Kitty graced down the halls of McKinley a week later, dressed as a Cheerio. She said that she could actually do flips and "all that other crap cheerleaders do" (as Kitty put it), but Marley knew that the one and only reason she joined was to stare at the other Cheerios all day and possibly get to look up their skirts. Marley had to admit that Kitty did look good as a Cheerio.

"Hey Mar!" Kitty waved, walking over to Marley. Her perfect blond ponytail bounced behind her. A couple guys nearby turned and stared at her.

"Sorry boys, you're not my type," Kitty smirked when she noticed them staring.

"So, you're a Cheerio now," Marley said.

"Yep. With pom poms and all."

"Well, uh, good for you then," Marley said awkwardly.

"Thanks. Oh look. Here comes your man," Kitty said, spying Jake walking towards them.

"He's not my man," Marley whispered.

"Oh please." Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Hey Jake," Marley said sweetly, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Marley frowned.

"It's nothing, I just totally bombed my Spanish test and had a little...freak out in class. It's fine though," Jake said, but Marley wasn't too convinced.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine. Seriously." Jake ran his hand through Marley's hair. Then he noticed Kitty. "Woah. You're a Cheerio."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Kitty said.

"She's only doing this to look at all the pretty girls." Marley smirked.

"Oh, I see," Jake laughed.

"Seriously Jake, you should really get a tutor," Kitty said. "This isn't the first time you totally bombed a Spanish test."

"I can tutor you if you want," Marley spoke up.

"Really?" Jake asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I have like a 97% in Spanish."

"I don't have to pay you, right?"

"Not in money," Marley giggled.

"Ew, okay gross." Kitty stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"Shut up," Jake laughed, flicking Kitty's ponytail.

"Whatever. I have to go to Cheerio practice," Kitty said. "See you guys later."

"Are you sure you really want to tutor me?" Jake asked Marley. "I mean, I have a really bad grade in Spanish."

"Of course I'll tutor you," Marley said.

"Okay, good. I'll, um, see you at your house later." Jake kissed Marley's cheek and headed off to his next class.

"You're, um, going out tonight right?" Marley asked her mom later that afternoon.

"Nope. I'm staying home tonight," Ms. Rose said, ruffling her daughter's hair.

"Oh, um, okay," Marley said nervously. Jake was still coming over later, and Marley thought they would have the house to themselves. It wasn't that she didn't want her mom to meet Jake. She was just nervous about how Jake would react to her mom's tough question she would ask. You know, the usual date questions.

"Do you not want me to stay home tonight?" Ms. Rose asked.

"No, it's not that, it's just, uh, Jake's coming over in a bit so I can tutor him in Spanish."

"Oh, how nice! I'll finally get to meet him!" Ms. Rose clapped her hands together.

"Mom? Can you, uh, just not ask him a lot of questions and all that stuff? He's, um, really...shy," Marley said lamely.

"Well I want to get to know him, so of course I'm going to ask questions," Ms. Rose said.

"Just don't be too hard on him, okay?"

"Alright, sweetie, don't worry. When's he coming?"

"In about half an hour."

"Ooh I need to go make dinner!"

The doorbell rang 30 minutes later, and Ms. Rose was still scrambling to get dinner finished.

"Ready to do some work?" Marley asked when she opened the door for him.

"Yep. Got my Spanish book and everything." Jake leaned down to kiss her.

Good thing he's in a good mood, Marley thought. "Um, my mom wants you to stay over for dinner, if that's okay," She said as she led Jake up to her room.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Jake smiled. He took a seat on her bed and opened up his book.

"Keep that door open, Marley!" Ms. Rose yelled from the kitchen. "I can hear everything up there just so you know!"

"Okay, mom!" Marley shouted back. She giggled and joined Jake on the bed. "So," she said. "Where should we start?"

"Um, I kind of got lost once Mr. Schue started talking about those stupid stem-changing verbs that make no sense," Jake said, getting a little frustrated. He started to raise his voice a bit. "Why don't I understand that?"

"Jake, it's okay," Marley tried desperately to calm him down. "It's a really confusing topic. I'll help you, don't worry," she said soothingly.

"Okay," Jake said, taking a couple deep breaths. "Sorry for yelling."

"It's okay. Let's just look at the examples in the book."

"Hey Marley?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for caring about me so much."

Marley smiled. "Well, I'm your girlfriend. That's what I'm supposed to do, right?"

Jake grinned back. "Right."

"So Jake, I've heard a lot of, um, interesting things about you," Ms. Rose said an hour later when they all sat down for dinner.

"Like what?" Jake asked.

"Mom," Marley fake coughed, signaling her to stop talking.

"Oh, just that you were a very nice kid," Ms. Rose said, raising an eyebrow at Marley.

"I doubt that's what people really think," Jake said in almost a whisper.

Marley desperately needed to change the subject. She cleared her throat. "So, uh, how's work going, mom?"

Ms. Rose swallowed a bite of her spaghetti. "Work's fine, honey, but I still want to talk about you, Jake. I really want to get to know the boy who my daughter's dating."

