Okay, here it is. Chapter two. I hope you like it. Ps it has been decided: there will be eight chapters... Now I just have to write them all.
A very special thanks to three of my favorite ladies, carli, ashley, and michelle, for listening to me whine about this fic in its entirety. (I pretty much have 3 betas. How lucky am I?)
disclaimer: I don't own glee, but I proudly own all my finchel feelings.
No, no, no. There was no way that Rachel was the daughter of his football coach. She could not be the coach's daughter. That was insane. She was too nice and sweet and everything that Coach Berry was not. It wasn't possible. Puck was probably just messing with him. Puck had to be joking, right?
Finn walked into chemistry the day after Puck practically dropped a bomb on him and found none other then Rachel Berry herself sitting at a lab table all by herself. Rachel looked up from her notebook that she was furiously writing in, smiling at him sweetly.
"Hi, Finn. I hope it's okay, but I took the liberty of making us lab partners when you missed class yesterday."
Figgins had called Finn into his office during chemistry the day prior, and the strange Indian man asked Finn constant questions. Are his classes okay? Did he eat the meatballs in the cafeteria? If so, is he updated on his Hepatitis shots? All these questions made him miss chemistry completely.
"I figured, since you're new, you wouldn't know a lot of people, and we had met earlier in the day, it would be alright. I thought seeing, and being partners with, a friendly face would make your transition a little easier... If you don't think I'm a suitable lab partner, then I'm sure you could switch with someone else. I understand."
Her smile faded as she finished speaking. There was a sadness in her voice that made it seem like Rachel wasn't a lot of people's first choice, but she was Finn's.
"I think you'll be a great lab partner, but there's only one way to find out."
He gave her a lopsided grin as he placed his backpack on the ground and slid into the stool next to hers.
"So, what'd I miss yesterday?"
Immediately after he asked, Rachel launched into a lecture about the periodic table.
She was definitely going to be the best lab partner he ever had.
…
After receiving a big fat F on the first chemistry test of the year, Rachel offers to help him "further understand this complex material." So after that, his days go: school, football, Rachel, sleep, school, football, resist the urge to kiss Rachel, sleep.
It's really hard not to kiss her. Chemistry is easier for him, and that's saying something. She's just so pretty, and when he correctly tells her how many electrons are in Oxygen, there are eight, thank you very much, she smiles at him like he just won a million dollars or something. And when she looks at him like that, he feels like he has.
But this can't happen. He can't like her (he's pretty sure he's never felt this way about any other girl before) because at the end of the day, Rachel is still the Coach's daughter. She's still off limits. It sucks.
He just goes along everyday, suppressing his feelings, acting like it doesn't kill him when he hears Karfosky say things like "she'd be really fucking hot if she didn't wear animal sweaters" when she walks past that grade A douche bag in the halls.
He likes her animal sweaters. He likes that she makes him pour the Sodium into the test tube full of Chlorine because she's afraid it'll combust. He likes that she can pull off a lab coat; it's pretty hot, actually.
He just likes... her.
…
Before he knows it, it's the day of the first football game, and he's, like, really nervous. He's the quarterback, and that's a big deal. He can't mess this up; he needs to deliver because apparently whatever team they're playing tonight is McKinley's biggest competition in nearly everything.
He nearly walks into Rachel, again, once he's reached his chem room. He really needs to stop that. It's not like he meant to, but his brain refuses to think about anything other than all the plays he needs to remember. And blitzing. He can't stop thinking about blitzing. At the last second, he grips her shoulders to stop yet another collision.
"Whoa, sorry, Rach." He calls her Rach sometimes, and she says she hates it, but he knows she secretly loves it. She's like a puzzle, and he wants to put all the pieces together.
"We really need to stop doing that." She laughs and walks over to their lab table. He's right behind her, and maybe he stares at her legs as she walks. Okay, he stares at her legs as she walks. He'd be crazy not to.
"I-uh, I just can't stop thinking about football plays, and I nearly ran into you... again. I'm really sorry, Rachel."
She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, and he really wanted to be the one to do that.
"It's fine. I understand. I know tonight's the big game. Daddy has only been talking about it all week long."
