Disclaimer: I don't own anything.


Chapter 16

After Rachel got out of her car on Monday, Finn was leaning against the fence, smirking at her. After that catastrophe in the enterprise of his grandparents, she never thought she would be happy to see him waiting for her.

"Hi", she said, breathlessly. He smiled even more. Obviously, he seemed to be happy to see her as well. "Hey."

"Are you my escort now?", she joked.

"I thought we could go the assembly together. Maybe I could protect you from the questions of the others."

Rachel nodded. They walked to the auditorium, just enjoying each other's company. On their way, a girl passed them who was in history with Rachel. She just stared at them, and Rachel stared back, craning her chin. The girl quickly went away.

"Hey, don't be so feisty", Finn laughed.

"What else am I supposed to do?", Rachel asked him. "If she stares at me, I stare back."

He looked at her. "You have to ignore her. It doesn't matter what they say behind your back. You don't need to care about that."

"But I do care."

"So? They don't need to know. Just pretend you don't care, and they will leave you alone. Look, I will show you how it's done." Finn changed his face expression from normal to an I-Don't-Give-A-Shit-expression and he looked so arrogant now.

"You look like you need a punch in the face", she said dryly.

"I look like I would like to get punched in the face. That's the difference. Now, try."

Rachel tried imitating that expression, failing miserably according to Finn trying to bite back his laughter.

"Okay. Maybe it would be enough if you didn't look at others like you wanted to set them on fire or something." They were approaching the auditorium and Rachel felt more and more nervous with each step.

"Hudson!", someone behind them called out. The duo turned around. Santana and Puck were heading to their direction. "Hey, Rachel." Puck ruffled his mohawk, sheepish. "Sorry about Friday."

She wasn't sure whether he meant what happened at the pool or what had happened before. Because of Finn, she couldn't ask him. That he apologized surely had something to do with his best friend, but she was glad anyway.

"It's okay. You weren't the one who threw me into the pool." Surprised, Puck grinned at her as he expected another reaction.

Santana was just staring at her, saying nothing. That was unusual for her. Obviously, she knew that Rachel had been the one who had seen her and Brittany in the library.

Rachel smiled at her, but she didn't say anything. Santana just paled even more and looked like a ghost now.

"Can we enter now?", Finn asked his friends. They all nodded and went up the stairs to the auditorium.

During the assembly, everyone was staring at her, or so Rachel thought. Finn didn't show any emotions. That was not surprising at all because he had been doing that for 18 years now. He was used to that.

After the assembly, Finn and Puck went to their Spanish lessons while Santana and Rachel had geography. Before they parted ways, Finn mumbled: "Think of the punch in the face." Rachel had to bite back her laughter and quickly followed Santana.

The atmosphere was tensed between the two of them and Rachel didn't know what to say. Suddenly, Santana stopped in her tracks, holding her back with her arm.

"What you have seen on Friday…you can't tell anyone, capish?", Santana instructed coldly.

Rachel froze. "Of course not, Santana. But why? There are a lot of out and proud students here at McKinley…" Santana glared at her.

"Listen, dwarf. I already have a lot of problems in my life now.", she hissed, intimidating yet panicked.

Rachel couldn't imagine what problems a freaking Princess could have.

"I won't tell anyone, okay?", Rachel promised.

Santana looked tired, but also a bit relieved now. "You need to promise it, Berry. There is so much at stake, do you understand? You have no idea how much pressure I'm under. And Britt means everything to me."

Suddenly, Santana didn't look like the high and mighty princess or like a popular cheerio. She looked so…fragile and young.
Rachel realized that Santana was just a girl, a girl like her who happened to have a crown and a popular state. A girl with complexes.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise, Santana. Your secret is save with me." She nodded, more relieved. But then, her face expression changed, and she looked at her coldly.

"If I find out you told anyone, I'm gonna make your life a living hell."

With that, she turned on her heel and went to the classroom without looking at her. Rachel shuddered.

Somehow, she survived the rest of the day. Although people were talking behind her back, she tried to ignore it, but nobody dared to make fun of her.

During lunch break, Rachel sat at the usual table with Mercedes, chatting about the event management club.

"Is this place free?", Kurt Hummel suddenly asked them.

Rachel and Mercedes turned their heads, staring at him. "Yes?", Rachel answered carefully, but it sounded more like a question than an answer.

Kurt sat down next to them and started eating his salad. Mercedes threw Rachel a questioning glance, but she just shrugged helplessly. She had no idea what Kurt was doing there. Maybe he wanted to keep an eye on her like he had said on the party.

