A.N. Thanks to all that reviewed! This one is a bit longer so I hope you enjoy!
XX
"Sup?" Puck greeted Santana as he leaned against the locker next to Santana's the next day.
"Hey," she replied as she continued switching out her books.
"So, I'll be home alone this weekend," he told her, his eyebrows wiggling suggestively. "Wanna come over?"
"Not really," she replied coolly.
He frowned, wondering if she was simply turning the tables on him by playing hard to get. "Why not?"
"I'm kind of into someone else," she replied honestly as she checked her makeup in her locker mirror.
"Come on, babe, I'll make you forget all about him," he told her.
"You should have a party this weekend," Santana suddenly suggested, a brilliant idea coming to her.
"Okay," he agreed slowly. He figured maybe if he got her drunk he'd get into her pants. It was an easy decision.
"Perfect," she told him as she closed her locker. "I'll invite everyone."
"So you and Q are cool?" he asked.
Santana sighed at his lack of subtlety and nodded. "We're fine."
"And she's okay?" he asked softly.
Santana nodded. "She's good. I kept an eye on her all summer. I busted her ass to get her back into fighting shape and then she came back and stole the crown away from me. Bitch." She cocked a grin to let him know she was only half-serious.
"Just take care of her," he told her seriously.
"Always do," Santana replied.
"So did I really see Rachel Berry getting into your car yesterday?" Puck asked as they made their way down the hall.
"Yep," she replied, not even looking his way.
His eyes narrowed a bit. "What game you playing?" he asked.
"Who said anything about games?" she wondered.
"You can't stand her," he pointed out.
Santana shrugged. "I'm a 17 year old cheerleader. I can't stand anyone." She met his eyes and glared at him. "Seriously, why do you care?"
He frowned. "Because Brittany shot me down so she could sleep with Wheels, so pelvic action with her is out and when I came to find you, you and Rachel were getting into your car." His eyes narrowed. "You're not using her to make Brittany jealous are you?"
"No," she told him with a roll of her eyes. "Don't be an idiot."
"Why else would you be hanging out with her?" he wondered.
Santana glared at him. "You dated her so you have to know that once you get her out of this hellhole and she stops talking your ear off that she's not half bad to hang out with."
"Yeah, but I dated her cause she's a hot Jew and I wanted to get into her pants," he told her. "What's your excuse?"
Something inside her suddenly felt icky with the knowledge that she and Puck thought so much alike. "She's just helping me with a glee thing."
He frowned. "A glee thing? You girls already performed."
"Maybe I want to do something extra."
He laughed at that. "Why? It's glee club."
"I get that," she growled. "It's called going over and above."
He rolled his eyes. "Spare me your dad's overachiever speech, I've heard it before."
She turned towards him, her mouth open to retort when she caught sight of Quinn and Rachel walking down the hall together and anger bubbled up inside her. "You know, fuck off, Puck. If I want to sing a song for glee, I can. And if I want to hang out with Rachel Berry, I can do that too. Leave me the hell alone about all of it." She slammed her locker and took off down the hall.
"You'll still come to my party, right?" he called down the hall after her.
Her only response was to flip him the bird without so much as a glance back in his direction.
"She's still hot for me," he told himself as he took off for the locker room for practice.
XX
The afternoon was dark and dreary. Low clouds loomed overhead and Rachel pondered if the weather was trying to tell her something as she sat in the passenger seat of Quinn's car as the blonde drove them to her house.
In the movies the weather was always the first sign that things were about to go awry. Dark, cloudy days such as these always seemed to lead to trouble for the young ingénue of any good story.
"You're awfully quiet," Quinn pointed out softly.
Rachel tore her gaze from the weather and smiled at the other girl. "Forgive me, I was just thinking about the weather."
"What about it?" Quinn asked.
Rachel shrugged. "Have you ever noticed in movies how the weather is usually indicative of what's about to happen in a story? Cloudy days lead to trouble while bright, sunny days lead to, what was it you said? Hugs and puppies?"
"Hearts and puppies," Quinn corrected with a smile. She chuckled after a moment. "Rachel, sweetie, you think too much."
"I-I know," Rachel agreed, sputtering slightly at the term of endearment that had come from the other girl. "I've always said it's an occupational hazard."
"Explain that to me," Quinn requested, wondering how over-thinking was a future Broadway star's occupational hazard. Nevertheless she was encouraged by the fact that Rachel hadn't completely frozen up when the term of endearment had slipped off her tongue. It seemed like it was a good sign.
Baby steps, she thought to herself.
"Well, though I run the risk of sounding over confident by saying this, I feel as though my voice could carry me to Broadway today if I wanted it to," Rachel told her softly and something about her tone let Quinn know that this was a rare occasion when she wasn't trying to brag about her talent. "But I feel my acting skills are sub-par so I've been working on them and one way I do that is by thinking. About everything. Why people do the things they do, why they say the things they do. I want to be able to immerse myself into my first role completely so I figure that if I think about everything then I'll know a lot more when the time comes."
"Wow," Quinn breathed. "Okay then."
Rachel sighed, her hands balling in her lap. "If I'm too much for you to deal with you can drop me off here and I'll walk home."
"It's not that," Quinn assured her quietly. "Its just…do you ever think about anything besides Broadway?"
"Of course," Rachel answered without really thinking. "I think about glee. And Finn."
"But isn't glee more of a means to an end?" Quinn wondered. "If we win Nationals that's just another stepping stone to Broadway."
"I'll give you that one," Rachel replied after a moment. "There's still Finn."
