Rachel is climbing out of the shower a few hours later when she sees her phone light up on the bathroom counter. She dries herself quickly before flipping her phone open.
Where is your house? –Quinn
Oh yeah. Quinn is coming over today. She types her address quickly and sends it to Quinn.
What time should I come over?-Quinn
I'll be ready in an hour or so. Whenever you can after that is fine with me. –Rachel
I'll be over sometime around noon. –Quinn
Rachel glances over at the clock. It's only nine; she has plenty of time to make her room, and herself, presentable. She dresses quickly, trying not to fret over what to wear.
She stands in her room, looking it over and deciding what to clean. She makes her bed, and straightens the photographs on her dresser. She takes another look around and realizes that there's nothing else to clean. There's got to be something to do to kill the time until Quinn arrives.
She heads downstairs and starts her laundry before making herself a quick breakfast. Nine thirty. She continues running around the house performing menial tasks for about and hour or so, before settling down in the living room to watch Annie Get Your Gun.
When her doorbell rings a little before noon, she pauses the film and is still humming along when she answers the door.
"Hi, Quinn!" She bubbles cheerfully.
"Uh…Hey. You realize it's before noon on a weekend, right?" Quinn stifles a yawn, she wasn't even expecting to be up this early today. That stupid dream…
She blushes slightly when remembering the dream, and tries to push it out of her mind.
"Of course I do, Quinn! I never sleep later than nine, I always feel like my day has been wasted otherwise." Rachel still sounds much too happy.
Quinn just shakes her head in response, before looking around. The house is normal. She's not sure what she was expecting. Broadway wallpaper in every room, maybe? "Your house is nice."
Rachel smiles broadly. "Thank you very much! I'd introduce you to my fathers, but they're on a day trip for Daddy's work. So, that will have to happen another day!" Rachel gestures for Quinn to follow her and heads to the staircase that's down a short hall. "We'll work in my room; we'll probably have to look up all sorts of songs on my computer."
Quinn nods in response and follows Rachel up the stairs. Rachel Berry's bedroom. Quinn braces herself for bright, flashy colors, and all sorts of trophies.
But when she steps into the room she's pleasantly surprised. Sure, there's lots of pink, but it's all a soft pink, not the blinding color that Quinn expected. There's no trophies in the room, only two photographs on the white dresser. One of Rachel and her two fathers, and one of New Directions.
Quinn looks at the photograph of the Glee club. None of the students are looking at the camera; they're all laughing and singing together. Quinn doesn't even remember what day this is.
"Mr. Schue took that picture at a rehearsal. When he showed it to me I had to have it. I feel like it shows the true heart of our club." Rachel explains, after noticing Quinn's interest in the photo.
"It's…amazing. We all look so happy. It's so…Glee." Quinn tears her eyes from the picture and smiles at Rachel before suddenly becoming slightly uncomfortable.
Rachel claps her hands together. "Right. Well, let's figure out our song, yeah?"
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
Two frustrating hours later, Rachel is sitting at her computer desk with her head in her hands, and Quinn is on the floor next to her.
"Rachel. You do realize that Lovely Ladies is a song for a chorus of women, about whores, with a multitude of scenes throughout the song." Quinn is almost shouting at this point, they're both just so frustrated.
"But if we cut the scenes and rewrote the parts, we could just…" Rachel sighs. "You're right. I'm reaching for it now." Rachel taps her fingers impatiently over the keys of her keyboard. After a few minutes she realizes something. "How did you know that?"
Quinn looks up at her, confused. "Know what?"
"All that stuff about Lovely Ladies. I didn't honestly think you'd know anything about it. I wouldn't really peg you as a Les Miz expert."
Quinn laughs. "I don't have to be as showtunes obsessed as you to know a thing or two about Broadway shows, Berry."
Rachel shrugs and goes back to staring at the computer screen. She squints at the small lettering on the monitor before sighing and rifling through a drawer in the desk and pulling out a glasses case. She puts the thinly framed lenses over her eyes and goes back to staring at the computer.
