Loser Like Me
It takes Rachel about a month to move back to Lima. She and Kurt both cry every time they help her pack, which causes Rachel to roll her eyes and tell them that the amount of back and forth between Lima and New York they all do it will feel like she never left.
She and Rachel take a girls trip to Ontario. She's only ever been to Toronto once when her dad took her to see a baseball game and Rachel's never even been to Canada. They go for four days and mostly tour around Toronto because Rachel doesn't have her license and the eight and a half hour drive from New York City to Toronto is enough driving for Quinn.
They visit things like the CN Tower and the various museums they have. But they also visit little markets and discover street art. Sam had begged her to take tons of pictures in the Hockey Hall of Fame which she and Rachel spent a total of an hour in. Sam has always been a sports junkie, but has never really been into hockey so she finds it ridiculous that he forces her to go.
They spend an entire day at Canada's wonderland and she learns surprisingly that Rachel loves amusement parks.
On the last day they dress up and go out to dinner together and she tries not to think about how this will probably be the last time in a while the two of them do this.
"So," she begins to ask once the waiter has taken both their orders. "What's your plan?"
Rachel shrugs, twirling her straw around in her water. "I have Broadway experience, so that will probably help. I think I'll have a better idea when I get there." Rachel pauses for a moment, and she can tell Rachel has more to say. "This might sound crazy, but sometimes I can still hear Finn's voice in my head giving me advice on what to do. Some part of me likes to think that it will be the both of us coaching the New Directions next year, not just me."
She places her hand overtop of Rachel's comfortingly. "I don't think it's crazy." She says, and Rachel smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "Sam hears my voice in his head all the time lecturing him." She jokes, easing some of the heaviness. They both laugh.
xxx
Rachel leaves during the first week of August. She assumes it will feel more different for Kurt than it will for her since he actually lived with Rachel, but for the first couple of weeks it doesn't feel all that different.
She and Rachel actually talk more since Rachel left New York, having more time on her hands since she quit Broadway. She, Kurt, and Rachel group FaceTime once a week and they have picked up on their group dinners once again. To help them stay close, Rachel decided once a month they will all have a group potluck dinner over FaceTime where Mercedes will choose the date since her schedule is the busiest and they will all catch up and connect again until the next month. It works the first time they do it, but she knows it will only get harder once everyone's commitments start back up in the fall.
She thinks it's crazy that she's starting her third year. She's been debating grad school. Sam thinks she's insane to want to do more school, but she just hasn't figured out what she wants to do yet. Her dad sends her money monthly to make up for the fact that he practically abandoned her and her mother so she doesn't have to worry about cost, and more school is a better option than a degree and no plan.
xxx
She cuts her hair in the middle of August. It's kind of an impulsive decision. Maybe she is trying to prove a point to Kurt that she can make out of the blue decisions and everything in her life is not planned or scheduled into a routine.
She doesn't tell anyone about it. She drives past the salon one of her coworkers is always talking about and five minutes later she finds herself parking in their parking lot.
She tells the hairdresser to do whatever looks good and two hours later she has shoulder length platinum blonde hair.
She surprises Sam and Kurt during their Friday night double date dinners. And by their reactions they definitely think it was a good choice.
Kurt goes on for about ten minutes about how her haircut has given her so much inspiration for their new fall collection.
She assumes Sam approves because he keeps playing with the ends with his free hand that is thrown over her chair. Although he does make one comment.
"If your hair is short how am I going to be able to-"
"Sam!" She squeals, cutting him off because she has a feeling what he's about to ask is not going to be appropriate. "Not here."
Adam just laughs, but Kurt looks horrified.
xxx
Rachel calls her the first week of September crying.
"Quinn, it's just horrible! She turned the choir room into a computer lab and she cut all of the arts programs, and when I spoke to her about it she told me she's never going to reinstate them! And she has a prisoner as her secretary!" She cries, making her a little confused. She knows everyone thought Sue was awful in high school, but Sue was always kind to her. Except when she outed her pregnancy to the entire school, okay maybe Sue is horrible.
