DISCLAIMER: I do not own GLEE although the decision to include John Stamos as Emma's dentist does sound like me =P if he sings Forever I will officially forgive Fox for their terrible treatment of Dollhouse. But not Firefly they haven't got there just yet.
Ch6…
3FINCHEL3
It had been a long day for Finn, Coach Tanaka was finally back from his 'vacation', which the whole school knew, was code for court mandated rehab program. When you pass out in your ex fiancée's front yard there's no chance that people wouldn't find out. Lima, Ohio thrived on gossip; he should know he'd been the topic of it enough. Coach had forced the team to run drills through lunch, he was sober but now he was mean, he obviously wasn't over the whole thing with Ms Pillsbury and Mr. Schuester, he, Matt, Mike and Puck had run suicides for the whole hour, lucky he hadn't eaten otherwise he would have hurled all over the floor.
Luckily he had gotten in his daily nap during health class, how he had been fooled by Quinn's hot tub story was no longer such a surprise. But even with the nap he was exhausted and he still had glee practice and homework, and Rachel was still staying at his house. He'd downed another two red bulls and now his foot wouldn't stop tapping.
"God! Finn would you stop trying to kick a hole in the floor to China!" Kurt snapped glaring at his almost step brother.
"Sorry dude." Maybe if he put all his concentration into stopping his foot from moving he wouldn't remember how tired he was.
"Okay guys, listen up!" Mr. Schuester called out as he entered the room. "Regionals are a little over a month away and we need to have our set list decided by the end of the week."
"Mr. Schuester and I discussed it before and we've decided that we need to decide this as group and quickly." Rachel announced standing up to face the group. "We need to focus on our strengths, we work well together because we respect each other's talent, that's what we need to win."
"So your assignment tonight." Mr. Schuester said taking over for Rachel. "Find songs that you think showcase our talent, we'll vote on them throughout the week."
Eying all the yawning students he ended the meeting early and told his students to get some sleep. Even Rachel who hated losing the structure of a routine was glad to see the meeting end early. Her homework for the last two days would have her busy for a while and she definitely needed to look into songs for their assignment. She'd had that idea for a story but now came the hard part.
"Hey Rachel." Mercedes called out. "Me and Kurt are going to the mall, you wanna come?"
"I'll give you a makeover." Kurt promised. "But this time I wont make you look like whore Barbie."
"Uh thanks." Rachel replied overwhelmed by their efforts to include her, last night was one thing but this was something else entirely. "But I have a lot of homework to catch up on."
"Anytime you want to ditch the Golden Girls had a baby look I will clear my schedule." Kurt told her. "I guess I'll see you at dinner."
"Lucky we took two cars today." Finn muttered hoisting his bag over his shoulder and grabbing Rachel's with his other. "You sure you don't want to go with them?"
"I'm sure." She promised. "I like the way I dress and I already have everything I need why would I hang around the mall when I don't have to?"
"You know I've always wanted someone to explain that to me too." He told her. "Last weekend my mum and Kurt spend all of Saturday there and when they got back they were all tired like they'd run a marathon or something."
"I feel like I've run a marathon today." Rachel yawned loudly climbing into the front seat of the car. "If I didn't have so much homework I would probably just fall asleep right now."
"I know what you mean and I slept through health class." Her yawn was infectious and he found himself yawning loudly too. "What homework do you have?"
"I have to read the first three chapters of The Grapes of Wrath, two pages of trigonometry, translate a Spanish passage and research Chopin for music." She ticked off on her fingers. "And of course our glee homework."
"Well I have the Spanish and Trig work too how bout we do half each?" Finn suggested. "And we can download the audio book of that Grapes thing and listen to it while we work?"
"Isn't that kind of cheating?" Rachel had never cheated on a test; she'd never even copied someone else's homework.
"Not really, you know how to do that stuff right?" She nodded not sure where he is going with this. "So you're just taking a shortcut. Trust me Kurt and I do it all the time."
"You're a bad influence Finn Hudson." She teased.
"We're maximising our time." He corrected her proudly. "Rach you want to be a Broadway star, when are you ever going to use trigonometry?"
"Well I suppose that's true." She agreed. "And at least we'll have more time to work on our glee assignment."
"And sleep." He added yawning once more. "Don't forget sleep."
Her eyes drooping a little as they pulled into the driveway the mere thought of even opening her textbooks made her ache for her bed. She definitely wouldn't be forgetting sleep.
3FINCHEL3
Kurt stumbled down the steps into the basement a little over an hour later; Rachel was lying on her stomach across Finn's bed scribbling in a notebook while Finn sat on the floor using the bed as a desk.
"Hey, I thought you were going to the mall?" Finn said stretching his arms over his head.
"We weren't really into it." He answered hanging up his coat in his closet and taking a seat at his vanity. "Mercedes was too distracted to focus on shopping."
It was on the tip of her tongue to inquire as to why Mercedes was upset, usually the question would have already been asked but in spite of last night she was still pretty angry at the rest of the club.
"Did something happen?" She asked finally; just because they had shown no interest in her own wellbeing didn't mean she would be so callous to others.
"She thinks you hate her, no sane girl turns down a shopping trip." He informed her pulling at the mountains of bottles that cluttered the vanity.
"I don't hate her I just didn't see the point in going shopping when I already have everything I need." Rachel said reasonably not understanding the problem. "I don't hate anyone, well except for certain persons that shall remain nameless."
"Well can you tell her that, she and Tina are convinced that even after last night you still wish to make voodoo dolls of them." Kurt huffed rubbing something onto his face.
"I said I don't hate them. I never said I forgave them." She informed Kurt looking over Finn's head to where he was moisturizing. "That would require them to actually apologize instead of just thinking ice cream and Patrick Swayze would solve everything."
