Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews my beauties, and this chapter is kind of pivatol. The scheming is about to up it a notch ;) I'm very excited about writing this story so please remember to review and let me know what you think :)

IMPORTANT NOTE: LISTEN TO THIS SONG! /watch?v=GHwfTdWQPj0 (sorry, had to split the link, it wouldn't let me post it otherwise. Just type in youtube and put the extra bit at the end :) )

This is the song Finn will be singing this chapter, in this sort of sound. Love the original but somehow, I don't think the original really suits Finn's voice :) Listen to the whole song when you read, I actually think this is a pretty great version :D The singer is rather gorgeous too.

Chapter 7

Rachel POV

"N-Noah Puckerman? What are you doing here?" I stammered, shocked. I looked around, behind him. No sign of Kurt whatsoever.

"Er, hi. Do you mind if I come in? I think we need to talk." Actually, I do mind this low-life piece of crap coming into my house, but I think the shock and interest in why he came in the first place won out. I stepped aside and allowed him to come indoors.

"What do you want, Puckerman? And how do you even know where I live?" I asked flatly. He raised one of his huge brows at me. He could definitely do with a shower. And a shave. He looks like he's growing a ferret on his face - not attractive.

"We need to talk. And I'd prefer it if you called me Puck to be honest. Puckerman's just... Way too formal." He said again, having a nosy at the photos across the walls in the livingroom, where I had led him. If I wasn't so uptight about what he was doing here in the first place, and about my argument with Kurt, not to mention, my confusion about Finn, I'd probably cringe at my appalling hairstyles on most of the pictures. But as it was...

"Yes, you already mentioned that once. What do you want? What could you possibly have to say to me, you don't even know me?" In times like these, it's definitely better to cut to the chase.

"Well excuse me." He rolled his eyes. "Might I remind you that you were the one who invaded my house party last night." Oh shucks.

"Right. How do you even know where I live?" I questioned again.

"I have my sources." What?

"Look, I'm busy, I have homework and vocal practice for Glee tomorrow to be getting on with. Can you just say what you came here to say and leave please? I hope you don't think I'm being rude but I don't take kindly to sarcastic, arrogant school bullies invading the privacy of my own home, uninvited."

"Look, it's about Finn." What? He's not done something stupid has he?

"What about him?" Puckerman stared at me as if I was stupid.

"He's a mess."

"I'm more than aware of that, no thanks to you." Puck's jaw tightened.

"You've got no idea what you're on about." Puck retorted coldly.

"After this afternoon, I'd hazard a guess that the whole school knows what I'm on about actually." Witty Rachel is one of my most endearing traits, I like to believe.

"Look, there's something you should know..."

...

"Oi, Rachel, wait up!" I paused in the East corridor and sighed, waiting. "Rachel! I've been trying to call you over the weekend? I just wanted to say sorry, you know, for Thursday. And I'm sorry about how I spoke to you, I was pretty cut up about what happened. I wasn't thinking straight." Finn apologised. Gritting my teeth, I smiled at him. This is going to test my superior acting skills to the limit I think. I mean, Friday was bad enough but after the weekend, I've had plenty of time to stew. It's only made me more affronted.

"It's fine, Finn. And yes, I'm sorry. I've been really busy all weekend, practicing for Glee and homework..." Just then, I spotted Kurt behind Finn's huge shoulder. "Excuse me, I'll see you later, ok?" I jogged a little to catch up with Kurt. We both had a free period now, so it would be the perfect opportunity to patch things up with him.

"Kurt! Kurt Hummel, wait up!" I called after him. I saw him hesitate but he carried on. I jogged on, trying to catch up with him, all the way to the back of the cafeteria outside, where the picnic benches are.

"What do you want, Rachel?" He asked coldly. He placed his bag gently on the table to ensure he didn't scratch it. It's probably one of those expensive ones that come with designer labels. I'm not exactly a fashion expert.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did." He sighed as we sat in silence. He took out his maths books and opened them.

"No, you shouldn't have." He agreed, eventually.

"I don't want us to fall out over this, Kurt. Thursday was a pretty intense day for all of us, we weren't thinking straight." He cringed when I said 'straight' and shifted on the bench to look at me. He had bags under his eyes and though his hair was perfectly combed to the side as usual, he looked as though he hadn't slept much during the weekend.

"You know what, though? I think you actually were thinking straight. It's just me who wasn't..." I wanted to reach out an arm to put around his shoulders as he sat next to me, his shoulders slumped, looking almost tearful. His cheeks had that familiar rouge stain that I had come to associate with his discomfort.

