Chapter Two
Everyone else had plans for their life- even Finn did, Finn! Rachel didn't like being second, but this was way different. She wasn't second, she was in last freaking place.
She had no idea what "real" career she wanted to pursue. She only knew of one thing that made her truly happy, something she would gladly spend the rest of her life doing.
She'd never be the best witch, or the prettiest girl, but she was an amazing singer. Everyone knew that she sang- Finn, Kurt, even people that couldn't stand her- but they all thought she couldn't do it. Sometimes she believed them.
Rachel knew it was a long shot- she hadn't told anyone for just that reason. She didn't want to see those pitying looks when she didn't get it.
So as she sealed her letter, she could barely breath. This was her chance- her only chance to be great at something. If she didn't get this . . . She didn't know what she would do with her life.
She kissed the paper, and then said a little prayer over it. She took in one more gust of air, before attaching the letter to her owl. In minutes, the owl- and her future- were out of sight.
She crouched down, having a full-on panic attack. She wasn't good enough, they'd send back a Howler screaming at her for wasting their time with her substandard voice. It took her at least ten minutes to calm herself. She then stood up and began the walk to the Great Hall for lunch. Finn and Kurt would be worried about her.
When she walked into the Great Hall, her eyes immediately went to the Gryffindor table, searching for her boyfriend and best friend.
She smiled when she saw them, they were also sitting with Blaine, Mercedes, and . . . Quinn. Rachel's nose wrinkled in distaste. She had never liked Quinn, and Quinn couldn't stand Rachel in return.
She couldn't help the small bit of jealousy that seeing Quinn and Finn sit together brought up. They'd dated and, sure, Finn broke up with Quinn for her, but the two being friends always rubbed her the wrong way.
She liked to think that whenever she felt jealous, it was just a bit leftover from when Quinn and Finn had been dating. Rachel felt a bit more slip through when Quinn said something and Finn laughed.
She walked over to the group and sat between Kurt and Finn, and turned to Finn bringing him in for a kiss. He leaned away after a few seconds. "Why, hello there."
She smiled at him, very happy to see him. "Hi. How was your morning?"
"It was good," he said, and then frowned. "Where were you?"
Her mood plummeted. "Nowhere important."
Finn looked like he might argue, so she abruptly turned to Kurt, who was speaking to Blaine- his boyfriend. She started a conversation about the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework.
When she couldn't find anymore to say about it, she unwillingly turned back to Finn. On the other side of the table, Mercedes was picking at her food. Quinn looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?"
Mercedes just shrugged. "I'm just not hungry."
Quinn put a hand to Mercedes's forehead. "You're warm, you should go see the nurse."
"Can't you just do it?" Mercedes whined, giving Quinn a hopeful look.
Quinn sighed and rolled her eyes, a caring smile on her face. "I'll see if I can buy some ingredients from Professor Sylvester's store. Do you think you will be okay until the end of the day?"
Mercedes sullenly nodded her head. "I have a date with . . . Shane this evening. Do you think I'll be better by then?"
Quinn grinned. "It's probably just a stomach bug, I'll have you up and well ten minutes after school is over."
Rachel turned to Finn to comment, but he was listening to Mercedes and Quinn's conversation with a smile. She ground her teeth together before starting a conversation with him about the Quidditch team this year. It was a sure topic to keep Finn interested.
Finn was scowling. "We can't beat Slytherin, not with Puck playing."
Rachel pursed her lips. "What position does he play again?"
Finn smiled at her, knowing what was coming next. "Puck is a Chaser, Rach."
Rachel looked around the table, hoping someone would tell her so she didn't have to ask. "What does a Chaser do, exactly?" Finn laughed and hurriedly explained to her the positions for what he thought was the millionth time.
"So, what position do you play?" she asked, and he rolled his eyes.
"I'm a Keeper," he replied. "You remember what they do, right?"
She nodded and Finn gave her an encouraging look, pointing out the players for the Gryffindor team. "And Quinn over there is our Seeker."
Quinn looked up at her name. "Huh?"
"I was explaining Quidditch to Rachel," Finn explained. "She's a little lost."
Quinn laughed. "How'd you two get on that subject?"
"I was complaining about losing to Puck all the time," he grumbled, looking at Quinn like she could relate to this problem. "It really pisses me off."
Quinn nodded with a slight smile. "Well, Puck is the best here, unfortunately for us this year. There's a reason the Wasps are after him for next year."
"I heard they decided to go with Ebenezer Smith instead," Mercedes piped up. "You're best friends with Puck, Finn, can you confirm this?"
Finn looked around confusedly and Rachel couldn't help but laugh at his expression. He gave her an affectionate glance before turning back to Mercedes. "He hasn't said anything about it to me, but it could be true. Where'd you hear that?"
