Still Changing Directions

by Jstonedd

Set in the Change of Directions Universe. It's summer break, which means plenty of time for Rachel to stir up Lima with her friends and unknowingly break a few hearts along the ride because she's only got eyes for her girlfriend. The chaos never ends when people keep questioning your badassness.

Set in the Change of Directions Universe.

This is not a direct Sequel to Change of Directions, not a consecutive multi-chaptered story but just incoherent One-Shots of our established characters. If you've noticed unfinished storylines or open questions in Change of Directions, tell me in a review and I will try to deal with it in here.

This Chapter:

Summary: Quinn convinces Rachel to take Yoga classes and is pleased about her triumph until she sees the Yoga Instructor Cassandra July set her eyes on her girlfriend.

Note: I just really like Cassie July. If her character had been introduced earlier while writing Change Of Directions, some things would probably be different now. Oh, and it's gotten quite cracky at the end, I think it's tumblr messing with my brain.

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"Absolutely not."

This was my first statement to the topic of attending Yoga classes with Quinn.

Twenty minutes and one hot make-out session later, I slowly came to another opinion.

"You know...we could just do our own Yoga sessions, we don't need to pay to suffer..." I tried to argue with Quinn, but she narrowed her eyes on me.

"Rachel," she impatiently began and I winced, "waking up before dinner and then going to sleep after breakfast isn't healthy, your daily routine is completely out of order and I honestly worry about your body."

"My body's fine," I said, pulling up my shirt to show my still existent abs. "And I don't hear you complaining when I save up so much energy for you during the night." And I suggestively wiggled my eyebrows at her.

She playfully shoved me on my back and pinned me down there. I raised one eyebrow at her, smirking. "Want me to prove how fit I am?"

Quinn bit her lip and let her appreciative eyes travel down my jawline onto my chest. I thought she was going to give in to another make-out session when she resolutely said, "I want you to prove your fitness in a Yoga class."

I groaned in disapproval and struggled against her strong hold on my wrists. "Yoga is for old people with back problems. Do I look like I'm old with back problems?"

"Definitely not old," Quinn knowingly said and placed a short kiss on my mouth. "But I do sometimes worry about your posture when you sit in front of your laptop for too long."

I wanted to say something in my defense but she shook her head and shut me up with a longer kiss.

It felt too good to be stopped and I would've let her done to me whatever she wanted, but she had other things on her mind.

"Please," kiss, "take the", kiss, "Yoga class", kiss, "with me." Moan. The last sound was made by me because at this point, I was already too frustrated to care.

"Alright, alright," I sighed, pleadingly looking up into her mischievously twinkling eyes. "Just...don't tease anymore, okay? Anything but that."

And this was how my sneaky girlfriend convinced me to take Yoga classes with her. But in that moment, I didn't really care because she finally granted me my wish and I got to prove how much energy I actually got.

–

"I can't believe I let you convince me to do this," I muttered darkly as I fixed my sports bra.

"I can't believe I have such an unsupportive girlfriend," Quinn mockingly countered as she tightened her ponytail.

Feeling actually reprimanded, I walked up to her and sighed a 'sorry' into her ear before I kissed her on her cheek. "I do act a bit irrational, don't I?"

Quinn smirked and leaned in for a real kiss. It was her way of saying it was okay. But from now on, I was determined to be the perfect girlfriend and not complain anymore about the Yoga class.

The first reason why I rejected this idea was the thought of going to a fitness studio where bulky men with tons of steroids injected would be present. The second reason being that I had no sense of balance. I couldn't stand on one foot for the life of me, I would always pend to the side and eventually fall over. And if Yoga was all about balance, then so god help me. This wasn't my kind of sport, I needed something that required speed and power, not inner balance that I obviously didn't possess. Someone as reckless as me could never hold still enough for a sun salutation or whatever this exercise was called.

Emerging from the dressing room of the fitness studio, we walked past men and women toughening their bodies on various equipments. I slowed down when I walked past a few occupied treadmills, wishing it was me exercising on them instead of those girls who were rather focused on texting than running. For what were they dressed up so sporty if they weren't going to break a sweat?

