A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. Sorry this took so long, I promise the next one will be along soon.


"How does it look T?" Santana yelled from inside the large cubicle that she and Brittany had commandeered together.

'T?' Tina mouthed at Rachel, who was sitting on a plush red sofa by the wall of mirrors in the dressing room. Rachel shrugged in response, not at all shocked that the 'now-comes-in- friendly' cheerleader had apparently also adopted the quiet Asian girl into her fold. Tina tugged at the hemline of the black dress turned to look over her shoulder into the mirror to get a view of the back.

"It's too short!" She called.

The curtains pulled back dramatically to reveal a scowling pair of girls.

"Tina Cohen-Chang that dress is not too short!" Santana demanded, pulling Tina's arms from attempting to cover as much skin as possible by encircling her chest. "Artie is going to cream himself, you look hot girl! And still totally yourself."

"I'd do you." Brittany shrugged, as if that were the highest of all compliments.

Tina flushed bright red, and grudgingly admitted that the black dress with lace detailing and corset top was totally in her style. "OK, but I'm wearing it with boots."

With that she stomped back into the changing cubicle to get changed, shouting back a weary "Fine!" to the other three girls' demands that the boots must at least have high heels instead of the biker boots Tina frequently wore.

Brittany sorted through the clothes she'd tried on into a large pile of what she was buying, and a couple of items that she was putting back. Santana's 'buy' pile was more conservative in comparison, and Rachel had only tried on one pair of skin tight jeans that Santana has forced her to pick up. She had to admit (silently) that they fitted her perfectly, and that she had to have them.

"So what's the big deal about this date?" Rachel asked as Tina came out in her regular clothes, clutching the little black dress with both hands, "I mean, you and Artie have been out plenty of times before. You seem really nervous."

Tina blushed again, cursing the fact that she'd owned up about the fake stutter as this was something that she didn't want to explain, and a speech impediment may just have saved her.

"Well Artie can't drive, obviously, and I only turned sixteen in August, so I only just got a car last week. Up until now one of our parents had to drive us everywhere, so we never got privacy to end a date with anything more than a peck on the lips."

"Whoo Tina's gonna get some loving!" Santana whooped as Brittany and Rachel catcalled and wolf-whistled.

"Shut up guys!" Tina laughed. She was relieved that none of them had mocked her for being nervous, or been like Mercedes and suggested they just make-out in front of Artie's dad. Ew. "It's not like that. We've only been on like 6 dates. It just might be nice to get a little privacy."

"So you can make Lurve!" Brittany drawled seductively.

"NO!" Tina shouted. "So we can make out!" she burst out laughing at how ludicrous the conversation was. "OK, can we go and pay now please?"

The other girls laughed and followed her to the checkout. After leaving the store with their shopping objective complete, they decided to call it a day and voted on where to eat, unanimously deciding to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. Tina was shocked, but extremely pleased at how nice Santana and Brittany were being toward her and Rachel. The tiny sliver of doubt she had been feeling in the Glee meeting regarding the honesty of their niceness dissolved completely by the time she ate her third slice of pizza.

*GLEE*

By the time Rachel got home from dinner it was 8:30, and her stomach was hurting from laughing so much. Brittany's random stories about her cat had had her alternating between fighting for breath and choking on her salad throughout dinner. Explaining to her dads why she was in a cheerleader uniform was more complicated than she thought, and after a decent amount of banter regarding her losing all her brain cells when she put on the spanky-pants, she left the two of them in the living room and headed to her room.

As she pulled out her math textbook to begin her homework – seriously, how cruel must a teacher be to give homework on the first day back -, Rachel realised what she had forgotten, yet again. Finn!

Grabbing her phone from the bottom of her purse, she scrolled through her contacts rapidly, nearly missing the name Finn with the little heart next to it in her haste. Her stomach twisted with nervousness at how this conversation would go. A large part of her wished for Finn to tell her that he loves her again, they promise to be together forever, and they would run into each other's arms in slow motion tomorrow at school. The more sensible part of her knew that that was ridiculous, and that even if Finn told her that he felt the same as he did before the summer, it might not necessarily be true.

