Hi. Sorry I haven't updated. This chapter refused to be written and just...no. You can tell by the length, but I really wanted to get this moving so yeah. Here's this. Can you guys tell me if there's any grammar mistakes and/or inconsistencies? Thank you!

June 12, 2004

Puck's eyes shifted from Rachel to the large maple tree in the middle of her backyard. He felt sweat drip down his face—they'd probably been playing outside for hours. The seams of his jeans were being picked at, a nervous tic of his. Rachel was standing a few yards away from him, waiting for Puck to make his move. The smirk on her face was daunting. Puck contemplated if he would make it to the tree before Rachel tagged him.

Probably not.

"C'mon Noah, I know you want to go." Rachel taunted. Her long hair was matted to her face and her breath was coming out in short bursts. Puck shook his head.

"But then you're gonna tag me and I'm gonna be it!" he whined.

"Exactly,"

Puck rolled his eyes, huffing. Rachel was being annoying, but she had him.

Damn it.

He threw his hands in the air. "I give up. You win." The boy took this route because he knew it would save him his pride and it ticked Rachel off to no end.

"What! You can't do that!" Rachel protested, stomping her shoes in the short-cut grass.

"But I just did," he cleverly retorted.

"You suck!" she yelled before tackling him. She straddled him and starting throwing punches to his face, pulling them of course. Puck threw his arms in front of him, trying to knock Rachel off while protecting his face.

"Crap…Rach…stop!"

"No!"

"RACHEL! GET OFF OF NOAH!" Leroy demanded from inside the house. The dark man looked furious at his daughter. Rachel stared at her daddy for a second, weighing the pros and cons of disobeying. On one hand, Leroy wasn't wearing any shoes, so he wouldn't come out of the house just yet, leaving time to sink one into Puck's face for being a prick. On the other, she was going to get it twice as hard if she did. He might even spank her. Rachel's eyes widened. She didn't like to be spanked. Picking herself up off of Puck, she sent her father a nervous grin, but not before kicking the downed boy for good measure. He yelped in pain.

"Rachel Barbra Berry, you get inside this house this instant."

"See what you do?" She muttered to Puck, who was clutching his side where she had kicked him.

"Whatever," he wheezed back.

Rachel went inside the house to meet her father and they both waited for Puck to limp up to them.

"What do you think you're both doing?"

"Well…" Rachel started.

"Rach attacked me, Lee! She jumped on me like she was crazy, and she almost killed me! She kicked me too!" Puck tattled. Leroy's eyes hardened when they landed on his daughter.

"But Daddy! It was Puck's fault! He couldn't win so he gave up! He knows how much I hate that!" she defended herself.

"That doesn't give you any right to beat Noah up. You apologize right now."

Rachel turned to Puck, her lips a thin line. "Sorry," she said, sounding not sorry at all.

"Hey, so are you coming over?" Sam asked Finn over the phone. They had struck up a friendship during basketball tryouts earlier that month, them finally being old enough to play. Finn seemed pretty cool and this was going to be their first hang out outside of school.

"Yeah, my mom's just getting dressed."

"Cool. Oh, and Quinn's here, just to let you know."

"Wait. Quinn? As in Quinn Fabray? Woah, that's…" Finn trailed off.

"Don't worry, she's just sleeping. She said her dad wouldn't let her sleep." Sam whispered the last part because he knew that it was something bad. He didn't know what, but it was bad.

"Uh, I guess. I just…don't tell anyone, but I…I have a crush on Quinn."

Sam's eyes widened. Finn had a crush on Quinn? Well, he could see where Finn's coming from—Quinn's actually really pretty, anyone with eyes can see that—but…it's Quinn.

Hey, Finn and Quinn rhymed. Sam laughed.

"Dude? Hello? Oh my God, you didn't tell her, did you?"

"What? Oh no. I won't tell. Promise,"

"Oh, okay. Good. Well, my mom's calling for me, so I'll see you at your house."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye,"

Click.

Sam gave the phone back to his mother before heading to his room. Quinn was on his bed, under his covers, sleeping. She looked funny sleeping in a blanket that was covered with footballs, baseballs, and basketballs. He wished Quinn would wake up so they could do something fun. Sighing, he turned on his TV and put on MTV, hoping for music videos.

