A/N: I tried getting in an update as soon as I could for you guys, so I'm sorry if the writing in this one isn't as good. Also, I just want to say thanks to all the reviews, favorites, subscriptions, and alerts I've gotten. :) They seriously make my crappy day all better (which is why I read them after school ends) and I can't thank you guys enough! Also, thanks to all the people who gave me ideas for one-shots to write for this collection, which I will most definitely use (and give credit to the people who came up with the plot). Now, let me feed you my Jonathan Groff and St. Berry addiction by making you read this story. :)

Disclaimer: Glee is owned by FOX. Some of the words are also lyrics from the song Always by Blink-182.

Summary: Jesse is tired of dealing with McKinley High's accusations of him being a spy. Why couldn't they just believe he liked Rachel? Was it really so hard to believe?

Category: Glee

Genre/s: Romance/Drama

Story Type: AT

Character Type: Jesse/Slight OOC, Rachel/Slight OOC

Rating: T (PG-13)

Pairing: St. Berry

Inspiration Behind One-Shot: Always by Blink-182

Doubts

"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor
are those we love. It is a happy chance if we,
changing, continue to love a changed person."
-W. Somerset Maugham

Jesse couldn't help but scowl each time someone called him a spy. Was it really that easy to believe he was like that? Jesse St. James didn't need to spy on anyone to win; his confidence, ego, and talent were all perfectly fine, thank you very much. So when Rachel Berry, the star of New Directions and the enemy, told him they would have to keep their relationship a secret, a plan started to form in his head.

Shelby had, in fact, asked him to use his newfound association and trust with Rachel to spy, but he had turned her down. Jesse refused to be used—spying was way beneath him, yet everyone seemed so ready to believe he'd do it. Shelby was shocked when he declined, the New Directions kids all still believed this lie, and when Rachel told him he had better not be planning on breaking her heart, it was like the last straw to break the camel's back.

It was around three in the morning and Jesse had his arms propped up against the headboard of his bed behind him, his head resting against them. Rachel had come home upset again that day, lying to him and saying nothing had happened. But he knew. He knew the glee kids didn't believe her when she said she broke up with him, and he knew they were ostracizing her from the group. His emotions were flickering back and forth, anger, sadness, uncertainty, and concern all coursing through his body. He wasn't sure how strong his feelings were for Rachel yet, but he also knew that if it hurt him because he knew she was being hurt, he couldn't imagine how she felt. That's when he decided he had to put his plan into action.

The first step was climbing up a tree and knocking on Rachel's bedroom window at three-thirty in the morning. The shades opened and he could see her rubbing her eyes sleepily, her arms already having goose bumps on them from the cool air against her bare arms and shoulders. He realized she was wearing a tank top and shorts, something he felt like he'd never see Rachel Berry wear. Ever. That was also the first time he realized she never acted like her true self around her friends, and for very good reasons. If they were so quick to push her out when she wasn't quite herself, the hits she would take if she didn't build a wall around herself would be catastrophic for her. She unlocked and opened her windows allowing him to come in, not even bothering to ask what he was doing her at such an ungodly hour—she didn't really seem to mind he was here anyway—but he could see a small smile making its way onto her face. He grinned behind her as she led the way back to her bed; he was the one who brightened up her day (or very early morning, but either way), he was the one who she sounded best singing with, and he was the one who got to hug her, hold her, touch her, feel her, kiss her, taste her, hug her, always.

She sat on her bed and pulled him with her, his body gently pressing against her as they got into a laying position. He grinned at her, a big cheesy grin that he had only ever given to her, before leaning down and softly pressing his lips against her. Her reaction was instantaneous, and her hands wove around his head to grasp tufts of his soft, curly brown hair into her tiny fists, her body arching up from the bed to just feel more of him. He sucked on her bottom lip, asking permission for entry as he always did. And just like he always asked, she always complied. He grinned into the kiss, a kiss that seemed to make the room a hundred degrees hotter than it should be with the window but managed to stay innocent all the same. He pecked her lips a few last times before moving slightly so he was laying next to her, his hands wrapping around her and pulling her close to him, his chest heaving slightly from the lack of air while kissing her. She giggled.

"What brought on this sudden burst of emotions?" she asked. He looked at her confused only to be met with a grin just as wide as his always was around her. She liked him too. That was obvious. "You never look this happy to see me, let alone at nearly four in the morning. Which, by the way, why are you here again? Not that I mind," she hurriedly added on the end.

He smiled at her before taking the back of his hand and gently running it up and down her soft, smooth cheek. It seemed as if instinctively she leaned her head down onto his hand, like they'd been doing this forever and by now it was a habit.