"What do you mean?" I asked softly. He sniffed and I realised he actually was upset. Properly upset. My words must have hurt him more than I'd thought.

"I'm gay, Rachel." He mumbled quietly. "You were right... I just couldn't admit it." He sniffed again and I subconsciously lifted an arm around his shoulders gingerly.

"I'm so sorry, Kurt. I shouldn't have been so insensitive." If I'm to keep him on my side so he can help me with the Finn business, we'd have to patch things up, soon!

"You are a pretty insensitive person." Kurt nodded, wiping his eyes with a sleeve and breathing in shakily.

"Who else knows?" I asked, ignoring his jibe.

"No one. You're the first person I've ever said it out loud to." Woah. Kurt trusts me! "Make no mistake though, if you hadn't said what you did on Thursday, I would definitely not have told you."

"Your dad doesn't know then?"

Kurt sat up, shocked. "No! I'm never telling him! He'd disown me. After mom died, he struggled so bad, trying to be a mom and a dad to me. It would break his heart, he wouldn't be able to deal with it."

"Kurt, I'm not going to say anything. But I think that you should. He's your dad, he loves you!"

Kurt snorted. "He loves his interpretation of me. There's a difference." And yet, I do understand him. Because my dad's love who they think I am to. Everyone does. Or in other words, they only care at all (be that love or hate, take your pick) about the Rachel they want to see. They don't know who I am inside. No one does.

"I still think he'd rather know. You shouldn't hide who you are from your own dad."

"Look, Miss Perfect," (YES!), "It's not the time to discuss this right now. How are things going with you and Lover-boy these days?"

"Kurt, it's only been a weekend." I rolled my eyes, obviously at him. "But if you must know..." And I told him everything about what Puck had told me. About how Finn was only being nice to me to get me to sleep with him, about how he had an dare obligation to seduce the infamous Rachel Berry in merely a month. Don't get me wrong, Puck wasn't just sticking his oar in, betraying his 'friend' again, he actually seemed to think he was helping. He did8 say that he didn't want me to tell Finn anything about knowing, that it would only hurt him more. Just to be aware so that, considering Finn hates him now, Finn is not allowed to fall in love with me, because it would only hurt him more than he already is. What a joke! Puck actually thinks Finn could fall in love with me! Erm, not that that isn't what I wanted...

"So you're telling me, that Finn is trying to seduce you, while you're trying to make him fall in love with you?" Kurt held up a hand, looking at me in entire disbelief.

"Pretty much, yes." I nodded.

"And Puck told you this because he wanted to warn you not to allow Finn to fall for you in case he ended up getting hurt?"

"Yes." I nodded again.

"Because he thought that way, he was still looking out for Finn, without Finn even realising?"

"Yes, Kurt! That's what I just said!" I replied, impatiently this time.

"Utter bollocks!" Kurt said finally.

"I know! I'm so confused. I don't understand how Puck knew what we're up to." I shook my head in frustration.

"Maybe he doesn't know, he's just saying that if Finn starts falling for you, he'll suffer because of his so-called reputation, not to mention, it being a 'rebound' thing. So he thinks that by making you hate Finn, there's no way he'll get his heart broken again, because you are basically a bitch." Kurt summed up.

"Er, excuse me!" I elbowed him sharply in the gut. "But that does seem to make sense."

"So what's your plan?" Kurt asked eventually as we both tried to absorb the turn of events.

"Well, I told Puck that I didn't believe him and to get out. I told him he's just a bully and a shameless excuse for a best friend."

"And the point of that was...?"

"The plan is about to get a whole lot dirtier." I smirked at Kurt.

"You sure you're ok with that? I mean, you were planning to hurt Finn as well, it's not just him whose in the wrong..." Kurt reminded me.

"The difference is, being a virgin sex-wise is very different to being a virgin love-wise. And he is about to reap the consequences of messing with Rachel Berry. Unless you are into him Kurt...?"

Kurt shook his head. "No one messes with Rachel Berry and her evil schemes." He coughed before spluttering with laughter.

...

Finn POV

So what's up with Rachel? She practically ran away from me earlier. I thought we were starting to get somewhere... That's when I saw her and Kurt sitting at one of the picnic benches. I didn't realise they were such good friends.

"Er, Rachel?" I coughed, as I approached them. She looked up at me, before glancing at Kurt.

"Yes?" She replied eventually.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a walk quickly?" Why do I feel so nervous all of a sudden?

"A walk? Around school? There's no where to go." She said, kind of patronisingly.

