A/N: I just watched "Audition", and died a little – it was SO GOOD! One thing though – no Quick, which was highly depressing, even though individually they were wonderful (catfight, anyone? Loved it.) Anyway, here's a little drabble referring to "Glee's Big Gay Summer" (which was hysterical, btw), and Quinn's lack of hormones (and therefore lack of tears).

PS, did anyone see the Quinn Puck dancing in the "Britney/Brittany" promo? If not, I'd check it out. I died a little more inside. Good god.

Update: this now contains spoilers for "Britney/Brittany", mainly because I was too fangirling out for it not to, because that episode was amazing. I'M SO EXCITED FOR NEXT WEEK & FOR PUCK SINGING "ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG" TO QUINN. IT'S. PERFECT. Anyway, enjoy.

Title: Two Truths & A Lie
Author: sparklinglemonade
Rating: T
Summary: Truth: statement that which is in accordance with fact or reality. Lie: to tell an intentionally false statement. Quinn Fabray tells Jacob Ben Israel a little of both.
Genre: Angst/Drama
Chapter: One Shot

Truth: statement that which is in accordance with fact or reality.

Lie: to tell an intentionally false statement.

"I'm happy to be back, and ready to start fresh."

Truth: Quinn is happy to be back. She's thrilled that she can come to school and wear normal clothes and a normal bra (wearing a nursing bra when there is nothing to be nursed is the cruelest of cruel fates), and act like a normal teenage girl who hasn't given birth and spent her whole summer crying about her lack of baby while inspecting her stretch marks.

(And ignoring her now-estranged baby daddy, but she doesn't want to think about that.)

Quinn walks the halls with a new perspective, now, which is an added bonus to being back in the state of normalcy. She sees things as if she were a mother (technically, she is a mother, but she's got nothing to show for it – something she doesn't want to think about while starting her new, baby-less fresh start.) Speaking of,

Truth: Quinn is ready to take advantage of her fresh start. Hopefully everyone will comply and treat her like she is a normal teenage girl who hasn't given birth (most of them don't actually know about the whole spending the summer crying and inspecting her stretch marks, thank god). She's even able to regain her position as head Cheerio, which comes with the added plus of Santana wanting to kill her (which really is the highlight of her first week back to school, she can honestly say,) and Coach Sylvester being even more inclined to treat her like the normal cheer captain she is.

She can possibly reclaim her seat on the throne, and all could be well – if it weren't for that pesky little thing she hasn't quite taken care of yet -

"And I'm a lot less hormonal, so there's not really any crying."

Lie: She's nowhere to be found between fourth and fifth period. Puck doesn't see her at her locker, which means he can't check on her (she was pretty rough all summer, and he's surprised she hasn't carried said roughness into the beginning of the year,) and make sure that she hasn't slashed her wrists or something equally depressing (not that she's done anything like that, but it's not like it hasn't seemed like she would – like he said, she's been rough). He looks everywhere: her car, his car, the choir room, the nurse's office, the girl's locker room, (well, he actually kind of just pushes Tina in to check, because he didn't feel like dealing with Figgins,) – everywhere, but he can't seem to find her.

He asks his fifth period teacher to let him go to the bathroom, and decides to try one last place – the gym. It's the least likely place he figures she'll be in, and of course it's where he finds her. She's attempting to cover up her sobs (which is only making them louder), when he realizes that she's underneath the bleachers (he takes a moment to attempt to figure out how she got under the bleachers, how gross it probably is under there, and how desperate she must be for alone time if she actually chose to go down there). He lets out a slight cough just to warn her that he's there and he notices her attempt at stifling her cries (it doesn't work), so she manages to say, "just come here," in a ragged, crying voice.

He does, and finds her huddled up in her Cheerio's uniform, tears rolling off her face in sheets. She looks up at him, confused and desperate, and he sits next to hr and takes her hand.

"I didn't expect it to be this hard," she says, after a few moments of silence and waiting have passed, "but apparently…I was wrong…"

"Well, considering what you went through all summer," he stars, and she glares at him, "what? You really thought it was all just going to go away?"

"No," she says, annoyed, "but I figured I could distract myself from it, but then my teacher was talking about the role of children in some movement, and about the way their mother's felt, or something, and it just kind of snowballed in my head from there."

"Eventually," he thinks aloud, "I think you will be able to…but it's only been a few months."

"Feels like way more than that," she sighs, "it feels like it's been a few years."

"I know," he says, "really."

"You do," she mentions, wiping her eyes. "I'm back on the Cheerio's, by the way…if you didn't notice," she gestures to her uniform.

"Only you," he chuckles, "could manage to get back in the graces of Sue Sylvester."

"Well," she says, "you would too if you looked this good in a skirt."

"Ouch," he laughs, and she giggles with a sniffle. "We should get you to class…"

She explains that she'll manage to get there when she can, but when he begins to stand, she grabs his arm and looks up at him. "I just…wanted to apologize."

"For?" He's confused, so he sits back down next to her and looks over.

"Being so terrible to you this summer. I really care about you, you know that?" He smiles, because he really didn't know that, "and maybe, since I'm the head Cheerio again, one day if you make Quarter Back, we can talk." She winks at him and he laughs as she crawls out from under the bleachers. She knows he's watching as she flounces away, sniffling a little as she does.

He throws a note at her during glee, "Berry fucked up with Finn, what a surprise." She laughs, but doesn't respond – that is, until Rachel begins singing.

He knows this crappy song, he's heard it on the radio before, but when everyone's paying attention to Rachel, she pulls his chin so he can see her face and sings to him – and then again when she's actually supposed to be singing. She tells him he is the only exception, which in context seems to mean that he's the only one she'll ever love, and he can't help but think that eventually he might actually be her only exception (little does he know, he already is) - and the eventual feels pretty fucking good.