Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Glee' world.
A/N Is this some Friday 13th trickery before you? No, it is an actual update. I know, shocking. I am very sorry for the long wait. I don't really have an excuse except that I wasn't really in the mood for writing. I find it very frustrating when that happens (and I'm sure you do too).
This is a somewhat international chapter as parts of this has been written whilst on the Eurostar to Brussels (which occurred about a month ago) and on the journey that took me to where I am now, in the south of France. Yes, I'm posting whilst on holiday, which is why I haven't responded to those of you who reviewed. Sorry! But many thanks and lots of love to you all!
Chapter Nine: Rise and Fall
Rachel ran her fingers gently over the white fabric and took a deep breath. So, this was a high school party. Her first.
And it wasn't just any party; it was a Halloween party.
Rachel was still in a state of shock over the events of the day. She'd been dreadfully nervous before performing 'Spinning Around', more so than she'd ever been for a performance before. She'd felt dreadfully exposed in that outfit and if she hadn't had the support of Mike and Matt then she doubted she'd have gone through with the dare. Well, actually she probably would have because she refused to even contemplate the idea of losing to Noah Puckerman, but the performance wouldn't have been such a success if she'd been on the stage on her own.
And to sing in that assembly in front of her peers had felt incredible. To hear them cheer and whistle for her when normally they'd jeer and insult her had given Rachel a huge sense of satisfaction.
Ever since she'd stepped off of that stage the students (and even some of the staff) had started treating her completely differently. She wasn't Rachel Berry the gleek loser anymore; she was Rachel Berry the cheerleader and sexy performer (she'd overheard someone else describe her as sexy so she figured she could use that adjective in reference to herself too). And she did feel sexy after that.
If you asked her, she'd tell you that if a man was to stare at a woman's body then it was completely degrading and she'd quote a feminist at you, but secretly...she liked that the guys in school kept staring whenever she'd walked past today. She'd honestly never felt so popular and happy in her time at McKinley.
And then after school, Brittany and Santana had taken her to the mall. They didn't have an awful long time there because they had to get back in time for the football game that evening. Rachel had been a little apprehensive about the shopping trip given her previous experiences with the two Cheerios but they were very cordial towards her, nice even.
It was when they were testing out different brands of eye shadow together that Brittany suggested that she come to the party she was throwing that night.
Rachel was thrilled. Her first high school party! She had waited a long time for this invitation.
Upon finding out that Rachel didn't have a suitable Halloween costume to wear ("My Dads and I dress as The Three Musketeers whenever we attend a costume party.") Brittany and Santana forced her into the costume shop.
She tried a few outfits on but the other two girls didn't seem impressed with them. Santana forced another costume into her arms and when she emerged wearing it they finally seemed happy.
Rachel would never have picked the outfit out for herself – it was quite revealing, but after her performance this morning she didn't think that was such a big deal anymore.
She was dressed as an angel. The bodice was made from white silk and it had laces down the front and off the shoulder sleeves. The skirt flared out slightly and was more like taffeta with a white fluffy trim on the end and it came down to just above her mid thigh. The outfit was completed with a pair of fluffy wings and a halo attached to a hair band.
Brittany and Santana told her that she looked 'awesome' in the outfit but once Rachel saw the price tag she wasn't too convinced to buy it.
"Don't you have any money?" Brittany had asked.
"Well, yes, my Dads gave me a credit card when I turned thirteen but they told me I was only allowed to use it in the case of emergencies." She'd explained.
"If this isn't an emergency then I don't know what is," Santana had pointed out.
So, yes, she'd bought the outfit...and a pair of white heels, but really, if she wanted to keep her popularity up then money was no doubt going to have to be spent.
Following the trip to the mall, Rachel, Brittany and Santana travelled back to McKinley for the football team's match.
