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Six year old Julianna is pacing across the living room carpet as she tosses one of her little brother's foam Nerf basketballs in the air. She's a determined little girl with a lot on her mind. First, what was she thinking when she requested Beth to tell her a bed time story? She should have known that it wouldn't be an easy journey, and now it's all she can think about. Is the Queen Princess someone she knows? Is she famous? Is the Royal Jester famous? Is it even a happy ending!

Beth glances over her shoulder to see the time on the clock above the stove, "You really need to go to bed, Jules. I'm never going to be allowed to babysit you again."

"How could I go to bed at a time like this?" the little brunette shrieks, "It's starting to get good!"

Beth laughs, she knew that once she got more into the fairy tale story that the little girl wouldn't be able to stop listening. She remembered feeling the exact same way when she was younger and hearing it for the first time. And every time after that.

"So you like it?"

"This is the best bed time story ever!"

Beth can't help but smile proudly. She pats the cushion next to her and waits until the small girl jumps up on the couch with eager eyes.

"So the land of McKinley throws a Spring Ball at the castle every year and of course the Queen Princess wants to win the coveted jeweled crown for her collection. The Royal Jester is going to help the Queen Princess secure the crown and in return, the Queen Princess will help the Royal Jester find the perfect suitor."

"How will they do that all of that!"


"She knows that you're here so she's going to keep crying until you go in there…Don't go in there or else she'll never learn that she can't always get what she wants."

"You realize the position you're putting me in. A poor little child is crying because they want to see me and you're going to make me sit here while they cry their precious eyes out?"

Quinn huffed and pinched the bridge of her nose before throwing her notebook on her bed, "Fine. Go and say goodnight to her and you have five minutes. I'm going to get something to drink."

Rachel was up off of Quinn's bed before the blonde could change her mind and scurrying into Beth's room to say goodnight to the little girl one last time.

It'd been two weeks since they struck up their agreement and they were still working out respective plans of action. It wasn't every night that they saw each other outside of school but they spoke to each other every day during lunch in the auditorium.

Quinn still couldn't believe that she could sit in the auditorium seat and speak to Rachel so freely. She was so used to meeting silence when she spoke in that room.

Her mother smiled at her as she sifted through bills at the kitchen table.

"How's everything going up there?"

"Beth won't stop crying. She knows Rachel is here so she's being extra needy."

"Yes, I can hear her. Perhaps Rachel will sing to her and she'll fall asleep?"

"Don't encourage it, Mom. Rachel won't always be around, and I can't have her become dependent."

"I know dear, but you can't blame either of them. Beth adores her and it's good that she's starting to trust other adults."

Quinn stayed silent because she knew her mother was right. It was actually great that Beth wanted Rachel around so much. She finally had a friend that Beth approved of. Oddly enough, the little girl had a very good radar of people, she cried when Santana held her on most occasions. She could get more done with Rachel around because Beth was an angel when she was there. Whether they were coloring or she was tugging on Rachel's arm so she'd watch Dora with her, Quinn was able to do laundry and clean without having to tend to Beth's every cry. She even liked the Berrys, which was huge. She could finally get out of the house and not have to worry about dropping her off at Puck's. She almost had a social life again. It even gave Mrs. Fabray a break.

Quinn held up the water bottles, "We're gonna get back to work."

By the time she got back up the stairs, she found Rachel sitting on her bed with a sly smile on her face. Quinn threw the water bottle at her and picked up the notebook again.

"Don't give me that look."

"If you would've just let me sing to her when I first got here, she would have been sleeping an hour ago."

Quinn ignored her, "Anyway, we need to start working on finding you a boyfriend. The Homecoming campaign is going great so far. There is one poster every 50 feet, and on every stairwell door, in all the restrooms, and all over the gym. Jacob's latest poll results has us 30% above the closest candidate."

"I'm going to start handing out buttons and this weekend we'll make the chocolate lollipops. Daddy bought the molds yesterday," Rachel added, "Little Princess crowns."

Quinn smiled, "So we can take a night off and work on the boyfriend credentials. Shall we take this into the playroom?"

Rachel hopped off the bed, "We shall."

The brunette pulled the white rocking chair out of the corner of the room and sat quietly as Quinn ripped the top sheet of poster paper off the easel.

Credentials underlined at the top in big black bold letters.

"So, tell me about your perfect man."

Rachel flipped through her binder, "Well, the most important quality is someone that is camera ready."

"Seriously?"

"Of course! You never know, Quinn. Always live your life like you're on an E! reality show."

"Ohhhhkay. Camera ready…so handsome? Put together?"

Rachel nodded, "Meticulous, well-dressed, and someone that takes pride in their appearance."

Quinn nodded as she agreed, "Next."

"Musically talented, and instrument use is a big plus. Song writing an even bigger plus."

"Okay."

Rachel tapped her chin, "Someone that is mature, you know, above crude humor. And with that comes responsibility, they need to be mature and responsible. An adult about things."

Quinn continued to jot down Rachel's demands.

"Oh, and definitely smart, too. I'm tired of having one sided conversations with people."

Quinn laughed, "Anything else?"

"Someone I can trust," the blonde swallowed thickly as she wrote out trust on the pad of paper, "I need someone that will get along with my fathers, and of course is wonderful with kids."

Quinn smiled to herself, hoping that the reason for the last one was because she wanted someone that would get along with Beth.

Quinn put the cap back on the marker and read over the list.

"Where are we going to find someone like this in McKinley?" she laughed.

"Good point," Rachel frowned. "We can broaden the potential candidates to surrounding high schools and colleges."

"Colleges, huh?"

Rachel blushed and averted her eyes to scan over her notes in her binder, "Well, you never know."

"Right, well…let's find you a boyfriend."

The girls really had no idea where to start so they just kept their eyes peeled as they walked through the halls of McKinley. They handed out the chocolate lollipops that they spent their entire Sunday making and people seemed to be loving them. She should have asked Rachel to be her Junior Prom campaign manager, too.

Rachel ran up to Quinn before glee practice the following week, "What about cello boy?"

"Cello boy? You mean…" she looked up to find the boy that sometimes played the cello from the Jazz band. That day, however, he had an electric guitar in his hands, "Actually, I don't even know his name."

"Exactly, Cello boy."

"You know nothing about him."

And he certainly didn't look camera ready.

"He plays like 5 instruments."

"But he can't sing."

"During study hall, I tallied up his projected point value based on things I've noticed about him and he scored a 60."

They assigned point values to the qualities that she was looking for in a potential suitor and they scored people based on that.

Ten points each for being smart, mature, responsible, and good with kids. Fifteen points for being trust worthy, camera ready, compatible with her fathers, and musically talented. 5 bonus points if they could write or play an instrument.

Anyone below a fifty didn't make it to the second round of consideration. Though, Quinn secretly didn't consider anyone below a 75. She didn't do things half way, she'd find Rachel a perfect 100, and then some.

The only reason this Cello boy scored so high was because of his five instruments and she couldn't have that.

"Veto."

Rachel stomped her foot, "You can't veto!"

"Of course I can, you asked me to do a job and I'm doing my job. I can veto anyone I want."

"Ugh, you only get five vetoes."

"Ten."

"Fine. But I get three overrides."

"One."

Rachel smiled, "Why are you so good at this?"

"I take it that you don't want to use your veto for him?"

"How about one of the other jazz band boys?"

Quinn grimaced before pulling Rachel's hand until they were sitting on the risers, "Why don't we just decide right now that you shouldn't pursue any guys from glee."

Rachel looked up to find Finn walking through the door, followed by Puck.

Quinn might have allowed Rachel to try her luck with the two boys if she hadn't used all her ex-boyfriends as examples of the horrendous track record she had.

"Fine. But only glee guys from this school, other schools are okay."

"Of course, unless they're suspiciously trying to sabotage our chances at winning a competition."

Rachel agreed. She wouldn't go through that again. "Right."

Mr. Schuester walked in the next second and both girls had to forget about their plan and throw themselves into the music.

It was Friday afternoon when she got the text message from Rachel.

Meet me at the coffee shop on Main asap

She wasn't sure what was going on but she was beckoned and Rachel refused to tell her why until she got there. Leaving Beth with her mother, she hopped in her car and made her way to find out what Rachel needed her so badly for.

She sat across from the brunette in one of the comfortable chairs and waited for Rachel to explain everything.

"Don't look, but do you see the guy behind the counter?"

Quinn peered over Rachel's head before the brunette waved her hand in front of her face to halt her.

"I told you not to look!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

Rachel sat back in her chair and cautiously looked over her shoulder to see if the counter boy saw them making a scene.

"Okay, look now."

Quinn wasn't sure who she was supposed to be looking for but after a few seconds the boy she assumed Rachel was talking about was taking a customer's order.