"Hello?" Finn finally answered.

"Finn! I am so sorry to call so late, I've not long been in from the shopping trip with the girls." She hurried out apologetically.

"No problem Rachel. So, how are you? I didn't really get a chance to talk to you today." He asked.

"I'm fine. A little overwhelmed perhaps, but I would imagine that that is to be expected with a change such as joining the Cheerios." She told him, grinning to herself as she looked down at the crisp white and red uniform that she still had on. I so don't want to take this off. Ever. Well, maybe to sleep in, that would be incredibly unhygienic.

"Yeah, what's up with that? I didn't peg you as the cheerleader type." Finn asked curiously. Rachel's back straightened as she immediately jumped on the defensive.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked frostily. Did Finn think she wasn't popular or pretty enough to be a Cheerio? I mean, yes, she was no Quinn Fabray, but she had honestly felt like she had fitted in with Santana and Brittany all day.

"Nothing!" he spluttered hastily at the harsh tone Rachel had adopted, "just that you never showed any interest in it before, and you weren't friends with any of them. Hell, I never even saw you at any of the football games last year."

"Just because you didn't see me doesn't mean that I wasn't there Finn," She said morosely, her mind drifting back to days of going to games alone and sitting, invisible, in the back row of the bleachers. Well not anymore, from now on I'm going to be front and centre on the pitch, cheering and dancing. "I happen to love football and basketball; it's almost unavoidable in a house with two dads."

"Right, OK. I hope it all works out for you." He said

"Thanks Finn. Anyway the reason I wanted to talk to you was to determine our status as a couple, as I think that we left it extremely undefined before the summer. I'm proposing that we start over completely as friends and see where it leads us. It's been three months since we spent any time together and I feel it would be silly for us to expect to just carry on as if no time had passed. Do you agree?" She asked, the nervousness she had been feeling waning slightly as she finished her speech.

"But I still want to be with you." Finn said, and Rachel's heart soared at his words.

"And I still have feelings for you," she replied "but both of our situations have changed since then, and what with football and Cheerio practice, we may find that we just don't have time for each other, and I would rather us be friends than exes who can't stand to be around each other." 'Like you and Quinn were last year.' She thought.

"I guess that makes sense. But if we do, you know, have time for each other and all that, can we date again?" he asked hopefully.

"Absolutely." She said firmly. She definitely wanted to date Finn again; after all she had been pining after him for almost the entirety of the previous school year.

Their conversation ended quite soon after that, as Rachel explained that she still had homework to do. Throughout working on the problems that the evil teacher had assigned as homework she kept glancing at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the opposite wall from her bed and grinning at the sight. Seriously love the uniform.

*GLEE*

Lunch period the next day, and Rachel found herself stood on the bleachers in the gym, watching a stream of girls and boys come through the doors: Cheerio Pick. She was stood with Brittany and Santana, four rows up from the floor, consequentially literally looking down on the hopeful students. A small, sick part of Rachel's mind enjoyed her new position and status as she towered over her nervous and excited peers. She saw Quinn stood at one side of the group with Kurt and Mercedes.

"Are those two trying out again?" Rachel whispered to Santana, jerking her head in their direction. Santana nodded in response, struggling to keep a straight face.

A large bang from the side of the room caused all of the occupants to jump and stand up straighter when they saw Sue Sylvester march through the double doors with a clipboard in her hand. She stood directly in front of the three girls on the bleachers and glared down at the gathered students below. 'No doubt searching for signs of weakness' Rachel thought, remembering her confrontation with the coach in the choir room yesterday.

"OK, listen up, this is going to be fast. You eight boys over there, you're in. Hummel, you're out. All seniors who are returning are in, Lindsay Taylor is the only auditioning senior in, the rest of you are out." Sue took a deep breath before continuing. "Juniors: Santana, Brittany, Rachel, obvious. All other returning Juniors apart from Mercedes Jones and Natalie Livingston are in. Despite all common sense and decency, Q, you're back in too. Sophomores, all back in, no new ones. Freshmen: Richards, Smith, Geller, Suarez, Davies, McAndrew. Don't let me down. More will be added after homecoming when I have the time to beat you into shape."

