DELICATE BEGINNINGS

[FALL 2007/SUMMER 2008]

"Fingers do dig in, the moon pulls the waves.

My heart paints castles with your hands.

While the foaming shore we brave."

(July)

It's a rainy day. Puddles ripple and expand across the campgrounds. The windows in the dining hall rattle and whistle as the various groups of campers and counselors eat breakfast at their tables – most of them dressed in billowing rain jackets, parkas, and rain boots. Quinn waits in line at the salad bar, her hand wrapped around a small ceramic bowl as she eyes the last box of Special K with strawberries. Before she can grab hit, small sticky hands latch on to it triumphantly, and Quinn has the mind to glare them down – all hazel eyes and dark grimaces, but when she looks up – it's Rachel Berry. The brunette has a triumphant look on her face, and Quinn sees the bananas and sun-butter already on the girls plate. Rachel shrugs her shoulders at Quinn with a wink before making her way to the fruit bowl to grab a grapefruit and a few strawberries. Quinn sighs, smirking to herself – of course she can't be mad – it's Rachel for goodness sake…and so she grabs onto a small box of Kix instead before making her way back to her Cabin 30 table.

It isn't until Quinn is halfway back into her seat that she realizes that Rachel Berry never eats breakfast cereal. For one, there isn't an available Almond or Soy Milk substitute unless a camper brings their own supply for the camp kitchens. And secondly, Rachel Berry hates cereal – she once mentioned it to Quinn the summer previous after scolding the girl on the infinite amount of additives and preservatives that are in commercial brands. And so it is with a quirked eyebrow that Quinn eyes the brunette next to her. Rachel smiles around a piece of pineapple and taps the edge of Quinn's plate. The blonde looks down, and right before her is a matching ceramic bowl, already full of Special K – waiting patiently for the blonde to fill it to the brim with 1%.

"It was the last box." Rachel shrugs. "I know it's your favorite."

And then Quinn smiles, a spoonful already held between her fingers as she takes a bite, her eyes on Rachel for the rest of their meal.

- {||||||||} -

The rain has ruined their plans to go to activities today. Instead the entire camp is sequestered into the gymnasium for a game hour. They're all divided into pre-assigned groups. Quinn sits on the blue gym mats, her legs indian-style and her arms resting just behind her propping up her torso. She's in a group with Carly Klein the younger girl from the first day of camp, Vero, Rocio an older Pine camper, Jordan Moskowitz a third year junior, Olivia Aaron – a second-year pine and the previous year's Tan Team Co-Captain, Felicity Jale a first year Intermediate, Bianca Gonzalez one of the older Venezuelan campers, Hallie McGovern a junior, Lisa Wagermeyer an Intermediate, and Tegan. The game is trivia based, and the separate groups are meant to think of a song with the words given by Bo at the beginning of each round. What makes the game difficult is that each team gets ten seconds, and once a round ends every group must sing their song – if a song is repeated the repeating groups are eliminated. At present moment, they're in round seven, and only three groups remain. The word clues have gotten more and more difficult, and out of the corner of Quinn's eye she can visibly make out Rachel Berry, sitting in the center of her group mid- huddle. The brunette's lips are moving at a mile a minute as everyone around her sits enraptured and intrigued…even Erin Lehmann and Gillian Stein who are second year Pines and last year's Green Team Captains. They all sit around Rachel, waiting for her words of wisdom. By round three, Quinn's team is eliminated when they sing a version of "Criminal" by Fiona Apple. One of the rules is that each team must make it through at least four lines of song in order for their choice to be valid. Olivia is the only one who knows all of the words – and she falters after the second line. Quinn shrugs her shoulders and sits up, watching the final round – eyes only on Rachel now that her attention has been piqued. The final round is the hardest yet, with the words that Bo reveals being in French: Vivre, and Amour. Rachel beams, as the girls around her all stare open-mouthed. Group one is in a panic, Sara Miller is screeching at Celeste Levy from across the mat, and when the ten seconds are up the only thing that their group has settled on is My Cherie Amour by Stevie Wonder.

They make it through the chorus, relief flooding their faces, now almost sure that they've won. That is…until Rachel Berry smiles wonderfully once Bo points to their team for their rebuttal. Rachel clears her throat before launching herself into Camille's Ta Douleur. She makes it through half of the song in perfect French before Bo stops her with a laugh. Group one grimaces – their loss very much apparent now. And when Group two jumps up in victory, Rachel is the loudest, she whoops and she cheers and she hugs everyone from every group with a big laugh…but she leaves Quinn for last, and when they embrace – she stays with her the longest, letting her arms stop their flurry and letting her voice fall into a hum. She sighs around a soft laugh…

"That was fun." She whispers once before detaching herself and launching her body at an unsuspecting Abee, clinging onto her back like a monkey and demanding a piggy back ride. They march out of the gymnasium and back out into the rain – smiling and laughing.

