Santana's voice was more biting than expected but she was cold and fed up too.
The two girls had woken up unusually early to put up posters in every street of the city, in every business, on every billboard, Santana had even ripped down a poster on which someone said they were looking for their stolen lawn mower. The girls' posters had a much more important research than a 200-buck lawnmower.
Rachel took a deep breath, "You didn't tell her what we were doing, did you ?"
Santana didn't answer and simply resumed her walk to the next board, stapler in her right hand and her left hand outstretched toward Rachel. The small girl handed the poster, the last one, a feeling of defeat was already floating around her. "Nope, I didn't tell her..." Santana's voice also smelled defeat.
Rachel couldn't believe her ears :"you didn't tell her that we were trying to found one of her best friends that has been missing for a week ? waw you such a good friend Santana! "Rachel spoke in anger but couldn't stop when Santana turned to stare at her, ready to answer, "Maybe you could be less selfish and leave your teenage love fights aside for five minutes, if not for yourself then for her!" Rachel finished by pointing to the poster on the bulletin board behind the latina's shoulder.
Rachel finished by pointing to the poster on the bulletin board behind the latina's shoulder.
Santana followed the finger and her glance crossed the one of the blonde on the posters. Big green eyes stared at her, a big smile, the poster presented a Quinn Fabray full of life. She look happy on the photo but Santana knew, she knew that sometime, picture lies. Her gaze then fell on the words written in large and bold letters "Missing", a list of information that Santana had finally learned by heart: 1m65, 55 kilos, green eyes, blond hair ... then the phone numbers to call if you found her, it was hers and Rachel's ... not Quinn's parents, they couldn't be trust. There was no award, no long number followed by dollars on the poster, Santana had wanted to put one, if only to coax people who would pay attention to the poster but when Rachel had made the posters, she had been unable to figure out what numbers to put.
How much was a life worth?
Santana took a deep breath before turning back to Rachel :"Brittany is well aware that Quinn is not here, what she doesn't know is that you and I are looking for her" Santana continued when she saw the other girl's confused face: "i told her to believes Judy Fabray's version..." Rachel felt herself deflated at this information, she barely took the time to feel bad for the accusing words she had thrown out a few seconds before, the memories of her meeting with Judy Fabray a few days earlier came back to her.
Rachel walked through the halls of Mckinley with her head down, lost in thought. She walked into the choir room and im mediately felt the atmosphere in the room : dark and sad. The other members of the glee club were all having their shoulders down, their mouths inverted, their eyebrows furrowed and all silent.
Rachel continued wordlessly to her chair next to Finn, she felt his arm around her shoulders in a silent comforting motion. She tried to smile at him but only a grimace appeared on her face.
"Okay guys," Will Schuester entered the classroom and stood in front of the piano, a serious look on his face :"I think we should talk a little bit. I know that Quinn's departure is abrupt and that you are worried. Ms. Fabray is in Principal Figgins' office right now, and he will come talk to you as soon as he knows more about what's going on. Will barely had time to catch his breath when Miss Pillsburry entered the room followed by the principal. All of the students sat up straight in their chairs, eager to finally get an explanation for their missing classmate.
The principal didn't look any more relaxed than before the meeting. Judy Frabray had arrived exactly at the time of the appointment, perfectly dressed, perfectly styled, she had sat perfectly straight. Everything was perfect except her story. But that, the principal couldn't tell the students. He looked at the kids in front of him before making his voice as fake as possible :
"You can relax, I had a long discussions with Mrs. Fabray and she wanted to assure me that worrying for her daughter was highly unnecessary" a wave of discontent was heard in the room. " You're kidding" Puck's big voice could be heard over the others. "she's been missing for three days without saying a word to anyone and she's not answering the phone but we shouldn't worry ?" Mrs. Pillsburry tried to calm the students but it was coach Sylvester's whistle that remaned the order in the class :"You can protested as much as you want it will change nothing." She looked at the adults around her before resuming :" , Quinn's mother in case some of you have forgotten, told us to be sure that her daughter had simply run away" If the crowd in the classroom wasn't so distraugh, maybe they would have heard the small tremble in the woman's voice.
Rachel took a moment to weigh the words, Quinn would have simply run away? Rachel had a backward movement, after all, it wasn't impossible... Quinn had nothing to look at for in this town... why stay ? She was lost in thought and did not notice the other students calm down before leaving the class lost in their own thoughts.