Sue threw the clipboard down at her feet and placed her hands on her hips. "If you're out, what are you still doing here? I don't want to look at your hopelessness." All the rejected teenagers left the gym quickly, apart from Mercedes and Kurt who hurried over to the coach.

"Coach Sylvester," Kurt began, "As an integral part of last year's Nationals winning team, I feel that I deserve a place on this squad."

"Hummel, you were a novelty, and novelties don't last. I never repeat a hook, and therefore will not be using a singer again. So unless you can prove to me that you can lift a Cheerio over your head with perfect form, and Mercedes can perform a back hand spring, then neither of you have a reason to be here." Sue replied icily.

"But you let Rachel in!" Kurt spluttered. He reached a hand up to check that his hair hadn't been disrupted by his outburst.

Sue didn't miss a beat. "I invited Rachel to join as a dancer and gymnast, not a singer. She has proved her ability to perform each stunt required as a basic Cheerio, and several advanced moves. Now get out of my gym."

Kurt and Mercedes looked at each other before turning away and walking slowly out of the room.

Sue spent the rest of the lunch period handing out uniform packs to the squad whilst issuing a list of expectations and rules, including weekly weigh-ins and monthly fitness tests.

"For some obscene reason, Figgins is demanding that the Cheerios continue to appear and perform at the extremely low-standard athletic events that this school hosts." Sue spat in a quietly malevolent voice, her disgust blatant. "Therefore there will be a Saturday practice at nine AM, and every day after school next week in preparation for the farce that is the pep-rally and opening game on Friday. I refuse to allow my squad to slip to the standard of the team you are supposed to be cheering for."

Every day? Rachel realised that she wouldn't be able to attend the two after-school Glee rehearsals next week. She looked over at the two girls next to her who both shrugged lightly when they caught her gaze. Guess there is no way of getting out of it. She hoped that Mr Schuester would understand.

"One last thing," Sue continued, "Figgins has decided that the Cheerios are too 'inaccessible' and that you uniforms cause a rift between you and the rest of the population of this school. While he is completely missing the fact that your uniforms are intended to separate you from the weak minded and bodied swarm of acne that walk the corridors, the decision has been made that you must all wear regular clothing for one day a week. I have chosen Tuesdays."

No! Rachel thought to herself. She had quickly fallen in love with her uniform, and was not prepared to go back to regular clothing. Her uniform was practically a Slushie repellent, and she dreaded the following Tuesday without it already.

After school Rachel took it upon herself to inform Mr Schue that the Cheerio third of the club would be unable to attend Glee practices next week. Maybe Tina would get the female lead, she thought, and was shocked at herself when she wasn't more upset at the hypothetical situation.

Mr Schuester was in the choir room when Rachel entered, sorting through stacks of sheet music and books, and he looked up with a smile when he heard the door click behind her.

"Hey Rachel, what's up?" he asked, noting the worried expression on her face.

"Mr Schue, I'm terribly sorry but Coach Sylvester has called for after school practices every day next week to prepare for the first game, so Santana, Brittany, Quinn and myself will be unable to attend Glee rehearsals. I wish that we could skip, but it seemed pretty clear that they were mandatory." She said.

The teacher smiled gently "Don't beat yourself up Rachel, Sue and Ken both told me last year that they increase practices near games or competitions, just like we do in the run-up to Sectionals or Regionals. I'll just cancel rehearsals next week, it would be pointless with four missing."

Rachel smiled in relief at her coach's understanding of her dilemma, she abhorred letting people down.

The door slammed open with a loud bang, and both Rachel and Will were startled by the sound as Puck swaggered into the room.

"Hola, Señior Schue!" he announced, as the two previous occupants of the room rolled their eyes at his horrific pronunciation. "Tanaka's going crazy about our game record last year, and is making us practice every day next week, so the five of are out of Glee until after next week." Unlike Rachel, Puck showed no confliction or remorse about his proclamation, knowing that he was just following orders from the scarier of his two coaches, and therefore didn't really have an option.

