A/N: Jarley one-shot I wrote after being too overwhelmed by Jarley feels. Review if you like it!

She had no idea what came over her when she decided to audition for Sandy. Maybe it was the fact she had a good week, and she had just got a solo on a group performance on Glee and Jake had just broken up with Kitty three days ago. She felt confident, she felt good enough for at least a role in this musical - any role.

But when Artie told her she had gotten the role, it felt like someone had just slapped her in the face. Nope, she thought. I can't do this.

She was one of the first ones cast in the Grease musical the Glee Club was preparing. She didn't expect to get the role to be completely honest. At least not Sandy's role. But she did, and now, she was stressing over it more than she should, because she'd be the center of attention and that's the opposite of what she usually wants.

So after she pretends she's happy with the news she runs to the bleachers, that one place where she can just sit and breathe and think about life without anyone bothering her. That is, when the football team isn't training.

She's so lost in her thoughts she doesn't even realize the figure standing right next to her until he speaks up. "Marley?"

She snaps her head up because she recognizes the voice, and because when she hears it it's like all of her problems vanished away. "Jake." She says, in a whisper loud enough for him to hear it.

He sits next to her. Not too far, not too close. "What's wrong?"

She frowns. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

He sighs. "You're sitting here, alone, looking down and it's just dead silence. Something has to be happening."

She keeps herself from smiling. Smiling because what he just said made her think that maybe, just maybe, he likes her enough to know exactly what she thinks and what she does and how she feels. Or maybe it was just that obvious that she liked being alone.

"It's just... Artie just told me I got the role of Sandy in the Grease musical." She said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"That's great! Congratulations, Mar." He says, smiling.

Mar. Ouch.

"It's the opposite of great, actually. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I auditioned for that. Actually, I wasn't auditioning for Sandy, I just wanted to be a part of the musical. I didn't intend to be the star of the whole freaking thing!" She breathes deeply, looking at nothing but an empty field now. "I can't do that."

He arches his eyebrows and tries to shoot her a "are-you-kidding-me" look, but it doesn't matter because she's looking away and he wants her to look at him so he can assure her that she can do it, but he can't. So he sighs, again.

"You can do that and much, much more than that. Do you not know how amazing you are?" He says, still looking at her because it doesn't matter that she's looking away, he can't simply not look at her.

"I'm not amazing." She whispers.

If I was that amazing you'd love me back , she thought. Damn it.

"Yeah, you are!" He said. "Marley, look at me."

She turns her face so she's looking at him now and shit, when did he scoot over next to her and why is his face so close to her face and his lips, God, doesn't he get the whole personal space thing people are always talking about?

She forces herself to say something because if she doesn't she'll either kiss him or, well, kiss him, and she can't do that, not here, not now.

"What?"

Even he is a little taken aback by how close they are right now, and hell, what was he gonna say anyway?

"You're.. amazing. I'm totally serious right now, you can be the star of that Greasy musical or whatever you guys are doing. And you will be, and everyone is going to see you rocking out to those weird musical songs and you're going to be flawless."

She chuckles. "It's Grease." He shoots her a confused look. "The musical, it's Grease."

He smiles, dropping his head slightly. "Yeah, whatever."

"You know what I'm actually scared of?" She says, feeling as if the tension had completely disappeared.

"What?"

"People."

"You're afraid of people?" He frowns.

"Yeah, like.. Ugh, I don't know how to explain it. I just get so shy and awkward around people, and Sandy's storyline is revolving around Danny all the time and they are a couple and what if like, Joe gets the role of Danny? He's in Glee Club and all but I can't just act all romantic with him!"

He laughs slightly. "So you don't feel comfortable enough to be around Joe?"

"Not when he has to be my boyfriend."

"Okay, so, if you could choose, who would you want to play Danny? That's his name right?" He says.

She thinks about it for a second even thought she knows exactly what the answer is. And, well, it probably won't hurt to say it out loud. "You."

He looks serious, then frowns, then laughs. "Me? In the school musical, playing Danny?"

She smiles. "Yes! You're like, my best friend at this school. If you were there with me, I bet I wouldn't be nervous at all."

"Well, I'm gonna be in the audience."

"I know you will. But it's not the same."

He's praying now that she won't ask him straight forward to audition because if she does he knows he'll just go ahead and do it because he can't say no to her, not even if he tried.

"What if Sam got the role?"

She ponders about it for a couple of seconds. "Oh, well. It wouldn't be that hard. He's cute."

He feels himself flinch at her comment. What is she saying? Sam is not cute, nope.

"Wow, so professional."

"What? I'm a girl, I'm allowed to find boys cute!" She says, laughing slightly.

"Okay, whatever." He tries his best to cover up all signs of annoyance and jealousy. "I gotta go. I have Algebra in like, 5 minutes."

