Damaged Goods

Chapter 4

A few days later...

"Your lunch money, bitch."

Under the bleachers, Quinn Fabray growled at the small freshman struggling desperately in front of her. Two of Quinn's friends, both equally large and terrifying looking, were holding the freshman's arms behind her back, while Quinn stood over the quivering girl. She didn't hit the girl. But quite frankly, she didn't need to. The freshman, once she managed to get over her shock and fear, almost threw the money at Quinn in her fear. As Quinn held it in her hands, she chuckled and smirked at the freshman.

"Thanks. Now leave."

The freshman didn't need to be given a second invitation to turn on her heel and sprint away as fast as she could. However, as she tried to run, she quickly realised that she couldn't, as Quinn was holding her back by the back of her Cheerios jacket.

"Sorry, I forgot to say. That jacket... it's mine now."

"Y-y-yes. Here. Take it." The freshman stammered, shrugging it off her shoulders and taking off as far from Quinn as she could get. Quinn's other 'friends' walked away too a few moments later, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Things couldn't have changed more for Quinn Fabray over the past summer. She had lost everything. She had been cast aside by Puck. Cast aside by Sam. Cast aside by Finn. Twice. Both times for the hobbit nonetheless. She had given up Beth and not seen her for an entire year. Quinn had absolutely nothing left to live for, nothing left to lose. And so she had allowed herself to slip further and further, until she was thoroughly unrecognisable from the person she used to be. It had started with quitting Glee and the Cheerios. Then came the Pink hair. A nose ring. Ripped black leather clothes. A tattoo of Ryan Seacrest on her lower back. This was the new her, and she was never going back.

However, as Quinn held the girl's Cheerios jacket in her hands, a remnant of her former life, she couldn't help but feel something. It was a pang of not only guilt, but also a little bit of longing. There was a part of her that did miss her old life. Being the hot head Cheerio, she practically ruled the school. And being in Glee, she had a group of friends who would die for her. It was hard to give all that up. But it was good to have given it up, she told herself. This was the real her. The old Quinn Fabray was so hard to maintain, and it wasn't the real her. It was just an illusion.

All of a sudden, she was dragged from her train of thoughts when she heard a loud laughing and chuckling coming from behind her, along with sarcastic slow clapping. Her head spun around and she saw an unfamiliar boy standing in front of her. She had never seen him around before, but if she said that he was unattractive, she'd be lying. This was quite possibly the hottest person she had ever seen in McKinley, and it took her a few seconds to remember that she didn't care about that anymore.

"Well done." The boy drawled sarcastically. "I mean that was absolutely terrifying to watch. Threatening that girl... you were like that angry thing from that movie, what was it called? Oh yeah, Inside Out."

It was the end of the day, and Marcus had found his way over to the field. Almost everyone in the school was playing a sport, or doing a club... something that involved them socialising with others or learning new things. Not Marcus. He had no interest in any of this - Rugby was the only extracurricular activity he needed, and he had found a Rugby club in the area to train at already. Marcus' route home involved him walking around to the back exit of the school, the exit that was beside the field, so he needed to cut across the field to get there. However, as he made his way outside the main school building and over to the field, he had seen activity under the bleachers and he went over to investigate.

Quinn's face flushed crimson in anger and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, who the hell are you?!" She snapped. The boy smirked at her, a smug grin that made her blood boil just seeing it. He strolled over to her with the confidence that he owned the world. He stuck out a hand, but Quinn didn't shake it. She merely eyed him, annoyed.