nikq: Yes, the Fabrays will not be complete assholes in this story.

Chapter 4 – Halloween

Rachel sighed. "Sam, will you stop staring at her."

"I can't help it," Sam replied.

"Yes, you can," Rachel argued. "Just turn your head and look the other way."

"But she's just so—"

Rachel rolled her eyes, tuning out Sam's rant about how amazing and beautiful Quinn Fabray was. She was a patient person, but this was getting a little ridiculous. He would stare at her from afar in the halls, in the cafeteria, anytime they saw her in town—she actually felt like it was bordering on stalking at this point. She was just glad he didn't sit outside her house, watching her while she was in her bedroom—or at least if he was, Rachel wasn't aware of it. She kept trying to get him to talk to Quinn, but he just wouldn't do it. She had no idea why he was being like this; he got rejected by girls he liked all the time, so he really should be used to it. Normally he shrugged it off, but he wouldn't even make an attempt with Quinn.

"—and have you noticed how her eyes change color? It's like sometimes they're green and sometimes they're gold and—"

"Sam," Rachel finally interrupted.

"I know what you're going to say," Sam said, sighing. "You're going to tell me I should go talk to her."

"Yes," Rachel replied.

"I know I should, but I'm just so tired of every girl shooting me down," Sam said, frowning.

Even though she was getting annoyed with him, she did feel bad for him. At any other school Sam would be fighting off girls, but this was McKinley. Sam tended to be more on the superficial side, which meant he really only went for the popular girls—specifically the cheerleaders—but he lost any chance with them when he was deemed unpopular. Even if one of the girls did like him, they would never agree to a date for fear of being ostracized. It was stupid and completely not fair, but it's the way the school was; everyone knew it, but no one ever tried to do anything about it.

"Come on," Rachel said, nudging Sam. "I don't want to be late."

Sam was still staring down the hall at Quinn as he began following Rachel. "We won't be; Mr. Schue's always way later than any of us ever are."

"Dude, don't forget to bring some chips or something," Puck said, knocking into Rachel as he walked by.

"Excuse you," Rachel said, scowling at the back of his head.

"I have an idea!" Sam suddenly said, grabbing her arm to stop her.

"I don't know if I like the sound of this," Rachel said, eyeing him.

"No, it's a great idea!" Sam said, smiling widely, and making Rachel even more concerned. "We should crash Puck's party!"

Rachel couldn't help but laugh at the suggestion. "Tell me you're not serious."

"I'm totally serious," Sam replied. "No, listen. It's Halloween, right? It's gonna be a costume party, so we just have costumes on and no one will know who we are! I can talk to Quinn without her knowing it's me, and then I can show her how awesome I am."

"What does it matter if she has no idea who you are?" Rachel asked.

"She doesn't have to know," Sam said, shaking his head. "If I impress her enough, she'll come looking for me; she'll want to figure out who I am, and then I'll tell her."

"There are so many things that could wrong with this," Rachel replied.

"What could go wrong?" Sam asked. "As long as our faces are covered, no one will know who we are. I've heard about Puck's parties; he has, like, a million people there, so no one will even think twice about us. C'mon, it's not like you have anything better to do tonight."

"What makes you think I have a costume?" Rachel asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"You dressed as Batgirl when you went to that convention with me," Sam reminded her. "It'd be perfect!"

Rachel sighed. "Alright, but I am stating for the record that I think this is going to be a disaster."

"What if we get caught?" Tina whispered.

"I suppose they could throw slushies in our face or try to stick our heads in the toilet—oh wait, they already do that," Kurt said.

"I'm sure they can think of something worse," Tina replied.

"If they could, they would be doing it already," Kurt argued.

"Guys," Sam interrupted. "It's not too late to go home if you wanna. We're not inside."

"I'm not the one complaining," Kurt pointed out.

"I'm not complaining," Tina replied. "I'm just a little concerned."

"We'll be okay," Sam said, sounding very sure of himself. "No one will know who any of us are."

Rachel wasn't so sure of it, though; she had a feeling they were going to stick out a bit because of their costumes. She didn't know if Kurt's face was covered enough by his Robin costume, but it was the only other costume Sam had and all the shops were sold out of everything. Sam was unrecognizable in his Batman costume, but she had the feeling no one on the football team would ever dress as a superhero. Tina was the odd one out in her vampire costume; she had added a masquerade mask to cover her face, which she'd barrowed from Rachel.

