Quinn paced back and forth in the empty algebra classroom, wringing out her hands. She took a deep breath and tried to tell herself that everything would be okay, but she was nervous. She'd never broken anyone's heart before.

"I got your text. Is everything all right?"

Quinn swallowed hard. "Finn, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Finn's heart had been racing ever since he checked his phone on the way to football practice. If Quinn urgently needed to talk to him, it could only mean that she knew something he didn't want her to.

"You should probably make it quick. I have to go to practice." He told her quickly, stupidly hoping that she wouldn't go off on him if she didn't think she had the time to.

"I'm breaking up with you," She said quietly, but surely, giving a gentle nod.

"Why…?" Finn asked suspiciously, frozen, fully believing he knew the answer. To his surprise, however, Quinn didn't look angry. She looked…guilty. "Quinn, why are you doing this?"

"I'm sorry, Finn," She shrugged, dropping her hands to her sides, her voice shaking. "I really tried, but I can't make myself want you."

In the back of his head, he knew he shouldn't be angry, however, he would've almost preferred that the reason Quinn dumped him be something he did, rather than just him in general.

"Fine, do whatever you want," He snapped. "But I can't promise that my relationship status on Facebook will change tonight. I have a lot of homework to do. I might not log on."

He turned and stormed out of the room.

Quinn blinked, her guilt replaced by judgment. "Facebook…?" She mumbled after him. "Really, Finn…?"

And just like that, it was over. It was like a weight off her shoulders. She was free.

…But free to do what exactly?

"Did you do it?" Rachel was waiting for Quinn at her locker, just like she said she would be.

"Yeah," Quinn spun her combination, inexplicably afraid to look the shorter girl in the eyes. "It's done."

"We should celebrate!" Rachel said, leaning flirtatiously against the next locker. "Why don't you come over…? We can watch a movie or something."

Quinn felt her cheeks heat up. "Rachel…"

"We don't have to do anything," Rachel reasoned with her. "I just want to spend time with you…I'll admit, I'm attracted to the idea of snuggling up with you under a throw blanket, but we can even work our way up to that if you're not comfortable. We can take opposite ends of the couch. I'll even sit at the dining room table if that's what it takes."

Oh god, she was just too adorable. Quinn fought a smile. "Rachel, stop..."

"What…?" Rachel asked innocently.

"I wasn't kidding. I really do want time to sort through all of this."

"Well, it's hard to sort through your feelings without a friend to help," Rachel tried. "I want you to let me be there for you, Quinn."

Quinn examined the hopeful face of the girl in front of her. It was so hard to let her down. "Maybe we can do something this weekend. Something...public…you know…supervised."

Rachel couldn't help but smirk. "You're afraid you won't be able to control yourself."

Quinn's face had fallen serious. "You're right. That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

Rachel eyes did that thing again; where they got all big and emotional and concerned. Quinn couldn't stand it. "This weekend's fine for me."


The next day, Quinn walked into Glee club to find Coach Sylvester standing in the front of the choir room alongside Mr. Shuester. The adults divided the glee club in half, pitting the "minority" students against Quinn, Puck, Rachel, Brittany, and Finn. She instantly knew that it was going to be a stressful week.

Sure enough, Sue called her into her office the next day.

"Q, you're still dating the fellow who played Sloth in the Goonies, aren't you?" Sue asked first thing, pulling out a chair for Quinn to sit in. "Oh wait, it wasn't him, was it? I'm so sorry; I'm always confusing Chunk's big buddy with the quarterback of the football team."

Quinn lowered herself into the chair. "Finn and I broke up," She said, politely disregarding Sue's rudeness, as always.

"And here I was about to prey on your insecurities and manipulate you into causing conflict." Sue sighed. "But, I guess this is better. It allows me to be straight forward with you. After all, with Lurch out of the picture, your loyalties are no longer divided. It's good to have you on my team for real, Quinn."

Quinn didn't know what to say. She put on the sweet smile she used when she was trying to convince her father to let her stay out past curfew. "Look, coach. We've been down this path before. We tried getting the Glee club to hire Dakota Stanley and all it did was it brought them closer together. Maybe it would be better to just let us fail on our own, I mean, it's not like we're really that good anyway. You have nothing to worry about."

"Ms. Fabray, let me make one thing clear to you." Coach said in a low, scary voice. "If there is one thing Sue Sylvester is not, it is a quitter. I fight for to the death. And if anyone…" Her voice suddenly rose in pitch again. "…refuses to assist me in my inevitable victory, whether or not I get what I want in the end, I make sure they loose. Now Quinn, high school is a scary place, especially when you're a loser. More talk like this and I'll make sure you spend the next two years in a spiraling nightmare of social misfortune. So why don't you clarify that for me? Did you just tell me to back off the glee club?"

Quinn hesitated. "No. I just…"

Sue interrupted quickly. "Fantastic. Now, I have a little plan that I think you're going to have fun with."


Later that day, Quinn was cornered in the hallway.

"I need to talk to you,"

Quinn felt her heart skip a beat. Why was Rachel doing this to her. "Oh. Okay…is it about this weekend?"

"It's actually about Santana. I think someone said something about…you know…the situation. Jacob Ben Israel is threatening to blog about it."

"Are you kidding me!" Quinn felt sick for her best friend. "That's awful. Why would he do that?"

"I'm currently in the process of dissuading him…" Rachel said, crossing her arms uncomfortably. "I gave him something I would've rather held on to. Let's just say he's going to feel really stupid when he finds out I'm a lesbian."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "You didn't…?" She was horrified. "…you didn't, like, do something with him, did you?"