I was pulled away from the treadmills by my girlfriend who said in annoyance, "No, you may not exercise on the treadmill next to those dumb girls."

"But they need someone to show them how it's really – okay rather not." I answered her glare with a sheepish grin. "You're right, let them stay dumb."

I reassuringly held her hand as we continued walking towards the room where the Yoga class would take place. But the treadmills were still on my mind. Thousands of dollars wasted on teenage girls who only went on them to take a picture. My heart was aching.

We finally entered a middle-sized room where a few women were already warming themselves up and I couldn't feel more out of place. Though those women weren't as old as I had imagined them to be, they were all at least thirty and some of them could be our mothers. And I was sure I recognized at least two cougars that used to have a fling with Puck, they sometimes drove past his house in their expensive convertibles.

"Alright ladies, everyone take a mat and spread out so you have enough space for the exercises."

To my relief and partly pleasant surprise, the Yoga course instructor wasn't anything like I imagined her to be. I had pictured a middle-aged lady with a softer, house-wife face who took the job to have something to do when her husband was working during the day.

But that woman seemed younger, she was attractive without a doubt, with that defined jaw and alluring eyes and blonde hair, did I already mention I had a thing for blondes? But only for one blonde to be clear here and actually, the blonde I was talking about was giving me the look that meant I had been staring at someone who wasn't her for too long.

"Right. A mat," I muttered to myself and quickly turned away to find something to do that didn't involve glancing at the course instructor. I was merely admiring her aesthetics on a pure objective level because it wasn't easy to remain that fit and young in her age when the thought of letting go and enjoying yourself was so much more tempting. She had to have a strict workout schedule.

I tried to sneakily place my mat in the last row to hide behind the other participants, but Quinn dragged me into the second row because she said she couldn't see anything from that far behind. I wanted to suggest her buying glasses because I knew they would look sexy as hell on her, but we were shushed by the Yoga teacher.

"Please do not talk during my class," she sighed and turned her mat so she would face the class. "I'm Cassandra July, this is Yoga 101 and maybe if you're lucky, some of you will stick to me until the last course of the summer."

I frowned. Was she always this moody?

"We'll start off with something easy," Cassandra boredly began. "We'll do a tree."

And she did what I had feared of doing – she took one foot off the ground to place it against the other leg, and her arms were stretched out above her head.

I couldn't do this. I helplessly looked around to find other women following Cassandra's example, including Quinn who had already perfected this stance.

I slowly lifted one foot and my other leg started wobbling. I tried to keep my balance by stretching my arms to the side, but I ended up wildly flailing, my body bending from side to side until I fell on my butt.

The barely suppressed snickering from the women who had a better balance than I did caused my cheeks to redden in embarrassment and frustration. At least Quinn was entertained, she could hardly hold her own stance because she was giggling too hard.

"So you're the class clown, huh?"

When I stood up again, I found the Yoga instructor sizing me up and I quickly corrected her, "No, I'm sorry, I just don't have a good balance."

"Good thing you're here to learn," Cassandra casually remarked. "Now try it again."

I nervously swallowed and looked at Quinn who encouragingly nodded. Taking a deep breath, I focused on staying still when I raised my left foot to place it against my right knee.

"Good, now clasp your hands together and stretch your arms above your head."

Easier said than done. When I lost the balancing function of my arms, I could feel my body getting unstable and I would've fallen on my ass again if it weren't for her helping hands on my waist.

She didn't let go until I stood absolutely still with the pose in perfection. I didn't allow myself to break out in a triumphant grin until I managed to keep my position for at least ten seconds without her support.

"Alright ladies, and stop."

Everyone returned to their initial stance with relieved sighs and I beamed at Quinn, excitedly whispering, "Did you see that? I managed to keep my balance!"

She smilingly nodded and mouthed, "Keep it up!"

"And now, something even easier than before -" I rolled my eyes at the implication that the exercise before was easy and I was just too dumb to do it, "the Cobra. But be aware of your limits, don't strain your back if you can't take it. Yoga is supposed to relieve stress and not add some, so watch me do it first."

