Puck walked down the hallways with a fat smirk all over his face Monday morning. Quinn had been just as good as he remembered, and it wasn't like she was going to tell, so Finn would never find out. Plus now he got to be his underhanded and devious self, and he fuckin' loved that.

As he'd assured Quinn when she'd forked over the cash, by this time he had smoothed things over with Santana and convinced her to throw him a couple invites to her next party. God love the girl, she had planned a masquerade party at Brittany's request—the perfect opportunity to do some (underhanded) matchmaking, if he did say so himself. He checked the information he'd flirted out of the secretary and confidently slid the invites into the selected lockers. Now all he had to do was wait for the prey to come to him.


Rachel Berry walked quickly through the halls of McKinley in yet another attempt to make it from one class to another inconspicuously. Unfortunately, this still required a stop at her locker, and so she attempted to make quick work of the combination.

"Oh my Gucci, did you see?" Rachel's fellow Glee clubber and quasi-friend Kurt asked as he and his BFF Mercedes saddled up next to her, both holding small slips of paper in their hands like they were made of gold.

"Girl, we've been invited to Santana's masquerade bash this weekend," Mercedes gushed in response to the petite brunette's inquisitive look. She exclaimed again in excitement as a paper fluttered out of Rachel's own locker. "And so did you!"

"Who'd have thought that having Cheerios in Glee would have such an instantaneous effect?" Kurt wondered in awe.

Rachel, however, felt a tad suspicious. "As enthusiastic I am to attend a gathering with the elite of McKinley's student body," she told them, looking over the flier. "I can't help but wonder if perhaps there is some ulterior motive."

"Girl, you are just being paranoid," Mercedes replied. "It's not like anyone's going to be pulling a Carrie on us. Finn, Quinn, Santana, Brittany—we're with them now."

A few more words of encouragement and the two had Rachel convinced and just as excited. Of course, the moment caused them to forget their circumstances and the instant they turned away from Rachel's locker, three slushies suddenly found their targets.

The three stood in shock as the multiple jocks laughed hysterically before quickly making toward a bathroom to change.


Rachel walked into the choir room at the end of the day to find Quinn and Finn already there. She smiled brightly at them both, and then a bit more when Finn smiled enthusiastically back. She tried to distance herself from the gawky teen, knowing that Quinn (who all but hated her) felt especially threatened by the two interacting in Glee; yet she couldn't help wanting to fuel the potential relationship she'd easily developed with the fellow music-lover.

"Hey Rache!" Finn greeted, patting the seat next to him. As she sat, he asked, "Did you do something different with your hair?"

Rachel managed not to laugh out loud; why was it boys always seemed to think that if one looked different than usual, it had to do with one's hair? "I was slushied this morning," she answered. "So I had to wash it during lunch."

Quinn, meanwhile, smiled inwardly. She had personally influenced the jocks to make a habit out of slushying losers, and made sure that Rachel Berry topped that list. It was nice to know that some things were still working in her favor. However, she had to fake a sympathetic face when Finn became upset over Man-Hand's condition so as not to give away her delight.

And then her pleasure was suddenly cut short as Mr. Schuester walked in and began rehearsal, and she again was forced to watch her love singing and dancing and touching her. She reminded herself continually that in a few short days Rachel Berry would be mooning over the lowest of the low, and she'd easily be able to regain Finn's attentions.


Rachel wasn't sure where the week had gone, but suddenly it was Friday night. Kurt had somehow convinced her that a makeover was necessary (the style-addict insisting that he needed a "fix" before the party anyways, so she may as well benefit from his love of facials and fashion), and so she now approached Santana's doorstep with a short black skirt and a crimson halter top, with dozens of silver bangle bracelets and stiletto heels, and completed with a silver mask decorated with red feathers. As she walked in, she actually felt a rush in her obvious anonymity—nobody looked at her with disdain or even anything less than neutrality. In fact, she noticed as her face flushed in pleasure, quite a few were looking on in obvious appreciation.

Puck had been watching the door all night in a simple black mask from a corner where he was doing some heavy petting with a shameless freshman. When he spotted Berry walk in (and he knew it was her; even unslushied and in normal clothes, girl's body language screamec her name), he stayed put, but made sure to follow her carefully as she made her way to the keg; to her friends; watching as she giggled and talked with the Glee kids around her.

It literally had taken him about ten seconds after the brunette had walked in the door to peg her situation. She was a midget, but with miles of legs and her toned body, there was no doubt girl was smokin'. Apparently she wasn't much for flaunting it, but he realized she probably could rock the school girl look if she wasn't constantly covered in slushies or being trashed by those on the higher-up. Puck took a moment to give Quinn her due; it's not every girl that is smart enough to take out the competition before she even realizes there's a chance. And now he felt a pang of guilt, since he was going to basically fuck the chick over indefinitely by handing her off to Jew-Fro. However, the money was already invested in his getting the hell out of Lima, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let some girl (even a hot midget) get in the way of that.

He made his way outside, to the hedges lining the backyard. Sure enough, when he reached in the third shrub, he easily pulled out a stunned Jacob Ben-Isreal, holding binoculars and a camera phone.

"Hey loser," Puck grunted, imitating a tone similar to Karofsky. "You want to report the action or man up and finally get some?"

The nerd, who had moments before been shielding his face, now looked up curiously at the masked stranger, obviously trying to place him. Puck steered them both another few steps into the shadow, and laid his trap.

"Rachel Berry's been looking for you all night," Puck lied, watching as the gullible boy's face lit up in delight. "She's a little drunk, though, so in roughly an hour she'll wander upstairs to the first door on the right—if you act now, you can sneak in and wait for her."

He pulled out a second mask, identical to his own, and handed it to the creep, who eagerly took it and began creeping into the party, following the stranger's instructions to a T. Puck watched him and then, smirking at his cleverness, made his way back to the party himself.