Chapter 37

Funding

Puck stared blankly at his ceiling. It was a boring Sunday, a hundred-and-eighty degrees turn from last night's Talent Show.

It was a complete success. Cheers won—no surprise there. He's pretty sure they already have enough money to go to Florida for Nationals, which is just a couple of months away, even though the final accounting was still being done (possibly at that very moment by Will, Quinn and Artie).

His thoughts wandered off to how much of a big star his girlfriend was that night. She was so beautiful. If there was any iota of doubt to her popularity, it had been wiped out by last night's events. He was so proud. And, yet, he couldn't show it.

There was a point during the celebration when he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her and tell her how proud he was of her. He wanted to hug her so tight and he wanted her to hug him back just as tight in front of all those people. He wanted them to see. He wanted them to know.

He wanted everyone to know that he was not as much of a loser as people think he is. He couldn't be. Not when he's kissing the most popular girl in school. Not when he's holding her hand.

Puck felt that being with Ashley was his saving grace from the sins he committed to Quinn, to Finn and to his own family.

But, it was all wishful thinking. Theirs was a secret relationship. No one can know, she said. And, he agreed. He agreed because it was enough to him that he had her. It didn't matter that it was just between them. At the time.

But the secret; it was taking its toll. It was too heavy to carry around. He was certain now that he hated secrets.

Rachel unwittingly created an ink blot on the paper. Her mind wandered off from what she was doing at the moment. Rachel was set to make a presentation about Chinese literature in her World Literature class Tuesday morning, and thought it was more interesting if she showed some calligraphy during her report. Finn suggested for her to just download some samples from the Internet, but she shot this idea down because it was "too convenient and uninvolved."

"Oh, shoot!" She exclaimed in a whisper as she lifted the calligraphy pen from the parchment. "Darn it."

She sighed heavily and laid the pen on the table. She was frustrated by the fact that it was still early in the day and she's already distracted. This isn't her. And, she hasn't been herself for the past couple of months. She had been stressing about Puck, the glee club, Ashley, and now Finn.

Finn. Rachel understood Finn's jealousy toward Puck. But, she just can't seem to let go of Puck that easily. She was sure that she wasn't in love with Puck—there was no doubt about that. And, there was absolutely no doubt that she was crazy about Finn; but she has been Puck's confidant for the longest time. They've created a bond that people like her don't easily create with people like him. She wanted to keep this bond. After all, it was special. And, she doesn't get special bonds very often.

Her gaze shifted for a second at the used tickets from last night's talent show that were pinned to her cork board. She smiled at the thought of Florida. The glee club was going to Nationals at a technicality, but it didn't matter to her. They were going. And, for sure now. She knew that Will, Quinn and Artie weren't done with the accounting, but she was sure they got all the money they needed to go to Miami.

Immediately, though, the smile faded at the thought of Ashley. Rachel knew that something was up. She knew Sue and Ashley were planning something. Something, obviously to her, that would result to the ruination of the glee club. The Cheerios entering the talent show? That just smacks of evil-planning Sue right there! And, what was up with that performance? Santana and Brittany getting more solos than Ashley? That doesn't make sense at all. Ashley was obviously the veteran performer in that group, and she stepped aside for those two who barely even steps up in glee club. There's something definitely amiss in that picture.

Three soft knocks on the door broke her thoughts. One of dads peeked through the opened door. "Sweetie, Finn's downstairs. Do you want me to bring him up?"

"Uh, no, dad. It's okay. I'll come down and meet him."

"All right, darling. Don't keep him waiting now. It's not polite."

"I won't. I'll just fix my stuff here. Be down in a minute."

She returned to the parchments scattered on her desk. After gathering them and putting them in a neat pile, she made her way to meet Finn.

"After expenses," Will began as he entered digits into the calculator, "we're left with 12,560 dollars!"

Artie hooted. Quinn clapped her hands.

"Not only are we going to Nationals, but we are going there with enough money to spend an extra day!"

"If we win, we get to celebrate in Miami," Quinn said.

"If we lose, we get to heal our wounds in Miami," Artie countered.

"But we're not gonna lose," Will pointed out.

"Of course not! What was I thinking?" Arties said, slapping his forehead.

A few more exchanges later, the trio decided to adjourn. With the money in a fanny pack, Will said goodbye to his students. Quinn and Artie quickly cleaned up the place before leaving.

"So, are you ready for tomorrow's group performance?" Quinn asked as Artie wheeled out of the office.

"Y-yeah. Boys will win this one, for sure."

Quinn laughed. "We'll see about that."

"So, then, you're ready too?"

A tight smile formed on Quinn's lips as she eyed Artie.

"Quinn…"

"I'm ready, Artie."

"I don't mean the song."

"I know. I'm ready. Whatever happens, I'll take it." Quinn nodded when Artie didn't quit staring at her. "What of you? Are you ready?"

He smirked and nodded once. They, then, both looked straight and proceeded to the exit in silence. When they got closer to the door, Quinn suddenly rested a hand on Artie's shoulder.

"We'll be fine," she declared softly.

