Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, those are credited to the Glee creators.
Just when Rachel had calmed down enough to realize that washing the sticky syrup out of her hair would prove to be extremely difficult when her bottle of shampoo still laid four feet away on the wooden bench, she heard a soft feminine voice on the other side of the shower curtain calling her name.
And she screamed.
Very, very loudly. In true Rachel Berry fashion of course, she always had a flare for overreacting. She even dropped her bar soap onto the tiled floor for dramatic effect, the pink bar sliding directly into another stall, at which she pouted for a brief second before returning to the situation at hand.
This was it. She was about to get murdered in the shower like some scene straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, when...
"Rachel, what the hell!? I'm not gonna strangle you with the damn shower curtain for God's sake. Stop screaming before I go deaf." the female voice huffed out, a slight annoyance to the tone.
That could have only been one person, if the voice and tone was anything to go by. She rose a brow in surprise, shuffling slightly under the spray of hot water.
"Quinn...?", she called out hesitantly, not daring to poke her head out from behind the curtain because she was sure she had purple lines running down her neck still.
"No, it's the freaking Tooth Fairy. I decided to swing by for a chat and see if you had any baby teeth left to cash in." she deadpanned.
Sarcastic as always, she thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. It was definitely Quinn. Which, in a way, was kind of scarier than a knife wielding murderer. Especially when she was in this sort of predicament (naked, sticky... purple). Quinn could have a field day with this. Her eyes were already widening in horror.
"Quinn Fabray, if you currently have a camera in your possession and are here to humiliate me by taking pictures of me in my vulnerable state, I would like to remind you that my daddy is a lawyer and taking these sorts of pictures would result in-"
"Rachel, please shut up.", the blonde said, effectively cutting her off. "God, you even ramble in the shower.",she groaned in frustration, shaking her head.
"Quinn Fabray, I do not ramble!"
"Yes, you do. Also, must you use my first AND last name every time you address me?",she asked with a quirked eyebrow, even though Rachel couldn't see her. In fact, she was basically talking to the shower curtain since all she could see of Rachel were her calves, and her feet. And the purple running through the water.
Rachel felt her cheeks turn bright pink and in that moment, she was extra grateful to be covered by the flimsy plastic shower curtain. She hated blushing in front of Quinn, yet she found herself doing in so often. She couldn't help it. The blonde was so... flustering!
She huffed indignantly at her while subtly trying to retrieve her soap by sliding her foot into the next stall, stretching slightly.
"Here, let me get that before you slip and crack your head open on the shower tiles. The last thing I need right now is for people to think I tried to kill you in the school shower. My list of negatives is already long enough for one year. I don't need a criminal record too.",she muttered as she stepped into the next stall and gently kicked the bar of soap back over to Rachel's side.
"Also, for the record, i'm not here to take pictures of you. I was... taking a break from practice. I didn't even know you were in here.",she added a moment later.
"Since when does the great Quinn Fabray ever need to take a break from Cheerios practice?",she brunette curiously asked as she picked up the bar of soap and tried to scrub off the dried syrup on her arms.
"Since apparently 98% of the team now hates me because I cheated on my boyfriend with his best friend, got knocked up and kicked out of my house all in the span of one miserable year.",she said bitterly, plopping down on the bench because she was tired of standing. Practice had really done a number on her legs. "They all think i'm some whore/loser who should be handing out water bottles instead of standing on top of the pyramid."
There was a long silence after that. Quinn didn't say anything else for the longest time, and Rachel had no idea how to respond. She had been happy for the blonde when she had gotten back on the Cheerios. They might not be friends, but she knew that getting back on the team was the first step in Quinn regaining what she had lost.
Despite the fact that Quinn had been cruel to her while on top of the social ladder, she still wanted the blonde to be happy. But clearly even her beloved Cheer Squad wasn't doing anything to help the blonde forget about the events of the previous year.
In fact, they seemed to be making it worse. Rachel had never seen Quinn so sad as she did during their sophomore year. The blonde had lost a lot. Her title as Queen Bee, the respect of most of her friends, her parents' trust. She had even lost her daughter because she had given her up for adoption right after the tiny blonde was born. Which had triggered some painful emotions for Rachel herself because the baby was adopted by her own mother, but that was another story altogether and she wasn't about to think about that fiasco while showering. In Quinn's presence.