Rachel had never been to a game before – she thought sport was quite pointless actually (particularly high school sport), but she couldn't deny that she was excited as the countdown to the game got closer. Maybe it was because she was a Cheerio now; she felt that part of her was entitled to be there. It was quite stupid honestly, because she hadn't really wanted to be a cheerleader but now that she was one she wondered why she had been so against the idea. People were looking at her differently, speaking to her as though she was someone worth being seen with and she had been invited to her first party! Things were definitely on the up for her.
The Cheerios performed a pre-match routine but Rachel couldn't take part in that because she hadn't been taught the choreography yet. In fact, she hadn't really been taught anything; in Cheerios practice Coach Sylvester kept sending her on bizarre errands that would take her at least half an hour to complete and she'd come back to find practice over. Rachel didn't mind too much because she didn't particularly want to injure herself performing some sort of acrobatic feat and thus endanger her chances of appearing at Sectionals with New Directions.
Brittany handed her a pair of pom-poms just before the two teams were about to emerge. "Welcome to the Cheerios, Rachel," she said and Rachel beamed.
She felt a little self-conscious at first, waving the rustling bundles around and encouraging the crowd to cheer, but she soon got caught up in the atmosphere.
She waved her pom-poms enthusiastically when McKinley's team came onto the pitch, especially when she caught sight of Finn, Matt, Mike, Kurt and Noah. She saw Finn wave in her direction and she nearly waved back before she realised that he was actually waving at Quinn. Rachel felt her cheeks flush and avoided the blonde girl's cold look.
The game passed in a blur of cheers, groans, yells and the odd waving of a pom-pom. Rachel found it strangely exhilarating, even though she only knew the basics of the game.
McKinley lost but she gathered that this result was somewhat expected because no one seemed too upset.
"Come on," Brittany said, barely five minutes after the game had finished, "let's go get ready."
And now, the party had been in full swing for around half an hour but Rachel had only just been declared 'ready' by Brittany and was about to be released from the blonde's bedroom. Brittany had spent over an hour preparing Rachel's hair and make-up (Rachel had pointed out that Brittany was somewhat neglecting her duties as the host of the party but Brittany had told her that Santana was taking care of those things) and Rachel had been stunned by the reflection in the mirror in Brittany's room.
Rachel knew that she wasn't the ugliest girl in the school but she knew she wasn't as beautiful as Quinn either. At school Rachel wore minimal, natural looking make-up because she thought it most fitting towards the environment that she was in. Yet, while Brittany had made her make-up a lot more obvious, Rachel was relieved to see that she didn't look like some sort of tramp.
"You're the sexiest angel I've ever seen," Brittany stated and Rachel blushed. "Let's go show everyone!"
Brittany (dressed as a nurse) pulled her out the room and towards the stairs. Rachel clutched the banister nervously, she wasn't very secure in high heels (she'd fallen over a number of times in rehearsals for Spinning Around) and she didn't want to trip and tumble down the stairs.
Brittany hurried down the stairs like a pro but Rachel carefully took each step at a time. There was an awful lot of noise emanating from downstairs and Rachel occasionally glanced up from her feet to survey the situation.
The foyer that the stairs led into was already populated with a number of people that she knew from school yet had never spoken to, but Finn, Quinn and Mike were there too. Rachel could sense people's heads turning in her direction and she tried extra hard not to fall over and embarrass herself.
Once her feet were successfully on the hardwood of the foyer Rachel allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She walked over to where Brittany was talking to the members of glee club that she had spotted earlier.
"Wow, Rachel, you look amazing," Mike complimented her as she joined the group.
"Thank you," she answered, "I like your doctor's outfit."
Mike proudly pulled on the lapels of his white coat.
"He's the Turk to my Carla," Brittany told her and Rachel frowned because their ethnicities were clearly wrong but she held her tongue because she got the feeling that they wouldn't appreciate her pointing that out and she didn't want to appear racist in any way.
"How charming," Rachel said instead and turned her gaze to Finn and Quinn. They were wearing outfits that reminded Rachel of ones that she'd seen at the Renaissance fair when she'd attended with her Dads last year (and every year before that). Quinn was wearing a beautiful, long, purple gown and Rachel had to try very hard not to laugh at Finn in his outfit because he looked extremely uncomfortable wearing his very green costume that seemed to consist of a long tunic and extremely tight pants.