- {||||||||} -

It's the Fourth of July. Quinn is cursing herself for signing up for something so stupid. She's pulled awake at 5:15am by Rachel Berry, and thrust into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. She trips over someone's Field Hockey stick and nearly bites the dust before catching herself on the post of someone else's bed – Gracie's she thinks. Said girl mumbles sleepily before turning over and Quinn whispers a tired "Sorry" as she blindly manages to make it behind the door. When she emerges from the bathroom, Rachel Berry is already dressed in running compression shorts and a running top; she has a light zip up pulled around her arms and a bandana around her head. Quinn watches Rachel stretch out her hamstrings silently as she manages to change into her own running clothes: a Pre-Cheerio Squad Nike Crew Top, and her matching Squad Nike Pro Shorts. She ties her iPod case around her arm and lets her ear buds fall around her color as she grabs her shades and her running shoes. When she looks up – Rachel is staring at her, mouth half open and eyes wide.

"What?" Quinn whispers, just as she grabs for her water bottle and drawstring back pack. She hastily fills it with her windbreaker and a visor as Rachel stares.

"N-Nothing." Rachel stammers, her cheeks reddening. Quinn tilts her head with a curious smile. She looks down at her own body and realizes just how tight everything must look. It hugs her comfortably, and through her shirt she can make out the soft definition of her abs and her sports bra. Quinn looks back up – smirking openly now. She grabs her drawstring backpack with a blush and rearranges her sunglasses before walking out of the cabin, straight past a flushed Rachel Berry and out into the cold early Maine morning.

"You better get moving, the bus doesn't wait for Creepers." She sing songs, and from outside the door, she can hear Rachel's huff of indignation before the door swings shut and a mildly embarrassed Rachel Berry is sidling up nest to her, interlocking their arms.

"Shut up." Rachel whispers harshly, and Quinn laughs – a little bit happier that she decided to do this run now that she knows that Rachel can appreciate the view.

"Who knew you could be so pervy?" Quinn laughs.

"SHUT UP."

- {||||||||} -

When they get to Tanglewood for 5:30am breakfast, there are at least thirty other campers and counselors milling about, all of them eating light meals of bananas, grapefruit, and granola with yogurt. Everyone looks sleepy, all of them donning running apparel and carrying canteens and water bottles in their backpacks. Quinn and Rachel follow Olivia Aaron to the tracker table and sign off on the Check- In List with Bo. She hands them both a tracker for their shoes and a race bib.

"Ready for Four on the Fourth?" Bo smiles, handing them safety pins. Quinn shrugs her shoulders while Rachel and Olivia smile brightly.

"More than ready, Bo. I'm so excited to celebrate our nation's independence with an early morning 4K." Bo smiles at Rachel before checking off the other campers and counselors who have begun to line up for their own bibs. Within half an hour their entire group is flooding into their camp school bus headed for Brighton, ME for the annual run. It's a forty-minute bus ride. Quinn and Rachel sit together, while Rachel hums along to her iPod, Quinn falls in and out of sleep. By the time the make it to the Race, there are thousands of people lining up, and heading to the starting line. The Four on the Fourth Race is an annual Brighton tradition, and Pinewood has been participating as a camp entry for the last ten years or so, bringing willing campers and counselors along to represent their camp. They're surrounded by men, women, and children of all ages and demographics, all of them wearing bibs – there are even dozens more groups of camps just like their own – campers and counselors huddled together from all over Maine and New Hampshire. Their group spots their brother camp group just across the way: Cedarwood. Cedarwood is owned by the same family that owns their own camp – they're campground sits ten minutes away, and while they're a boys only program – all of their activities are nearly exactly the same – save for Flag Football and Roller Hockey. They even have Color War at the boy's camp: Brown and Red. And a good percentage of the girls at Pinewood have brothers attending Cedarwood as well. The Pinewood and Cedarwood counselors all know one anther too – from what Abby and Gabriela have told her, all of the counselors are hired as a whole, and trained together between both camps before the campers arrive. Quinn watches as a few of the guy counselors say hello – she recognizes some of them from Lovewell pond where they teach water sports alongside the female counselors. Rachel pulls her hand over to the boy's group waving at someone that Quinn recognizes from the year before but whom she doesn't particularly know. He's tall for their age, and he's surrounded by a few of his friends as they laugh and take pictures before the race. His black hair is wavy and semi shaggy and when he looks up he smiles at Rachel, waving her over. Quinn narrows her eyes as she's dragged along.

"Hey Kumquat!" He yells, reaching out his fist for Rachel to pound. Quinn rolls her eyes – boys their age are idiots – and sometimes they can be real assholes. Quinn purses her lips.

