Author's note: Small note, in this episode, it's mentioned that Kurt is campaigning for a salad bar. I, however, placed one in this story, not too long ago, in ch. 47. So, I'm pretending that Kurt is already campaigning for anti-bully policies, rather than the above mentioned.

Music suggestions: "Hole Hearted" by Extreme, "Hot for Teacher" by Glee Cast, "Eruption" by Van Halen.

Disclaimer: Don't own Glee.

Mash Off, Part 1

Two weeks had gone by, September turning into October, and the opening night for West Side Story was fast approaching. Having a moderately important role in the musical, as one of the Sharks, Puck couldn't wait to get up on the stage, and do something other than sing.

Mirth sparkled in his eyes when Rachel could no longer contain a burst of laughter, giggling at Mike and Blaine's choreography.

After having some time to ruminate on it all, Puck's bitterness over Rachel's actions after the musical auditions started to ebb.

The disappointment still lingered, but he really couldn't hold against her what was a default setting of her core personality. Overall, she was a wonderful person, inside and out...but she was still driven, and more than a little self-serving. Sometimes, she made bad decisions based on what might benefit her, and justify why she hurt who she had to hurt in order to move her goals forward. She was a lot better than she was two years ago, before they'd started dating, but she was still a "big picture" kind of thinker, and getting to New York meant more to her than anything in the world.

Maybe even him.

She'd never said it outright, not like she had when she was with Finn, but it was something that had always lingered in the back of his mind. He didn't hold it against her, either, because he didn't want her to feel like she had to give up her dreams for a guy. Because she shouldn't, especially not over someone like him. He knew she loved him, there was no question. But if he had to drive her there himself, she was moving to New York after they graduated. He was going to support her dreams, and enjoy every minute of it.

He would be her moral compass, her grounding tether.

Just being a part of her world would be enough for him.

While he was wailing on his guitar, over halfway through his rendition of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher", Puck happened to glance over and see a few of the Troubletones watching through the glass of Mr. Schuester's office. Mack, the Puckerman sister that never was, stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, the Puckerman condescending stare adorning her face.

He was pretty sure that even if his mom hadn't dragged him across town to confront Mack's mom when he was seven, he still would have been able to ID her as a Puckerman sibling. The eyes and the facial expressions don't lie, as his mom liked to say, and he'd worn almost all of them at some point in his seventeen years. So, he knew what they looked like, and could recognize them in a sibling's face.

And if half of the things he'd heard about her were true, then she could be classified as one just by her actions alone.

As he wrapped up the song, and raucous applause rose from everyone in the room, Puck caught her smirk.

What, did she think she was better than him, or something? His guitar skills were pretty badass, if he did say so himself.

"Wow! Puck, that was spectacular!" Mr. Schuester exclaimed, rising from his seat.

Not listening to Mr. Schue, Puck quickly unplugged his guitar, spun it around on his back, and jogged across the room, before the onlookers could get very far. Mack hung back from the rest of the group when she noticed his actions, and met him at the next door.

"You got something to say?" Puck accused in a tone full of attitude, crossing his arms over his chest.

Attempting to wrestle the smirk off her face, and failing miserably, Mack shook her head and held out her hands in a warding off gesture.

"It was a perfectly average performance of Van Halen." Mack said, her compliment full of mocking.

"What, you think you could do better?" Puck asked, waving a hand out, gesturing to his performance.

"Take it easy, Jared." Mack said, holding out her hands. She then dropped her hands and stepped forward. "I know I could do it better." Mack sneered confidently, hands going to her hips as she stepped into his personal space.

"His name is Noah." Rachel said, coming up to stand beside Puck.

"I know what his name is." Mack intoned, her eyes not leaving Puck's.

"I don't like your attitude, or your posture. You need to step away from my man." Rachel said as she stepped forward, threat implied that if Mack didn't move, Rachel was going to make her move.

Puck wound his arm around Rachel's waist, letting her know that he would be reigning her in, if she let her temper loose.

