Author's Note: Oof, I should be in bed, but I finally got on a roll with this chapter and wanted to get it finished and posted tonight. Or, er, this morning as it were… I hope you like Finn-centric-ness!
-SQ
Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, you know the spiel
Chapter Fifty: Dazzle Me
The weekend had been so eventful that the Hudson/Hummel/Anderson boys had nearly forgotten that they had to go back to school on Monday. But that did nothing to change the reality of the situation, and Monday morning saw Kurt and Blaine off to Dalton in one car and Carole, a while later, driving Finn to McKinley in the other. He had barely set foot in the building when Quinn Fabray appeared in front of him like magic, blond hair pulled back into a perfect ponytail and danger written on her face.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Um, what?" asked Finn stupidly, taking a step back from his frankly frightening looking girlfriend.
"I've been texting you all weekend! I had to cancel our double date with Brittany and Artie!"
"We had a double date with Brittany and Artie?" said Finn in confusion. "Since when?"
"Since Friday night when Brittany and I set it up! The four of us were supposed to go to Breadstix! I texted you about it!"
"Oh," said Finn. "I guess I forgot to check my phone. I was kind of busy."
"You were 'kind of busy'?" demanded Quinn. "I'm your girlfriend! You need to get your priorities straight, Finn Hudson. There are plenty of guys at this school who would kill to date me, and I chose you. Again. Prove to me I didn't make a mistake."
"How?"
"I'm sure you'll think of something," said Quinn coyly, running a teasing finger down Finn's chest and then backing away when he moved to close the distance between them. "Ah-ah, none for you right now. You're on probation. This weekend. Dazzle me." And she turned on her heal and strode off down the hallway, ponytail and cheerleading skirt bounding behind her as she walked.
"This weekend?" said Finn out loud to the empty hallway as the bell rang. "But Blaine's dad's trial is this weekend. Oh crap."
*****BB*****
"…and I don't know how I'm going to be at Blaine's dad's trial and dazzle Quinn in the same weekend. I don't even know what dazzling Quinn means!"
"Did you explain to her what's going on?" asked Mike. He, Artie, Puck, and Finn were sitting in the empty choir room during lunch, Finn having called an emergency meeting of the New Directions boys to seek their advice about Quinn's ultimatum.
"She didn't give me a chance. She was all hips and hair and 'dazzle me this weekend.'" Finn groaned and put his head in his hands. "Why are girls so much work?"
The other boys made sounds of sympathy and agreement.
"Maybe you can make her something. Like a video?" suggested Artie. "Or a fancy card. A kind of IOU she can cash in on a future date when things calm down a bit."
"I dunno," said Finn dubiously. "I'm not artsy fartsy like that."
Puck waved his hand like he was waving the idea away. "You don't need to be. How much time do you really need? Get her in bed and blow her mind. Boom, instant gratification for both parties."
"Yeah, no more pregnancy scares, thank you," said Finn. "Any other ideas?"
"You're sure you won't have any time to take her out this weekend?" said Mike.
"I just don't know," said Finn. "Maybe on Sunday if things go well on Saturday… But what's going on with Blaine is a pretty big deal. And I have so much homework piled up too."
"Homework shmomework," Puck scoffed. "Quinn is a lot more fun, take my word for it"
Finn shot a glare at his best friend.
"Puck, you're not helping," admonished Artie.
Puck shrugged his shoulders.
"Maybe you could do a performance for her in Glee Club," suggested Mike. "The three of us could help you. It would be tight, but we could probably pull something together by Friday."
Finn lifted his head from where he had dropped it once again into his hands. "That's a start at least."
"And then hopefully you can take her out on Sunday," said Artie.
"It'll have to be something better than Breadstix, though," said Mike.
"I can't afford anything better than Breadstix," said Finn.
"Dine and dash," said Puck.
"I'm spending enough time in court as it is," said Finn.
"Cook her dinner," suggested Mike.
"No one wants that, trust me," said Puck. "All he can make are grilled cheese with fuckin' Jesus on them."
"You could do a romantic picnic," said Artie, intervening again before the two football players could start with each other. "The weather's nice enough this time of year. Take her to the park. Or the beach. You could even blindfold her in the car on the way there, make it a surprise."
