Author's Note: Sorry for the huge delay between this chapter and the previous one. I really just... idk there is too much that is about to be tricky for me in chapter 10 with my Quinn OTP, Quick (Quinn & Puck) and I don't know how to write it fairly so I kept postponing doing it at all. I thought it might come now in chapter 9 but I actually had to write a lot of other stuff first before getting to the Quick moments. Anyway I kept postponing writing this; I got more into vidding and it's just so easy to ignore my fanfics. I'm really sorry. But now I'm back with a new chapter and I'll try to write another asap. As always, special thanks to my betas, The_Imperfectionist & Waiting_To_Be_Broken. And thank you to the few of you who always read and review! If you haven't reviewed every chapter, please consider leaving me another review! :P Thanks! The continuity of the show is really horrible sometimes by the way, as I think everyone who watches it is well aware... so I kind of have to take some liberties in order to make my story consistent and ignore a sentence spoken here or there sometimes. I hope no one really notices, nor minds. Here's chapter 9, it starts off at the very end of 1x08 "Mash-Up", right where we left off, and goes into the beginning of 1x09 "Wheels". I really hope you all like it.
Chapter 9: The Bill Came in the Mail
That same Thursday, Quinn was up in her bedroom in the evening doing her homework when she heard the doorbell. She opened her door a crack and listened as her father answered the door.
"Oh hi, Finn! Is my daughter expecting you?" Russell asked.
"No, sir, but I just wanted to drop by and talk to her," he replied nervously, stepping inside and letting Russell close the door behind him. Finn never was very comfortable around Quinn's parents. He usually avoided running into them if at all possible. Quinn left her bedroom and headed downstairs, wanting to save her boyfriend from her dad.
"Hey, Finn!" she called out to him. "Daddy, it's okay. I'm here now," she said to her father, hoping he'd disappear into the next room. He did what he knew she wanted. After he was gone, Quinn turned back to Finn. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm returning to glee club after all!" he said with a huge grin on his face. "I get to stay on both teams, and I think all the other football players in glee club will be able to do both now too." He looked so happy and excited, and Quinn wanted to be happy for him but she couldn't bring herself to smile. She was still so heartbroken to have lost cheerleading and somehow she'd have to break that news to Finn.
"That's great," she replied with no real emotion in her tone. Finn, somewhat surprisingly, noticed something was up with how she said it.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "I thought this would be good news."
"It is," she replied. "I just... I'm not going to be cheering for your team anymore," she explained, looking up into his eyes, hoping he'd understand how hard this was for her. Right at that moment, however, Judy walked into the foyer where Finn and Quinn were standing. She apparently had overheard what Quinn had just said.
"What do you mean?" Judy asked her daughter with surprise in her voice.
"Oh, um." Quinn was taken aback. She wasn't expecting to tell her mother so soon what had happened. She hadn't properly prepared a good lie yet. So she winged it. "I decided to quit the Cheerios," she told her mother with conviction.
"What? I... don't understand," Judy replied, looking in confusion from her daughter to Finn and back. Finn kept his eyes firmly planted on Quinn though. This was her story and he was smart enough to know that he should not mess it up.
"I want to focus on glee club and my studies for a while," Quinn explained, hoping her mother would accept the explanation and move on. "I just am tired of cheerleading, that's all."
"Okay..." Judy replied, and Quinn couldn't tell if she was confused or rather not really buying it. "I just thought you always really loved Cheerios a lot," she muttered, half to herself as she turned away and left her daughter alone with her boyfriend. Finn looked at Quinn for a moment.
"So... Miss Sylvester kicked you off the team?" he whispered. Quinn glanced nervously toward the living room where both of her parents were. She nodded in affirmation, then looked down towards her feet. "I'm sorry," Finn said.
"It's okay. It's not your fault," she replied. "I am happy that you get to come back to glee though," she told him sweetly, looking back up at him. He smiled.
"Okay, well I better go, my mom's probably waiting for me," Finn said. She nodded and he kissed her briefly, then left. Quinn went back upstairs to finish her homework.
The next day, Quinn woke up extra early, hoping if she got to school early enough that she'd already be in the glee classroom for first period before the jerk jocks got there, which would mean that she'd be able to avoid getting slushied. She looked with sadness at the Cheerios uniform that she wasn't allowed to wear. She'd worn that uniform every single morning for over a year and yet suddenly instead of being required attire, it was forbidden. So instead she put on a nice white dress with blue polka dots all over it. She grabbed a blue sweater to match it and put it on. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized that she kind of looked nice with her hair not in a ponytail for once. She tried to grasp any silver lining she could and then closed the door of her bedroom and headed downstairs.
Quinn drove herself to school and entered the still-mainly-empty building. She passed by a few students who were already there and at their lockers and walked by the slushie machine on her way to her own locker, noticing her boyfriend standing there, filling up a drink.