She felt guilty. Guilty because she had been so busy focusing on her own problems; the slushies, the harassment from the jocks, to really notice that Quinn was having problems too.
Sure she had tried to help her during the pregnancy, as much as she could because they weren't actually friends and Quinn tended to act like she hated her. But she assumed that after she had given up her daughter and moved back in with her parents, thing had gone back to normal.
Rachel Berry was an oblivious idiot, apparently.
"If it makes you feel any better...I don't think you're a whore. Or a loser, Quinn. I never have.",she murmured softly.
"And if the girls on that team think that of you, then they're clearly not your real friends. They didn't have to go through what you went through. They don't realize how incredibly brave and strong you are for doing what you did last year. How courageous you are for trying to get back on the Cheerios after Sue kicked you off, and even after she refused, you tried again and made the team."
"You come to school every single day and you're trying your best to get your life back together and if that doesn't earn their respect, then they don't deserve to have you as their captain anymore.", the brunette said all in one breath, forgetting that she was still standing naked in a locker room shower.
Quinn, who had been sitting on the bench, was deep in thought before Rachel spoke up. She was still thinking about that French boarding school thing and if it was too late to enroll. Because obviously things weren't going to magically go back to normal here and being a Fabray, running away from her problems instead seemed to be the family style.
She assumed that she had made Rachel uncomfortable, or that the girl had gone back to washing the slushy off of herself (which she still hadn't brought up), but then she spoke again and Quinn just looked up, staring at the shower curtain for the longest time as she listened to Rachel's long winded speech.
When she was done, Quinn was still left staring because for some reason, there was a lump in her throat now as the room went back to silence. No one had ever said those kinds of words to her. Not even her two closest friends. No one had called her brave, or strong, or courageous. All she ever heard was 'disappointment' and 'mistake' or 'embarrassment to the family'.
And now Rachel had just told her she was all of these things, all in one breath, while she was taking a shower and Quinn was awkwardly lingering outside the stall.
She didn't even know what she was still doing here. What was she doing here anyway? She should have just went back to her business once she found her who was in the shower, or find some other place to hide from the Cheerios. But the fact that it was Rachel behind that curtain had made her stay, and she didn't want to admit to herself why that was.
"Quinn...? Are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you by anything I said. I was just trying to make you feel better.",she heard the brunette's soft voice say in a slightly panicked tone and couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her lips. "I won't say anything else on the subject, I-..."
"Rachel, you're rambling again."
That earned her a huff from the girl, but the rambling did stop and she chuckled lowly.
She then realized that she was still holding the item that had made her speak up in the first place. The thing that had clued her in on just who was in the shower, and the reason she had lingered so she could give it to her.
She looked down at the bottle of shampoo and bit her lip to stifle a smile. She was holding something that made Rachel, so... Rachel. The very thing that made the brunette smell so.. delectable? Wait, no. Don't say that, Fabray, she frowned to herself, blushing furiously. You don't think Rachel smells delectable. She just smelled very nice and... fruity. Is that why you feel weak in the knees every time she walks by and you can smell her shampoo? Shut up inner voice!
"You know, I think it's gonna be hard to wash corn syrup out of your hair without your secret weapon...",she chuckled softly.
Her shampoo. Rachel had completely forgotten about that. She had been standing under the water for the past ten minutes, having some weird sort of Oprah conversation with Quinn and she still hadn't washed her hair. But that was Quinn's fault.
The blonde was distracting. She was also 4 feet away while she was in the shower. Naked. Wet... and naked. It was all very flustering. But Quinn had that effect on everyone... right? She was the prettiest girl in school, it was only natural for her to feel this way. (And not because of a tiny crush.)
She was just about to stop her inner ramblings (Quinn was right, she did always ramble),when a slender, pale hand suddenly slipped past the curtain to hand her the very bottle of shampoo she had left on the bench, causing her to gasp softly.
"Here you go, Strawberry Shortcake.",the blonde said in a playful tone.
But all Rachel Berry could think was that a part of Quinn Fabray was in the shower. With her. (Granted, it was just her hand,and part of her forearm, but...minor details!)
Strawberry shampoo was a wonderful thing.
Chapter 3 should be up tomorrow.
Things could start heating up in the locker room. ;)
Reviews would be appreciated!
xxx