Cassandra lied flat on her stomach first, then pushed herself up with her toned arms while her legs stayed on the mat. She arched her back and explained, "Go as far as you feel comfortable to."

Since we were all standing and she was performing the cobra on the ground, there was a perfect view down her cleavage that only I seemed to notice and appreciate. In a purely objective manner, of course. Quinn and I had already agreed long ago that we could appreciate other people's aesthetics even though it would be probably better if we didn't point that out.

"Now copy me."

I suppressed an unwilling grunt and mirrored her actions. How was this supposed to help my back?

"Are you even trying?" I suddenly heard above me and I found Cassandra hovering over me. Had I become her target because I had failed the first exercise?

"Maybe not enough if you feel the need to criticize me," I said through gritted teeth and pushed my upper body even higher. That didn't feel good and my back was already protesting. I was definitely doing it wrong, but I couldn't admit it.

When I looked up again, she wasn't actually looking at my face, but somewhere far south. Safe to say that she was noticing my tight sports bra that pushed my modest boobs together in a suggestive way. I wanted to call her out on it that those were only reserved for my girlfriend's eyes, but Cassandra was already pacing around some other women to correct them on their stances.

"Rachel," Quinn whispered, and I noticed with glee that she didn't look exactly relaxed in her position either. "If she keeps on harassing you, we can leave."

"I'm fine," I lowly replied. "I won't let her bully me out of a class that I've already paid too much for."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Quinn said and I didn't understand what she meant, but there was no time for asking when Cassandra stood between us again.

"What did I say about talking during class?" she sighed. "It's distracting the others in their quest to find inner peace. I suggest you not to talk again or I'll have to separate you."

"Sorry," we both grunted as we released ourselves from the uncomfortable pose. Inner peace, my ass. If those rich white women in their thirties and forties wanted inner peace, let them smoke some special herbs and they would be much more relaxed than after a Yoga session.

And don't get me started on Quinn. She always acted indignant and couldn't understand why I had issues trusting her wonderful ideas when every single time, things like this happened. Things that involved pain and embarrassment and frustration. But I would give in every time because I loved her, and what people did for love...

But to her defense, I managed to get her to join me in various stupid ideas, too, so we were even. She almost got in trouble with the police because of me, but they let her go because she looked too innocent to be the kind of girl to spray a heart with an 'R' in it on the wall of an abandoned house. Me on the other hand almost got to see the inside of a Lima police car again if it weren't for officer Burton convincing his colleagues that my hands were stained with paint because I had art class in school that day. It was a Saturday, but his colleagues weren't very bright.

Anyway, Burton congratulated us that we did get together in the end and apologized to me for the hand-cuffing, because it had seemed like a good idea at the time. And even if I didn't like that particular memory very much, I had to admit that this was the point where things got rolling.

Sometimes Puck and I would drop off donuts at his precinct. Though he pretended to be offended by the stereotype of a chubby police offer, he still got very happy every time he saw us coming in with a large box of calories bombs. At first we did it to make him close one eye on us, but later we did it out of affection. He had his heart at the right place and some people just weren't appreciated enough for their jobs.

"First talking in my class, then messing up the exercises, now zoning out when I'm explaining – do you want to get kicked out?"

I snapped out of my day-dream and glared at Cassandra. I noticed everyone else already doing another stretching exercise. Copying their moves, I bent over and tried to reach my feet with both of my hands.

"I don't understand where you get that ass from when you can't move a limb without tripping," I heard her muttering and it almost threw me off balance. The hell? She couldn't say stuff like that around me, I had no idea how to react to an insult that was somehow a compliment as well.

"Ask my girlfriend who's keeping me on my toes," I quietly hissed while I was still stretching, hoping that only she heard. And she did.

"Too much for you?" I heard a teasing whisper.

"Hardly," I breathed out before I stood straight again. Cassandra had an unnerving smirk on her face.

"We'll see."

And she turned around to walk back to the front. "Alright, seems like I've been too easy on some of you. Consider the exercises before as a warm up."