"Hi Dylan!" Rachel smiles. She turns to the other boys and smiles brightly. "Hello Greg, Wyatt, and Aaron!" They all wave sheepishly before turning around and involving themselves in a game of hacky sack.

"Haven't seen you in for – fucking – ever, applesauce." Dylan says. Quinn rolls her eyes again at the boy's need to drop the f-bomb. It's almost ridiculous how annoying it is to know that the boy is trying so hard. She decides to ignore the way that he calls Rachel a different type of fruit every time he addresses her. It's not very clever, and applesauce isn't even a fruit, he might as well quit while he's ahead before Quinn kicks him in the nuts just because.

"I know! It sucks that we haven't really had any co-eds yet. But the dances start next week for second year seniors, and the play auditions are on Monday." Rachel beams. What Quinn never really understood was the fixation on Musical Theatre here at Pinewood. She and Rachel were too young to participate in the co-ed play last year, and they had also both missed the performance do their stint in the Doctor's Cabin. And so Quinn still didn't quite understand the interest surrounding the whole thing. But this year was the first year that anyone their age could audition; Rachel couldn't stop talking about it the more that the audition dates approached. Quinn was excited for Rachel because Rachel was excited, but now that she was staring at the boys who would no doubt be auditioning as well, she couldn't help but scowl. She had forgotten all about the boys at Cedarwood. Quinn watches Dylan smile back, pounding Rachel's fist again.

"Oh, whose your friend by the way. My bad, my name is Dylan…Dylan McIntyre." The shaggy haired boy reaches out a hand, and Quinn doesn't take it. Rachel pinches Quinn in the side.

"This is Quinn, we're both in Cabin 30. She was here last year too, I'm surprised you two haven't met." Dylan shrugs, pulling his hand back to flow through his hair, messing it up even more.

"Yea, cool. Nice meeting you." Quinn fakes a smile.

"Yea." Quinn mumbles, pulling her shades back down to obscure the hostility behind her eyes. Just as things start to get awkwardly silent between them, Rachel hears the five-minute warning bell for the race. She smiles apologetically to Dylan before turning on her heel and dragging Quinn with her back to their group. Quinn bites her lip now that they get ready for the race, their Pinewood group stretches in a small huddle, and the entire time – Rachel doesn't look at her. It's disconcerting, and Quinn is almost positive that it's all Dylan McIntyre's fault.

- {||||||||} -

By the time the gun bellows, Quinn let's go. She has her music blaring in her ears, as she sets a steady pace. She came into the race expecting to keep pace with Rachel the whole way even though the shorter girl isn't as athletically inclined. Quinn wanted to run with Rachel, to smile and laugh through their trek. But as the gun boomed, Quinn found Rachel branching off, instead turning to run with Olivia Miller and Madison White. The blonde found herself running alone, independent within her own thoughts. Initially, a white hot blade of fury coursed just behind Quinn's eyes when she saw Rachel break away – it was quickly replaced by a mild hurt, the ache settling deep within her chest. But now that she has her solitude, she's transformed it into a quiet determination. She runs the way that Sue Sylvester taught her how – with wide lungs and a fast, but maintained pace. She realizes that she's moving quickly when she starts passing people who at the beginning looked like they would be better than her. At the first checkpoint, she doesn't stop for water – she runs along the sidelines of the concrete trail and through a stream of hose water that a generous townie is holding up just off of the sidelines.

Her feet hit the pavement with purpose as she weaves around other runners - the quiet storm of her thoughts propelling her forward through the crowd. She doesn't stop at checkpoint two – nor does she look at the timer. By checkpoint three, Quinn's lungs feel full and she pushes through it, thinking of Sue Sylvester and Santana Lopez, and Dylan freaking McIntyre…. all of the people that she plans to prove wrong. By checkpoint four, she's lost most of her anger, and only runs with heart – the only thing she has left. And so she runs for Frannie, and for Leroy and Hiram Berry…she runs for Rachel, but most of all she runs for herself. And by the time she reaches that final leg, she can faintly hear the muffled sounds of cheering onlookers as she crosses the finish line. When she looks up she's slowly escorted to the hydration table and given ample smart waters and Powerades – volunteers hand her watermelon slices and oranges. And when she looks up, she sees her name on the digital board displaying current record holders by age, sex, and division.

19-25: G. Chou: 21:09 O. Kyle: 23:15

16-18: R. Curry: 23:56 L. Murray: 25:00

12-15: M. Lor: 23:52 Q. Fabray: 24:37

Quinn exhales, panting softly around a slice of seedless watermelon. She watches the finish line as other Pinewood/Cedarwood campers and staff all make their way across the threshold and toward the hydration table. She gets several appraising looks from the counselors of both camps as they see her name on the large display. They congratulate her and she thanks them with thinly veiled indifference. Dylan McIntyre crosses the line at exactly 30:24 with a tired look on his face and flushed cheeks. He glances down at Quinn as he walks by, and Quinn scowls at him – he scurries away and heads for the watermelon. When Rachel finally appears, she looks tired but she's smiling as she crosses the finish line sandwiched in between Olivia and Madison. They make a time of 39:12, and although it's far from the best, Quinn watches them cheer and high five one another. They make their way towards the hydration table and Rachel stops when she sees Quinn. The brunette studies her quizzically as her chest relaxes and expands with the quickness of her breath. Rachel grabs a Powerade and sits down next to Quinn, staring forward as they take one another in.

