CHAPTER TWO: On My Way

Noah's words hung on her mind, even long after he had dropped her off at home - her absence in her last two classes and Glee club went unnoticed. Normally, she would be upset about Glee members not noticing, but she had other things to worry about. Especially when she spent her night laying in a restless sleep, Puck's voice repeating over and over in her head.

'We need to stop fooling ourselves. We're just bumps in the road to their perfect little lives'

It stung, especially when apart of her knew it was true. No, all of her knew he was right but only a small part wanted to admit it. It wasn't fair. What did she do wrong? Wasn't she a good girlfriend? Why couldn't Finn just see that she loved him and wanted nothing more than the best for Finn, unlike Quinn who had proven time and time again how selfish she truly was. She let out a groan of frustration as she rolled over on her bed to stare at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was ten o'clock on Saturday morning and normally, she was up much earlier than that. But today, she didn't feel like getting out of bed and meeting the day head on. Sleeping Beauty could spend days in bed waiting for her Prince, so can Rachel Berry.

But her her 'Defying Gravity' ring tone went off on her nightstand and she moaned before she rolled onto her other side and threw her covers over her head. But when her phone went off for a second time, she couldn't ignore it any longer, and she reached over and answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Diva," She heard Kurt's voice say through the receiver. "Get up and let us in, it's freezing and we're going shopping."

"Shopping?" Rachel sat up, her hair falling over her eyes. "What for? Did I forget we were suppose to go shopping?" She questioned as she nervously chewed on her thumb nail - which she knew was a horrible habit but she now realized that missing Glee practice might have led her to miss announcement for a get together.

"For clothes, what else?" Kurt sighed in his rather annoyed tone. "And no, this was a last minute decision that Mercedes and I made."

"And you're inviting me?"

"Yes, don't sound so surprised. We know you had a bad day yesterday and with Regional's coming up, we can't afford to lose you right now."

Rachel paused for a moment, now knowing that were only doing this to make sure they didn't lose the competition - again - but really, beggars couldn't be chooser and she needed friends right now. "Fine. I need to get dress, if you don't mind waiting."

"Yeah, let us in, its freezing."

Rachel nodded, not even caring that he couldn't see her do it, and hung up the phone as she slipped out of her bed and made her way towards the door. When she opened it, before her was the always glamorous Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones. Rachel eyed Kurt's well tailored coat that she knew must have cost a fortune and Mercedes' brightly colored tunic. Their gaze in return was less than kind. "Is that what you wear to bed?" Mercedes asked.

Rachel looked down at her pink pajama set and frowned. She had thought that the bunnies were adorable and she wasn't exactly expecting company. She lifted her chin, "I will be ready soon. I'll try to wear something appropriate. Can you please keep your comments to yourself, because I'm not in the right mindset to deal with it now. This is suppose to be fun for me, right? So you guys don't lose Regional's." She managed to say in an even tone as she opened the door wider.

The pair of Diva's looked at each other for a moment before they entered the Berry Household. Rachel closed the door and made her way back to her bathroom. It took less time she had expected to get ready. After the shower, she just slipped into a simple skirt and plain sweater before she reached for her coat and went back down stairs. "Ready?"

Kurt and Mercedes turned back towards her, their gazes were more approving and they nodded. "Let's go, Pretty momma." Mercedes smiled as she used the name that Rachel only heard the girl use once before when addressing to her. Rachel wasn't sure what to make of it. Mercedes linked arms with Rachels.

The trio slipped into Kurt's car, which was returned to him by his father at the start of the year, and they made their way to the only mall in town. Lima Shopping Center wasn't much but it was all they had. Once they were out of the car, Kurt and Mercedes walked on either side of Rachel. "Now, Rachel, how much control are you willing to let us have?" Kurt asked.

"What do you mean?" Rachel looked over at the young man. "The last time I allowed you to have control, I was humiliated in front of Finn."

