Author's Note - Hey guys, thank you to those who reviewed, they really do give me the kick up the bum I need to keep writing haha. Now this chapter may seem like it's not much but trust me, it leads to much bigger things :D

As always, hope you enjoy it and please review, I love knowing what you guys think.

Monday morning soon arrived in a flurry of notes, homework and tests. The upcoming end of year exams had the whole school on edge and the chance of students having any spare time outside of studying was becoming increasingly slim. The school had even saw fit to postpone all extra curricular activities and clubs until after the exam period was over, worried that some of McKinley's more conscientious students may have been spreading themselves too thin. That was the official reasoning, but rumours were spreading around that it was just another of Principal Figgins' schemes to try and save money in the school's scarce budget.

News of the glee club's postponement was met by a mixed display of reactions. Most were outraged that the school would do such a thing with regionals only a matter of weeks away, while a select few were thankful for the break. "Think about it guys, we all get two weeks away from being exposed to Mr Shue's blatant vest fetish." The teacher in question scoffed lightly, he had become accustomed to the abuse over his choice of clothing. "Plus, " continued the Latina, ignoring her teacher's annoyance "I can't be the only one that needs a vacation from RuPaul's yappy voice barking orders at us all." Rachel gave an unimpressed scowl at this. "Oh don't give me that look man-hands, you should consider yourself lucky I haven't snapped and gone all Lima Heights Adjacent on your ass yet. I mean really…"

"Okay, okay that's enough thankyou Santana." interrupted Mr Schuster. As much as he hated to admit it, the young Latina had a point. The whole glee club had been working so hard recently that maybe some down time would be the best thing right now. "Here's what's going to happen, we're going use this time off to our advantage. I want each of you to take this as an opportunity to come up with some ideas for regionals. I want set lists, choreography, what ever you can think of. Try to think outside the box a little, we know that the Dalton boys will be bringing their best and we can't afford to do any less." Although the whole club had grown to love and admire Kurt's new team, they weren't going to risk a draw at Regionals.


The room quickly filled with talk of plans for the upcoming show as the club began to break off into smaller groups, eager to discuss what songs they would put forward and whom they believed would get what part.

Quinn had been stealing glances at the brunette from her seat on the other side of room for a while now. The blonde had tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, but when you were sitting next to Santana Lopez, it proved rather a hard task to perform covertly. She knew that it was risky to be casting longing looks to the small diva in such close proximity to someone who could so easily catch on to what she was doing, but her curiosity won out in the end.

It was this same curiosity that now had her walking to join Rachel on the other side of the choir room.

Sitting in her usual chair by the back, Rachel's brow was furrowed in concentration. On her lap sat a small black notebook adorned with glittering gold stars where she had been attempting to narrow down her vast catalogue of songs to find the very best; the one that would get the solo that she so often craved.

"Hey there," greeted Quinn enthusiastically. Rachel started at the sound of the blonde's voice; she had been so absorbed in her work that she hadn't even noticed the ex-cheerleader approaching her.

"Oh, hi Quinn" she replied, carefully closing her notebook and placing it on the empty seat beside her. "Please, sit down." Quinn was careful to avoid sitting on the lovingly decorated book and so chose to sit on the seat to the right of the brunette. A short, mildly uncomfortable silence sat between the pair as they waited for the other to begin talking.

"So, uh what were you thinking of putting forward for Regionals?" asked Quinn. Although there were a thousand other questions she would have preferred to ask, the blonde thought it best to keep the conversation on safe territory, for now at least and she knew that the young diva was unlikely to turn down an offer to talk about her own performance.

"I was actually thinking of doing a duet," Rachel answered, her eyes bright with excitement as she thought about the upcoming performance.

"Oh?" Quinn couldn't help but let a small glimmer of hope invade her mind with the thought that maybe, just maybe the small brunette would ask her to sing it with her. The blonde smiled at the thought, it would mean that they could spend time together without raising too much suspicion from the likes of Santana and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the glee club.

"Yeah, Finn suggested that we pair up the other night at Breadsticks."

"Oh," Damn Finn. The big oaf seemed to be becoming quite the nuisance of late. Why couldn't he just leave Rachel alone? He had had his chance with the brunette and blew it; she had been heartbroken for months after he split up with her and it was only just recently that the pair had startled to rekindle their friendship. A friendship, thought Quinn sourly to herself, which you only helped strengthen by harassing the poor girl for all that time.

Rachel saw how crestfallen the ex-cheerleader had become at the news of the quarterback's involvement and couldn't help but smile weakly. It was an unfamiliar experience to see the infamous Quinn Fabray get jealous. The young diva had been on the receiving end of many of the ex-cheerleader's emotions but never would she have thought that she would be able to evoke jealously from the blonde.

Finn's ears' must have begun burning because soon, he too, was coming over to join Rachel, his usual goofy grin plastered on his face.

"Hey Rachel," he greeted warmly, dropping himself down into the seat to her left. "Quinn." The blonde noticed she was simply an after thought to the quarterback back couldn't quite find the energy to care. What the oaf thought of her was the very least of her worries.

"Finn!" scolded Rachel. The footballer had unwittingly sat on the diva's much-loved notebook, almost crushing it in the process. Quinn laughed quietly to herself as Finn began to babble what sounded like an apology to the brunette as she snatched up the crumpled book from its seat. And here I thought you were going to make this tough on me Finn, smiled the ex-cheerleader to herself.


The following day held the promise of nothing but exams for the juniors of McKinley High and, as expected tensions were running high and tempers were running short, especially for one young brunette. Rachel had been livid at Finn for the incident in the choir room for the remainder of the day; she would have forgiven him earlier had he not made the mistake of asking why she was "so upset over a stupid book". Now the added pressure of exams had the small diva almost in hysterics.

"If x squared equals 45 then what is the numerical value of the cube root of 224 times pie. Why should I care?" she sighed, throwing her textbook down onto the table before her. "Unless I'm playing some kind of mathematician on Broadway, I'm never going to need this."

It wasn't just Rachel that was beginning to feel the pressure of the upcoming tests; Tina had taken to spending most of her lunchtimes in the school's library trying to absorb any extra information she could. Not even Mike Chang's offers of "Asian kisses" and a look at his abs were enough to lure her out.

Quinn however, was totally relaxed. After surviving Coach Sylvester and a teenage pregnancy, something as petty as end of year exams were a breeze for the blonde. Her nerves of steel were currently being tested however, by the sight of the small diva only a few tables away from where she sat in the school's cafeteria. The brunette was wearing another of her infamous outfits (today's consisted of white stockings with a deep red skirt that came up to her mid thigh and matching red and white checked top) and her hair was slightly ruffled. Quinn found her attention being drawn towards the young diva, no matter what she tried to do to distract herself otherwise.

This was insane, she was Quinn Fabray, HBIC, ex-head cheerleader and she didn't act this way. How had this one small, beautiful, all be it slightly annoying young woman managed to turn her someone who longed to feel the brunette's soft caress and who could no longer find herself to be happy if the small girl wasn't happy. Secretly, the blonde knew the answer to her own question, but there was no way she was ready to admit it to herself, let alone anyone else. Rachel knew how Quinn felt, but could the ex-cheerleader just leave the ball in her court? If she pushed too hard then she may scare off the small diva and lose her for good into the clutches of the quarterback. No, there's no way she would let that happen, at least not without a fight.