"I see him, what about him?"

Rachel looked at her expectantly.

"Oh, him?" she studied the boy some more, "I don't know."

"He's cute, well groomed, responsible because he has a job, great customer service skills which goes hand in hand with maturity, and he's been singing along to a few of the songs."

"That's only 50," Quinn tallied quickly, forgetting that she had different standards, "A stretch for a 50, by the way."

"He smiled at me when he gave me my coffee."

"Just a smile?"

"And he said he liked my scarf."

"He's gay."

"You don't even know that."

Quinn stared at the brunette long and hard.

"Fine, then that means he's compatible with my fathers so make his new point total a 65."

The blonde laughed and reached forward to take a sip of her friend's drink, "You realize that if he's gay than he's pretty much a pointless prospect, right?"

Rachel shrugged, "People change teams all the time."

"If I can prove to you that he's gay, will you drop it?"

"Maybe."

Quinn rolled her eyes before getting out of her seat. Rachel was at a cross between panicked and excited.

The blonde strolled up to the counter and waited her turn. She leaned her elbows on the marble counter and began biting her lip as she stared at the board.

"What can I get for you?" the boy asked.

He seemed charming but he had to be to work in a coffee shop, it was like a requirement.

Quinn gave him her order and eyed his name tag, what kind of name was Bobby?

"You look familiar, do you go to McKinley?"

The boy smiled and he seemed to have really white teeth, which was probably a plus in Rachel's book.

"No, I'm a senior at Carmel."

She hated Carmel.

"Are you in their show choir club?"

"Yeah actually, I am."

Great.

"So you know Jesse St. James?"

He grimaced, "I hate that kid," and then his eyes widened, "You're not friends with him are you? I mean, I guess he's cool."

Quinn shook her head, "Trust me, I hate him, too."

"Cool." His boyish smirk was a little endearing but he didn't exactly scream anything special. He kind of reminded her of a shorter version of Finn mixed with Kurt's boyfriend, "I was afraid you were dating him or something."

Quinn actually laughed hard, "No, no."

"Would have been a shame," he smiled before handing her the cup of coffee, "Here you go."

She handed him some money and walked back to the table where Rachel was sitting.

"So? What's the verdict."

"Not gay."

Rachel began to clap.

"But he hit on me, so out of the question."

"Well, who doesn't hit on you? I hardly think that counts for anything, you're pretty."

Quinn coughed into her coffee and it scolded her tongue.

"What did you find out about him?"

She considered lying because she didn't really like the kid that much. He was all wrong. A senior at one of their rival schools? He was Jesse 2.0.

Rachel looked hopeful so she decided to just be honest.

"Senior, Carmel High, hates Jesse, and is in their show choir."

"Yes!" Rachel hissed as she fist pumped, "Go back up there and invite him to Homecoming for me."

Quinn choked on her hot coffee again, her taste buds would be dead for a week.

"Absolutely not. Homecoming is tomorrow."

"And I still don't have a date."

"You're going to be pulling in last minute votes."

"But it's my senior year Homecoming dance," Rachel jutted her lip out, "Please Quinn, please?"

How could she say no to that face? Quinn would murder Rachel if she ever taught it to her daughter.

"Fine."

The blonde walked back up to the counter and the boy turned around with a smile, "Is something wrong with your coffee?"

She shook her head and beckoned him to come closer, "See my friend over there?"

So maybe it wasn't the best way to go about it but maybe he'd say no if he felt embarrassed enough.

"Rachel?"

"You know her name?"

"I have to write it on the cup."

"Oh, right. Yes, Rachel. She thinks you're cute and it's our homecoming tomorrow and her date bailed last minute for a family emergency," She lied but she didn't want him to think Rachel couldn't get a date. "What are you doing tomorrow at 8?"

"Uhh."

"Going with my friend to homecoming? Great."

"I don't even know her."

"She's a senior from McKinley, beautiful, will kick your ass at Nationals this year, and she's a great dancer. Anything else you'd like to know?" Quinn arched her eyebrow in hopes to intimidate him. It'd been a while since she needed to channel her inner bitch so she was a bit rusty.

The boy cleared his throat, "Um, what color dress?"

"It's black. Easy."

He gave her a hesitant smile but still didn't reply.

"She dated that St. James kid, I'm sure you can rub it in his face somehow."

His eyes slightly bulged, "She's the one that dated St. James? Miss Corcoran's daughter?"

"The one and only, what's it gonna be?"

"Sure, I guess. It could be fun."

She scribbled her address down on a napkin and slid it across the counter to him, "Great! Be at this address at 7:30 and don't be late."

She thought about giving him a fake address as a last ditch effort to sabotage the horrendous idea but she wouldn't be able to bare the look on Rachel's face if her date never showed.

He read it over, "Okay, sure."

"See you then."

"Yeah bye."

Quinn walked back towards Rachel and picked up her coffee cup before grabbing the brunette's arm.

"We're leaving."

"What'd he say?" she rushed out in a whisper, "Did he say no?"

Quinn waited until they got outside and away from the window of the coffee shop before she turned to her dejected friend.

"He said yes."

Rachel looked up and it took a second or two for the news to register before she was jumping up and down and pulling Quinn into a tight hug.

"I thought when you pulled me away you were going to tell me that he said no," she admitted.

"I pulled you away because I knew you'd cause a scene."

"He really said yes?" she asked to make sure.

Quinn smiled softly, "Who wouldn't say yes?"

"I'm sure a lot of people," she replied before she began walking towards her car.

Quinn caught up with her and looped her arm with hers, "Not on my watch."

They got to the brunette's black Volkswagon, "Thanks Quinn."

"Of course, it's my job."

Quinn really didn't like the boy that Rachel was going to the homecoming dance with but she figured she'd only have to put up with him for the one night and he'd be out of their lives. She'd make sure that Rachel steered clear of the coffee shop on Main in the future.

He showed up five minutes early and Quinn secretly rolled her eyes when the brunette whispered that he was prompt. The Berry men snapped pictures of the two girls with their dates while Mrs. Fabray videotaped them with the outdated camcorder. It was a tag team situation, the girls joked as they tried their best to hide their embarrassment from both the coffee shop boy and Puck. Rachel demanded that Noah escort the blonde to the Homecoming dance using one of her "studies show" facts that Quinn's almost positive she made up again.

Leroy Berry pulled Quinn aside just before they were about to leave for the dance.

"You'll keep an eye on her tonight? I don't exactly know anything about this boy."

"Trust me, I'm not letting her out of my sight."

He nodded gratefully before squeezing her shoulder, "You both look beautiful, have fun."

The dance was in the school gym but not nearly as fancy as Prom would be. Quinn made sure that they stuck with the other members of the glee club. Safety in numbers.

Bobby seemed to get along with everyone but she still tended to growl in his direction when he stared too openly, or scoff when he said something charming in Rachel's ear. He was even a good dancer. Why couldn't he just mess up so that Quinn could go to the brunette with her argument? She watched them like a hawk, making sure his hands didn't go too low or anything inappropriate like that. It was a school dance after all, she couldn't have them slutting it up on the dance floor.

Figgins got everyone's attention so that he could announce the Homecoming Court. Seconds before he opened the envelope, Quinn found the eager brown eyes in the audience and smiled wide when they were directly on her.

"Quinn Fabray."

She was almost positive that the loudest scream came from Rachel.

It was the next morning as they were eating bagels in their sweats, hair tousled from the night before and makeup smeared that they started talking about the Homecoming dance.

"How does it feel, Miss Homecoming Queen?"

The blonde blushed and ducked her head as she took another bite of her bagel, "I can't believe we did it."

"Of course we did, I was your campaign manager. Next stop, Prom Queen. You should start practicing your wave now."

"I've been practicing my wave since I was three."

Rachel laughed and nudged her shoulder against the blonde's, "So, what'd you think of Bobby?"

Quinn set her bagel down on her lap and shifted her body so that she could look at the brunette easily, "Honestly? He was really nice but, I don't know."

"Too nice, right?"

"Yeah." Quinn replied softly and a little sympathetically, "And he talked about himself a lot."

She knew that was a lie. The only reason he talked so much about himself was because Quinn was rapid fire asking him questions in the car ride there.

"You're right."

"I think we should keep him on the backburner for a while, I mean he's an okay candidate but I think we can find you someone better."

Rachel nodded at the sure confidence in the blonde's tone, "Absolutely."

"I thought you guys would have been Facebook official already," Quinn admitted after a few minutes of silence.

She was beyond relieved that Rachel let the boy loose so easily. She thought she'd have to sabotage his reputation somehow or convince the rest of the glee club to be against it. She just didn't like him, simple as that. She didn't have any other reason.

"I could tell that you didn't like him."

