Here's the second chapter :) I hope you enjoy it!

For various reasons, I've decided to time jump to a week before Sectionals – so around November. I also introduced a certain someone in this one…

"Okay, so, mock all you want, but I'm just gonna come out and say what everyone's been thinking of this book since it first came out: Wuthering Heights sucks." Marley proclaimed as her shoulders slumped. "Firstly: Heathcliff is a freaking psychopath - I mean, what guy digs up his ex from her grave and hugs her? That's beyond creepy. And, secondly: why did they have to make it so damn confusing? Two Catherines, Linton and Earnshaw, how the book inexplicably switches to be in Nelly's point of view after the fourth chapter or whatever, and Jesus Christ, don't even get me started on the language. Like, I understand that it was written a million years ago or something, but I'm pretty sure that there are some things in that god-awful book that even the people back then wouldn't have understood. Like, there's this one line which I only recall because of its pure ridiculousness, where Nelly or someone said "Is it like?" and the reply is "Yes."What the actual hell? Is it like what?!" Marley gestured wildly in frustration, her eyebrows narrowed in confusion and anger as her boyfriend watched amusedly from a meter or so away, on the pink rug in the brunette's bedroom. "And then our English teacher – who, by the way, is one hell of a perv – goes and tells us we have to write an essay on it, and that the essay is worth thirty per cent of our final grade. No way am I getting into college after attempting to decode that awful thing that people call a book. It's like Mr Hanson actually, physically hates me."

Ryder just chuckled in reply. "Mar, you're overreacting."

"No, I am not." The blue-eyed girl groaned. "I just really, really, really, really, really hate Wuthering Heights."

"Come on," Ryder scoffed. "It's a classic novel."

"Yeah, more like a classic pain in my ass." Marley grumbled.

The boy sighed as he tried to think of more reassuring words that might put his girlfriend in a better mood. "You'll ace the test, Marley. I know you will. And Mr Hansen loves you."

"Does he? Because I think he's more interested in what size my bra is, from the looks of it." She crossed her arms as she straightened her back again, looking at the countless revision notes she had attempted to make in preparation for this exam. As of late, nothing much had stuck.

The brown-haired boy huffed once again, trying to think of more things that could lift her spirits. "Look. The essay deadline is a few weeks away, and I'll help you study as much as I can for it. I know you're struggling, babe, and I don't blame you for it at all, but everything will be okay, I promise. And hey, even if you do awfully and get a bad mark, you can always retake it."

Marley looked at him intensely for a few seconds, before her eyes strayed away from him once more as she breathed out deeply. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thank you." She stifled a smile before planting a soft kiss on his lips which he reciprocated. More kisses were bestowed on the young man's lips as the brunette crawled over, onto his lap – something that she did frequently, Ryder found - not that he minded.

When the pair finally parted, the girl grinned as her eyes fluttered open to gaze at him, then the small space between their chests. After a while of listening serenely to the sound of his steady breathing, she finally spoke: "I'm glad we can do this without people staring at us." Ryder nodded in response.

It was something that the two hardly ever spoke of, but it was far from invisible and they both knew it. Since coming out as an official couple at the beginning of the school year, sniggers and stares were still aimed at the pair unsubtly as they walked hand in hand and stole very short kisses in the hallway; in all honesty, Marley was just glad it was nothing worse yet, but deep inside she was afraid for what would come – she was petrified for anything else that might happen, since it had only been the first few months of the entire school year. She knew very well that just because there was a silence, it was never going to be a permanent silence.

Ryder saw her expression drop over seconds since she uttered the words and brought up a conversation that was probably better avoided, so, in his usual good-guy nature, he tried to change the subject quickly, delving into his mind and hunting for something as quickly as possible that would lift the atmosphere. "So, how are rehearsals for Sectionals going?"

Marley sighed in response – Ryder thought that would be the only response he would get, but luckily, the cheerleader finally found words. "I'm nervous, I guess. Which is stupid. But yeah." She bit her lip.

"You're gonna be awesome, though," Ryder hummed in response as he smiled, hoping she would do the same, and kissed her quickly to lift her spirits. She sighed again.

"Only if my serenity is in check," She giggled. "I have so much to worry about."

"Like what?" Ryder insisted she reminded him.

"Well, I'm soloing the opening number, I'm basically choreographing the entire number too, my song choice is pretty appalling, it's my first show choir competition, due to popular demand I've included a demanding move in my solo which as of late I am struggling with… and my Cheerios sectionals competition is in the same week. So only a few things to be worried about." Marley teased as she conjured up the ideas in her head.

"Hey, listen to me," Ryder said as he ran his hands up and down her waist and hips soothingly. "You're gonna be fine. It's totally normal for you to be nervous about these things, but you don't need to worry, okay? I know you. I know how talented you are. And, more than anything else, I know that you can nail all of those things you just listed, as long as you keep a positive mind-set an as long as you remember that even if those things don't work out, it's okay. And I'm always here for you." Ryder grinned as he spoke the words meaningfully.

The girl beamed, suggesting that the boy's grin was contagious. "Thank you."

