After the great response from the first chapter I decided to continue on with the fic and see where it goes.
The story is a bit slow at the moment but I wanted to build up the characters and the setting a bit more before delving in to the relationship between Rachel and Quinn.
Quinn's POV:
Quinn had made the three-hour drive up from Lima by herself, deciding that it was always useful to have both her and Santana's cars available on campus. And the three of them tended to car pool pack to Lima on Friday nights or Saturday mornings anyway so they could always leave one of the vehicles on campus over the weekend whilst they went back home.
She had been a boarder at William McKinley Academy since ninth grade, making this her fourth year at the school. Initially her mother Judy had decided to send her to WMA for around 6 months whilst she settled the divorce she'd been going through with Russell, however upon entering the school in Freshman year, she instantaneous loved the place. After the 6-month duration was up, she had spoken to her mum and thankfully Judy had agreed to enrol her here for the remainder of high school.
Quinn pulled her sleek black range rover into an empty car space at the main building, deciding to have a quick catch up with Jane before she made her way down to the boarding house.
Casually hopping out of the car, she headed in through the entrance and into the main foyer, immediately noticing the fact that Jane was busy chatting to two men. The first man had dark skin and was so tall and lean that Quinn thought he almost resembled an NBA player. The second man was much shorter, with much paler skin. He had a slightly receding hairline and had a pair of moon glasses propped up on his nose. Quinn's gaze wandered down to their linked hands and despite not knowing who they were, she made the mental decision that she liked them already.
A few minutes later, the pair bid their farewells to Jane, offering Quinn two warm smiles as they passed her on their way out the exit.
"Well it's an absolute pleasure to see your face back on campus Miss Fabray" Jane happily greeted, standing up from her desk and pulling Quinn towards her for a quick hug.
"And it's lovely to see you of course Miss Batessss" the blonde teasingly drawled.
"How about I stick to Quinn and you can stick to Jane?"
"That sounds like a very reasonable compromise" Quinn agreed with a grin.
"So who were the two men that just left?" The blonde continued, raising her eyebrow questioningly.
"Well that would be Mr and Mr Berry, the parents of the new senior student Rachel. And speaking of Rachel, she happens to be Santana's new roommate" Judy informed.
"THEY ACTUALLY SPLIT HER AND BRITTANY UP!" Quinn instantaneously exclaimed, completely shocked at the news.
"I didn't think Mrs Hunt was going to go through with it either to be honest," Jane added in.
Quinn paused for a moment, letting the news sink in before a smile graced her lips.
"Well I guess after all the noise emanating from their room at ridiculous hours of the morning something was bound to happen".
"I do enjoy my fair share of student gossip Quinn however I'll let you keep the finer details of Brittany and Santana's affairs to yourself".
"I wasn't going to elaborate any further actually. And anyway, are S and B here yet because I'd like to avoid being present for the fit Santana is going to throw when she finds out about this".
"No they aren't here yet so you're in the clear for now" the receptionist notified with a smirk.
"Okay well I'm going to head down to the dorm circle and I'll catch up with you later Jane" the blonde offered, waving a goodbye to the woman before heading back outside towards her car.
The student car park down at the boarding houses was fairly empty which wasn't really a surprise to Quinn, as she knew that the majority of the seniors would be arriving just before dinner.
She popped open her boot, throwing her WMA sports bag over her shoulder and placing her suitcase down beside her car. She'd already left a few things in the boarding storage area over the summer so she didn't have to pack a second suitcase this time, which saved her the second trip out to her car.
Lugging her bags up the front steps of Wentworth, she keyed in the code that they'd been given when the houses were assigned at the end of their junior year.
The house seemed to be practically empty and only a few faint voices were audible from up the stairs. The blonde glanced at the notice board, noting that she was in room 204 with Brittany meaning that they'd still be sharing a bathroom with Santana who had been placed in room 205.
'Well at least the bathrooms are fairly soundproof so I won't have to listen to their obscene noises on a constant basis' she thought.
She made her way up the stairs and down the hall until she reached her bedroom. She recognised that the new senior student would already be in her room just a few metres away but she decided to unpack before introducing herself formally.
