Puck could not get Rachel out of his mind all weekend. He hung out with Matt and Mike, but even they couldn't take his mind off of her.
It probably didn't help that they questioned him about it for about half an hour, but he didn't say much. And maybe when they asked if he was getting some from Berry he smirked. But only because he really liked that thought, but it led them to believe it was a 'yes' which he didn't really deny.
And when he walked into school that morning, yeah he showed up a little early because he knew she did too, and yeah he walked right past his locker to go see if she was at hers first, but no, he definitely wasn't completely smitten with Rachel.

When he got there he saw Finn smile and walk away from her, not noticing Puck. Puck's good mood suddenly changed and he walked up to Rachel,

"What was that about?" He normally isn't a nosy person, but he couldn't help it. He could tell Rachel liked him, but that didn't mean she didn't still like Finn too. And Finn was always following her like a lost puppy when Quinn wasn't around to see.

"Good morning, Puck," She beamed at him, she looked excited to see him, and that made him forget he was angry a second ago and smile back.

"Finn just asked me if I would help him with his vocals, he wants to help improve his higher notes so that I don't drown him out when we sing lead together "

He stepped closer and leaned against the other lockers.

"Well, he shouldn't have to worry about that since we are singing lead, right?" He reached out and held her hand when he said this, and she was totally eating up his attention.

"You're right," She smiled dreamily

"but anything to help take New Directions to nationals, right?" Pucks face fell a bit

"So you said yes?"

"...yes." He dropped her hand, and looked disappointed. Then Rachel spoke up,

"And why does it matter to you? I've helped you too when you asked, and I was the one who set up the whole routine for the girls mash up! And..." She sighed, stopping herself from ranting.

"But anyways, it's not like.... you're not," She was going to ask him if he was jealous, but if he said no that he didn't like her like that or something she was afraid she would get upset and die of embarrassment.

He reached out and grabbed her hand again, he smiled

"I'd like to be." His voice made her heart melt when he said that, but what was he talking about?

"You'd like to be jealous?" she said questioningly, she was truly confused, and now so was he.

"Uhm... what? No... I meant, I'd like to be your..." he paused, now he felt like an idiot

"Oh!" she blushed, she was such an idiot around boys sometimes, they made her feel so weak at the knees. Especially the boy standing in front of her.

"I'd like that too Puck."

He looked back up at her and smiled as he stood up straight, closing the distance between them. Their lips met in a kiss as more people started walking the halls. But they didn't notice because they didn't matter. All that mattered was that Puck had just won Rachel, and he was pretty sure she was the best prize he had ever received.

----

Two days later found Puck and Rachel early for Glee rehearsal, Rachel was trying to go over what leads she should suggest Mr. Schuester let them sing together, but he kept interrupting her by giving her a quick kiss. He was paying attention to her, but he liked when she blushed and kept talking as if he wasn't hinting towards something. Well, he kind of wished she would shut up and kiss him back, but he knew that was unlikely and, what could he do?

"Puck, I'm serious. I think we should really both have a part in the selection of a song if we want to have the best chance at getting the leads for it."

He leaned over and kissed her again

"You know you love it" she smiled at this, but right before she could let him know how much she does love it, the door opened and Kurt and Mercedes walked in, followed by Tina and Artie. Puck leaned back into his own chair, but left his arm hanging around the back of Rachel's.

Mike, Matt, Santana, Brittany and Mr. Schuester walked in and he was about to start up talking before the door opened. It was Finn holding the door open for.... Quinn. She had on a cute blue dress, and her hair was let loose.
Puck was in awe, whenever he saw her she normally had that Cheerios uniform on, with her hair pulled straight back it, made her look so tough on the exterior. But now she looked so innocent, and so sad. Puck had that guilt feeling welling up inside of him.
Then he realized Rachel was still on his left, and he dropped his arm from her back.

"Quinn! We are so happy to have you back!" Mr. Schue stated, and everyone agreed.

She gave a small smile, but you could see it was just a front. One she was failing at.

"If you're up for it, " Mr. Schue went on.

"The song we're singing now was originally supposed to have you as lead. So, if you think you'd like to, we wouldn't mind going slowly over the choreography until you get used to it"

"I'd like that Mr. Schue. Thank you" she said quietly.

Rachel was taken a back by what Mr. Schue said to her, but... they were so long through practicing it, they were almost done and Rachel was perfect! What was wrong with her? She was better than Quinn, and it's going to take her forever to learn the choreography as well as Rachel knew it without puking through the first spin.

"Okay. Puck if you want to come up here with Quinn, we'll start with just singing for now and see where we go from there"

"Puck, I thought we were going to sing lead together?" Rachel looked at him sadly

"Come on, Rachel. You have to let other people have a chance too" he said, not really looking at her because it was still fresh in his mind that he gets to do a solo with Quinn Fabray.

Rachel looked surprised that he would say something like that to her and when he got up to walk to the front she turned around and glared at the wall in front of her.
Finn walked past Quinn and sat down in Puck's empty seat.

"Hey Rach! Isn't this great! I finally talked Quinn into coming back to school, once I mentioned that we all missed her, and that Mr. Schue had a solo for her she changed her mind,"

Rachel was listening but just nodded sadly, Finn didn't catch on that she was upset and went on,

"I'm proud of her, you know? I think finding out that Mr. Schue believed in her made her want to prove herself. Especially since she got kicked off the Cheerios squad..."

"Is that why she isn't in her uniform?"

"Yeah, she just dropped off her uniform before rehersal, that's why we were a little la-..." Finn trailed off as the music started playing.