Quinn grimaced, she hoped that she wasn't being too obvious, "Really?"

Rachel smiled, "Yeah, I could. But it's okay, you're like my radar. I obviously want nothing but the best, and it's your job to find me someone."

"Right."

"I think we should go to the mall later and check out some future prospects."

Quinn chuckled. Of course the brunette would want to get right back into the ring.

"What are you going to tell Bobby?"

"I already let him know that I thought he was a great guy, it just wasn't a good time."

She wondered when her friend had the time to let the coffee shop boy down easily because she was with her almost every minute of the dance. They got dressed and made themselves presentable before they loaded Beth into the car and took off for the mall.

Quinn sipped her smoothie as Rachel pushed the stroller, "What about that guy?" the brunette pointed to someone that was walking towards them.

"Too short."

"I'm short," Rachel argued.

"But you're like a cute short, he's a creepy short."

The brunette rolled her eyes and shook her head before spotting someone else, "That one over there?" she pointed to a boy in front of the Forever 21.

"Has a girlfriend," the blonde replied simply.

"How do you even know that?"

"Why else is he standing outside of a Forever 21 by himself? Obviously his girlfriend is inside shopping."

Rachel huffed when she saw a girl walk up to him and link their hands after they waited ten minutes to see if Quinn had been right or wrong.

"How about that kiosk worker?"

"The one asking to straighten people's hair? No."

"Good work ethic."

"Just, no."

"Fine. Let's go prowl the food court again."

Quinn dutifully followed along and decided not to protest the second time around. It wasn't that she liked turning down Rachel's prospects, it was just getting tiring. Wasn't there anyone out there that could pass as an appropriate suitor?

Not on Quinn Fabray's watch.

They were all either taken, jerks, or big jerks.

Why didn't she put in that much effort when finding a boyfriend for herself?

Because she was happy being independent, that's why. Rachel didn't know what to do with herself when she was single. Though, she didn't really know what to do with herself when she was dating someone either. She was slightly boy crazy. Quinn used to be like that, but then she got pregnant and she stopped caring about trivial things. Boys were trivial things. She had Puckerman for when she needed something heavy lifted, and that was all they were good for. She hated to admit it but if he wasn't the father of her baby, he probably would have been out of her life already.

Pointing out everyone's defects might have been getting tiring but hanging out with Rachel wasn't. That's why she never refused a prowl session.

Sometimes Rachel would skip into one of their shared classes and pass her a list of boy's names to which Quinn would cross them all out and list the reasons on why they were terrible ideas. Rachel was undeterred. She'd pass an even bigger list to her by lunch time. At the rate they were going, the brunette was pretty sure that if Quinn ever approved of anyone, she'd have to marry him. She doubted that she'd ever get an approval, so it didn't matter anyway. It was still fun to hang out with the blonde.

Rachel and Quinn were sitting in the auditorium during lunch one day while they did their homework. They were both sitting in a comfortable silent as they concentrated on their math problems, occasionally flipping to the back of the text book to see if they had the right answer. They learned that it was in their best interest to get their homework out of the way while they were in school.

"I have a date tomorrow night," Rachel spoke up as she continued to work on her Calculus homework.

"Oh? With who?" the blonde asked, clearly distracted by what she was working on.

"A junior named Ryan. He asked me this morning, we're going to go to the movies."

"Wait, what?"

Quinn finally looked up but found that Rachel was still concentrated on solving the problem.

The blonde shifted in her chair, "You're going on a date?"

Rachel nodded and chuckled a bit through her words, "Weren't you listening?"

"Sorry, I—wait, so who is he?"

The brunette closed her text book with her notebook still inside of it and turned to give Quinn her full attention.

"He plays baseball," Rachel offered as if it was a peace treaty.

"Do you even know him?"

"We share first period together, he sits behind me and he passed me a note."

"That's a bit childish, don't you think? Is he five?"

"I thought it was cute."

Quinn tapped the pen to her chin, "What's his point value?"

"Projected is between 60-75."

"Not good enough."

"I already said yes, Quinn. It would be rude of me to not go."

"Is he picking you up at your house?"

Rachel nodded, "8."

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"You're not going out with him until I meet him, so I'll be there after I put Beth to bed."

Rachel laughed and opened up her text book again, "You don't have to do that, I'll be okay."

Quinn didn't listen. Why would she? Rachel was going out on a movie date with an unknown. From what she'd gathered from her underclassman's Intel, he was a decent human being but he had a temper problem.

Absolutely not.

Quinn sat in between Leroy and Hiram Berry on the tan couch in the living room while Rachel's date sat in the arm chair uncomfortably. Not one of them had said a word since he arrived, Quinn stared at him with her arms crossed before clearing her throat.

"What are your intentions?"

The boy fiddled with the sleeves of his varsity jacket and stared at Quinn, "Um, I'm sorry, what?"

"Your intentions," Leroy Berry spoke up, "With Rachel."

The boy looked around, unsure of why he found himself in the middle of a movie scene before his date with Rachel.

"What movie are you seeing?" Hiram cut in after his silence.

The boy cleared his throat, "The new Matthew McConaughey movie."

She'd seen enough of Matthew McConaughey's romantic comedies to know it wasn't a good idea. Cute guy, a few redeeming qualities that make him triumphant in the end, always gets the pretty girl; it just didn't seem like the perfect first date movie.

Besides, Quinn and Rachel were planning on seeing that the next time Puck had Beth for the weekend.

The blonde frowned, "I think you should take her to see the new Pixar movie."

Whether he was intimidated by the fact that Rachel's fathers were nodding their heads up and down, silently threatening him, or he was scared of pissing off Quinn Fabray, the boy agreed with them.

"Of course."

"No later than 11, that will give you enough time to watch the movie and get ice cream," Leroy solemnly stated.

It was so different to hear him with a serious tone to his voice, Quinn had only ever heard him laughing or joking around. Thank god she wasn't on that armchair instead of the boy.

"I'll be waiting," Quinn said, "So no funny business."

"Right."

Rachel's voice chimed down the stairwell as she finally finished getting ready. Quinn could hear the boy sigh in relief and she made a mental note to bring it up when she and the Berry men debriefed the situation.

"Have fun Princess," Leroy kissed her forehead as they stood at the main door.

Hiram kissed her next, "Not too late."

The two men walked out the front door with her date and Rachel hung back to say goodbye to Quinn.

"Text me if you need a bail-out." Quinn reminded her for the tenth time since she learned of the date.

Rachel shook her head with a teasing smile on her lips, "You're cute when you're overprotective."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I mean it."

"I know."

Rachel skipped out onto the porch and joined her date and her fathers. Quinn crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe as she watched the two get into the car and drive away.

She was going to simply die when her daughter started dated.

Rachel's fathers stopped cheerfully waving once the car was completely out of sight. They turned around and the frowns were evident.

"I don't like him," Leroy stated.

"Not one bit."

"Did you see his face when he saw there were two of us?"

"He didn't even bother calling you Sir."

"I can't believe he didn't even open the door for Rachel," Quinn joined in and smiled slightly when both men realized that she was right.

"Good work on the Pixar movie, Quinn." Hiram high-fived her as they walked back into the house.

"I still can't get over the fact that he beeped his horn when he first arrived! As if I'd send my babygirl out in the world with such a monster!"

Quinn laughed and continued to walk further in the house with the men. It was all quite amusing to her, she didn't realize it would be that easy to get the men on board with her.

Leroy walked into the closet and pulled out his coat as he continued to speak, "It was rather fun to play the intimidating father for once," He beamed before handing his husband his coat.

"Oh, you even had me convinced!" Hiram replied as he threw the keys to his husband.

"Where are you guys going?"

"You don't think that we're just going to sit around here while Rachel's in a dark movie theater, do you?"

She'd be mortified if her parents ever pulled something like that with her, and she had a feeling that Rachel would be livid if she found out they were spying on her date, but she was too curious not to.

Quinn thought it might be worth it though, after spending the entire car ride to the movie theater making fun of the boy with Rachel's parents. She felt like a bad friend, but then she realized that it was her job to find the perfect person for Rachel and she didn't feel all that bad anymore.

It didn't stop the breath of relief that escaped passed her lips as Rachel debriefed everything bad about the date to Quinn.

Two weeks later, Quinn found herself once again stressed out over the fact that the person Rachel was going out on a date with, wouldn't be good enough for her.

"It's harmless, we're just going to Blaine's open mic night."

"It's a double date."

"You're just upset that you weren't invited," Rachel teased.

She was upset. Puck was watching Beth that Friday and she was hoping that they could do normal teenage things.

"That's so not the point. He's the competition, Rach. How do you know that he's not just going to kidnap you until you give him our set list."