Quinn stares at Rachel for a second. "I didn't know you wore glasses."
Rachel doesn't look away from the computer as she answers. "That's because I usually don't."
Quinn doesn't stop to think before she speaks, and only becomes aware of her words midway through the sentece. "Well, I think they look…" cute "nice."
Rachel smiles at her briefly, not noticing the slight pause. "Thanks, Quinn." She sighs and turns in her seat, now facing the girl seated on the floor.
"I don't get it. It has never taken me this long to choose a song before. We could do something like….For Good? I don't know."
Quinn stares at Rachel for a second, suddenly realizing how far lost they are if Rachel is suggesting that song. "You do realize that For Good is the most over-performed female duet of all time, right Berry? I mean….it's Wicked. Wicked, at Regionals?"
Rachel sighs loudly. "I do know. I know. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the other groups performed it. We need something…"
Quinn finishes her sentence for her. "Different. Something the judges won't be expecting."
Rachel nods. "But I can't for the life of me think of what we need. We have to stand out. We have to show the judges that New Directions is a force to be reckoned with. But how?"
Quinn is a bit taken aback with Rachel's sudden burst of emotion. She suddenly stands, noticing the time. "We've got time to figure this out. We do." She shakes her head when Rachel opens her mouth to speak, and continues talking. "I'll keep thinking about it, and I know you will to. But I've got Cheerios practice."
"At three in the afternoon on a Saturday?"
Quinn laughs. "Have you met Sue Sylvester?"
They laugh together, and Rachel stands as they both walk out of her room and down the stairs. Quinn turns to her as they reach the front door. "Don't worry too much, Rachel. We'll kick ass. For sure." And she opens the door and walks to her car. Rachel gives a small wave as Quinn drives away.
"Wait, did she just call me Rachel?"
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
Quinn is halfway to the school before she starts analyzing the afternoon spent at Rachel's house. She'd had…a nice time. At Berry's house. At Man Hands' house. At Treasure Trail's house.
"Rachel." She says the name aloud. She doesn't realize why until a few seconds later. "Her name is Rachel. Not Man Hands, not Treasure Trail, not RuPaul…god, I'm an asshole." She glances at herself in the rear-view mirror. "An asshole who talks to herself way too much."
It's harder to think of someone as a loser when you've spent time working with them as an equal. And though Rachel could sometimes be over bearing, she was a kind person. Quinn had enjoyed working with her.
She pulls into the parking lot of the school, and can already hear Coach Sylvester shouting at her. She puts on her best Cheerio grin and thinks to herself "Santana can never hear about this one."
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
On Monday in the hall, Finn couldn't help but notice that Quinn was acting…different. She didn't usually talk to him that much, but he could still tell. She usually had a host of cheerleaders to say hello to as they walked from class to class, but today she had someone new on that roster.
"Morning, Rachel."
The words were said in passing, and Quinn continued walking to her class. Everyone else in the hall glanced around, as if expecting the building to collapse around them at any moment. It had to be the apocalypse if Quinn Fabray just said hello to Rachel Berry. After a moment, when it became apparent that no slushies were heading in Rachel's direction as she practically skipped down the hall, the students erupted in their normal chatter. Though now it was the topic of Quinn no longer seeming to hate Rachel that dominated the rumor mill.
Finn couldn't help but notice that Quinn seemed strangely excited about Glee that afternoon, she wouldn't stop talking about it all day. Weird.
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
The second that the final bell rang for the day, Puck began hunting down the various members of the Glee club and telling them to get their asses to the choir room, and fast. When they were all gathered and seated, he began to speak. "All right guys, listen up-"
Rachel cuts him off. "Where's Mr. Schuester?"
Puck rolls his eyes and sighs loudly. "Berry, I've only got a minute or two for this, hush for a second. This weekend. My parents are going on a vacation for some 'alone time'."
Kurt makes a disgusted face. "Thanks for sharing. Gross."
