Thanks Extreme Liz! Anyone else who favorited or alerted, you rock. This is coming early, because I'm gonna go on another short trip without internet access, so I thought "better sooner than later." I'm really excited about this chapter, I hope you guys like it as much as I do. And, shit, this is the longest chapter I've ever written.

Chapter 9: "Knockout"

Nicole

"No, Brittany," Nicki exasperated, running her fingers through her own dirty blonde hair, "that's not what foreshadowing means." Explaining shit to Brittany was really tiring.

"Yes it is," Brittany stated simply, obviously not convinced by Nicki's statement. "Foreshadowing is when a shadow is in the shape of a four!"

"No! Foreshadowing is in, like, a play when an event happens that hints at something that's gonna happen later on."

"Nicki, that's foreclosure," Brittany corrected and Nicki chuckled. The girl sounded so damn sure of herself, Nicki almost had to believe her.

Before she could come up with an argument, Sam walked into the choir room. She smiled at her boyfriend, offering him a spot next to her. He accepted, kissing her softly on the lips before sitting down. "Hey, cutie," Nicki greeted, playing with the collar on his shirt.

"Hi Nicole," Sam responded, placing a hand on her knee. "How's my favorite girl doing?"

"Great. How's my boy?"

"Fantastic." Sam's full lips turned up into a smile before he kissed Nicki again. Once the kiss was over, she tightened her grip on his collar, pulling him towards her again. Sam's lips were so soft and they were like silk against hers. She felt like she could quite literally kiss him all day.

"Aw," Brittany cooed. "You guys are so cute together. Like Barbie and Ken, but bigger. And not plastic."

Sam and Nicki grinned. "Thanks, Brittany," Sam said, nuzzling his nose against Nicki's neck, causing her to giggle.

"McKinley really needs to have a rule against public displays of affection. Especially when it is so vile and wrong," Quinn scoffed as she sauntered into the room.

"Bitter much?" Nicole asked bitchly as she watched the other blonde take a seat on the opposite end of the room.

"Whatever, skank," Quinn growled.

"I'd rather be a skank than a stuck-up prude," Nicki shot back. Quinn simply rolled her eyes. Nicki smirked victoriously until Sam tapped her lightly on the leg.

"Lay off her," Sam whispered, defending his ex-girlfriend.

"Excuse me?" she enquired, surprised by Sam's words. Since when did he start taking Quinn's side? Especially against her, his fucking girlfriend!

"She just," he tried to explain tenderly, "she's going through a lot of shit lately with Finn. She's just stressed. Don't make it worse."

"What in the hell are you talking about? Why are you defending her?" She ripped away from Sam's grip, jaw clenched.

"C'mon babe, just, I don't understand why you and her have to act so rudely towards one another." She felt like slapping him across the face. Was he really that fucking transparent? Quinn had made Sam alienate her for like three fucking months. She had embarrassed her on numerous occasions: whether it be by calling her a man, skank, loser, whore, moron, nerd, fat-ass, bitch or an idiotic boyfriend-stealing bimbo. In fact, many people at school still thought that Nicki was the reason Sam and Quinn broke up. On top of all that, she didn't do anything to the girl to make her hate Nicki so deeply. Before she could respond to Sam, Mr. Schue walked into the room.

"Hey, guys!" Mr. Schuester greeted the gleeks warmly.

"Mr. Schue?" Puck asked, raising his hand. Somehow he'd successfully managed to come into the room without Nicki noticing.

"Yeah Puck?"

"I have something that I wanna sing. That cool?"

Mr. Schue looked unsurely around the room before nodding, "sure. Go ahead." Puck grinned before grabbing his guitar from a stand and taking center stage.

"Okay," Puck began, placing the guitar around his shoulder, "I guess this song kinda says it all." He winked in Nicki's direction before slowly strumming. Nicki's eyebrow quirked up, what the hell did Puck have up his sleeve? Sam gave her a questioning glance, obviously confused too, so she shrugged, telling him she didn't know what the fuck was going on. "Hey baby girl, I've been watching you all day. Man that thing you got behind you is amazing." Nicki frowned, her cheeks flushing a pink shade. He could not be singing to her. No way. No fucking way.