She doubted that anyone from Dalton Academy could pull off such a sting operation, and she knew that Kurt would be there with her but it wasn't like Kurt would text her with updates. She was pretty sure the boy still didn't like her very much or approve of their friendship, so he wasn't a reliable spy.

Rachel was going out with one of the Warblers which meant she really had no idea who the kid was.

"You're being ridiculous."

She wasn't being ridiculous at all.

"I'll get dropped off here after, it won't be late."

Quinn realized that all the pouting in the world wasn't going to get Rachel to back out of the date so she gave in with a small smirk.

"Not a minute passed 11."

Rachel smiled wide, "I've got to go get ready, I'll see you later."

The brunette quickly hugged her friend and jogged down the steps and to her car in the street. Quinn stood on the front porch with her arms crossed to keep in some of her body warmth in the cold early December air.

"Mommy!" Quinn smiled down as her daughter bumped into the back of her legs.

"What are you doing out here munchkin!" Quinn bent down so that she was eye level with her daughter. "Is Dora over?" The toddler put her tiny hand against Quinn's face and laughed as the blonde started tickling her, "Come on, Rugrat, we've gotta get you ready for Daddy's." She lifted her daughter and walked back inside the warm house.

"Daddy!" Beth chimed throughout the house as Quinn put together some things for her overnight visit.

As promised, Rachel was dropped back off at Quinn's house no later than 11 o'clock and the blonde spent a half hour quizzing the girl as they made a batch of brownies together for the weekend.

"I don't know, he was nice but…not really boyfriend material."

"This is the blonde one on the Warblers?"

"Yes."

Quinn paused from eating her brownie to take a sip of milk.

"Don't worry, we'll find you someone, okay?"

Rachel frowned, "It's starting to look unlikely."

Quinn continued to eat her brownie in silence as Rachel did the same on the couch next to her. She could tell that Rachel was feeling low about the zero progress she'd made in finding the perfect person to date but Quinn didn't know how to make her feel better. It wasn't that Rachel couldn't find dates, they just weren't good enough.

Quinn turned to her with a hopeful smile, "We'll find you someone, I'll make sure of it. It's just a bit of bad luck, don't worry."

Rachel returned the smile, "I appreciate it, Quinn."

Rachel truly was appreciative of all of Quinn's hard work regarding the boyfriend mission they were on. She almost wanted to throw in the towel and forget boys all together in order to start an independent celebrity career.

Quinn, on the other hand, was busy thinking of alternative ways to meet people. Online dating sites? Would Rachel go for that? She entertained the idea for a few seconds before burying it deep in her mind. Maybe they didn't have to actively look for someone, maybe they just needed someone to fall into their lap.

And he did, quite literally. In fact, Rachel's luck was about to change.

It happened by accident. Quinn and Rachel were at a birthday party at the gymnastics place for another girl in Beth's daycare when one of the workers bumped into Quinn and caused her to spill her soda into her lap.

Not the best first impression.

Quinn leapt up from the picnic table and yelped when she felt how cold the ice was on her legs.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." The boy began attempting to help her but there was really nothing he could do but go get more napkins, "I'm so going to get fired. It's my first day and I've messed up twice already."

Of course it was his first day, because that's how those things worked.

"It's okay, everything's fine, right Quinn?"

The blonde eyed her friend from across the table as she accepted the offered napkins. She knew that Rachel was trying to take control of the situation because Quinn could demand to see his manager. She may have made a scene before she had a daughter merely 25-feet away from her, but that wasn't her style anymore. Still, Rachel intervened and assured the boy that everything would be okay. Even though Quinn wouldn't scream at him, she took a different approach and that was to stay silent. Silence was much more powerful as she found out when Rachel ignored her for 5 months.

"Here, let me go get you another soda."

He scurried off and Quinn continued to soak of the soda from her dress before throwing the wet napkins on her paper plate.

"I'm so not in the mood for this right now."

"He was cute," Rachel replied, "What did you think?"

"Just charming."

Quinn tried to hold back the sarcasm but she was soaking wet and had to sit uncomfortably for another hour before the party ended.

"I'm going to go talk to him," Rachel said before skipping towards the counter.

The blonde attempted to call after her but she heard a loud cry and the panic ran through her as she looked up to find her daughter in tears. She fell off one of the obstacles and got the wind knocked out of her. Quinn ran to her and knelt in front of the crying child as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Shh, it's okay, sweetheart. You're okay." the blonde ran her hand up and down her daugther's back in an attempt to calm her down a bit. "Do you want to go home?"

Quinn normally wouldn't suggest such a thing but she was uncomfortably wet, her daughter was crying so hard that she was silently shaking, and Rachel was off flirting with some doofus.

Beth nodded her head and held her arms out so that Quinn could lift her up.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Rachel asked as she took in the sight of Beth crying into her mother's neck.

"She fell, she's a little shaken up." Quinn didn't mean to be so short with her friend but she wasn't in the best mood all of a sudden, "We're gonna go…"

Rachel distractedly ran her hand over Beth's tiny arm before she realized what Quinn said, "Oh. Right, of course."

"Is your little sister going to be okay?" the boy asked.

Quinn had the overwhelming urge to slap him across the face for some reason.

Rachel cut in before the blonde could open her mouth and correct him, "Nothing a little ice cream won't fix."

The blonde stared at the brunette's profile for a good thirty seconds as she continued to joke with the boy. She couldn't believe it.

"Can you take her?" Quinn asked, already moving her daughter to Rachel's arms. "I need to get her things together."

"Come here Beth, you're okay." she shushed her softly as she started swaying back and forth to sooth the upset child.

"Wow, you're really good with her." Quinn heard the boy tell Rachel as she walked away to get her daughter's bag.

She quietly mimicked his words under her breath as she gathered everything she needed. She really hated this kid. He really had no hope from the beginning. Sometimes you just hate people.

"Are you ready?" Quinn asked hastily as she rejoined them.

Rachel nodded before saying goodbye to the boy but the blonde was already making her way to the door with all the bags and missed what his name was. It was probably better that way. She would absolutely be using one of her veto rights on the kid.

Rachel got Beth situated in the car seat and decided to sit in the back with her so she could hold her hand. The car ride was entirely silent up until Quinn pulled up in front of Rachel's house.

"What are you doing? I thought I was going back to your house."

"Oh I'm sorry, are you no longer ashamed of me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, is your little sister okay? Oh, nothing a little ice cream can't fix," Quinn repeated, "Is that what I was doing for 9 months? Carrying around my little sister? She's my daughter, Rachel."

"Of course, I know that!"

"So, care to explain why you didn't correct him?"

"I didn't want to scare him off."

"Oh. Yeah, that makes me feel better, I'm sorry that the two of us are getting in the way of your dating life."

"That's not fair!"

"Neither is what you did."

"I'm sorry, okay?"

Quinn turned around in the seat to look at her daughter, "Hear that little sis? Rachel's sorry for being ashamed of you."

"Okay, that was absolutely uncalled for! What is your problem?"

Quinn shrugged and turned back around in her seat to stare out her window.

It was silent for a few long seconds before she heard Rachel speak again, but not to her.

"Want to come inside for some ice cream, Beth?"

"Don't you do that. We have to get home." Quinn attempted to intervene but her daughter already heard the word ice cream and became too excited for her own good.

"Ya ya ya ya!"

"Okay, let's get you out of this thing," Rachel replied as she started unbuckling her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Quinn asked.

"I'm bringing her in for some ice cream so that we can talk about this like adults. I'm not fighting with you in front of your daughter."

The blonde watched as Rachel and Beth held hands up the walkway before disappearing inside the house. She really didn't want to have a conversation with Rachel. It was the last thing she wanted to do. She had no idea what had come over her but she was furious.

She walked through the front door and found Rachel waiting for her on the carpeted steps.

"Beth's with my dad. Upstairs, now."

The blonde didn't even attempt to protest because she recognized Rachel's tone. It was the tone she used when she was mad. She slowly walked up the steps as if her feet were weights. Rachel had no problem making it up the stairs, in fact, by the time Quinn dragged herself into the bedroom, Rachel was waiting on the area rug with her arms cross and her foot tapping.

"What is going on with you today?"

"For starters, you kidnapped my child just now."

Rachel scoffed and unfolded her arms in order to throw them into the air in front of her, "Oh please. Nice try. I'm serious Quinn, how could you ever think that I'm ashamed of you or your daughter?"

Quinn shrugged. Hearing her words played back to her kind of made her wince. "I don't know," she mumbled.

"You don't know?"

The blonde knew she was in the dog house, Rachel's tone wasn't light, it was prying. Almost as if she was about to pick the fight that Quinn had been trying to start all along.

"You don't know?" Rachel asked again.

Instead of backing down and apologizing, Quinn straightened her posture, "I just said that, didn't I?"

