Okay, this much I'll admit. The whole lock-in-together scene didn't really go to well. I mean it did, but it was very badly done on my part, and I kind of chickened out a bit. But hey, you can't win em' all.

She watched wordlessly as Puck fumbled with the door, trying desperately to get it open.

Then she found her voice. "Did you set this up?"

He groaned and turned to face her, giving up on the door. "I was about to ask you the same thing." He glanced at the cup in her hand.

She shrugged. "I found it in here. It's grape." She explained simply.

He nodded understandingly. "Your favorite." Neither of them moved. He sighed. "Well who ever locked us in here is probably waiting for us the start talking."

She struggled to look indifferent. "Okay. Let's… talk." He nodded, but instead of coming over to her he walked to the storage closet, and opened it. He peered inside.

"Umm, Noah?"

He took his head out then pointed to it. "Checking for spies." She laughed, he joined in slowly at first, but soon they were both laughing softly. But as soon as they realized what they were doing, it faded immediately.

He looked her right in the eye, a set expression on his face, as if he were searching for something. But whether or not he found it she'll never know, because he then turned away.

She glanced around the room, waiting for the right words to find her. And words came, but she wasn't sure if they were the right ones. She tried to say something, but her mouth went dry. She swallowed several times, and longed for some chap stick, or at least a glass of water.

"I am sorry you know. We can act like it never happened."

She smiled. He looked at her quizzically. "Good. I'm tired of avoiding you. You're too much fun."

He smiled back. "Finn will get mad." He pointed out. But she shook it off.

"We'll deal with him later. He can't stop me from making other friends."

"But now I'm like his mortal enemy. I slept with his girl Berry."

She ignored most of his last comment. "My name is Rachel. You're name is Noah. That is what I will call you; Rachel is what you will call me. We're both equals here, if I'm not higher than you, which in reality, I am."

He snickered. "Just keep telling yourself that, Rachel." She rolled her eyes. He opened up his arms widely. She gave him a small hug.

The door clicked and opened.

"Well that worked quickly. It hasn't even been five minutes." Kurt said as he walked into the room. Rachel and Puck pulled apart.

"So it was you Hummel?" Puck questioned. But then the near rest of the club walked in.

"No, it was all of us. With the exception of Quinn and Finn."

Rachel's eyes widened. "How much did you tell them?"

Kurt took several strides over to her. "Though they tortured me on the point of head shaving I refused to give in and tell your secret. All because I'm simply a good person."

Puck snorted. "And because you know I'd just beat you up."

Kurt sat down close to Rachel. "Well that too."

Mercedes seated herself next to him. "Just how bad is this secret anyway?" She asked, making air-quotations around 'secret'. Kurt just shrugged.

"They seem to think it's important."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Well, thank you anyway. You helped us figure a lot of things out."

Kurt waved it off. "That's what I do best."

***

"Finn!" Rachel cried joyously as he met her outside her locker.

"Hey Rach. Where were you at lunch?" Rachel bit down on her lip, she could tell him the truth, if she wanted to be dumped. Or she could tell him most of it, and just leave out the details about the 'locked in' part.

"Umm, well, I was making up with N-Puck." She started. But that didn't sound right, so she quickly added. "Kurt and the rest of the club kind of forced us to." She said assuring him it was nothing.

But other than raising his eyebrows a little, Finn didn't react much. "Cool." He said flatly. "Wanna hang out at my place after school?" She smiled and nodded at him, happy he didn't get mad.

He grinned at her acceptation. "Cool, see you in eighth period!" He called as he walked down the hall. She smiled at him until he was out of sight, but couldn't help but grimace a little at the unsettled feeling in her stomach.

***

Kurt watched, somewhat intrigued, as Rachel erased her paper furiously, over and over again. She paused, wrote something down, and then once again erased it angrily. He had a feeling it had nothing to do with math at this point.

He watched her as she balled up the paper and threw it away. She sat down again, sighed, that pulled out a completely blank one, and quickly scratched down something. She sat back and admired it, satisfied.

Kurt craned his neck, and leaned a little in his chair to see just what it was she was so immersed in. Kurt caught sight of the paper and blinked. Then he blinked again, but it stayed the same.

Rachel was looked at two numbers. 1 and 2. He blinked at her disbelievingly. He grabbed his books, and quickly switched to the seat next to her when the teacher wasn't looking. She didn't even seem to notice as he whooshed beside her.

"Having trouble with math are we?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. But she still didn't look up.

"It's a metaphor."

He could almost hear her saying, and metaphors are important. But he saw no gold star anywhere on the paper, so he curiously asked, "For what?"

She sighed and leaned back. "Two choices." She answered, finally looking at him. He cocked his head and held out his hand expectantly. But she only sighed again. "I'm trying to list the pro's and the con's for both of these choices and see how they measure out. Then I look into the past to see which is better, then the present, and then the near future. It's an important process when making a difficult decision."

Kurt blinked at her. "Or you could flip a coin." He said simply. Her face stayed the same, but she bit down on her lip, as if this suggestion was too ridiculous to even acknowledge.

"Okay, so you don't like that idea. What about taking a democratic view? You could put it to a vote." Her face darkened a little, but she didn't respond. He raised his eyebrow at her. "What is it embarrassing?" His eyes brightened at the thought. She shook her head, and kept her eyes glued to the paper. "If you're gonna keep this up, you'll never decide." He said pointedly. She just cocked her head and wrinkled her nose. Then very theatrically, she balled up the paper and threw it immediately in the trash.