Rachel looked over to the table where Finn was sitting. The atmosphere didn't seem so good that day. Finn and Mike discussed something, Artie read his book and Puck stared down his phone while Quinn was trying to talk to him. Brittany and Santana didn't look at each other. Sam was nowhere to be seen.

"He doesn't know I joined you.", Kurt suddenly said. He took a sip from his water bottle. "I'm here because I wanted to apologize for Friday."

"But you didn't do anything.", Rachel answered, perplexed.

He shook his head. "My friends and I misbehaved."

"And that's why you eat lunch with us?", Mercedes asked skeptically, cocking her eyebrow.

Kurt just shrugged. "I have seen how off people are acting now. If I sit here with you, they won't dare coming over." He pointed at a group of students staring at their direction.

"And I also wanted to ask you how you are.", he added, turning to Rachel.

Rachel couldn't hide her surprise. Since when did he care about that? He was always so skeptical. "I wish that what happened on Friday didn't happen. But I'm fine now."

"Sam sometimes doesn't know when he crosses the line."

Rachel shrugged.

"But I know him for a long time.", he went on. "He really thought it would be funny."

"What he did was the opposite of funny.", Mercedes hissed angrily and was surprised when Kurt nodded.

"It sucked. And I told him so.", Kurt told them.

Rachel looked up. "Really?"

"Yes, of course."

Rachel didn't know what to say. "Thank you, that was nice of you.", she finally said.

Kurt smiled and continued eating his salad. Mercedes and Rachel exchanged glances, but then, they also ate their food in silence.

After a while, Mercedes started telling them about the new fashion blog she had read. At first, it was weird for Rachel to make small talk while Kurt was sitting next to them, but he participated at the discussion and even gave them some fashion advice.

"You need to see Rachel's closet. She even has sweatshirts with cats on the front.", Mercedes just told Kurt. He laughed.

"That doesn't sound that nice. Luckily, we have to wear school uniforms.", he chuckled.

"Hey! They are not that bad! My dads gave them to me", Rachel defended herself, but her heart warmed up a bit when she saw how good they all got along.

Maybe Kurt really wanted to be nice. He wouldn't be the first one who would surprise her in that family.

When they were done eating, Rachel retrieved a box, putting it in the middle of the table.

"Those are the leftovers of the cookies from the weekend. I had to hide them before my dads would eat everything.", she smirked.

Kurt's eyes lit up. "Did you bake them by yourself?"

"Mercedes and I did.", Rachel answered. "On Saturday, in my pajamas."

"That sounds awesome.", he said and took a cookie. "And so much better than my Saturday. There was a business dinner.", he grimaced.

Mercedes and Rachel smiled compassionately. "That doesn't sound nice.", Mercedes commented.

"It isn't. To be honest, I would have loved to spend that day in my pajamas as well."

Rachel couldn't imagine someone like Kurt Hummel like that, and when she tried, she had to grin.

After lunch break, Rachel and Mercedes went to the group room to prepare the meeting. Then, they waited for the other members. As usual, Finn sat on his place near the window, arms crossed. Rachel realized that he really must hate those meetings because he would rather be on the field with his bros. And it hurt a little to see him like that.

"Rachel?" Ryder just came to her.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to know whether you have time after the meeting to listen to the music I've found. I need to sort out the top three tracks."

Rachel checked her calendar. "Okay, I have time.", she confirmed. Ryder smiled. "Great."

Finn smirked when he looked back and forth between Rachel and Ryder. "What?", she mouthed.

Finn typed something into his phone. Rachel's phone vibrated.

Finn: He is crushing on you.

Rachel rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore him.

"Okay, guys. What did you do for the party?", Mercedes started the meeting now that everyone was there.

"I have a lot of great offers for decoration.", Tina said, retrieving her notes with contact information.

"Thanks for the tips again, Finn." Surprised, Rachel looked over to Finn, who nodded at Tina. He helped his teammates voluntarily? Without her noticing?

"I made some designs for the invitations.", Matt told the others, handing Mercedes an USB stick. She opened its document and showed its picture on the overhead projector.

Rachel gasped. On the first design, there was the picture Maxwell had taken back then in the boutique. The one where Finn asked her for a dance.

She couldn't believe Finn had sent the pictures to Matt without her knowing.

"That looks great", Tina said, and the others agreed. "That dress is just beautiful. Do you have more of those?", she asked Finn. He shook his head. "That's unique.", he answered apologetically.

"That design is gorgeous, Matt.", Mercedes complimented him. "Maybe we could change the type size a bit?", she suggested. Rachel nodded. "Yes. And another style of lettering?", she added, trying to hide how insecure she felt right now because of the photo.

She had to think back when her hand was in Finn's. How close they had been to each other. Something in her warmed up and for the rest of the meeting, she didn't dare to look at Finn's direction.