"Unbelievable!"

"What's unbelievable, Rach? That you would lie to some guy that you, I don't know," Quinn held her arm out in search of the words she was looking for, "don't even know?"

Rachel halted her pacing in order to face the blonde, "No. You are unbelievable! I adore Beth, I would never—"

Quinn regained more of her confidence and took a step closer to the brunette, "Never what?"

"Be ashamed of either of you. It hurts me that you would ever think that I did that intentionally."

"So then why did you do it? You already said that you didn't want to scare him off. Oh, and another thing, thanks for being there when Beth fell."

"If that's a sarcastic and veiled criticism towards me—"

"It is."

Rachel's mouth dropped open in shock before she gained her composure and settled down, "I think you're overreacting. I get it, you're emotional right now. You got a soda spilled on you, and then Beth almost got hurt, you're upset. I think if we discuss this rationally, we can reach an understanding."

"I haven't even begun to overreact," Quinn gritted through her teeth.

"Well, it's clear that you'd rather be irrational than talk this out so I don't know what you want from me. We've both said some things that we didn't mean and—"

"You're forgetting something, I'm not the one that is in the wrong. You're the one that tried to cover up Beth's relation to me, if you're looking for an apology, you're not going to get it."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good."

"I'll just grab my little sister, and we'll be out of your hair," Quinn made sure to turn around before she could see Rachel's reaction to her words.

She walked back down the stairs and into the family room where Mr. Berry was keeping her occupied, "Beth, baby, ready to go?"

"No."

Quinn laughed, only because the child was in the no phase of her life. She knelt down so that she could be eye level with the girl, "Do you want ice cream?"

"No!" she replied with a bashful smile on her face.

"No? C'mere you little devil," Quinn began to tickle the girl as she lifted her up.

She looked towards Leroy, "Every word out of this girl's mouth recently has been no, even if she means yes. Isn't that right?"

"No!" Beth continued to giggle.

"Trust me, I've noticed." Leroy stood from the couch, "Leaving so soon?"

"Mishap at the gymnastics place involving a spilled soda on my dress, slightly uncomfortable."

"Ahh," Mr. Berry nodded, "Well, have a nice evening. Send your mother our best."

"Thank you. Beth say goodbye to Mr. Berry."

"No!"

"High five?" Leroy held out his hand and grinned when Beth slapped it with hers. "See you later, kiddo."

Quinn carried her daughter back outside but saw no sign of Rachel before she left. Probably better off that way since they were both pretty heated. All Quinn could think about was ordering Chinese food, taking a long bath, and renting a movie. The perfect relaxing evening. It'd be better if Rachel could join, but they needed to cool down before they talked again.

"No!" Julianna cries, lightly banging her fist on the couch.

"What's wrong?"

"Charming is going to get in the way of the Queen Princess and Royal Jester!"

Beth surveys her quizzically,"How could you possibly know that already?"

"Because!"

"You're really rooting for those two to get together, huh?"

"DUH!"

Beth chuckles, "Yeah, me too."

"Keep telling me the story!"

"Alright, alright, jeeze!"

Quinn stared at the clock, it was almost 9pm and Beth was still hollering and screaming in her crib. Nothing was working. Changing her, holding her, singing to her; nothing.

"Sweetheart, this is ridiculous. I'm sure Rachel would be more than happy to come over and help."

"She'll tire herself out soon, Mom."

The DVD was sitting on the coffee table and she was in her bath robe, her relaxing evening was turning into a night from hell. She realized that Rachel was right, she was overreacting about everything but the brunette probably didn't want to hear about it now. And she definitely didn't want her apology to coincide with needing Rachel's help to get her daughter to go to sleep. It was her daughter. This is exactly what she was trying to avoid by having her friend coddle Beth when she cried at night. She was dependent now.

She closed her eyes and held her temples as she listened to Beth wail upstairs. It'd been nonstop for an hour and she had no idea what to do. Not even the DVD of Rachel singing was calming her down.

"This is ridiculous," Quinn mumbled as she picked up her phone and called Rachel.

"Hello?"

"Beth won't stop crying. I've tried everything."

"I'll be right there." Rachel replied quickly.

"Rachel, wait."

"Yeah?"

Quinn attempted to backtrack a bit, "If you're busy or something, don't worry about it."

"No. I'm glad you called, I'll see you in a few minutes."

"Okay, thanks," Quinn replied before hanging up.

She decided to go upstairs to see if she could get Beth to calm down before Rachel had to make the journey over to her house but she still had no results by the time she heard a knock on the door. She went into the hallway and closed the door behind her so she could talk to Rachel.

"I'm sorry you had to come over here," Quinn said.

Rachel waved her off, "It's fine."

"It's not fine. I'm her mother."

"I know, Quinn."

"I should be able to get my daughter to sleep when she's crying. I shouldn't have to call you like this, especially when—"

"Especially when we're fighting?"

"We're not fighting…are we?" Quinn asked helplessly.

Rachel shook her head, "No, we're not. Just an off day?"

Quinn nodded, "Look, I'm sorry that I overreacted, you were right."

"I'm sorry that I upset you."

"You're sure you don't mind?" Quinn gestured towards the door.

"Not at all, I missed the little rugrat."

Quinn laughed, "Thank god, I've been dying to take a bath."

The brunette pointed down the hallway, "Go! I'll take care of her."

"You're the best, there's left over Chinese in the fridge with your name on it."

Quinn sighed in content as she sunk into the warm water of her mother's tub in the master bathroom. It felt nice to finally relax and it was completely silent, Rachel got Beth to stop crying. She leaned her head back on the marble tub and closed her eyes for a bit.

She wasn't sure exactly when it happened but Beth wasn't the only one that was dependent on Rachel. She just hoped it wouldn't bite her in the ass in the long run.

She woke up the next morning to complete silence and stretched under her white comforter before opening her eyes and finding that she was alone. It alarmed her the first few times that it happened, but instead of panicking, she smiled because she knew that Rachel was playing with her daughter in order to give Quinn an extra hour or two of sleep.

She leaned against the playroom doorframe to find the two girls playing with building blocks.

"Sleep good?"

Quinn yawned and nodded before embracing her daughter as she crashed into her leg.

"I found a new way to occupy her," Rachel put a building block at the top of a 3 foot tall stack of blocks.

"Ready Beth? 1…2…3!"

Beth pushed on the blocks and laughed as they fell to the floor.

"Teaching my daughter how to be destructive, nice one, Berry."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Get dressed, we have errands to run."

Quinn attempted to argue but it was no use, and she was craving some of Mr. Berry's Chocolate Chip pancakes that she knew she was going to get since Rachel never missed a Sunday Brunch with her parents.

"You know, I don't mind driving," Quinn argued as they walked down the Berrys' driveway.

"Yeah but I bought this nifty car seat for Beth and I barely get to use it," Rachel pouted as she buckled the child into said car seat.

"Which I'm giving you money for, there's no reason that you had to go out behind my back and buy one."

"That's exactly why I went behind your back. If your Cheerios practices run late and your mom gets stuck at the office, it's nice to be able to call someone with a reliable car seat, right?"

"I guess," Quinn shrugged, "Where are we off to?"

"Just some things that I need to do."

Quinn put her seatbelt on and let Rachel take the reins for the day. They casually chatted over the nursery rhymes that the brunette insisted be on her iPod for such occasions. They went to the mall and after they were done shopping, they waited in the line so that Beth could get her picture with Santa Claus. They then stopped at the grocery store, and finally the Gymnastics place.

"Why are we here?"

Rachel didn't answer her. Instead, she turned off the car and got Beth out of the backseat just as Quinn was getting out of the car.

"I knew you wouldn't voluntarily come here with me after yesterday."

"So you set me up?"

"Not exactly."

"What are we doing here?"

"Follow me," Rachel walked towards the doors and waited for Quinn to be at her side. "Excuse me, would you please tell Chase that there's someone here to see him?" she asked the person behind the concession stand.

"What are you doing?" Quinn hissed, "Give me my child, we're leaving."

Rachel held up a hand, "Calm down."

"Calm down?"

The boy from the day before walked through the swinging door behind the counter a moment later. His hesitancy vanished when he recognized the two girls.

"Hey Rachel, what are you doing here?"

"Chase, this is Quinn."

"Hi Quinn, I'm really sorry about yesterday."

Rachel cut in before the blonde could say anything, "This is Quinn's daughter, Beth."

"Seriously?"

"Quite."

He stared at the little girl before looking at Quinn, "But you're so young."

"I apologize for wrongfully misleading you to believe that this was her little sister."

"That's…okay?"

"Great. It was nice meeting you Chase."

"Nice meeting you…too?"

Rachel nodded firmly before she walked back towards the doors.