"I know you got a man but this is what you should say. Why don't you tell him that I'm leavin'. Never coming back again. You found somebody who does it better than he can," Puck continued, his hazel eyes locked on her blue ones. No this could not be happening. It had to be a dream. But by the angry look on Sam's face and the immensely confused looks on everyone else's, it was very real. "Have you singing all night that's right." Before Puck could sing anymore, Nicki shot up in her chair and started screaming bloody murder.

To her pleasure, Puck stopped strumming his guitar and singing. To her dismay, everyone's eyes were now on her. "Nicki, are you okay?" Mr. Schue asked unsurely. Her eyes opened wide, not sure what the say.

"Uh, I just," she stumbled, "I have cramps." She gripped her stomach and tried her best to look like she was in pain, but he still eyed her suspiciously. "Really, really bad cramps." She glanced down at the ground, hoping he would buy her fake case of PMS.

"Oh, well," Mr. Schue said, not at all convinced, "can you sit back down? So Puck can finish?"

Finish the rest of his performance? "No! Have you ever had cramps, Mr. Schue? They suck. So, I need to go to the nurse. Now."

"You can go visit the nurse once Puck's done." She groaned silently.

"I can't wait. I'll just go, now." She didn't give him a chance to object, she ran out of the room, grabbing Puck along the way. The mowhawked boy followed her with little objection, looking rather amused. Once they'd gotten a safe distance away from the choir room, Nicki whipped Puck around, shoving him up against a row of lockers.

"Damn, Nick," Puck smirked, "I didn't know you liked it so rough."

"What in the hell was that in there?" she demanded.

"I needed to get your attention," he shrugged. "Now, where were we?" He smirked again, bringing his mouth closer to hers, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Hey," she heard a voice interrupt from across the hall, "what the hell are you doing Puckerman?" Nicki cautiously pulled away from Puck, turning around to see who the voice belonged to. Sam. Of fucking course. The blonde boy stormed towards them, obviously fuming.

"Sam," Nicki squeaked, barely able to find her voice, "this isn't what it looks like…"

He, of course, wasn't listening to her. Stomping towards Puck, he rammed the jock up against the lockers, grabbing Puck's shirt in his fisted hands. "I told you to stay away from her," Sam said, his voice dangerously low.

"Shit, are you my fucking old man, Evans? You're not the boss of me," Puck countered, obviously not scared by the blonde's action.

"Sam, let go of him!" Nicki pleaded, terrified of what was going to happen.

"She has a boyfriend, god dammit. Me. She doesn't want you," Sam told Puck.

"Oh really? You don't sound so sure, Trouty Mouth," Puck growled, raising his hands and ripping Sam's grip off of his t-shirt. "You don't deserve her," he spat, walking towards Sam and causing the big-lipped boy to step back a few steps.

"Who does, Puck? You?" Puck's lip curled up, and Sam stopped walking so the two boys were face to face. "You don't give a shit about her, Puckerman. You don't give a shit about anyone! You are a stupid Neanderthal," Sam claimed, poking Puck's shoulder with every word he spat.

Puck grunted, before raising his fist and slamming it towards Sam's nose. Nicki cried out, "Puck! What the hell? Stop!" but it did nothing to calm the boys. Sam staggered backwards, then growling and punching Puck back, this time in the shoulder. Puck grabbed Sam's shoulders, shoving him down to the ground. Puck landed on top of the blonde, punching him again.

"Puck stop! Get off of him, get off!" Nicki screamed, her hands shaking due to her severe terror for her boyfriend's safety. "Mr. Schue! Mr. Schuester!" she cried again, pleading to get her Spanish teacher's attention. She knew that she couldn't get the two muscled boys off of each other, but he might be able to.

Sam spat out some blood from his mouth, and Nicki whimpered. He shook his head, probably trying to shake away some of the pain, before throwing another punch to Puck's eye. "Sam! Stop it! Puck, get off of him!" Mr. Schuester yelled, running towards the two boys, tugging on Puck's shoulder. "Puckerman, Sam, quit it right now," Mr. Schue demanded and Puck reluctantly got off of Sam. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" Nicki ran towards Sam, trying to help her battered boyfriend off the floor.

"Get off me," Sam grunted, shoving Nicki away, before stumbling towards Puck, attempting to get another hit in. She grabbed him again, inspecting his cut lip and bloodied nose.

"Quit it, Sam. Pushing me away isn't going to help anything," she told him a bit angrily. She noticed the rest of the glee members were running out of the choir room, their eyes widening at the sight of the two boys.