"You look beautiful, Quinn," Rachel told her, honestly.
"Thanks," Quinn replied tightly. Rachel hoped that Quinn was going to compliment her outfit too but when a couple of seconds went by without another word being spoken, Rachel figured that hope was in vain.
"And you look very green, Finn." Rachel told the quarterback with a smile on her face and Finn chuckled.
"Yeah, I'm Robin Hood, see?" He brandished a large bow at her and pretended to shoot an arrow into the crowd.
"Yes, it's lovely, Finn." Rachel commented. "And I take it that Quinn is your Maid Marion?"
"Sure is," Finn replied, wrapping an arm round Quinn's shoulder and kissing the top of her head. Rachel felt a pain in her chest at the sight as Quinn smiled smugly at her.
Rachel really didn't understand Finn sometimes. She was sure, completely sure, that Finn harboured some feelings for her and she didn't know why he stayed with Quinn if that was the case. It seemed like sometimes he was willing to give into those feelings and other times it was like he was trying to prove to her that he wasn't interested by flaunting his relationship with Quinn. No matter which way he decided to play it, Rachel always seemed to get hurt and she was getting sick of it.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I think I might get a beverage." Rachel said, trying not to show the pain she felt inside.
She walked off in the direction that she hoped was towards the kitchen and when she heard footsteps behind her she turned to see Brittany following her.
"Are you okay, Rachel?" she asked and Rachel shrugged.
"I'm fine." She replied stiffly.
"The kitchen's this way," Brittany said, tugging her to the right. They passed through the lounge and Rachel could see Santana and Matt talking to other members of the football team. Matt was wearing a strange sort of white jumpsuit with writing on it and Santana was looking like her normal glamorous self but with a neon pink jacket and form fitting blank pants.
"Who are Matt and Santana dressed as?" Rachel asked Brittany.
"Um, apparently Matt's like some British guy who drives a fast car and Santana's the main Pussycat Doll. They're going out." Brittany explained
"Matt and Santana? Or the people they're pretending to be?"
"Um, both, I think." Brittany replied. "I'm not sure about Matt and Santana but San did agree to dress up as the Pussycat Doll so Matt could be the racer – he's gotten all obsessive over cars."
"So, you guys have all come as couples?" Rachel asked, her heart sinking a little bit further.
"Oh, I suppose so." Brittany said as though she'd only just realised this. "Mike and I are only friends but it's more fun to dress up with a partner, isn't it?" Rachel nodded glumly and Brittany seemed to sense her mood and put an arm around her shoulder as they walked into the kitchen. "Don't worry, Rachel, we'll find someone for you."
Rachel almost frowned at the words. Normally she would strongly protest to the idea of another person finding someone for her, (not that she'd ever really found anyone for herself) but seeing Finn with Quinn had put her in a depressed state of mind and she wanted to put the quarterback out of her head. She knew it was quite ridiculous to harbour feelings for a man that was in a relationship but Rachel was sure that she could make Finn infinitely happier than Quinn ever could. However, as long as Finn was determined to ignore his heart then there wasn't a lot that Rachel could do about the situation without looking like a bitch for trying to steal someone's boyfriend. And really, shouldn't she want to be with someone who wanted to be with her and only her? So maybe letting Brittany steer her in the direction of an available man wouldn't be so bad after all.
The kitchen was quite crowded with people pouring themselves drinks and socialising with their friends. Lots of people greeted Brittany, which was polite seeing as it was her party, and Rachel found herself being introduced to all of them. Since her induction into the Cheerios and performance that morning, it seemed that people actually wanted to know her and Rachel couldn't be more pleased. She could sense a lot of eyes on her (or, more likely, her outfit) and she decided that she wasn't going to give Finn Hudson another thought for the rest of the night – surely there were plenty of guys at this party that would be a more than acceptable replacement for him.