What had I done. I couldn't control my expression from turning incredulous when Cassandra stretched out one leg behind her and arched her upper body forward that it went parallel to the ground. This wasn't yoga, this was fucking acrobatics and I would never be able to copy this move. I'd probably break a thousand bones first.

Cassandra kept her pose and looked up challengingly at me. "Now everybody."

After one swift glance around the room, it was calming to know that I wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed by the new exercise. But no one complained as they set into motion, trying to imitate Cassandra's figure.

I helplessly glanced at Quinn, who had less problems with this exercise than most of the people here. She was a cheerleader after all and after three short seconds, she stood on one foot with the other high up in the air. I had no time to admire her though because I could already feel Cassandra's intimidating presence behind me.

"What's wrong?" I heard her taunting whisper. "Too difficult for you?"

That woman had it in for me. But I wasn't going to let her get to me.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly bent my upper body forward and lifted one leg behind me, holding it with one hand while the other was stretched out in front of me. I could do this, I was stable, I just needed to keep strong.

But everything fell apart when I felt fingernails grazing my thigh and I let out a startled yelp. I landed on my right arm, but I didn't even feel the pain because I was too in shock over what made me fall in the first place.

"I have never seen someone with such a poor balance," Cassandra said while mockingly shaking her head. "Extra lessons are urgently recommended."

I gaped at her from the ground. That fucking woman purposely made me fall, and now she pressured me to take extra lessons so she could pull more money out of my admittedly endless wallet? Was this why she had made me her target, because she could see that I was well off?

"No thanks, I'm fine, I don't have time for extra lessons anyway," I said in annoyance and pushed myself off the ground. Standing up, I met Quinn's questioning look and I shrugged. I didn't know how I managed to rub the yoga instructor the wrong way. I always seemed to do that with teachers.

"Summer break must be really busy for you then," Cassandra sarcastically said.

Fuck. No way I was going to let her trick me into attending extra lessons.

"It is," I slowly said, thinking of which lies I could sell, "I am...working. My friend just opened a pool cleaning business and I'm joining him."

And it wasn't even completely a lie. Puck had this brilliant idea of cleaning pools while topless which would attract a certain group of well paying customers. I hadn't considered joining him because I didn't need to save up money for anything, not even for a yacht, but now that I thought of it, I could help him earn more money and I would have something to do during the summer.

Quinn warily glanced at me and I reassuringly smiled. She found Puck's idea of business a little bit dubious because of all the services that he offered that didn't contain cleaning pools. If I wanted to convince her that joining him would be a fantastic idea, then I should already prepare myself some good arguments.

"Pool cleaning business?" Cassandra repeated and put her hands on her hips. "Can I expect some acquaintance discount if I'll let you clean mine?"

She had a lot of nerve asking me that. If I could give her my honest opinion, she would have to pay double to get me to clean her pool.

"Of course," I falsely smiled through gritted teeth. "Anything to get new customers."

She seemed to detect my restricted misery and smirked knowingly. Strutting back to the front, she missed out the grimace I pulled at her.

I felt someone pinching my arm.

"Ouch," I hissed, and looked to the side to find Quinn glaring at me. "What was that for?"

"You're joining Puck's pool cleaning business? Are you going to work topless, too?"

I bit the inside of my cheeks. "Well, it's a really hot summer..."

"How would you feel about me washing cars in bikinis?"

My eyes lost focus for a moment as I dreamed of a scantily clothed Quinn seductively polishing my car with me sitting inside it and sweating heavily. I could already smell the soapy smell and imagine my girlfriend pushing her upper body against the driver's side window, and -

"Rachel!"

I snapped out of it.

"I'm sorry, Quinn, but I would totally support that," I whispered and received an eye-roll.

"Fine, better write that down and remember that when a perv lets me wash his muscle car three times in a row."

I frowned. "I would really appreciate it if you stopped calling me a perv," and I winked.