Quinn was still slightly shocked at how fast everything had happened and stared at the boy for a few seconds, both not knowing what to say.

"Umm, yeah bye."

She got back into the car as Rachel was getting Beth back into the car seat, "What was that all about?"

"I'm not ashamed of you."

"That was kind of an embarrassing way to prove it, don't you think?"

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about!"

Quinn laughed to herself as she got in the car, she couldn't even be mad at Rachel, "Thank you."

The next day, the girls met in their usual spot in the auditorium, to work on their homework. They were back to square one on the search for Rachel's boyfriend

"Wait!"Julianna cries again and inches closer to Beth on the couch.

"Now what?"

"Why is the Queen Princess trying to find a suitor for the Royal Jester? They're perfect for each other!"

"You think so, huh?"

"YES!"

Beth laughs, "Anyway…so as I was saying…"

Rachel ran up to Quinn in the hallway as school let out, "What if I try to date Mr. Schuester again?"

"Again?"

"Long story."

"Ummmm, no."

Rachel frowned, "Why not?"

"Because that's illegal."

"Yeah but I need a good scandal under my belt! The tabloids will need something to use against me in order to bring me down!"

"I can't even take you seriously right now."

"Fine. What about Karofsky?"

Quinn closed her locker, "Are you out of your mind?"

"Why not?"

"Just, no."

"Well, why?"

"Do I really need to give you a reason?"

"Yes, I'd like one."

"Besides the fact that he scores like, a zero, on your scale. He's a bully, and he treated you like crap."

Rachel frowned, "He's changed."

"I'm not letting you even consider him so stop asking."

"But it's like a fairytale, Quinn! Falling for someone that used to treat you poorly? Overcoming the odds? The press will love it. It's all so, A Walk to Remember, don't you think?"

Quinn stared at her and tried to hide her smile. Rachel could be really dramatic without even trying. "What I think, is that it's a horrible idea."

Rachel looped her arm with Quinn's, "Hey, you were a bully and look at us now, we're friends."

"That's different."

"How?"

"It just is. I'm officially vetoing Karofsky."

"Everyone deserves a second chance, Quinn. I gave you one. I'm using my override."

"For Karofsky? You're out of your mind. Save your override…Karofsky is gay."

"Is not."

"Is to."

"You're just saying that."

Quinn stopped walking and turn to Rachel, "Think about it. Pent up aggression that he takes out on other kids and a weird obsession with Kurt."

"That hardly constitutes—"

"He dated Santana to cover himself."

"How do you know that?"

"She told me."

Rachel stomped her foot, "Is there anyone that isn't gay in this town?"

"What's gay?" Julianna asks with an adorable scrunch to her tiny face.

Beth's eyes double in size as she realizes that she slipped up by accident, "Gay means…happy! Yes, gay means that you're really happy."

Julianna accepts the answer after a few long seconds, "Oh I get it, 'cause why would the Royal Jester want someone who was sad all the time?"

Julianna thankfully misses the point and Beth is relieved, "Exactly."

"This is so exciting," Rachel gushed as she flipped through a catalogue for a department store. "Don't you agree?"

Quinn thought it was rather stressful but she hummed her response as she continued to flip through her own catalogue.

"Making holiday lists is one of my favorite past times!" Rachel exclaimed as she circled another toy on the page. "And making a Christmas list for Beth is even better!" She stuck another post it note on the page.

"This is just the preliminary look-through, you are aware of that right?" Quinn asked as she eyed the hundreds of post-it notes peeking out from in between the pages of the catalogue. "Beth isn't getting all of these presents."

"I know that," Rachel replied but her tone most certainly didn't back up her statement.

"Rachel," Quinn warned, "Don't even think about it. And tell your dads the same thing."

"I'll gladly forfeit some of the holiday budget allotted to me in favor of putting it into Beth's budget."

"No. She's spoiled enough as it is! She gets tons of presents from me and my mom, Puck's family, and my sister. Not to mention relatives and family friends. I'm not adding your dads to that list."

Rachel tried to innocently smile but Quinn noted that it seemed a bit smug and victorious, "Too late, they've already begun walk-thru shopping for her, and they've been prowling the blogs to find the latest toy fads for her age group. I suggest you register at a few stores so that people don't buy the same item as someone else."

"I'm having you committed," Quinn joked as she grabbed the magazine away from Rachel and handed her another one to look through. She just wanted to see what types of toys and items the brunette had circled.

They were sitting at one of the blue plastic picnic tables at the gymnastics place while Beth attended yet another party for a girl from her daycare. Once again, the girls were running around on the blue mats as if they'd never seen the light of day before and Quinn chuckled as she watched the frustrated party chaperone.

A blue tray slid onto the table between them, "Two fries, a basket of chicken tenders, a slice of pizza, two burgers, two diet sodas and a chocolate milkshake, did I do good?" Puck asked as he straddled the side of the bench that Quinn was sitting on.

"You did great," Rachel replied with her head down as she flipped through the pages manically, "Thank you Noah."

He smirked before grabbing his milkshake, fries, and two burgers and clicked his tongue when he realized he forgot the condiments, napkins, and straws. Quinn set Rachel's slice of pizza in front of her and put the fries between them before kicking her shin with her foot to get Rachel's attention.

"Eat."

Puck came back to the table and dug into his food, "I wanna get Beth one of those cars for toddlers, you know, like those Escalades they have that she can drive."

"Absolutely not!"

"I had a pink convertible when I was younger, easily the best investment my fathers made."

Puck nodded towards Rachel, she was actually pretty good to have around. His daughter loved her and she agreed with some of the things he said. "See? They're totally safe. We can even get her a pink one."

Quinn looked back and forth between the two and shook her head, "No."

Puck called her earlier in the morning and told her that he no longer had to watch his little sister so he could join her at the birthday party, it'd been a while since he'd been able to attend one with her so she happily agreed.

"C'mon," Puck started, "She'll be the coolest little girl on the block!"

Quinn looked to Rachel to find her eagerly nodding, "I'll think about it."

Rachel squealed and Puck held out his fist for her to bump. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea for the three of them to get together, they seemed to team up on her often.

"Hey Rachel."

Quinn looked up to find the soda-spiller boy casting a shadow over their table, she looked back to Rachel to find her dropping her slice of pizza on the plate and reaching for a napkin.

"Chase, how are you?"

Quinn had completely forgotten about the boy since the last encounter. To be honest, she just assumed she was done having to consider him a prospect since Rachel was quite adamant about never repeating what had happened between them ever again.

"I'm good," he swallowed nervously as he saw Quinn shooting daggers into him and Puck with his solemn expression before clearing his throat, "Can I talk to you?" he jerked his head behind him, "Over here?"

Quinn was about to open her mouth but realized that it wasn't her place to say a word. Rachel looked to both her friends before nodding hesitantly, "Of course."

She stood from the table and followed the boy, Quinn turned to watch her walk away. What's this kid's angle?

"Who's the tool?"

Quinn turned back to Puck and took a sip of her soda, "No one. Soon to be irrelevant."

"Beth!"Julianna huffs exaggeratedly.

"Julianna!" Beth mimics.

"Why do they keep going back to the Gladiator Arena if that's where Charming is!"

Beth thinks about it, "That's a very good question. I don't know."

"You know what I think?"

"What do you think?"

"I think that the Queen Princess likes the Royal Jester."

"You think so?"

"Yes! Don't you?"

"But the Queen Princess has a very important job to do, I don't think she realizes how much she likes the Royal Jester."

"Beth?"

"Yes?"

"Is this a Disney movie?"

Beth laughs, "No, it should be, though, huh?"

Julianna nods eagerly with wide eyes and gestures for the babysitter to continue.

Puck sat in the front seat as he listened to the two girls playfully bicker back and forth, at least he assumed it was playful. It appeared that his baby mama was actually quite serious about it.

"He's easily a 70 pointer," Rachel claimed from the back seat.

"Not even!" Quinn argued.

"What are you guys even talking about?"

"He's smart, he's mature, he's responsible, he works with kids, he's trust worthy and he's gorgeous." Rachel listed on her fingers, "That's 70 points."

"You have no idea if he's trust worthy or smart."

"I like him!"

Quinn eyed her in the rearview mirror so that Rachel understood that she meant business, "I'm not letting you go out on a date with him!"

"That's why I'm asking you two to tag along! A double date!"

"Wait, what?" Puck asked as Quinn roared next to him.

"I'm not going out with the two of you. He'll probably spill his soda on my lap again."

"He apologized for that."

"What happened?" Puck tried again uselessly.

"He's doesn't seem so responsible if he's going around and maliciously dropping sodas on people's laps."

"It was an accident!"

"Daddy!" Beth kicked the back of his seat happily, "Daddy!"