"Anytime." The boy said in return, leaning in for another kiss.

"I'm glad I can count on you and your corny motivational speeches to get me out of the dumps." Marley mumbled against his lips.

"Ssshhhhh."

"Maybe we should keep our distance. Your dorky cliché-ness is going to rub off on me soon." Marley joked in between kisses.

"What do you mean "soon"?" Ryder teased, earning a playful slap on the arm in response. "So, Cathy, are you ready to get back to studying?"

"Do not call me Cathy. I want nothing to do with that poor excuse of a novel." Marley retorted in false rage as she slid off his lap and back onto the hot pink rug.

"Sectionals!" Mr Schuester exclaimed as he wrote the word on the whiteboard at the front of the room in large, capital letters; everyone else clapped and whooped at merely the word, all except one – the brunette clapped along so to add to the crowd politely, but was having difficulty when trying to overcome her several worries. As a result, she only half-listened as Mr Schue went on about how they needed to work as a team and should channel all energy into their performances, the words all becoming a blur, eliding and growing ever meaningless… she had heard the speech thousands of times for different occasions, anyway. Upon hearing her name woven into Mr Schue's next sentence, she listened a little more intently, but still very much in a daze.

"Now, Marley has told me that work on her solo with the girls is going great, with only a few more things to polish, and the other group numbers are coming along well, but I think that there still might be work to be done before we are guaranteed a Sectionals trophy – after all, the competition is only a week away." He paused, looking thoughtfully at his audience, before a peculiar grin crept onto his face, his voice booming. "That said, I brought in an old ND alumnae to help us prepare ourselves for Sectionals. Some of you might know her, she graduated two years ago… so please, put your hands together for the one and only, Miss Santana Lopez!"

"Santana Lopez?" Marley's eyes widened, accompanied by her head snapping up from her lap and, within seconds, the Latina girl herself was walking into the room wearing one of her casual, albeit criminally tight dresses. Upon seeing the older girl in the flesh, her eyes widened impossibly further and she screamed, shocking everyone in the room - it caught Santana's attention, at least. Santana instantly swept her eyes across the room as she stopped in her tracks, prepared to slap whoever the source of the irritating noise was, but when her eyes landed on a girl dressed in a Cheerios costume, a girl she hadn't seen since her senior year of McKinley, her mood suddenly capsized into something lighter.

Soon, it was her turn to yell. "Oh my God, Marley?!"

Marley nodded excitedly before instantly jumping up from her seat and darting to the older girl, engulfing her in a tight hug which Santana instantly returned as they mumbled "oh my God"s and "what are you doing here"s into each other's hair, oblivious to the perplexed looks they were receiving from the other people in the room. When the younger girl finally pulled away, she didn't even look around the room before she began chatting animatedly and at a fast pace to Santana, who replied matching her speed; it was only when someone unsubtly coughed in their direction that they pulled away from each other completely and acknowledged the others in the choir room. Various confused expressions saw Marley explaining everything.

"Basically, in the Cheerios, everyone is assigned an older mentor so that the team is closely-knit and better at performing together and all friendly and whatever at practises so that someone doesn't "accidentally" drop someone off the top of the pyramid at pep rallies…" Marley smirked rather darkly, before shaking her head. "Not the point. Anyway, when Yours Truly joined the squad as a budding young freshman, her assigned mentor was none other than Santana Lopez, who was just starting her junior year. We clicked instantly – no surprise." For comedic affect, Ms Lopez bowed at the mention of her name, as the sea of confused faces soon washed away gradually upon the brunette's explanation.

"Ahhh," Santana grinned somewhat philosophically, "I remember getting her started on her first contraceptive back in her ripe old freshman year…" Santana reminisced thoughtfully out loud, earning a playful slap from Marley.

The thing is, Marley never knew that Santana was in Glee Club as a junior and a senior, or that she helped lead them to a Nationals victory. Then again, maybe she mentioned it once or twice… she wasn't sure. Likewise, Santana was more than surprised to learn that Marley herself had joined the club, and had bagged a long-term boyfriend who was also not her usual type (to emphasise the least). Santana was unquestionably surprised at the girl's unmistakably different personality.

"Listen," The older girl spoke in a hushed tone to the brunette. "We really have some catching up to do… are you free after school? Maybe we could meet at that coffee store that I'm surprised is still on its legs, yeah?" Santana smirked, earning a winning smile from her younger friend – coincidentally, the first one in a long time.

"Totally."

With that, Santana greeted her other acquaintances in the room, and a few new faces which she happily accepted (among these lay Ryder), before the club finally returned to their Sectionals preparations.

Seeing her old friend again at least took some of the weight off Marley's shoulders for a while.

"Okay, so you're telling me that as if Coach Sue didn't torture you enough, you have to drink protein shakes now?" The 20-year-old McKinley graduate guffawed as the beverage in question made its way out of Marley's bag in sachet form, the brunette playing with it in her fingers before decanting the powder into a plastic bottle filled with water and shaking vigorously.

