Greetings Readers! Sorry for the delay! Busy week and the long weekend left little time for writing. To be honest I was kind of worried that I lost my inspiration. But no, Quinn's angsty summer was begging to be written.

So the beginning of the chapter leaves off right after Rachel's chapter and then flashes back to the beginning of the Quinn's summer. Confusing? Yeah it was confusing to me too but hopefully it does provide a good reason for Quinn to be so messed up this season.

***dialogue that is in all italics is directly from the show I do not claim to have written them myself***

Quinnterlude Part 2:

Quinnventing Shadows?

You're so distant
So cold, so resistant

You see the world in only grey and black
Now how could anybody live like that
Without screaming
Without dying for dreaming

And you stare out the window at the passing cars
And you look at the sky, thank your unlucky stars
No you're never quite happy right where you are

So you keep on
Inventing shadows
Where there are none

No there are none

- "Inventing Shadows" written and performed by Dia Frampton

Seeing Rachel Berry out of all people during the summer was not a part of the plan, Quinn thought as she stared up at the starry ceiling in her room. Why the hell did it have to be Berry? Hanging out with the Skanks on the border of Lima Heights, she always thought Santana or even Mike would find her first, but Berry? How could one tiny girl constantly get under her skin? For years that girl had been able to look at Quinn and see past all of her walls and bitchy defences. Despite the taunts, the slushee facials and the slightly graphic pornographic drawings in bathroom stalls; Rachel always reached out to the former Cheerio. They were never close friends or even civil to each other most of the time and yet Rachel was the one person to ever try and succeed to really see Quinn.

"Your eyes, I can see it in your eyes."

Quinn didn't sleep at all with her voice haunting her mind. She wasn't going back to New Directions. She didn't want to sing and dance her feelings away anymore. She didn't want her friends' judgements or their pity. Or Rachel seeing into her soul. No she definitely didn't want or need that. She didn't want to care about anything anymore. Quinn didn't want to see the person Rachel sees.

She just wanted to be left alone.

Everybody left her anyways.

Quinn spent the rest of the week before school with her fellow Skanks and with their help she got herself a new pair of sunglasses. Sheila, Ronnie and Mack were great. They never asked questions about their newest member. They welcomed her with open booze and lighters for her cigarettes, no judgements, no reminders of past relationships; she didn't fail anything because there were no expectations, high or low. Like when her Dad expected her to look like and be the perfect daughter, or when her mom wanted her to be Prom Queen so badly, or how Finn expected their renewed relationship would just fix everything again. To make it like the previous year never happened. To make it like… she didn't happen.

She took another sip of her beer, trying to forget that particular line of thought. The Skanks were once again in front of the convenience store, waiting for Mack's stoner uncle to come back out with the goods. Paul was Dr. Nicoletti's younger mooch of a brother. He came to spend the summer with his favourite niece and his successful Dr. "Bro". The forty-year-old skateboarder was a total loser and a pervy old man but he was a stupid one at that. One flirtatious glance and the sucker would do anything for Quinn.

'It's all about the teasing and not about the pleasing'

The newly inducted Skank would have giggled if she weren't in the company of people who only knew this Quinn. She reminded herself that she wasn't that girl anymore. Celibacy club lessons don't apply to her. They haven't since the middle of sophomore year. Pervy Paul came back with their cigarettes and Quinn kept him at a safe molest-free zone. She was old enough to get her own pack but since she changed her look, clerks didn't believe it was really her face on her driver's license.

Just as he came back, the former cheerleader spotted the annoyingly familiar presence of Rachel Berry. She turned to get a better look and saw that the brunette was staring right back. The new sunglasses' purpose was to put up another wall to surround the invincible and unfeeling Fort Quinn. As Rachel jogged, Quinn could tell that her new source of defense might as well have been a wall made of twigs under a magnifying glass under the brightness of Rachel's soul-seeing eyes. She was burning and she couldn't take it anymore.

There was too much hope in Rachel, and the former cheerleader, celibacy club president, perfect daughter and unprepared mother (take your pick), did not deserve one ounce of that optimism.


Quinn left the company of her fellow Skanks (and Pervy Paul) right after Berry jogged past them. It was still really early but Rachel's stare invoked too much… too much of something in the former blonde. She needed time alone to process whatever it was that Rachel and their weird connection brought out. She got home just in time to hear the phone ring its last ring before going to voice-mail. The message being left on the machine echoed out to the hall and the voice made Quinn stop cold in her rush up the stairs.

"Hey mom! And Quinn if you're listening I guess… Anyways I just wanted to check in on you! We haven't really talked since we saw each other in Boston-"

A baby's gurgle interrupted Frannie Thompson's message and Quinn could hear her nephew's giggles in the background. It hit her like a slushee to the face, only worse because she knew a shower would never wash away the frigid coldness that continued to run down her spin.

"-Tommy! What did I say? Don't play with Mommy's- DAMNIT! PAULINE GET YOUR FAT ASS DOWN HERE! WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M PAYING YOU FOR?"

There was more cluttering on the other end of the line followed by muffled out yelling. Both signs told Quinn that her sister put down the phone to yell at her live-in nanny and she rolled her eyes. Sometimes Frannie Thompson nee Fabray reminded her a lot of their father.

"Sorry about that. You know how babies can be…" The slight smug tone in her voice made Quinn bristle in annoyance. "Okay so I wanted to let you know that Derrick finally got his transfer approved and WE'RE MOVING BACK HOME! Isn't that great? We've still got a lot to cover over here but we are planning to be settled in before the end of the year. Of course w-"

Quinn didn't hear the rest of the message. Her mind played a constant replay of Frannie's voice pronouncing her grand return to Lima, Ohio. Horrified, the former cheerleader backed slowly out of the living room to run to her room, rushing past a confused and slightly frightened Judy Fabray who looked like she had heard the last part of the voice-mail.

