Week 1 of rehearsal and the "Pure Friendship Challenge"

So, stage managing two shows at once was a little more difficult than Quinn had predicted. She was dealing with two different directors, two partially different casts and sets and one thus far useless ASM. The schedule was pretty intense as well. As You Like It rehearsals went from 9-1 and The Wedding Singer rehearsals were from 3-7 with dance rehearsals from 7:30-9:30 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

It only took until Tuesday for Quinn to start napping during the two hour break.

Luckily, for the most part, both casts were quite cooperative. Of course all of the ensemble members (aka the interns) were in the quest for Equity points so most of them were great to work with. It was a few of the principles that were Equity and only doing one show that were a little on the needy side. It wasn't anything beyond the realm of what Quinn could handle, but it was still annoying.

Although, if she had to hear Holly Holiday bitch about only getting ten minute breaks for six weeks she might go insane.

She survived the first week of rehearsal. That was what really mattered.

She also successfully maintained a normal friendship with her roommate. Since Santana and Brittany barely left her side when she wasn't working or sleeping, that wasn't all that difficult to do. They also constantly invited her.

Rachel was also the least crazy in the casts. Quite literally the opposite of Quinn's prediction. She never complained, she was never late, and she never expected stage management to keep track of all of her blocking like at least 75% of the cast had.

She was a great roommate, too. Another unexpected development. Quinn's standards for a great roommate were someone who didn't bug her and didn't touch her stuff without asking. Rachel had plenty of her own stuff and honestly, Quinn thought she was too adorable to be annoying. All the time. She wanted it to be annoying but she just couldn't convince herself that it was.

Maybe she wasn't getting enough sleep and she was becoming delirious... yeah, that had to be it.

Good thing it was Saturday. That meant rehearsals were done at 7 and Sunday there were no rehearsals!

Quinn was sleeping in.

"Hey Quinn?" she tried so hard to get away.

"Yes, Blaine?" Quinn turned on her heel just before she got to the stage door to see a big group a people gathered behind her. This didn't look good.

"Some of us were going to get dinner and drinks and were wondering if you wanted to join," Blaine had his most charming smile on, which was really the only smile he had.

"Ummm..."

"Come on Quinn, it'll be fun," Charlie, her usually much more helpful ASM wagged his dirty blonde eyebrows up and down at her.

"I don't know..."

"Come on Q, you're our ride," Santana pushed past everyone, grabbed her and whisked her out the stage door.

"That's a convincing argument," Quinn deadpanned as she tried to get her arm back.

"Quinn you're coming?" an excited voice came from behind her.

"I guess so," Quinn turned around to see Rachel's bright smile. She was going to just drop Brittany and Santana off, but now...

"Can I ride with you guys?" she asked with a cute hopeful look.

"Of course you can Midget!" Santana said stepping over to the backseat, "you can even have shotgun."

"Oh you don't have to-"

"She tries to sit in the back with Brittany when it's just the three of us," Quinn interrupted Rachel, flatly.

"Yeah, Quinn gets pretty mad about that..." Brittany said as she slinked into the back seat on the driver's side.

"I would, too," Rachel said quietly leaning over the center console towards Quinn. It was the closest she'd ever been to her, besides that millisecond of contact during their lunch. She could feel her breath on her arm and it sent a shiver down her spine.

As quick as it had happened, it was over and her pocket was vibrating. She started the car and pulled her phone out of her pocket simultaneously.

iMessage From Satan:
1) I know you're only going bc she is and 2) You're welcome.

- I hate you.

Two seconds after Quinn hit send, a cackle came from the back seat. She rolled her eyes and put the car in drive... until she realized she didn't know where they were going.

"That place we went to on Saturday," Santana somehow read Quinn's mind.

Quinn huffed and pressed down on the gas pedal. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw two faces that were extremely close to each other.

"Here," Quinn handed Rachel her phone, "Pick a Pandora station or make one, but do it quick. The cord end should be in the cup holder."

"Um... okay," Rachel tentatively took Quinn's phone. And then it started, "Oh." She started blindly grasping for the end of the cord with her left hand as her right swiped away at Quinn's phone. Rachel gasped, looked over at Quinn and said, "You do not..."

"What?" Quinn asked nervously as they waited at a light.

Rachel let out an mischievous laugh, tapped something and put the phone face down in her lap.

Quinn knew exactly which station she'd chosen as soon as the first few guitar strings were plucked.

"HA!" Santana's face was suddenly in the middle of the two front seats, "Please tell me this is actually a Taylor Swift station. On Quinn's phone."

Quinn simply turned up the volume and started screaming the lyrics as the car erupted in laughter. The song lasted for the rest of the drive and by the end they were all screaming it.

They got to the restaurant first which meant they were in charge of informing the poor wait staff how many foolish theater people they had to deal with.

Thirteen.

If Quinn had realized there were going to be thirteen people that she spent all day and every day with, she wouldn't have been so easily swayed.

"I can seat you guys now if you want?" the hostess said as she started stacking menus up on the podium.

Before any of them could answer a loud wave came through the door behind them.

"Now is perfect!" Brittany hopped up a little.

The hostess took all thirteen of them a single booth then told them six of them needed to go to a booth on the other side. Before anyone could comprehend what she was telling them, she crawled into the booth and pulled up a divider revealing that the booths were connected.

Cue a collective "oooh."

Tina, Mike, Mercedes, Sam, Charlie and Joe took the other side of the wall, while Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Blaine, Kurt and Finn stayed on the original side.

In her booth, Quinn sat on the same side as Brittany and Santana on the end, away from the other booth. She had Kurt to her left in a chair, Blaine across from her and Rachel diagonally across from her. Finn the giant oaf that Quinn could not for the life of her figure out why he was cast, was on the inside to Rachel's left.

