Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 67th cycle. Now cycle 68!

"Hiccups on the Bend"
((Older) Rachel), Sophie (OC), Chloe (OC)
Red series
(no listing yet; sequel to Periphery)

Due to a scheduling conflict she could not get out of, Rachel Berry had been forced to include a three-day halt to the workshop, while she flew off to California. In that time, it had been up to Sophie alone to look after their young guest. On this one given night though, the last before Rachel was to return to New York, it was Chloe who found herself playing guardian to her host's daughter.

She'd come back to the house to find a note from Sophie. She was going to be out until late that night, so Chloe shouldn't wait up for her. She'd left money in case she wanted to order something for dinner.

Chloe had not been all that hungry to begin with. She was still full from a late lunch. She'd been using these days off to play tourist around the city, even though she was getting pretty familiar with it now. And somewhere around lunch time, she'd run into George, the boy she'd dubbed the Greek statue, from the workshop. Since the coffee sort-of-date, she had been forced to face the facts: she really liked him, which made the prospect of her leaving something of a problem. It became an even bigger problem when, before they went their separate ways, he asked her out, this time to a proper, not just 'sort of,' dinner and maybe a movie date. He told her to think about it, and she had; she couldn't let it out of her head. She'd never really liked a guy enough to go through the whole 'can't stop thinking about him, everything reminds me of him' emotional turmoil, but now that she was there, it only made the distance matter more complicated.

She had fallen asleep on the couch, dreaming of course of George, when a giant bell appeared in her dream, and the next thing she knew she was awake again, hearing her phone ring. She looked at the time; it was after two in the morning. On the ID she found Sophie's number and answered. "H-Hello?" she yawned.

"Chloe, hey!" Sophie's voice came on, and the fact that she was able to tell from those two words that the girl was drunk forced Chloe to sit up.

"Sophie…"

"Listen, listen, listen… I need you to…" she stopped, laughing, "I need you to do something for me, alright? But don't wake up my mother, alright, she doesn't like it when I come home like this, it's very bad." Chloe frowned.

"Your mother's in California," she reminded her.

"Oh! Yes! Well then, I don't need to whisper, do I?" Sophie laughed again.

"What do you need?"

"Me? I'm awesome, what are you talking about?" Sophie drunkenly wondered.

"You just said you needed me to do something."

"I did? I did! Can you come pick me up?"

After dragging Sophie's location out of her, Chloe had gone up to get dressed and gone off to meet her, hoping that she would still be there when she arrived, and for a second she thought that she had lost her. But then she spotted her car and, looking through the window, found her snoozing on the back seat. Chloe knocked on the window, and Sophie popped up into view, banging her head on the car roof. Chloe heard a muffled 'ow.' She was still rubbing at her head when she spotted Chloe outside and stretched her hand over to find the lever and unlock the driver's side door. Chloe opened the door, climbed in, and shut the door again.

"I think I lost my tongue…" Sophie frowned. "No, wait," it popped out and she laughed. "Found it."

"How much have you had?" Chloe asked, while Sophie half climbed in from the back to the front seat, to check her head in the mirror.

"More than a little, less than too much," Sophie declared, returning to the back, lying down again, with her bag to prop up her head. Without much of an option, Chloe got the keys, which Sophie kept gripped in her hands up to now, and she drove them home. The more complicated task would still be forthcoming: she had to get her in the house.

She'd been sleeping again by the time they got there, and whenever Chloe tried to wake her up, she batted her arm out, trying to push her back. "Hey!" Chloe raised her voice, and Sophie finally frowned and opened an eye.

"What?"

"We're here, come on." After half-dragging the girl out of the car, ("My shoe!" she pointed back to the car and dove back in to get it.) Chloe helped her lazy feet up to the stairs. When they got in, she helped her to the couch, where she sat down and looked around.

"Did you sleep here?" Sophie looked up at her quizzically. She looked like she was five.

"I fell asleep watching tv," Chloe shrugged.

"It's Friday!" Sophie protested. "What are you doing here on a Friday night? You… You should go out, go, go on," she pointed somewhere off that had to be the door.

"It's almost three. It's Saturday morning now."

"Right you are," Sophie nodded to herself. "Come, sit," she patted the couch next to her. "Tell me what you did." Chloe came and sat, promptly receiving Sophie's head on her shoulder.

"I didn't do anything, not tonight."

"Oh but you did do something, didn't you?" Sophie asked, pivoting her head with her chin to Chloe's shoulder. "What did you do, what?"

"I went around the city. I ran into George…"

"George? Who's George? Is he cute?" Sophie asked, with glazed innocent eyes.

"He's… yeah, he's gorgeous actually… like a statue," she drifted off thinking about him.

"Woah…"

"He asked me out," she revealed.

"Do it!" Sophie ordered at once, tugging on Chloe's arm. "Oh come on, do it!"

"I don't think I can. I'll go back to Indiana when this is done, and he's from here."

"No, no, no, you don't belong in… Indiana," she spoke the word like it was a rotted apple. "No, you belong here, in New York. You're a star," she whispered the last word, and it made Chloe smile.

"But where would I stay? I can't live here with you forever. I mean, it'd be great, but I'd be imposing."

"So go live with your dad then," Sophie suggested simply. "Then we can all live here! Me and my mother, and you, and the statue!"

"My dad?" Chloe frowned, confused. "He lives in Indiana, too."

"No, not that one, the other one, your birth father," Sophie tapped her arm.

"I don't know where he is, remember?"

"Yeah, but my mother does," Sophie shrugged it off.

"Wait, what?" The drunk girl may not have been making a lot of sense, but she still knew when she had said too much, and her face shifted.

"Did I say my mother? I meant your mother… I mean… I mean…"

"Sophie, tell me," Chloe demanded, and Sophie hesitated for a moment, looking around.

"I sort of told my mother about your thing, and I showed her his picture, and she recognized him. Get this! They used to work together!" she gestured as though to say 'wow!' "What are the chances, right? So she tracked him down, told him you were staying with us, and… and…" she halted again.

"Sophie!" Chloe didn't let her stop.

"H-he… he… He came, the first day of the workshop. He watched from up in the gallery, where you couldn't see. But then by the time it was over he'd already gone. My mother hasn't spoken to him again since, he hasn't called or anything… But hey, that's cool, right? I need to go to sleep. Don't worry, I know the way," she stumbled on to her feet and slowly but surely made her way up to her room.

Chloe couldn't move from the couch. She was fixed. Now she was the statue.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!