"I came to talk to you." Normally when someone said those words, the other would freak out. If a guy said it, the girl immediately broke down crying and began to grovel at their feet for forgiveness, even if she hadn't heard a word he was saying. Rachel was different. It seemed like she knew they had things they needed to talk about, and she completely trusted his honesty in this relationship. Rachel was mature and understanding like that. This was another reason why she was perfect for him—Jesse couldn't stand immature, spoiled, moody girls. Rachel was like the exact duplicate of him, yet the opposite all at the same time. It was refreshingly new.

The second step of his plan was telling her everything. He had practiced in front of the mirror, in his car at a red light, on stage with no one around, and even with his mom. He needed this to be perfect. No matter how understanding Rachel was, he couldn't risk even the slightest mistake or fuck-up in his words.

"Shelby asked me to spy on you." He felt her shoulders tense slightly, but she nodded all the same for him to continue. "I said no, of course, but you should know that she did in fact ask me to."

Rachel sat up from their position to give him her full attention—he was almost positive his hand on her cheek was distracting her, something that would happen even if the situation were reversed—and he sat up with her, the two of them leaning on her headboard with their hands clasped together.

"When did she ask you?" she asked her voice controlled and curious. He silently thanked her for her calmness and how considerate she was being. He never got that courtesy from other people, and the fact that it was coming from Rachel, his girlfriend of all people, obviously meant something. She must have at least been freaking out slightly in her head, and you could tell she tried not to show it, even though he could still see it in her face a bit.

"A little after I first met you in the library. When she offered it to me, I left. I wasn't going to put up with that. And besides, I couldn't stand being away from you for that long of amount of time." At those three simple sentences, her body immediately deflated and a smile made its way onto her face.

"So it wasn't her idea for you to meet me?" she asked excitedly. "Our meeting was a total coincidence?" Her eyes sparkled, her body now completely invading his personal space—not like he minded—by leaning towards him. He chuckled and nodded, completely taken aback by the forceful kiss she suddenly planted on him, her hands gripping him so tightly he thought it was going to physically hurt her. Even though his lips were currently preoccupied, they tilted upwards into a smile which she mimicked. He couldn't even begin to fathom the amount of stress and worry that was just taken off of her. Rachel was becoming slightly more forward he noted, her hands starting to roam everywhere on his body, her fingers getting dangerously close to the bottom of his shirt which he was sure would come off easily and her tank top showing more and more skin. He wanted to take this slow though. He hated how fast-paced his life was. He wasn't going to screw this up, and he wasn't going to do something with Rachel she might regret. He began to slow down his kisses, giving her a few last pecks before pulling away all together and just hugging her close.

"I needed to tell you that," he whispered. "If you found out from someone else, you would have taken it the wrong way. On top of that, I'm not going to lie when I say your friends in the glee club are really pissing me off with their assumptions and methods of trying to protect you. She snorted at that, a cute snort that sent her into an embarrassed fit of giggles that she just laughed like that in front of him. She ignored the sound she made and instead voiced her thoughts.

"The only thing those preoccupied, immature people are worrying about is possibly not winning Regional's. If they're that worried they should have listened to me in the first place by not fucking around and screwing themselves over by not practicing. They're just scared."

He was shocked. He knew they were rude to her a lot, but he didn't know she noticed—and if she did, he thought she just let it roll right off her back. But no, Rachel knew how disgusting they were and chose to ignore it. Again, he commended her maturity. He honestly believed if she was his age she would fit in much better social and academic-wise. She wouldn't have to pretend all the time; she could wear whatever she wanted without worrying about how she looked or anything of the sort, because he was quite aware that she owned more pairs of jeans and band t-shirts than she did skirts and dresses. She also was definitely way above her grade level in classes. He knew of her perfect straight-A's, and had to admit that she barely studied for her tests and did all her homework in about thirty minutes tops.

He was falling. God, he was falling for Rachel Berry so fast everything seemed to just be a blur around him—everything but her. He didn't know when in the past hour he realized it. He wasn't even sure if he had noticed it at all up until now. But he was falling in love with Rachel Berry. And god damnit, he loved every second of it. They fell asleep together that night on top of her covers, smiles on both their faces even in their sleep, and their bodies intertwined along with their hands. That was the best night's sleep he ever got.

Step three was tougher than the first two. He had to convince Rachel to let down those walls she built around herself. He was fine with her wanting to protect herself, but she had him for that now, something he was keenly intent on doing. So the first thing he did was change her outfit for school that day.

Her fathers never checked on her in the morning so they never knew a boy was in their teenage daughter's bedroom. He roamed freely around her room for a little bit as she continued to sleep, his eyes taking account for every book and CD she liked, along with the ones that seemed more worn out and used. When she began to wake up, he walked over to the bed and slowly roused her with a delicate kiss.