It wasn't often that Puck was the level-headed one in their relationship. It was always refreshing, and entertaining as hell, when the roles were reversed.

"Take it easy, Big Bird. I'm not into incest." Mack drolled in a mildly amused tone, eyes flicking over to Rachel briefly. It was clear that she wasn't at all cowed by Rachel's threat.

Perhaps he should let Rachel do what she wanted. Santana could personally vouch for his Caroline's right hook. His grip eased off of Rachel's back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rachel asked in a stupefied tone, a frown pulling at her features as she leaned back towards Puck.

Yep, that was gonna come back to bite him in the ass later.

"Just name a time, and a place, and I'll show you how Van Halen should really be played." Mack said confidently, tuning out Rachel's question.

"Tomorrow, here." Puck said in a clipped tone, ignoring Mr. Schuester's protests from behind him. "Bring the rest of your crew, so we can all see your epic failure at the same time."

"Alright, I'll bring them." Mack said, undaunted. "That way, we'll all get to see you cry from the beauty of Van Halen played the way it should be. See you tomorrow."

With a mock salute, Puck sent them on their way.

"Noah, what have you done?" Rachel asked in a hushed panicked tone, hand gripping his elbow tightly. From the stories Quinn had been telling her about their rehearsals, along with her own assessment from when she'd secretly watched their first group performance from backstage, Mack had exceptional guitar skills.

She loved Noah, more than anything. However, from a strictly professional standpoint, she was fairly certain that Mack was the better guitar player.

"Just a little friendly competition between clubs." Puck said calmly, watching from the doorway as the Troubletones made their way down the hallway towards their rehearsal room.

He couldn't wait.

oooowoooo*ooooomoooo*

"I still don't know why on earth you chose that particular Van Halen song to perform in front of the group." Rachel said in a sotto voce tone as the New Directions made their way to the auditorium after school the same day, after finding Mr. Schuester's note to meet center stage in the auditorium. "It is derogatory, and offensive, and while your choreography was amusing at times, it was still, how shall I phrase it...inappropriate."

Puck smiled. It was the fourth time today she'd brought up the topic. Of course, she'd been hounding him because he wouldn't tell her.

"It's because of your mom." Puck stated bluntly, keeping in step beside Rachel as the rest of the group trudged along in front of them.

"That's horrible!" Rachel exclaimed in a hushed, scandalized tone. "And sexist. And rude. She's my mom, Noah!"

"She's still hot." Puck volleyed back, in a frank tone. He continued talking at her expression, a mixture of horror and exasperation. "Listen. She's been subbing for Mr. Clippenger in Geometry since mid-September, and she's got half of the guys in my class alone drooling and spacing out over her. And then there's the other two periods she's been covering. You do not want to hear the stories I've been hearing coming out of those classrooms. You may be the queen to my lion kingdom, making Ms. C. my mother in law, or whatever, but your mom is stupid hot. I just thought it'd be fun to personify the situation through the classic Van Halen song, that's all."

Rolling her eyes, but fighting back an amused smile, Rachel said nothing more as they entered the backstage area of the auditorium.

From the other side of the backstage, the Troubletones entered the stage, as well.

Puck reached out and tugged Rachel to an abrupt halt when the rest of the group came to a stop a few feet away from center stage.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked, taking the lead as she pushed her way to the front between Blaine and Finn. Puck followed closely behind, one step behind her, a solid presence at her back.

"Shelby told us she had something to show us." Mercedes answered in a confused tone, caught off guard at seeing her former group on the same stage.

Standing between Mercedes and Sugar, who hadn't stopped texting, Quinn smiled genially and waved at Rachel, shrugging.

Whatever was going on, not even Quinn knew about it.

"What about you?" Quinn asked neutrally, stepping away from the rest of the Troubletones.

"Mr. Schue said the same thing." Finn replied awkwardly.

"He's not thinking of combining choirs for sectionals, is he?" Mercedes complained, crossing her arms over her chest. "'Cause I can tell you right now, it's not gonna happen."