Quinn smirked at her. "Okay and how much of you likes him because he's a big, sweet oaf and how much of you likes him because he's 'leading man material'?"
Rachel narrowed her eyes at the other girl. "That's really not fair. We've been dating all summer."
Quinn sensed she might have pushed too far and she shook her head, holding one hand up in a peaceful gesture. "You're right. I'm sorry. If Finn makes you happy then I have no right to say anything."
Rachel considered that statement for a moment. "So you're saying that if Finn made me unhappy you would have the right to say something?"
"Yes!" Quinn exclaimed. She blushed and sat silently for a moment. "As your friend I would tell you that you deserve someone on the same level as you emotionally. You deserve someone who notices you. And not just when you're dressing up like Britney Spears."
Rachel was silent as she thought about Quinn's words. One particular part of her statement seemed to repeat itself in her head. Someone who notices you. At the moment she was lacking that. Finn had been especially distracted since the school year began with the new football coach and getting kicked off the team only to be taken back and with glee and everything else it seemed that he only noticed her when he wanted to make out with her.
Quinn watched Rachel out of the corner of her eye as she pulled up in front of her house, wondering what the other girl was thinking. She hoped that in her effort to continue to convince Rachel she needed to dump Finn that she hadn't pushed too far.
Quinn pushed her front door open and stood aside while Rachel entered. She led the diva upstairs to her room where they dropped their bags. Rachel took a seat at the desk while Quinn headed for her walk in closet.
"I'm sorry if I overstepped," Quinn called out as she began changing out of her uniform. She held her top to her chest and peeked her head out. "You and I are barely friends. I should have kept my mouth shut."
Rachel blinked at the sight of Quinn in her state of undress, her mouth opening and closing several times. She wasn't used to having girl friends so this was all new to her. "It's fine."
"It's really not," Quinn argued as she ducked back into her closet. "Plus the fact that Finn is my ex only makes it even more not my place."
"It's fine, Quinn," Rachel told her, not really wanting to talk about Finn any longer. Something else Quinn said had her thinking. Was she really more attracted to Finn because he was a perfect leading man?
"Can I ask you something?" Rachel asked, dropping that line of thought before she over-thought it.
"Sure," Quinn replied.
Rachel hesitated. "Do you know anything about Santana's mom?"
There was silence from the closet until Quinn emerged wearing jeans and a tank top, her face confused. "Santana's mom?"
Rachel shrugged. "I was at her house yesterday and her dad came home and mentioned that her mom called him. Then she got kind of quiet and took me home."
Quinn's eyes narrowed. That dirty sneak! she thought to herself. Playing the absentee mom card with Rachel. So not fair.
"Quinn?" Rachel said, placing a hand on the blonde's arm to snap her from her thoughts.
Quinn shook her head, smiling apologetically. "I'm sorry." Her bottom lip slid between her teeth for a moment as she thought about Rachel's question. "You should probably ask Santana about that."
Rachel nodded slowly, figuring that would be the answer she'd get so she changed the subject. "So how are things with you and Sam?"
"Not bad." Quinn shrugged as she set a large case of CD's down on the bed and sat down next to it, patting the spot on the other side of the case. "Want to flip through these to see if anything looks good?"
Rachel nodded and took the seat on the bed, her head tilting as Quinn flipped the pages slowly.
"Honestly, I'm not sure Sam is really right for me," Quinn said quietly after a few moments of silence.
"Really?" Rachel asked. "You two were very charming when you sang together." She looked up and found Quinn watching her carefully.
Quinn smiled. "I actually think I might have feelings for someone else." Her eyes fell to Rachel's lips and then met her eyes again.
Rachel blinked several times and practically gulped at the look the blonde was giving her. "R-really? Who?"
Quinn allowed a grin to quirk her lips. "It's a secret. And before you ask, it's not Finn."
Rachel immediately shook her head. "I didn't think…"
Quinn met her eyes and their gazes locked for a long moment, Quinn's eyes softening as she tried to subtly give Rachel a hint that it was her she was talking about. She allowed her gaze to linger for another moment before she set her gaze back on the CD's.
"What about this one?" she asked, smiling a little when Rachel blinked to snap herself out of the haze that had settled around them. She was holding the single for 'When the Stars go Blue' that Bono and the Corrs did.
Rachel nodded. "I love that song."
Quinn placed the CD to the side as they continued to flip. "So what did you and Santana decide on?"
Rachel shook her head. "We didn't really decide on one. We came up with a lot of options though."
"Your voice would sound amazing on this one." Quinn plucked a CD from the case. "So why didn't you decide?"
Rachel blushed at the compliment and shrugged a shoulder. "That's when her dad showed up and mentioned her mom."
"Oh," Quinn replied. She sighed knowing she was probably going to help Santana earn points with Rachel for this, but her friendship trumped the competition in that moment. "Look, Rach, I know that Santana acts like she's tough but she's had it rough the last few years so just…be careful with her."
Rachel knew she was missing something huge, but figured the missing pieces would only be filled in by a certain brunette cheerleader so she just nodded. "I understand."
Quinn suddenly quirked a half-smile that Rachel found herself reacting to. "Thanks."
Rachel nodded, not knowing exactly what she'd done to earn that smile but she knew she wanted to do whatever it was again because that was the only smile she ever wanted to see Quinn aim her way.
XX
A.N. Kind of a quiet Q/R chapter, but I really want it to be a contrast to the R/S stuff. I want the two relationships to be very different from one another so we'll see how that progresses through the story. And hmmm, a party at Puck's? That can only lead to goodness! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed and please leave me some feedback if you can!
