Baby Mine
Chapter 1
"Quinn- for the love of Jesus or Bhudda or whoever that guy on the cross at your church is, we gotta scram!" Puck groaned as they stood in Mrs. Harris's living room, dropping off a three month old Beth. It was the first time that they would be leaving Beth with a sitter, and even if Quinn was only 16, the separation anxiety hit her just like any other mother.
"Hold on, Noah!" she hissed back before turning back to Evelyn Harris, a middle aged woman who went to Saint Bart's with Quinn. She was an empty nester, her kids all in college, and was the first one to reply to Quinn's ad in the church bulletin looking for a sitter during week days. School was starting, and as unappealing as it sounded, it was time for her to go backl.
If she was completely and utterly honest with herself, a big portion of her worries about going back to school wasn't really about Beth. At three months old, she was a happy baby that loved being held by anyone who would hold her. And even as Quinn was making sure that Mrs. Harris had all the phone numbers, schedules and supplies she knew she was just generally stalling. She wasn't ready to face the mean stares of McKinley high just yet.
"Quinn, don't you worry about a thing," Mrs. Harris assured her, gazing over at the baby who was snoozing in her care seat. "If anything happens, I will call the school. Don't worry. You go have fun. I will see you after your Glee rehearsal" Having the older woman gently pushing Quinn's shoulders toward the door gave Puck the go ahead to grab Quinn by the arm to get her out the door and into the truck so that they could go to school. Puck loved his daughter more than anything, but he had never been so excited for school before. He was actually going to talk about anything
"Wait!" Quinn exclaimed again, pulling her arm away from Puck.
"God dammit, Quinn!" he groaned again, running his hand over his mohawk. He wasn't really mad at her though, especially when he saw the reason why she pulled from him. Quinn walked over to the baby carrier and pressed a kiss on Beth's head. Finally, after saying goodbye one more time, they were on their way to school.
Lima being probably the smallest town in Ohio, it wasn't long before Puck pulled his truck into the school parking lot, other students arriving around the same time. Quinn looked out the window, not realizing she was holding her breath. Last time she walked those halls she was a nobody...well no, she wasn't a nobody. She was pregnant. That was worse than being a nobody.
"C'mon Blondie." Puck said after they watched Rachel skip into the school, dragging Finn behind her. "Listen- this'll be good for you...You can learn and all that shit...and you can read things that aren't articles on that baby website you're on all the time." Quinn pursed her lips and sighed. "What happened to the head bitch in charge that ran this hell hole?"
"You knocked her up." Quinn replied glancing over at him. She loved Beth, more than anything. She wouldn't give her child up for anything, but what she faced on the other side of those doors were so much scarier because of the baby.
"Yeah, and you still ran things. You could have ripped off my dick and I would have said 'Yes m'lady' like some Shakespeare dweeb because not having sex for the rest of my life totally sounds better than you being pissed at me for the rest of my life."
Quinn smirked. Obscenities aside, Puck was making her feel better. He did a lot of that lately. They weren't together in anyway, and she still didn't harbor any romantic feelings toward him. But, he was her best friend after everything, and she wouldn't have left the house that day had he not come and got her.
"Alright..."she finally said, taking off her seatbelt and taking her books.
"That's my girl." Puck slid out himself and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they made their way into the building.
Sam told his mom that he could go to school by himself. He was sixteen years old for God's sake. He didn't need Mommy to hold his hand while he made his trek to the main office. He did end up convincing her that in the end, but that didn't keep her from holding his hand during the drive. The woman had two other children- both of whom were still the age where they couldn't leave the house without a hug from their mother- why did he get the overwhelming affection?
He didn't understand why his parents bought him a car if his mother was going to insist on driving him to school- but at least it was just for one day.
After being smothered with hugs and kisses Sam finally got inside the school with time to spare before homeroom. He got his schedule from the office quickly, forfeiting a tour from the principal. He kind of just wanted to figure it out on his own. Feel a little bit like a grown man after his mother told him, "Homeschooling is still an option!"
He loved he mother, he really did- but he'd rather go back to the all boys school in Tennessee than stay at home with his mother all day every day.
There was still about ten minutes before homeroom, leaving him with time to hunt down his locker so that he wouldn't have to carry all of his crap around. Finding his way through the junior wing of lockers was a little complicated, mainly because the halls were crowded with groups of people catching up with each other after a summer away. After a little hunting though, he found locker number 1145.
