Rachel waited patiently by her locker. She found herself letting her mind wandering into the green eyes of the notorious, Noah Puckerman.
It was starting to actually feel normal, as opposed to the disgusting feeling she had in her gut when she would catch herself thinking about him in the past. The way his smile widened when someone made a dumb joke, how he noticed little details about her, and how his voice really did compliment her own. That might have been what started the attraction in the first place.
Her mind automatically started choosing song titles to test out with him in case his choice didn't work out. Even if it did, she still wanted to test his vocal range.
Speak of the devil...
She shoved her text book into her locker before slamming it shut. She turned around just in time to see him pass her by, looking down at his feet walking in front of him. Rachel felt her heart sink.
Something was wrong.
"Noah?" She asked, rushing after him. "Hey, is everything alright?"
"No." was all he said before he picked up his pace.
She was already struggling to keep up, but now he was a few feet in front of her, as she struggled to keep the speed. "What happened?"
He didn't answer.
Puck kept walking until he was finding himself at the exit of the school. This was too much for him to handle right now. The girl he almost forgot he had feelings for was no pregnant with his child, while the girl he thought he wanted to be with was trailing him.
He couldn't possibly tell Rachel about this... it'd kill her.
She lost Finn to Quinn, and now it seemed that she was going to lose Puck to Quinn, too. His mind shifted back to the bleachers...
"You're..."
"Pregnant." She answered for him.
There was a metallic taste in his mouth, making it harder and harder to form a proper sentence, "how did this happen?"
"Are you serious?" she asked him with her 'scary Quinn' tone. "I sometimes wonder why I even let you talk me into this..."
"The wine coolers..." he smacked himself in the forehead. "Fuck."
"You've got that right..." Quinn said, pulling her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on top of them as Puck sat down next to her.
He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. Should he leave? Hold her? Tell her everything's going to be alright? He was never good with this type of thing. Especially when he was trying to focus on the topic himself.
That's when she started to cry.
"Quinn, don't cry." He said, putting his arm around her in an awkward position. All he felt like doing was running away. He didn't want to be a dad. He didn't want to be responsible for ruining this poor girl's life. It was his way of dealing with things: running from them.
"How am I not supposed to cry? I'm pregnant. This is the worst thing that could ever happen to me. I'm going to lose every chance of staying a Cheerio, I'll lose Finn, keeping my status as popular, and what are my parents going to think? I'm the president of the celibacy club, for God's sakes." She sniffled and whipped at her eyes. He couldn't help but notice how her voice sounded even more nasally than normal.
"Are you going to get rid of it?" He asked in more lament terms than he really meant to.
She looked at him with a glare, "I can't, Puckermen. It goes against everything I believe in."
"So? Think good and hard about what's right for this thing-"
"It's not a thing, it's our baby." Quinn spat.
"For this baby, happy?" He retorted before getting up.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked.
"Away." He began walking down the steps and down onto the track.
Quinn instantly got up and followed him down to the banister, "you can't just run away from this. It's your fault this happened to me."
"Just like everything else is my fault, right?" Puck mumbled to himself as he walked away from her, ignoring her opinions and annoying calls for him to come back.
This was the greatest thing to ever happen to him, he could swear by it. He couldn't figure out what to do with himself.
The only thing that he could think to do was take out his phone. He quickly dialed Jay's number on his phone. One, two, three rings before he answered in a groggy tone, "what?"
"Pick me up. I need to do something," Puck ordered, jumping the fence that surrounded the track instead of walking around the outside.
"What kind of a something?"
"Anything, just pick me up at the high school."
He could hear Jay groan as he got up out of his bed, or so he assumed, and began to move. "Alright, give me like... ten minutes."
"Cool." Was all he said before he hung up the phone...
It's been almost five minutes before he got through the school, and the one person he wanted to avoid was trailing him now. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He wanted to tell her to fuck off. Wanted her to go away until he could figure out what he felt, or what he was supposed to do, instead of Rachel talking his ear off.
"What's going on?" She pressed again before they both were outside, in front of the school.
"Rachel, drop it." he ordered before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a carton of Cigarettes, ripping open the lid and taking out what seemed to be his last one. As soon as he hung up the phone before, he smoked two in the matter of two minutes, and he felt the nauseous feeling as if it was his first time all over again.
"You can't smoke this out here!" Rachel said, trying to grab the newly heated cigarette out of his hand.
If it wasn't for the baby on his mind, he would have attempted to flirt with her; grabbing her hands, turning her around every time she got close, holding it well above her height. It wasn't fun to do though...
He couldn't even think about her. His mind shot back to the words Quinn just touched his life with.
His best friend's girlfriend was now pregnant with his child. How fucked up could Puck make his own life? Not even. How fucked up could Puck make everyone's life that was just involved in his own?
Countless times he's gotten Finn in trouble, not only at school or in public, but even with his own mother. Ms. Hudson has taken Puck into her house countless times, and it was hard on her. It was feeding two mouths as apposed to one on an already too small paycheck. He was so greatful for having that family in his life, and he couldn't thank them enough.
