Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. This is my first fic, so I was pleasantly surprised by the response. This chapter is mostly about Rachel/Finn (with some Puck thrown in) and is from Rachel's perspective. I will return to Puck's point of view in the next chapter. Enjoy!

Rachel sat in an empty practice room going over some new material that Mr. Schuester had given the group earlier in the day. Every other glee member had already gone home or had hurried off to some other after-school activity. Rachel had stayed behind because she liked the quiet of the room.

While her eyes remained glued to the sheets of paper in her hand, Rachel's mind was racing with a hundred thoughts—she wondered if this song was in the right key to properly showcase her talent, she wondered what her dads might be making for dinner, she also wondered if she could get a restraining order against that nerdy reporter from the school newspaper who kept asking for a pair of her underwear.

Most of her thoughts, however, were centered on Noah Puckerman.

When Puck had initially approached her with his plan to stage a fake relationship, Rachel had only promised to think about it because she was being polite. Yet hours later, she was actually considering his proposal for real. The only word that Rachel could come up with to describe Puck's demeanor near the end of their conversation was sad. Puck had seemed kind of sad and wistful when talking about Quinn's situation.

Rachel was no stranger to unconventional family dynamics, but she wondered what was in Puck's past to make him be so affected by his best friend's pregnant girlfriend.

Rachel shuffled the papers in her hand, and some slipped out onto the floor. She sighed and bent down to retrieve them. When she started to get up, she was met with the sight of white sneakers by the door. Rachel's gaze traveled from the sneakers up to a pair of long legs clad in jeans, and then to a broad chest covered in a blue t-shirt. Rachel's neck already had a slight crick in it, and she hadn't even gotten to the person's face. She only knew of one person who was so tall.

Finn.

It was Finn standing in the doorway. He looked tired, and he had some sticky white stuff above his right eye.

Rachel tried to remain calm. She stood all the way up and placed her sheet music on her chair.

"Hello Finn."

"Hey Rachel."

"What are you doing here? I thought you had football practice."

"I did, it just finished up. I didn't feel like going home, so I thought I'd come back here and see if anybody was still rehearsing."

Rachel had a hard time listening because she was trying to discern what the sticky stuff on Finn's face was. When she couldn't figure it out, she pointed to his brow and said, "Finn, you have some kind of white stuff above your eye."

"Oh that," Finn took a swipe at his face, "I kind of dozed off in the locker room after practice, and Kurt took the opportunity to try and wax my eyebrows. Thankfully, I woke up right after he applied the wax but before he could put on the adhesive strip."

Rachel clapped her hands in front of her mouth to try and hide a giggle.

"Go ahead and laugh, it is pretty funny. When I wanted Kurt to be our kicker, the other players on the team said no way in hell did they want him to be there. Yet, when Kurt wants to practice his beauty school techniques on my face, all the team members are surprisingly supportive."

Rachel's giggle grew into a full-fledged laugh, and Finn soon joined in.

Finn stopped laughing first and said to Rachel, "You should smile more. Your smile makes you look even more beautiful."

Rachel was flattered, but she knew she shouldn't show it. Instead, she said "Finn…" in a warning tone.

"I know, I know" Finn responded. "I shouldn't say that kind of stuff. I've just been so tired lately that I don't know what's going to come out of my mouth."

"You haven't been sleeping?" Rachel asked, now concerned.

"Not really. I've got so much stuff going on that my brain won't shut off at night and let me go to sleep. These past couple weeks have felt like one giant headache."

"Do you want some Tylenol? I might have some in my bag."

Rachel picked her backpack off the floor and started searching for the small bottle of pills she usually kept in there.

Rachel found the bottle and shook out two pills. She handed them to Finn along with the bottle of water left over from her lunch.

Finn took a swig of water and swallowed the medicine.

"Thanks Rachel. You wouldn't happen to have any decongestant in there would you?"

Rachel's face got somewhat stern, like she was about to give a lecture.

"Just kidding," Finn added quickly. "I won't ever touch the stuff again."

"Neither will I."

Finn's face grimaced as he experienced a spasm of pain in his head, and Rachel couldn't help but notice.

Rachel pointed to her chair. "Here Finn, sit down." He obeyed, and she continued, "When I have a headache, it sometimes helps if I massage the pressure points on my temples…like this."

Rachel stood behind Finn and placed her fingers on both sides of his head and began to massage his temples in a slow, circular motion.

Finn closed his eyes and gave in to Rachel's ministrations. After a few minutes he said, "That feels so good Rachel. This is the best I've felt all week. I don't know how I got myself into this mess."

Rachel continued to move her fingers, but she couldn't help but question his statement, "Come on Finn, you know exactly how you got yourself into this predicament. I knew the whole celibacy club thing was a waste of time. You should have protected yourself better."

"I would have if given the chance, believe me."

