A/N: Not the upbeat chapter that I had set out to write, but when scenes demand to be written, I simply have to listen to them. Also, thank you for your reviews on the last chapter. 10 reviews? You are all awesome. No, really.
Special Education
"Santana, are you in here?" Quinn wondered, strolling into the locker room.
She had been looking for the Latina everywhere and she was seriously starting to get annoyed.
"Can I help you with something Q?" Santana answered a few moments later, coming out of nowhere and tossing her pompoms into her bag.
"Yeah, actually," Quinn informed her, putting on her queen bitch attitude. "Did you have to put Finn on the spot like that earlier?"
Santana scoffed, rolling her eyes at her trivial concern as she strolled past the blonde. Quinn reached out to grab her arm instinctively to stop her from leaving.
"You do not walk away from me when I'm talking to you," she warned her, spinning her around to face her again with much force.
"Yeah Quinn," she hissed, getting angry now. "I did. Rachel needed a major wakeup call and so, I was more than happy to oblige. Why the fuck do you care so much anyway? I thought there was nothing going on between you and Finn?"
Quinn ignored her question, pointing out, "You wanted to tell Rachel off. I get that. I want to too practically all the damn time. I mean, did you not hear her offensive Ken and Barbie comment earlier? But Finn does not deserve to be collateral damage."
"Collateral damage?" Santana mocked her with a scoff. "Do you hear yourself Q? You've gone soft. You may have been the head bitch in charge around here before Puck knocked you up, but you and I both know I run things at McKinley now."
"I let you run things around here Santana," she corrected her, matching her intense glare. "Do not mess with me or the people I care about."
"Wow," Santana echoed, a look of genuine amusement on her face. "You almost sounded scary there. Relax Q. I'll leave Finn well enough alone…"
"Thank you," Quinn breathed, glad that she had gotten through to the raven-haired girl. "I really appreciate…"
"…once I have my fun with him that is," Santana finished her thoughts, interrupting her, her signature smirk on her face.
Quinn lunged herself at the fellow Cheerio then, slamming her back into the row of lockers behind her.
"Get off of me you psychotic bitch!" Santana shouted, attacking Quinn, only half because she was trying to defend herself.
It was only when Sue walked in several minutes later that the fight ended. Unlike the large number of teenage boys that would have loved to have witnessed their catfight, their coach was less amused. Messy, tangled hair and unseemly ripped uniforms were not her idea of flawless Cheerios.
"Get the hell into my office, now!" Sue yelled and the two feared the older woman too much to disobey.
Finn slammed his locker door in frustration, ready for this day to just be over already. Couples counseling had been torture. Honestly, why was Rachel making such a big deal about this? He had lied, sure, and he was sorry for that, but she had no right to be upset with him for having slept with Santana. She had been with Jesse at the time! Besides, she had had him under the impression that she had lost her virginity to Jesse up and until that night she had made her little confession. So, had she not been technically lying to him too?
His phone rang then. He sighed. This better not be another long text message from Rachel about how upset she was with him. He was on the brink of blocking her.
Where are you? You want to talk? - Q
Quinn. Thank you God for Quinn. He desperately needed to talk to her and not just about that night either.
Heading to the auditorium. Can you meet me there? - F
Of course. - Q
She was already there when he arrived and he felt an immediate comfort in her presence. He wrapped her up into a hug before setting her down again, the two sitting on the edge of the big stage, shoulder to shoulder, swinging their legs back and forth. Only then, under the stage lights, did he notice her still somewhat messy hair, a tiny, but definitely visible to him scratch mark on her right shoulder.
"What the hell happened Quinn?" he asked in concern, reaching out to trace the mark with his finger.
"Nothing," she whispered, shrugging off his touch. "Just a stupid fight with Santana."
She reached up to touch her hair. Damn Santana. Her hair was still a tangled mess despite having tried to tame the golden strands merely five minutes earlier.
"Comb?" he questioned, but he was already going through her purse. "Turn around."
She sighed, doing as she was told. She swore only Finn had the patience to do this.
"Wow, you must have really pissed her off," he commented, tugging at her hair. "What were you two fighting about anyway?"
"Nothing important," she answered, not wanting him to have to worry about anything more than what he was already dealing with today, namely Rachel Berry. "Besides, she looks worse than I do."
"I bet she does," he echoed, a tiny laugh escaping from his lips.
