Harry Potter was AMAZING! If this is sub par I apologize, my brain is still very much at Hogwarts. The midnight showing was beyond epic. With that in mind, here you all go! Enjoy:)
The rest of the girl's hike continued to go smoothly. Quinn stayed quiet and didn't look Rachel or Santana in the eye for the duration of the trip; something they both noticed but decided to ignore for the time being. Rachel only ignored it after Santana gave her a very hard pinch to her arm which would most definitely cause a bruise later – something Rachel made sure Santana was aware of. Quinn was grateful that her friends left her alone, she had a lot going through her mind. After eating lunch, the group began their descent back to the campsite with two more stops. The first they answered Will's questions mainly with ease, they were about where they wanted glee to go next year. Songs they wished to sing, dance styles they wanted to try, etc. Rachel, of course had the most opinions of them all, and after letting her go on and on for twenty minutes Santana finally took it upon herself to cover Rachel's mouth. She pouted, so Santana gave her a small hug and said she could continue later. Rachel perked up after that and happily continued with their hike.
The same nasty little tree bridge jumped up and hit Rachel for the second time. Rachel fell, yelled out and landed in the river on her ass this time. She looked so little, and wet, and unhappy that no one laughed, not even Lauren. Santana jumped down into the river after Rachel and wrapped her up in a hug before the tiny diva could start crying, or pouting, or ranting, or any variation of the three. Quinn, seeing that Santana had it covered, and once she was sure Rachel was okay, continued to hike without saying a word to Rachel. Santana picked Rachel up and lifted her onto Brittany's back and Brittany happily carried Rachel down the rest of the trail. None of the girls said anything about Quinn, but Santana and Brittany shared a look behind Rachel's back and saw that it bothered her.
"Why don't you guys head back to your cabins? Change clothes, clean up, take some time before dinner. We're going to be eating around the campfire tonight. Be there by seven." Will said as he and Emma headed off to the lodge. Tina, Mercedes and Lauren said a warm goodbye to the Sleepy Hallow girls and headed off to their cabin. Quinn walked into the cabin without a word, grabbed her toiletries and quickly spat out that she was going to take a shower and headed off to the bathrooms. Santana didn't give Rachel a chance to watch her pout and grabbed her off of Brittany's back and threw her into the cabin. Laughing she tackled Rachel and tickled the small brunette until she was squealing with laughter. Brittany jumped to Rachel's rescue and tickled Santana on her inner thigh – the only place she was ticklish – and Santana screamed and tried to run as Rachel and Brittany forced her to the ground. After a good ten minutes, Santana finally admitted defeat and they released her.
"I never thought I would live to see the day. Santana Lopez admits a loss." Rachel smiled at her.
"Temporarily admitting a minor loss to be rectified later, mark my words." Santana practically growled at Rachel. Brittany just laughed and ripped her sweaty shirt over her head and went to change. Rachel and Santana followed suit, but Rachel, realizing she was grosser and wetter than she had originally thought, decided to shower.
"Be back later." She said as she headed out to the bathrooms. Santana and Brittany ignored her and began taking advantage of the fact that they were removing their clothes.
"Take your time. And keep Q out of here too." Santana yelled out as Rachel left. Rachel just smiled and shook her head in amusement.
Rachel tentatively walked into the bathrooms and heard the water running. "Quinn?" She called out. "You still in here?"
"Yeah." Rachel heard Quinn mumble.
"Santana and Brittany are a little busy. They politely asked if we take our time cleaning off." Rachel said and she stripped off her wet clothes and turned the shower adjacent to Quinn's on.
"I highly doubt that's how she put it." Quinn said with a laugh. Rachel smiled as she stepped into the warm water. As gross and old as these facilities were, warm clean water, was warm clean water and it felt good after hiking all day long and falling into a river twice. Rachel just stood there and let the water fall onto her for a good two minutes. Quinn stayed silent as well, as she had been most of the day. After simply standing still, Rachel finally moved to wash her hair and the rest of her dirt covered body. Quinn had stayed quiet the entire time, and after about ten minutes, Rachel heard the water shut off. She heard Quinn moving around and with great difficultly stayed quiet for a moment or two longer before shutting off her own shower.
