A/N: I do not own anything Glee; no characters, nothing, sadly. R&R and let me know what you think.


After a long night of tossing and turning, Puck walked into school early and knocked on the door of Rm. 118; the choir room.

"Come on in," said a voice from inside.

When Puck entered the room, he saw Mr. Schuster writing on the whiteboard. He looked around and saw instruments of all types; from guitars to tubas. Thankfully, no one else was there. Mr. Schuster shot a quick glance to see who had come in the room.

"What do you want, Noah? I'm very busy," he said running around the room.

"I want to audition for Glee," Puck said hesitantly.

Mr. Schuster stopped what he was doing to look at Puck.

"You can't be serious Puckerman. What, did your friends on the football team put you up to this?"

"No." Yes.

"Well okay, show me what you got." Mr. Schuster pulled out a chair and sat down.

Puck nervously grabbed his guitar and started to sing:

"Without you, I'm seeing myself so differently. I didn't wanna believe it then, but it all worked out in the end. When I watched you walk away, I never though I'd say I'm fine, without you." Puck took a deep breath after finishing his song and prepared for the criticism. Before he opened his eyes, he heard a clap that sounded like it came from far away. He opened his eyes to find none other than Rachel Berry sitting in the far corner of the choir room with sheet music in her hand. Oh crap, she must have been practicing here. How did I not see her?

"Noah, that was very good! I'm impressed," said Rachel.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Mr. Schuster, I have to leave, but I shall return at 3:30 for rehearsals," Rachel said before getting up off the floor and leaving the room.

"Did you write that?" Mr. Schuster turned his attention back to Puck.

"Yeah, I know it's not good, but if you give me a chance, I'll…"

"No, it was really good. You're actually really talented."

"Really? Thanks." Puck was pleasantly surprised. He barely ever heard compliments, but when he did it was either about his football skills or his bullying tactics, so it was nice that he was being praised for something he actually enjoyed doing.

"Here's what I'm gonna do. I'll make you a deal."

"What's the deal?" Puck asked unsurely.

"If you keep your grades up, you can be in Glee."

"But Mr. Schuster, I'm not good at school. I'll never be able to keep my grades up," he said shyly.

"Tell you what, how about I have someone tutor you?"

Puck stood silently for a minute.

"Okay, deal."

"Come back after school for your first tutoring session."

So Puck went about his day as he normally did; sleeping in math class, throwing a slushie at Rachel Berry, going to football practice, and then he went to the choir room. When he walked in, he saw Mr. Schuster sitting at a desk with a brunette student. She looked familiar, but Puck couldn't quite put his finger on it. Once she turned around, he knew exactly who it was.

"Noah? Mr. Schuster, you didn't tell me that I would be tutoring Noah Puckerman," said the brunette.

"And you didn't tell me, I'd be getting tutored by Rachel Berry." Puck said the girl's name as if he were in disgust.

"I thought this might not go well but look, Rachel is an A+ student. You want to be in Glee, right?"

A lot actually, he thought.

"Let's just get this over with," Puck griped.

"I couldn't agree more," said Rachel.

"So once you divide x by 2, you carry the one and get…"

"This is stupid!" Puck slammed his book shut and rested his head in his hands.

"Okay, let's try Spanish," said a calm Rachel.

"Let's just face it, I'll never get this stuff. I'm stupid and you know it," Puck said annoyed.

"You have potential Noah. You just have to… try a different approach."

"You think I have potential?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah, definitely," she said obviously distracted.

Puck smiled. No one ever really told him he had potential. Most of them just said he'd end up in jail, or with a kid he didn't want, he liked that Rachel encouraged him.

"You're good at football right?" she asked, breaking into his train of thought.

Puck shook his head yes.

"Okay so, let's say the away team has x number of points. The Titans have 20 points. If the total number of points for both teams is 40, how many points does the away team have?" Rachel said, still distracted.

Before he answered the question, he noticed Rachel staring into the hallway. When he turned around, he saw Finn and Quinn standing by the doorway, with their backs turned to Rachel and Puck. A wave of jealousy came over Puck. It's not that he liked Rachel Berry, they weren't even friends, it was just supposed to be his time, his tutoring session with her.

"Could you please focus on the lesson?" Puck said bitterly.

"Um, sorry, so what's the answer?" she said turning her attention back to Puck. "I thought I would be the one having a hard time getting you to concentrate," she joked.

"20?" he said uncertainly.

"Exactly, see, you can do it. All you need is to break it down into terms you understand," Rachel smiled.

Puck smiled back at her.

"Thank you for helping me today," Puck said to Rachel as he walked her home.

"Not a problem, Noah. We need all the members we can get for Glee. I'm just being a team player."

"You know you can call me Puck. Everyone does."

"I don't want to be like everyone else. Plus, Noah is your name." Rachel ignored his wish and continued walking. This took Puck by surprise. Nobody called him Noah except his mom and a few teachers. Even his girlfriend called him Puck. Rachel was different and he liked it, not enough to be her friend though. She was pretty too, if you could get past the annoying personality.

"So I'll see you after school for Glee practice tomorrow?" Rachel said stopping by her door.

"Okay, bye." As Puck turned around to leave, he bumped into one of his football teammates.

"What are you doing at Rachel Berry's house?" spoke Dijon.

"Mr. Schuster wants her to help me prepare for Glee." He wasn't going to tell them the deal he had with Mr. Schu. "I wouldn't have to prepare if it wasn't for you guys, remember that." And with that Puck walked away.