Quinn stared at me in disbelief at first, but then cracked a grin, shaking her head like she was thinking that she should have known. Well, she should have. I wouldn't let anybody perv on her, and if that meant I had to pay a few ten times to have Quinn only wash my car, then so be it. It was an all-win situation – she would raise quite a bit of money, my car would be super clean, I would get to enjoy Quinn in a bikini and no one else would get between us.

"Okay that's it, that's the last time," an annoyed voice startled us, "You," and Cassandra pointed at me with a scowl, "from now on, you're sitting here. Premium row."

She had to be fucking kidding me. The place she was pointing out was right behind her, she was separating me from the whole class. Was this legal?

"Miss July," Quinn tried to reason with her, but that woman wasn't having any of it.

"I warned you over and over again. I will not let teenagers disrupt my classes. If you want to quit, then feel free to leave and I thank you for having paid in advance."

Cassandra expectantly pointed to the door, but neither Quinn or I packed our things. We shared a dark look and I sourly took my mat, listlessly dragged my feet to the place behind the Yoga instructor, and plopped myself down on my new 'premium place'. The only thing premium about this was the view on Cassandra's trained ass, but I was too angry to enjoy that now.

I was only staying for my girlfriend. She wanted to do this Yoga class and I was not going to let her waste her money because of me. I could deal with this. I was a reasonable human being.

"Next pose. First watch, then do it yourselves."

Cassandra parted her legs and let herself slowly slide down, looking like she was about to make a split when she stopped, hovering one foot above the ground. "Slide as low as you feel comfortable to," she explained, then bent forward to support herself with her arms on the ground, almost stretching her ass in my face. I was unsure whether to look away or keep peeking because of the exercise. The decision was made for me when Cassandra slightly moved, her upper body dipping down to reveal Quinn's narrowed eyes glaring at me.

I sheepishly grinned and demonstratively gazed at the ceiling to find it all mirrored. I was still looking at Cassandra's ass, but from above and twice the room's height's distance. Great.

"What are you doing?"

I looked down to find myself eye-to-eye level with Cassandra's face. She was still doing the exercise, but with her body facing me now. She had turned around and repeated the exercise for her class.

Embarrassed, I clumsily shuffled backwards, away from her proximity.

The smirk on her face was stepping on my patience. "This exercise is manageable, even for you."

I clenched my teeth and gave her a fake smile. She fucking knew why I was hesitating to copy her exercise. If I did it with my body facing her, I would have to endure that unnerving smirk and if I did the exercise with my back towards her, she would stare at my ass, to one hundred percent. I couldn't do it sideways or I would look like a fool.

"Do you have trouble understanding the exercise?" Cassandra mockingly asked and she stood up to close in on me. I suddenly felt claustrophobic. She was so intimidating yet alluring and I would've been fascinated with her if I wasn't already infatuated with someone else.

"I have trouble understanding why I've paid for this shit," I quietly hissed, feeling brave because it wasn't like she could do anything with all the other people in here, especially not when my girlfriend was around.

But I didn't realize that I had played with the devil and the devil knew how to set her rules so that I would lose whatever I did.

"I'm flattered," Cassandra loudly said, startling me and grabbing the attention of everyone in the class, "but I don't consort with minors. Whatever you're offering me is not worth going to prison for."

And it got dead quiet. So quiet that I could hear the jaws of the older women stretch in shock. But nothing compared to the look that was on my face.

I had many, many bad moments in my life. Some were cruel, some were crazy and some were embarrassing. This...was all of them combined.

All I could do was stare at the devil's infuriatingly attractive face that managed to make bitterness look sexy.

"Hold the fuck up," I finally woke up from my trance, wanting to verbally fight back, but I wasn't the only one who wanted a word in this.

"Enough!" Quinn firmly said, stepping between me and Cassandra, who never dropped her smirk that made me want to punch her. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to punch her with my fist or with my mouth. The latter one was obviously not an option, but even without a girlfriend, I knew this woman was bad news.