"I don't know," Tina said. "The girls here are dressed a little—slutty." She looked around at the people milling about the lawn. "Even some of the guys."

"So?" Sam asked.

"So, I think we look a little nerdy to really fit in," Tina said.

Rachel nodded. "I have to agree with Tina."

"We can't go back now!" Sam said.

"We're not," Rachel replied. "Well, I'm not."

"I'm staying," Kurt said.

Tina sighed. "I'm staying, too."

"Any sign of trouble and you get out of the house as fast as you can," Rachel instructed. "Make sure you send a text message to everyone else to warn them, and we'll all make our way back to Kurt's vehicle. Now, I think we should definitely split up so we're not quite as obvious. Tina and Kurt, you two should go first."

"I'm dressed as Robin," Kurt stated. "Shouldn't Sam and I stick together?"

"Dude, we'll look like a couple," Sam retorted.

Kurt paused. "I see your point. Come on, Tina."

"How long should we wait?" Sam asked as the other two walked up the sidewalk.

"I think a minute or two would be sufficient," Rachel answered.

"Okay, let's go in," Sam said.

"It's only been ten seconds," Rachel replied.

"So?" Sam asked. "I think it's enough time."

Rachel sighed as Sam began walking to the house; he was far too excited, and when he was excited, he tended to not listen to her. All she could really do was follow him and try to keep him out of trouble.

"Wait!" Rachel hissed as she walked quicker to catch up to him.

He was already at the open door, when she grabbed ahold of his arm, trying to slow him down. Sam looked at her and gave her a crooked smile—the only part of his face she could really see—and then ushered her inside.

The house was packed, which was a good thing for them. It meant someone would be less likely to notice they didn't belong. As she looked around, she was pretty sure not everyone went to McKinley; she didn't recognize nearly half the people in the room. She was starting to wish they had come up with an actual cover story; she wanted to, but no one else thought it was necessary. She would definitely feel a lot better if they had gone with her suggestion and come up with fake names and coordinated saying they'd come from a different school.

"I'm going to see if I can find a beverage that doesn't contain alcohol," Rachel said.

Sam nodded. "I'm gonna look around."

Rachel walked through the house looking for water, but didn't really find anything. It didn't take long for her to start feeling claustrophobic; she usually had no problems with crowds, but there were so many people in the house that she was finding it way too hot and hard to breathe. When she finally made it into the kitchen, she saw the backdoor and decided to step outside for a moment. There were still people in the backyard, but it was quite chilly out, so there wasn't an overabundance of people.

She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her friends to let them know where she was in case they were looking.

"Nice costume."

Rachel looked up to find Quinn looking at her. "Thank you; I like yours as well."

Quinn shrugged. "It's not actually a costume; I was a cheerleader at my old high school. I wasn't going to come tonight, but a few people talked me into it, so I just pulled it out of my closet."

"Excuse me," Rachel said, hearing the tone that indicated she had a text message.

She pulled the phone out of a little pouch she had attached to her belt and saw that she had a text from Sam. Her heart was suddenly beating a little faster as she opened it, hoping nothing was wrong. Rachel rolled her eyes when all it was just Sam asking everyone if any of them had seen Quinn. She thought about ignoring it, but it was the reason they were there, so she sent him a reply to let him know the blonde was in the backyard.

It only took a few moments before the back door opened and Sam came walking out. Rachel really didn't want to go back into the house, but she figured it would be better if she left Sam and Quinn alone.

"I guess I'll go back inside," Rachel said to Quinn.

She turned, gave her best friend a smile, and walked into the house. If it was at all possible, she thought even more people were in the house than when she walked outside just a couple minutes ago. She walked around for quite a while, trying to avoid having drinks spilled on her or being knocked into. It took her a while to find her friends, but she eventually stood on the stairs to see above everyone, and saw Tina talking to Mike Chang. She almost walked over to them, but Tina was smiling, so Rachel left them alone, hoping her friend would finally notice the boy.

"Interesting," Kurt suddenly said, and she looked to her right to see him leaning against the wall next to her.