The other girl's response came in between giggles as she shook the liquid. "It's a new thing she's trying out this cemester. She swears by these things, and thinks they'll improve our "sloppy actions", so we have to drink these around the clock. They actually taste okay, surprisingly enough."

"Yeah, well, I'll be the judge of that. I've tasted things wild beyond your dreams, Rose. It's what Adjacent does to you." Santana said upon snatching the shake from Marley's fingers and taking a swig, before grimacing. "God, that tastes like it came from beneath my grandmother's toenails – how can you consume that on a daily basis?!"

The cerulean-eyed cheerleader chuckled at her mentor's verdict. "It's not that bad…"

"Oh, I beg to differ. You don't know what's in those God-awful shakes, Mar-"

"Protein and the essential and additional vitamins I'll need to survive through the Cheerios?" Marley sneered in reply. "Gimme." The Latina girl let the shake out of her grasp, taking a long swig of her coffee to clear the taste away.

"Uh, ladies, no outside beverages in the Lima Bean," a pimple-infested teenage worker echoed apprehensively upon approaching the two girls, who sat down on a small table in the café. The squawky teenager then turned to Marley, who batted her eyelashes at him. The boy's next response was a simple "Never mind" as he giggled and sniggered, sauntering off in his nervous state, cheeks reddening.

Santana didn't hesitate to roll her eyes. "Ugh, boys. So disgusting. It's people like Mr Chuckles over there that make me relieved that my lady loins don't operate that way." She reclined back into her chair, sipping her coffee. "And aren't you forgetting you have a boyfriend, Rose?"

"Oh, please." Marley chuckled as she sipped on her shake. "That wasn't anything that he should be afraid of. I love Ryder, and he loves me."

"Alright, Mar. Enough with the sappy stuff – you've already sucked the life out of me with your nauseating account on the events of your junior year." Santana spoke uninterestedly, inspecting her nails. The two had been at the Lima Bean long enough already for Marley to tell her everything about last year, catching her up on every little detail – despite the older girl's current emotions, she listened intently and interrupted where necessary along with every inch of the storyline. In return, the brown-eyed girl had told her all the details on her adventures since graduation, focusing particularly on the events happening within her college in New York City. "But I will admit, you and Four-Eyes-Donkey-Teeth are adorable."

"And I will look past the malicious overtones of that comment and say thank you." Marley grinned in return.

There was a moment's silence – a rare occurrence between the girls – as Marley sipped on her protein shake and Santana considered the next lead to the conversation. Another item to add onto the long list of things the two girls had in common, was their gossipy and flirtatious nature, so it came as no surprise that the 20-year-old was growing tired of their PG conversation.

"Okay, let's skip all of the fluffy, goody-goody feelings that I have now discovered you have… and let's talk about the saucy stuff."

Marley paused mid-sip and slowly lowered her drink. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Mar, come on. How is he?"

"How is he… what?" The brunette insisted, her face threatening to turn red.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you, honey?" Santana spoke nonchalantly, while Marley's eyes never strayed from the girl. With a magnificent sigh and a roll of her eyes, the brown-eyed girl spoke again, arching one eyebrow. "How is Care Bear… in the sack?"

The complete opposite to how the girl would have reacted a year ago, Marley began blushing violently and giggling. "You're… I…"

"Wow, he's really that good-?"

"I. Um." Were Marley's next stutters as her eyes darted from side to side once, then flickered down to the disorientated tassels on her Cheerios skirt.

Santana's face stiffened. "I totally saw that look. What's going on?"

"We haven't done it yet, okay?" Marley blurted out. "We haven't had sex yet."

"What?" Santana howled in surprise, her eyebrows narrowing.

The cheerleader sighed and prepared herself for another row of stutters. "We're- I'm-… he's not ready yet. And, surprise surprise, I actually care about this one, so… we're taking it slow."

Unfortunately, the older girl couldn't help the cackle that erupted through her mouth as she threw her head back. With every laugh, Marley's face grew more and more crimson, keeping her mouth clenched shut as she tried to mask her feelings by taking another swig of protein shake. She inwardly scolded herself. Was this all she had become - a girl who wore her heart on her sleeve?

Once she had calmed down at last, Santana looked at Marley and finally saw the damage she had done. "Jesus, you're the same colour as your uniform…" Santana observed and, as Marley's eyes cast downwards, the girl sunk back in her chair. "Crap, you're actually serious. I'm so sorry…"

"Hey," Marley tried to giggle the fiasco off. "It's okay, seriously. I know I've changed a lot since you last saw me, but… it's for the best, I promise."

"I know it is. Sorry." Her friend insisted. "So… Four Eyes really isn't ready?"

"Um, can we change the subject, please?" Marley averted, taking another sip from her shake.

And with a final eyebrow raise and a smirk, Santana obliged.

Second chapter is done! I hope you liked this one. As always, reviews are most welcome ;)

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA BENOIST! My inspiration :') and omg she FAVOURITED MY TWEET ABOUT WISHING HER A HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I WAS TREMBLING. NO JOKE.

For those of you who are interested, or not… my Twitter is: bethha_ :-)

Until next time,

Beth :-)