"Nicki, go get Sam cleaned up," Mr. Schue ordered her, grabbing Puck's shoulders to make sure he didn't lunge at Sam again. Nicki nodded in agreement before taking Sam by the arm and leading him to the nurse's office. He followed angrily, grumbling curse words as he held his nose. Once they'd gotten into the nurse's office, Nicki led him to the plastic-covered bed and he sat down. She sighed before rummaging through the cabinets to find some supplies.

Unfortunately, it was after school hours so the nurse had left for the day. But Nicki had broken her nose plenty of times, so she hoped that she could set Sam's correctly. In the cabinets she found medical tape, a few popsicle sticks, disinfectant wipes, a bottle of aspirin and went to the freezer to get an icepack.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked her, still gripping his nose.

She rolled her eyes and set her materials on the bed. "Take off your shirt," she ordered.

"Huh?" Sam enquired.

"Take. Off. Your. Shirt," she repeated, slower this time. "I need to get the blood out of it before it sets. You like that shirt, don't you?" Sam nodded. "Then you don't want it stained. Please, take it off." Sam sighed before reluctantly taking off his worn soft grey McKinley Titans t-shirt and handed it to her. "Okay," she said, taking the shirt to the sink and running it under some hot water. Sam groaned again and she decided that the shirt could wait, he needed to be taken care of now, so she dropped the shirt in the sink. She pulled the rolling chair that was sitting at the counter towards the bed, sitting on it and tearing open the pack of disinfectant wipes with her teeth.

"Thanks for this," Sam said softly, placing a hand on her hip while she gingerly wiped off the blood from a ring around his mouth and underneath his nose.

"What are girlfriends for?" she asked rhetorically and smiled sadly at Sam. "Smile," she ordered and Sam showed her his pearly whites. "Hey! You have all your teeth!" Sam grinned the best he could.

"That's a plus." She laughed, glad he was keeping his sense of humor.

"This is going to hurt a lot," she warned him as she prepared to clean his nose off. "I want you to grab my waist and squeeze it when it gets to be too much, okay?" Sam nodded, placing his both of hands around her hips. Biting her lip, she grabbed another wipe and raised it to Sam's nose.

"Ow!" Sam cried out, gripping her pelvis bone. Nicki laughed. "What is so damn funny?" he asked between gritted teeth.

"I didn't even touch it yet, you big baby," she giggled before swiping the ruby red blood off of his delicate nose.

"Okay, OW," Sam groaned, "that one was real."

"Almost done, babe," Nicole told him before wiping away the remaining blood that sat on the bridge of his nose, grabbing a few tissues and placing them under his nostrils to get the blood that was still leaking out. "There," she exclaimed.

"All done?" Sam asked hopefully, placing his hand on the tissues to keep them in place. Nicki shook her head.

Tilting his head up, she said, "I don't think it's broken, but I still need to put a brace on it. That's going to really suck."

"Awesome."

"Why the hell did you even start with Puck?" Nicki asked him frustratedly.

"What were you two doing?" he countered angrily.

"Nothing," she spat, tossing the dirty wipes in a nearby waste basket and getting up to turn the sink water off.

"Sure as shit didn't look like nothing."

"Well, it was." She grabbed the popsicle sticks and medical tape from the bed, placing them on Sam's lap.

"I saw you and Puck at Nationals."

"Huh?" she asked, sitting back down.

"I saw Puck flirting with you. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You heard that?" she asked quizzically. He nodded. "Then you heard me telling Puck to back off. You heard me telling Puck that I was with you. Right?" Sam's mouth fell open slightly. "That's what I thought."

Sam glanced down at the ground, shamefully. "Just tell me if you're cheating on me."

"What," she asked, sounding like more of a statement than a question.

"Are you cheating on me with Puck?" he questioned. "Please, Nicole, tell me. I can't take any more lies."

Her jaw dropped and she hit Sam in the shoulder powerfully. "Are you shitting me?"

"Today, it looked like you and Puck were kissing. Are you having an affair with him?"

She huffed, picked up two popsicle sticks placing them on either side of his nose. "No, Sam, I'm not. Now hold these." Sam did as he was told, holding the sticks with one hand and the tissues with another while his eyes remained locked on Nicki.

"Promise?" he asked again. Nicki looked at Sam's green blue eyes, which were slightly bloodshot and filled with tears.

