Derp, new story. Been obsessed with Glee, so here's some of that. This is totally AU. Lucy never happened.
Also, baseball.
March 23, 2001
"Say hello, Quinn. This is your coach, Coach Ogehs." Quinn's daddy, Russell, tells her.
Quinn greets the large bear of a man with a beaming smile. It was her secret weapon; that smile won people over and put her on their good side.
She knows it works because Coach Ogehs immediately beams back, ruffling her hair gently.
"Hi, I'm Quinn Fabray. I'm six years old, and I go to first grade!" she offers because she's proud that she's in first grade. She's proud because her dad's proud. Coach Ogehs chuckles. The little blond girl was really eager.
"Hi there Quinn, I'm Drew Ogehs, but you call me 'coach', okay?"
"Okay, Coach!" she replies. Drew thinks it's the cutest thing ever, the reply somewhat reminding him of his now twenty year old daughter in college. He gives Quinn one last smile before telling her to go play with the other kids.
Quinn skips to the group of mingling kids, her baseball glove held tight to her chest, leaving Russell to talk to the coach. Her daddy bought it for her when she was five years old. He said that he loved baseball and wanted to share that with Frannie, her older sister, and her. So he taught them how to play, and Quinn knew she was good.
The little blonde noticed that there weren't a lot of girls in this team. She counted only three, including herself, and the rest were boys. Quinn crinkled her nose. Boys were gross. At least, that's what Frannie told her.
"Noah! OW! That hurts, you know?" Rachel smacked Puck.
"Sorry, Rach," the boy apologized sheepishly. "Your hair's just really long," he skimmed Rachel's long, silky brown hair with his fingers, "It's soft, too! How'd you do that?"
Rachel shrugged. "Daddy just tells me to brush it every day, so I do."
They sat side by side watching Saturday morning cartoons on the crappy TV in Puck's room. Hiram was downstairs with Jennifer, Puck's mom, talking over coffee and sweet bread. Leroy was out on traffic control; an accident had happened earlier that morning. It was a Saturday ritual to hang out that began with Hiram and Jennifer's grandmothers'. The Berrys' and Puckermans' were practically one.
"Hey, let's be spies! I'll be the boy spy and you can be the girl spy," Puck suggested since the cartoons were starting become live action; it was nearing noon. Rachel agreed, heading over to Puck's toybox. She rummaged around for a good while, Puck sending her questioning glances. Finally, she pulled out sunglasses with a red frame and threw them at Puck, pulling out sunglasses with green frames for herself.
"Spies always have sunglasses, so we needed some too," she told him. Puck nodded, getting up from his sitting position. He moved to the bed, but instead of getting on top of it, he went under it. Just as Rachel was about to tell him that hide and seek wasn't the same thing as playing spies, Puck came out from the small space with two water guns, one in each hand, forcing him to army crawl out. He handed one to Rachel, before dusting himself off.
"Spies also have guns," Puck grinned.
"Oh my gosh, yes! Let's go fill them up with water and spy on Dad and Jenny,"
Puck agreed eagerly, grabbing Rachel's wrist and rushing to the bathroom. After filling both guns in the sink, the boy put his finger to his lips, signaling for Rachel to be quiet. He pointed to the stairs and Rachel nodded.
Slowly and ever silently, they creeped down the steps, skipping the third one of course—that one always creaked. When Puck and Rachel finally got to the bottom, the little boy somersaulted into the kitchen before pressing himself against the refrigerator. He jerked his head, the apparent signal for go. Rachel rolled her eyes because she knew Puck expected her to do that silly tumble as well; she wasn't going to do it, though. She was wearing a pretty navy blue dress. Rachel simply power walked into the kitchen and pressed herself against the fridge next to Puck, looking at him, waiting for his next command.
He peeked into the dining room.
"Oh, Hiram, you shouldn't be so harsh on Lee! He's only human," Jenny chuckled, sipping at her coffee.
"But Jen, you don't do that to someone, I mean, ugh, I just…I hate it when he does that,"
Puck frowned. He wanted to hear something juicy!
"It's okay sweetie, men are naturally asshats,"
"Hey! I take offense to that!"
"Oh please, you're more of a woman than I am," Puck's mom jokingly poked, making Hiram laugh as well.
Puck's lips quirked at his mom's laughter. He looked back at Rachel; she sent him a questioning glance and he shrugged. He didn't know what to do beyond this.
A lot of the kids here sucked at catching, Quinn mused.
And they did.
They were dropping balls everywhere; it was really starting to make her mad. It wasn't that hard! You just open your glove, let the ball fall into it, and then close the glove! That simple. Quinn made the motions with her glove unknowingly.
