chords and impede on my musical development, whether it was marijuana or tobacco. Besides, I think it's truly a disgusting habit with more negative affects than positive benefits."

He looked amused, but there was a deadly glint in his eyes that she didn't trust. Just standing this close to him was setting off warning bells in her head and if her fathers knew that she was speaking to the town criminal they would send her away to finish her senior year at a boarding school in Europe. He took a long drag of his cigarette, staring at her with squinted eyes, before blowing the smoke right in her face, unabashedly and without reserve. The thick white smoke burned her eyes, making them fill with tears as she inhaled the acrid gas. Her throat felt like it was on fire, her lungs screaming for fresh oxygen as she coughed violently. Finn's laughter filled the air and she felt humiliated in front of the one boy she had been so quick to protect over the past two years.

He was everything her father's had warned her about and more. Every rumor about him was probably true and she couldn't stand the arrogant glint in his eyes as he waited for her reaction. She had never felt so childish and naive in her life, and suddenly felt empowered as she clenched her fists at her side.

With all the strength in her tiny body, Rachel pulled her hand back and stood on her tiptoes, punching Finn across the face with every ounce of power she possessed. The sound of bone cracking bone echoed throughout the grounds, making Puck and his friends gasp in shock at the girl who punched Finn Hudson in the face without a shred of remorse. Sure, she was tiny, but by the way his eyes watered up, she could tell that it hurt as her fingers felt crushed under the force of his jaw. That had hurt, and she channeled her pain into a self-righteous fury.

"How dare you!" She roared at him, his face red as he held his cheek. She expected to see anger in his eyes but instead she saw shock and disbelief. "I don't care who you think you are, or what people say about you. I tried to be nice to you, despite everything that I've heard about your twisted reputation, but now it's not even worth it anymore." He turned to her cousin, who still stared at her with something akin to hero worship in his eyes. "I'll see you tonight, Noah. I should have just sent you a text." With that she turned around on the spot and left, taking whatever shreds of dignity that she had left with her. Her eyes were still stinging in protest, but the tears that filled her eyes as she walked away weren't from the smoke, but from the overwhelming despair she felt seeping into her bones.

Running to her car to escape the humiliation, she never looked back to see Finn's reaction to her outburst. Frowning deeply at the one person who was brave enough to stand up to him since he'd dropped out of school, he threw his cigarette on the floor and stomped it out with his combat boot, watching her little compact car drive away.

"Hey Puckerman," he said to his friend as the mohawked teenager startled. "Tell me more about your cousin."

"I don't know man," he shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

With a quiet laugh, Finn rubbed his sore jaw and smiled. "Everything."

So this story is going to be Rachel's POV, in order to keep Finn's past/emotions a mystery to us and to Rachel. I know Finn is super OOC right now, but that will change soon enough! Our poor Finny is damaged in this one!

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