It freaks Finn out that she calls Coach Berry daddy like it's the most natural thing in the world. Well, for her, it probably is, but it doesn't freak him out any less. Coach Berry yelled at all the guys on the team incessantly, and then he went home where Rachel called him daddy. Weird.
"Are you excited?" Rachel asked so honestly, so curiously, and Finn knew that she would listen to what he was saying. She wouldn't tune him out or string him along. It was nice to have someone that would really hear what he was saying.
"I'm nervous. I don't want to mess up or anything. It would be really cool if we won."
She put her hand on his forearm, rubbing her thumb back and forth slowly, and he felt himself stiffen and relax within the very same second from the contact.
"Finn, from what I've heard, you have this game in the bag."
She looked in his eyes as she spoke, and he knew that she meant what she said.
"As the Coach's daughter, are you, uh, required to go to all the games? Will you be there tonight?"
She laughed softly, her nose scrunching up a little bit in the process. He wasn't sure why, but he was glad to be the one to make that happen.
"Well, I'm not required to go, but since my daddy supports me in my endeavors, I feel it's my duty, as his only daughter, to support him in his own. Even if I don't know the first thing about football. So, to answer your question, I wouldn't miss it for the world, especially if I'm friends with the new quarterback." She returned to writing in her notebook for a moment, and then looked up at him again.
"I may be the Coach's daughter, but I'm a lot more than that, Finn."
She didn't have to say that for him to know it.
…
"Nice touchdown, Hudson." Mike Chang patted his back, even though it was covered in pads, as they walked into the locker room for halftime. Maybe Coach Berry knew what he was doing when he made Finn quarterback. He had scored a touchdown, the only touchdown thus far, after all. Coach Berry walked into the locker room, and every players immediately found a spot on the wooden benches.
"Good work, gentleman. The offensive could be a little stronger, but overall, not bad for the first half of our opening game this season. Keep the linemen pushed back, and we could win this. Back to the field, everyone."
Finn followed the flock of sweaty football players onto the grass and looked around, trying to capture the moment. He wasn't buckling under the pressure, at least not yet, and the Titans were winning. There were tons of people in the stands. Apparently, people in Ohio took their football pretty seriously. He couldn't find his mom at all, but he somehow managed to spot Rachel in a sea of red and white.
She was beaming.
At him.
She was with an Asian girl, as he learned earlier in the week, was Rachel's very best friend, Tina, and in her hand was a red and white pom-pom. She was shaking it wildly, and even though she claimed she didn't know anything about football, she still managed to get pretty into the game. They locked eyes, despite the people and the distance between them, and she gave him the biggest smile he'd ever seen.
He was convinced she couldn't get any more adorable than she already was.
That smile was all he needed to kick ass in the second half.
…
They did it. He did it. They won. Finn felt incredible, invincible even. (He knew he wasn't, but that was beside the point.) The quarterback of the opposing team gave him Hell, and the score was close for an extended period of time. Finn was bruised and battered; another ice bath was in his future again. But he couldn't care less.
The word of a post-game party spread quickly through the locker room. Someone named Quinn Fabray was hosting it at her house. He showered because if he was going to a party, he couldn't go drenched in sweat. Mike offered him a ride. He supposed they were sort of friends.
As the new guy, he could maybe identify one in 10 people. Mike told him anyone who was someone went to these post-game parties. There was only one anybody he wanted to find in the crowded house.
He grabbed a red solo cup brimming with beer; he needed to look cool. The quarterback needed to look cool. It's not like he was going to drink. He offered to be the DD, but he just needed something to hold, something to stop him from jittering and his body from buzzing.
Finn made his way around the room, nodding at people who said how "awesome" his two touchdowns were. In a corner, laughing with Tina and a pale guy wearing a leather pantsuit, there she was.
Putting his cup on table full of empties, he walked over to Rachel.
He didn't want to be, he refused to be, stuck in the friend zone with her. Coach's daughter or not, he didn't care anymore.
Sorry for beating around the bush with the whole football game deal, but I, like Rachel, know next to nothing about the game, so I felt like that's what I had to do.
Any and all reviews are appreciated and taken to heart.
