An arm for a leg
Bright streaks of light shoot through the window the second Charlie Fabray winds it down, her sun shades being the only item to protect the destructively blinding light from her hazel eyes. She arrived home early from her private school that was located just on the border of Ohio, concealed from the world around her so no one that knew her infamous sister would discover the fact she had a secret identical twin. Sometimes Charlie thought Quinn was ashamed of her, with the whole 'keep yourself a secret' thing, but in the privacy of their own home or when the sisters were alone, they were the best of friends. So being free from school so early, Charlie decided to pick Quinn up from McKinley.
She watched in awe as the public school teenagers walked past her car and down the streets, all making their way home. Flirting freely and fighting playfully, they all passed by, laughing and joking with one another. Schools like this were so much different to her private academy. If you had the time to observe each individual child like Charlie did, you could write their rank off immediately. The jocks and cheerleaders were obvious, the ones who are surrounded by a raging group of followers and wannabees. If you weren't in that clique, you were nobody. Charlie was pretty sure that if she attended McKinley, shed be a strong nobody unlike her HBIC sister. She would be like the dorks, nerds or emos. She was sure of that.
The jocks were just passing, cheerleaders tucked under their arms like displayed trophies. She knows her twin sister is probably in there somewhere, avoiding being tucked under a jocks arm but why Charlie never understood. She places the key in the insert of her rather rusty old vehicle and removes of her Dalton blazer, throwing it over the back seats so she doesn't risk being identified as the girl in an all boys private school. She adjusts her blouse so she ties it over her abs in a belly top- a ritual Quinn made her do when picking her up so she didn't look like a private school kid- and leans back in the seat, honking her horn when she sees Quinn emerge from the group of popular kids, waving bright goodbyes and practically skipping towards the car with her long, perfectly blonde hair blowing in the mid summer breeze behind her. Charlie sighs, again in awe.
"Hot date!" Charlie hears one of the hefty boys call as Quinn hops into the passenger seat and gives her sister a large, warm smile. Charlie would shout back that they are actually sisters. That was if Quinn wasn't so clearly ashamed of her. It surprises her how oblivious the McKinley kids can get when it comes to them being twins. They look identical, besides their hair styles and dress sense. Charlie's hair was short and choppy around her head whilst Quinn's was a long, smooth style around her shoulders, framing the blondes head perfectly. Quinn dresses like the classic cheerleader and Charlie like a male. But apart from that, they were completely similar.
Quinn rolls her eyes and shuts the door with a wall rattling thud to drown out the commotion of the outside crowd, then turning to face her secretly beloved sister. "Hey there..." she grins. Charlie gives a nod in reply and twists the key, trying to start the rust bucket of a car and groaning when it fails to ignite the exhaust. Quinn gives a soft sigh as people outside pointed at the car and laughed freely at how pathetic the transportation was. She clenches her jaw and rests her elbow on the small ledge under the window, staring out of it in embracement.
"Shit..." Charlie mutters, giving a few more failed attempts to start the car. By now the majority of the popular kids had passed and only a few late comers were making their way down the street and having to pass the car. Quinn gives a frustrated grunt and turns the radio on to mask the ugly struggle of the car continuingly stalling but curses and presses random buttons on the inbuilt device to try and turn off the blasting heavy rock that almost falls into the metal category and prevent it from rattling the windows into shattering. Charlie can't help but snigger. "That's disgusting music..." Quinn mutters once she managed to change the station to a modern R&B one and relaxed back in the seat of the still stationary car.
"So is that bull crap..." Charlie argues back and gives a last hopeful attempt to ignite the engine that, as predicted, fails once again. She whimpers in anger and tugs the keys from the ignition, throwing them in the pocket of her frayed, short denim shorts she'd changed into before she headed out. She throws her head back against the headrest and takes a few deep breaths to calm her easily activated anger, squeezing her eyes tightly shut before reopening them to tilt her head and look at her sister who look equally as angry and confused. "Sorry..." she mutters with a following sigh. "Your music isn't disgusting nor is mine and I'm sorry, I will invest in a new car soon"
Quinn gives a small smile and looks back at Charlie, wishing she would remove of the sunglasses so she could see her sisters beautiful eyes. She nods and picks her bag up from under her feet, throwing the straps over her back and opening the car door, stepping outside of the car, peering back inside. "c'mon, we're going to have to walk aren't we" Charlie nods and turns of the radio, stepping out too and locking her car with a groan. "Fifteen blocks, this should be fun" she says sarcastically and walks around to the sidewalk next to her twin. The both simultaneously sigh and reluctantly begin walking, Quinn pulling out her cell phone and doing whatever the hell a HBIC does whilst Charlie just admires their surroundings.
