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Chapter Twelve

Finn was good with his word because that afternoon at Glee there was a new kid, Sam, who had transferred from some boarding school. He was cute, Quinn had to admit. He had very blonde, shaggy hair, and the biggest lips she had seen in her life. He was also a decent singer, too (not that it actually mattered because everyone got in).

"I can already tell this is going to be a great year for Glee club," Mr. Schuster said as he clapped his hands together. "I know it's been a long summer, and some of you all haven't seen each other for a while, so I thought the first assignment would be to pair you up into groups of two. You can catch up and sing a song that describes what you did over the summer. How does that sound?"

"Do we get to pick our partner?" Santana asked.

"No, I've already picked someone for you. Someone I doubt you spent much time with over the summer," he explained. "Here they are: Santana and Mike, Kurt and Puck, Tina and Brittany, Finn and Mercedes. I was going to have Quinn, Rachel, and Artie be a group of three, but now that Sam has joined I'll put him and Quinn together and let Rachel and Artie be partners."

Quinn looked over to Puck and could tell he wasn't thrilled with this assignment. She knew he would not be happy about being paired with Kurt, and that she was paired with the new boy. She really wasn't too thrilled about being paired with Sam, either, both because she would have to explain to him her situation and he would judge her right away without knowing her.

"You have five minutes before the bell rings so you might want to meet with your partner and discuss when you're going to rehearse," Mr. Schuster explained.

Half the room sighed in discontent as they got up out of their chairs to go chat with their partner. Everyone else had it easy because they at least knew their partner, but Quinn had to start from scratch.

She walked over to Sam with a smile. "Hi, my name is Quinn."

"Sam Evens," he said, holding his hand out, which she shook.

"So, is, um, after football practice at my house okay with you? I'll give you my address?" Quinn suggested.

"That's good with me." Quinn nodded and wrote her address down on a piece of loose-leaf and handed it to him before the bell rang.

X-X-X-X-X

Quinn was nervous about her meeting with Sam that night. Puck had promised to come over and keep Beth for the night so she and Sam could concentrate without distractions. But Sam was due to arrive any minute and Puck still hadn't shown up.

"Where is your daddy?" Quinn wondered to Beth. "He needs to get a watch."

The doorbell rang and Quinn knew it was most likely Sam since the person behind the door didn't keep ringing it like Puck usually did. Quinn knew she probably should have told Sam she had a daughter before he came over but she figured she'd just tell him when he got there; she didn't expect for Beth to still be at the house when he arrived.

She sighed deeply before opening the door and grinning. "Hey Sam, thanks for coming. Come in?" She opened the door wide with one hand, Beth in her other.

"Who's this cutie?" Sam asked as he smiled down at Beth.

"This is Beth…she's my daughter." She could tell Sam was taken aback for a second but he recovered quickly and smoothly.

"Well, she's adorable."

"Thank you," Quinn smiled; she loved when people complimented on her daughter's cuteness. "Her dad was supposed to come pick her up so we could do this but he must be running a little late. Why don't you take a seat and we'll get to know each other while we wait." She pointed to the couch, and Sam nodded and sat down. Quinn wished it wasn't so awkward.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Quinn offered.

"No thank you." Quinn sat on the other side of the couch and stood Beth up on her lap. The little girl began bouncing up and down on her wobbly legs.

"So you play football? What position?" Quinn asked, trying to get a conversation started.

"Quarter back," he answered. "Well, I did at my old school but apparently that's what Finn plays. So, we'll see. Maybe I'll try something new this year."

"I'm sure there are plenty of positions you could play. Our team pretty much sucks. It was so hard cheering for a team that couldn't even beat the school for the deaf."

"You were a cheerleader?" Sam wondered.

"Yea, I was last year. I was, uh, kicked off, though."

Sam's face immediately went red and Quinn regretted telling him that. She didn't mean to make things more awkward.

"Haha, she's staring at me," Sam said, his eyes on Beth. Quinn turned to Beth who was standing on her lap, her large brown eyes fixated on Sam as she smiled her toothless grin at him.