A silence fell between them for a moment, him untangling her hair, her leaning back into him comfortably as he did so.
"I know you may not want to talk about this, but how are you holding up?" she wondered, breaking the silence, smiling up at him. "Santana blurting that out of the blue must have been shocking for you and I doubt that the aftermath has been very pleasant. Rachel can be a little intense."
"Understatement of the year," he commented with a sigh. "How are you so calm and collected about this by the way?"
"Oh, I knew about you and Santana already," she informed him, remembering how angry she had been that day when someone had told her the news. "Brittany told me I think or Puck maybe. Believe me, I was so upset that day, but then I realized, I don't really have a right to be upset with you, do I?"
"No and neither does Rachel," he echoed, his voice a little harsher than he had meant for it to be.
He apologized quickly when he felt her stiffen against him.
"I'm sorry Q," he said, his hands in her hair again. "I shouldn't be taking this out on you, but Rachel has been driving me insane! She's blowing this whole thing out of proportion! The only reason she's even upset with me right now is because I did it with Santana. She said so herself to Miss Pillsbury. She told her she'd have understood if it had been you."
He paused for a moment when he realized his own words as did she. Oh well. He couldn't take them back now.
"Finn, have you ever wondered what things would be like right now if we had been each other's firsts?" Quinn whispered quietly, absentmindedly twirling the promise ring Sam had given her around her finger. "I wonder about it all the time."
He took her hand in his to stop her from mindlessly twirling that dreadful accessory around.
"Well, you sure as hell wouldn't be wearing this right now," he assured her, bringing her hand up to meet his lips. "I love you Quinn."
It was bare whisper, but she had heard his words.
"I know," she murmured back before slipping wordlessly out of his grasp.
Despite how magical that night had been, a promise ring was a promise ring and since putting the band on, she had been determined to be true to Sam. He was such a sweetheart and he deserved that much. She reached up self-consciously to touch her hair, noticing that her golden locks were smooth and shiny once again. She turned back to steal a glance at him and Finn smiled at her, fully understanding where she was coming from. That and the fact that he knew her well enough to know that her 'I know' had merely been a disguised 'I love you too'.
Quinn glanced at her watch, eyebrows knitted in concern. Where was he? School had been over almost half an hour ago. Granted he was probably fielding questions left and right from his classmates about his breakup with Rachel. Somehow the news of their breakup only broke her heart. Of all the ways Rachel could have had her revenge on Finn, she chose to use Puck? To be honest, she was almost afraid to be standing here, waiting for Finn. She would probably only make things worse by reminding him that she too had betrayed him with Puck, but she really wanted to make sure he was alright before she went home for the day. Santana was such a bitch, a liferuiner.
"Quinn, you shouldn't be here," Finn said, the moment he arrived at his vehicle, a pissed off look on his face.
"I heard about what happened," she simply said, placing a hand on his arm in concern. "Are you going to be alright?"
"No Quinn, I'm not going to be fucking alright!" he shouted, the blonde flinching instantly at the overbearing sound of his voice.
She was secretly glad that no one else was in the school parking lot at the moment, watching this all go down. Rumors spread like wildfires around this school or any high school for that matter she supposed.
"Tell me something Q," he pleads with her almost, his eyes closed, one hand on the door handle. "Why Puck? You and Rachel, why Puck? Honestly, what the fuck does he have that I don't?"
Finn rarely swore, but when he did, Quinn knew exactly how upset he was.
"Nothing," she promised him in a soothing tone, trying to calm him down. "We both made mistakes Finn."
"Yeah, apparently I did too," he muttered, climbing into his car and driving off without so much as another glance at her. "Twice."
Quinn stood there frozen in place for some time even after he was gone, his car disappearing off into the distance. She tried so hard not to cry, biting her lip to hold back the tears. She could imagine how Finn was feeling at the moment and frankly, she had almost expected him to react to her this way, but his parting words had hurt her regardless.
Deep down though she knew that he had only said what he said because he was upset. She knew Finn loved her. She was special to him as he was to her and so, when he knocked on her bedroom door that night to let her know he was here (he had kept the spare key from when they had been dating), an apologetic look in his eyes, she merely shifted over on her bed, signaling for him to join her. He fell fast asleep moments later, holding her against him, his nose buried in her hair, but not before Quinn wiped away a lingering tear stain from his cheek with her thumb, whispering into his ear that she would always be there for him, that tomorrow would be a brand-new day.