"But you looked amazing"

"Look," Mercedes interrupted. "I'll make sure that Kurt doesn't go overboard and stick with something that's more you"

Rachel turned her gaze at Mercedes skeptically before she nodded slowly, "Okay…"

Rachel stared at her reflection as she eyed the new clothes Kurt had convinced her to buy, one of the many sets, and tilted her head to the side. The skinny jeans hugged her legs nicely, while the white graphic tank top hung loosely and surprisingly, showed off her curves quite well. Her hands tugged on the Navy military style blazer and then tilted her head to the other side. A soft smile crossed her expression, she looked nice. After some scrutiny, she finally decided that she liked how she looked. "Rachel," Henry, one of her fathers, the taller one, said as he peeked his head into her bedroom. "Noah Puckerman is here to take you to Mr. Schuester's house."

"Okay, thank you, Daddy." She smiled as she turned to grab her bag. When Noah asked if she wanted a ride earlier that day, she was certainly surprised. But he explained that his mother put him up to it after hearing about the little gathering from her father.

With one more glance at her reflection, she gave herself a nod of approval and then made her way out to meet Noah. She descended the staircase carefully, she really didn't need to trip in front of Puck. She had been through enough embarrassment. But when she saw the boy, the very boy who had bullied and teased for years, but she saw something different in his eyes. Something she didn't recognize. His golden gaze roamed up and own her body slowly which brought a faint hint of red to her soft cheeks. "Have her home at an appropriate hour." Charles, her other father, stated firmly. Though Rachel doubted that tough image her father was trying to portray had any affect on Puck. Seeing as her father was almost half Noah's size and didn't have nearly as muscle mass as Noah did.

"I will, sir" Puck replied with a swift nod.

Rachel brow rose but decided not to say anything as she kissed both her fathers on the cheek. "I'll see you when I get back."

She wrapped her arms around herself as she followed Puck outside to his truck. They walked in silence, they hadn't really talked since the incident at the lake. Though, she didn't expect them to talk since they weren't exactly buddies before. But now, she really had no idea what to do. She stepped into the passenger seat and gave him a soft smile, "Thank you, you really didn't have to do this." She said before she carefully clicked the seat belt in.

"Didn't exactly have a choice." He laughed as he started up his truck. "This for Finn?" She looked at him in slight confusion which in turn made him laugh more. "The clothes Berry."

She looked down for a moment, "Are they okay?" Her voice was filled with uncertainty when she turned back to him. "Do you think it would work? Finn always said he liked how I dressed."

"Yeah, yeah. They're fine. Different but fine." He quickly answered. His shoulder shrugged, "Look, I wouldn't put much stock in trying to get Finn back. Him and Quinn are always gonna go back to each other. They're just those people who are fine with the picket fence and a family in this town. Nothing's gonna change that."

Rachel frowned and leaned back in her seat, her head bobbing up and down in a nod of agreement. Her forehead pressed against the window as she tried to not think about the whole situation. But she just couldn't and it was going to get harder when she got to Schue's home. Her and Puck stepped into the small apartment and was greeted by the rest of the New Directions members. Kurt and Mercedes smiled, glad that Rachel had followed their request to wear her new clothes, while the others just stared in confused amusement and she guessed that was okay. Sadly her focus was on Finn and where he sat on the couch next to Quinn. Her stomach churned at the sight of Quinn's perfect blonde head was resting against Finn's shoulder and she couldn't help but to think resentfully that was her shoulder that Quinn took from her. And she was about to run back right out the apartment when Puck's hand rested against her lower back and he led her further into the living room. She turned and gave him a thankful look before she took a seat on the opposite couch of Finn and crossed one leg over the other. A small laugh when Noah sat down next to her and her side of the couch raised against his weight.

"Well I think everyone is here now, we can decide on our song choices." Will Schuester declared as he faced everyone with a stack of pizza boxes in his hands. "We have ten songs to choose from and we only need three for Regional's."

"Empire State of Mind is a must." Artie chimed in from his corner and the others nodded in agreement.

Rachel didn't pay much attention after that, her focus was more on her breathing and keeping tears from forming in her eyes. She looked over at Finn and Quinn and felt her lower lip tremble. In fairy tales, they never tell you about the heartache. They never tell you the part of story where you get it wrong and Rachel wished they had.

DISCLAIMER: i don't own Glee, this is just for fun. Everything involving Glee and its characters truly belong to Ryan Murphy and not me.

A/N: again, this was written after the first episode of the second season aired and any episode that after that won't imply to this story, or will be used/reference too later on.