Rachel smiled. "Having fun?"

"Not really," Kurt said, sighing. "I wish Blaine would have come with us."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel noticed Puck, and looked over to find one of the football team pointing in her direction. He whispered something in Puck's ear, and the other boy turned to look at them, narrowing his eyes.

"We need to go," Rachel said, grabbing Kurt's arm, and pulling him toward the door.

"What's going on?" Kurt asked, trying to pull his arm back.

"I do believe we have been spotted," Rachel replied. "Quick, send Tina and Sam a message."

Luckily for them Puck had been on the other side of the room, so he would have to fight through the crowd to get to them. The moment they were outside, Kurt and Rachel both began sprinting for Kurt's SUV. They had parked around the corner, and Rachel looked over her shoulder as they ran. When they rounded the corner without any sign of Puck, she instantly felt a little safer. Kurt's phone buzzed as they climbed inside and he immediately looked at it.

"Tina's on her way," Kurt stated.

"Good," Rachel breathed out.

They nervously waited for several minutes before Tina finally came into view. She was looking over her shoulder every few seconds and looked nervous.

"I am never doing something like this again," she said as she opened the door, and jumped in the backseat. "Where's Sam?"

"I don't know," Rachel said, furrowing her brows.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the back door opened and all three screamed.

"Dude, my ears," Sam said, wincing.

"What took you so long?" Rachel asked.

"I was talking to Quinn," Sam said, smiling widely.

"Hallelujah," Kurt said, rolling his eyes. "And it only took you a month."

"She's even better than I imagined!" Sam said brightly.

"That's wonderful," Kurt deadpanned. "Can we go?"

"It sucks that we didn't get to stay longer," Sam said with a sigh.

"Well, since we're leaving so early, we could always go to my house and watch some scary movies," Tina suggested.

"That sounds cool," Sam replied.

"Well, I don't have anywhere else to be," Kurt said, shrugging. "Blaine's staying with some of his Warbler friends tonight."

"Rachel?" Tina asked.

Rachel sighed. "I suppose. I don't really enjoy the horror genre, but if everyone else is going, I'm coming too. I would rather not go home, anyway; Dad and Daddy are going to be out late, so it would just be me there."

"Thanks," Sam whispered in her ear as Kurt and Tina began talking about what movies they should watch.

"For what? I didn't really do anything," Rachel replied.

"You did a lot," Sam said. "I think I have it from here, but thanks for all the help."

Rachel smiled. "You're welcome, Sam."

Rachel was afraid when she walked into school on Monday that Puck would be waiting on her and her friends with slushies in hand, but there was nothing. She hoped that meant that he didn't actually know who was at the party. It shouldn't have been hard to guess, though, since she was obviously not Mercedes, and she and Tina were the only other two girls in Glee that were on the unpopular side.

Santana did scowl at her as she walked by, but that was hardly new; Rachel was pretty sure her face stayed that way unless she was smirking about something. Or when she was looking at Brittany.

Today was actually Halloween, which Rachel always looked forward to and dreaded at the same time. She loved helping her fathers give out candy to the trick or treaters, but her house always ended up vandalized. One year it was eggs, another time their window was broken, and last year they woke up to the whole house being covered in toilet paper. She wasn't going to let the childish antics of her classmates get to her, though; she was going to enjoy the day, and look forward to seeing all the children in their costumes.

When she walked into her physics class, Quinn was already at their table as usual. She didn't understand why the blonde always got there so early, but she was always there before Rachel, who was usually really early herself.

"Hey," Quinn greeted as she sat down.

"Hello," Rachel said back.

"Did you have fun Friday?" Quinn asked.

Rachel's eyes widened for a moment before saying, "It was okay. Why do you ask?"

Quinn laughed lightly. "I know it was you at the party."

"How?" Rachel asked, wondering who else recognized her.

"Your eyes," Quinn said, shrugging.

Rachel sighed. "It was my friend's idea; I didn't want to go, but I didn't want him going alone."

Quinn laughed again. "Don't worry. It's not like I'm going to tell Puck you crashed his party."

"I appreciate that," Rachel said. "I don't think he would be very happy if he knew."

"Probably not," Quinn agreed.