She jumped when she heard a feminine voice in her ears "don't tell me you're seriously thinking that Miss F is telling the truth?! " Santana was almost screaming in her ear :"and why not?" Rachel replied : "why not?" The Latina judged her with her eyes before she whispered in Rachel's ear in a chilling tone :"She wouldn't have left like that on a Tuesday night after she regained her number one place in the cherios, dummy"
Rachel felt anger rising in her : "what do you know ? you were not the best friend that others could dream of, either ? maybe she didn't like you pushing her into lockers no..." "oh, please she deserved it!" Santana's voice bounced around the room and cut Rachel clean, the latter stared at the Latina, she saw a wave of emotions crossing her face before turning into sadness.
"Look, I wasn't a very good friend to Quinn when she was pregnant, that's true, but I'm worried about her... Even if she ran away, she can't get away with it alone, we're only 16, Rachel... we don't know anything about life." Rachel felt her anger coming down at Santana's words."Rachel... i'm ...afraid something happened to her and if there's one thing i'm sure of, it's that we can't rely on her parents to help her... Please Rachel helps me get her back."
If Santana had asked her to help find Quinn Fabray a year earlier, Rachel would have told her to get lost, but during the blonde cheerleader's pregnancy, Rachel had gotten to know the real personality hidden underneath the insults and the cold mask. She had discovered a scared little girl and the thought that today that little girl was in danger gripped her heart. That's how she knew to crouch in the Fabray's garden in the evening behind one of her worst enemies. "Remind me of the plan please," the taller girl turned around with a big sigh, "damn it Rachel focus, we're going to climb in her bedroom window, if she ran away then she carried stuff right?" right but Rachel was still skeptical "and how are you gonna do that exaclty?" Santana didn't even bother to answer and made a sign in the direction of a gutter. Now Rachel was just horrified, Santana barely restrained herself from laughing in her face: "If Quinn can do it I'm sure you can too. Yeah, Rachel really doubted it.
It killed her to admit it, but Santana was right, it took her a good twenty minutes but she was now in the room. An absolutely immaculate room. Rachel and Satana were looking at the room with bewildered eyes. Everything was...perfect.A shelf supported an impressive amount of material in the corner, a desk tidied up with classic school material, the closet was tidy and even the bed was made. Rachel watched as Santana slowly walked over to the nightstand next to the bed and picked up something that Rachel couldn't see. She turned around and held the object up in front of her wide brown eyes. Quinn's phone.
"You want me to believe that Quinn ran away, without her phone, after she got out of bed?" Santana wanted her voice to be reassuring, but it was filled with anxiety. Quinn definitely hadn't left like that, not on her own at least.
Sounds of footsteps resonated in the staircase, the girls looked at each other before the door opened with a sudden gesture. Judy Fabray's face was red, worried, for the first time since Santana knew her, she didn't look perfect. Still, Rachel found her scary, so cold.
"What the hell are you doing here? " god, even her voice was shaking. Rachel was gonna respond trying to found a way out of this mess but Santana was quicker her accusing tone slicing the air, like a sword: "We're here to find out what happened to our friend. We don't believe for a second that she ran away, you're hiding something for us."
Judy took a deep breath, her hands were shaking. She was thirsty, my God, she just wanted a drink. "listen, i know you're worried, but let the adults take care of it, we had a fight and she lefts by the same window you just climb." she softens a bit before continuing: "you know how she is... angry and not reflective when things doesn't go her way... she will come back when she is calmer or needs something." her soft tone flew in an instant: "now i give you a choice, either you leave by the door and i forget what just happened, or you go through the window and i warn your parents and the police." Rachel grabbed her friend/foe's hand before she could caused them more trouble and pulled her down the stairs.
As the girls walked in direction of their house with heavy hearts, Santana slowly started chuckilng :"Look what I've got," she brandishes Quinn's phone in the air while raising her eyebrows. Rachel's face lit up before asking : "What do we do now?" Santana looked her right in the eye: "now we do the work that adults refuse to do, you take care of making posters that we will post all over the city tomorrow at the firsthour. I'm going to search Q's phone for usefuls informations."
Santana snapped her fingers to try to bring Rachel's attention back to her: "It wouldn't have helped if she came today, she's too emotional to help us, Berry"
"Nice Santana, then, just out of curiosity, how are you going to explain to her that Quinn's face is plastered on every surface of the city?"
"Jesus, you're really annoying when you get into it, I know very well that she's going to find out, I just wanted to save time!" Santana knew that Brittany was going to end up wanting help, she just didn't know if she would have the strength to see her friend so upset. "We have more posters," she slowl said: "time to go to the police." Rachel frowned: "the police ? to do what?"
Santana sighed again, and Rachel wondered if she was going to end up completely flat. Santana was quick to continue when she saw Rachel open her mouth: "I know it's not up to us to do this, but the Fabrays won't... So either you come with me or you go and sing Celine Dion in your corner but I beg you to decide."
Rachel watched Santana walk away and followed her in with hesitant steps. She wasn't sure she'd survive two days working with Santana.
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