She and Brittany had just finished talking to a couple of Cheerios when a crash came from another room. "I'd better go see what that was," Brittany said and hurried out of the room before Rachel could say anything in response. She crossed her arms and glanced around the room nervously; suddenly aware that she was standing in a room full of people that she didn't really know.
She decided to go back into the other room to check that everything was okay or maybe she'd run into Matt, Santana or Mike (she didn't really want to talk to Finn or Quinn). She turned abruptly but she must have turned too abruptly because there seemed to be less space around her than she was expecting. Consequently she tripped over her feet slightly and stumbled into someone standing next to her, causing him to spill some of his drink onto the floor.
"Oh my goodness," Rachel gasped. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks and hoped that they didn't look too red. "I'm so sorry." She reached out for one of the napkins that was lying on a nearby table and carefully crouched down to mop it up. "Here, let me clear this up for you. I'm not normally very clumsy; I'm just not used to the gradient that these shoes are sporting."
She was so humiliated by what had happened that she was hoping that she could save a little face by not looking directly at whoever she'd stumbled into. It was an irrational thought but rational thinking was quite beyond her at that moment. Thus she was quite surprised when his hand reached down to gently grasp her arm to pull her up again. "Hey, don't worry about it, it was nothing." He said and Rachel finally reasoned that she should probably look at him.
She was pleasantly surprised to find that he didn't look at all angry about her clumsiness, in fact, he seemed amused. That should have made her feel better but this guy was actually really handsome with soft brown eyes and dark hair that looked like it would be really silky to touch. She mentally kicked herself for tripping over her feet in front of one of the best looking boys in the whole school. She thought she knew him from somewhere but she wasn't entirely sure where from. McKinley did have quite a large student population after all.
"I'm sorry," she said again for lack of anything else to say.
He chuckled and she thought he looked even more attractive when he smiled. "Yeah, you already said but like I said, it's no big deal."
"Are you sure?" she insisted. "I didn't get any on your outfit did I?" Her eyes swept up and down his costume and it was only then that she realised that his red shirt and little horns signified that he was dressed as a devil.
She gasped slightly and quite stupidly said, "You're a devil and I'm an angel."
He laughed again. "We make quite a pair," he said, grinning mischievously and Rachel felt her heart jump like it normally only did for Finn.
He was right though; they did make a pair, like Robin Hood and Maid Marion, Turk and Carla, Nicole Scherzinger and the British driver she was dating. An angel and a devil. Maybe it was a sign? Perhaps fate had meant for her to stumble into this guy.
"Would you like me to get you another drink?" Rachel asked politely, trying to hide the enthusiasm she was feeling towards him.
"No, that's all right. I'm Josh, by the way, Josh Hutchinson." He held out a hand and Rachel joined hers to his.
"I'm Rachel Berry," she told him and they shook hands.
"Yeah, I know," he said as they let go (although Rachel could have sworn that he stroked the outside of her thumb as they did so.) "That was a great show from you this morning."
Rachel beamed at him, thrilled that he thought she was a good performer. "Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"How could I not? You were incredible," he said earnestly and Rachel felt her cheeks flush again but this time with pleasure.
"I don't know about 'incredible' but it was certainly one of my better performances." She admitted so that she appeared modest.
"Well, I think you're insanely talented – you're going to be famous one day for sure."
"Do you really think so?" She asked. She was pretty sure that Josh would have next to no knowledge about how to break into show business or what it took to be a Grammy winner but he seemed so serious, so sincere.
"Of course. And it's not as though I'm trying to win over a beautiful angel, is it?" He grinned and Rachel giggled while her stomach did a weird fluttery thing. He thought she was beautiful?
"That's very kind of you to say so." She said quietly, feeling shy all of a sudden.
He shrugged. "It's true."
After a few seconds of silence, Rachel realised that she was staring at him and quickly thought of something to say. "Do I know you for some reason? You seem familiar."
Josh sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking guilty. "Um, yeah, I was kinda hoping that you'd forgotten…" He trailed off and Rachel frowned confused.
"What?" she asked.