"Five?" Mr Schue asked, mentally counting the footballers in his head.

"Me, Hudson, Chang, Rutherford and Hummel" He said, shaking his head. "He came running back asking to be kicker about three minutes after he was rejected from the Cheerios."

"Right, well that only leaves three members available next week," Mr Schue laughed, "Definitely not worth holding a rehearsal."

Rachel left the choir room feeling much better than when she went in, with Puck following closely behind her as she walked out of the school and toward her car.

"So, you talk to Finn last night?" He asked her casually.

"Yes." She replied, "We decided to start from scratch, without all of the drama of last year"

"That sucks, I thought you two were all mad for each other. Glee Golden Couple, and all that" he said as they approached her car.

"I'm not sure" She said quietly, "That might not have been a realistic plan. We're going to see how it turns out"

"Sounds... sensible."

"I know you didn't mean that as a compliment, but I'm going to pretend that you did." She smiled at Puck. "I'll see you on Monday". She climbed into her car and started the engine before Puck could respond and contradict her statement.

*GLEE*

At eight AM the next morning, Saturday, Steve Berry opened the front door of his house to find two teenage girls on his porch in red and white cheerleading uniforms.

"Hi Mr Berry!" The perky blonde said and she bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. "I'm Brittany, and this is Santana" she pointed at the Latina stood calmly next to her "We're here to pick up Rachel for practice!" She smiled sweetly at him, and Steve had a strong suspicion that she had never been denied anything that she'd wanted in life.

"Sure girls, her room is upstairs, second door on the left" he pointed to the stairs behind him, "She should be almost ready".

The girls skipped past him and up the stairs, calling their thanks over their shoulders on the way. Steve shook his head at the confidence of the two girls, and smiled when he thought of Rachel having girl friends for the first time in years.

Rachel was tying the last bow in the ribbon in her hair when the door to her bedroom flew open without as much as a knock. Brittany and Santana ran over and hugged her, announcing that they were driving her to and from practice today. She barely had time to wave goodbye to her dads who were sitting on the front porch swing as she was dragged past them.

They arrived at school at 8.20, and according to Santana, it was important that they were there first. Rachel didn't mind, punctuality was something she prided herself on, and it didn't hurt to get into Sue's good books.

After dragging the equipment out of the storage room and onto the football field, they did a light warm up and then Brittany demonstrated the precise wrist movements necessary for creating the best movements in her Poms.

The rest of the girls filtered onto the pitch one by one; apparently the male cheerleaders weren't required for game performance. At the exact second that the clock clicked onto 9:00, the shrill blow of a whistle through a megaphone screeched over the pitch from where Coach Sylvester was standing on the sideline in front of what looked like the desk and chair from her office.

"Line Up!" She shouted unnecessarily through the megaphone. "Santana, teach them the game chants!" Sue took a seat behind the desk and began planning the half-time routine for Friday's game and a demonstration for the pep-rally, knowing that even if her squad laid down and took a nap, it would be more entertaining than watching the abysmal football team lose again.

For nearly two hours Santana ran through all of last season's chants and moves, occasionally calling up Brittany to help her demonstrate. The returning Cheerios looked bored at being taught what they already knew, and the new recruits were picking it up quickly.

"Mediocre!" Sue's voice rang out, "Twenty minute break, try to find your talent!"

Rachel retrieved three water bottles from one of the coolers they had brought out before practice, and tossed two to Brittany and Santana who took a large swig and reclined on the grass. Two other girls jogged over and sat next to the trio.

"Hey guys!" Santana smiled at them. "This is Rachel. Rachel, this is Emily" she pointed to the petite red-head, "and Claire." She waved her hand at the lanky black girl to her left, "They're two of the good ones."

"Hi, I think you're in my History class" Rachel said to Emily, who nodded back.

The five girls chatted for a few minutes, and all the while Rachel was exceptionally aware of Quinn's watchful gaze.