When Puck started singing, Rachel noticed how Quinn's eyes lit up, and she definitely noticed that smile Puck gave Quinn, it was the same smile he had on his face when he looked at her when she was lead.
That's was it. She decided God hated her, Quinn Fabray was his little angel that kept coming into her life and taking everything she wanted. First Finn, now another solo, and Puck. At least Rachel's not the pregnant one... She stopped herself, realizing that she was being kind of selfish saying that.

The chorus came up and Rachel didn't start singing, she was too lost in her own thoughts about this whole mess now doubting whether Puck actually wanted to be with her.
The felt a sharp pain on her side, and looked over to see Kurt elbowing her, waking her out of her daydream... more like nightmare.
She looked over at Finn and realized he wasn't singing either, he had his hands clenched at his sides, and was staring straight at Puck who was slowly going over some of the choreography with Quinn as they sang. So he noticed it too! And Mr. Schue said they weren't even doing choreography this time! She was getting angrier by the minute, and she couldn't even bring herself to start singing without screaming at the top of her lungs.


After the very painful rehearsal, Rachel tidied up her sheet music, shoved them in her backpack, and ran out of the classroom as fast as she could, trying to avoid getting stopped by someone.

"Rachel, hey... Rachel!" Mr. Schue called out to her as she brushed past him, he noticed neither her nor Finn had sung the first time around during the song, and he knew she was probably upset with Quinn getting her solo back.

"Finn, can I talk to you for a moment?" Mr. Schue asked as Finn was almost out of the door. Finn looked down the hallways, and then looked back and Mr. Schue and walked over to him.

"Yeah. Mr. Schue?"

"I noticed you and Rachel didn't sing during rehearsal today, is there anything wrong?" Finn didn't say anything, he shifted his gaze back to the door. Mr. Schue knew about the baby, but he didn't want to involve him in any high school love drama.

"I know Rachel is probably upset about the solo, but-"

"I don't think that's the only thing she is upset about"

"... is she okay?" He asked seriously

"I'm sure she'll be fine, I've got to run, I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Schue" Finn hurried past him, about to run out the door to find Rachel when he heard someone.

"Leaving without me?" It was Quinn, it looked like Puck had already left when he was talking to Mr. Schue. Hopefully he would explain to Rachel that whatever just had happened between him and Quinn was all for show... right?

"Sorry, Quinn. I just forgot something in my locker and I wasn't sure if you were ready or not" He smiled sheepishly.

"Whatever Finn, take me home. I need a lot of rest if I am going to come back and do this again tomorrow." He grabbed her hand to walk her out of the room, but as soon as the door shut behind them, she dropped his hand and started walking the opposite way as Finn.

"Where are you going?"

"To your locker... you needed to get something out of it, right?" She stood there and looked at him confused.

"Oh, right." She rolled her eyes at him, and waited for him to catch up before they started walking down the hall.

----

Singing with Quinn was different from singing with Rachel. He felt like he was drowning out Quinn's voice, where as with Rachel their voices were about even in tone. But there was just something about Quinn today that made him more aware of her as a person... as the mother of his kid. After rehearsal that day he had been caught up with Quinn, when he saw Rachel run past him out the room he knew he should have went after her, but Quinn was there and he hadn't seen her for about 2 weeks! Rachel could be such a drama queen sometimes.
Once he saw Finn run after Rachel out the door, he realized he should have went before Finn had the chance.
Luckily Mr. Schue called Finn over and stopped him from leaving.

"Hey Quinn, it's been really nice seeing you after so long"

"You too, Puck" she smiled sweetly, and he almost forgot what he was about to say next.

"...I've got to go though, I'll see you tomorrow in rehearsals, right?"

"Right." He threw her another smile before walking out of the door unnoticed by Finn.

----

When he got outside, Rachel was sitting on the bench hunched over. He walked over in front of her

"You ready to go?" She looked up at him and she looked like she was about to cry. What is wrong with her?

"Uhm... you okay?" she shook her head and looked back down.

"I'm sorry... but if you need a ride I need to go now, I have to get home before my mom leaves for work." He wasn't trying to be mean, but he just realized the time and he had to go.

"Just go." He looked at her confused and reached down to grab her backpack

"What? Come on, get up, let's g-"

"Please just leave, Puck." He just stared at her but she wouldn't look at him. Ugh, he didn't need her shit right now. he put her backpack back down next to her

"Yeah, okay... Bye Rachel" she didn't reply so he just turned around and walked out to his car.

Rachel just sat there, she was about to start crying even harder when she heard someone from behind her

"Bye Rach!" Rachel looked up to see it was Finn. He was smiling until he saw the tears in her eyes, and his face dropped. He looked like he wanted to say something until Quinn started pulling him the other way.

"Let's go, Finn, we don't have time for this."

Finn gave one more look at Rachel and followed Quinn.

She sat alone for a good thirty minutes until she stopped crying and looked at the time, realizing her dads thought Puck would be taking her home they probably hadn't even let yet. She texted her dad, and when she put her phone away she tried to wipe away her tears before her dad asked her too many questions when he came to pick her up.

----

I forgot to mention awhile ago that I don't have a beta. I do read over the chapters multiple times to try and catch everything, but after the 3rd time everything just kind of a blurs together, haha. No one has said anything about it yet though, so I'm hoping it's not too bad. If you ever do catch something that sounds off or just really bad grammar, don't be afraid to point it out! [As long as you're nice about it] Thanks! :]

Thanks again for the very lovely reviews! :D