"I, er, used to help Puck with his, um, slushie attacks." He said to her feet.
The fluttering in her stomach stopped and sunk like a stone instead. "Oh," she said quietly. She remembered now. She generally tried to block those incidents from her memory but she could quite clearly recall seeing Josh's laughing face after Noah threw a raspberry flavoured slushie in her face.
"Did you…ever throw one at me?" she asked, fearing the answer he would give.
"Twice," Josh admitted and Rachel wrapped her arms around herself, feeling cold. "But I didn't want to."
"Of course you didn't," she said dryly.
"No, you don't understand what it's like. Once you're in with a group of jocks like that, there are things you're expected to do. Unless you want to get pounded on by half of the football team, you don't really have a choice. It's so screwed up and Rachel I'm so sorry that you had to suffer because of me."
"Was it just me that suffered? Or did you toss Kurt into dumpsters and torment Artie too?" Rachel asked hotly. Josh sighed and Rachel knew the answer. She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm. "Let me go, Josh."
"No, look, I don't do that stuff anymore! I swear, Rachel, things are different now."
"Why? What's changed?" she demanded. People were starting to look in their direction but she didn't care.
"Glee club." He said simply and Rachel blinked in shock.
"Glee?" she asked incredulously. "How?"
"With Finn, Puck, Mike and Matt joining glee club, the whole jerk system has kind of fallen apart. Puck isn't on my back all the time trying to force me to make someone miserable. Apparently they all think you guys are kinda cool now. We're free to be whoever we want to be. All because of glee club."
"Really?" Rachel asked tentatively. She really wanted to believe him.
"Well, yeah. When was the last time you got slushied? And Hummel's on the football team now. That never could've happened without glee."
She didn't feel cold any more. She was feeling wonderfully at peace with the world. She'd known all along that glee club could make a positive impact at McKinley and here was the proof.
"Glee club really makes a difference, then?" she asked.
"Definitely," Josh insisted. "I'd have joined already but I can't sing to save my life." Rachel smiled at him. "And, you know, I would've said sorry sooner, but I didn't really know how to."
"Well, it took a lot of courage for you to admit your previous offences to me; you could have lied but I appreciate that you were honest with me."
"And I swear, first thing on Monday morning I'm going to apologise to everyone I've bullied." He told her. "So, am I forgiven?"
"Get me a beverage and all will be pardoned" She said, grinning and Josh sighed in relief.
"Cool," he replied. "You wanna beer?"
Rachel shook her head. "Alcohol is much too corruptive to the vocal chords. I want mine to be in top shape for Sectionals in a few weeks. A glass of water would be just fine."
"Okay, I'll be back in a couple of minutes," Josh said and disappeared into the crowd surrounding the alcohol.
She bit her lip. It had been a highly unusual conversation but she thought that perhaps she had a new friend now. Given their previous history, Josh probably wouldn't be her first choice as a new friend but it seemed that he was truly remorseful for his actions and Rachel was a firm believer in second chances.
And who knew? Given the way that he was complimenting her earlier, perhaps this could turn into more than just a friendship.
Puck was having a shit weekend. It was only early on Saturday evening but he knew he could already determine that the whole weekend was destined to be utter fucking shit.
It had started with the game on Friday night (actually, it probably started with that dare on Friday morning and his fight with Josh but Puck always believed that the weekend started when school let out on Friday afternoon). He knew most of the team were looking at him weird in the locker room, even if he couldn't catch them at it, so he just glowered at them all and stuck some headphones on so he could listen to some tunes to get himself pumped up for the game.
As they lined themselves up to go onto the pitch, Puck tilted his neck from side to side and rolled his shoulders to get his muscles loosened up. As the team started to move forwards Puck heard someone whisper, "Fucking queer," in his ear and then he stumbled as that person pushed past him. Puck didn't have to see the number 88 emblazoned on the football jersey to know that it was Josh Hutchinson. Puck clenched his fists and tried to push his anger away – it wouldn't be a very good idea to punch his teammate in the face right under Tanaka's nose…again. Instead he just jogged onto the pitch with the rest of the team and the crowd cheered them on.