This was not a situation that Quinn generally liked to find herself in. It was extremely social. Not that she was completely anti-social, she was just anti-mega-social.

"So, Rachel," Quinn heard Finn's annoying voice as she peered at the menu, "You're from Ohio?"

"Uh huh," Quinn looked up a little from her menu to see that Rachel hadn't looked up from hers in her answer.

"That's cool. Hey, we should totally run lines together sometime," he was really good at transitions...

"Sure," she looked up that time.

"I think you're really talented. I can always hear your voice over everyone else's in rehearsal and it's always so... awesome," Finn gave Rachel this doofy smile that someone must have told him was charming at some point in his life.

Was no one else witnessing this? Finn's heinous game.

Quinn looked around to see that everyone was pretty involved in their own little side conversations and not witnessing the pathetic sight in front of them.

"Thank you, Finn," Rachel smiled her always big smile, "You have a great voice, too. I heard you rehearsing Single today."

"Thank you," there was that stupid smile again, "That means a lot coming from you."

Quinn actually thought she was going to puke. She was also becoming inexplicably angry. Why did he think he had a chance with Rachel? How did he get that spot next to her? Why the hell was Quinn getting so mad?

"Hey, Rachel?" Quinn just wanted to rescue her.

Rachel immediately took her attention away from Finn and looked at Quinn a smile.

"Uh..." she hadn't thought beyond getting her attention.

"What's everyone getting?" Brittany asked loudly to everyone.

"Why don't we just get every appetizer on the menu and share?" Rachel suggested looking around the booth.

"I like it," Kurt closed his menu and folded his hands over it.

"That's what we're gonna do!" Sam yelled from the complete opposite side.

iMessage from Satan:
Jealous much?

- I hate you.

"I have to pee," Quinn said shuffling a little bit, "Excuse me."

Kurt scooted his chair over to let Quinn out and as she was getting up, Rachel cleared her throat and said, "So do I. Sorry, Blaine."

"It's okay, Rachel," Blaine laughed a little as he got up.

Once she was free from the booth, Rachel looked at Quinn then nodded her head in the direction of the bathroom as if to say, "Let's go." Quinn's pocket vibrated as she was walking and she knew exactly who it was from. She did not want to read it.

"How did I get stuck next to Finn?" Rachel huffed once the door was closed behind her.

"Uh... he snaked his way in?" Quinn suggested as she selected a stall.

"Ugh! He's been 'flirting' with me since that party. Ew," Rachel said from the sinks.

iMessage from Britt:
She does not like Finn. At all.

Quinn laughed silently at Brittany's perfect abilities. Then, she was struck with a genius idea. She tapped away at her screen, then quickly finished up.

"I'm sorry you're stuck next to him," Quinn said to Rachel through the mirror as she emerged from the stall.

"I'll survive. We won't be here that long," Rachel turned around and leaned on counter as Quinn washed her hands.

"God, I hope not," Quinn exhaled as she shook her hands.

"Oh yeah, you hate people," Rachel laughed and pushed herself off the counter.

"Not all people..."

"Me...?" Rachel asked with her eyes wide as she smiled and bit down on her bottom lip at the same time.

"Hate? No," Quinn said through a smirk as she tossed a paper towel into the trash.

"How about like? I did vow to get you to at least like me," Rachel pointed at Quinn's chin with one hand and yanked open the door with the other.

"I haven't decided, yet," Quinn smirked with confidence on the outside, but on the inside her brain was screaming all kinds of conflicting mess. She really hadn't decided yet.

"You're going to," Rachel said then turned to lead the short way back to the table.

Quinn smiled the moment she saw the booths. She let out a silent, triumphant laugh when she saw Rachel's face when she saw that Blaine had moved into her spot and Kurt had moved from the chair to the booth.

"Sorry we changed seats, Rachel. We just figured it would be easier when you came back," Blaine said with always and actually charming smile.

"Oh, that's not a problem at all. I mean, I might get some of Quinn's gross stage manager cooties, but no biggie," she laughed, then looked at Quinn who was attempting to look offended... she completely failed. As soon as Rachel looked at her she laughed.

"Oh and we ordered," Santana said over the din of the other table.

"And we ordered you guys this blueberry lemonade drink that they have," Brittany said with excitement as she leaned over the table a little.

"Um I drove here..."

Santana smirked and held out her hand, "Keys."

"I hate you," Quinn whispered, turning her head so that Rachel couldn't see her say it.

"Drink up Quinniepoo, they're on me tonight," Santana said as she watched the waitress place drinks in front of everyone, including her own water. Her eyes landed on Rachel and her annoying smirk played back onto her lips.

Quinn immediately rolled her eyes and looked away from her and as her eyes landed hers and Rachel's matching drinks, she felt a pair of knees rub up then down on her leg. This was a pair of bare knees on her bare leg. It was the summer. She reached forward for her drink and quickly brought the straw to her lips to wash away the returned questionable feeling her stomach.

Her pocket vibrated for the umpteenth time. She sighed as she removed it from her pocket expecting another annoying Santana text. She inhaled sharply when she read her lock screen.

iMessage from Rachel:
Thank you.

She looked up from her phone and was met with the most, every positive adjective in Quinn's arsenal of words, smile that had ever been directed at her.

That was the instant Quinn's body declared an all out, no holds barred war on her conscious brain.


A/N: I'm approaching some days when I won't be able to write. Just a warning. Updates won't be super frequent for just a little bit. It is the holiday season. I feel like this was short and kind of filler-y. They're getting progressively longer from here though, so *smile and thumbs up*. Hope you liked this one! I always love hearing from you all!