Rachel decided to butt in. "Tina?"
Mercedes looked at her sheepishly. "Yeah."
"It's probably not true, then," Rachel continued, with a slightly smug smile. "Tina doesn't watch Quidditch, just like me. We have much more important things to do with our time."
Quinn raised an eyebrow coldly. "What do you do with your time, Rachel? I heard you were undecided- career-wise, that is."
Rachel looked down, face burning. "I . . . study."
There was an awkward silence, as they all realized that Rachel was truly unprepared for her future. They never thought it would go like this when they were younger. Rachel- the obnoxious girl who no one talked to, with ambition out of the ying-yang- having nowhere to go after Hogwarts? It didn't seem right.
Finn cleared his throat awkwardly and turned to Rachel. "So I have a question. What exactly does paradox mean..?"
Tina glared at the two boys. Mike and Artie looked up, giving her sheepish, yet expectant looks. Artie's head inclined forward, waiting for her to say something. "Well?"
"The importance you two put on my words never ceases to surprise me," Tina said quickly, wating for one of them to recall what she had been saying. "What I said was that Puck looks angry."
Mike and Artie stared at her for a moment and then Artie turned to look at her boyfriend. "Mike, I don't know how many times I've said this, but your woman is cray-cray."
Mike- agreeing, but not wanting to show it in front of Tina- gave Artie an offended look. "I don't appreciate you talking about my girlfriend like that."
Tina gave Mike a loving glance, making a mental note to give him a particularly hot kiss later on. She sighed. "You know what I was saying earlier . . . about signing . . . and Puck?"
They still looked clueless, so she quickly retold them all she had before. "Well, what I'm saying is that he looks pisses off, so it must be true."
Mike gave her an incredulous glance. "Tina, Puck always looks pissed off."
Artie nodded. "I think it's a drawback from having an unrequited love."
Tina cocked her head to the side. "Unrequited love? Puck? With who?"
"Quinn told me that he asked her if she would go to Hogsmeade with him," Artie replied with a shrug. "It's not that hard to put together."
"Quinn told you all this?" Tina asked. "Are you serious?"
"Me and Quinn are tight," he said, with an indignant look on his face. "Mike, I need your advice on something." He began to go on about a question with D.A.D.A; Mike dutifully answered all his queries.
Tina was impatiently tapping her fingers on the table. Mike glanced up, looking slightly annoyed. "Tina, why do you feel the need to gossip every five seconds?"
Scratch that on the extra hot kiss later. She scowled at him. "The average woman spends between five to eight hours gossiping each day. It's only natural."
Artie interrupted their glaring by singing, "Where is the love? Where is the love, the love, the love?"
They turned their glares onto him, "Shut up, Artie!"
He shrank away from them, and coughed awkwardly. "I'm just going to go . . . wash my cat."
They were still glaring at each other when his statement sank in. Mike's eyebrows furrowed. "Artie . . . doesn't have a pet."
Tina sighed exasperatedly, smiling despite herself. "Artie always has been such a horrible liar."
Mike began to chuckle, and Tina joined in because she couldn't help herself. Before she was fully aware of it, tears were leaking out the sides of her eyes, because she was laughing so hard.
And, just as suddenly, the laughter had stopped and they were staring at each other, humor making both of their eyes bright. Mike smiled at her. "I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too," she said. "I can't tell you if it will work or not, but I'll try not to gossip as much. It's going to be a long, hard journey, Mike."
He laughed. "I'll be glad to travel with you. I'll try to be more supportive from now on. We all have our bad habits, I guess."
She slid her hand across the table and grasped his. "We're going to stay together for a while, aren't we?"
"Always." She couldn't stop herself from standing and leaning across the table to meet his lips with her own. She loved him so much, it was like a burst of sunshine whenever she saw his face. She could only hope he felt one-tenth what she felt towards him.
When she sat back down, not even Professor Sylvester coming to rant at them about their usage of illegal public displays of affection could dim her good mood.
When Sylvester had stalked away, shoving a fifth year- a girl named Valerie that Tina knew pretty well- out of her way. Tina shook her head. "She's crazy."
"Or as Artie says-," Mike began.
"Cray-cray!" they chorused and then laughed, reaching out for each other's hand.
Artie came back up to them with a small smile on his face. "Anything I missed while I was gone?"
"Too much to explain," Tina said warmly, locking eyes with Mike across the table.
Santana huffed in disappointment. "I can't stand the 'no mingling at meals' rule. I barely see Brittany throughout the day and I can't speak to her at lunch or dinner. And we're not in the same houses, so no hanging out in the dorms. Two little second years caught us making out yesterday in the corridors. We probably scarred them for life."
"Shut up the whining, Santana," Puck snapped.
She scowled. "Bite me, Puckerman."
