Quinn and Rachel exit the Berry household and make their way to Quinn's car. A gust of wind blows past them, causing Rachel's hair to fly up. It's only then that Quinn notices the hickey that she had left on Rachel's neck. She squeaks and the brunette spins around, afraid that something is wrong.

"Is everything okay Quinn?"

"Uh huh… it's just your neck." Once again a redness appears on Rachel's cheeks, and Quinn wonders if at some point it would just stay there.

"Yeah… I uh- I noticed that earlier." She spins around again, seemingly out of embarrassment. "I didn't want to cover it up," Rachel admits softly. A part of her hopes that Quinn couldn't actually hear her and wouldn't push her to be louder. The singer isn't fond of the idea of more people talking about her behind her back, but she didn't want to hide the only proof she had of her first kiss; one with Quinn Fabray at that.

When the cheerleader doesn't answer, Rachel goes off to the passenger side door. Quinn follows and opens it for her before going back to the driver's side. So far things were looking up, in Quinn's opinion. She just needed to keep up the charm, see how much she could make Rachel squirm, build up her courage, join Glee, and then serenade the girl of her dreams… Okay, maybe not the last one. Well, at least not yet.

The drive to school is fairly simple, and far more talkative than the previous drive they had shared. It comprises mostly of small talk. They discussed school, projects that they had to work on, and the possibility of studying together again. The pint sized diva beamed at the suggestion. and Quinn decided to make a mental tally of 'Rachel likes me, Rachel likes me not.'

They make it to school and start walking through the parking lot. They'd be together for their first period, much to both of their delight, but Rachel is quite dreading having to go to gym. Quinn knows why very well. They had been playing dodge ball this week, and next week as well.

Throughout the past few days, Quinn couldn't help but notice that whenever they played Rachel would stay off to the side and cover her face with her hands or turn away from the other team completely. The latter would often result in the singer getting a ball thrown at her butt, which she then rub profusely. There may have been an occasion or two that Quinn had purposely thrown a ball at her ass.

"Hey," she says, stopping their progress. "I'll pick you for my team this time." The cheerleader had been given captainship of one of the teams due to a combination of her skill, ferocity, and because everyone was afraid she'd kill them (with dodge balls) if they tried to compete with her.

"You don't have to do that. I'd only help you lose."

"Nonsense, have you seen how good I am?"

"Not really. I'm a little too busy trying to protect my nose." Quinn giggles.

"Well I'll help protect you; we wouldn't want anything to happen to that cute little nose of yours now would we?" Brown eyebrows rise up a bit. Even though Quinn had said nice things about her the previous night, she still felt odd to hear such things about herself. After the initial shock wore off, Rachel shakes her head.

"My nose? Cute?" she exasperates. "No it's not. It's a little big and-" She's cut off as Quinn placed two fingers on her lips.

"Rach, you need to stop thinking like that. I know I've said a number of horrible things about you, and I'm sorry for that and not only because I got to know what it's like to be you." She can feel the singer smiling against her fingers. "I didn't mean any of it Rach. You're beautiful, okay? You are beautiful and you have a cute nose." Quinn emphasized her point by planting a kiss on the tip of Rachel's nose. She spins around before she can see the smaller girl's reaction and continues walking towards the main building.

They make their way to the gym and then into the locker rooms. After they're changed into their uniforms they go towards where their class would was gathering. After attendance is taken Quinn and the other team captain stepped up to pick teams. Just as the cheerleader promised, Rachel is immediately taken into her team. There are some looks of confusion, but those are soon gone with a quick glare. Soon after Puck is brought into their team as well; he strides over to Rachel, and while she had tried to hide the mark on her neck with her pigtails, a swift turn towards him causes her hair to reveal it.

"Woah," he gasps. "Jewbabe got some action! Up top!" He brings his hand up for a high five which Rachel chooses to ignore. "What? No love?" The tiny brunette huffs out indignantly. "Come on, don't even try to tell me that that isn't a hickey. Haven't I told you? I'm a connoisseur." She shifts so that her back is towards him. "Okay, fine. At least tell me who it was… actually let me guess." He takes a moment, pondering. "It was Quinn right?" he jokes, having seen them leave school together the previous day.

"What?!" Rachel spins around quickly, nearly falling down in the process. "What are you talking about Noah?" she whispers as she pushes him out of earshot from the other students.

"Jeez, relax. I was kidding. I- wait." Realization finally dawns upon him. "Holy shit, it was Quinn!" Rachel clasps both of her hands over his mouth, shaking her head.

"Not so loud," she orders. Rachel gives him a stern look before dropping her hands to her sides.

"Damn, I would have never thought you had it in you," he whispers.

"Noah, not a word."

Luckily for Rachel the game is about to begin so Puck doesn't even have the opportunity to go any further. Quinn quickly gets Rachel and instructs the singer to stay behind her. It sounds simple enough, but proves to be quite difficult once she sees Quinn in action. The blonde swerves to and fro as dodge balls whizz past her.

