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"I was wondering whether you'd do me the honour of." Rachel grimaced - too vague. She stepped back then approached her bathroom mirror again.

"So Quinn, let me make your week." God no, that was too arrogant even for her.

"Can I interest you in..?" too salesman like.

"Quinn," dramatic pause and some eye fluttering - no, she looked a bit manic. Rachel sighed. If she tried the Finn approach of just kissing Quinn without warning she'd probably just get punched although she was beginning to see why he went for that option, this setting yourself up for failure was just all so alien to her.

"Doing anything Tuesday?" she produced the rather impressive invitation her uncle had sent her with a flourish - no, she looked like a second, no make that third, rate magician. The fact that her internal dialogue consisted of smart-ass shoot-you-down responses that Quinn would probably make wasn't helping her confidence. No wonder on-line websites suggested a more general invitation such as "Maybe we could go to a photography exhibition together sometime?" as a way of gauging interest and with less chance of outright her to have a specific idea in mind. Mind you, the same websites gave you checklists of things to look out for to judge someone's interest in you and Quinn ticked a grand total of absolutely none of the boxes. The idea Quinn might wink at her would be hilarious if things weren't quite so desperate. She glanced at her watch - she really needed to be going to school and as this was Friday she also really needed to be asking Quinn today. Tucking the invitation into her bag, along with the promotional leaflet she'd printed off with the exhibition details, she headed downstairs and off to her doom.


Quinn strode purposely down the corridor towards her locker hoping to maybe pass Rachel and garner another little ego boost. Rachel had been giving what Quinn had termed hit-and-run compliments on her appearance all week. Rachel would approach her stealthily, clearly but briefly comment on her beauty before practically sprinting off as soon as the last syllable left her pouty lips. 'Exquisite' 'gorgeous' and a rather tame 'pretty' had all been applied to her. This sort of behaviour would be extremely irritating from anyone else but from Rachel it just seemed rather cute. Rachel was a veritable thesaurus on synonyms for beautiful and yet it never really felt rehearsed - Quinn smiled to herself, it would be just like Rachel to have spent ages rehearsing an unrehearsed vibe. She wanted to ask Rachel what had prompted this sudden need to compliment her but Rachel was proving rather elusive, tending to flee if Quinn started to approach her. Quinn reached her locker slightly disappointed to note Rachel had yet to make it into school. Never mind, she'd see her in English. In the meantime there were people to scowl at and maybe one or two Gleeks to say hello to. She'd avoid Mercedes for the moment as she was way too interested in what Quinn did in her spare time and always had a rather disturbing smirk on her face when she asked. Quinn's spare time was easily accounted for, wandering around the park, camera in hand, in a bid to escape the oppressive home atmosphere or holed up in her room listening to music and wondering at what point her life turned to this bland drudgery. She'd only recently been able to look herself in the eye in the mirror - trying to judge the veracity of Rachel's statements. She'd just restarted her early morning run regime and that was making her feel a bit better about herself too. She headed to the English classroom. Surley it was time for her 'you're beautiful' fix?

Rachel just made it to the English lesson on time. Surely she hadn't spent that long trying to ask out her reflection? In an almost unheard of display of efficiency, Mrs Easterly was returning their poetry interpretations that they'd only handed in yesterday. Rachel filed away her grade A piece of work and felt a bit smug on realising that Trixie, currently seated ahead of her, had a bold red line through her work, a rather large red D in the corner and enough exclamation marks to suggest Mrs Easterly had been completely unimpressed with whatever she'd written. Rachel schooled her features into a neutral mask and fixed her gaze into the middle distance as Trixie turned to scowl at her. At least now Trixie had a reason to hate her rather than just following the crowd. Rachel moved her gaze on to where Quinn was sat. Her beauty never seemed to diminish even with the familiarity of Quinn's beauty that she was gang from all the video watching she was doing. Quinn probably had the smoothest skin and the softest hair to augment her physical perfection. 'Sharpest tongue too' her not so positive inner voice reminded her. 'A rapier sharp wit to cut her to pieces' it added. Rachel sighed, she would be asking the splendiferous Quinn out on a date today if it killed her - and it probably would. It was obvious that improvisation was the way forward, an area of performance she liked to think she excelled at, she just needed to choose her moment carefully. As she glanced back at the board she caught a glimpse of Trixie still scowling at her. And she might need to fit it in asking Quinn out around a slushy attack judging by the animosity Teixie was directing her way and the unlikelihood of her finding an original way of expressing it.

Trixie hadn't quite decided on the manner of her revenge but that big-nosed freak was so going to pay for setting her up. She had wasted hours - or what had seemed like hours - on trying to find acceptable words for losing your v card and 'dick' before giving up and just going for how she'd talk to her mates in her poetry assignment. She'd had to drag it out to meet the minimum number of words required but she didn't think her description was too graphic. Wasn't English all about saying what you thought? Mrs Easterly's comments were burned into her brain "the most offensive" " never in my long teaching career" and "parents in for a conversation." She scowled at the bitch responsible for all this and imagined wiping that smug smile off that ugly face with a few well-placed slaps. Violence was alwaysthe answer. That gargoyle (her sisters favourite current insult for her. it was apparently an ugly human-size creature found only in Ireland) would regret the day she messed with her. With the manner of her revenge resolved, Trixie broke the habit of a lifetime and began to actually pay attention to what the teacher was saying.