"Sue must have needed permission to cut all of those programs right?" She asks, thinking out loud more to herself than to Rachel.
"What?" Rachel asks, having no idea what she's talking about.
"She has a boss, Rach, go to her boss. Remember when Mr. Shue offered to bring back the glee club after that old creepy coach for no cost from Figgins. Give him what he wants in order to start back up the glee club again." She offers and Rachel squeals.
"Quinn you genius!" She says before hanging up the phone.
xxx
She fits back into another routine. Weekends at Sam's apartment, Friday night double dates with Kurt and Adam. She works three nights a week at the cafe to keep herself busy when she doesn't have homework to do. Spends one day a week at the library studying with Alex and another FaceTiming all of her friends that are in different parts of the country to keep in touch with them.
She still invests time in being there for her friends' accomplishments. She tries to help Kurt find inspiration for his third-year project at NYADA. She still watches all of Artie's short films. Now that school has started up again she can't exactly go fly to see Mercedes' shows anymore, but she still watches all of them on Youtube.
And before she knows it, it's time to go back to Lima to help Rachel recruit more New Directions members.
Homecoming
She can't remember the last time she was so excited to go back home. Rachel was able to find the previous New Directions members, but there still aren't enough members even with them. Ryder, Marley, Jake, Kitty, and Unique are only five, and even if they add a few band members they'd still need more.
She and Sam take separate cars since they will be staying at their own houses. She drives Kurt and Sam drives Artie and Blaine.
She leaves on a Saturday so she can spend all day Sunday with her mom. Although she begins to think it might have been a bad idea because her mother just asks her when she is planning to get married the entire time.
"Mom, I'm still in school. It's going to be a while before I get married. Besides, you have Frannie to give you grandchildren." Her mother goes silent and she wants to take it back as soon as she says it.
Frannie had always been closest to their dad. Even after he had cheated on their mom, Frannie had chosen his side and blamed her for the entire affair. If you hadn't gotten pregnant he probably wouldn't have cheated on mom is one of the last things Frannie said to her. They haven't spoken since and she's not sure Frannie has spoken to their mom since either.
"Wait until I graduate mom, then we'll talk." She says, hoping to lift her mothers spirits.
"Well you're practically graduated now Quinnie, I'm not getting any younger." Is her mother's response. She sighs and rolls her eyes, she really thought her mother would have gotten the hint that she was trying to end that conversation.
xxx
Rachel had asked them all to meet in the auditorium on Monday. She picks up Kurt, assuming Sam will deal with Artie and Blaine. The school looks completely different than it used to and she snorts at some of the signs Sue has hung up on the walls. No PDA; Get to Class! She laughs at the Sue of it all.
When she gets to the auditorium, she finds Santana, Brittany, and Mercedes sitting on a piano. She freezes and goes to pinch her arm because she thinks she's hallucinating or something, the last time she spoke to the three of them they were in Florida. But then Mercedes gasps and says "Quinn, your hair!" and she realizes that they're really here.
She squeals and runs up to them, hugging them all and asks them a million questions.
They laugh and Mercedes explains why the three of them are here. "Rachel called us." She says, looking over at Rachel who is sitting in the stands with Kurt, smiling. "Actually, she called all of us."
On cue, Tina, Mike, and Puck all walk out with Sam, Blaine, and Artie. She laughs and hugs everyone as Rachel and Kurt walk onto the stage to join the rest of them.
"Let's do this," Rachel says, looking around at all of them.
xxx
She's surprised at how hard it is to recruit members. Rachel has instructed the members that they have to also help find anyone they know who might be interested in joining, but even doing that gets them nowhere. They have Ryder talking to the football team, Kitty asking the Cheerios, Marley asking the theatre and drama people and Unique and Jake asking anyone else, but so far they've had no one write their name on the sign up sheet.
Rachel waits a few days to see if any of the kids will be successful, and then finally decides they need to recruit the members. "If we can talk to them about our nationals win or how glee club impacted our lives, maybe it will work better." She suggests.
They decide to hit all the clubs first. She, Tina, Sam, Puck, and Mercedes decide to try some tea party club she's never heard of.