"Hi princess!" Puck turned around to make eye contact with his daughter, at least she paid attention to him.

"Please Quinn! I think he could be the one," Rachel replied sadly, "It's not every day that someone cute like him wants to take me out on a date."

Quinn slowed down as she approached Rachel's house, "I'll think about it," she finally decided.

"Thank you." Rachel hugged her from the back seat and ruffed up Puck's Mohawk before kissing Beth's forehead and opening the car door, "I'll see you later tonight. Bye Beth!"

"Bye Yachel! Bye bye bye bye bye."

Quinn waited until Rachel got into her house before pulling away.

"We should go for her," Puck spoke up.

"The kid is bad news. And I don't feel like spending one of my few nights off in his company."

"I'm not disagreeing with you, there's something not right with him but Rachel's done so much for you and our daughter, don't you think you could give her a few hours?"

Well when it was put like that, how could she say no?

"Besides, I think it will be eye-opening for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Puck shrugged and looked out the window, "Nothing."

Quinn continued to drive towards her house where Puck left his car, "You know, you can stay for a bit, I'm sure Beth would love it."

Puck turned to her with a smile, "Look at us, getting along and stuff."

Quinn rolled her eyes playfully, "You're not that bad," she teased.

The blonde pulled into her driveway and let Puck get their daughter out of the carseat, "When do you wanna go shopping for this one?"

Quinn let the wicked smile slide onto her face as she opened her front door, "I have the perfect night."

It was an epic fail on Quinn's part, her brilliant idea backfired. She and Puck went holiday shopping for Beth and allowed Rachel and Chase to tag along. Quinn hated everything about him. His too smooth lines, the way he whispered things into Rachel's ear to make her giggle, and especially the way Rachel hung on every word he said. No one was that perfect. They were practically necking in the middle of the mall! She figured that Chase would see all the crazy—yet, endearing to her—sides of Rachel as they shopped and he'd be over her but not only did he adore her but Quinn could barely focus on the shopping task. She had no idea what Puck even convinced her to buy.

The only reason that she hated him was because she realized that once Rachel found her boyfriend, Quinn's job was essentially over. Does that mean that Rachel doesn't really need her anymore? Were they going to stop being friends? Beth was already so dependent on Rachel and she knew that this would happen. Beth crying her eyes out one night while Rachel was on one of her dates with Chase. It made her even more mad, that her daughter had to suffer because Rachel would rather make googly eyes at some kid.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend!" Rachel jumped up and down excitedly a few days after Christmas, "I rushed right over so you'd be the first to know! We did it!" she hugged the blonde.

"That's…awesome," Quinn gritted through her teeth. It so wasn't awesome. Now her best friend was going to have no time for her and she had to share her with some doofus.

Quinn wondered if Rachel could tell how bitter she was about the entire thing. She tried not to be too obvious but she'd worked so hard to become best friends with Rachel and she felt like she was suddenly losing her. She understood, she was in the puppy-dog stage of a relationship and it would hopefully soon blow over. She just needed him to mess up somehow, or show his true colors.

Ask and she shall receive.

Quinn dropped Beth off at Puck's earlier in the morning and she decided to run to the gymnastics place while Rachel was at one of her singing lessons. Not because she wanted to see Chase or anything, in fact, Rachel claimed that he wasn't working that morning since apparently she knew his entire life's schedule or something, but because she'd rather do it before Rachel had the chance to convince her to do it another time. She was scheduling Beth's birthday party since it seemed to still be the place to have a little girl's birthday party. She had to book it far in advance. If Rachel knew that she was planning on having the birthday party at the gymnastics place, she would have told her to wait until Chase was working so that Rachel could tag along. She'd rather just get it over with. She had her planner out on the counter and was deciding on possible days that coincided with open days from the party planning calendar when she heard it.

A shrill squeal, the sound of ice hitting the floor, and liquid dripping. It was all too familiar and it caused her to turn around in curiosity. She saw a brunette, probably around her age, looking down at her wet clothes with a boy in the purple polo uniform shirt sympathetically apologizing.

"Holy shit," she muttered under her breath as she ducked behind some of the merchandise in the pro-shop.

"I'm so sorry," the boy told the girl, "It's my first day and I'm being so clumsy, I'm so getting fired over this."

The girl tried to smile, "It's fine, really. Not to worry."

"Son of a bitch!" Quinn narrowed her eyes as the boy turned around fully and she got a clear view of his face, "That little sleazebag!"

"Ma'am?" the lady behind the counter came back and was surveying Quinn's crouched position behind the rack of sweatshirts.

Quinn straightened up and walked back over to the counter to tell the woman that she'd be back in at a later date to arrange the party.

Was Chase running some kind of sleazy pickup ring? How many girls had he accidentally spilled soda on? Wait a second, he spilled the soda on Quinn, not Rachel. Had he been trying to pick her up instead?

She didn't know how to go about this. Rachel needed to know immediately but Quinn knew how these things worked. It was clear that she didn't like the boy, would Rachel trust her enough to believe her? She hoped so.

She decided to most definitely handle the boy though, she could figure out a way to let Rachel know later. Maybe she could threaten the boy to tell the truth.

"Hey, buddy," Quinn called after him as he was coming out from behind the concession stand counter.

"Hey Quinn, how are you? Is Rachel here?"

Quinn stared at him, "Is that worry I'm seeing? Afraid she saw your little attempt at picking up some girl by spilling your soda on them?"

Chase smirked easily, as if he wasn't fazed at all by Quinn's tone, "You're going to tell on me?"

"No. You're going to tell her."

He chuckled, "It's nice to see you, Quinn. You haven't been around much…guess Rachel's starting to forget about you."

The blonde took a threatening step closer, the adrenaline running through her body, guiding her every move. It was exhilarating.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my best friend."

"You care about her an awfully lot, a little too much. Too bad she doesn't care about you the same way."

"What are you even talking about?"

"You're a charity case for her, a teen mom? It's pathetic. What are you going to do?"

Quinn shook her head with a chuckle. It was a nice attempt but she was smarter than that. "This isn't going to work, I trust Rachel and I know damn well that you're just making shit up now."

"You may trust her, but is she going to trust you? When you desperately try to tell her all about the big, bad, mean boyfriend? Good luck."

"You're so on my list."

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Rachel probably wasn't going to believe her. Chase had done nothing to even give off douchebag vibes to her. It didn't help matters that he had somehow gotten to her first.

She sat in the seat next to Rachel in the auditorium at lunch, "Rach, I have to tell you something." She took a deep breath. She knew that the odds of believing her were slim to none but it didn't deter her. It was important to look shaken up about it though. "You might not believe it, but you have to trust me okay? Promise me, I'd never do or say anything to intentionally hurt you, okay?"

"What's going on, you're scaring me."

Quinn took another deep breath, "It's about Chase."

Rachel frowned deeply, the worry rising to her features. "What about him?"

"He's not who you think he is. He's…well, he's actually not at all who you think he is. I saw him on Saturday, flirting with someone."

She hoped that Rachel didn't dwell on the fact that it took Quinn two days to tell her the news, she just wanted to tell her in person and this was the first chance she got.

"What? Where?"

"The gymnastics place. On Saturday."

"Impossible. He wasn't working that day. And what were you even doing there? Beth didn't have a party did she?"

Quinn waved her off, "No, I was scheduling one for her and I saw him. He spilled his drink on someone and then flirted with the girl."

"I'm sure he wasn't flirting, you're mistaken."

"He told her it was his first day on the job, doesn't that sound familiar?"

Rachel drew her bottom lip into her mouth and shook her head, "He probably was just nervous that she'd complain to his manager so he told her a white lie so she wouldn't be so mad."

"You're making excuses for him."

"I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt." She defended herself.

"Rachel, wake up."

"You know what, I think you're right, I need to wake up. He was right about you."

Quinn physically leaned back, "Excuse me?"

"He thinks you hate him, and he doesn't know why. I'm starting to agree. What is your problem with him? He's been nothing but nice to you and you've done nothing but rip his every action apart. I happen to really like him, Quinn Fabray, and I'm tired of having to defend myself when I want to hang out with him. You need to get over your jealously issues."

"No, really, excuse me?"

Rachel sunk down a bit, clearly shocked at what she was saying but not wanted to back down, "You heard me."

"My problem with him is that he's not good enough for my best friend."

"Well who is?"

Quinn flinched as Rachel stood and screamed at her, "Rach—"

"No, who is going to be good enough for me?" she lowered her voice a bit, "I'm tired of guys not respecting me, or taking advantage. Finn only wanted me when he didn't have me and Jesse used me, Chase is different. He never tells me that I'm talking too much, and he doesn't pressure me to be more intimate. He may not be the perfect 100 but he's the best I'm going to do and I'm okay with that because we like each other."