There were a lot of things that bothered Rachel, but on top of her pet peeves list were people who had no sense of responsibility. Rachel remembered seeing a story on the news once about a teenage boy who had gotten his fingers blown off after lighting a bottle rocket. The kid had genuinely seemed surprised that such a dangerous outcome was even possible—he had lit the rocket because he just wanted to have some fun.

If Finn had been more careful with his "rocket," then he could be having safe and well-protected fun with Rachel, but no, he had been thoughtless, and now they could never be together…

"Ow Rachel," Finn howled, "You're rubbing a little too hard."

"Was I?" Rachel asked innocently as she went back to a more gentle touch. Rachel had to get one more thing off her chest.

"What do you mean you would have been more careful if given a chance? How hard is it to carry some latex wrapped in foil in your wallet like almost every other guy in this school?"

Finn shifted in the chair, now uncomfortable. He started to mumble, and Rachel could only hear small snatches of words like, "safe distance…hot tub…ninja turtle swim trunks…happened so fast…mailman image didn't work…a sudden eruption…kind of ashamed…"

Rachel was pretty sure that she didn't want him to elaborate any further.

Finn opened his eyes, and Rachel moved her hands away from his head and dropped them down at her sides.

"Is your headache gone?" she asked.

"Yeah I think it is. You are amazing."

Finn stood up and faced Rachel. They both stood in awkward silence for a moment before Finn decided to break the tension.

"Look Rachel, I know that I made a mistake. I also know that this mistake is costing you too. I'm sorry. If I could change things, I would, but I can't."

"I know Finn." Rachel knew there was nothing else to say. She gathered her belongings and stuffed her sheet music in her backpack.

"I should get going."

"I'll walk you out. Hey, now that my headaches gone do you want to go out and get a pizza. You know, as friends."

Rachel shook her head in disbelief. Apparently, Finn really didn't get it. He still wanted to have it both ways, Quinn as a girlfriend and Rachel as a friend on the side who he could flirt with and compliment and make feel special…She had to put a stop to this right now.

"Sorry Finn, but I can't. I have plans tonight."

Finn's face fell as he said, "Who do you have plans with?"

"It doesn't matter," Rachel answered as she walked to the door

"It does to me."

"Well it shouldn't." Rachel walked out and left a very confused Finn standing alone in the middle of the room.

*******

Rachel sat on her bed contemplating the phone that was in her hands. After talking with Finn, Rachel could see that Puck did have a reason to be concerned. Rachel wanted to help Finn make up his mind, but she wasn't sure she could pretend to be Noah Puckerman's girlfriend. What would that really entail? Smoking? Perhaps. Drinking? Maybe. Committing Criminal Acts? More than likely.

Rachel looked up at the Cabaret poster on her wall and thought—what would Liza Minnelli do in this situation?

She would put on a fabulous costume and get out there and perform, that's what she'd do.

"This will be my best and most challenging role ever," Rachel whispered to her bedroom walls.

With confident fingers, she dialed the number that she had looked up earlier on the Internet. After three rings, someone with a gruff voice picked up.

"What?" the voice said.

"Is this Puck?" Rachel asked now feeling a little nervous.

"Yes, who's this?"

"It's Rachel, Rachel Berry."

There was silence on the other end.

For a second, Rachel panicked and thought that she must have made up their conversation in her head.

She tried again. "You know, Rachel from school and glee club…"

Puck had been napping, and Rachel's high-pitched voice had damn near busted his eardrum when he answered the phone. Holding his cell a few inches from his ear, Puck finally answered, "I know who you are Rachel. How did you get my number?"

"Well, I googled you."

Puck suppressed an outward laugh, but a smirk crept onto his face.

"How was it for you?" Puck asked.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"Never mind. Why are you calling?"

"Well, I have decided to acquiesce to your wishes and embark on a fictional relationship in the hopes of easing Finn's mind and salvaging your friendship."

"Really?" Puck couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. He had hoped she would agree but wasn't counting on her acceptance so quickly.

Lowering his tone, Puck responded. "I mean, whatever, you know, that's cool."

"Okay. So when do you want to get together and discuss our plan of action?"

"Rachel, we don't need a plan of action. We just have to hang out together, and the dumb, gossip-whores at our school will take care of the rest. Before too long, Finn should confront either one or both of us."

"But what's my motivation? I need to have some lines memorized for any eventuality, like what to say to your friends or the other glee members if they ask about us. People are going to want to know how this came to be. You should also know up front that I have some ground rules about physical contact…"

"Listen Berry," Puck cut her off, "Meet me in the parking lot at school early tomorrow morning and we can talk about it then."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Have a pleasant evening."

"G'night. Sweet dreams…" of me, Puck added silently in his mind.

He hung up the phone and leaned back on the bed with his arms crossed behind his head. Puck had to admit that he was a little excited about tomorrow. He could almost picture the look of shock that would be on Quinn and Finn's faces when they saw him walking around school, arm-in-arm, with Rachel Berry.

"Yup," Puck thought, "Tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting. Let the fireworks begin."