Every once in a while Rachel would squeak when she thought Quinn, or herself, would get hurt. The cheerleader is playing far more aggressively than she normally would. It's a lot more difficult to dodge the red projectiles while actively protecting Rachel. She eliminates the other team as quickly as she can, but as the game nears its end, it comes down to three against two with Rachel and Quinn being the two.

Quinn places herself between Rachel and their three opponents who are spread out. The one to the left of Quinn throws a ball first. She swerves to the right while aiming at the middle opponent. She evens the teams out, but their last opponent throws a ball directly at Rachel. The singer turns around to protect her face while showing off the cut butt of hers.

With lightning fast reflexes, Quinn jumps in and catches the ball, throwing it back before she lands on the ground. Rachel spins back around when she realizes that she hadn't been hit. She gasps when another ball goes straight for her. The singer brings her hands up in front of her and miraculously catches it. She blinks and then looks down at Quinn who has a look of surprise on her face as well.

The cheerleader gets to her feet and brings her arms around Rachel and lifts her up, yelling, "We won!" She puts her down and then squats before lifting Rachel again, but this time she held her around her thighs as opposed to her waist. Her arms are snugly wrapped right below her ass. Rachel shrieks at the newfound height and also because Quinn's face is very close to her womanhood.

The rest of the team celebrate as well, but none joined in on the girls' celebration. From her vantage point Rachel can see Puck looking on smugly. After a while Quinn puts Rachel back down, and they go back to the locker rooms to get changed. As usual, Rachel waits until most of the other girls have changed before she discards her clothes. When she's done, she gives Quinn a quick goodbye before the blonde takes a quick shower.

As she leaves the gym, Rachel can't help but feel a sense of loss. Loss of Quinn's delicious aroma, loss of Quinn's new found compliments, loss of how good Quinn made her feel, and just a simple loss of Quinn. She'd be able to see her during passing periods, maybe lunch, and then the classes they shared after, but those thoughts don't really help her feel much better.

And then there would be the Glee Club meeting later. Rachel believed Quinn when she said she'd join, but she did feel very nervous about it. And she would be lying is she said that she also wasn't excited to see, or more precisely hear, what Quinn would sing for her audition. Rachel's already on the ready to provide suggestions if the cheerleader needed them.

Rachel already knew that Quinn could sing. Occasionally the blonde would sing in the showers, whenever she thought she was alone. And very often she'd be incorrect. It wasn't as though Rachel was spying on Quinn; the singer just didn't feel comfortable showering in front of everyone else. The brunette would wait until everyone was gone, but sometimes Quinn would stray behind.

The first time she heard her, Rachel wanted to forgo all the warnings going off in her head and just ask Quinn to join Glee. And she would have too, until she remembered that Quinn would be naked in the shower. Rachel had been tempted to stay a bit longer in the locker room earlier just to hear Quinn sing, but she couldn't. Not with everything that had been going on recently The diva decided to admire her from afar for now.

Elsewhere…

Quinn exits the gym and makes her way to her locker. She feels a happiness building in her chest that she hadn't felt in… probably ever. For so long she had been lying to everyone, lying to her parents, lying to Rachel, and lying to herself. Things weren't completely out in the open yet, and they probably wouldn't be any time soon; Quinn is nowhere near ready to be out. But she was opening up, and in doing so a weight was lifted off her shoulders.

She had a spring in her step, something that her best friend easily notices as she approaches. "Someone looks happy." Quinn can't stop the giddy smile on her face even if she tried, and she did try. "So spill, what happened?"

"Nothing, I'm just in a good mood."

"Nothing?" the Latina scoffs. "So you look like a little school girl who got to hold your crush's hand because of… nothing?" Quinn nods. "And nothing happened last night?" Quinn shakes her head. "Right…" Santana replies unconvincingly. "So what did you do last night?"

"Just hung around the house."

"Really? Cause I called your mom last night." Fuck, Quinn thinks. She keeps her face straight though. "And when I asked where you were she said you were at Britt's, but I know you weren't because I was at Britt's." The raven haired girl smirks as Quinn's smile fades. "So, where were you?"

"Not that it's any of your business San, but I was at Rachel's." She knows that Santana's about to spit out some retort about Rachel while insulting her so Quinn continues on before the Latina can even open her mouth. "And for the record, she's my friend now. As of this moment there's a slushie ban on Rachel; no more insults, slushies, or anything else, understood?"

"Hey, just because your ex tried to manhandle Man-"

"What did I just say?!" she yells, her tone far harsher than Santana was accustomed too.

"N-no insults."

"So am I understood or not?"

"Fine, understood," she gives in. "I'll be nice to Berry okay?"

"Good, now spread the word." She turns to leave in the direction of her next class. "Oh, and one more thing. We're joining Glee."

"What?!"