When they were done, Tina, Kitty and Matt said goodbye and left. Ryder went over to Rachel to show her the music on his laptop, Mercedes was talking to Finn, he nodded and took notes. Rachel frowned. What was that? Too late, she realized that Ryder was talking to her.

"Sorry, what did you say?", she asked.

"That party is going to be the best in the history of McKinley.", he repeated, smiling. "That would be great. We are planning it for a long time. I honestly can't wait."

"Me neither. We really need to dance together." Ryder was still smiling. Rachel gulped.

He is crushing on you.

Mercedes was telling her so for months. Maybe they were right. But for her, Ryder had always be the little, ambitious boy. She thought he was nice because he wanted to be the next team leader after she and Mercedes graduated.

She never thought that he actually liked her.

Ryder next to her touched her knee with his. She scooted her chair further away.

Why did she do that? It was just a harmless situation, right?

She threw Finn an angry glance, but he had seen it. He smirked knowingly. Rachel turned back to Ryder. "If I have time, then of course.", she smiled.

"That would be great.", he answered, and he blushed a bit.

Oh boy.

"Yes.", she said, louder than intended. Rachel then cleared her throat. "Shouldn't we listen to the music?"

They retrieved their headphones and started listening to the samples Ryder had found. Finally, they decided on three tracks.

Rachel retrieved her calendar to note the names of the tracks. "You turn eighteen this Saturday?", Ryder asked her when he spotted a note in her calendar.

"Yes?", she answered. "And what are you planning?", he asked. Mercedes, who had listened to that conversation, answered. "She is going to…" She stopped talking after Rachel threw her a warning glance.

At McKinley, it was nobody's business what she was doing on her birthday. That was her private life, and she didn't want anybody knowing about it.

"Nothing special", Mercedes ended her sentence. "You didn't tell me you are going to be grown up", Finn said and got up. "Why didn't you invite me?"

"Because you don't know how to behave.", Rachel retorted dryly.

"I'm gonna prove you wrong", he said, but it didn't sound like he would.

Rachel took a deep breath. Get your act together, girl, she berated herself in her mind.

"You are not invited, Finn."

"Okay." That sounded a lot like "We will see."

Ryder cocked his eyebrows, but then, he got up. "See you next time, guys." He waved at the trio and left.

After they had put their things into their respective bags, the three of them decided to leave as well.
Rachel wondered what Mercedes and Finn were talking about. Hopefully she didn't tell him that she was gonna spend her birthday playing games with her relatives.

"Lynn totally crushes on you.", Finn said while they were leaving the library.

"That's nonsense", Rachel protested.

"I have to agree.", Mercedes supported him. Rachel glared at her.

"What? I'm telling you so for months. He had been really, really nice to you, it's kind of obvious."

"How is it obvious? It is not obvious. I'm the leader of this club, he has to be nice." Mercedes laughed. "Okay, its obvious to everyone but you." Finn also laughed and she glared at him as well.

Since when did those two get along so well?

She didn't know whether she liked it.

Rachel was a bit relieved when they parted ways when Mercedes needed to go to the bus stop where her dad was already waiting for her with his car, honking.

Finn and Rachel went to the parking together. "You're raise that poor boy's hope.", he commented. "What's your problem, Finn? Are you jealous?", she asked jokingly.

Finn, however buried his hands into his pants, frowning.

"If someone asks you for a dance, then it will be me.", he said after a while.

"You can't be serious. You are really jealous of Ryder?", Rachel asked incredulously.

"No." He was still not looking at her. "But that guy shouldn't build his hopes up."

"What hopes?", she asked.

"That he has to be like…really nice to you so that you smile. That's pathetic."

Rachel stopped in her tracks. "That's not true!"

"Really? You never smiled at me like that."

"Because you never gave me a reason to do it!"

For a moment, he was just staring at her. Why was he like that all of a sudden? He seemed so…fed up, and she didn't get why.

"Thanks that you watched over me today", Rachel said quickly, changing the topic. Finn just nodded.

"I mean it. Nobody dared to say bad things to me. It would have been different if it hadn't been for you.", she added. When he didn't say anything, Rachel continued babbling. "Your brother sat down next to us and…"

"I'm sorry.", he cut her off, looking at her.

"For what?", she asked.

"That I didn't give you so many reasons to smile at me like you did it with Ryder."

"Finn…"

"I will change that", he went on. Rachel gulped. Why did her knees feel like butter right now? She wanted to touch him so bad right now. But she just couldn't.

"I need to leave now, my dads are awaiting me", she said quickly. When she turned around and went to her car, she could still feel Finn staring at her.


A/N: Next time: Rachel's Birthday! Stay tuned...