/

"Quinn looks like she's dead," was the first thing out of Finn's mouth when he and Sam entered the blonde boy's room. He quickly realized how rude that sounded and corrected himself, "Not in a bad way or anything."

"It's cool. I don't think she can hear you anyways." Sam laughed. They both sat down on the floor since Quinn was taking up the bed. Sam watched as Finn continuously stole glances at Quinn's sleeping face. Well, he did have a crush on her.

"So," Sam started, pulling Finn's attention away from the sleeping girl inside the sport covered blankets, "anything you want to do?"

Finn chewed on his tongue. "You have PlayStation?"

Sam smirked. "Do I have a PlayStation?" He walked over to his drawer and squatted, eye-level with the second to the bottom drawer, and opened it, revealing tons of videogames.

July 19, 2004

"…and boom! Totally kicked your ass!" Puck shoved Rachel with one hand since the other had a controller in it. Rachel hit the floor, but quickly resumed her sitting position in front of the TV screen. She smacked him on the back of the head for his language.

"Rachel! Noah! Lee and I are going to the store! Wanna tag along?" Hiram asked from the kitchen. Rachel and Puck looked at each other and they both nodded. Puck turned off the Xbox as Rachel went to tell her dads that they would go.

/

"I'm sorry that I huuuuurt yooooooou," Puck and Rachel sang in the car. The Reason was the best song ever. "It's something I must live with everydaaaay,"

Suddenly the radio turned off.

"Hey!" Rachel protested. Leroy turned from the passenger seat to look at Rachel and Puck.

"No singing in the car." He warned.

"Bu—"

"Uh," the dark man interrupted, "no singing."

"Fine." Rachel huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking into the seat, a pout on her face. Puck just shrugged, looking out the window. Rachel's daddy put the radio back on.

I found a reason to show a side of me you didn't know

A reason for all that I do

And the reason is you

This is 94.7 FM and that was Hoobastank's The Reason. Stay tuned for more hits!

"We missed the whole song!" Rachel cried.

"The radio plays that song a million times a day, calm down." Hiram rolled his eyes. His daughter was such a drama queen.

/

"Hey," Puck whispered to Rachel. They were in the local supermarket, following Rachel's dads a few steps behind. "Let's sneak candy into the cart." He pointed at the cart that Hiram was pushing around. Rachel's eyes lit up at the prospect of candy. She loved the stuff. She nodded her head in agreement, and the two brunettes snuck away from the unknowing adults.

Rachel and Puck walked down the cleaning aisle—at least, that's what Puck called it—and into the personal hygiene aisle. Rachel stopped to look at the deodorants, which she knew she would need soon. Her eyes roamed all the different brands and colors and scents. Puck huffed in annoyance at Rachel's stop, tugging her along.

"But Noah! I think I should tell my dads' that I'm gon—"

"Shut up! Look, the candy aisle is right there!" Puck pointed at a sign above an aisle:

Candy

Gum

Chips

Rachel grinned, forgetting what she was saying. They ran to the aisle, completely disregarding the unaware shoppers that almost ran over them. Puck dodged and weaved while Rachel ran around the shoppers, apologizing.

Unfortunately for Puck, when he rounded the aisle, a cart smacked him in the face. He stumbled backward. Rachel caught him and smacked him on the head for being a dumbass and not checking for potential runner-overs. The boy groaned in pain.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" A blonde lady rushed to them, probably the one who didn't see Puck. Rachel thought she looked familiar. "Is he okay? Are you okay, sweetie?" The blonde lady patted his arms, trying to comfort him.

"Oh, he's fine," Rachel spoke for him. "He just needs to look out more, is all." She grinned sheepishly.

"Well, I feel terrible about this whole thing." The blonde lady smoothed her hair back. Rachel thought she looked so familiar, it was on the tip of her tounge—

"You're Quinn's mom, right?" she blurted. Oops, she hadn't meant to actually say it. The blonde lady nodded.

"Yes, I'm Quinn's mother…and you two are friends of my daughter?" Quinn's mom asked with a small smile on her face. Puck, who had recovered, and Rachel shrugged—they weren't Quinn's friends, but they knew who she was.

"Something like that," Rachel answered. She also had wanted to kiss her daughter, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that. Quinn's mom nodded.

"Well, I do feel awfully bad about this. How about I buy you both a candy and we'll call it even?"

Puck and Rachel eagerly agreed.

Shitty chapter, right? But thank you for readingggg.