Somehow, he could distinguish her voice above everyone else's which was pretty fucking weird seeing as there were a few hundred people in the stands right now. He'd forgotten that, seeing as she was a cheerleader, she would be at the game too. She was grinning, cheering, laughing and shaking her pom-poms around with Brittany and he was shocked that she looked so happy doing something that he'd thought she'd hate. It was nice, though, to see her looking cheerful because she hadn't looked particularly happy recently (unless it was at his expense, which didn't count) and she looked ridiculously cute (yes, cute) trying to hide her laughter behind one of her pom-poms at Brittany's excessive cheering and waving. He could almost forget that he was kinda mad at her for being an evil genius and giving him a dare that had almost certainly destroyed his reputation when her eyes were shining like that. And then she did that sexy kick that cheerleaders do and Puck could swear that her leg touched her ear, she was that flexible. His mind reeled at the possibilities that her flexibility offered and he was also thankful that his mind had turned to thoughts of a more heterosexual nature; shiny eyes?
In the game itself, he didn't have his best performance. Even though he demanded of himself that he stay focused on the game, his eyes or his mind would wander towards the petite brunette cheerleader on the sides. It was fucking pathetic. The more he lost his concentration, the angrier he got and worse his game became – he dropped the pass more than once and when he tried to ward off a defender by grabbing his neck he knew before he was told, that coach was going to sub him to the bench.
He could see Josh and one of his lackeys laughing at him from the corner of his eye and he resisted the urge to throw down his helmet and flip over the bench in anger because he didn't want to look like a toddler having a tantrum. So he just slumped onto a seat and waited for this shit-ass match to be over.
McKinley lost, big shock. But this was such a common occurrence that nobody really cared that much. Puck certainly didn't, he just wanted to get to the after party and drink himself stupid so that he could forget about this shit-fest of a day.
He frowned as he started to make his way back to the locker room because he didn't actually know where the party was due to be held. He searched around for somebody he knew and saw Santana walking not too far away.
"Hey, San!" he called. She turned in his direction and frowned.
"What d'you want Puckerman?" she asked, hands on her hips, as he jogged over to her.
"Where's the party at tonight?"
"There is no party," she replied, shrugging.
"No party? On the Friday before Halloween?" he asked sceptically.
"Perhaps I should have been clearer." She said, as though talking to a small child. "There's no party, for you."
Puck stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"You're not invited."
So, that was that then. The first time Puck had been officially not wanted at a party, ever.
A different type of Puck (he couldn't exactly say the old Puck because he didn't really feel like he was a new Puck) would've yelled and gotten angry and threatened to crash the place because he was Noah fucking Puckerman and they couldn't not invite him to a party, but he didn't want Santana to think that he actually cared about his decline in popularity. But he did care… a lot. There was nothing more important in High School than being popular. With people at your back, there was a lot of shit you could manage to avoid. Rachel Berry was a prime example of this; just a couple of weeks ago you would've been perfectly capable of publicly tormenting the little gleek in any way but now that Puck had somehow turned her into one of the most popular girls in school, nobody would be laying a finger on her.
And, you know, it was a nice feeling to know that people actually wanted to be in your company. Unlike now.
So he simply said, "Fuck you," to Santana and walked into the locker room to grab his stuff and go. He jumped in his truck and started driving around town, with no destination in mind. And you know what, he didn't want to go to the Halloween party anyway cos he didn't have a costume planned and he thought dressing up was kinda lame anyway. At least that's what he told himself when he pulled into his drive before midnight on a Friday night.
Saturday morning hadn't actually been that bad- he just stayed in bed and played on his Xbox, eating crappy junk food. This was what he normally did on Saturdays but this time he didn't have a hangover, which was nice.
However, that all changed when he went downstairs to make himself some lunch because his mom told him, as she rushed around the house, that she'd been called in to work and he'd have to take Sarah and a couple of her little friends trick-or-treating.