She placed a hand on his knee. "I promise Sam," she whispered, planting a soft kiss on his lip, being careful not to touch his nose. "I love you."

"What?" he whispered back, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I love you, Sam. I know I told you I wasn't ready to say that yet, but I am. I love you. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me in my fucked up life. You are the only person I want to be with, I promise I would never cheat on you. Never, never, never." Sam smiled taking one of his hands off of the popsicle sticks and placing it on her neck, tenderly rubbing the skin.

"I love you," Sam told Nicki before pressing his lips against hers, entangling his fingers in her hair. After a few more seconds of kissing Nicki broke away, wiping some tears off of her cheek. "Fuck," Sam groaned, placing his hand over his nose.

"I'm so sorry baby!" Nicki exclaimed, realizing she'd probably bumped into Sam's nose a few times while kissing him. "Let me fix it." She picked up the popsicle sticks from the tile floor, wiping them off on her jeans before placing them on Sam's nose and taping them with five pieces of the cream-colored medical tape.

Sam groaned and gripped Nicki's thigh due to the pain. "Woah, you weren't over exaggerating, huh? This hurts like hell," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"Well," Nicki said, "maybe you'll think twice before getting into a fight with a dude who's bigger than you next time."

"He deserved it," Sam spat.

Nicki sighed. "Calm down, Hulk," she told him jokingly before getting up. She grabbed a disposable paper cup, filled it with cold water and handed it to Sam. Once he'd taken it, she took the bottle of aspirin, popped the lid off and shook the bottle until 4 small blue pills fell out. "Take these," she ordered. Sam opened his mouth wide. She rolled her eyes and placed the blue tablets on his bright pink tongue. "Baby," she muttered, bringing his hand up to his mouth, forcing him to take a gulp of water.

"Thanks, Nicole," Sam said sweetly, crushing the paper Dixie cup into a basketball before throwing it into the trash can. Nicki walked back over to the sink, grabbing the sopping wet grey t-shirt and ringing it out like a towel, the water falling from it a shade of pink. Once all the excess water had been drained, she held the shirt up and cocked her head to the right, inspecting it.

"It's not too bad," she noted, "most of the blood came out." She heard the crinkling of plastic and soon two large hands were being placed around her hips and a chin perched on her shoulder. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously, as he brushed his soft lips against her cheek.

"Kissing my amazing girlfriend," Sam whispered huskily into her ear, sending shivers up her spine. "That okay with you?"

Nicki turned around, tugging him closer and feeling the deep contours of his chiseled chest. "Of course," she smiled before pressing her lips against his again, melding their mouths into one another's.

A loud "ahem," broke the two apart and they looked to see who the voice belonged to. A very red-faced Mr. Schuester stood at the door, his arms crossed over his chest. Sam stepped away from her, glancing at the ground. "You okay, Sam?" Mr. Schue asked cautiously, rubbing the back of his neck.

Sam nodded, "Nicole fixed me up really good." Nicki grinned and grabbed the condensation covered ice pack off the bed.

"Keep this on," she ordered, gingerly placing the pack on his nose. Sam winced, but nodded. "Hopefully some of the bruising should go down."

"Hey, Nicki?" Mr. Schue asked her. "Can I talk to Sam for a minute?" Nicki glanced at her boyfriend again before nodding. She gave Sam another kiss on the cheek before leaving the two men alone.

She closed the door and was almost immediately attacked by her fellow glee club members.

"Oh my god!" Mercedes exclaimed, pulling Nicki into a rib-crushing embrace.

"Is Sam okay?" Rachel questioned worriedly. She nodded.

"What the hell happened?" Mike asked, clearly concerned.

"You don't even want to fucking know," Nicki said gravely.


The next few days of school had been extremely boring. Sam and Puck had both been suspended for the remainder of the week (which was stupid, there were like 6 days of school left), and now Nicki was forced to walk by herself. She didn't know it before, but she really missed having Sam accompany her. She'd felt nice, safe, comforted.

But, luckily for her, the school day was over. She didn't have glee today, so all she had to do was go home. Maybe swing by Sam's. She walked solemnly out to her car, cursing the weather for being so damn shitty. It was raining, not pouring, but not exactly sprinkling either. She growled, shuffling faster towards her black Lexus and holding her bag over her head to try and shield her from some of the rain.

She trudged her leather boots across the black asphalt, sighing when she had finally gotten to her damn car. Fishing her keys out of her bag, she unlocked it.