"She likes meeting new people. You can hold her in you want."

"I don't know, I don't want to hurt her," Sam said, hesitant.

"You won't hurt her," Quinn laughed. "It's easy."

"Okay. Yea, I'll try."

Quinn scooted over on the couch. She propped his arm up and placed Beth's head the crevice of his elbow and placed his other hand under the baby's back. "See, that's not so difficult, is it?"

"No, it's not." Sam smiled down at Beth in his arms and made funny faces that made Quinn laugh.

She didn't hear the door open as Puck arrived to pick Beth up. "What the hell is this?" Puck asked angrily.

Quinn turned at the sound of his voice. She stood up, suddenly aware of how close she was sitting to Sam. "You're late," she said sternly with her hands on her hips.

"I had to take Sarah to her friend's house on my way over. Why is he holding Beth?"

"Because I said he could," she answered. She walked over to an awkward Sam and apologized for Puck's actions before taking Beth from his arms and buckling her into her car seat. "We'll talk about this later," she said as she handed him the car seat and Beth's diaper bag.

"Fine." He gave Sam a warning look before turning and heading out the door.

"I'm so sorry," Quinn apologized, her cheeks scarlet. "He's normally not like that."

"It's okay. I might've done the same thing if the situation were reversed."

She gave him a grateful smile for understanding and took her spot on the other side of the couch. "So, I guess I should ask how your summer was, since it's the point of the assignment and all."

He nodded. "Mostly I went to a lot of football camps. I went on vacation for a week and got settled into my new house here," he explained.

"Hmm, maybe we could find a song about football for you to sing then? Or maybe about moving to a new place?"

"Yea, either of those could work. What about you? What'd you do this summer?"

"Pretty much spent all my time taking care of Beth with Puck."

"So maybe something about motherhood for you?" suggested Sam.

Quinn nodded. "Let me go get my laptop and we can look some stuff up."

An hour later and both of them had their songs picked out.

"So, we'll meet Wednesday during lunch to practice and preform on Thursday?" Quinn wondered.

"Sounds like a plan, Stan."

Quinn giggled. He was always coming up with these totally dorky lines. She walked him to the door and waved good-night when he reached his car. She then took a deep breath before calling Puck.

"How could you embarrass me like that in front of a new friend?" she scolded him once he was on the other line. "I'm sure he already thinks I'm a whore because I have a daughter and now he probably thinks I have a jerk boyfriend as well."

"How was I supposed to react, Quinn, you were like all over him."

"I was not. I was showing him how to hold Beth so he didn't drop her! You should get your facts straight before you freak out over something."

"I just don't trust him. It's obvious he's trying to get in your pants."

"What would even make you say that?" she huffed.

"I saw his face when he found out he was your partner. I didn't like it."

"You are so jealous."

"I am not!"

"Uh-huh."

"I just don't trust him. Maybe you should tell Mr. Schue to get you a new partner."

"No way, we already picked out our songs and everything."

"You can keep your song with a new partner."

"No, Sam's a nice guy. I'm not going to ditch him because you're jealous of nothing."

"Whatever, Quinn."

"You're seriously going to be mad about this? I got over my jealousy of you talking to other girls."

"That was nothing."

"So is this!"

Quinn heard Beth begin to cry in the background. "I've got to go, Beth woke up. We'll finish this later."

"There's nothing to finish. You're being an ass." Quinn hung up the phone and jumped onto the bed flat on her stomach. She took the pillow into her face and screamed. Why did Puck have to do this? She knew deep down he didn't trust her. She had cheated on Finn, after all. Who's to say she wouldn't cheat on him, too? But she knew she wouldn't. She was more mature now and she had Beth to think about before she did anything stupid. She was angry, though, that he didn't know her well enough to know she wouldn't do that to him.

She didn't want that to spoil her night of uninterrupted sleep, though, so she took a shower and climbed into bed. She pushed her fight with Puck to the back of her mind. Exhausted, she fell asleep within minutes.


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