Puck laughs. "That's not the exciting part. While they are gone, I will be having a party. Not a huge one, the cops are sick of coming to my house. But you will all be there." And with his emphasis on the word 'all', everyone turned to look at Rachel.
She takes a quick glance around the room. "Oh no. You people cannot be expecting me to show up at an unsupervised gathering of-"
Mr. Schue comes bursting into the room. "Sorry I'm late guys, let's get started!"
When Rachel checks her phone later, she has a surprising number of text messages.
You're going. –Mercedes
Oh dear god, you have to go, I'll die. –Kurt
Just go. –Quinn
Please go? It'll be fun! –Tina
Not everyone there will be going nuts, it'll be fun! –Artie
Really, just go. –Quinn
No choice. –Puck
I'll dance with you! –Mike
Seriously. Go. –Quinn
She debates sending out a mass "there is no way" text, but finds herself typing out only one response.
Why would I go? You cannot honestly be expecting that. –Rachel
Because it will be fun. You are capable of fun, right? –Quinn
Rachel shoots a glare in Quinn's direction, keeping her phone out of Mr. Schuester's sight as he works with the band.
Of course I'm capable of fun. I just don't need it to be drunken, unsupervised, out of control fun. –Rachel
Not everyone there will be drunk. And I'll supervise you, if you need supervision. –Quinn
Rachel's eyes widen and her cheeks flush when her mind turns the comment into a very graphic scenario in her mind. She shakes her head lightly to try to clear the image from her mind.
Maybe. I'll think about it. –Rachel
Think all you want, I'll bother you until you say you'll go. –Quinn
Quinn actually laughs aloud when she sees Rachel roll her eyes all the way across the room. She blushes when she realizes that everyone is staring, and quickly stows her phone away when Mr. Schue turns back to speak to the club.
"So! As you all know, Rachel and Quinn are doing a female duet for Regionals. Have you ladies been working on something?" Mr. Schuester asks, expecting Rachel to have forced Quinn into having something already prepared.
Rachel speaks without bringing her eyes up from the floor. "Actually, Mr. Schuester, we haven't actually come up with a song yet. We tried, we just can't find a song with enough…." She looks to Quinn to word the thought properly.
"Oomph." The blonde speaks seriously. The other students laugh, but they all understand.
Mr. Schue looks at the two girls seperately. "You can do it, guys. I know you can."
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
As the club wraps up its practice for the day, Quinn and Rachel find themselves walking to the parking lot together, not saying a word. They're nearly out of the building before Rachel speaks, suddenly breaking the silence. "Today was weird."
Quinn looks at her, confused. "Weird?"
"It was like we were almost friends. I mean, I understand that you said you'd try to be nicer, but I absolutely was not expecting you to change this drastically over the course of one weekend. It was a dramatic turnaround from where you were before." Rachel rushes through her words and Quinn takes a moment to comprehend everything she says.
Quinn nods for a few moments, before speaking carefully. "You know, I've always thought it was easier to dislike someone when you got to know them. You know their faults better, their annoying quirks. But you're…different, I guess." Quinn stops walking suddenly, realizing that she's reached her vehicle. "Bye, Rachel." She's in her car and driving away before Rachel can respond.
Not that Rachel could speak, what with her smile being so wide. She thought she couldn't be happier, until she got a text from Quinn later that made her smile so wide her cheeks actually hurt.
Anyway we can work at your house again Saturday? We'll head to the party together after? –Quinn
Absolutely! =) –Rachel
To the rehearsal, or the party? –Quinn
Both. –Rachel
Both girls fell asleep smiling that night.
)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)
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I can practically HEAR you people shouting "please, FABERRY, please?" but I promise you, it is coming. In due time. I just hate the "they hate eachother, BAM, sex" timelines. You understand? Please do, I love you people. =]
I have a question for you all. Did the singing parts/texting parts and whatnot feel…right to you? I just worry that they make the story awkward. I hope they work for you. Let me know in the review, along with what you thought about this chapter.
Thanks for reading. =D