"You better be careful," she murmured against his lips. "I might just get used to waking up like this every morning. Then you'll never be rid of me." She took his deepening of the kiss as his way of saying, "Bring it on." He slowly ended the kiss before telling her she should probably start getting ready for school.

"Uch," she groaned, her eyes closing in annoyance, "school." He grinned at her reaction. If only she knew the rest of his plan…

"Yes, school," he said. "Don't worry; I have to go too you know." She grinned.

"Yeah, but now you go to my school." He grinned back.

"Yes, sweetheart, I think we established that a while ago." She gently swatted his hands away from her at that and he smirked at her in humor. He sat on her bed as she began to sort through her closet, her hands finally coming to rest on a black and red plaid skirt along with a white, short sleeved button down shirt.

"Nope," he said popping his 'p'. "You're not wearing that." She turned to him, her eyebrows crunched together in confused.

"What do you mean, I'm not wearing this?" He looked at her meaningfully before giving her an obvious look.

"Don't pretend or try around people to fit in. You're perfect the way you are, and nothing should change that. Who cares if they don't like you, they're idiots in that place anyway," he chastised her. "Be yourself. Don't give a rat's ass about what they say or do. Besides, you've got me now. I'll never leave you alone." He sent a wink her way at his last words and she rolled her eyes amusedly at him. But his message got through nonetheless because she went to her dresser drawers and pulled out an old, worn out pair of faded jeans along with a light grey hoodie. It was one of the most casual outfits he'd ever seen, but it looked so natural and beautiful on her that he couldn't stop himself from distracting her at the task at hand by kissing her silly.

Whereas Rachel normally took twenty to thirty-five minutes in the morning to get herself ready for school, she took longer than an hour because Jesse kept distracting her. For someone who seemed to always be very punctual, he sure wasn't worried about being late. She looked at the clock for the first time that morning and saw the number seven, three, and eight flash across the screen. She sighed internally. Of course he'd wake her up at six thirty in the morning. Why wouldn't he. But she couldn't help but wonder how many hours of sleep he had actually gotten that night. From the bags under his eyes, she couldn't say a lot.

They left her house semi-early to go to his own for a change of clothes and his schoolbag before he took her out to breakfast. He paid the bill, drove her to school, walked her to her first period class, kissed her goodbye saying he would see her during lunch, and walked away leaving her in a messy pile of goo. He was the perfect gentlemen to her, and she definitely noticed how easy this routine seemed to be for them.

The entire day her mind was filled with Jesse. She was distracted in all her classes, although she still managed to absorb every word the teacher said unsurprisingly, and was often daydreaming of him. Lunch was only forty-five minutes, an amount of time that seemed much, much shorter when she was with Jesse. The next time she saw him was three hours later at glee club.

They were meeting in the auditorium that day. Jesse's fourth step was being more open about his relationship with Rachel to maybe win over her glee club. Maybe if they saw how much he really liked her, they'd stop excluding him from everything and jumping to conclusions.

No such luck. He held her hand, kissed her, played with her hair, sang with her, practiced a little off to the side, tried talking to them, laughed, danced, and everything else he was supposed to. The things with Rachel were natural to him at this point, public or not. But making an effort with her friends was something different altogether and wasn't working at all. Rachel noticed because her hand kept gripping his tighter and tighter as rehearsal progressed. When practice was over, the two gathered their bags and turned to leave, completely aware of the stares being given and the hushed whispers behind their backs.

He was fully intent on leaving before taking Rachel out for ice cream, something he had learned was her comfort food—strawberry and cookie dough ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream, and two cherries—to maybe make her feel a bit better. After all, he was the one causing her pain. So he was surprised when they reached the door and she hesitated, hand on the doorpost, before spinning around and pinning a glare on each member of the club.

"Three things," she began, her voice ringing the authority and power of a leader. "One, I can date who I want. Stop giving Jesse a hard time because he's from Vocal Adrenaline. Especially you guys, Kurt, Mercedes, and Quinn. With one being gay, the other black, and one carrying a teen baby, I'm actually kind of shocked that you so readily blocked him out just because of where he comes from and who he is." The three looked guilty as charged, and he was awed at the power Rachel really had over all of them without their knowledge.

"Two, if you guys don't shape up and start actually putting some effort into this club, I'm walking and won't compete in Regional's, and Jesse sure as hell won't without me there with the way you guys treat him." As Kurt opened his mouth to say something in protest, she cut him off. "And don't give me any shit about being replaceable. You know you can't replace me, and there's no way in hell you stand a chance without Jesse or I."

The entire club looked extremely uncomfortable in the spotlight, something that Rachel was obviously using to her advantage.

