They meet for the first time at Santana Lopez's pool party in sixth grade. Well, obviously they've gone to the same schools all their lives but Quinn Fabray is on the up-and-up popularity-wise and Noah Puckerman is one of the kids who got caught setting stuff on fire during recess after lunch. They don't run in the same circles. The link is Santana, Quinn's best friend who all the boys chase after. Quinn is starting to get some attention herself. What Santana has in developing breasts, Quinn makes up for in dresses and makeup. The one girl who dresses up every day for school, that's Quinn. Santana makes fun of her, but then Quinn calls her Busty Bimbo and they glare at each other for a moment before going back to what they were doing.
It's dark when she goes back out to the pool. Everyone else is inside, eating and laughing and watching a movie but sometimes Quinn likes to be alone. She's sitting on the edge of the pool, her feet in the water when he comes up behind her. He watches her for a long time before she speaks. She jumps cause she doesn't realize he's been stand there.
"What are you doing?" She contorts her upper body so she can look up at him, frowning.
"Sitting? Being alone? None of your business." He chuckles kind of, kicking his feet. She keeps her eyes on his. Santana's taught her a pretty good blank stare. When he looks back at her, he kind of raises his eyebrows at her seriousness.
"Jeez, okay. Calm down." But he doesn't offer to leave. She turns back to watching her feet in the water. When he keeps talking, she huffs in annoyance. "What's your name?"
"Not telling you." He frowns at the back of her head.
"Why not? You're friends with Santana right? I'll just ask her." She licks her lips, keeping her head forward. He sits down next to her but she doesn't turn to look at him.
"Quinn."
"Quinn?"
"Yeah." He nods slowly, looking down at the water with her. She glances at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" To her surprise he starts to pull off his shirt and toss it aside, standing up again.
"No." And he jumps into the pool, splashing her. She lets out a squeal at the coldness of the water, shielding her face. He comes up for air and swims over to her, a dark grin on his face. "Get in."
"What? No." His hands are around her ankles.
"Get in."
"Let go of me. You're really weird." He tugs her ankles threateningly. She doesn't even know this boy, who does he think he is? She glares at him for a long moment and he lets out a laugh.
"Okay. I asked." And he tugs her into the water. She slides in easily, her cover-up dress floating up around her face and she pushes it down, opening her eyes against the chlorinated pool water. He's hovering in the water in front of her for a moment before they both come up, gasping her for air. She treads water for a second, opening her mouth to say something before she ducks under the water again. He follows her.
Quinn swims down to the bottom and when she looks up through the water, he's swimming over her. In the dark water, she feels like nothing and it feels good to feel like nothing. She floats up a little and he's in front of her. He blinks at her, a stream of bubbles leaving his nose as he reaches forward and pushes the hair that's suspended in front of her face out of the way. Under the water, in the nothingness, he leans forward and kisses her. For a moment she doesn't need to breathe and her eyes close and she grabs his sides as they float together. Their mouths open and a cloud of bubbles surrounds their heads. Her bottom lip is between his for a moment and he's holding her against him so she doesn't drift away. When he pulls away, in that split second before they come up gasping for air, his eyes find hers and they blink at each other. Somehow he knows he's just been her first kiss.