"The apology was implied!" He protested. When didn't Swayze solve everything?
Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her homework, she was over talking about this. Finn shrugged at his almost step brother and also returned to his homework they were almost finished and he had had ideas for glee interrupting his thoughts all afternoon.
"So that's it?" Kurt asked interrupting them again. "You're just going to be civil in glee and walk around in a huff the rest of the time."
"I'm not walking around in a huff." Rachel argued throwing her pencil at the bed, okay maybe that had been huffy. "I'm civil, for the sake of glee I'll be civil just don't expect anything else."
"What happened to starting over?" He wanted to know, he still wasn't her number one fan but given the moony eyes Finn developed whenever she was nearby he had to learn to at least tolerate her, that was why he had offered a makeover, she would be far easier to tolerate in better clothing.
"I am." She snapped shoving her books into her bag and zipping it shut. "I never said we'd start over as friends." Turning to Finn she sighed. "I should go by my house and get the mail and put out the bins."
"I'll drive you." He offered quickly.
He followed Rachel to the stairs and mouthed an apology to Kurt. Undeterred by Rachel's mood he pulled his phone out cursing when it slipped from his fingers. Damn lotions, with difficulty he typed out a message to his partner in crime, coded of course.
BB away with Moondoggie, code 3 BF, needed.
Translation
Rachel and Finn are gone, she's still pissed and we need a back up plan ready.
Not exactly how he had planned his night to go.
3FINCHEL3
Rachel had slept fitfully all night, nightmares of her fellow glee clubbers throwing slushies on her and laughing, Finn standing behind them with a sad expression. She's eventually given up any hope of sleep at about five am. Tossing and turning had made her cranky which made it the perfect time to go for a run. Running was actually quite therapeutic, she got to just go and listen to her music and not have to worry about school, slushies or anything else but the steady fall of her feet.
She loved the feeling of a good run, all the endorphins released into the bloodstream definitely helped. She'd ran by her house and put away the bins that had been emptied and collected the paper putting it inside the door. She was still on a running high when she returned to the Hudson-Hummel house where the ever present smell of hash browns and eggs filled the ear.
"You're up early." Burt greeted from the stove, scrambling up some eggs. "Hungry?"
She shook her head and helped herself to an apple on the table. "I'm all set, I really appreciate you letting me stay these past few nights."
"Our pleasure." He assured her heaping the eggs onto a plate. "After the way you looked out for Finn and Kurt it's the least we could do."
"I didn't do anything." She protested relishing the crunch as she bit into the apple.
"You may not know it but you did." He told her patting her hand. "Kurt wont be up for another twenty minutes or so if you get your butt in gear you might get a hot shower."
Her eyes lit up and she smiled. "After that run I definitely need a long one." She agreed.
Tiptoeing down the stairs she bit back a laugh at the two boys, Finn on his stomach and stretched all across his bed and Kurt curled up in a ball with a sleeping mask. She grabbed her toiletries and pulled the door shut behind her, a hot shower was definitely what she needed.
"Ah." She moaned happily, the hot needles of water were definitely doing wonders to her neck muscles. She couldn't believe the amount of hair products in the shower caddy, she presumed the shampoo and conditioner on the floor belonged to Finn, somehow she doubted he used kiwi-lime scented shampoo. Taking her time she lathered up the loofah and used her honey vanilla body wash. It was only when she could hear Kurt's voice and the banging on the door that she got out. Of course she'd only brought her toiletry bag in with her and not her clothes.
Wrapping a towel around herself and squeezing the excess water from her hair she flung open the door and smiled at Kurt. She could at least use his changing room shield to get dressed.
"Rachel?"
She wanted to die. She was blushing from her toes to her hair, of course Kurt's incessant knocking had woken Finn up and now he could see her wrapped in a towel that she was positive was shrinking.
"Morning Finn." She greeted trying to hide her flaming face. "I just forgot to grab my clothes, just pretend I'm not here."
"Like that'll happen." He mumbled. Right now the image of Rachel in his towel was infused everywhere, on his pillow, his walls, the back of his eyelids. He'd have it as his screensaver if he could.
"Did you say something?" Rachel asked poking her head around the flimsy divider Kurt had constructed between the rooms.
Finn shook his head quickly feeling much the pervert watching Rachel get dressed in silhouette. Sad as it was he could tell exactly what she was wearing just from the shadow.
"So do you think Mr. Schue will enjoy our suggestions?"
Finn almost jumped as she popped up again sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling on her shoes. Her hair was still wet and dripping, don't follow the droplets, don't follow the droplets.
"Uh yeah, of course." He agreed blindly bunching the blankets in front of him, he had already seen a lot of Rachel; she didn't need to see a lot of him too.
"Do you think I'm being too hard on them?"
She was oblivious to his discomfort; in fact she had scooted closer and was absently playing with the blankets, how subtle would it be if he slapped her hand away?
"On the club?" He stammered out. "I guess only you'd know, I mean it took me a while to feel like not punching Puck in the face every time I saw him. And I was pissed at everyone else for a while too but I talked to Sean about it and I guess it just really hit home to me that life is too short to go through it angry all the time."
"We should visit him tonight." She decided feeling a little guilty; she'd missed their lesson last week. "We could bring by apple pie."
"That's his favourite." Finn said surprised. "Have you been hanging out with Sean without me?"
"Maybe." She smiled mysteriously.
"Great now I have to worry about him stealing my girl." He joked the blush returning to Rachel's face.
"Your girl huh?" She smirked. "You should probably get up, looks like it's a cold shower morning for you."
Finn glanced down at his crotch beet red.
"Kurt's been in there a long time." She elaborated over her shoulder skipping up the stairs with her bag.
That wasn't awkward, at all.
3FINCHEL3