"I'm glad you were the one that recognized me and not someone like Santana," Rachel commented. "She would have told Noah the moment she saw me—or done something about it herself."

"Yeah," Quinn replied. "I mean, I think they're okay, but I don't know if I'd really consider them my friends. Actually, you're a lot nicer to me than they are, so believe me when I say not to worry about me telling them."

"I'm not worried," Rachel said. "I trust you, Quinn."

Quinn laughed. "I think that's the first time anyone's ever said that to me."

"Why?" Rachel asked, frowning.

Quinn shrugged. "So, do you know who the Batman was that I was talking to?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny it," Rachel answered.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," Quinn replied.

"Is there a reason you wish to know?" Rachel wondered.

"Just curious," Quinn replied.

Rachel nodded, wondering if Sam's plan really had worked. Rachel figured if Quinn was wondering who we was, it meant she was interested. Though she could just be a curious person; Rachel would have been wondering too if it was her. Whatever the case, at least Sam had her attention, so the Friday night wasn't a complete waste of time.

Rachel found herself staring across the room at the football player and Cheerio table. Not a single one of her friends had been slushied so far that day, and it was making her a little nervous. She felt like they were lulling them into a false sense of security by not saying anything about them crashing Puck's party, but maybe Puck really didn't know it was them. Maybe he just thought they were from a different school, and because of their costumes, he might have decided he didn't want them there.

Her eyes drifted from Puck to Quinn, who was sitting between the boy and Brittany as she usually did. Rachel couldn't help but notice over the weeks how everyone at the table talked to Quinn, but she didn't really say much back. She knew it wasn't because the blonde didn't like to talk to people—she talked to Rachel nearly every day in class—but she never really said anything during lunch. Quinn would usually nod, occasionally responding verbally, but the others did most of the talking.

"What are you staring at?" Sam asked, nudging her in the rubs.

"What?" Rachel asked. "Oh, nothing."

"You're staring," Sam stated.

Rachel frowned. "I'm not staring."

"You are," Kurt chimed in.

"I was simply lost in thought; I wasn't staring at anything," Rachel lied.

"Please tell me your crush on Finn isn't back," Kurt said.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "My crush on Finn ended long ago. Over a year ago, actually."

"Then why are you staring at him?" Sam asked.

"I am not staring at Finn Hudson," Rachel replied.

"Are you staring at Puck, then?" Kurt asked. "Because that's even worse, and I do believe I can no longer be friends with you if you're attracted to that Neanderthal."

Rachel scrunched her nose up at the thought. "I definitely do not have a crush on Noah."

"Santana?" Kurt asked.

"No!" Rachel exclaimed. "I do not have a crush on anyone. I told you I wasn't staring; I was lost in thought and just happened to be looking in that direction."

Sam laughed. "Chill. We're just joking."

"I wasn't," Kurt commented.

"Guys, leave Rachel alone," Blaine chimed in. "If she says she wasn't staring at anyone, she wasn't staring at anyone."

"Thank you, Blaine," Rachel said, giving him a smile.

"Whose side are you on?" Kurt asked his boyfriend.

"Everyone's," Blaine replied.

Kurt rolled his eyes as Sam laughed, and asked, "Hey, wanna go to the movies with me tonight?"

"I don't know," Rachel replied. "It's trick or treat night; you know I usually stay home and help my fathers."

"I meant after," Sam said. "Oh, and Stacey made me promise I would ask if you wanted to come with us. My parents have to work, so I have to take them out tonight, and she wants you to come."

"I suppose I can go with you guys instead of handing out candy," Rachel replied. "I'm sure my fathers will understand, and it's not like they can't manage without me."

"Cool," Sam said. "Stacey and Stevie will be happy." Sam let out a laugh. "I swear they like you more than they like me."

"I doubt that is true, but if it is, it's because you're the one who has to tell them what to do," Rachel replied. "I get to come over and have fun with them without that responsibility."

"True," Sam said, shrugging.

"And I'll think about the movie, okay?" Rachel said.

Sam smiled. "Cool."

When Rachel looked back at the popular table, she locked eyes with Quinn, and the blonde immediately looked away. Rachel looked down, blushing as she wondered if Quinn knew she was staring earlier. It wasn't the first time Quinn would have caught her staring; Rachel really needed to work on it, but she often found herself studying the blonde. She just couldn't quite figure her out, and it was slightly frustrating since Rachel prided herself on knowing people.