"Finn! What are you doing?" she asked him, shocked. "Are you going to slushie someone?"
"No," Finn answered. Quinn was relieved... now that she'd been slushied herself she wouldn't wish that on anyone... not even Rachel, she realized. Finn explained that he'd decided to give everyone in glee club a gift of slushies to actually drink as a "welcome back gift" to the club. He asked Quinn to pick up the right number of straws for everyone as he filled up the drinks. Quinn entered the glee classroom and as her fellow club members entered, handed each of them a straw. All of the kids were there when Finn arrived with the sugary refreshments. After handing them out, Finn decided to propose a toast.
"To Mr. Schue. You were right about glee club and football being a killer combination."
Everyone cheered to that with excited "yeahs" and "woo hoos" and put their drinks in for the toast; everyone, except Quinn, who was sitting on a stool by the piano, away from the group. She hadn't really noticed her boyfriend giving a toast nor cared to try to be a part of such a happy group when she was feeling so... depressed at the moment. She missed whatever Artie was talking about as she stirred her slushie with her straw and stared at it. She was thinking about her new status in the school and how slushies like this were so often used.
"You okay, Quinn?" Will asked her, concerned. At the sound of her name, she was pulled out of her unpleasant thoughts.
"Do I look okay?" she replied simply. It should be obvious that she wasn't, and she wasn't trying to be rude about it. She was just upset. "I'm devastated. Now that I'm off the Cheerios, I'll start every day with a slushie facial."
"That's okay if that happens, Quinn," Mr. Schue tried to reassure her. "Because there are eleven of your friends, right here," he continued, gesturing towards them, "who are going to be more than happy to help clean you off." She looked over at them and they all vigorously agreed with their teacher's sentiment. Quinn couldn't help but feel a bit touched and smiled.
Friday evening she hung out with Finn at his mom's house. They ordered a pizza for themselves because his mom was away working. While eating they watched a rented movie and then talked a bit. Quinn mentioned to him that the bill from the doctors still hadn't come, but when it did they'd have to pay it. He nodded in understanding. They both didn't know how they'd get the money to do it, but it seemed Finn was fully willing to share responsibility for that cost, and for that she was grateful. She smiled at him and then just sat there in his arms on the couch. She was so worried about the future, but at the same time was kind of glad it wasn't there yet. She tried to let herself just enjoy the fact that it was the weekend.
She had to get home by her curfew of 11:00 PM. Finn drove her home and walked her to her house around 10:45, and they kissed goodnight sweetly and fairly chastely, since Quinn's parents might have been watching. She got home and went to bed. She didn't fall asleep too quickly though, because as had become habit for her lately, she couldn't stop thinking about the baby growing inside her. She also worried constantly about her parents what they might say or do if they found out that she was pregnant. She eventually fell asleep though, and slept solidly through the night.
The next day was Saturday and Quinn was the perfect daughter, helping with household chores. As she scrubbed the large kitchen floor with her mother, the smell of the cleaning chemicals overwhelmed her and made her very nauseous, but she hid it well. She did need to sneak off to the bathroom to vomit at one point, but her mother didn't seem to suspect a thing. When the mail came, she volunteered to get it of course, and to her relief the bill finally had come! She carefully hid it and then returned to the chores.
Quinn didn't talk to Finn at all for the rest of the weekend... she didn't even text him. She just thought about that bill. She'd been shocked at the amount when she'd opened it- why hadn't the people at the doctor's office told her it would cost that much? She needed to find a way to get $685 before the end of the month. She tried to think of a way to secretly steal it from her parents. She knew they probably could afford it, but she could not think of any way to steal even $50 without them noticing. She considered getting a job, but she had no clue where to even start looking. They lived in a small town... not many job opportunities were available to pregnant 16-year-old girls who still were in school. She decided she'd just tell Finn about it on Monday sometime at school, and until then try to stop dwelling on her dire money situation.
Sunday night when she was sleeping she had a nightmare and she saw 685 single dollar bills all closing in on her and then they grew mouths and started eating her alive.
Quinn went to her classes Monday and tried to ignore the stares from fellow students. She hadn't really let herself pay attention to any of it before, even though the fact that she was pregnant had been common knowledge around the school for some of the previous week too... but now she finally heard the whispers about whether or not she had a baby bump yet. She saw teachers looking at her differently, trying to hide it, but the pity from some and judgment from others was always obvious. She couldn't do anything but sit there and pretend it wasn't happening. But it was torturing her, little by little.
She tried to come up with a good time to tell Finn about the bill, but they never seemed to cross paths that day. Even at lunch when she expected to have time with him, he seemed too busy hanging out with Puck that day to even notice her. And Quinn kind of wanted to avoid Puck especially if the topic of her pregnancy was going to come up. At glee rehearsal she had the same problem. After school she just went home, deciding ultimately to postpone telling Finn about it until the next day.