She frowns. "You're actually going to attend Algebra? Wow. Being friends with me has really changed you."

He gets up. "Shut up." He smiles. "When are the auditions for Danny, anyway?"

"Today, after Glee Club."

"Then you should talk to Sam about it." He said, and then regretted it, because is he really encouraging her to do this?

She nods. "Yeah, will do it. Now go. Don't be late, bad boy."

"Bad boys have the tendency to be late to everything, actually."

She smiles. "But you're not actually a bad boy. You're a nice guy, Jake."

Her words get him off guard and he has no idea what to say so he just walks away with those damn words replaying over and over again in his mind.

He had no idea where he stood when he was with Marley. He was pretty sure he was falling in love with her and before Kitty he could swear she liked him but now? There are no signs at all. He can't read her looks and her face and her thoughts and it drives him crazy. And as much as he'd like to be a "bad boy", he really is just a ordinary loser who can't speak up about his feelings.

On his way to his Algebra class, he sees Sam. He's looking for something in his locker and Jake suddenly remembers that Marley thinks that loser is cute and that she's actually gonna try to convince him to audition to Dan or whatever the name of the guy is and what if he gets the role?

He gets angry, so angry he wants to punch the guy, but he thinks about Marley's reaction to that and he realizes she'd hate him for that and he also remembers that he's the one who encouraged Marley to talk to him and God, why is the so dumb?

So for the first time he actually tries to focus on his Algebra class to keep his mind off of Marley, and he's surprised when it actually does work.

When he walks out of the door to go to Glee Club, he sees Marley and Sam talking, and he's doing one of his impressions and she's laughing and he feels like punching a wall.

And that's when he figures where he stands.

Two days later, the official list for the Grease cast is up on the board and Marley is anxiously walking up to that list to finally see who was going to be Danny. There were other people there, too, and she could swear she heard someone say "Jake?", but she brushed it off because, well, that was impossible.

Except it wasn't.

She approached the list, nervously looking up, and the first thing her eyes lay on was the name "Jake Puckerman" written right next to "Danny".

Suddenly, she felt like the hallway was completely silent and the world was spinning and she felt like she was about to pass out. He auditioned? He actually did it, he auditioned for Danny and he actually got the role and they were actually going to act as a couple for this musical and wow, what?

She started running, actual running, looking everywhere for Jake, trying to understand why he auditioned when he repeated over and over again how he wouldn't audition, how he had no interest whatsoever in Grease, in musicals, in pretty much anything that involved staying at school longer than needed.

She spotted him on his locker, and she was so out of breath from running she just leaned in the other lockers, panting, while Jake looked at her with a frown.

"What's going on?" He said, closing the door to his locker and turning to face her.

She raised her finger signaling him to wait and did her best to compose herself.

"Why did you audition for Danny?" She said, still slightly out of breath.

His eyes widened, and then he relaxed, realizing there's really nowhere to run. "Because you said you wanted me to play Danny."

"Yeah, but.. You said you wouldn't do it."

"I changed my mind."

"Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."

She laughed. She actually laughed, because no, that didn't happen and he didn't just say he's in love with her and no, it was not real and she just misheard it.

But then his face was dead serious, and then he got this really weird but familiar look on his face that practically screams "oh God please make the earth swallow me at this very instant" and Marley knows that look very well because that's how she feels 80% of the time and that's practically her signature look, so she stops laughing.

"Are you serious?"

It takes him awhile to answer, because he's yelling at himself mentally to be a man and just tell her how he feels already.

But he does answer.

"Yeah. I am. I'm in love with you. Since the first time I saw you, I knew you were something special. And at first, yeah, I wanted you just because, but then after we sang together and you told me how bullied you were I was just... so freaking angry. Because how can someone make fun of you and make you sad? That shouldn't be allowed, it shouldn't be allowed for anyone to bring you down because you're Marley, and you're pretty, and nice, and good, and you have no flaws. At all!" He's looking right into her eyes now. "And just the thought of you and that Sam guy... God. No. So I auditioned for that stupid Danny guy because I don't ever want to see you with someone that isn't me. Because I'm in love with you."

And that's when she thought she'd wake up. But nope, she was still staring back at Jake's eyes, and he still had that look on his face, and the noises of the crowd walking up and down those halls could still be heard. That's when she realized that no, she wasn't dreaming, and yes, Jake Puckerman was actually seriously telling her he loved her.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She kissed him.

And on opening night, before she stepped on the stage, Jake held her hand and looked into her eyes and she just smiled and squeezed his hand because she wasn't afraid anymore. He was with her, and he was the Danny to her Sandy, and it everything fell into place for the first time in her life.

She was crazy for him. And he was crazy for her. And nothing else mattered anymore.