Once he unloaded his bag, he headed out for his homeroom class, which also doubled as English. A horrible way to start the year.
"Arthur Abrams..." The teacher called out, a man who looked like he would rather be anywhere than teaching in an Ohio high school.
"Mr. T. We've talked about this...Artie. Artie...or if you prefer A-Dawg. I'd be cool with that." Sam glanced up from his notebook doodles at the kid in the front. He was in a wheelchair, wearing a sweater vest and khakis...probably the whitest kid he ever saw, but was sitting there twitching his hands like he was in some rap video.
The teacher ignored the Artie kid and continued down the list, "Samuel Evans..." he said a few moments later. Sam's head jumped up again.
"Present." A few people murmured about the new kid in class. A latina cheerleader made an obnoxious comment about his lips, which he instinctively and self-consciously sucked in. His full lips were not his favorite feature.
"Lucy Fabray..." Again the class whispered, talking about the girl the teacher just called out, though Sam noticed this time it was in much more interest.
"Quinn..." a quiet voice to his right said. Sam looked over and saw the source of the voice. Blonde, fair skinned, wearing a flowery dress. She was gorgeous to him and found it hard to tear his eyes away from her. However when the teacher finally exhausted his list of students in the role call, Sam managed to force himself to face forward. However, that didn't stop him from glancing over to the angel beside him at every chance he got.
Quinn managed to get through the first half of the day without too much trouble. People talked, of course, but the talking wasn't entirely negative. Her teachers were supportive, reminding her that if she needed help, or extensions because of Beth all she would need to do is ask. She figured her reputation as a straight A student definitely helped with that.
The strangest event of the day was probably in English class when the new kid kept staring at her. She couldn't tell if it was because he had heard the rumors or not. Regardless she would have thought having that much attention from some guy she didn't even know would have creeped her out in all sorts of ways, but it didn't. She never made eye contact with the boy, but somehow she could tell that his gaze was not a condescending one.
But she pushed that to the back of her head, assuming by tomorrow whatever he found interesting about her would be marred by the way people talk. She saw Secret Life of the American Teenager that one time. She knew how quickly reputations changed- especially in the eyes of people who only know part of the story.
Three o'clock came around and Quinn made her way to the choir room. She wasn't entirely sure why, but Glee Club was the only part of her old life that she held on to after Beth was born. Her days as a Cheerio were behind her, no way in hell would she be accepted into the Celibacy club again. She thought about continuing her church youth group- but she was more afraid that the teenagers in that group would be even more judgmental than the ones at school- seventy five percent of the group being students of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow Catholic school. She hoped that was a part of her life she could return to though, eventually.
"Alright kids!" Mr. Shuester flew into the room holding his usual stack of sheet music as Quinn took her seat next to Puck. "It's a brand new year, and I'm ready to go." There was a mumbling- but positive mumbling- of agreement.
The group had gotten smaller. Matt Rutherford moved, which made Quinn a little sad. Out of all the guys, Matt was the only one that didn't treat her differently during the time which the glee club now affectionately called "babygate." She was going to miss him.
Without Matt that left her, Puck, Tina, Mike Chang, Brittany, Santana, Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, Finn and Rachel, though the last two pretty much seemed to become one person over the summer by the way they attached their faces together every chance they got.
Perhaps she was a little bitter. She didn't have feelings for Finn- not anymore. But there is nothing more nauseating than watching your ex suck face with the girl who essentially tried everything to part you from him.
Regardless, there were only ten members in the group, they needed twelve to compete. How that was going to happen, they had no idea.
"We need to do a performance, I think that's the only solution." Rachel piped up, a rare moment that she wasn't making googly eyes with Finn.
"What sexy number haven't we done yet?" Artie replied.
"Hey guys- we're not going that route this time. Last year, you guys got our song options cut. But- considering that this year Nationals are being held in New York- I had an idea." Shue started handing out the sheet music that he had with him when the meeting started. Quinn looked at the title, and though it was nothing she would usually listen to, it was actually a good choice.
"I say we do it." Quinn said, causing everyone to look at her. It was the first time she had actually really said something than here all day.
"That's the spirit, Quinn!" Shue exclaimed. And with that, everyone agreed on their premier number to kick off another year to glee club.