The new clubs along with how much Sue has changed the school makes her feel like she graduated ten years ago instead of three.
They decide to bring muffins to help persuade the students into joining. She gives them to Sam to place on one of the tables and decides to take the lead on this one since the majority of the members are Christians. But to her horror they are not the kind of Christians she, Sam, or Mercedes are. Just as she's about to snap at all of them for their sheer ignorance, Mercedes does it for her, leaving her to give them all a nasty glare while she takes back their muffins.
She waits for Sam who walks up to the leader of the club and says "And you know what? Quinn once had sex with a Latina lesbian. Learned that in glee club!" while kicking his foot in some weird motion and crashing into her once he walks away. She bursts out laughing as he guides the both of them out of the room.
xxx
She, Santana, and Brittany decide to tackle the Cheerios because the one thing that has remained the same since they've left is the three of them still being considered Cheerios royalty.
Santana gets them these cute red cheerleading uniforms that say Cheerios Alumni and they perform Problem with Artie. She tries to get some of the football players interested by singing directly at them and sitting on some of their laps. She's not sure how Sam will feel about that, but at least she's killing two birds with one stone right?
She, Brittany, and Santana subtly high five each other when it looks like with the help of Kitty, they got two Cheerios to join.
She walks over to Sam and Mike who are finishing up a conversation with Coach Beiste and Santana and Brittany run away giggling to do God knows what. Mike wolf whistles when he sees her walking towards them and she blushes as she stands next to Sam who wraps an arm around her waist.
"Well if you didn't get any Cheerios to sign up, you definitely got something up for the football players." Sam says and she turns around to see those who are not practicing staring at her. Well she's pretty sure they're staring at her ass, but staring is staring.
She elbows him in the stomach and he coughs as she directs her attention to Mike. "Any progress with any of the players?" She asks as Sam catches his breath.
"Nothing, even coach Beiste has tried talking to them, but it's the same as it always is. None of them want to join. We had Finn to force us to all join and even though they have Ryder, no one is budging." Mike says and she sighs, she wishes high school students would realize now instead of later that popularity is not the most important thing in high school, it's the people you meet and the friends that you make.
"Well we'll just have to keep trying I guess." She says as the three of them walk back to the school to meet with everyone else in the choir room.
"So do you get to like, keep this outfit?" Sam whispers to her as they walk back. She elbows him again.
xxx
Just as she's about to tell Rachel their progress once they get back into the choir room, Rachel gets up and starts running out of the room. "Rachel!" She shouts as the rest of them chase her down the halls as she runs like a madwoman. "What the hell are you doing?" She asks.
"Don't you hear it too?" She asks as she opens the door to the library. At first she has no idea what Rachel is talking about, but then she hears it too, someone singing.
They find who the voice belongs to and Rachel taps his shoulder to get his attention. He looks horrified to see all of them standing there and her heart breaks when he asks them if they're planning to beat him up.
Even though he tries to convince them that they're better off not having him a part of glee club, she tries to convince him the bonds he'll make with his fellow members are what is most important, not the bullying he'll receive.
He still looks overwhelmed with all of them there so she tries to subtly let her fellow alumni know this is probably a better job for three or four members. Sam tells him to think about it as the majority of them walk away, leaving Kurt and Rachel, but as she turns back around again she sees Puck standing there talking about how he had been the biggest bully at McKinley and then glee club influenced him to be better.
xxx
They wait in the auditorium to see if anyone will show up for auditions, and thankfully Roderick does show up. A few seconds into his performance she, Santana, and Brittany look at each other before getting up and running onto the stage to sing backup for Roderick to make him more comfortable performing in front of everyone.
They only have about six members now including Roderick, but she's not worried. Rachel has always been amazing at recruiting new members, and she knows at least this time none of them will be sent to inactive crackhouses.
Rachel sends them all home after it looks like no one else will be joining and tells them they will all regroup tomorrow before homecoming to see if they can get anyone else to audition.
Just as she's about to go to bed later that night Rachel sends her a text that Blaine was able to find some girl who was rejected from the Warblers because they didn't feel like breaking their sexist brotherhood bond and Sebastian offered her to them because he felt bad for her.