Rachel wrapped herself up in a towel and stepped out of the shower with her flip flops still on. She wrung out her hair and sat down on the top of the sink frowning at the rust near the corner. Quinn was brushing out her hair already in shorts and a t-shirt. She clearly avoided making eye contact with Rachel, who was trying very, very hard to respect the fact that Quinn didn't seem to want to talk. Rachel sighed loudly and moved to get dressed, Quinn politely averted her eyes to give Rachel some privacy. Once Rachel had dressed she turned to Quinn who was still brushing her hair.
"I think you've got all the knots out." Rachel said with a smile. Quinn didn't return it, but stopped. "Quinn, are you alright? You've been really quiet all day."
"I'm fine." Quinn snapped.
"Well, its just...I mean, you seemed okay this morning, but after that one group where we all, shared or whatever...you've been really quiet. It seems like something is bothering you. And I mean, we're friends aren't we? You can tell me anything."
"Rachel!" Quinn yelled in head cheerleader, Fabray fashion. "I said I was fine. Drop it." With that, Quinn gathered her stuff and stormed out of the bathrooms leaving Rachel hurt and dumbfounded. It appeared that the bitch was back.
Kurt noticed that Rachel and Quinn were no longer all lovey and happy and best friends as they had been throughout most of the trip. And for some reason, it unnerved him. Kurt jumped up and sat down next to Rachel, taking her hand in his.
"Fellow diva, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Rachel said through gritted teeth.
"Rachel Berry, you are a fantastic actress, but you are a horrible lier. You wear your feelings on your sleeve, and Quinn is being horrible to everyone. I haven't seen her this mean since before she popped out the baby. She punched Mike earlier for no reason. What the hell happened on your hike?"
"I don't know!"
"Rachel..."
"I don't know Kurt. The first half went great, well, other than the fact that I fell and got hurt and needed medical assistance, but after that things went wonderfully. Brittany agreed to join us to New York! And then Santana finally admitted that she is gay and in love with Brittany, as if we didn't all know already." Kurt nodded in agreement. "Then everyone shared all their dreams for the future, and Quinn shared this photo of her family, and she...well I don't know, but it was very brave. And then she has barley spoken to anyone since! And when I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong, she snapped and I think she hates me now and I'm angry. I like having her as my best friend and I miss her already. And I am starting to worry that Finn may have been right."
"How so?"
"Well, one little thing goes wrong, and I don't even know what it was and now she hates my guts again just like Finn said. Surprisingly, Santana and Brittany actually seem to have become my friends. Well, its not all that surprising about Brittany, she is sweet to everyone, but I think its a modern miracle that Santana Lopez and I are actual friends."
"This is true."
"If she would just tell me what is wrong!"
Kurt cut her off. "No. Rachel, just leave her alone."
"But Kurt!"
"No Rach, I mean it. Quinn Fabray is a freaking fortress. She is a cold hearted bitch. She will always have that problem. She doesn't like to talk about herself, or her problems or whatever. I mean come on, we've known her most of our lives, have you ever seen her allow people to pity her? When she feels vulnerable, she shuts down and bitches everyone out. She has been horrible to you for most of her life, I am glad you guys are friends, because really, you have more in common that either of you realized; but she picks on you by default. So just leave it. One week..."
"Week and a half." Rachel but in.
"Week and a half." Kurt said through gritted teeth. "Is not going to change seventeen years of behavior." Rachel mashed her lips together to stop herself from talking. "Just leave it for now. Maybe she'll chill out and be fine tomorrow."
"Fine." Rachel muttered. Kurt reached over and gave Rachel a peck on the cheek.
"That's my girl."
"You are annoyingly perceptive and correct."
"And flawless." Kurt added.
Rachel took Kurt's advice as best she could. Every time she wanted to say something to Quinn she took a deep breath, recited some of Barbra's lines from Funny Girl in her head, and turned her attention to Mercedes and Kurt. By the end of the night, she had gone through the entire movie three times and Kurt ordered Mercedes to walk Rachel to bed. He gave her permission to tackle Rachel should she feel that she was attempting to talk to Quinn. Mercedes did her duty well and held Rachel's hand very tightly the entire time. Twice she had to pull the smaller girl back and remind her that she was ordered to keep her idiotic trap shut – a fact Rachel did not appreciate one little bit.
