WOW! I was really surprised at how many alerts and favorites I had received after only one day! Thank you guys so much I was really inspired so I started writing this chapter early…hope you guys like it ENJOY
Homecoming week at William McKinley High was in full swing, and the seniors 'ruled the school' as they sailed into victory each day of class competitions. Monday started out with Jell-O wrestling, the week continued with a game of tug-of-war on Tuesday, a Fear Factor (don't own it) competition on Wednesday, a flex-off on Thursday, and a highly competitive dance-off the day of Friday night's big game. Anticipation grew as the Friday night homecoming football game against their cross-town rivals neared. When the last bell rang Friday afternoon, the hallways spilled over with boisterous teens chattering excitedly about the game and the dance to follow.
Noah 'Puck' Puckerman swagged his way silently through the hall holding a spiral notebook open in his hands, reviewing and rehearsing in his mind the various plays his team would run that night. Paying no attention to the students scurrying out of his way, he ran right into a red locker door just as it swung open.
"SHIT!" he said, looking up from the book he was holding, and using the other hand to rub a red bump growing on his forehead.
"What the…? Oh. It's you," a female voice muttered.
"Nice, Rachel. Swing that open on purpose?"
Rachel Berry stood back from her locker to get a better look at her arch-nemesis. She was already wearing her cheerleading uniform, which perfectly set off her attractive figure. If she'd been anyone else, Puck would have spoken up to praise her appearance.
"Hardly. It's not my fault you don't know where you're going. On the bright side, maybe it will knock some sense into that thick skull."
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"I couldn't be more serious," she said curtly as she pulled some books from her locker and slammed the door shut. Turning on her heel, she hurried down the hallway away from Puck. He watched her cheerleading skirt sway and her long brown hair bounce on her pony tail as she wove her way through the crowd, eventually disappearing amongst the throng of teens.
"Enjoying the view?" Santana asked, appearing suddenly at his side.
"Gimme a break," Puck said with an irritated shrug, "I just ran smack into her fucking locker door. I think she saw me coming."
Santana peered at his forehead. "Oh, yeah. I see the bump-it's a real welt. Get some ice on it."
"I will. So are you walking home?" Puck asked, still holding his welt.
"Yeah, but first, I'm watching little Miss Pom-Pom try to start her car."
"Why?"
Santana smiled happily. "Cuz I took her battery."
"What do you mean, you took her battery?"
"From her car- what do you think?" Santana laughed at her cleverness.
Puck couldn't help but join in, shaking his head. "Oh man, that's good. Well played, Satan."
"Thanks! I learned it from you, Fuckerman."
"And you've learned well, little grasshopper." He grinned down at her. "Seriously, taking someone's battery…I wouldn't have thought you had it in you. That's worthy of the master," he said, placing a hand on his chest and bowing.
As they chuckled together, Puck led Santana down the hallway and out the front door, where they could watch the parking lot from their perch on the front steps. Sure enough, from this vantage point they were able to see Rachel frantically trying to start her car. Obviously frustrated, Rachel dejectedly crawled from the car. As she raised the hood, she shot a glance towards the school. Puck and Santana quickly turned away, heading in opposite directions from the sidewalk…
LATER THAT NIGHT…..
A few hours later, as the sun set on the football field at William McKinley High , an out-of-breath girl with beaming chocolate eyes ran to join the other cheerleaders standing silently in perfect formation on the sidelines.
"BERRY! Where the hell have you been? Your twenty minutes late!" her coach, Sue Sylvester, blared through her megaphone.
"I'm so sorry coach, it will never happen again. I was just having car troubles." Rachel explained, not even the least bit phased by the coaches attitude.
"It better not, you're the captain. If the other losers see you slacking off, they'll think its ok…and nothing is ok with Sue Sylvester." She stalked off to go yell at some of the band members about them being too spineless.
Rachel sighed and walked over to her team. She was just in time for the national anthem. She waited respectfully in her country's honor before she turned to one of her best friends, Kurt Hummel.
"Kurt! Oh my gosh! I just barely made it!" Rachel whispered.
"What happened to you?" the male cheerleader asked Rachel as she slid in beside him, hoping to go unnoticed by any other people. As the football team, the Titans, were announced, the whole squad jumped up and yelled charge! Followed by a lone trumpet blast. In the midst of the cheer, the announcer began introducing the football players over the PA system. Each member of the line-up received wild screams and applause from the raucous crowd, as they raced one-by-one onto the field.
WMHS had won the pregame coin toss and had elected to kick off, and the cheers grew to a crescendo as the fans encouraged their kicker. They were rewarded with a kick-off deep into the enemy territory, and the unfortunate receiver was swarmed, then pummeled to the ground, having only advanced a few short yards.
After preforming a Go D-E-F-E-N-S-E! cheer, Kurt pulled Rachel to the side. "So, why were you late? That's not like you."
"My car wouldn't start! I couldn't even make it home before the game!"
"You've been trying to start your car this whole time?"
"Sort of. It turns out there was a problem with my battery-as in it went missing."
"WHAT?"
"Someone took my battery! Can you believe it? Unfortunately I didn't figure it out until I looked under the hood, and by then everyone was already gone. So I called a tow truck, they replaced my battery and I drove straight here."
"Wow, Rach. That's seriously-"
"Hey, you two, we need another cheer", a friend of Kurt's, Blaine told them. He walked away, but not before giving Kurt a not-so-subtle wink.
"Whats going on there Mr. Hummel, anything you'd like to share? We are totally talking about that later!" Kurt and Rachel walked to the field again and lead the team in another cheer.