***

She sniffed quietly in the dark kitchen, munching on a sugar cube. She plucked another out of the multi-color chicken jar. Her dads never let her have sweets at home. 'A healthy diet is an important part of a successful life.' They said. But they weren't here, and she deserved to have a little sugar, after three years of nothing but carrot sticks.

"Umm… Rachel?" came Noah's voice, soft and timid. He walked into the kitchen slowly, and nervous Finn edging him on. They both stood awkwardly for a moment as Rachel blinked at them with sad eyes. Finn poked him pointedly.

"Sorry about that Rachel. I-I, sorry. Don't tell anybody this, but I kind of like you. I mean, you're okay, for a girl." Noah said sheepishly, stumbling over a few words. Rachel smiled, her teeth breaking from behind her lips. She jumped off her stool and gave him a hug. He groaned a little, then hesitantly returned it, wrapping his arms around her loosely. As she pulled away, she was met by a very uncomfortable Finn. She paused a moment, then gave him a hug to. He responded back a little more enthusiastically than Noah.

Noah stared at them incredulously. "What you hug him for?"

"Because," Rachel said, pulling away from him. "I can tell he was the one who made you apologize. And he's nice to me unlike you and all the other boys at your birthday parties. No matter who's around." Noah just shrugged. His eye lit up.

"Everybody's gone, wanna eat some ice cream?"

And so the tradition of the after-party ice cream began. She remembered all the laughs they had shared, but their friendship hadn't lasted the years. She doubted either of them remembered that day, but she did. Rachel's mind then faded away to a very different place.

She could hear someone walk in hesitantly. Deliberating whether or not to chase them off, she opened her eyes and blinked a few times. She saw Finn. As in Finn Hudson. She wondered if he remembered her. His arm extended out, holing a towel. She stared it for a second, then took it from him slowly as he sat beside her.

"Umm… I'm sorry for what Puck did. His kind of an asshole sometimes," He snickered a little. "He tries to disguise it as badassness." She wanted to laugh, remembering Noah's new nickname. 'Puck', but she was still frozen from the cold. This was a constant reminder of the slushie that petrified her. She had seen Noah coming from a distance. She wondered what he was doing, they hadn't talked since the first day of freshman year, maybe he wanted to make amends. But it wasn't until he walked away laughing as she dripped with slushie did she realized that she and Noah Puckerman would never be friends.

"Umm… if you don't mind me asking, why are you in the auditorium? Most girls use the bathroom to cry." Rachel frowned at him. "Umm… I mean…" he stammered. "That's what my…. girlfriend does…" He shook his head. "Sorry this isn't coming out right."

Rachel shook her head. "Less people expect me to be in the auditorium. It's more private. Anyway, this is where I belong. I know it's hard to believe but I'm going to be a star one day. Just be glad you got to meet me before that happened. Now you can tell your kids that you knew Rachel Berry, and helped her clean herself off when she was still a loser in high school." He showed no sign of recognition at her name, so she decided to play along. No need to embarrass yourself by saying, 'Hey, remember that girl who used to go to Noah's birthday parties. The one you forgot about because you always used to make fun of? Yeah, that's me.'

Finn didn't say anything for a moment. "So can you like… sing?"

She smiled at him. "Of course I can. I'm very good at it too. I'm in Glee club." She nodded then hesitantly asked. "Would you like to hear?"

Finn smiled a little. "Well sure. I mean, seeing as I'm going to have to pay to listen one day." Rachel swelled with pride that someone had finally taken her I'm-going-to-be-famous-one-day speech seriously.

She glanced down at herself. "Actually I probably shouldn't. One, I'm covered in slushie and two, I have Glee today so I don't want to wear out my voice." Finn nodded and laughed a little. She remembered his laugh. She wondered whether or not she would ever hear it again. She had never paid much attention to Finn, just Noah. But it was impossible to know Noah without knowing Finn. Still, he was just an extra, not many lines, but it'd be weird if he wasn't there.

"Umm… okay. So, bye?" He got up. She wanted to say something to make him stay, he had grown up quite handsomely over the years. But that was exactly it, they had grown up. They were different. Not trusting her voice, she nodded and waved at him. As he left the room, she sighed. This wasn't the first time Finn had apologized for Noah, but this time, Noah wasn't here, and there was no ice cream afterward to make everything better again.

It would be a long four years.

She remembered at that moment as the tears spilled down from her face, about the promise she had made to herself at that moment. The moment the ice cold slushie hit her face, and she heard Noah's laughter. How she told herself, she'd never let Noah Puckerman get to her again.

Because no matter what, she'd have Finn. Sweet, caring Finn, who apologized for every bad thing that happened to her. The one who dried her off, but also the one who used her, who kissed her and ran away, the one she was completely and hopelessly devoted to.

She never thought she actually have him. Either off them. But now she had both, and now she couldn't choose. Usually she was very effective at making decisions; she'd close her eyes and imagine each one, and see which one she could visualize better. But she could see both, both paths, both choices. And the only she couldn't see, was living without at least one of them.

A little reminiscing in this chapter! Anyway, I cannot decide, because I am hopelessly awful at this, and sense Rachel refuses to. I'm going to do this the democratic way. I'm putting it up for a vote. Because honestly, though I appreciate reviews, it's very confusing getting yelled at for not enough PuckelBerry, then getting yelled at for too much. So I'm giving you two options, just like Rachel. I'm settling this debate once and for all. Review, and tell me who you want to win. –SiL3nT