Chapter 2: Of Graduations and Altercations

"Now, let's hear it for McKinley High School's Class of 2012!" Principal Figgins spoke into the microphone on the center of the big stage. The crowd, graduates and families alike, clapped and cheered. Caps were thrown as the right of passage for the students.

After the ceremony the graduates and families were strewn about in the gymnasium taking pictures, hugging it out, making promises most would probably never keep. One of those families taking pictures was the Pierce family.

"Okay, honey, stand by the plaques over there. Pierce, stand closer to your daughter and please for God's sake look formal." Whitney Pierce begged her husband, trying to get her him to take a decent photo that they could put in the album.

"Okay, daddy, let's get a silly one!" Mrs. Pierce just sighed, but clicking the picture anyway as her daughter and husband both made funny faces at the camera. She may look more like her, but Brittany was definitely her father's child.

"Honey, isn't that Rachel? Gods, I haven't seen her in forever. Think we could get her to take a picture?" Brittany's father asked, not really waiting for an answer.

"Rachel, honey, you think you could take a picture with our Britts? For old times sake?" Pierce Pierce asked a he approached Rachel and her dads who were taking her pictures by the window.

"Uhm, I -" Rachel looked at Brittany who had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Come on, baby girl. We'll take some pictures too!" Hiram Berry said as he ushered his daughter to where the Pierce family was taking pictures.

"Okay, girls. Ready, one, two, three! Say cheese!"

"Wait, what kind of cheese?"

The image was captured. Rachel with her arm around Brittany bent over in laughter. Brittany on the other hand had a confused look on her face. They took a few more takes without the aforementioned dairy incident.


"Mija!" Maribel Lopez stood outside of her daughter's door. There was no answer. So, she yelled again, banging on the door. Still nothing.

"Santana!" Silence. Maribel had enough. She opened the door.

"Mija, you have a friend at th- Que horror! Que pasando?!" Santana broke apart from Puck.

"Ma, Jesus! Intimidad, por favor!" Santana had absolutely no shame in being caught half-naked. What she did have a problem with was her mack getting interrupted. She was a girl and she had needs. Maribel was now focusing her eyes at the far corner of her daughter's room, not looking at her shirtless baby girl or the equally shirtless boy below her.

"Que necesitas, Ma?" Santana asked her mom, climbing off of Puck and putting her shirt on. She didn't want her mother to have an aneurysm. Now, that would really put a damper on her mack time.

"Your friends are outside. By your arbol especial." Maribel finally made eye contact with her daughter.

"Friends. What friends?" Santana asked. She really didn't have any friends. Yes, she was part of Skank group in high school, but they weren't the type of friends to come to your house and hang out. She wouldn't really consider any of them real friends anyway. They were just there to bitch to each other, rile each other up and support them when they got into fights. Her only friend, if you could call him that, was Puck. And he was here in her bed.

"What friends, Ma?" She just wanted her mom to go so she could get back to fucking Puck so he could leave her alone. There was only so much of him she could take if his lips weren't locked with hers.

"Rachel, Brittany, Finn and Quinn, mija." Maribel looked at her daughter like she was supposed to know why they all showed up out of the blue. Honestly, Santana didn't have a clue. She hadn't spoken to any of them in years. Well, okay, she had spoken to them if you count intimidating and insulting Rachel, mocking Finn, whispering about Brittany when she walked by, and getting into screaming matches with Quinn speaking.

"What?!" Santana flew off of her bed and to her bedroom window. What her mother said was true. There they were, all fucking four of them. She didn't know why they were here, but she was sure as hell about to find out.


Two Hours Earlier

Rachel didn't know what to do now. She felt as if she was in limbo. No longer a student, but not quite an adult yet. She was currently laying on her bed with her head hanging off the end. She had graduated. The feeling of pride had left her hours ago. She sighed, she was now a high school graduate and she was going to spend her summer before college the same as she did the last four years. Doing nothing but hanging out at her house, posting her weekly song cover video onto her YouTube account. Speaking of, it was time to do this week's video. For once, she didn't look forward to it. Which of course felt odd, but then again she felt odd.

After she recorded her lackluster version of 'Confident' by Demi Lovato, she pulled her camera and computer to the head of her bed. She plugged it in and with a few muscle-memorized clicks she was uploading her video to her account.

