Favors Part 3:

There's a moment you know,

you're fucked.

Not an inch more room,

to self destru-

"Ugh!" A small hand shot up from the mess of covers, shutting the alarm off. A weary Rachel Berry came shortly after, grudgingly opening her eyes and surveying her room with heavy-lidded eyes. She ran a lazy hand through her hair and spied her elliptical in the corner.

"I don't wanna excersise," she whined to the silence, "What the fuck is wrong with me?"

Over the past two days, Rachel had spiraled into a deep, angry funk. She was not herself. Why did stupid Finn make her do that anyway? Now she had a date with the head cheerleader and she had no idea what to do. She didn't even really like Quinn. Okay, she's super hot and smart and athletic and goal-oriented and good at singing and great at danc-

Yeah. Rachel definitely didn't like her at all.

"Shiiiiiiit," she dragged out. Now she (sort of!) had a crush on her date!

She'd given up trying to filter her mouth; it was too much effort- all throughout the day Monday after she'd asked Quinn out, she'd been cursing up a storm.

Kurt smiled as he spotted Rachel fumbling with her locker a little ways down the hall. He shook his head fondly to himself; he'd sat through more than a few of Rachel's histrionic rants about her 'locker ghost'.

During one such rant, she'd insisted that it was the ghost of Gwen Verdon haunting her because she felt 'in the wake of the the revolutionary and inevitable modern Golden Age of Broadway I will undoubtedly bring about in the future, Ms. Verdon fears that she will be overshadowed ,or worse, forgotten. I can assure you, Kurt, that, even in the face of my extraordinary talent, the notion of her being forgotten is absurd. Still, she insists on sabotaging me...'.

When Kurt reached her, he was standing slightly behind her and at an angle that did not allow her to see him. She was grumbling to herself and furiously twisting the dial of the lock. He reached out to tap her shoulder and greet her, but just as his hand approached her shoulder, he caught a snippet of what she was saying.

"Goddamned ghost! You think you're better than me? Well you fucking aren't! I don't care if you're Gwen Verdon,Andrea McDonald, George Bush, or fucking Spiderman! You're not the one who has to either grow some lady balls and tell your best friend his jackass plan backfired or leave yourself to stew in this shitty feeling that you stole his damn girlfriend! Who, by the way had a secret fucking crush on you and didn't think to fucking tell you! So tell me, you piece-of-crap poltergeist, what the hell would you do? And if you can't answer, why don't you just fucking leave me alone!"

Kurt's hand lay frozen in the air as the girl continued to rant and bang on her locker. His eyes were locked onto the back of her head, his mind trying to figure out what was going on. He had never heard Rachel use that kind of language- hell, never heard anyone curse that much in so little time, excepting the time he'd been forced into a 'glee boys' sleepover and they'd vetoed his movie choice in favor of Tenacious D. He shuddered. He briefly tuned back into Rachel, but all he heard now was a string of expletives and insults aimed at a certain web-slinging superhero.

With wide, scared eyes, the boy slowly retracted his hand and cautiously backed away, never severing his gaze from the little brunette in the middle of the hall who possibly needed anger management classes.

She was scary as hell.

She'd opted to skip her workout for the morning and treat herself to a sit-down breakfast. As she carefully measured out the correct amount of protein powder to put in her shake, Rachel reflected on how awkward glee had been the day before.

"What's up with Rachel?" Artie leaned over and whispered to Mercedes on his left. She glanced at the diva, who was standing by the piano and had just ripped her sheet music in half on accident- well, they all hoped it was an accident; if Rachel ripped her sheet music, they knew stuff was going down. She looked back at Artie and shrugged.

He turned around and repeated the question for Kurt, who paled a little and said, "I have no idea, but I think she's been posessed by a sailor."

"Hey guys! I don't know about you but I'm pumped for Sectionals! I can't wait to start rehearsing!" Finn strode in with no small amount of pep in his step, taking a seat in the front row and bouncing his knee, excitedly grinning at everyone. He was the last kid to arrive.

"Is he on Vitamin D again?" Tina mumbled to Mike, who shrugged and tapped Finn on the shoulder.

"Are you on Vitamin D again?"

Finn shook his head, still grinning, "Nope, I'm just in a fantabulous mood!"

Quinn sat in the back corner, a few seats away from Sam, who was reading Men's Fitness. No one seemed to pay any mind to her today and the way she didn't bother to rein in her staring at Rachel. Santana and Brittany were suspiciously absent.

The room fell silent for a moment, everyone either lost in their own heads or trying to decipher what the hell was going on in Finn's and Rachel's.

"I know exactly what's going on here, babe." Puck said quietly to Lauren next to him, munching on a Reese's Pieces. She paused her chewing and raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Obviously, they switched bodies," He smirked, proud of his logic. Lauren siply patted his knee and carried on.

