Fast Car

When he opened his locker and a note fell out, Puck shrugged it off, despite being the number one most hated guy in the school at the moment he was still a stud and girls still threw themselves at him. Picking it up off the floor on the off chance it was someone he actually wanted to sleep with he stuffed his books into his locker, glancing up and down the hallway to see if anyone was watching him. Instead he was distracted by Rachel being harassed at her locker by Quinn, who was standing proudly back in her cheerio uniform, she wasn't captain, Santana had retained that right but still she was back on the squad and had decided to stomp all over those that had been there for her the most when she had been ostracised.

It was a month into Junior year of high school and after the drama of last year everyone had been hoping for a relatively calm year, no drama, no mess, just fun in glee, taking Sectional's and then Regional's now that Vocal Adrenaline had lost Jesse to UCLA. Instead Finn had cheated on Rachel, and Quinn had cheated on Puck, no surprise with each other, Puck knew he deserved it after sleeping with his best friends girl in the first place he knew that he deserved to have the girl stolen back from him, in truth he was with her out of guilt not love and it didn't hurt as much as people assumed. Rachel on the other hand had done nothing to deserve it, she had been in all accounts the perfect girlfriend over summer, hadn't stressed out over the little things as much and had retired the animal sweaters, though thankfully for Puck's spank bank not the school girl skirts, and now despite Finn's guilt the tall teen stood back and let Quinn restart the war of terror on Rachel.

"Quinn I haven't been near Finn since glee yesterday, I went home did my homework cooked myself dinner and went to bed, on my return to school this morning I was running later than usual and had to hurry to class it is now the end of third and I had three class, ergo I haven't seen Finn" Rachel said wearily but calmly as she swapped over her books.

"Well just remember he's mine Manhands" Quinn snapped

"Noted"

"Stop being so calm!" Quinn screamed wanting to get a rise out of the small brunette.

"I have class now goodbye Quinn" Rachel said just as calmly walking away from the livid blonde.

Down the hallway Puck grinned at Rachel's new tactic, in the past getting a rise out of her had always been the aim, something he had let slip to her in one of their bleacher conversations in the last few months as they avoided the cafeteria, now that she wouldn't rise herself to the bait Quinn and the rest were left looking stupid.

Shaking his head with a smirk he glanced down at the forgotten note in his hand and unfolded it, noting idly that it had been folded perfectly, instead of a note about hooking it up he found song lyrics:

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store

Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won't have to drive too far
Just 'cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
I say his body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

Re-reading it for the second time, he recognised the lyrics from Tracey Chapman's Fast Car, and noted the underlined last line with a frown, turning over the piece of paper looking for a name he shrugged not finding one and stuffed the note into his notebook heading to his next class.

Sitting down at his table at the back his mind returned back to the note, wondering who would put song lyrics in his locker, then he smiled and rolled his eyes, of course it was Rachel, the only person who breathed music rather than oxygen, the only question was why she had. Sitting back and staring out of the window he let his thoughts drift off to other things, the hell he was living in at home now that his mom had taken his dad back, and that everyone in school, except for Rachel, hated him. Thinking about those underlined lyrics he smiled, he had dreamed about leaving for months, ever since they had given away Beth to Shelby, reasoning dawning on him he waited anxiously for class to end he bolted out towards the bleachers, grinning when once again he failed to beat her to the bleachers.

"Well?" she asked as he walked up the steps to their spot

"Really?" he asked sitting next to her

"Yes, really, I need to leave, you want to leave, let's go"

"Rach...money, clothes, a plan" Puck objected, trying to make her think about the problems with leaving, all the reasons he hadn't gone before.

"I have money, I have clothes in a bag in my room, and the only thing I don't have is a car and a person to go with, because the only person I want to go with is you" Rachel said grabbing his hands and make him look her in the face "I have no home life, my fathers are always away, I hate school, the only thing I have to look forward to is lunch with you"

"It's the only thing I got to look forward to as well" Puck admitted puling her closer to him as he straddled the bench, pulling her in between his legs, succumbing to the temptation of kissing those gorgeous lips he had been addicted to for longer than he wanted to admit.

"Please" Rachel begged as the kiss ended "tonight let's go"

"Plan" Puck muttered bringing her lips back to his and kissing her deeply.

"You, me, your car, New York" Rachel muttered kissing him after each statement before sitting back and explaining more "I have almost ten thousand dollars, we get jobs, we get our GED's we have our own lives, away from this hell hole in Ohio"

"Thought about this a lot have you?"

"Yes" Rachel admitted shrugging her shoulder "I even have a map to New York in my bag at home"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Puck said jumping to his feet "my car is out in the parking lot, we swing by mine to get my clothes then yours and then we are gone" he said pulling her to her feet and pulling her tight to his body.

"But the song said tonight" Rachel objected letting him kiss her into silence as he rolled his eyes at her "it's poetic" she argued

"Baby shut up" he said fondly brushing her hair back "right now it's time to leave, just think we'll be getting to New York as it lights up for the night" he said winningly

"But we need to find a place to stay, and the money needs to be managed properly"

"I got some money as well, and you can be in charge so we don't blow it quickly, and as for a place to stay I think we can manage a hotel room for the night, you me and room service" he smirked "no need to scare our new neighbours straight away with your screaming"

"You think you are going to get that lucky straight away are you?" Rachel asked arching her eyebrow

"Oh hell yeah"

Rachel mock glared at him, knowing he was actually probably right before rolling her eyes "we'll see, didn't you say something about leaving?"

"Yep" Puck said picking her up and carrying her out of the school, forever.