As they finished their cheer, the opponents fumbled the ball almost on cue and the crowd erupted into jubilant screams. Puck recovered the ball, bounced off several opponents, then sprinted to the end zone for the first touchdown of the game. The fans rose their feet and cheered with an extreme amount of energy. The specialty kicking team once again took the field, allowing Kurt and Rachel to continue their conversation.
"You really think someone took your battery?"
Rachel had to laugh, despite her lingering annoyance. "I didn't forget it at home if that's what your suggesting," she said with a sly grin. "Of course someone had to take it! Either that or it grew legs and waked away."
"But who in the name of Barbra would take it?"
With a dark look at their team's star player, Rachel lifted her chin. "I have a pretty good idea."
Kurt followed her gaze with a quick inward breath, "Your kidding right? Puck?"
"You got it! Him and that group's little ring leader."
"Santana. Well, I admit this is totally her style, especially since she's holding that stupid grudge against you. But why do you think it was them? It could have just been that creepy Jacob-Ben Israel kid trying to take pictures of you to put on his blog again."
"It couldn't have been Jew-Fro cuz I saw them leaving the scene of the crime!"
Hoping to forget the prank for now, Rachel turned back to watch the game, an soon enough found herself caught up in the excitement. Following an amazing play, Rachel began a new cheer. She was mid-jump when she caught the eye of Santana, in the far corner of the stands. Making eye contact, Rachel landed the jump harder than she intended, and glared at the other girl.
Her legs still tingling from the landing, Rachel felt her blood boil as Santana smiled back at her sweetly and gave a little finger wave. She took a deep breath to calm her anger, as the memory of her car battery came rushing back. From the corner of her eye she spotted her best friend, Quinn Fabray, in the stands out for a knee injury.
"Hey, Rach", Quinn yelled.
Rachel was glad to see her friend and ran over to say hello. Quinn was leaning over the railing, "What on Earth is going on? You nearly broke your ankle on that last landing!"
"I know, I know-"
"who the hell were you staring at? You looked ready to spit fire! Girl get a grip, everyone I watching!"
"Yeah, I know, I'm ok now," Rachel reassured her. "Santana Lopez is up to her old tricks. Wait 'till I tell you! She's such a-"
"Rachel!"
"Well she is!"
"Yeah I know but you need to get back to the game and forget about her for now- the squad's counting on you!" Quinn motioned to the action on the field.
"Im going don't you worry your pretty blonde head." Rachel strutted off to the field. Swaying her
hips extra to prove to Quinn her point. Rachel turned her head and called over to Quinn, "Where's Sam?"
"He went to get ready for half time, "Quinn replied loudly as she sat back down on the cold metal seat.
A loud siren was followed by the referee's whistle, signaling the end of the second quarter. The scoreboard shone a bright 20-13 in WMHS' favor. While the players sprinted toward the locker room, the homecoming royalty appeared and walked awkwardly toward the 50 yard line, the girls doing their best to navigate through the trampled grass in their heels. The teens were uncharacteristically elegant, and if they hadn't been in the middle of a muddy football field, they would have appeared to be going to a star-studded, gala grand opening.
The princesses were dressed in calf-length gowns with sparkling tiaras that gleamed under the spotlight of the stadium.
Assisting the lovely ladies were some of their male classmates, also elected by the student body, but looking far less elegant. Two of the boys were dressed up in football gear and the others wore plain black tuxedos.
The queen and king would be crowned based on the overall winners of the week's competitions. The announcer introduced the princes and princesses and as their names were called they stepped forward with arms linked. The announcer finished the intro, the tension mounted through the stadium, and the loudness of the crowd was replaced by a low expectant murmur.
Rachel felt a sudden tap on her shoulder.
"Rach, come on. Did you forget we have to crown the winners?"
Rachel turned to see Puck at her side, dressed in his muddy football uniform and holding his helmet on his hip. His short Mohawk was wet from sweating and his hazel eyes looked directly into hers.
"No," Rachel replied, brushing her hand through her bangs to hide her embarrassment. "Of course not. Let's go."
She linked her arm through the elbow he offered and she walked beside him across the field toward the center. Everybody got to their feet and clapped for last year's homecoming King and Queen."
Puck shot her a glance. Out of the side of his mouth he said, "I'm not happy about this either y'know."
"Well, YOU didn't spend two hours before the football game trying to get your car fixed. Excuse ME if I'm a little put out. too bad for you I made it."
Before he could reply the speakers crackled to life once again as the announcer spoke, "I am pleased to announce, " the voice bellowed from the P.A. system, " this year's homecoming king and queen! The king and queen of WMHS is…" you could not hear the announcer's statement due to the amount of noise coming from the stands.
As the band played, she could see Sam Evans, sort-of boyfriend of Quinn Fabray, playing his big tuba while trying to keep up with the rest of the marchers. Rachel laughed and shook her head as she watched him collapse under the weight of the instrument.
Zoning out for a little while, Rachel was brought back to life by the screaming fans, indicating that indeed WMHS had won the football game.
SORRY I KNOW THIS CHPRT WAS MOSTLY FLUFF BUT I HAD TO DO IT IN ORDER TO INTRODUCE THE CHARACTERS…I WILL TRY TO UPDATE ONCE A WEEK IT WILL USUALLY BE MONDAY NIGHT…THE DAY I PUBLISHED THE STORY BUT I MIGHT GET A LITTLE SIDETRACKED AND SOME CHPTRS MIGHT BE LATE! Please review and thanks for reading!