He grumbled and moaned about it but then his mom laid into him about being selfish and that it was time he grew up and started thinking of others for once. Blah, blah, blah.
So, here he was on Halloween, shepherding three little kids around the neighbourhood as they got all hyped out on nasty candy. They'd only been at it for fifteen minutes and Puck was seriously considering jumping in front of the next car that drove down the road.
He stood aside as the girls ran up to the porch of the next house and rang the doorbell, calling out, "Trick or treat!" in giggly, sugar crazed voices.
"Carlos, I swear to God, if you complain about the lack of candy one more time I'll leave you here for some paedophile to pick up."
Puck groaned as he recognized Santana's voice. He didn't really want to see his bitchy ex right now but he didn't exactly have anywhere to hide.
"Hey, look! It's Puck." Cried Santana's little brother, Carlos, and Puck reluctantly turned towards the siblings.
"S'up Carlos?" he greeted the boy (dressed as a vampire for the night) before turning cold eyes on Santana. "Lopez."
"Oh, please," Santana scoffed, "you're not still annoyed about last night are you? It was going to happen and you knew it."
"I'm not mad," Puck replied. "What's there to be mad about?"
"Exactly." Santana gave him a cold smile as Carlos looked between Puck and his sister with wide eyes. "It's a shame you couldn't come." She said, as though he'd had any say in the matter. "It was a good night – your little singing partner was quite the talking point."
Puck raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Berry was there?"
"Yes, although she wouldn't touch a drop of alcohol in case it damaged her vocal chords."
Puck noticed that she said that with no annoyance or dislike in her voice and he narrowed his eyes at her. "I thought you hated her."
Santana shrugged her shoulders. "For some reason the rest of the school have decided that she's worth knowing. I believe the term; 'if you can't beat them, join them' applies here. She's on a bit of a popular curve right now and I'm willing to latch onto that for the moment. But when she starts to fall back down to earth, and I've no doubt that she will, I'll gladly push her on her way."
"Huh, you're a real class act, you know that, right?" he said scornfully.
She looked at him as if he was insane. "Of course I know it. High School's just a game, Puck. I think you've just forgotten what the rules are."
"Oh, hello Satanana," said Sarah, as she and her friends re-joined Puck having successfully negotiated getting more candy.
"It's Santana, brat," The cheerleader spat at his little sister. Sarah glared at her and Puck decided that it was best that they moved on before there was some sort of fight because it was a totally unmatched affair – Santana wouldn't know what had hit her cos Sarah fought dirty (taught by Puck, of course).
"Later, Lopez," he said, steering the girls around the siblings.
"Bye Satanana!" called Sarah and her friends, giggling.
He ruffled his sister's hair affectionately; he liked that she was a bit of a badass.
The next twenty minutes or so were mostly uneventful as the kids went from door to door and built up their candy supply. The girls had just somehow managed to convince him to carry their bags for them when Sarah let out a squeal and pointed further down the street.
"It's Rachel!" she cried and hurried off to see her.
Puck sincerely hoped that his sister knew some other Rachel to the one that he had automatically thought of, but when he turned to see where Sarah had run off to he was disappointed to see that it was, in fact, Berry, that she had been squealing about.
He knew that there was no way that he could avoid her so he started dragging his heels in her general direction, making sure that Sarah's friends were coming too. He looked back at Berry again and nearly dropped the bags of candy he was holding because she wasn't alone. She was holding hands with Josh Hutchinson.
He halted, utterly shocked. When the fuck had that happened? No, seriously. Puck was pretty sure that yesterday, Berry and Josh had never spoken to each other and now, here they were, walking hand in hand down the street.
Of all the people Puck didn't want to see Berry with, Josh Hutchinson was most definitely right up there.
Sarah had reached Berry by this point and Puck realised that he should probably move before they saw him staring at them like some sort of psycho.
His feet seemed ridiculously heavy as he strode the few feet down the sidewalk and he felt inexplicably nauseous. Berry and Josh both looked up and saw him coming, giving him a smile and a smirk, respectively.
