The next day before school Quinn confronted Rachel at her locker

"Alright Frank-N-Furter we need to have a little talk. I'd say girl to girl but I wouldn't want to insult any other transgenders hanging around" Quinn snarled slamming Rachel's locker door closed. Rachel sighed. She had been expecting this.

So she drew herself up to full height (which was still about a foot below Quinn), turned to face her enemy and said

"Quinn whatever I do in my own time is none of your business. In fact, nothing that I do is any of your business. So back off. You don't control me" This was one of the first times Rachel had been able to confront Quinn and she'd forgotten how scary, yet empowering it was. This was so going in her blog!

"Excuse me?" Quinn asked shocked at Rachel's sudden outburst "When your business happens to involve my boyfriend then that's when I get involved" Quinn stepped closer to her until they were nearly nose to nose "stay away from him" Quinn said her voice icy

Usually Rachel would have nodded and ran away, but today Rachel was going to go through with this. Why should she be scared of Quinn anyway? Obviously her life couldn't be so perfect if her boyfriend kept having moments with her.

"Its not my fault your boyfriends can't stay away from me" Rachel announced proudly. Someone in the hallway wolf whistled. Rachel glanced away and noticed that they had attracted quite a crowd. It was rather heartening to see that the boy who had whistled, had whistled in approval of her "burn". Quinn took advantage of Rachel's distraction and pushed her into the locker before storming off. Rachel smoothed down her skirt and realized that she had won that one. She received a few cheers as she walked to her first class.

The next day in Glee Club word had gotten out about Quinn and Rachel's confrontation. Rachel had garnered a lot of approval from some of the cheerios who had wanted Quinn to be taken down a notch for a long time, and Santana and Brittany were only two of them.

"I gotta say you have a point" Santana told her with new respect in her voice "They do seem to like you don't they… well I didn't know you had it in you anyway so congrats" She said before she and Brittany went and sat with Quinn. Puck high fived her as he came into rehearsal and Mercedes and Tina eagerly asked her for a play by play of what happened. Artie and Mike bumped her fist as they came in. She had never received a fist bump before. It was nice.

But the nicest reaction of all came from Sam. Of course he couldn't sit with her but he winked at her before sitting next to his girlfriend, and Rachel was sure that Quinn saw. Rachel then checked her cell and found a text from him saying :

Practice – ur house 7?

She replied straight away

Sure

That lesson Artie and Mike performed their mashup of "The girl is mine" (much to Tina's embarrassment) and "Wanna be starting something". Also performing was Santana and Tina who sang "Senorita" and "Objection Tango".

That night was practice with Sam. They practiced their mashup until late. After practice Sam told her

"I think the way you stood up to Quinn was pretty cool today" Rachel smiled and blushed a little

"Thanks"

"But I can't break up with her yet. I think she thinks she has to be a bully to be popular and that's something that's important to her. What I'm going to do is see if she's willing to accept the real me. If she isn't I'll dump her but if she is… then I can't break up with her for not accepting who she is after she is willing to accept me for who I am." Sam explained earnestly

"I understand" Rachel agreed sadly "I hope for your sake that she does Sam. You're a great guy."

"I know… at least if we stay together I'll be able to try and stop her from being so vicious towards you" He offered.

Rachel sighed and smiled sadly "Sam do you really think she'll ever let us see each other anymore? You know how upset she was when we were only rehearsing. Hanging out might just kill her" The absurdity of it all made Sam laugh but he quickly realized what she said was true.

After spending so much time together Sam couldn't imagine not talking to Rachel. He would really miss her. Her pretty smile, the way she could talk so fast, the way she really got him and how accepting she was of him. She was excited about new Sam. Even if New Sam was actually just Sam. He had always been New Sam. The Old Sam was just a cover up.