First day, senior year, coming off a win at regionals and second place at nationals; Rachel Berry was just as happy as she could possibly be. Her smile may have already been big but it stretched a little bit bigger when she saw her boyfriend – Noah Puckerman – standing at her locker. She strode confidently down the hallway in her stylish heels (compliments of Santana) and short skirt, with her tight t-shirt, proudly proclaiming "I love Nerds" with a box of nerds on it. She got about halfway to her locker, and Puck, when a load of cherry slushie was thrown in her face. Everyone in the hallways got real quiet and practically flattened themselves against their lockers because Noah Puckerman was going to give hell to the guy who slushied his girl. No one had slushied glee kids since Sam at the beginning of last year.

Sure enough, when the hall went quiet, Puck looked up, only to see his girlfriend covered in red slushie. The kid holding cup was a freshman on the JV team, Aaron Kane. Puck remembered playing with his older brother two years ago, before he dropped out half way through his senior year. Finn and Sam were standing by, so they nodded at Puck, who went immediately to Rachel while the other two took Aaron aside. Puck quickly ushered her to the nearest bathroom and set her on the sink. He quickly picked the lock on the janitor's supply closet to get a chair. Once he had her all set up, he got a cup from the closet and began to wash the slushie from her hair. Tears silently made their way down her face, her eyes closed. Once he finished with her hair, he helped clean up the rest of her body, helping her out of the red-stained clothes and into her gym clothes.

If there was one thing Puck didn't like to see, it was to see his girl cry. Once she stopped the tears, he pulled her into a hug, Rachel freezing and shivering in his arms. "Hey, don't you worry," he placated. "Puckzilla will get him back." She giggled at his self-imposed nickname. "There's my girl."

Puck shucked his letterman's jacket off and put it around her tiny shoulders, leaving him in a tight black t-shirt and jeans. They left the bathroom and headed to their classes. Since it was Thursday, and the first day of school, they didn't have Glee, but there was still football practice. Puck had gone to Coach Biest's office during his study hall to go over plays and to tell her about what happened this morning. She was rather upset that one of her boys would do this, after all the improvement they made last year. But she agreed to give him other drills to do and to run him down. But first there would be a confrontation of a special variety to set him straight.

Aaron was already in the lockerroon when Puck, Finn, Artie, and Sam walked in. The freshman was bragging to his fellow JV freshmen about his slushie feat. "Yeah, my older brother Kevin told me all about the football players and some of the other jocks who used to slushie her all the time," he said. "So I got her good. Cherry slushie. I should be making varsity any time now."

"Ahh, so it was you who slushied my girlfriend?" Puck asked, walking over to the puny freshman. "You shouldn't have done that."

"She's you're girlfriend?" Aaron asked, really surprised. 'This guy could do so much better than her,' he thought.

"Yeah, and I don't take too well to her getting slushied," he said, walking forward. Artie blocked the door while the other three upperclassmen walked toward him with extra large slushies in their hand. One went in his face, one went down the front of his pants, and one went down the back of them. Coach walked in immediately after. "Alright, laps! Kane, ten extra!" she announced.

"I can't shower this stuff off first?" Aaron asked.

"Nope," she said, eyes not leaving her clipboard as she marked off attendance. "I heard what you did. And your brother was here under Coach Tanaka, who tolerated that kind of behavior. I don't. you will be running pals, and you have to prove to me that you still deserve to be on this team."

"I have to prove myself because I threw a slushie in some weird girl's face?" Aaron cried out. "What about the crippled kid? How does he make varsity over me?"

"Well, you have to practice today, but tomorrow you will be suspended from the team for the first three games. You're required to practice though," Coach said, advancing on him. "You signed a contract to be respectful, on and off the field, among other things. Now you may think that piece of paper means nothing, but I take it very seriously."

Puck showered after practice and headed out to Rachel's house, since her Dad's wanted to see how their first day had gone. Rachel practically jumped on him when he walked through the door. He wasn't one to turn down kissing an enthusiastic Rachel Berry, so he went at it until one of her Dad's coughed to get their attention.

"Puck," he said, holding his hand to shake.

"Mr. Berry," Puck said, returning the handshake once he put Rachel down.

"I hear thanks are in order," Leo said. "You helped out our little girl."

"It was nothing Mr. Berry," Puck shrugged, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I don't let anyone mess with my girl."

"Well then, you can call me Leo," he smiled.

11/8/2010