"Whoo, 28!" Brittany suddenly screamed, seemingly out of nowhere. She jumped to her feet and continued screaming as Santana joined in.

"Yeah 11! Break me off a piece of that!" she blew a kiss in the direction of the changing rooms, and Rachel saw the football team running out for practice, and sure enough, Mike and Matt wearing numbers 28 and 11, respectively. All the cheerleaders suddenly perked up at the sight of the boys running toward them: hair was smoothed, skirts were hiked up an inch or two, and chests were pushed out. Rachel rolled her eyes at the hurried preening going on around her, and smiled in the direction of the Glee footballers (except Kurt).

Sue chose that exact moment to loudly call and end to their break, after only twelve minutes. "Get back to it you lazy babies!" She hollered. "Tanaka you had better keep your Neanderthals as far away from my performers as this pitch will physically allow. I can almost smell the failure from here, and I'm afraid that it is contagious."

The girls fell back into line and began repeating cheers as Santana called them. On the other side of the pitch the footballers warmed up and then began running drills. A while later Sue demanded to see each individuals' back hand-spring; a key element to two of the cheers that would be performed during the game. Rachel, Santana, Brittany, Claire, Emily, Quinn and three others passed Sue's inspection and were allowed to relax while the others were tortured until they performed five perfect ones in a row.

The five that had shared the last break together drifted over to the sideline by the boys practicing and spent their time coming up with cheers for the footballers they were friends with.

"Legs 11, that's our cry. Matty's thighs are so damn fly!". Was chanted whenever Matt ran past, accompanied by all five girls doing a sequence of high kicks. Matt flashed them a grin and double thumbs up when the other guys slapped his back.

The next one they thought up was: "Number 20, on the line, Puck is looking, mighty fine." Rachel could have sworn she saw his swagger increase and his arms flex as they hit their final pose, which just so happened to be a broken-t, which made them look like they were flexing their biceps in a classic bodybuilder pose.

They struggled to come up with anything for Finn, until they saw him get hit in the side of his helmet with a football when he wasn't paying attention. Rachel whispered her idea to the other girls, and they made sure to cheer as loud as possible to make all the players hear.

"1-2, 3-4-5, Frankenteen, look alive!"

The football players on the pitch howled with laughter and shouted heir appreciation at the five girls, who each took a dainty curtsey before sprinting back over to the rest of the girls. The entire squad cheered when the last freshman completed her required moves, allowing them all to move on to something else.

After a few more hours, Sue finally deemed them to be 'mediocre' – something that the new recruits were quick to realise was the highest attempt at praise given by their coach – and dismissed them after announcing that they would be learning stunts and the half-time routine during their after-school rehearsals.

Santana, Brittany and Rachel returned all of the equipment to its place, and when they were finished they were greeted by Emily running over to them with her long ponytail swinging violently behind her. She skidded to a stop in front of the trio and promptly began bouncing up and down on the spot. From the corner of her eye Rachel could see Brittany bobbing along on the balls of her feet, and wondered if it was catching, and if she'd be bouncing with them soon enough.

"I'm Jason's buddy!" she yell-whispered, looking shiftily around at the rest of the squad who were loitering around. "Don't tell Tammy, she wanted him again this year. Who'd you guys ask?"

"Matt." Santana shrugged non-chalantly.

"Mike." Brittany said. "But me and San will switch back and forth."

"What are you guys on about?" Rachel asked confusedly.

"Cheer-buddies" Emily said slowly "When you partner one of the team for the season, announce them at games and pep-rallies, decorate their locker and help build their school spirit. In return they basically worship you and they almost always ask you out."

"Didn't we tell you?" Santana asked, horrified that she'd forgotten something so important for a Cheerio's social standing. God forbid Rachel end up with Azimio or Hummel.

"Quick Rach, go ask Finn before someone else does. If not, you can have Matt and I'll snag another one. You want someone you're friends with or they'll just abuse your position. She thought back to her freshman year when she'd been buddied with a random junior, and he'd tried to her to wash his car. Santana had kicked him in the balls, but she had a suspicion that Rachel was too nice.