But Quinn didn't even notice her mother, she didn't hear anything but her sister's perfect voice telling her about her perfect family and how even though they didn't plan on having kids until Derrick was promoted, they would never ever think of giving their little "surprise blessing" away. She didn't notice anything as she slammed her door, flashing back to the image of her mother saying nothing in her youngest daughter's defense. No, Quinn didn't feel anything but she couldn't stop the memories of humiliation and betrayal when she saw her sister and the Fabray side of the family at the beginning of the summer.

After the New Directions' loss in New York and what Santana deemed as the "Quinn Fabreakdown May 2011," Quinn's mother decided it was time to travel and look at colleges. A road trip with Judy Fabray was not something that the girl looked forward to. Although living together with just the two of them had strengthened their relationship somewhat, lack of communication was apparently still a family tradition. They avoided any real talk about Russell and the divorce or Beth and her adoption. The girl didn't even want to think about discussing her future with the woman but it was senior year and her mother had been trying.

Both women had wanted to talk to each other about the issues they each had, but neither knew how to approach them and both were terrified of the confrontation. Mother and daughter both thanked Russell Fabray for leaving them well practiced in ignorance and avoidance. Quinn knew that her mother wanted to talk, the woman telling her with every sideways glance and worried look but there was always something holding the girl back from opening up to her. The two women had hoped the trip would change the distance between them.

Before the doomed trip across Middle America to the East Coast, Quinn brushed off the distance as lasting feelings of resentment and abandonment and had decided that it would blow over quickly in order to get their much needed mother-daughter moment. And for a moment she thought they did.

Their stop in Boston proved her wrong and it reminded Quinn why she always tried to kept Judy Fabray at arms length.

High expectations and hopes only lead to a shitload of disappointments.


Flashback to Early summer… AKA the beginning of the end of Quinn Fabray

"Quinnie, sweetheart, what do you think of the colleges we've seen so far?"

The mother-daughter team just finished travelling throughout Ohio touring the State Universities and Quinn was less than impressed. They had decided to stay at a motel for the night and were mapping out their next destination.

Getting no reaction from her daughter, Judy continued her questioning her. "You don't look so excited dear. Did you want to try for the Ivy Leagues next? Or are they much to pompous and 'mainstream' for my little hipster?" The little joke shook Quinn out of her reverie. It amazed the teen that her mother even knew the word "hipster." Quinn was convinced that Judy studies the urban dictionary daily but she knew her mom would never admit it. She chuckled a bit at the thought until she saw the serious expression appear on the older woman's face.

"I know you think it's hard to be you, Rachel, but at least you don't have to be terrified all the time."

For Quinn, touring the Ohio State colleges the whole week was just a bitter reminder of the desolate future she had thought was ahead of her. She thought back to Rach- Berry and their confrontation before Regionals about the future and "Getting it Right." Berry's words were echoing in Quinn's mind and for a moment they made everything a little better.

"What are you so scared of?"

"The future… when all of this is gone."

The former Head Cheerio thought about the events after that, Finn breaking up with her, foolishly planning Rachel's downfall at Nationals, reuniting with B and S, getting her drastic haircut. She scoffed at the memories. How could she act so stupid over a boy? Over an image of herself she didn't even like or want? Looking ahead now it didn't seem to matter. Rachel's kind words in the girl's bathroom the night of prom continued to ring in her mind.

"You have nothing to be scared of. Look you're a very pretty girl Quinn. The prettiest girl I've ever met but… You're a lot more than that."

While their time in New York was short and full of disappointments, Quinn was not able to, nor did she ever want to, shake the feeling of excitement and belonging that she experienced while staying there. The energy was electrifying and shocked her back to life. The new haircut brought a new Quinn and she would not let a boy or a stupid fear get in the way of the future she wanted for herself. Quinn looked out their motel room window and could see the starry sky beaming their light down on her. They seemed in reach and she almost held out her hand to feel the warm light they appeared to give off.

"…You're a lot more than that."

"Actually mom, I'm thinking about applying to Columbia." The frightened teen admitted to her mother's turned back. Judy froze and Quinn felt the fear sweep her body away while she waited for her mom to turn around, yell, cry or do something. When the older woman finally turned towards her daughter, Quinn saw the biggest smile grace her mother's face and breathed out a relieved sigh. The next thing she knew she was engulfed in her mom's arms and was slowly turning blue.

For once seeing a bright future full of life instead of Lima, she didn't quite mind her mom's hug cutting of any circulation to the rest of her body.

Finally returning the hug after a few seconds with just as much ferocity, she found that she didn't mind one bit.


A.N. – DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNN. (my attempt an ominous background music to accompany the foreboding of the next chapter). I apologize for the wait but I had to do some serious mapping out for this story. This is actually a chapter cut in half. The next part is going to explore how everything went wrong and what turned this hopeful Quinn to Skank!Quinn. I know I promised more stuff but this backstory to Quinn's change has evolved so much.

I decided to include other Fabray's in the next chapter and you have just been introduced to Frannie Thompson (nee Fabray), Quinn's prim and perfect older sister. Also we got a little glimpse at Frannie's new-born son (actually he's at about 5-6 months at the point of Frannie's call).

I didn't want to make Judy out to be a bad mom but the obvious tension between her two daughters is a difficult situation to handle and nobody's perfect.

Hope you like the Faberry without actual Faberry… That will actually continue for a while.

Instead of posting up another Rachel chapter, the next chapter that will be posted is going continue Quinn's early summer flashback.

As always I appreciate any input and criticisms. Please Read and Review!