"Hey, that's actually a good idea," said Finn. "I can do that. Thanks Artie."
"And in the meantime we can think of a song to sweep her off her feet," said Mike.
*****BB*****
"I dunno, guys, this song doesn't really describe my and Quinn's relationship."
"Who cares, dude? Just rock the pants off the song."
"Puck's right, what's important is the romance."
"And the sexy," added Mike, busting a move Finn knew he could never pull off.
"If you say so…"
*****BB*****
"Alright, Glee Club, settle down please. Hey! Listen up!" Will shot a pointed look at Santana, who was sitting backwards on her chair telling an animated story to Brittany. "That's better, thank you. I know, or I hope that all of you are prepared with your assignment for the week, but first I have received a special request for a performance. Since the boys took it upon themselves to prepare this in addition to their regular assignment, I think it's only fair to give them the opportunity to show us what they've got. What do you say, New Directions?"
There were a few halfhearted claps from the girls as they exchanged questioning glances.
Finn, Artie, Puck, and Mike left their seats and took up a boy band-esque formation in the middle of the floor.
"Um," said Finn, simultaneously trying to look at Quinn and avoid catching her eye. "We wanted to take the opportunity to sing a song to our girlfriends. Hopefully this dazzles you. I mean, I hope you like it and stuff."
Quinn's eyebrows lifted toward her hairline and she perched herself on the edge of her chair, exchanging a look with Brittany and Santana. Finn took this as a sign of encouragement and nodded at the pianist to begin.
"I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life and I thought, hey
You know, this could be something"
Hey, thought Finn as he stepped back to allow Artie to sing his line. For not much practice and no help from the girls, we sound pretty good.
"'Cause everything you do and words you say
You know that all takes my breath away
And now I'm left with nothing"
They all sang the chorus, but Finn took the melody. It was his performance for Quinn, after all.
"So maybe it's true that I can't live without you
And maybe two is better than one
Bu there's so much time to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking tow is better than one"
For some reason Finn was having a hard time keeping his attention on Quinn. It kept drifting around the room. Focus, Finn, Puck is singing now.
"I remember every look upon your face
The way you roll your eyes, the way you taste
You make it hard for breathing"
Mike's turn. Finn couldn't decide if the way he was looking at Tina was adorable or nauseating.
"'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away
I think of you and everything's okay
I'm finally now believing"
"Then maybe it's true that I can't live without you
(A pretty loaded line. Finn loved Quinn, sure, but couldn't live without her? He didn't know if he'd go that far. Still, it was just a song.)
"Maybe two is better than one
But there's so much time to figure out the rest of my life
(The rest of his life? Finn was still trying to figure out this weekend!)
"And you've already got me coming undone
(That was true enough.)
"And now I'm thinking two is better than one"
"I remember what you wore on the first day you came into my life
(No I don't, thought Finn. Probably her Cheerios' uniform? I remember what Rachel was wearing. That weird sleeveless argyle sweater. He hadn't even known they made sleeveless argyle sweaters.)
"and I thought hey,"
("hey, hey")
(Actually, I thought, is that a sleeveless argyle sweater? I didn't know they made sleeveless argyle sweaters.)
"Maybe it's true that I can't live without you
Maybe two is better than one
There's so much time to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
"And I'm thinking, ooh, I can't live without you
'Cause, baby, two is better than one
There's so much time to figure out the rest of my life
But I've figured out all that's said and done
Two is better than one, two is better than one"
Finn ended the song, feeling good about his performance until he realized that he was looking not at Quinn, but at Rachel sitting just behind her. He quickly shifted his guilty gaze to his girlfriend's blue eyes, hoping that no one had noticed the error in his focus. Because that's all it had been. An honest mistake, like a misstep in choreography. Which he made all the time. Understandable. Forgivable. He hoped. Crap, this was not his week.
AN: Quinn is bitchy, surprise, surprise. Figuring out who was actually dating/friend with/fighting with whom this far back was confusing, lol. Actually I think in canon Quinn and Finn were broken up and Finn back with Rachel by this point, but I haven't gotten around to that yet in this story, which diverged from cannon after Original Song. Little things like hate crimes and domestic abuse got it the way :P (I don't mean to make light of those things at all, obviously they are very serious topics). Hoping to hear from you!
-SQ