Just then Mr. Schue pushed open the door, clapping his hands as he took his place in the center of the room, "Hey guys! Now I don't know about you but I'm pumped for Sectionals! I can't wait to start rehearsing what we've come up with!"

Finn jumped from his chair and pulled Rachel to him, dragging her to the center as well. She looked murderous, although her gaze was focused on no one in particular. Finn threw one arm around the girl and the other around his teacher.

Everyone stared awkwardly at the trio standing in front of them, two wearing matching grins and one wearing a scowl that rivaled Sue Sylvester herself.

Kurt spoke up at last, "Okay, this is just creepy."

"Rachel, honey, are you going to drink that smoothie or just glower at it?" Her dad was leaning against the countertop, smiling at his daughter.

She leveled her glare on him and he put his hands up in surrender, backing out of the kitchen, "Hey woah, I'll be leaving now...have a good day, Rach..." He shifted his eyes and quickly made his way back upstairs.

She thought about feeling bad for her dad, but she was not in the mood for banter.

It was Thursday. Thursday, and she hadn't told Finn. He'd been blowing up her phone with incessant calls and texts, but she'd successfully avoided talking to him She had a goddamn date with his ex-girlfriend tommorrow and he didn't even know! Unless Quinn told him when she broke up with him...Then I wouldn't have to be the bearer of bad news!

Well that ship sailed when she spotted the Inns standing by the stairwell, holding hands and talking. "The fuck?..." Rachel mumbled. They'd broken up, right? She would know if they hadn't. Maybe she had avoided contact with the both of them since Monday and maybe she did skipp glee the past few days but still. Somebody could've told her.

She felt her blood boil. What the hell was Finn doing holding her hand like that and smiling all goofy. She was the one taking Quinn out tommorrow. But if they hadn't broken up yet...

Quinn had some explaining to do.

Rachel marched up to the pair and yanked Quinn's arm, effectively getting her away from Finn. She threw a half-assed "'Scuse us" behind her and pulling Quinn to an empty spot in front of some lockers. Rachel put on her best scary face and bit, "You lied to me."

Quinn's eyes widened and she shook her head, "No! It's not- I didn't-"

"Why haven't you broken up with him yet? Need I remind you who's going to be courting you, come tommorrow?" She cut the blonde off.

Quinn simply stood, taken back a little by Rachel's harsh demeanor.

"Well?"

The blonde opened her mouth to speak as she felt a tap on her left shoulder. She turned around to see a timid-looking freshman boy looking at her.

Quinn's brow furrowed while Rachel attempted to stab the boy with her eyes, "Can I help you?"

"Y-yes," he stuttered, "I was just wondering-"

"She's fucking taken, buddy! Why don't you go buy some clothes that don't have animals all over them and leave my girl alone?" Rachel snapped, causing the boy to flinch and Quinn to drop her jaw. Where did this Rachel come from? And why was she so hot?

The cheerleader also took note of- but didn't mention- the irony in the fact that Rachel was wearing a sweater covered in caribou.

"No! I-that's not- I was wondering if you guys could move over a bit because, uh, that's my locker...right there..." He pointed past Rachel's left ear, and the girl flushed.

She scratched the back of her neck and cleared her throat, seeming to rein in her hot temper, "Oh. Um, well, yes. Of course. Come, Quinn, let's relocate over here..."

Quinn smirked at Rachel's abrupt one-eighty. She extended an arm to rest on the locker next to the shorter girl's ear, "That was really hot."

Rachel's reaction was to blush, then narrow her eyes. "You didn't answer my question."

Quinn sighed exaggeratedly, "I don't know...he's so nice, I don't want to hurt him." She said, dramatics coloring her tone.

Rachel rolled her eyes, "That's crap. And hello, I don't want to hurt him either, but how am I supposed to tell him I want to date his girlfriend?"

"You want to date me?" Quinn's eyes widened, "I thought it was just one time..."

"Uh, what? No! Not- not date like that! It is! One date, I mean, or, unless you want it to be more, I wouldn't argue," the brunette backtracked. "Look, I just want to get out of this unscathed. That's all. I just did this as a favor for my best friend and it has escalated into this whole debacle-" Rachel stopped and squeezed her eyes shut, praying to whoever was listening that Quinn hadn't caught it.

"Hold up, what did you just say?"

Oh, shit.

A/N: I started writing this, and it got to be too long to put everything I wanted in it, and I felt like this was an ok place to split it up so this isn't the last part. I know, I keep expanding this, but oh well. I'm gonna say the fourth part will be the (tentative) last one. It's 99% likely, but I don't want to eat my words yet again. Will be finished tommorrow or Friday, definitely. Hope you liked.