"Well yeah, I mean-"

"Oh, I see I'm not wanted. I'll see you two kids later." Kurt stood and gathered his things before leaving us alone.

"So, what's the matter?" Rachel asked.

"Er, nothing really. I was just wondering... Do you want to help me pick outfits for the guys' Glee performance at lunch? I was kind of assigned to do it over the weekend but I wasn't really feeling up to it, you know." She sighed.

"You realise that's cheating, don't you? A girl helping one of the boys." I smiled. She seems in a better mood now.

"Well, I won't tell if you don't."

"Hmm... well if you promise to hit a bum note, I'll help you." She wasn't kidding!

"Ugh. Fine." I shrugged and chuckled.

"Fabulous." She gathered her things together too and we headed to the auditorium, where there were a few cardboard boxes on one side of the stage, that held the costumes.

"Do you have lessons this morning?" She asked. I shook my head. I quite like Monday mornings.

"Awesome." She clapped her hands together and pulled me back stage.

"Woah, wait a sec-" She opened her bag and got out some weird makeup stuff. "What the hell, I'm not-"

"You asked me to help you!" She protested as I glared at the makeup stuff in her hands.

"I'm not wearing that! I'll be crucifed."

"Finn! Look at me. Would I make you look like an idiot, in public?" She challenged. I raised a brow at her. I seriously think she would, this is Rachel Berry we're talking about.

"Ugh." I groaned again. "I'm trusting you, Rachel." I warned her. She just forced my eyes closed with her fingers and began.

"What do I need makeup on for anyway? You don't even know what song we're doing!" I complained, feeling her prodding my eyes with something.

"I happen to be the one who suggested it actually." I sat back in surprise but she dug her finger nails into my wrist to keep me still.

"That's cheating!" I mimicked her. "You're not supposed to know what we're doing. Now you could have gone out and got something even better!"

"Well, that's funny. Because I also suggested the different sound. And choreographed it." I could almost feel her shrug, though my eyes were closed.

"And now you're making me hit a bum note as well." I grumbled as she put something on my cheeks.

"Well..." She paused. "You shouldn't be so trusting should you?" My eyes flickered. "All done." I sat back and opened my eyes. They feel all heavy.

"Can I look in a mirror?" She grinned and held a pocket mirror out to me.

"Go right ahead." I could have died.

"Shit Rachel! What have you done to me?" I had weird black eyeliner on and she'd put some white stuff on my face to make me look pale. The guys are gonna have a field day with this.

...

As it turns out, Rachel seemed to have found time to do all our makeup the same. The girl is an absolute witch. It's not like the song is that heavy, the makeup is going to make us look like a joke. Surprisingly, she wasn't here yet, so I couldn't tackle her about it.

"Right guys or girls, whose up first?" Mr Shue asked once everyone had arrived and sat down. I looked at that kid Artie who nodded and put his hand up.

"We'll go!" A couple of the girls whistled as we got up and Artie blushed through his makeup as that Asian girl smiled at him. He motioned to the band behind us. That Kurt kid was on the girl's side, because his voice is so high pitched or something. I wonder where Rachel is. It doesn't seem like her to miss a Glee rehearsal, especially when it's our first official group performance.

As we got our places, I ignored Puck, who picked up a guitar and stood to my left. He'd definitely found his spot in the club already. I'd been assigned with the drums, but because the rest of the guys had voted me to sing this one, one of the extra kids took the drums instead. I could feel Quinn's eyes on me, but I avoided her gaze.

"Well I hope you ladies are ready for this." Puck declared, straightening out his guitar.

"We walked in the cold air..."

We got a huge cheer at the end. Looks like our first group performance went as planned!

"Absolutely fantastic vocals Finn, I knew there was a reason we wanted you." Mr Shue applauded, along with the rest of the club. Puck appeared behind me and I almost smacked him on the back and congratulated him but instead, I shuffled away from him, probably looking like a prize dick.

The girls look worried though. Where's Ra- The door just opened. We all turned, as the girls got up, wearing identical flower dresses or whatever. Rachel was there, wearing the same dress, in a different colour. Probably to symbol her status as lead vocalist. But she wasn't alone. I frowned as she made her way forward, her arm entwined with some weird dude's.

"Guys, this is Jesse." She nodded towards the dude stood next to her. "He's just transfered here."

Author's Note: Eep, I am so excited about writing the next few chapters. Rachel's scheming is about to hit new levels of bitchiness! Hope no one was disappointed that she found out about the dare so soon, trust me, it is definitely not the end of the scheming :D No one messes with Rachel Berry, after all :P