Ashley admired the 2-feet trophy on top of the mahogany dresser from across her bed. Even from afar it looked cheap; obviously something bought from the mall. And yet she was smitten by it, because she won it by a vote of the audience. Well, they won it: Cheers. But she took it home because none of the other girls really cared about it. As was already said, it was nothing but a cheap thing.

Unlike the other girls, Ashley can see the value of the measly trophy. The manner by which it was won was what made it extraordinary. Official competitions are great—they glorify a person's talents and hard work. This, to Ashley, is not the case with the Talent Show trophy. Sure, there were talent and hard work involved in creating the entry, but those were not the winning ingredient. After all, there were no criteria for judgment that the judges could base on. There was only one factor in choosing the winner for this particular competition—popularity.

When Rachel announced the winner, it was official: Ashley owned this school. She was queen. She knew that people voted not because of Santana or Brittany or Jane or Reyna; they voted for Cheers because of her. Perhaps people will find her conceited for thinking it, but it was true. And the best part about it is that she knew that everyone else knew. That's why she didn't have to say it out loud. She's never had to say it out loud. Despite the silence, though, it could not be denied that Ashley had taken over.

McKinley High Mission: Accomplished.

She tilted her head to the side and stared out of the window at the top of the tree in front of the lawn from across their house. It was already noon and she hasn't heard Artie get back yet. She wondered how the accounting went. She smiled. Of course, they got the funding to go to Miami for Nationals.

Immediately, sadness came over her. She could've been going with them. It was so much fun being in glee club. Everyone was so genuinely nice. And she was actually friends with them—Ashley finally had people to call friends! But she had to give that up because she doesn't want to be clashing with Rachel all the time.

It's not like she hated Rachel, no; Ashley didn't know her enough to hate her. But, it cannot be said that Ashley can stand being around Rachel. It takes scores of patience to be able to tolerate Rachel, she found out; patience that Ashley is in low supply of these days. In any case, she still had Santana and Brittany in Cheers, and she's thankful.

She returned to the trophy. Sue crossed her mind. The cheerleading coach is aiming to get Cheers famous, Ashley figured. She is trying to turn the girls into some kind of fan-frenzy-generating, all-girl, song-and-dance group. It was Sue who picked the Pussycat Dolls song for the Talent Show. Sue kept asking her about Destiny's Child. One time, Sue even suggested that Ashley's screen and stage name from then on will be 'Ginger Spice' (because of her red hair, according to Sue).

Ashley was almost sure that forming Cheers had something else to it than what Sue had reasoned earlier. According to Sue, Cheers was created to prevent the girls from being idle. Very unlikely. Ashley was pretty sure that during off-season, rehearsals do not mellow down for the Cheerios. The girls are never idle.

What, then? What is Sue planning?

Her cellphone vibrated against the wooden desk beside her bed. She reached out for it and checked the screen: Puckerman, it flashed. She stared at the phone as it continued to vibrate in her hand. There was no intention on her part to answer. Finally, the device stopped. "1 missed call," it read.

Ashley's arm fell on the mattress, the phone still in her hand. She stared blankly at the ceiling. After a moment, she raised the phone at eye level and dialed Puck's number.

"Babe," he said.

"Sorry, I didn't have my phone with me."

"It's all right. Are you ready? I could be there in 15 minutes."

"Yeah, I'm good." She didn't move from the bed where she laid.

"Great! I'll see you in a bit."

"Can't wait," she said cheerily.

It was true—she was excited to see Puck. She missed him. He was so close last night, and yet she couldn't touch him; she couldn't kiss him. She was beginning to hate this secret. She wished that she could just tell everyone, but it was not that simple.

Ashley had always been careful. This instance is not an excuse for her to exercise that particular trait of hers. She intricately mapped out all possible scenarios that could result from everyone knowing about them. She weighed out the consequences and found that she wasn't ready yet: she wasn't ready for people to know that Puck and her were dating.

She pulled herself up from her bed and proceeded to sit before her vanity mirror. She fixed her hair and dabbed a little bit of color on her cheeks and lips. When this was over, she grabbed her handbag and walked out of her room and out of the front door. Ashley sat on the porch and waited for an old and strident truck to come rolling down the street in front of the house.

"Where are you going?"

"Out," Puck answered before stepping down on the last step of the staircase. "I probably won't be having dinner here."

"Okay."

"Okay," Puck said as he made his way to the front door.

"Honey."

"Mom, I'm running late."

"Just… just a quick minute."

He sighed and turned to face his mother. "What?"

"Uh-um. How's Quinn?"

Puck stared back at her.

"I was just asking because I haven't really heard anything from her or about her. Is something wrong? A-are you… fighting?"

"She's just been busy. So have I. We're cool."

"Baby, I'm not…"

"Mom, it's okay. But, don't worry about us. Quinn and I, we got Summer; if anything's wrong, she'll always be the reason to make it right between us."

His mom sighed, perhaps in relief it seemed to him. She smiled.

"Can I leave now?"

She nodded. "And it's 'may' not 'can'. Seriously, is that school teaching you anything?"

He rolled his eyes and snickered. "See you later."

The roar of the engine of Puck's truck as it came to life could be heard at least 5 blocks away. He sat behind the steering wheel and waited for the engine to heat up a little. After a couple of minutes, he was on his way to Ashley's.

Next Chapter: Puckley