She was playing third baseman. Coach Ogehs had assigned her there—she had wanted to play short stop. That's where most of the balls end up.
The small blonde looked to her left where this girl—Santana she had learned. Who even has names like that?—played the position she wanted. Quinn was going to fight for the spot, but Santana looked mean, so she decided not to and suck it up.
She was starting to like third though.
There was someone on second. It was a blonde boy. Quinn thinks his name's Max or Sam or something you'd name a dog.
She was going to take him down.
Nobody got past her.
And it was true. No one had gotten to home yet. Either they got out, tagged out, or Quinn tagged them.
And this boy with a dog's name was going to be the same.
Quinn narrowed her eyes at him.
Crack!
A girl had hit the ball towards left field. Quinn watched as the ball soared over her head and the boy who was out there catch it.
And promptly drop it.
She gritted her teeth. What the heck was that?
The boy with a dog's name was sprinting towards her. Quinn held out her glove for the left fielder to throw. She caught the ball and immediately moved her arms forward.
Just in time to catch Dog's Name in the face.
Dog's Name's abrupt stop made him crumble to the ground, all the while holding his face.
He literally just got punched in the face.
By a girl.
A girl.
He wasn't going to cry even though it hurt a lot.
"Ow," he finally choked out. Quinn panicked. She didn't mean to hurt him. It was reflex!
"Oh my God, I'm soooo sorry! I didn't mean to do that, oh my god, I'm so sor—"
"It's okay," the little blonde boy cut her off, "I know it was an accident, so it's okay. But I'm out," he shrugged. Quinn grimaced. She felt absolutely terrible.
/
After practice, Quinn went up to the kid with a dog's name.
"I'm really sorry," she began.
"Hey, it's okay, I told you," he said. And he was really okay with it.
"But I—"
"My name's Sam," he introduced himself.
"Um, Quinn. Nice to meet you, even though I hit you in the face,"
"Well, I ran into your glove, so it's my fault,"
"But—"
"No, no, no! No more 'sorry'!"
"B—"
"Nope!"
"But Sam I feel ba—"
"Shh, you can make it up to me by being my friend," Sam offered. Quinn was really pretty and she was good at baseball. What a gal, he thought like the secret dork he is.
"Well…okay," she grinned.
"Rachel Barbra Berry," Hiram bellowed. The poor man was drenched in water and Kool-Aid, as was Jennifer, whose face was just as furious, "this is unacceptable! What in God's name gave you the idea to do this?"
Rachel and Puck glanced at each other briefly.
"Well, we were playing spies," she gestured towards the sunglasses perched on her head and the water guns that were confiscated on the table, "and you guys were our enemies. You were distracted so we shot you. We win, by the way," Rachel grinned.
Hiram wasn't amused—in fact, his eye twitched. His t-shirt was wet and red in some areas.
"You are grounded, missy."
Rachel's face fell. That sounded horrendous. She'd learned that word last week.
"But Dad! You can't do that!" she stomped her foot.
"Yes I can. I just did. Let's go." Hiram commanded.
Jennifer shot a stern look at Puck.
"The same goes for you, mister. You're grounded."
"But mom! It was just a gam—"
"Uh," she interrupted him, "to your room. No TV."
Rachel watched Puck crawl up the stairs, but not without saying goodbye. After Hiram and Jennifer apologized for one another's child's behavior, Rachel and Hiram left, the tiny diva following after her father like a kicked puppy.
March 30, 2001
Sam couldn't believe it. He and Quinn were in the same class? Woah.
"Yeah! I swear I have Mrs. Smith in Room Three!" Quinn exclaimed.
"Where do you sit?" Sam inquired eagerly.
It was the third time they had hung out after practice. Quinn had called her daddy on Coach's cell phone and had asked if it was okay to get rides from her friend's mom. He told her it was fine. Sam's mom usually picked him up thirty minutes after practice ended because of her work, Sam said.
"Um, by the cubbies,"
"Oh, no wonder I don't see you! I sit where the window is,"
"But that's so weird!" Quinn laughed.
"I know, we could totally be brother and sister!"
Quinn laughed some more. "Yes! We'll be brother and sister!"
"Okay. I'll be the older brother and you be the little sister,"
"But I'm older than you, silly!"
"Only by five months!"
"It's still older than you!" the blonde girl stuck her tongue out at Sam. Sam recuperated.
"Whatever!"
Quinn smiled at her new best friend.
From my own experiences with baseball. It's happened to me like, three times. Accidentally hitting people, I mean. Also, this will be Faberry because I'm so in love with them. I just REALLY wanted Fabrevans and Puckleberry bromances. I needs more of it.
Hope you enjoyed! :)