She took the bed to the left side of the room and neatly unpacked her clothing before pinning up her photographs, WMA Cheerleading paraphernalia and placing her ipod docking station alongside her bed. As she was fishing around in her sports bag for her ipod she heard quite a loud uproar from down the corridor, immediately recognising the voice as Santana's. She braced herself for her best friends drastic entrance but instead to voice trailed straight past her bedroom door and into room 205.
"Who the hell are you" she heard Santana angrily exclaim.
Quinn decided that she should intervene before the Latina bit the new girl's head off but as she heard Brittany's voice chime in to the conversation, she knew that the other blonde would have no trouble in calming Santana down. So instead of heading next door, she placed her ipod into the docking station and turned up her music before stretching out on her freshly made bed.
Quinn was almost falling into a light slumber until Santana's voice echoed from the corridor and she knew the brunette would come rushing through the door in a matter of seconds. She sat up on the bed so it didn't look like she'd just been mindlessly lounging around however as the door came crashing open, she was pushed right back down a few seconds later as the Latina cheerfully pounced on top of her. Brittany followed in her girlfriend's actions moments after, chirpily announcing the fact that she'd be sharing a room with Quinn for the year.
Quinn let out a laugh at their behaviour and wrapped her arms around both of the girls, despite having seen them only a few days earlier.
"Alright let's give her some air Britt" Santana finally declared, slowly edging off the bed and pulling both her and Brittany up to a standing position. Quinn fumbled with her shirt, which had ridden up her stomach substantially, and tried to run her fingers through her disheveled hair.
"Q, this is Rach. She is super cute and tiny and has two gay dads and is from Lima just like the three of us!" Brittany revealed, motioning her hand towards the bedroom door where a smaller brunette was standing. Quinn's head immediately snapped up at this, as she had been unaware that there was additional company in the room. Rachel looked slightly out of place and Quinn recognised that the smaller girl had gulped when she met her gaze. She had tanned skin that coincided nicely with her rich dark chocolate hair and she was wearing a tight pair of black skinny jeans that were molded nicely to her surprisingly long legs. Quinn flashed her gaze back towards the girl's dark brown eyes and she noticed something flash over the brunette's expression. Uneasiness perhaps? Having decided that she'd stood there silently long enough; the blonde took a step forward towards the girl and quirked her lips up in a warm smile. "I'm Quinn Fabray, welcome to William McKinley Academy".
Rachel's POV:
Rachel realized she must have looked like some ridiculous awestruck fan so she quickly matched the blonde's smile and outstretched her hand. "I'm Rachel Berry and it's a pleasure to meet you Quinn Fabray". Quinn's smile seemed to grow at her eagerness and she outstretched her palm, gladly accepting the handshake.
"Okay well now that introductions have been made, how about we take Berry on a campus tour and then we can make our way towards the dining room for dinner?" Santana suggested.
"Yeh that sounds like a good plan S, just let me throw a pair of jeans on and I'll meet you downstairs" Quinn replied as she turned around and headed towards her dresser.
Rachel gave the blonde one more glance however Quinn had her back the three of them so she made her way out of the room, slowly closing the door behind Santana and Brittany in order to give the other girl some privacy whilst changing.
As the trio made their way down the corridor, Rachel noticed a few more girls shuffling in and out of the dorms and exasperatingly dragging suitcases up the stairs. Santana and Brittany smiled and offered greetings towards the other students, introducing Rachel accordingly as they headed downstairs and out to the front deck.
"You don't have to be embarrassed Rach" Brittany suddenly piped up.
Rachel looked at the girl with confusion. "What do you mean Brittany?"
"She's talking about Quinn" Santana interjected, a light smirk tugging at the corners of her lips.
"What about Q-Quinn?" The smaller brunette nervously stuttered out.
"The way you were staring at her obviously! It's super fine though and Quinn doesn't even think twice about it anymore. She's just like so pretty like an angel and it takes a lot of people by surprise when they meet her for the first time" Brittany explained.
Rachel's cheeks flushed a light crimson at the fact that she'd been caught out.
"Oh seriously Berry don't get your panties in a twist over it. The first time Britt met Quinn she tried to kiss her!" Santana announced.
"You were hardly any better San!" Britt argued back.
The banter only caused Rachel's face to turn an even deeper shade of red.
"Well either way, Quinn was such a prude back then in freshman year that her reaction to the two of us was absolutely hilarious!" The Latina threw in with a boisterous laugh.