Quinn pursed her lips, but said nothing.

"Like we'd even wanna take you back." Puck retorted angrily, moving to step around Rachel to assert some dominance.

So much for self-restraint.

He frowned when Rachel politely but firmly held her arm out, gazing up at him with an expression that said "back off".

Looks like they were back in the respective roles.

Mercedes was lucky Rachel was holding him back.

"Look, you guys, we can compete without being enemies." Finn argued diplomatically, stepping forward next to Rachel, on her opposite side. "There's not need to be vicious."

If Rachel weren't wearing her stern face and restraining Noah, she would have smiled and patted Finn's shoulder for a job well done.

"Speak for yourself." Santana commented from the far right, hip cocked with her hands on her hips. "If any of them give me any speeches about being fierce, femme, and phenomenal, I won't be held responsible for anything Snixx might do."

Confusion pulled at Rachel's eyebrows, but didn't turn to glance over at Santana.

Quinn, knowing exactly who Snixx was, fought back a smirk.

At that moment, an acoustic guitar began strumming from upstage right, and a few seconds later, Shelby started singing from upstage left.

"Is this what having a stroke feels like?" Brittany murmured to Tina, swaying to the music. "Because I like it."

Tina smiled indulgently at Brittany before turning away, focusing in on Mr. Schue and Ms. C. as they met center stage and continuing to sing.

After helping Finn rotate the piano around as Shelby played, Puck went back over to stand beside Rachel and put his arm around her.

Grinning and reciting the lyrics as she bobbed along, Quinn smiled over at Rachel, pointing.

Grinning back, Rachel held her hands over her heart dramatically, pretending to swoon.

When Shelby rose and crossed the stage to finish singing next to Mr. Schuester, Rachel nudged Noah onto the piano stool. Quickly settling into the rhythm and keys, Rachel sat primly on Noah's knee, loosely putting her arms around his waist as he played.

Glancing over her shoulder at the rest of the New Directions, Rachel caught Santana affectionately petting Matt's face, gazing up at him adoringly before leaning in for a quick kiss as the song neared the end. Smiling, Rachel turned back to the front to watch her mom and Mr. Schue wrap up the song.

It always amazed her what a wonderful performer her mother was.

It must run in the family.

Rachel tuned in to the conversation.

"We're not joining glee clubs, Mr. Schue." Mercedes stated in a weary tone.

Puck rolled his eyes. She said that as if they'd all been begging her to come back.

"That's not what this is about." Mr. Schuester said, talking over Mercedes before she even finished the statement.

Thank you, Mr. Schuester.

"You keep saying that like we've been hounding you over it." Puck said to Mercedes in mock amused tone. "I thought you got the message. Here it is again: the sun doesn't shine out of your ass."

"Puck..." Mr. Schuester uttered in a forbidding tone.

"Yeah, I know." Puck breathed out, mussing up the back of his mohawk with one hand. "I'm working on it."

After a moment, Shelby picked up on the subject that Schuester had started.

"Each group's going to put together their own mash-up to perform head-to-head." Shelby stated matter-of-factly, her gaze connecting with each group, in turn.

"Since someone already issued a challenge for tomorrow morning," Mr. Schuester said, staring over in Puck's direction until an abashed expression settled over Puck's demeanor. Mack smirked from the other side of the stage. "We decided that a little friendly competition between groups might be more beneficial to both groups as a whole. So, we'll have Puck and Mack's face off tomorrow, and have our group mash off at the end of the week. McKinley's first annual Mash Off."

A round of cheers made its way around both groups.

"We are so gonna crush this!" Rachel cried in an enthusiastic growl, reminiscent to her football cry the year before.

oooozooooo*oooowoooo*

Playing a slow tempo version of the "Unchained" guitar riff, Mack then stopped to make some adjustments to her guitar.

Puck sat there with his jaw hanging slightly.

"Is that it?" Rachel asked when Puck said nothing, in an unimpressed tone.

Mack smiled patronizingly.