"Congratulations on your Record. I didn't know you were such an adept runner Quinn." Rachel says. Her breath fans out around her and Quinn shrugs her shoulders. Rachel sighs dramatically, her eyes squinting in annoyance.

"You're so nasty when you're jealous." Rachel pants. She takes a swig from her red Powerade and frowns down into the grass between her feet. She's sticky and sweaty and the blades of grass rub themselves along her skin leaving dirt trails across her ankles and her calves. Quinn squints her eyes and lowers her sunglasses to cover her eyes. They sit quietly as Quinn nods, leaning back to rest on her palms.

"I know." Rachel nods her head. She bites her bottom lip softly.

"You know I don't like Dylan…like that, right?" Quinn nods shyly.

"Then why were you so...?" Rachel starts, before the words die down in her throat. Quinn picks at a few blades a grass before sucking in a full breath. She holds it for a moment, letting her burning lungs fill with the rich air. When she releases her breath, it's almost like she's releasing every insecurity that she held onto at the beginning of this race. She turns to Rachel, lowering her sunglasses.

"I'm sorry." She whispers quietly. Rachel turns to stare at her with piercing brown eyes.

"Yea, I know."

- {||||||||} -

When they arrive back at Pinewood, it's just after breakfast time for everyone else. They walk into Tanglewood tiredly and smile at the streams of red white and blue on the walls. The other campers cheer and clap for them, all of them already dressed festively for the day. When Quinn makes it back to the cabin she lets Rachel shower first. They have the cabin alone for a while since everyone else aside from the runners left to go get started on the day's activities. Quinn taps her feet softly against her bed, and when Rachel emerges from her shower, her hair is wet and pulled over her shoulder. Quinn watches the brunette disappear behind a cubby, emerging moments later wearing blue pants and a red tank top with a candy cane on it. Quinn walks past her so that she can take her own shower, and when she exits, Rachel is still there, painting her fingernails in honor of Independence. Quinn dresses in the only clothes she has that are somewhat appropriate. She dons seersucker short overalls – the blue and white stripes very subtle against the red of her tank top and the blue of her baseball cap. She puts on a pair of grey converse low tops and she pulls her hair into a high ponytail, donning a red and polka dotted ribbon around the tie. She looks down and finds her face paint that she brought with her this summer, and she trails the paint marker across her cheeks in two identical lines. And when Rachel looks up – Quinn smiles down at her, approaching the girl on steady feet.

"You look nice." Rachel whispers, her toenails are dry, and she's in the middle of pulling up her red and white tube socks.

"So do you." And without a word from the brunette, Quinn takes the blue marker from her set and slowly draws it across Rachel's right cheek. Their bodies face one another, and their noses almost touch as Quinn draws with a slow determination. She follows the gesture with another line on Rachel's other cheek, her fingers slow and deliberate. And when the marker disconnects with Rachel's skin, the two girls are left staring at each other in the empty cabin, their eyes curiously bright and the air around them crackling with the force of their own electricity.

"I'm – I'm so excited for you to do the play." Quinn whispers, and Rachel nods shyly.

"You'll be amazing. The best." The words ghost across Rachel's lips and the brunette sighs. They stay like that for milliseconds, seconds really – before Rachel tilts her head, and leans up, her arms tangling in the comforter beneath her palms. Their lips touch softly – and Quinn can taste Rachel's chapstick, it's sweet and medicinal almost. And then they're kissing harder now – and the taste is distinctly Rachel. And Quinn wonders why they haven't done this since before camp…why they keep waiting so long to just be. And when their lips disconnect, Rachel sighs on a smile, her eyes deep. Quinn leans over and kisses Rachel's cheek, just above the paint. She lets her lips fall to the brunette's ear, and with a soft smile she whispers.

"But if you and Dylan McIntyre play a couple in the play, I'll kick his butt Rachel…because you and I…we're meant to be."

And all Rachel can do is laugh, it's loud and raucous and it shakes off of the cabin walls. She reaches over for Quinn's hand and pulls them up to their feet, and then through the cabin door. And as they walk to the lower field, fingers intertwined, and gearing themselves up for the Fourth of July Camp Carnival taking place there – Rachel lifts up on her tippy toes, stilling Quinn's advance.

"And if the time comes, and if he gets too handsy…permission granted Fabray."

Quinn beams.