She looked at her alarm clock, 7:56. It wasn't even eight o'clock and she had nothing to do. Having nothing to read for a class, no essay to write, and no test to prep for felt great, but that meant she had nothing to do. She was bored. No, boredom was an understatement. She was beside herself with ennui. Seeing as she had nothing left to do tonight, Rachel decided to get her night routine completed early and probably go to bed early too. That would make it easier to get up at her usual time to do her morning workout routine which she would not slack on. As it was the only thing she had left of her old schedule.

Bah-ding. Her laptop lit up ten minutes after she crawled into bed. It didn't really wake her up though, for that to happen she would have had to be asleep. Shifting a little, she brought and arm out from her blanket to poke in her password. It was a Facebook message.

[Finn Hudson: Hey, Rachel. It's Finn.] Rachel sighed, shaking her head, but answering the boy nonetheless.

[Yes, I know, Finn. It says it at the top of the Messenger]

[What's up?]

[Finn Hudson: Oh, right, sorry. Have you heard from Brittany?] Rachel's brows furrowed.

[I haven't heard from her since earlier today at graduation. Why?]

[She said she was going to text you, like an hour ago. It's about the capsule.] Okay, now Rachel really had no idea what the boy was talking about. But she did remember hearing her phone go off earlier. She didn't bother getting out of bed to get it because she thought it was an app alert, not a text message. Frankly, because the only people to text her were asleep in the next room. She untangled herself from the covers and went to get the phone, curiosity peaked. Swiping open her phone, she did in fact have quite a few new messages from an unsaved number.

9:32PM {Hey, Rach. It's Brittany Bitch. Lol]

9:35PM {Sorry, anywho! Lord Tubbington just reminded me, today's the day we need to dig up our time capsule.}

9:41PM {Finn and I are gonna go dig it up! Wanna go? I figured it'd be nice seeing it's your stuff in it too.}

9:47PM {Rachel?}

9:53PM {Okay, welp. Me and Finn will be heading out in 20 mins. Txt back if you wanna come.}

9:55PM {BTW please don't tell Santana or Quinn, not that you have their #s , I just want my CD back. It's totally a collectible.}

Rachel hopped back to her bed and her conversation with Finn, who had sent her a message.

[Finn Hudson: Rachel?]

[Is it too late to join you and Brittany?] She hoped it wasn't. She was already changing into something a bit more suitable for the world outside of her bedroom. She didn't think silk booty shorts and tanktop would be sufficient in their endeavor.

[Finn Hudson: Nah. :) We hoped you'd change your mind.]

[Awesome. Thanks, Finn. How long should you be?]

[Finn Hudson: We're outside.] Rachel closed her laptop and stuffed her phone into the pocket of her sweats. She slipped on her tennis shoes, grabbed her keys from the hook and out the door she went.

"Hi, Rachel!" Brittany greeted when Rachel entered the backseat.

"Hey, Brittany. Hey, Finn."

"Hey, Rach." Finn shot her a smile as he back out of her driveway.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Suddenly nervous now that she had time to think about what they were truly going to do.

"We're gonna go to Santana's house, go out back and dig up the capsule. I'm not a total douchebag. I'm not going to like take all of the money. I just want my forty and my dad's tags. We can even leave the box there for the bitch to find and have it on her conscience what she does with the rest of it."

"Finn!" Rachel scolded the sulky boy. She noticed how Brittany demeanor changed with how Finn addressed Santana, her ex BFF.

"I'm sorry, Rachel, Brittany," He looked over to the blonde appearing that what he said to be sincere. "But she changed. And definitely not for the better."

"We all have changed." Rachel said thinking about another person who had negatively changed. For the rest of the ride, they were all silent. That changed as soon as they turned into Santana's driveway.

"Guys, I don't think we should do this." Rachel spoke up as the car came to a stop.

"Why not?" Brittany piped up, turning around in her seat to pout at Rachel.

"What if we get caught for trespassing, because that is what we're doing, and get taken to jail? I can't have anything on my record. I just barely made it into NYADA." Finn just laughed.

"We're not gonna get caught, Rachel." Rachel looked at him hesitantly.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because, Brittany," He motioned for Brittany to remove the blanket from beside Rachel. "We have all of the tricks of the trade to fade into the night."

"Like what?"