She's always had an artistic eye which Quinn never understood. She'd pretend to be embarrassed when Charlie travelled around with an old hefty camera around her neck but secretly admired the two minute older blonde for not hiding her talent because it out casted her. Right now Charlie wished she had her trustworthy cannon around her neck. Two young girls playing hopscotch in the deserted street with the sun setting behind them was a masterpiece in her eyes which she couldn't momentarily capture much to her disappointment. She shrugs it off and continues their stroll, disliking the awkward silence between the two which was probably caused by Quinn pms'ing or something.
Come the second block, Charlie gives into the silence that set a depressing mood over the two of them so began humming, glancing restlessly over at Quinn's phone every so often. She's texting, or probably sexting, Santana. It sounds extremely wrong on Charlie's side but she has in fact gone through Quinn's phone every now and then out of curiosity. The photos and texts she usually found confused her quite a bit but decided it was Quinn's personal business. Everyone has secrets, right? Charlie sure does. One huge one she'd never, ever tell Quinn. The personality that came through from the files on her sister's phone made her doubt it even belonged to the HBIC. So very different to the one she portrays during school. It's as if, she hides who she actually is in front of everyone else. But so do most people nowadays.
Come the third boring block, the older twin is frustrated by the lack of convocation. She's unsure of what she did wrong but begins to sing in her quiet, angelic voice anyway, in hope she'd get attention. "Wish you were someone else, every night you fall to pieces knowing you can't save yourself. I can see you, I can hear you. There's a place where the broken go, there's a room full of second chances. You're not standing on your own-" This succeeds in causing Quinn to peer up from her phone and look at Charlie. She stops on the pavement and reaches out to take her sisters hand, pulling her to a halt too. Charlie hides a smirk, knowing why she'd been stopped. She found that song on Quinn's phone, not her own.
Quinn's eyes are slightly widened as she looks over Charlie's sunshade covered face for a few moments until she gives a weak laugh and shakes her head. "-You're not invisible..." the head Cheerio mutters, finishing off the chorus to the song and reaching out to pull Charlie's glasses from her face, staring into warm, matching hazel-green eyes. The look they share for a few moments sparks the warm fuzziness in Charlie's stomach which she finds herself unable to deal with so snaps her hand out of Quinn's despite how right it felt and walked off in front. The cheerleader's eyes wander after her sister for a moment, huffing in disappointment. She felt it too, that connection that pulled her to follow after her big sister whilst leering over the backs her legs guiltily.
Realizing that maybe she was enjoying the view a little too much, she gives her steps a small skip until she catches up to Charlie's side and walks besides her, a new found awkwardness hanging over the pair from the unholy urges they both secretly felt towards one another.
Quinn watches her feet and clears her throat whereas Charlie watches her surroundings intently, trying to find a setting or scene that would make a good photo if only she had her damned camera. Her focus is drawn to an elderly woman in a small red motor as she tried to turn her car in a three point turn. She slows her steps and looks through the car mirror as it reversed towards them in aim to stop before the curb and drive off in the opposite direction. The driver was no other than Santana's abuela. Charlie's eyes meet with those of the 89 year old through the mirror and she stops in her tracks, reaching out an arm to halt Quinn also, just in case it wasn't a three point turn the elderly Latina was attempting but a reverse onto the dive in front of them.
Little did either of the twins know how drastically the next minute would affect their lives.
Quinn's gaze shoots up when she feels Charlie's arm halt her and stands still in her path, watching and waiting for the car to finally go on its way. "What the hell is that old bat even doing?!" Quinn groans as she goes back to texting the driver's granddaughter on her cell phone. The car stops at the curb and Charlie rolls her eyes impatiently. "People that old shouldn't be able to even drive..." she complains.
Inside the car, Alma Lopez's shaky hands grip the wheel, her mind too busy thinking about the issues currently inside her family to remember that the gear stick should be in a gear, not still in reverse. Quinn grunts, even more frustrated with waiting. "Let's just go...She will probably just park there in the middle of the road going by her age..." Quinn suggests as she leans against the hood of a random car that was parked on the curb behind them. She goes back to watching her phone, smirking to herself at whatever text she had just received but Charlie watched the old woman carefully, her eyes raising as realization hits her that the woman had not dropped a hand from the wheel to change the gear. "Move" she demands her sister but it's too late.
Wheels skid against the road. A car shoots backwards. Quinn remains oblivious. But Charlie screams.
The feeling of ice that runs through Charlie's blood is indescribable as she watches in horror as the car jolts backwards, heading right in the direction of her preoccupied sister. The world is in slow motion. "Quinn!" she cries in a blood curdling cry that seems to drag out forever. She didn't even think twice about the next decision she made. She ran forward faster than she had ever ran before, watching the car carry on jolting towards her sister edging closer every millisecond until she gave Quinn a forceful shove. The younger fabray only looked up to see her petrified sister moments before she was hit to the ground and surrounded in blackness as a sharp smash of the gravel blows her head. The last thing she heard was a mixture of a metallic smash, an ear piercing cry and a snap.