"What was absolutely hilarious?" A voice questioned from behind the three of them. Rachel whirled around to front door where Quinn was now standing, her eyebrow quirked curiously.
"The way you reacted to B and I when we first propositioned you" Santana responded with an even louder laugh.
Rachel watched as Quinn scrunched her nose up at the memory, a smile spreading across her face a second later.
"Well it certainly was a memorable first encounter" she reminisced.
"Okay now that we've finished making you uncomfortable Berry, how about we actually show you around the place?"
"That sound's good Santana, I'll follow in your lead," the smaller brunette offered.
"You're totally going to love it here Rach!" Brittany exclaimed, latching on to her arm and pulling her along straight behind Santana and Quinn.
Santana lead them off behind the main dorm circle to where another house was situated, this one slightly smaller than Wentworth.
Quinn turned around once they reached the front of the house. "So this is what the school calls the 'Guest House', meaning anyone visiting the senior students can stay here. It's also used for a few of the school's social events like boarding house mixers, formal dinners-", Quinn was cut off at this as Santana interrupted.
"Alright don't bore her to death Q. All you need to know Berry is that this house is our party base".
"Party base? What do you mean your party base?" Rachel asked as she was unsure of what parties would possibly be thrown on campus.
"It's where we drink!" Brittany revealed.
"Drink what exactly?"
"Alcohol Rach, duh!" The taller blonde stated.
Rachel's eyes comically widened at this and she was certain that the three of them must have been joking around.
"Surely you don't expect me to believe that you consume alcohol, right here, in this house that is situated only 50 meters away from your boarding residences! Not to mention the fact that we're still on school grounds and underage! I could only imagine the repercussions of being caught on site whilst intoxicated!" She ranted on in shock.
"Jeez Berry why don't you just loosen-".
"Be quiet Santana" Quinn snapped, taking a step towards Rachel. "I know it sounds completely insane and when I was taken to my first party at the guest house I tried to turn around and leave the second I caught on to the fact that there was alcohol present. The fact of the matter is that in junior and senior years, you are permitted to host 'social functions' here every now and then if your house parent provides their approval. Of course alcohol isn't actually permitted on campus but as there has never been an incident regarding drinking in previous years, the parties remain to be unsupervised by the staff. We of course don't just leave alcohol bottles strewn around everywhere, and everything is methodically cleaned up the next morning, so really it's perfectly safe".
Rachel nodded at Quinn's rather lengthy explanation however she wasn't sure if she was agreeing because what the blonde had said made sense, or because she was reassuringly squeezing the side of her arm.
"Well now that has been settled, I guess you'll have no hesitancy in coming to the start of year party with us this evening" Santana pointed out.
Rachel met Quinn's gaze, an encouraging smile gracing the blonde's face. "No I think that will be fine" she decided.
The trio had lead Rachel around the rest of the campus, pointing out the vast sports fields, the gymnasium and the classroom building blocks. She'd found out that the girls were all members of the Cheerleading Squad known as the WMA Sharks, Quinn and Santana being co-captains of the highly successful team. Santana was also the captain of the debating team, which made her internally giggle, but at the same time it made sense due to the girl's noticeably argumentative nature.
Brittany was the Dance captain and she also acted as a dance instructor for the preparatory day students during her free classes once or twice a week. She was also the head of Wentworth and Rachel thought that someone as kind spirited as Brittany definitely deserved the role.
"So Quinn, are you involved in anything else aside from Cheerleading?" Rachel questioned, looking towards the blonde for a response.
Santana snickered at this, Rachel clearly being unaware of Quinn's high involvement in school activities.
"I'm involved in a few more clubs," she offered, being completely vague with her response.
"Q is just being modest Berry. She was the junior class president and is now the pre-elected senior class president. She's a member of the Cheerleading team, which we've already mentioned to you, and a member of the tennis squad. She's a member of the boarding committee, an honor roll student, and she's also a member of the schools glee club with Brittany and I" Santana finished off.
Rachel turned her gaze back to the blonde who was lightly blushing. She came to the conclusion that despite her obvious success, Quinn didn't like people focusing on all of her achievements so instead of congratulating the girl, she decided to change the subject.
