Rachel was scared. The brunette had escaped the school's wrath yesterday, thanks to Ms Sylvester threatening everyone with expulsion if they couldn't control themselves. She had also threatened to take away all of Mr. Shue's toaster ovens if he hatched anymore rainbow colored eggs. The diva didn't understand what that meant, but she believed that Ms Sylvester often suffered from dementia so she ignored the absurd comment and carried on with her human rights speech. Rachel was grateful that Jacob reluctantly agreed to post it on his blog in an effort to control the schools inevitable outrage at having another homosexual in their midst. She however wasn't convinced it would do much to protect her from her inevitable torture today.
Yesterday had been stressful and traumatizing for the tiny diva. Each step she took through the hallways she was filled with trepidation, waiting for the sting of insults and frozen beverages, but nothing happened. There was whispering, staring, laughing and finger pointing, but no verbal or physical assault to her humanity.
Today was a new day, however, and she knew eventually the tide would turn, yesterday was the calm before the storm. With a deep breath she squared her shoulders and pulled open the school's front door, she wanted to run to her first class and hide, but instead she walked calmly through the hallway. Her heart hammered in her chest when she turned her back to the crowd of students and opened her locker. Irrational fears of being attacked from behind, dying a slow frozen death covered in sticky slush flashed in her mind. She shuddered before closing the metal door, she took another deep breath and turned towards her first class, maybe she would survive after all. Maybe the students were in such a state of shock that there would be no retaliation and all her fears were irrational.
The bite and frozen burn of a grape slushy slapped her in the face and reinforced that her initial concerns were accurate. She gasped in surprise and pain.
"Stay out of our locker room freak!"
Rachel squinted through the sting of sugar in her eyes to see some girl she didn't recognize. She was disappointed, she had expected this from the jocks and cheerios but the girls blocking her path looked like members of the chess club. She had just sunk to a new all time low.
And it just kept getting lower, the tiny brunette managed to change her clothes and make it to her first class only being a moment or two late. She safely ducked into her second class not bothering to return to her locker for her books. Her luck, however, did not carry her through to third period unscathed.
Someone shouted something obscene and when she turned to look at the culprit she found her only spare shirt dripping with cherry slushy. Rachel stumbled her way into the closest bathroom, her face crumpled and tears threatening to fall. The diva quickly stripped the shirt and rinsed it in the sink but it was no use, the red stain would remain, branding her like a big scarlet letter.
She started to cry, it was a new record, slushied twice before lunch. She missed all of third period sitting in a bathroom stall trying to get herself under control. The diva had been tempted to call her dad's and tell them she was ill, but she had never missed a day of school in her life, not even when she had tonsillitis and came in her pajamas. She was not a quitter, she knew this would be hard and she had to stand strong in the face of adversity.
Rachel tried to silence her sniffles when she heard someone turn on a faucet. When the water stopped Rachel focused her exceptional hearing and waited for the person to leave, but other than the slight rustle of clothing she heard no movement for the door. The brunette looked at her watch and realized that she should leave soon anyway if she was going to make it to calculus. Flushing the toilet for affect she exited the stall, coming to a stop when she realized that none other than head cheerleader was touching up her makeup. The brunette wished she could just leave, but hurried over to the sink farthest from the blonde to wash her hands.
Quinn watched the diva out of the corner of her eye. Placing the cap on her eyeliner she turned to face the brunette arms folding across her chest. "I am going to graciously offer you an opportunity to fix the mess you created before I make your life a living hell."
Rachel released the breath she was holding, she had expected to be verbally assaulted at a minimum, if not slapped by the HBIC, but the blonde's threat was definitely lacking in originality. The brunette didn't respond as she walked past the blonde to dispose of the damp paper towel in her hand.
Quinn was stunned and infuriated when the little diva ignored her; she snagged the shorter girl by the arm and spun her around. When Rachel tried to pull away Quinn grabbed her other arm and forced the brunette backwards into the wall to hold her still. "What's the matter man hands I thought you liked girls?"
Rachel forced her voice to remain level, "Quinn, I apologize that my feelings for the fairer sex were some how misconstrued to be directed at you, but I assure you that information did not come from me. Now if..."
"Shut up!" Quinn wasn't just angry she was seething; the entire school thought that Rachel was interested in her and with that piece of information came the backlash of rumors questioning whether the blonde returned those feelings or did something to invite the diva's advances. Quinn couldn't believe the brunette's self righteous act when she had caused a scandal of unprecedented proportion, " I don't care if you have to sleep with the next 20 girls who walk into this bathroom or dance naked through the hallways singing show tunes, just do it! Just do whatever it takes to make sure that everyone knows that there is nothing between us and no one ever talks about it again!" Quinn shook the brunette to ensure her words were getting through.
Rachel's ability to tolerate this new level of abuse sliced through her normally perky personality. She could take the verbal mistreatment, she could take the slushies but she was not going to be physically assaulted by anyone, not by Karofsky or Quinn! Rachel spat her next words at the blonde, "I might like girls but that does not mean I have any interest in you or that I enjoy your inappropriate invasion of my personal space! So unless you want me to tell the school board that you assaulted me, I suggest you release me immediately."
Quinn laughed and Rachel fumed. Nothing seemed to get under the ever cool exterior of the head Cheerio. What Rachel couldn't see is that Quinn was bound up in knots on the inside. Rachel always stood her ground, but Quinn needed her to break this time, she needed Rachel to save her reputation before the wrong information got to her mother and she found herself out on the street again.
Quinn leaned in, pressing Rachel further into the wall, her hands bruising in their grip. Rachel's eyes went wide when she felt warm breathe on her ear, a light whisper filtered through her ear and shivered its way down through her body, "If you don't find a way to fix this, I'll make sure this is as close as you get to any girl…ever."
Rachel prayed for her release but before Quinn ended her play of dominance she did something completely unexpected. Rachel jumped as warm breath traveled down from her ear to hover over her pulse point. The brunette's eyes opened wide with shock at the pleasurable sensation, she tried to struggle free again but the cheerleader was stronger. In a desperate attempt to remove the sensation tingling across her skin Rachel let her knees give out beneath her and sank to the floor burying her flushed face in her hands.
Quinn stood above her, her expression hard and unapologetic. "Walk away from me again treasure trail and you'll regret." With that she turned and left the crumpled diva. As the head cheerleader parted the busy hallways with her get out of the way or get walked on glare, she involuntarily raised her fingers to her lips. She couldn't help the nagging feeling that of all the things she had ever said and done to the other girl, that maybe this time she had gone too far.