"I'm telling you, Rachel, there's something not right about him."

"No, Quinn, I'm telling you, leave it alone." Rachel swiped some wetness from under her eye with the back of her hand and stood taller, "I appreciate all that you've done but I no longer need your assistance regarding my love life."

"You're making a mistake."

"Maybe I am, but it's my mistake to make."

Quinn stood up to match Rachel's stance, "You want to be stubborn? Fine. You want to trust some boy that you've known for two months over your best friend? Go right ahead. Don't come sobbing to me when you find out what a scumbag he is because I tried to warn you. I actually care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt, but when he hurts you, I would think twice about this moment because it all could have been avoided. And another thing, I don't want him around my child, so you have some serious decisions to make."

Rachel sighed, "Quinn—"

"I can't believe you would take his side over mine, especially after all we've been through together. Your dads? They hate him. They don't trust him and I agree. You want to know why Jesse cracked eggs over your head or why Finn walked all over you? It was because you let them. You ignored the warning signs and you didn't have a friend to help you."

"You're not being much of a friend right now."

"You're right." Quinn decided as she started to grab her books.

"Where are you going?"

"I think I should leave you alone for a bit. We—I need to cool off."

"O-okay."

"I'll talk to you later."

"Wait, Quinn…are we? Are we okay?"

"I'm not sure."

Rachel nodded with red rimmed eyes and attempted to smile but couldn't do it. She looked down to the ground and Quinn was too worked up to allow her to soften her. She was royally pissed at the entire situation. She was pissed that Chase got to her first, she was pissed that Rachel was taking his side, she was pissed that she lost her temper with her friend, and she was especially pissed that now they were fighting over it. It's exactly what he wants. She couldn't think of him because all she could see was his smug and cocky grin and it made her want to go on a manhunt looking for him so she could slap it off his dumb face.

"I don't like this." Julianna shakes her head. "I don't like this one bit."

Beth nodded and looked at the clock, "It's almost 11, can't we finish this story next time?"

"NO!"

Quinn was in the library the next day. She hadn't spoken to Rachel since the day before in the auditorium and it was obvious that the girls were fighting. Even Santana made a comment. She barely got any sleep the night before because she couldn't stop thinking about how she should call Rachel and apologize. But she couldn't! They would just get into another fight over the boy at another time. She needed to come up with a plan. As much as it hurt her to slap Rachel with the reality of the situation, it needed to be done. She needed to expose Chase for his lying ways and if it meant that she'd lose her friendship with the brunette then so be it. She'd sacrifice it so that Rachel wouldn't be heartbroken in the long run.

She looked up from her notebook of scribbled hatred hoping to find the brunette sitting across from her at the back corner table in the library. Even though they weren't speaking, she still missed her every minute they were apart. They met in the library occasionally but clearly the blonde hadn't told her friend that she'd be there so it made sense that when she finally looked up she wasn't staring into the brown eyes that had grown so familiar to her. The eyes belonged to Kurt.

Kurt watched her continue to draw things with her black pen, "What are you working on?" he asked, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair.

Quinn looked down at her caricature-like drawing of what resembled Chase. His nose was exaggerated, and there were X's instead of eyes, and there were a bunch of little knives around his head, but it was clear that it was him.

"Nothing important."

"So you have time to chat?"

She glanced down at her notebook and continued to shade in his uni-brow.

"Um, sure."

"At the beginning of the year, I hated you."

She looked up, "Okay?"

"And I'm putting it mildly."

"Look Kurt—"

"Let me finish."

The blonde snapped her mouth shut at the no-nonsense attitude coming off of Kurt in waves. She decided to grant him his request.

"You hurt Rachel, really bad. When I went to her house the night of Beth's 1st birthday to find her still crying over the mean things she overheard you saying, well I pretty much wanted to kill you."

Quinn sighed, she knew that she messed up with that but wasn't she done with repaying her debt? She knew that she probably had to have this talk with Kurt since Rachel was still really close with him but she really didn't feel like having it while the two girls were fighting, "Is there a point to this?"

"But I see her now, and I see how close you two have gotten. She considers you her best friend, and I can see that you feel the same about her."

Quinn nodded unsurely, she wasn't in the mood to be reminded of the fact that she missed Rachel while they were in the middle of a fight but something told her that she wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Are you just going to tell me not to hurt her? Because if that's what this is, you can save your breath. It's not me that you should be having this discussion with."

He chuckled a bit and fixed his hair, "No. That's not what this is. I see what you're doing, how you helped her find someone, and I appreciate it. You know, what you did."

"Thanks."

"I'd like to help you."

"You'd like to help me?"

"You two have been at this for what? 3 or 4 months? All you've managed to do is find her a boy that's questionable, at best."

She agreed with him but didn't like that her hard work was so easily belittled, "That's not true, she's been out with plenty of guys. And I've managed to find her a boyfriend." She gritted through her teeth. A stupid, best friend stealing, arrogant, pretentious jackass of a boyfriend.

"You don't think he's good enough though, right? In fact, no one seemed to be good enough."

She laughed, "That's because none of them were. And yes, I don't think Chase is the ideal man but Rachel seems to be dead serious about continuing her relationship with him. She's made it quite clear that nothing I say or do will convince her that he's not who she thinks he is."

"Maybe if you found her another person, someone who is that perfect companion, maybe she'd be more inclined to leave this loser and date the new one."

"I doubt it. You want me to find someone else for her? Right now I'm trying to find out ways to sabotage their relationship, I've got my hands full."

"What's going to happen when you succeed in showing her this boy's true intentions, hmm? You'll need someone for her to fall back on…someone to comfort her when she cries."

Why couldn't Quinn be that person? They were best friends, isn't that the best friend's job?

"I guess, but I'm pretty sure we've been through every guy in this town and no one seemed right. Well, there was that coffee shop boy who was sparkling in comparison to this jerk."

"Well, I did attend an all boy's school and I believe I can help you find someone if you let me help."

Quinn thought about it for a few seconds. He seemed genuine and behind her, Kurt was Rachel's second best friend. Maybe he'd even help her convince Rachel that Chase is no good for her.

"Fine."

He smiled, "Great, so tell me what kind of person you're looking for. Someone that you will without a doubt allow Rachel to date seriously."

"Okay well, Rachel wants someone that's—"

"No, no. I'm interested in who you think is good enough for Rachel."

"Oh."

She hadn't actually ever sat down and listed the qualities that she thought should be in the boy that Rachel wanted.

"Well um," she stalled, not quite sure what to say. "Okay, well, she needs someone that is smart. Both street smart and book smart. Someone that can pass her cute notes during her AP classes. What are you doing?"

Quinn looked across the table to find Kurt writing.

"Oh, I'm just jotting them down so I can get a visual. Please, continue…"

"Okay," she thought some more, "Someone grown up but still can connect with their inner child."

He nodded and continued to write, "Go on."

She ran a hand through her hair, "Responsible but knows how to have fun occasionally. Someone that can make her laugh, that's really important. She needs someone she can joke around and banter with."

The more she talked the easier it was to come up with the type of guy that was perfect for her friend. It was easy. She knew almost everything about Rachel and the kind of person that she'd get along with.

"Someone musical. Someone that can sing with her and keep up. I think that musicians are all about themselves so someone that plays a modest instrument, like the piano or something. I don't want anyone that will be all about themselves."

She continued, "Obviously someone good looking, but they need to be naturally good looking. Not someone vain that knows they're good looking but the shy kind of beauty that is endearing."

"No one insecure or whiny, definitely someone that isn't intimidated by her but someone that's okay with giving her the spotlight when she needs it. A behind the scenes support system. Confident but not cocky, protective but not overbearing, someone that really understands who Rachel is."

"Anything else?"

"They need to be able to joke around with her fathers, and they definitely need to pass the Beth test."

Kurt's eyebrow raised, "The Beth test?"

"Yeah, Beth needs to like them."

"Of course."

"She needs someone who can handle all of her crazy and still appreciate everything that comes out of her mouth. They can be the complete opposite of each other but somehow entirely complement each other. Someone that needs her just as much as she needs them."

Kurt continued writing down everything Quinn was giving him. She racked her brain for more but she couldn't really think of anything else off the top of her head. She felt that her criterion was unreachable. Who could ever live up to the expectations she had in her mind?

Kurt beamed, "I have the perfect person."

Quinn sat on the edge of her seat, "Really? Who? Do I know them? Will I like them?" she asked skeptically.

"I have a feeling it will all make sense."

"Well, who is it?"

Kurt smiled to himself as he continued to write before he turned the notebook around so she could see the name he jotted down.

At first, she wasn't sure where to look but then she saw it, in big bold letters over the chicken scratch writing that she assumed was the list he copied down.

Quinn Fabray.

"Shit."