"Hey," a soft voice whispered in her ear. Startled, she screamed and turned around to see a damp Puck who was wearing a red sweatshirt, a white wife-beater and worn dark blue jeans with a purpling bruise under his left eye.

"Holy shit, Puckerman," she cried out, "are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?" She rolled her eyes before turning around to open her door.

"No," Puck said softly, placing a hand on her arm. "I wanted to talk to you."

She sighed, "aren't you supposed to be suspended? And not on school grounds?"

He shrugged. "I've never really been a stickler for rules."

"What the fuck do you want? It's raining. I'm freezing and I want to go home."

He was silent for a while, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "I wanna be with you, Nicki." His words didn't really surprise her. 'Being' with her was all he talked about now a days. But, it did piss her off.

"Tough shit. I don't feel the same way," she said cruelly, feeling no need to hide her growing hatred for this boy.

"But-"

"But what?"

"But, I love you," he whispered.

A sudden burst of anger spread through out her body. "No! No you don't! You don't know the first thing about love." Puck's face looked genuinely hurt, but Nicki couldn't care less.

"Yes, I do," he stuttered.

"Fuck you, Puck! Seriously! Why? Why now? Why are you telling me about this now? Because I'm with Sam? Fuck you," she screamed, barely being able to constrain herself from punching the boy in the face.

"You think I like this?" Puck countered. "You think I like hitting on another dude's chick? I don't! But I can't help myself. When I look at you, I get this fucking tingly-ass feeling in my stomach. My palms get sweaty and my hearts start doing freaking back-flips. You are so amazing, Nicki. So beautiful and smart and talented and funny and sincere and generous and a bunch of other shit. I've never felt like this before, about anyone." Nicki didn't speak, simply leaving her mouth open and shutting it again, like a fish gulping for water. "Nicki please. Please."

"No," she responded.

"Nicki-" Puck began, but she quickly cut him off.

"You had your chance to speak, Puck. It's my turn now." He looked like he was about to object, but he eventually closed his mouth. "How dare you? Do you really think that I'm going to dump my amazing, sweet boyfriend, whom I love, just to have some- what? Two week fling with you before you change your mind and find another chick to fuck?" Puck swallowed hard and looked down at his feet. "That's the thing about you Puck," she said, her voice thick with tears. She silently thanked Mother Nature for making it pour, at least now he couldn't tell she was crying. "All you ever think about is sex."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is!"

Puck sighed, "is it just Sam? Or do you really not want to be with me?"

"What?" she spat. "I don't want to be with you!"

He stepped closer to her, placing his wet hand on her neck. "You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," she said, although her voice didn't come out as confident as she hoped.

Puck tilted his head down towards hers, their rain-covered mouths less than an inch away from each others. "Are you really gonna tell me that you don't want me?" Just as Nicki was about to respond, Puck pressed his lips against hers, leaving her stunned. As soon as the kiss began, it ended, Puck slowly pulling away. "Really?" he repeated again.

Nicki's eyebrows furrowed together, not knowing what to say. Her mind was swimming, so she decided to act upon the emotion she conveyed best. She brought her hand up to Puck's face, smacking him hard. "What the fuck?" she muttered, breathing heavily as the rain down poured on the two. Puck looked stunned, too, rubbing his cheek.

"You are so goddamn full of yourself! What makes you think I want to be with you? Just because you want me?" Puck didn't speak, just blinking his hazel eyes. "I. Don't. Want. You. Point blank." She gave another angry huff, stomping towards her car. Before she opened her door, she turned back to Puck and spat, "you know what Puck? It's not Sam, or me that's wrong. It's you. Even if I wasn't with Sam, I still wouldn't want you. You are an arrogant, self-centered, idiotic, Lima Loser who chews women up and spits them out!" Nicki sensed she'd taken this a bit too far by the look on Puck's face. It looked like what she guessed Brittany's would be if you told her unicorns weren't real. "Don't talk to me. Ever again." She licked her lips unsurely, getting in her car and turning the key in the ignition.

Anyone of you switch to Team Puck (shit, that sounded a lot like Twilight, not a good thing)? Or do you all just hate Nicki right now?

Puck's song that he sang was: "Leavin'"- by Jesse McCartney. Yeah, Puck and Jesse. Wow, I'm even a little disappointed in that.

Please review! Pretty pretty please with M&Ms and Reese's on top?