"Stay away from Fabray Berry. I mean it. I lived with her when she was all hormonal and shit. You do not want to mess with her. Just leave her the fuck alone. Whatever is wrong, girl will just have to get over it her damn self."
"I know Mercedes."
"Just making sure."
"Goodnight Mercedes."
"Get in your bunk and shut your mouth."
"I KNOW!"
Rachel stamped into the cabin and hastily threw on her pjs and climbed into bed in a full diva tantrum. Santana and Brittany watched on in half amusement, half concern as they climbed into bed as well. Quinn ignored Rachel completely and angrily turned away from all three of her friends.
"San?" Brittany whispered after the lights were turned out.
"What B?"
"Why is Q being a bitch again?"
"She's scared. That's almost always why Q acts like a bitch."
"Why is she scared?"
"She just is B.
"Is it a secret?" Brittany asked.
"Not really, but you know Q doesn't like people to talk about her shit." Brittany nodded but then realized it was dark and Santana couldn't quite see her.
"I know." She responded. They were both silent for a few minutes, laying there and listening to the sounds of their friends breathing in their sleep. "San?" Brittany asked again.
"Yeah B?"
"Is Q gonna be okay?"
"When have you known her not to be?"
"A lot of the time." Brittany responded. Santana paused remembering how perceptive Brittany actually was, especially to people's feelings. Brittany could always read Quinn like an open book.
"She's fine B."
"No she's not. Don't lie San."
"No, she's not, but she will be."
"How?"
"Cause she has you." Santana said. Brittany smiled to herself.
"And you." She said.
"Yeah." Santana gave a small laugh. "And me."
"And Rachel." Brittany added. Santana paused a second before agreeing with Brittany.
"Yeah, and the midget. B, whatever Q is going through...she'll be fine. Get some sleep."
"Can I sleep with you?"
"Sure." Santana smiled and pulled open the covers for Brittany. The tall blonde smiled and quickly jumped into the bed wrapping her arms tightly around Santana. She planted a small kiss on her lips and then snuggled in even closer. Santana hugged her back happily.
"San?" Brittany asked yet again.
"Humm?" Santana mumbled.
"We'll make sure Q doesn't fight with Rach right?"
"Muhm." Santana murmured, half asleep.
"San!" Brittany yelled. It startled Rachel who shot up in her bed quickly.
"What's wrong?" She yelled.
"Nothing Midge go back to sleep." Santana said quickly. Unfortunately, this only woke up Quinn as well.
"Why are we awake?" Quinn spat out. She was not someone who appreciated being woken up. Ever. Not in the morning, and definitely not in the middle of the night.
"We're not. Nothing is wrong, everyone go back to sleep." Santana quickly reassured her friends. Quinn flopped down and fell back asleep almost instantly. Rachel started a speech on the need for a consistent, full nights sleep for teenagers before Santana sent Brittany over to quiet her.
Brittany wasted no time climbing into Rachel's bed and gently shoving her back in. She pulled the covers over the tiny girl and rubbed her back.
"Go to sleep Rach." She murmured.
"Brittany?" Rachel asked as she allowed the blonde to settle her into her bed.
"What Rach?"
"Why is Quinn mad at me?" It broke Brittany's heart to hear the pain in Rachel's voice. And it made her that much more angry with Quinn.
"I don't know. San says she's scared."
"BRITTANY!" Santana fiercely whispered from across the room.
"Sorry San." Brittany said before turning her attention back to Rachel. "San also says that Q will be fine. We just have to let her be mad for a little bit."
"I'm not very good at that."
"I know. Me neither, but we're gonna have to try."
"I don't like it."
"Me neither."
"Both of you shut up." Santana growled. Brittany shot her a look and bent down to give Rachel a kiss on her forehead.
"Night Rach." She said and then scampered over to Santana's bed. She gave Santana a tiny smack along with a kiss. "You be nice."
"I'm always fucking nice. I'm too nice. It is driving me crazy. I can't be nice anymore. I need to kick someone's ass."
Brittany smiled. "If Q doesn't start being normal tomorrow, you can kick her ass."
"Deal." And with that, the girls finally went to sleep.