Now he was about to lose the real family that took care of him, along with his best friend all over a drunken mistake... too bad Finn wouldn't understand the situation.
Not only was he killing Finn's life, he just ruined Quinn's.
A girl he used to lust after, and take every chance he possibly had to be around her; even if it meant that he was supposed to sit there while Finn and his girlfriend made out in front of him.
She was everything he used to look for in a girl: the soft voice that didn't hurt his ear, the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled, how gorgeous he thought she was... if this was another place, another life, he would have been so happy that he got her pregnant. If she hadn't been with Finn, and if he hadn't found Rachel.
His mind snapped back into reality, as a car horn honked in front of him, and a small girl finally gave up. A vicious hand grabbed at the back of his shirt, pulling him away from the curb, "what on this disgusting planet do you think you're doing?"
The hand maneuvered him so he was face to face with the one and only, Sue Sylvester. This was the last thing he needed right now, "smoking a cigarette."
"On my school campus? I don't think so. My office," she yelled. Then she took a step closer to his face. "Now, fo-hawk."
"Fuck off." and with that, he ignored the sarcastic comments the coach was spitting at him, and went into the car with Jay, noticing that Dougie was sitting in the back, laid out as if he was asleep. Puck took it another step too far and flicked his still lit cigarette out of the car and next to Sue's foot.
He took one more regretful look at Rachel before he let Jay pull out of the parking lot.
"Did he just tell me to fuck off?" Sue asked, completely and utterly astonished. "What a Jewish asshole..."
Rachel looked at her in confusion, before turning to watch the car drive down the street. What was going on in that man's head today? He was being even more self closed than normal. It was really starting to bother her. It felt like she just took thirty steps back in her progress to get into his life.
She began to walk away from the scene as Sue started to yell at all of the students to get off her campus. She must have been doing that because her ego was damaged by the embarrassment. Sadly, she caught wind of Rachel trying to escape, "hold it right there elephant girl."
"Elephant girl? I don't even know how that applies to me," Rachel gave her a tilted glance as she tried to work it out in her head.
"Your nose is so big I often mistake you for an elephant, it's an understandable mistake." And before Rachel could send out her rebuttal, she started again, "it's come to my attention that you're friends with this shit mouth. Let him know he's on my list. Oh man, is he on my list."
She turned away from the curb and faced the school, parting the sea of students better than Moses could ever dream to, confiscating the hat of a innocent tenth grader as she walked.
Rachel sighed, giving one last glance to the exit of the school before she began her trek over to the student parking lot. Her hand fished her phone out of her skirt pocket, just to make sure she hadn't missed a call or a text in the last four minutes. Nothing came up and it made her heart hurt.
She was minding her own business, just walking by the outer edge of the track, listening to the sound of sobbing from under the bleachers. It also seemed like there was another voice comforting the other. She strained her neck to look around the corner of the fence that was attached to the bleachers. Her heart jumped into her chest as soon as she saw a crying Quinn and an upset Finn.
Could they have just broken up? Was this really happening right now?
Her impulse to get closer grew more and more. She grabbed onto the side of the fence and pulled herself up, and it took all of her strength just to get off the ground. Her body wasn't built for climbing, or any sports in general, and it was almost impossible for her to get to the top without falling or losing her grip. It sent a proud sensation into her chest as she stepped onto the bleachers.
Her shoes clicked along the titanium as she tried desperately to stop it before she gave away her position. The quick to react part of her mind instantly told her to take off her shoes, as she placed them in her bag. This would be the last time she attempted to wear heels to school, no matter what Kurt said.
How she managed to get over the fence with those on still amazed her.
She could hear the voices of the people below getting louder. It was becoming more difficult to decipher what they were saying, due to the rowdy track team that was entering the field for their warm ups.
Rachel pin pointed where she was supposed to be standing, to be directly on top of them. She crouched down and tried her best to hear every word that was being exchanged between them.
Quinn's sobbing couldn't mask the words Finn was speaking, "Everything's going to be fine... I didn't even know it could work like that..."
His tone shook Rachel to the bone. He sounded terrified, and it was the weakest she'd ever hear him sound. She closed her eyes as she pictured what was happening under the bleachers at that very moment.
Quinn pulled away from Finn for a second, and looked up at him. "It's a hot tub. The perfect temperature for sperm to travel..."
"But don't I actually have to, ya know, get it in for it to work?"
She sniffled, "not exactly..."
Get what in...? Rachel questioned. Then everything clicked. She replayed the previous exchange of words through her head. Quinn was pregnant... and Finn was the father.
She sunk back into herself. Her mind was racing as her movement slowed. Her thighs hit the cool bleachers, and the shock didn't even phase her. She wanted to cry, and scream, and hate both of them forever, but she didn't. It was too much of a shock for her to handle.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, causing the bleachers to make it sound louder than it should have been. Rachel's heart started again, startling her. The screen glowed "Noah Puckerman" and showed her the envelope.
Her finger shook as she pressed the open button, "I need you. Now."
AN: New Season, new insparation.