Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.
A/N: I'm not sure if there is a town named Crofton or a marina called Laurel Creek in Tennessee but we're just going to pretend, okay. Also, renting a houseboat the size I picked for this fic would be insanely expensive. It would be very hard for anyone to rent any houseboat for nine weeks unless they had some serious money. Like I said, we're going to pretend.
I'm planning on this being exactly nine chapters. That may change. This is completely AU so Rachel and Puck don't know each other just yet. For right now it's rated T because I haven't decided if I'm going to include smut in this. Again, that may change but I'll warn you before I add any smut.
/
"Take me with you," Rachel pleaded with her friend, Tina, over the phone. "It's not fair that you get to spend this whole summer in New York City and I'm going to be stuck on a boat in… Tennessee," She shuddered just at the thought.
Tina laughed softly over the line. "You'll be back the first week of August and then you'll have exactly twelve days to get your ass packed up and to New York. This is your last summer before college, Rach; your dads just want to spend some time with their only daughter. Besides, it's only for nine weeks."
"Nine weeks," Rachel groaned and Tina chuckled again. "They expect me to live on a houseboat with them for nine weeks, T. I honestly don't think I can make it for that long."
"Listen, Ray, Artie's beeping in so I have to go but call me when you get there, okay?" Tina sighed. "I'm going to miss you so be sure to call me every night."
"I will," Rachel sighed. "My dads are rushing me so I guess I have to go, too. They want to leave in the next few minutes so we can get to Tennessee before its dark. I'll talk to you later, Tina. Try not to have too much fun without me," She smiled in spite of herself. "But if you do happen to run across Patti LuPone or you know, Kristin Chenoweth, get me a picture or something."
"Sure thing, Rach," Tina laughed.
Rachel bit her cheek and slipped her phone back into her pocket before throwing her duffel bag over her shoulder. She shut her bedroom door quietly and trudged down the stairs to be faced by her two fathers waiting at the front door for her.
"Ready to go, bunny?" Stephen asked while opening the front door. "It's going to be fun!"
She blew out a breath and fought back the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm sure it will be, Daddy," She forced a smile onto her face and walked past her dads towards to the large SUV in her driveway. "I agreed to go on this vacation because I love you two but that doesn't mean I have to like this. You guys know how much I hate the idea of living on a boat for two months."
"It's going to be okay, Rachel," Russell assured her. "We'll get there and you'll be having so much fun the time will just fly by. It'll feel like nine days instead of nine weeks."
She stepped out into the dull heat of the Ohio sun, pulled her sunglasses down and this time she did roll her eyes. Sometime she felt like her fathers didn't know her at all. This was going to be a long nine weeks.
The ride was tiring to say the least and Rachel spent most of the eight hour road trip listening to her iPod and texting away with Tina, Mercedes, and Artie. She missed most of the scenery her dads kept pointing out but to be honest she didn't care about how the trees curved or how the rock was cut to make way for the highway.
Her mind drifted to New York and to how much fun Tina and Mercedes were having at the summer arts program they were accepted into. Rachel was, of course, accepted to the program as well but her dads insisted she politely decline and instead, go on this little family vacation for some last minute bonding before she was swept off to the magic which is New York City. Rachel had fought them tooth and nail, coming up with every excuse possible as to why she should go with Tina and Mercedes, but in the end she had accepted defeat – it definitely wasn't graceful – and caved, allowing her dads to come up with what might be the worst possible vacation for the three of them.
Her dads hate camping and just about anything to do with nature. They like four star hotels and room service so she was very surprised when they sat her down and told her they had already reserved this really nice houseboat at some marina right over the Tennessee border. They even said that they might detour in Kentucky on the way back so they can absorb the nature or something because apparently Kentucky is famous for horses; she could care less. The sooner this trip was over, the sooner she could be living it up in New York.
"We're almost there, bunny," Russell squealed.
Rachel pulled her ear buds out and looked up to see that they were turning off to this small road, following the signs that led to the marina. She scrunched up her face when they went past a small animal farm and there were cows grazing in a field, some munching on grass and some wading in a small pond to cool off from the intense heat the sun dealt out.
"Where are we?" She asked, mainly to herself.
"Laurel Creek Marina." Stephen answer, pulling up to the marina.
She heaved a big sigh and her eyes searched around, looking for something that might be remotely entertaining. Nope, just boats, boats, and more boats. She shoved her car door open and the smell hit her nose hard.
She shrieked and covered her nose. "What is that?" She demanded and jumped from the car to look around to find the source of the pungent smell.
Stephen chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "That," He breathed in heavily through his nose. "That's the smell of some great summer fun."