"I see you've been roped into big brother duty, Noah," said Berry as he got within ear shot. "You didn't feel like dressing up too?"
It was only then that Puck noticed a small brown haired girl standing next to Josh who was obviously his sister. All three of them had some sort of cowboy or cowgirl outfit on. He recognised Berry's from their 'Last Name' routine but she must've borrowed one of the other girls' costume because she hadn't performed that song with them.
"No," he said.
"Oh," she replied, noting the shortness of his answer. The atmosphere between the three teenagers was incredibly awkward.
"What are you doing here?" Puck asked her.
"Josh asked me to help take Megan round for trick or treating," she replied, flashing a smile in Josh's direction and the dick returned the expression.
"I didn't know you two knew each other," Puck said, giving Josh a cold look but Josh just grinned serenely back at him.
"We met last night at the party." Berry told him. "I knocked into him when I tripped over my own feet!"
"And as a punishment I forced her to accompany me." Josh said and Berry playfully hit his arm.
"You didn't force me; I wanted to come! And being with you and Meg hasn't been anything like a punishment."
"Good," Josh said, "I'm glad you're having fun."
"Rachel your hat is so cool," Sarah said and Puck was glad for the slight change in conversation because the friendliness between Berry and Josh was really getting on his nerves.
The talk about costumes had involved all of the girls in their little group so it left Josh and Puck standing on the side lines.
"So, I missed you at the party last night, Puckerman." Josh said, a smug smile sitting on his face.
"I had better things to do with my time than spend it with the likes of you." Puck retorted and Josh's grin widened.
"That's too bad, Puckerman, because your absence just paved the way for me to snag myself some Berry. You should've seen what she was wearing last night, man." Josh glanced hungrily at Berry and Puck clenched his fists.
"I warned you to stay the fuck away from her," Puck growled quietly so that the others wouldn't hear.
"Yeah? And what are you going to do to stop me?"
Puck was about to tell Josh exactly what he was going to do to stop him but Berry turned back into their conversation. "How come you weren't at Brittany's party last night?" she asked him.
"I had to babysit Sarah," he said. He wasn't sure why he didn't just tell her that he wasn't invited. It'd probably make her feel guilty about the dares she'd put him through but he didn't want her to know how much she was beating him at their game.
Sarah, who'd been listening in on their conversation, opened her mouth and Puck was sure she was going to contradict his story, so he tugged on her arm.
"Well, we'd better be going." He said before Sarah got a chance. "Lots of houses to try yet." He tugged Sarah along and her friends dutifully followed.
"Goodbye!" Berry called and Puck glanced back just in time to see Josh put his arm around Berry's shoulder and brush his lips against her temple as she smiled gently at him.
How could they be so affectionate after knowing each other less than a day? Josh was obviously putting on a pretty decent act to try and fool Berry that he was a nice guy. There was no way that Josh was interested in her as a person, he only wanted to get into her pants. The idea of him leaving her so humiliated and heartbroken made Puck feel physically sick. But a disturbing realisation that made him feel even worse, was that a few weeks ago Puck would have have probably acted exactly the same way with any other hot girl that crossed his path.
Puck was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Sarah say to her friends, "Noah is so in love with that Rachel girl."
A/N A slightly unusual chapter this seeing as the dares don't really feature at all. They'll be back next chapter though so don't worry.
Just a note to say that the guy that Matt dressed up for at Halloween was Formula 1 driver, Lewis Hamilton. I don't know if most of you know who he is but he and Nicole Scherzinger are a couple. Turk and Carla are characters from Scrubs. You guys got that, right? Oh, and I researched the actor that I've based Josh on from the pilot episode and it turns out he used to go out with Miley Cyrus. What a small world.
Um, I would say that the next chapter shouldn't be too far away but I'm not very good at predicting future updates L But, if you follow me on twitter (rdare88) I'll probably be able to let you know when to expect new chapters.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed that chapter, we're nearly into double figures! Wooooo!
Lots of love,
Lil Drop of Magic
xXxXx