"When are the glee club tryouts? The club at my old school wasn't anything special so I'd love to join the team with the three of you here". Quinn shot Rachel a quick glance, silently communicating her thankfulness for shifting the focus away from her accomplishments.
"Tryouts are normally held sometime during the first week so we'll let you know and you can come along with us Rach" Brittany kindly suggested.
"That sounds great Britt, thanks for the offer" she sweetly replied back, linking her arms with the taller girl as she lead them towards the dining room.
"And anyway, we need a super skilled new member because our captain Chloe graduated and she took her epically loud voice with her" Brittany added in.
"That's not the only thing she took" Santana smirked, winking knowingly at Quinn.
Rachel watched Quinn's response to the joke, and noticed her shoulders tense up as she shot a glare at the Latina.
"Not now S" the blonde warned. And with that Rachel gathered that she shouldn't ask any more questions regarding glee club or their old captain.
They walked up the path towards the dining hall in silence, as Quinn appeared to be silently brooding to herself. As they reached the entrance however, the blonde seemed to snap out of her daze as she turned around to face Rachel.
"So you're about to meet the rest of our group, there are two other girls who live in Wentworth with us and then there are three guys from Becton and three guys from Parkes. They'll probably bombard you with a million and one questions so if you get overwhelmed just tell S or I and we'll tell them to calm down", Quinn kindly advised as she pushed open the doors to the dining room.
The dining room was filled with dark wooden tables, each comfortably seating around 14 people. There was a food bar situated along the front wall and from what she could see, there was definitely a much larger selection in comparison to what was on offer at East Lima High. Before she could take a more thorough look however, Santana and Quinn started weaving through the throng of students to a table situated in the back corner of the hall.
"This is Berry, otherwise known as Rachel Berry, my new roommate and the new senior student," Santana stated, introducing Rachel to the eight people already sitting around the table, all of which offered her a welcoming smile.
"Berry these two ladies here are Mercedes and Tina, they live in Wentworth with us which Q mentioned earlier. These three boys here are Finn, Puck and Mike and they're in Becton house, the house that is hosting the senior party this evening. And the last three guys are Artie, Kurt and Sam and they're in Parkes house" Santana explained. Rachel nodded her head at this and tried to memorize the names that had been listed as best she could.
Rachel was correct, the food on offer was much more impressive and there was even a fairly large range of vegan meals. She'd been busy eating her salad and chatting with Mercedes and Tina about her future New York aspirations when she heard one of the boys who had been introduced as Finn address Quinn from the other end of the table.
"So Quinn have you heard from Chloe at all? The dopey looking boy asked.
Everyone at the table ceased their conversations at this as though he'd just uttered some highly taboo word.
"We speak now and then," the blonde muttered, flicking a piece of potato around on her plate.
"So did the two of you catch up over the summer at all?" He continued, clearly not picking up on Quinn's obvious distaste of the topic.
"I was away with my mum and sister for a lot of the summer and I guess Chloe was getting ready for college" she reasoned.
"Time to go" Santana whispered in the small girls ear. Rachel agreeably nodded at the suggestion.
"Alright well it's been awesome catching up with you guys, but we're going to head back down to Wentworth to get ready for the party tonight" the Latina explained, gathering everything on her plate and rising from her seat.
"Yeh let's head back together" Mercedes offered, having also noticed Quinn's reaction to Finn's questioning.
The six girls emptied their trays and exited the dining hall, walking back down the main path that lead them to their boarding house. Rachel looked ahead at Brittany who had her arm wrapped around Quinn's shoulder as she whispered something in the smaller blonde's ear that thankfully caused her to laugh.
Rachel was desperate to find out about this Chloe character, and more importantly what she meant, or didn't mean to Quinn. She knew bringing it up right now wasn't ideal however so she guessed she'd have to wait until they were at the party tonight to breach the topic once more.
So there is chapter 2
NOTE: I gave Quinn a black range rover because the thought of a red VW bug convertible makes me want to curl in a ball and cry.
The Next Chapter is going to be the senior party at the guest house and depending on the word count I'll see if I can fit in the glee club audition.
Would you be more interested if I had Mr. Schuester as the glee club teacher or if I incorporated Holly Holiday in as the teacher?
Keep up the reviews and feel free to pass along any suggestions