Rachel shuddered, knocking his arm from her shoulder and yanked the back of the SUV open. Her bags bounced from the car and landed on the hot pavement with a loud thump. She groaned, wondering if this was a sign of what this whole summer was going to be like.
"Why don't you go scope out the gift shop and your father and I will take care of our things?" Russell suggested and Rachel nodded, taking this as a great compromise. She'd be out of their way and maybe she could get away from that horrid odor.
She adjusted the small satchel on her shoulder and made her way down to the dock that led to the gift shop. She stepped onto the wooden planks slowly and they wobbled uneasily. She looked over her shoulder, searching for some reassurance from her dads but they were busy with their luggage. She sighed and carefully took a few more steps before stopping suddenly when a little boy started to jump up and down a little ways ahead of her. She glared at the boy's head and tried to steady herself. She was tempted to run screaming back to the car and refuse to step foot on the boat.
"You're not going to fall," A deep voice told her and she whipped her head around to find a tall boy looking back at her.
Boy might not be the right word. He looked about her age, if not older, and stood nearly two heads taller than her. His hair was a dark brown, curling slightly at the nape of his neck. He walked closer to her, letting her get a glimpse of his deep chocolate brown eyes. She forced herself to keep from thinking that he was kind of cute. She didn't any more boy trouble after what happened with Jesse. That was another reason her dads didn't want her to go the New York for the summer; Jesse was going to be there.
"This dock isn't going anywhere and you definitely aren't going to flip over," He continued, walking past her as he talked. "You don't look like you belong here."
"My dads," She explained. "They're kind of making me come on this trip with them," She hurried her pace, trying to keep up with his long strides. "Do you work here?" Rachel asked once she noticed his yellow shirt had the name of the marina splattered across the back of it.
"Yep," He nodded. "My friends and I work her for the summer. This is our last summer here before we go off to college. We just graduated from high school this year," He smiled. "How about you?"
"I'm eighteen," She replied. "I just graduated, too."
"Well, Quinn needs me so I'll see you later. I'm Finn, by the way," He told her.
"Rachel." She shook his hand.
"Your dads need to go to the office to check in and then someone will get you set up on a boat," Finn told her. "It was nice meeting you, Rachel," He hurried off towards a pretty blonde girl.
Rachel turned to find that her dads had finally caught up with her and were lugging big carts full of all their luggage. She told them what Finn had instructed they do and they left the carts sitting on the dock while Rachel slowly followed them into the small office building.
They were talking to a pretty Hispanic girl when Rachel walked in and she noticed that the office was connected to the gift shop. She walked over to her dads and wedged herself between them so she could hear what the girl was saying.
"…just fill this paperwork out," The girl instructed and Rachel noticed that her nametag read Santana. "It just tells all of the information about the marina the boat you reserved," She pulled out some brochures and passed them to Stephen. "These just tell you about the amenities around Laurel Creek."
Rachel tuned out after that and flipped through the brochure she had pulled from her dad's hand. "Where is the closest mall?" She blurted out and Santana looked at her like she was just noticing Rachel for the first time.
Santana blinked a few times. "In Crofton, it's about twenty minutes from here," She nodded and pulled the pamphlet from Rachel's hand to show her the map on the back. "There isn't much in Laurel except for some gas stations and a deli up the road. Most people go to Crofton for everything."
"Right," Rachel swallowed.
She broke from her dads then and drifted towards the gift shop, hoping that they had something to appease her. She found some cute shirts but they were all labeled Laurel Creek and after nine weeks here, Rachel was sure she wouldn't want any memory of this place. She stopped at a rack that had bikinis hanging from them and bit into her lip, trying to decide whether to buy one or not.
"That red one would look great on you," A blonde appeared beside Rachel and smiled warmly. "Or white. Your skin tone is pretty so even a blue one would look nice."
"Thanks," Rachel hung the green bathing suit back up and pulled out a cute white one the blonde had pointed out. "I'm Rachel."
"Brittany," The blonde sifted through the bathing suits in front of her. "I work here."
"Are you one of Finn's friends?" Rachel asked.
"Mmhmm," Brittany nodded.
Rachel's dads waved her over so Rachel quickly let Brittany ring up the bathing suit before bidding the girl goodbye and going to join her dads. They pointed out which boat they would be staying in for the next two months and Rachel took it upon herself to check it out. She just wanted to make sure that it was up to her standards.
/
"Hey, Puckerman," Santana waved him over. "Go give the orientation to the check-ins, okay?"
He sighed, pushing himself from his spot beside Finn and took the paper from Santana's hand, grabbing the keys she held out for him. He read over the list quickly and realized these were the people his boss had insisted everyone be really nice to. No one ever rented this boat because it was way too expensive so when they got the news that some family was coming down from Ohio to stay here for two months, his boss got excited.