"Hey."

Rachel jumped slightly at the sound of Quinn's voice and turned to look at her. "Hello."

"So, I don't think Puck knows it was you at the party," Quinn stated. "He was talking at lunch how a bunch of nerds from another school crashed the party."

Rachel frowned at being called a nerd, but she was happy nonetheless. "Well, that's wonderful. I suppose he doesn't think my friends and I would dare to do it, which is good."

"Why did you do it?" Quinn asked.

"I—" Rachel faltered. "One of my friends simply wanted to see what his parties are like before we graduated. We hear about them, but none of us had actually been to one given our social status. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity since we could wear costumes and hope no one realized who we are."

Quinn nodded and then shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is. I guess they're fun if you like to get drunk and have a bunch of guys hitting on you, but that's not really my idea of a fun night. Both times I've gone to one of his parties, I've ducked out after less than an hour. Next time I'm just going to decline; it's a waste of a perfectly good night."

"I would have to agree with that," Rachel replied. "I would much rather spend a quiet night at home or with my friends. The whole time I was there I had to dodge nearly being run over, and I almost had more than one drink spilled on me."

"And you definitely wouldn't want that costume ruined," Quinn said with a slight smirk.

Rachel blushed. "It was the only costume I had; Sam and I went to a comic convention this past summer, and I didn't want to be the only one at it not dressed up, so I sort of went all out. I know nothing about comic books, but it was slightly less revealing than Wonder Woman, so I went with it."

"Hey, Rach," Sam said, jogging up to them.

"Hey, Sam," Rachel said, glancing at Quinn. "Oh, I guess I could introduce you two. Sam this is Quinn; Quinn this is Sam, my best friend that I've told you about."

"Hey," Quinn said to him.

Sam smiled widely and nodded. "Hey. We need to go or we're going to be late for Glee."

"Oh my," Rachel said, realizing she'd lost track of time.

"You know, you should join us," Sam said to Quinn. "I'm not saying you have to join or anything, but you could come with us today."

"He's right," Rachel interjected. "You should come. I don't know if you can sing or dance, but we could always use more people."

Quinn's eyebrow rose for a moment, but then she shrugged, and said, "Alright."

"Really?" Sam asked, sounding way too excited.

Quinn laughed lightly. "Yeah."

"Awesome," Sam breathed out. "The choir room's this way."

Sam quickly started talking down the hall and Quinn looked at Rachel with an amused expression. "Is he always this excited?"

"Sometimes," Rachel replied.

They walked into the choir room; everyone else was already there, even Mr. Schue, and people looked surprised to see Quinn in the room.

"Do we have someone new joining us?" Mr. Schue asked.

"This is Quinn; she is just joining us for the day to see what it's like," Rachel answered.

"Well, welcome, and we hope you like it," Mr. Schue said, smiling at Quinn.

Rachel and Sam sat side by side while Quinn walked to the top of the risers, sitting beside Brittany. Sam looked a little disappointed that she didn't sit near them, but there were no other empty seats, and Rachel wasn't about to go sit near Brittany and Santana.

"You shoulda let me know you were coming," Puck said. "I would have put on a show for you."

Rachel rolled her eyes at Puck wiggling his eyebrows, and Sam tensed up next to her.

"Well, let's show Quinn what we can do," Mr. Schue said, clapping his hands together, and ignoring Puck's remark. "Would anyone like to come up here before we talk about this week's assignment?"

Rachel looked at Sam, wondering if he was going to take his shot since there was no guarantee Quinn would be back. Sam remained seated, though, as did everyone else.

"Alright then," Mr. Schue said, looking a little disappointed. "Let's get right into to this week's assignment—"

"Why didn't you perform?" Rachel whispered, but Sam just shrugged.

She didn't understand why he wasn't going to sing. He had been talking about getting Quinn to come for weeks, so he could show her how talented he is, but now that he had chance, he wasn't taking it. Sighing, she shook her head; she loved Sam, but she really didn't understand him sometimes. If it was her, she would be doing everything she could to get Quinn's attention; she actually couldn't imagine letting anything stop her from at least trying.