He grinned roguishly. "Gladly."
She gave him a disgusted look, which he returned fully and they spent the next minute seeing who could look like they hated the other the most.
Finally Puck turned away with an irritated noise escaping from the back of his throat. She grinned triumphantly at him, before noticing his unusually bad mood. "As much as I don't like you, Puckerman, I can't help but see that something crawled up your ass and died. Indulge me with an explanation."
He glared at her. "I don't owe you anything, Lopez."
"I didn't say you owed me anything, I asked you to tell me." She smiled mockingly. "You should really pay more attention in class."
He groaned. "Fine. The problem is Quinn. Damn, the problem has always been Quinn."
Santana raised an eyebrow in a careless way, but she was a little worried. As much as she hated to admit it, she really did care about Puck in the best guy friend kind of way . . . that she used to have sex with. Ugh, that sounded so wrong in her ears. Well- anyway- she rarely saw him like this.
"I have a feeling this has to do with you two talking after Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Santana questioned. "Nothing to do with the rumor that the Wasps decided to sign some other guy instead of you?"
Puck dragged a hand over his head, ruffling his hair up more. "Oh God, there's a rumor about that? No. That's not true at all. But what you said before, that is right. And all the other fucking times she's turned me down. . ."
"Woah, hold up boyo, back up a bit." Santana held up her hands. "Tell me exactly what you said to Quinn."
He repeated the conversation sullenly. She made fun of him for the "How are you?" bit, but by the end just stared at him. "Puck . . ."
"I think I love her," he croaked. "Santana, I don't know what to do."
The words she needed to say, still hadn't fully formed on her lips. She looked at him for a moment more before speaking. "I don't know how to . . . react, I guess. You and love just won't mix in my mind, you know? But there's just one thing I want to say to you. You were Quinn's first and only time, and she's moved on. I . . . I think it's time for you to, too."
Puck sighed. "I've been telling myself that since I was fifteen. But it just feels like . . . like there's something important she hasn't told me."
"Like that she secretly loves you?" Santana drawled.
"Not that," Puck sighed. "Something huge. Bigger than that."
"You sound like you know something..?" Santana whispered.
He shook his head. "No, it's just this feeling."
"It seems you have a lot of feelings that I had no idea about," Santana muttered. "Before I know it, you'll be proposing to me."
Puck smirked. "Never gonna happen, Lopez."
"Because I'm too much of a woman for you?" Santana guessed with a grin.
"San, I think you're too much of everything for me." He smiled. "Including too much of a lesbian." She reflexively glanced around to make sure no one had heard. Sure, everyone knew she was one. But she'd been so careful for so long that she subconsciously checked every time.
Lunch ended in the next moment, and she had only enough time to say they could talk about it tomorrow, before leaving to find Brittany.
Santana was pretty sure she could tell Brittany apart in any crowd. Santana's brown eyes met Brittany's blue in seconds, and Santana grinned at her from afar.
Brittany pushed through the crowd, receiving a few elbows and shoves- Santana was almost ready to attack the next person who hit the girl- before Brittany was there, standing right beside her.
Brittany pulled Santana into an embrace, kissing her passionately. Santana's face flushed, and she felt Brittany's cheeks warm in return.
Professor Sylvester forcefully pulled them apart. "Fifty points from Hufflepuff, Pierce! You damn teenagers with your raging hormones that I have to keep in check, are giving me a migraine."
"I could always make you a potion for that, Professor," Santana simpered mockingly. Anytime someone pulled her away from Brittany, Santana's claws immediately came out.
"Ten points from Slytherin for that back talk, Lopez, I expect better from you!" Sylvester hissed. "I hope you know that todays Potions class will be the hardest of your life."
Santana rocked back on her heels, regretting her back talk already. "Um, sorry, Professor Sylvester."
"Be happy I didn't give you detention," Professor Sylvester spat, before stalking away.
Brittany leaned in to whisper. "Fifty minus ten is thirty, right?"
"It's forty, honey," Santana corrected her.
Brittany thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah, right. Why did you get forty less points taken away from you when we were both doing the same thing?"
"You started the kiss," Santana lied, not wanting to tell the pure-of-heart girl that it was because Sylvester was showing favoritism to students in her house.
Brittany thought again. "That sounds right, I guess."
"You know what we should do?" Santana whispered seductively, leaning in and placing soft kisses down Brittany's neck covertly. "We could skip class and . . . have a little fun."
Brittany moaned. "Afterwards, can we go see the unicorns again?"
Santana grinned, and place a soft kiss on Brittany's lips. "I can't wait."
A/N: Oh, how I wish Glee would have Santana/Puck friendship moments. They would be the funniest friendship on the show, I'm pretty sure. If you guys are ever wondering about how far along I am in the next chapter, you can look on my profile.