"I'm Noah Puckerman," He stepped towards the boat and found two men throwing luggage into the deck. "Do you need some help?"
"That would be great, thank you," The taller one smiled and shook his name. "I'm Stephen Berry and this is my partner, Russell."
"Where is everyone else?" Puck asked. "I mean, you guys rented this huge boat and you only listed three people down for the passengers."
"Our daughter likes her space," Russell shrugged. "It's just us three."
"Daughter?" Puck wondered and looked around once he had all of the bags unloaded from the carts. "Where is she?" He tossed the last bag onto the couch.
"She's exploring the boat," Stephen smiled. "To be honest, I don't think she's as excited about this trip as Russell and I are."
Puck went through the orientation then, describing the layout of the boat, pointing out all of the safety devices and how everything worked. Russell and Stephen nodded along, catching most everything the boy was saying.
"I'll take you out then," Puck nodded and started the boat, listening to make sure that the motor roared to life in the back. He told the two men how to back the boat up and then proceeded to do just that. He wasn't used to moving boats this big so he was a little more careful than usual when he started to pull the boat away from the dock.
There was a long shriek and Puck froze, wondering for a second if he had hit someone behind him but then a tiny brunette girl ran up the stairs that let down to the small cuddy cabin bedrooms.
"We're moving! Why are we moving?" Her eyes were huge and they settled on Puck. "Oh…" She locked eyes with him and shifted her weight to one leg. "I didn't know we were ready to leave the dock just yet."
"This is Noah," Russell told her. "He's showing your father and me how to drive this contraption."
"Oh…" She said again and moved forward to stand beside Puck. "Can I watch?" She directed this question to Puck and he nodded, breaking his gaze from her so he could swing the boat around to drive forward. "I'm Rachel."
She watched closely and he had to bite back the chuckle that almost escaped his lips when he saw her eyes following his every movement.
"It's kind of hard to drive," Puck told her and stepped back slightly. "You want to try?"
"No," She shook her head fiercely.
"I do." Russell walked over and Puck sighed silently.
He'd rather have his arms wrapped around the small, leggy brunette, showing her how to drive and steer the boat but he was stuck with the girl's father. Whatever, Puck could deal. His boss told him to be nice so Puck sucked it up and showed the older man how to find the boats center. It didn't hurt that he noticed Rachel smiling at him from the corner of his eye.
There was dull thud in the back of the boat and Rachel whirled around. "What was that?" She asked.
"That would be Mike and Sam," Puck replied, stepping back once he was sure that Russell had the hang of steering the boat. "They're my ride."
Rachel nodded and watched as two more boys appeared from the back of the boat. One was a cute blonde and the other was a little taller and had black hair. They smiled at her and looked around the boat.
"So you three are the VIP's Mr. Anderson keeps telling us about," Mike walked over towards Puck as he talked. "Our boss told us to make sure you guys are so happy that it hurts."
Rachel laughed softly. "I really don't think that will be necessary."
"I'm Stephen," Rachel's dad stepped forward to shake the two new boys' hands. "The man over there who thinks he can actually drive this boat is Russell," He wrapped his arm around Rachel's shoulders. "And this is our daughter, Rachel."
"Hi, Rachel," Mike smirked at her. "I'm Mike Chang."
"H-hi," She tried not to blush under his gaze.
"Don't worry about him," The cute blonde stepped forward. "Mike is kind of the infamous flirt around here. I'm Sam, by the way."
A loud voice came over their handheld radios and Mike pulled his up to his mouth, replying back but Rachel couldn't make out what the boy was saying.
"That's Blaine," Mike explained. "He said someone is hung up a few miles from here."
"We have to go," Sam sighed. "If you guys need anything just let us know."
"We will," Stephen replied.
Mike and Sam made their way towards the back of the boat again and Puck wasn't far behind them but he stopped at the doorway and turned back to smile at Rachel. "It was nice to meet you all," He glanced at her fathers and then met Rachel's gaze again. "Bye, Rachel."
"Bye," She called after him as he left.
There was a loud roar in the back and Rachel looked out of the window to see the three boys heading in the opposite direction in a jon boat. She sighed quietly and turned back to see her dads looking at her imploringly.
She shrugged. "I'm going to go unpack. I'll be downstairs if you need me."
Rachel walked down the stairs slowly and sunk onto her bed. The first thing she did was pull out her phone. She typed out a quick text to Tina and Mercedes – so many cute boys! – before hitting send. She waited for a few seconds for the screen that would assure her the message had sent but then her phone beeped and her mouth fell open at the words that flashed across her screen: No service.
"Daddy!" Rachel shrieked.