"Oh, and three—Jesse told me about Shelby trying to get him to spy." As the shocked and suddenly attentive looks crossed their faces before outrage took place, he rolled his eyes; he was right about Rachel being mature and letting him explain. They just jumped to conclusions. "He turned her down and quit Vocal Adrenaline. He moved in with his uncle to be with me. To go to this school." She was furious at this point, her volume ten times higher than when she had started out, much like starting out softly in a song before belting it out on a fly. "He's dedicated himself to this group even though you were obnoxious, rude, unwelcoming, and downright bitchy to him. Don't you dare tell me he's spying on me. On us. I can date whoever the hell I please and you should give me the benefit of the doubt that I know what I'm doing."

And just like that, she walked out without a backwards glance. The shocked faces hadn't moved an inch as she gave the final few sentences of her long overdue speech, their minds not used to this whole new Rachel. He smirked a bit before giving them a look saying, 'This is completely your fault, not mine, so don't expect me to try and talk her out of this.'

From that day forth, things were much better. Every single glee member came up to him to apologize, some more grudging than others, yet apologizing all the same. He was nice about it, saying he knew where they were coming from but don't fuck around with Rachel or he'd rearrange their face so badly, they wouldn't recognize themselves in the mirror no matter how much plastic surgery they got (that was mostly to Puck and Finn).

He had a free period at the end of the day and patiently waited for Rachel to come out of school. She came out much later than everyone else, the biggest grin he'd ever seen placed on her face. He noticed out of the corner of his eye many of the glee members, no doubt staring as if to see what was going on but not approaching the obviously private matter. She started to run as soon as she caught sight of him, her feet carrying her faster than he'd ever seen and the smile growing with each step. When she reached him, she launched herself at him, her arms going around his neck and legs around his waist before crashing her lips down onto his. He liked seeing her so happy, and he was pretty sure he knew why, but he wasn't going to ruin the moment by talking. Instead, he decided to make out with his stunning, smart, gorgeous, perfect-for-him girlfriend like the two teenagers they were. When she finally calmed down from her hype, she had tears in her eyes. He could tell they were happy ones because of the beautiful smile gracing her face, but he was still curious.

"And may I ask what has my dazzling girlfriend so excited about?" he asked a slight fake-British accent that was most definitely cheesy but made her giggle before getting all soft on him. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, her eyes closing blissfully while in midair, he legs still wrapped around him.

"I can't believe you'd do that for me," she whispered. He didn't need to ask what she was talking about.

"I love you," he said to her for the very first time. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." He paused. "Well, except pull a Romeo and Juliet. That's just way over-used. Let's try and be a bit more original," he joked. She laughed, and he knew that even though he'd just confessed she already knew. Just like he knew she felt the same way before the words came out of her mouth.

"I love you too, even though I do think you really are more of a drama queen than I am." He struck a pose with her in his arms which sent her into another fit of giggles. He opened his car door with one hand and gently put her inside before shutting the door and walking to his own side. As he opened the door, he saw the glee kids, all of whom shared a secret smile at the scene of their obviously happy friend, but still not sure how they felt about them. He nodded politely in their direction and got into the driver's seat, not even waiting for a returned acknowledgment. He threw both their bags into the backseat and drove off towards the library, a place they had frequented as a reminder of where their love for each other first began.

In the backseat of the car, Rachel's bag had been hastily closed and therefore slightly left open. A few of her things, such as her pencil case, a small notebook, and her planner had fallen onto the floor unnoticed, along with a hastily opened letter.

Dear Ms. Rachel Berry,

It has come to our attention recently of your acceding skills in your academics. We would like to inform you that there are several colleges, all of which have very good programs and curriculums, which have offered you a full scholarship to their school where you can obtain your GED once you have finished this year in high school. From there, you are able to work on getting a degree in whichever path you wish to follow in the future, allowing you to finish college between the ages of twenty and twenty-four (depending on which career option you choose). Let it be known, this opportunity is very gracious and well-earned, as well as possibly a once in a life time opportunity. McKinley High will regret to see you leave, but will act as a proud parent all the same. Below are the few colleges offering a full scholarship.

University of Ohio State

University of Pennsylvania

University of Wisconsin-Madison

University of Maryland

Binghamton University

University of Delaware

University of California-Los Angeles

Choose Wisely.

Sincerely,

Principal Figgins, McKinley High School

A/N: Sorry if this seemed rushed, I really wanted to get it out for you guys. Also, some of you have been asking if I'm open to any suggestions or ideas. The answer is 100%, absolutely yes. :) I love getting ideas from my readers, especially because they're almost always fabulous and sometimes I just can't think of one I want to write at the moment and then someone comes up with one that I do want to write. So feel free to PM or review any ideas, thoughts, quotes you think might inspire something out of me, songs, lyrics, anything at all. :3 Anyways, because I'm not afraid to admit whatsoever that I will definitely beg for reviews, here's my little arrow for you just to draw you in and force you to review. :D

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