Rachel took a minute to realize what Quinn was implying. "…No!" She was vaguely amused. "No. I just gave him a pair of my underwear."

Quinn blinked and, once the shock wore off, started to laugh. "You did what?"

Rachel pressed her lips together hard, color rushing to her cheeks. She began laughing as well.

"What the hell kind of a bribe is that?" Quinn wailed, grabbing Rachel's shoulder for support.

"I don't know!" Rachel pressed her hands to her cheeks. "It was all he wanted."

"Rachel!" Quinn couldn't stop, she was practically falling over. "Oh god…Santana really owes you. That's ridiculous."

Rachel sighed, linking her arm in Quinn's and guiding her down the hallway. "I'm glad I could amuse you." She said pitifully.

Quinn just nodded, wiping tears from her face, and stealing another glance at the beautiful girl on her arm.


"Tell me how I'm s'pose to breath with no air,"

Quinn stood behind Finn and Rachel, wanting so badly to laugh at the horrifying sight she was witnessing. Finn was getting way too into his performance, trying to look sexy and singing right in Rachel's face. Rachel, however, was having none of it. She seemed so uncomfortable.

Quinn knew what she was supposed to do when the song was over. She was supposed to speak up, just like coach Sylvester told her to. She couldn't do it, though. Rachel deserved the solo. She wasn't going to complain about having to sing back up. That would just hurt Rachel's feelings. Rachel was doing so much for everyone else, and no one was giving her the repayment she deserved. It wasn't fair.

Quinn knew how far gone she was. At that point, she would've done anything for Rachel. Part of her wanted to completely abandon her vow to "sort through her thoughts". Part of her felt there was no sorting to be done. Rachel was it. But the better part of her told her that everything was happening too fast. What if it was all in her head? What if Rachel was just an experiment? She owed to not only Rachel, but to herself, not to make some sort of promise she couldn't keep or a commitment that she wasn't one-hundred percent sure she could honor.

She couldn't kiss Rachel again. Not yet. Not even if her lips seemed like the most appetizing thing on the planet. Not even if her short skirts and perfectly toned thighs were driving Quinn crazy every time she strutted down the hall.

"Quinn, are you okay?"

Quinn snapped out of her deep thoughts, blushing as she realized that she'd been staring at Rachel's legs ever since the song ended. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You're feeling good about the vocals?" Mr. Shuester asked, just to make sure. "You don't think we need to go over them again?"

Quinn shook her head quickly. "No. It's perfect. The whole song is."


Despite Quinn's efforts to keep Sue's plans from exploding, the sabotaging of the Glee club still occurred as planned. Sue turned Puck and Brittany against Mr. Shuester, and the two teachers had a screaming match in the auditorium. It ended, of course, with the kids coming together and celebrating how proud they were to be minorities. Quinn suspected the outcome would've been the same even if she had gotten involved. It made her feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside to know that the club was so close that they were gaining immunity to Sue's antics. It made her feel like she could really trust these kids.

On the other hand, it reinforced her understanding that she would never be able to trust Sue.

She came across Finn and Santana in the hallway later that day. Santana was sobbing into Finn's chest while he held her in his arms. She approached them cautiously.

"Santana, is everything all right?"

"No!" Santana snapped. "Nothing is all right. Somebody opened their mouth! I swear to god, it was that Berry chick. I knew she was a bitch from the moment I met her."

"Santana, don't be ridiculous," Quinn defended Rachel quietly. "Rachel's been great. She actually did a lot to try to stop the rumor from spreading."

"You think she's a real saint, don't you, Fabray," Santana sneered. "What, are you in love with her or something? Is she your new best friend?"

"Why are you being so mean…?" Quinn took a step back. She had done nothing to deserve the way Santana was treating her.

"Because I'm furious…!" Santana snapped. She was bordering a nervous break down.

Finn let out a small "whoa". Quinn shot him a look of annoyance, wondering why he was even the one comforting Santana in the first place. Where had Puck been through all of this?

"My life is falling apart!" Santana continued. "I'm having a baby at sixteen and MTV won't even accept my application to have it filmed!"

"Santana, it's going to be okay…" Finn tried.

"No, it's not. Do you know how hard I worked to get a spot on the cheerios? And she just throws me off…"

"Wait…" Quinn tried to imagine going to practice every day and not having her best friend beside her. Cheering without Santana just wouldn't be…cheerful. "Did Coach Sylvester actually kick you off the squad?"

Santana nodded miserably. "She said she couldn't keep a pregnant cheerleader on the squad…It's not safe or something like that."

"Well, you'll get back on next year," Quinn tried. "You'll have the baby…and…you'll start working out again….and…"

"Quinn, I really admire your attempts at motivational speaking, but can we please be real here?" Santana sniffed. "You know how Sue is. You piss her off once; you do anything to break the perfect clone stereotype, and she's done with you for good. I won't get a second chance."

Quinn shrugged. "You don't know. Maybe there's a heart in there somewhere…" But she knew Santana was right. Selfishly, her thoughts strayed away from Santana and the pregnancy. She hadn't helped Sue with her plans like she was told to. What if her spot on the Cheerios wasn't safe either? She tried to imagine life out of uniform. She would probably feel like a completely different person. She couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing.

"You should come over, okay?' Quinn said, shooting Finn a glance that practically ordered him to walk away and mind his own business. "You could use some girl time."

Santana seemed unsure, but eventually nodded. Maybe it didn't solve all her problems, but it was the only solution that either of the girls could think of.