Jake laughed uncomfortably. "Um, there's really not much to me. I live with my mom in Lima Heights, um, my best friend is Kitty, but I'm sure Marley already told you that, and, um, I really like your daughter," he said, smiling at that last part.

Marley grinned and reached for Jake's hand underneath the table.

"Alrighty then." Ms. Rose smiled. "Well Jake, you are welcome here any time."

"Thank you," Jake said kindly. "I'm really glad you like me."

"Sweetie, you're the best thing that's happened to my daughter ever since she's been here. Of course I'm going to like you. Now don't do anything to mess that up," Ms. Rose warned.

Jake nodded. "I won't. Promise."

Marley's mom went out for the evening, leaving Jake and Marley both home alone at her house.

"Don't even try anything," Ms. Rose had said. "I trust you guys. No monkey business."

Even though Marley had disobeyed her mom in the past, she decided to listen to her this time. She didn't even know what monkey business meant to her mom. Did she mean, like, sex? No way. Even though she was glad to have a boyfriend, Marley definitely wasn't ready for sex yet. She hoped Jake would respect that.

"Don't worry, Ms. Rose, I promise we'll be good," Jake had said.

After her mom left, Marley sat on the living room couch and patted the space next to her for Jake to join. "Wanna watch a movie?"

"Yeah, sure," Jake said. "What do you have?"

"What don't I have?" Marley giggled as she opened the cabinet next to the TV, revealing about 100 DVDs. "I've got all the Disney classics, and a few old romantic movies my mom likes. But, my new favorite is this." She took out a DVD and tossed it to Jake.

"The Hunger Games," Jake said, a little surprised. "I would have never thought you'd be the kind of girl who likes these kinds of movies. You know, with all the murdering and everything."

"Well, I loved the books, so I knew I'd like the movie too."

"I've, uh, never seen it," Jake said.

"Well that's about to change," Marley said playfully as she snatched the movie out of Jake's hands and put it in the DVD player. "I promise you'll like it."

"Obviously if this Katnip girl is the main character, she's not gonna die," Jake said halfway into the movie. "So that's just like, giving away the end of the story."

"Okay, first of all, her name's Katniss, and just keep watching. The ending's not what you think," Marley said.

"Okay." Jake put his arm around Marley and continued to watch the movie.

Fifteen minutes later, Jake yelled out "Holy shit!" when Rue died. Even though it was supposed to be a very sad moment, Marley couldn't help but giggle at him.

"Didn't expect that, huh?" She nudged Jake.

"No way."

Neither Marley nor Jake made any effort to stand up and turn the TV off after the ending credits rolled down the screen. They were too comfortable cuddling with each other.

"Hey Marley?" Jake said after a couple minutes of silence.

"Yeah?"

"There's, um, something I want to tell you. And, um, I wasn't sure when the right moment was to tell you, but I feel like now's a really good time," Jake said, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt.

Marley grabbed the remote and muted the TV. Butterflies fluttered around in her stomach. Was what Jake was about to tell her bad? Was he breaking up with her? No way. They just had a really nice romantic evening together. He wouldn't break up with her. But what if he was? Marley decided not to let her thoughts get the best of her, so she took a deep breath and said, "What is it?"

"I, uh, I think I'm, um, I think I'm in love with you," Jake stuttered.

Marley froze. "Y-You think?"

"No, I, uh, I know I am. I love you, Marley. And you don't have to say it back right now or anything, but-"

"I love you too," Marley said quickly.

"Really?"

Marley nodded, unable to talk due to the huge smile that was growing on her face.

"I've, uh, I've never said that to a girl before," Jake confessed.

Marley grinned even wider. "Me either."

Jake leaned closer to her and closed the gap between them with his lips. The kiss started off slow and sweet, but then grew more passionate. Jake ran his fingers through her hair, and Marley sighed happily into the kiss. Right when things were about to heat up even more, Marley's phone let out a loud beep.

Marley pulled away from Jake to see who texted her. "Oh my gosh, it's like she's psychic or something." She held her phone up so Jake could see the message her mom sent her to remind her absolutely no monkey business and that she'll be home in ten minutes.

"I should probably get going then," Jake said as he put on his jacket. "Tell your mom I really liked the dinner."

"Will do," Marley said.

"See you tomorrow. I, uh, I love you," Jake said a little shyly. Not that he was embarrassed of saying it, it was just...new to him.

"Love you too." Marley grinned. And it was true. For the first time ever in her life, Marley finally was in love.

"Why do you look so happy?" Ms. Rose asked suspiciously when she walked in the door, seeing her daughter grinning like an idiot.

"Is it a crime for me to be happy?" Marley said, not intending for it to sound as rude as it did.

"No, it's just that I've never seen you this happy before. You and Jake didn't..."

"No, no of course not!" Marley said. "We just had a really nice night, that's all."

"Alright, well get some sleep. It's getting late."

"Mom, it's 9:00 on a Friday night."

"Alright, well now that you apparently are a night owl all of the sudden, you can help me bake some cookies for dessert and then we can watch an episode of the Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills."

"I'd like that." Marley smiled. At the end of the day, even after all the lying and disobeying, she still loved her mom. That would never change.

I am so sorry I took so long to update this. I've been really busy with school. Hope you all liked this chapter :D