Rachel walked over to the few guys that were still outside of the room, easily spotting Finn towering over the rest.

"Hey Finn, can I speak with you?" She asked, smiling at the tall boy's dopey smile. He honestly was too adorable. They walked a few feet from the other boys to create an illusion of privacy,

"So apparently no-one told me about the whole 'buddy' syste until just now, so I couldn't ask you before, but do you wanto be mine?" she began, "I think it would be a good way for us to spend more time together."

Finn rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Err, Quinn kind of already asked me." He mumbled, "I said yes. I mean, we were buddies last year, and I thought you wouldn't want to be mine since you didn't ask me."

Rachel felt her stomach drop. Quinn. He chose Quinn." She forced a tight smile onto her face.

"No problem." She gritted out, barely containing the anger that was bubbling under the surface. "You should go get showered." she told him, noticing that all of the other players were all in the locker room. Finn nodded and walked off.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Rachel kicked the brick wall closest to her in sheer frustration.

"Now now Berry, what did that wall ever do to you?" Puck walked out just in time to see Rachel's little hissy fit.

"Not the wall," she grunted "Finn. A brick wall was the closest substitute I could find on which to vent my frustrations." Puck laughed at the comparison. You honestly would get an identical response from both at times.

"What did Frankenteen do?" he asked. Rachel smiled weakly at the reference to her earlier cheer.

"I'm probably over reacting," she sighed, not truly believing herself, but trying to belittle the situation for Puck's benefit. "Quinn asked him to be her buddy, and he said yes."

"That sucks" Puck said. To be honest, he didn't really care but Rachel looked upset, so he thought it best to offer sympathy.

"Yeah. It will be fine though, Santana has kindly offered to buddy with someone else so that I can be with Matt. Matt's nice."

"Screw that, go with me." Puck told her.

"Seriously? Given your reputation, I presumed that you'd have had lots of propositions by now." She asked.

"I have. Seven to be precise. I just said no to all of them." He shrugged.

"Why?"

"Freshman year. I was buddies with this chick called Lisa. We made out after the home-coming game and she spent the rest of the school year stalking me to do it again, and trying to use the buddy thing as an excuse. Didn't have one last year and wasn't planning on one this year." He said "But since we've already made out, I'll trust you not to stalk me."

"I'll try to resist" Rachel retorted drily.

Puck chuckled. "I gotta get to work. See you Monday, Buddy."

Rachel rejoined Brittany, Santana and Emily at the other end of the field.

"So how did it go?" Brittany asked.

"Looks like I'm buddies with Noah." Rachel said. The more she thought about it, being buddies with Puck might actually be fun.

"Puck, but what about Finn?" Santana asked.

"Quinn got to him first." Rachel replied.

"That conniving little snake." Santana spat. "This proves my theory: she's going after Finn. She either still loves him, or she thinks that dating the quarterback will get her status back again. Anyway, you're dating Finn, aren't you? So buddies isn't important."

"Well we're not actually dating..." Rachel gave the girls a brief rundown of the situation, gaining a bucket-load of respect from the two who knew the history, for not throwing herself at him when he wanted her.

Rachel heard the opening lines of 'Don't Stop Believing' coming from her cell phone somewhere within the massive pile of bags on the sidelines, and enlisted the three girls with her to help rummage for it. She flipped her phone open just before it sent the call to voice mail.

"Hello?" she hadn't had time to check the call ID.

"Hi Rachel." It was Finn. "I didn't know if you'd left yet, I'm going to be here for a while yet." Rachel wondered if he had gotten Mineral Ice in his eye again. "Are you free tonight?"

"Tonight? Sure." Rachel smiled. Maybe he hadn't chosen Quinn after all.

"Great, I'll pick you up at seven?" he asked.

"Sure, sounds great. I'll see you then." She hung up and turned to the girls. "So I have a date with Finn tonight."

Brittany gave a rapid round of applause, squealed "MAKEOVER!" and nearly dislocated Rachel's shoulder as she dragged her to the car.


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