"I was just warming up." Mack replied, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "It's not quite as brown as I'd like it, but there's nothing I can do, really, without my Brownie and MXR 117R Flanger."

"Shut. Up." Puck uttered before he could stop himself. Costing over a hundred bucks a pop, he wasn't even allowed to dream about either of those.

"I have a contact in a resale guitar shop out in Spencerville. I gave him a list, and he hooks me up sometimes." Mack explained as she chewed her gum. "And sometimes, when he drops things off here in Lima, I hook him up."

"Hook him up with what?" Rachel asked in a lost tone.

Raising an eyebrow for a moment, Mack went back to re-tuning her guitar without answering the question.

"I thought you two were dating?" Mack commented at Puck in a mildly incredulous tone.

"What does she do at the truck stop?" Quinn queried in a hushed tone, talking partially over Mack as she leaned in from Rachel's other side.

Rachel thought for a moment before clarity appeared on her face.

"Oh." Rachel uttered in a drawn out tone. Her face then scrunched up after she really thought about it. "Blech."

Puck kind of agreed with his girl's sentiment on that one.

He'd always thought that he was the messed up one.

"Ready for this?" Mack asked after stretching out her hands, fingers resting on her guitar.

"Bring it." Puck replied, leaning back in his chair.

Rachel had her head turned sideways, warily watching to see what Mack might do next.

And then Mack started playing.

She was playing "Eruption", perhaps the most challenging Van Halen guitar solo, ever. She was also playing it very well.

He was mildly impressed...and maybe a little afraid.

She had to have sold her soul for that one.

oooovoooo*ooooroooo*

"Are you coming along tonight for dinner with Shelby?" Puck asked conversationally, Rachel tucked into his side. "I was gonna try and finish putting Beth's crib together before dinner. Quinn said she was probably gonna stop by for a few minutes before she heads over to the country club with her mom. I know it's on a Tuesday this week, but Shelby thought that'd be better for everyone, since this week is so busy."

"I would love to," Rachel began in a regretful tone. "But between the musical's final week of rehearsal, helping Kurt with the election, his debate being tomorrow, and our NYADA applications being due the 21st, everything's kind of coming to a head. Would you pass along the message that I'll try and stop by on Saturday for about an hour, like I've been doing the past two weeks?"

"Sure, babe." Puck said on a gusting breath.

"I'm sorry." Rachel said, staring at the floor. "I'm trying to be a better girlfriend for you...a better friend for Kurt...and a better daughter and sister for Shelby and Beth. But it's just...so much, and I'm barely holding it together. In fact, I'm not, really. I haven't been able to spend any time with you...time that we probably desperately need, so we can reset, and reconnect. You're my man, and I need you. I'll always need you, even if I'm being pulled in infinite directions. You're my center. It is times like these, though, that I wonder if I'm good for you...that maybe you'd be better off with a more lower maintenance girlfriend."

"Don't say that." Puck commanded, pulling Rachel to a stop in the middle of the hallway. He pulled her gaze up to his before he continued. "Yeah, maybe you are a top level, high maintenance kind of girlfriend, and sometimes you piss me off, when I'm actually able to understand the words coming out your mouth. You're not perfect, and neither am I. All that's happened this year...yeah, it messed us up for awhile. But that doesn't mean I'm sitting there regretting ever falling for you, because I'm not, and I never will. You're it for me, Caroline. Don't forget it."

Rachel's eyes were shining by the time he finished speaking, so instead of waiting for a reply, or for tears to actually start spilling down her cheeks, Puck nudged her into facing forward again, and got them moving towards the choir room.

"I'm so lucky I have you in my life, Noah." Rachel whispered right before they entered the choir room.

oooowoooo*ooozoooo*

Well, there it is. Another chapter. The Jared reference is to Jared Leto, when he had the pink Mohawk, circa 2010. Also, I'm thinking that I'll have the musical scenes and maybe the debate in the next chapter. Plus, Rachel and Puck with have a talk about Mack being his little sis. Until next time.