I was supposed to be the girl meaning bad news, there couldn't be two in a relationship or that would just mean disaster, you know, two wrongs didn't make a right. Quinn was the plus to my minus and we balanced each other out to a neutral zero. I wasn't sure where I was trying to go with this, but I just knew that I couldn't date someone that was a minus, too. And that Cassandra woman was definitely a minus. A very appealing minus, but a dangerous minus nonetheless and together, we both would drown.

No, I would stick to my plus forever. She made sure that I would never get in the negative.

"Rachel, we're going," Quinn briskly said and I almost jumped ahead of her to get away from this Yoga class that was sending out too many negative vibes.

"Looking forward to let you clean my pool!" Cassandra called after us when we all but skidded out of the room, and I threw the door shut with a loud bang. I turned around to face Quinn who looked as relieved as me to be finally free.

"Please don't ever suggest something like that again," I sighed and we slowly walked back towards the main fitness room where all the training equipments were.

"Well, I clearly wouldn't have suggested it if I had known that you would hit it off right away with the Yoga instructor," Quinn sarcastically said and she crossed her arm.

That made me slow down. This crossing arm thing was never a good sign on my girlfriend.

"Hey, I'm innocent," I said with my hands defensively held up, "she started this whole immature stuff just because I lacked some Yoga skills."

Quinn rolled her eyes and stopped at a climbing machine, on which she stepped on, mumbling, "Might as well get some training done since we've already paid all inclusive."

I simply stared at her. "Oh, so you're not going to talk about what's bothering you?"

Quinn stubbornly stared ahead of her and started working her legs. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. Nothing's bothering me."

"Right," I said, and shot a look behind me at the vacated treadmills. "In case you do want to talk about what's bothering you, I'll be over there, running and thinking about what to wear while cleaning Cassandra's pool."

Two steps, that was how far I got when a hand grabbed my wrist and spun me around, pulling me into my girlfriend's body. I just knew her too well.

"So there is something bothering you?" I said in mock surprise.

"Fine," Quinn sighed into my shoulder and broke away from me. "I don't want you to clean her pool. I don't like her."

"Me neither," I grimly agreed.

That earned me a raised eyebrow and I honestly didn't know for what.

"That's odd," Quinn crossed her arm. She was doing it again, this was starting to freak me out. "You sure did like to look at her body."

"No, I didn't," I pretended to be indignant, but this was where my rational mind went down the drain. "I was just comparing. My body to hers. And I came to the conclusion that hers is better, and I may have come to this conclusion in the first few seconds but I wanted to be sure, so I took more time until I could confirm my conclusion. Wouldn't want to make a wrong decision based on a wrong first impression, right?"

Well, it might have been a good idea to not say anything at all.

"I'm so done with you right now," Quinn said in frustration, and she walked off towards the changing rooms.

"Quinn!" I called after her, "Quinn, I'm sorry! Wait!"

I caught up with her in front of the changing room door and grabbed her wrist, turning her to me so she would look me in the eyes. With Quinn, I never had to even try to muster up a loving, genuine smile. It came automatically, every time when I just looked at her. Except for those times when I was angry at her because she had stolen my cookies or lied about taking just one sip from my Capri Sun, then sucking the whole thing empty which was kind of sexy to look at – no, that was unacceptable. It was common sense that you just didn't steal the drink that I had stolen from a freshman.

But for my girlfriend, I'd always close one eye and from time to time, both. And explaining to her why I'd always make an exception for her was the hardest part.

I took a deep breath.

"Your pool is the only one I want to clean, both literally and metaphorically speaking. And I haven't thought about cleaning other pools since we met, this time only metaphorically speaking. So please don't be mad at me for looking at other people's pools, because remember, yours is the only one that truly speaks to me."

This was as charming as I could get.

Quinn cracked a small smile and slowly shook her head.

"Please don't ever use pool metaphors again?" she grinned.

I laughed and took her hand, happily intertwining our fingers. "See how many ways love can be expressed? Why reduce it to dull, overused words when you can use metaphors. But I agree, let's not use that again."

She lovingly smiled at me and brushed one strand of hair out of my face.

"Rachel?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe it's better if you spend less time on the Internet, you start to sound really strange whenever you talk."