Tuesday morning she got to school very early again. Quinn realized that this actually worked as a way to avoid getting slushied and decided it was worth it to get into the habit. She decided to head into the gymnasium and watch the early morning Cheerios practice. She thought about where she'd be in the formations if she was still on that cheerleading squad. Finn had noticed her enter the gym however, and after a minute or two decided to follow her in. He joined her on the bleachers.
"You shouldn't do this to yourself," Finn told her wisely. Quinn decided to play dumb though.
"Do what?" she asked, not looking at him. He looked at her though and hesitated before continuing with his previous concerned sentiment.
"I know how much it hurts to be off the team," he said. "You're just torturing yourself, watching." Quinn couldn't deny it. And still couldn't really look at him. She realized it was a good time to tell Finn about the bill though.
"I need a good distraction," she explained, still staring towards the Cheerios.
"From what?" Finn asked. Quinn sighed and then grabbed the piece of mail out of her purse. Finn too it and opened it, and Quinn waited while he read it.
"Six hundred and eighty five dollars?" he asked a bit incredulously. Quinn couldn't really blame him for being a bit surprised at how much they were being charged – she'd been surprised too when she'd first read it, after all. But now it'd been days since she'd received it and she wasn't in the mood to relive those feelings. She was ready to move onto to dealing with how to actually pay it.
"That's how much a sonogram costs," she told him matter of factly, turning to him. "This is just the beginning," she explained. "There's gonna be more doctors visits, vitamins, new clothes for when I explode..."
"What are we gonna do?" Finn asked.
"What are you gonna do?" she countered harshly.
"Well, I'm lookin' for a job. I mean... no one's hiring!" Finn defended himself. "I- I almost got in at Olive Garden but they said I was too tall to be a bus boy."
Quinn almost was laughing mirthlessly as she replied, "Somewhere, in that pea brain of yours, is a man! Access him, and tell him to prove to me that I chose the right guy to have a baby with." Quinn sounded so severe but her eyes were almost betraying her, a shimmer of tears somewhat evident on them as she stood up.
"I will. I'll- I'll find a job," Finn tried to convince her. "You can count on me. I swear." She turned back to him and kind of gave him a nod as she tried not to cry. "So where are you going?" he asked.
"You're right," she said, staring directly at him. "This does hurt too much," she said, her voice cracking a bit. She glanced at the Cheerios and tried to make it seem like she was talking about that but it was obvious even to Finn that she was upset about much more than cheerleading. She couldn't even really look him in the eye for more than a second, and after answering him quickly she walked away from her boyfriend even faster. She knew she was being a bit unfair to Finn, but it was easier to deal with everything this way. So she headed to her homeroom in a huff, focusing on being mad at her boyfriend for not seeming quite so perfect at the moment. It was a good way to stop herself from being so overly emotional like her hormones kept trying to force her to be. She thought intensely about Finn, and about why she was mad at him, blocking out any sad feelings and trying to replace them with anger. She did choose to make him believe he was the father of her baby... and she only decided to do that because she thought having Finn involved would make things easier for her.
At glee that morning, she met up with Finn, having thought of some new ideas for jobs for him during her homeroom period.
"What about Target?" she suggested, knowing they did often hire high schoolers.
"I tried, not hiring," Finn replied.
Quinn found that hard to believe and tried to make sure he understood just how important it was that he get a job. The longer the bill went unpaid, the more reminders the doctor's office would send to the house. And every time it would be a huge risk that her parents might find out that was "with child". And if they didn't pay the bills, then the Fabrays would most certainly be called up and informed over the phone. Quinn desperately needed to prevent that from happening.
Will entered the classroom with a new song for Rachel to sing, which wasn't that surprising. Then he also announced that the school wasn't going to pay for the special bus they'd need to take Artie and his wheelchair to Sectionals. Will suggested they hold a bake sale to raise the money instead, and Quinn couldn't believe her teacher could really be that optimistic and naive. Everyone tried to explain to Mr. Schue how no one knew how to bake and how they were all just too busy for a bake sale.
"Can't Artie's dad just take him?" Mercedes asked.
"I can't believe how insensitive you're all being," Mr. Schue replied, disappointed. "Are you a team?"
"Of course," Quinn replied, defending her fellow glee club members. "But Artie understands, don't you Artie?" she asked, looking toward him.
"Oh, of- of course," he replied. Quinn looked back at Will, raising her eyebrows in an "I told you so" kind of way. Everyone left glee club that day thinking they'd gotten out of the bake sale.
However the next day, Mr. Schuester announced that they would be having a bake sale despite their protests, and in addition they all had to spend three whole hours a day in a wheelchair for the next week! And, he added, they'd be doing a wheelchair number! Quinn couldn't really believe it. But she'd have to get in a wheelchair and roll herself down hallways and probably make even more of a spectacle of herself around the school. There was no way Mr. Schue was going to budge on this, she realized.