"I got shovels, black hoodies, low light flashlights, and the best of all- ski masks!" Rachel's eyes widened at all of the incriminating evidence that was sitting beside her. Finn got out the car, helping Brittany out as he came around to the back. He started grabbing some things for himself and handing some to Brittany. They both put on the black hoodies, grabbed flashlights and shovels.

"You coming with us, Rach?" Brittany asked after she and Finn were good to go. Rachel sighed. She could either go with them and try and defuse any sticky situation they got into or stay in the car, knowing nothing of what was happening and be charged as an accomplice in whatever they got themselves into. She got out of the car.

"Here you go, Rachel." Finn tried to hand her sweatshirt and mask. She shook her head.

"I think I'll just take the flashlight." Finn just shrugged his shoulders and tossed them back into his car.

"So, do either of you recall where we buried it?" Rachel asked as they started walking toward the woods out back of Santana's house.

"Behind Santana's special tree." Finn answered.

"Arbol especial." Brittany commented.

"That's what I said." Finn dismissed. Brittany just shook her head, looking sad. But as soon as it was there, the emotion was gone and replaced with her normal happy self.

"So, it should be right about- here!" Finn shined his flashlight at the purple-leafed tree. He walked closer and shined his flashlight around.

"AH!" Finn jumped as his light caught a figure in the dark.

"AH!" Rachel and Brittany jumped, more from Finn's sudden loud sound than the person sitting on a stump near the tree.

"Quinn?"

"Well it took you guys long enough." Finn glowered at her.

"What are you doing here, Quinn?" Rachel asked not entirely unpleasant, but at the same time not her nicest tone. Quinn rose from the stump, dusting the back of her jeans off.

"You guys didn't think I was just going to take my money and my gram's pearls, did you?"

"We weren't going to take anything but what belonged to us." Finn spoke up annoyed. Quinn just rolled her eyes.

"If you've been here so long, why didn't you dig it up?"

"Does it look like I have a shovel?" Flashlights were shone around Quinn. No shovel.

"I thought you guys would have been here already digging it up. I can't just dig it up with my bare hands."

"I thought that's what dogs were best at, though?" Finn mumbled. Not two seconds later was Quinn's hands were on either side of his hoodie, pulling him closer to her.

"Listen here, Hudson, I kicked your ass years ago and I can do it again. Just dig that shit up and give my the pearls and I'll be on my way. 'Kay?" She shoved him away from her.


Present

"Still getting beat up by girls half your size, Hudson?" Everyone's eyes left Quinn and Finn, settling on the new arrivals. It was Santana Lopez and Noah Puckerman.

"Santana." Finn addressed the latina.

"When my moms told me you guys were out back, I didn't believe her. But low and behold, you idiots really are here." Santana turned to Puck, smirking. "I'm going to have fun with this." She said, starting to take out her earrings.

"We're not here for any trouble." Finn stood in between Rachel and Santana, stopping the intense lock and keep glare the Skank had with her.

"Well too bad. That's what you're gonna get. Now who wants to be first?" Santana asked looking around as Puck came to her side, ready to help when told.

"STOP!" All of a sudden, Brittney's shrill voice broke the tension like a glass bottle. She looked at Santana directly.

"Please, 'Tana." She demanded softer than last time. Santana stepped back, glaring a bit.

"Don't call me that." She gritted out.

"We just want what is ours and then we'll leave." Brittany explained gently.

"I don't got anything that belongs to any of you."

"Oh, yeah, what about the time capsule?" Finn broke in. Santana's face shown of surprise. She really, really didn't want to deal with the people today. She technically didn't have to. All she had to do is demand they leave and if they didn't she'd call the police and get them arrested. But there was something that was stopping her. Something that she wouldn't bring up even in her mind at this time. Nope, not until she had a trusty bottle of whiskey by her side would she touch that something with a ten foot pole.

"Fine, whatever. But you won't find anything over here." Finn stalked toward Santana, being brought to a stop by a hard clip to the shoulder by Puck. The ex-friends bore daggers into each other.

"You won't find it here because the arbol especial that we buried it under is over there." She glanced a few feet away where an exact replica of the tree they were standing in front of stood. Rachel and Brittany's eyes widened, the latter of which sent Santana a sad, questioning glance. Santana broke the contact as soon as it happened, moving toward the other tree.