When the lesson finally ended Rachel was quickly out of her seat and ready to launch 'splendiferous' Quinn's way. She completely failed to register Trixie's approach behind her so she'd just started to speak, managing only to say "Quinn", before she experienced a strong push in the back causing her to go sprawling across the floor. She caught herself with her hands as her folders emptied their contents around her.

"Grovelling on the floor is your rightful place you ugly freak," snapped Trixie deliberately treading on as many of the scattered papers as she could manage on her way to the door. Not as satisfying as slapping the loser but less likely to get her into trouble.

Rachel began to gather her papers together kneeling on the floor and wondering whether she should stop antagonising those less fortunate intellectually than herself. She straightened another pile of papers.

"Thanks " she mumbled as her grade A piece of work was handed to her before realising someone had actually bothered to stop and help her. Rachel could hardly have been more suprised when she looked up into the face of Quinn Fabray. Quinn Fabray was helping her. Still not ready to believe it she tried again - Quinn Fabray was helping her. Rachel was quickly sidetracked into admiring Quinn's hazel eyes and perfectly sculpted eyebrows now in such close proximity to her. Quinn Fabray was crouched down next to her, helping her instead of laughing at her. No, still something wrong with this picture. Quinn paused reading the paper in her hand before passing the photography exhibition flyer to Rachel.

"That exhibition looks really interesting," Quinn commented wondering why she was surprised that Rachel could have an interest in anything not singing or dancing. Rachel's mouth had suddenly gone dry and her tongue was cemented to the roof of it so she settled for what she hoped was an encouraging grunt. Honestly, she'd just missed the best cue ever for her to say, "Would you like to go with me?" She staightened her shoulders, there was plenty of time for a critique of her performance once this encounter was over, now was not the time.

"I'd be interested in going to see it," Quinn continued hoping the shock of being pushed over would quickly wear off so that Rachel regained the power of speech.

"Hnnfph" Rachel managed. Quinn interpreted that as a mind your own business grunt and turned to reach some papers behind her. Rachel could feel the opportunity slipping away so with her vocal cords currently out of action she reached in her folder and, resisting the urge to be too dramatic, presented the embossed invite to Quinn with out a flourish. Quinn gave her a puzzled look before reading the card. No longer gazing into Quinn's eyes coincided with Rachel's ability to speak finally returning.

"My Uncle owns the Art Gallery it's being held at" Rachel husked. Hazel eyes with flecks of gold met hers as she and Quinn held each other's gaze.

"Perhaps you could tell me about it after you've been?" suggested Quinn, dropping her eyes and trying to hand the invitation back.

"I er meant you to have the invite," spluttered Rachel and then gathering all her courage up for a make or break statement blurted,"perhaps you and I... I wondered if… maybe we..um.. go?" her voice tailed off into a squeak as she tried to convey her meaning with her hands. Great, way to be incoherent, she scolded herself – so much for excelling at improvising. Quinn must think her an idiot now if she didn't already. She fought the urge to close her eyes and instead steeled herself for a pithy rejection of her presumptiousness.

"That would be nice," whispered Quinn. She'd never been to a photography exhibition preview and the fact it was out of town was an even bigger bonus. "If I understood you correctly, we'd go together?" Quinn asked hesitantly unsure whether Rachel wanted to be in her company or whether she'd just sort of assumed an offer that wasn't there.

Rachel settled for nodding an agreement, she could barely hear Quinn over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears. She needed to nail down the details to make sure this was really happening.

"I'll pick you up at yours at 6:30," stated Rachel before adding, "Unless you want to drive?" Hadn't Finn been most scathing in his reasons why I want to break up with you speech about her need to control everything?

"Your Uncle, your invite, your car," replied Quinn bestowing one of her rare smiles on Rachel. She stood up, handed the last of the scattered papers to Rachel and headed for the door.

"By the way Quinn," Rachel called after her causing Quinn to pause in the doorway, "you're looking rather splendiferous today." Another faint smile ghosted across the Fabray lips before she turned and left the room. Rachel paused briefly to savour the feelings of accomplishment that were sweeping through her. She, Rachel Berry, had just asked Quinn Fabray out on a date - well sort of asked and the date part was not explicitly stated but...Take that Mercedes.

Quinn walked down the corridor processing what had just happened. Had she really agreed to go to an exhibition with Rachel? More amazingly she was eagerly looking forward to it. Because of the photography not because of the company, she told herself, although she expected Rachel to have some interesting opinions on whatever they were going to see because, well, Rachel had opinions on absolutely everything. Usually well-thought out and logically argued opinions too she grudgingly admitted. It was not as if she had loads of social invitations anyway. Her social life was pretty dire and she had no inclination to raise her status and amount of party invites by hooking up with some idiot jock. Maybe she should be spending her spare time with someone who is her intellectual equal – although to be honest that did rather narrow down the field. Rachel and her were constantly jockeying for position at the top of the class ranking so they were definitely evenly matched on that front and, given the choice of Rachel or Jewfro, Rachel definitely won hands down. She'd never considered that Rachel had any interests other than those revolving around musical theatre and dating Finn Hudson and the latter interest had certainly died down. Quinn shook her head, Rachel deserved so much better than that inconsiderate and self-absorbed idiot. Anyone deserved better than that self- absorbed idiot. Anyway she intended to spend the weekend reading up about judging photography. After all, she wouldn't want Rachel's uncle thinking she was an idiot. She didn't spend anytime wondering why Rachel's Uncle's opinion actually mattered