She raises her eyebrows in surprise because of two reasons. One, she didn't know Sebastian Smythe had a heart, and two, she didn't know Blaine and Sebastian were still friends. Huh, she's going to have to ask Sam about that one.
But all in all, a member is a member so she would consider today successful. She knows that even if they don't have enough members yet, Finn would still be proud.
xxx
She and Santana find the Cheerios who were willing to audition yesterday on the way to the choir room and tell them that even though they haven't auditioned yet, she's sure Rachel will let them join anyway because they need the members.
As Rachel holds the first New Directions meeting of the year, she and the rest of the alumni head home to change. She throws on a red blouse and has to borrow a red skirt from Santana. She ends up finishing getting ready just as Sam honks his horn to let her know that he's outside.
Even though she convinced herself she hated McKinley when she attended it, she can't deny that sometimes she misses it. It represents her growing up years. She met her best friends here, her boyfriend here. And every time she comes back she thinks of how much she's learned while in high school and since graduating.
She looks around at all the other alumni who have graduated years before them while she's dancing around with Santana and Brittany. Some of them with their children and grandchildren. She looks over at Sam who is talking with some of his old teammates and wonders if one day that will be them too.
Jagged Little Tapestry
She's decided to stay another week with the rest of the alumni. Although she's not sure how the rest of them are able to miss the first week of school since they go to more performance based schools, her first week focuses more on the syllabus for the course anyway so it's not really that important if she goes or not.
Rachel and Kurt's first lesson is kind of a mess, but she expected nothing less if she's being honest. The older members like Marley and Unique didn't look worried, having gone through this before so at least the new members have them as mentors. She remembers Finn telling her about how his first lesson had also been a shitshow.
She leaves the choir room laughing with Tina when Becky approaches them telling them she needs their help. She tells them that she has a new boyfriend and she lied to him and told him she was the president of every club in school. She gives Becky a shocked look because honestly what the hell was she thinking, but she knows that as hard as it will be to fool him that Becky truly was the president of every single club, it's not impossible.
But apparently that's not all. Becky also told him that she was in glee club and needs them to allow her to sing something.
She doesn't see the problem with it, so she tells Tina she'll meet her in an empty classroom after lunch to discuss song ideas.
xxx
Tina tells her she's going to be a few minutes late so she decides to find an abandoned classroom for the both of them and starts researching song ideas. She hears heels clacking on the floor and has a strong feeling it is not Tina because Tina hates heels, but remains looking for songs anyway.
"Jesus Fabray, how are you the hardest person to find?" She hears as Santana enters the classroom.
She rolls her eyes as Santana takes a seat next to her and asks her what she's doing.
"Becky has some new boyfriend who she lied to about-" She starts, but Santana cuts her off.
"Don't care, I need you to do me a favour." Santana says and she sighs and puts her phone away.
"Yes Santana, how can I assist you?" She asks sarcastically, causing Santana to glare at her.
"So I'm going to propose to Brittany and I need you to record it." Her best friend says casually.
"What?!" She screams, but Santana remains unphased.
"I'll give you the camera and everything tomorrow. I would get Artie to do it, but frankly I don't trust him and Brittany still thinks he's a robot."
"Santana, that's amazing! I'm so happy for you." She says, hugging her best friend who pretends to gag.
"I know, I'm amazing. See you tomorrow!" Santana says, exiting the room.
Tina comes in shortly after, but she's too excited to focus.
xxx
Santana gives her the camera in the parking lot the next day, but as soon as they get to the choir room her hands can't stop shaking.
"Sam," she whispers as everyone enters the room. "Record Santana and Brittany's performance for me." She says, handing him the camera.
He looks at her confused. "Why?"
She rolls her eyes. "Just shut up and do it." She says, opening the camera for him and showing him where the record button is just how Santana had showed her this morning.
She can't sit still, causing Sam to look at her in concern. She sits on her hands as Santana pulls out a chair towards the end of the song and urges Brittany to sit.
She places her hands over her mouth to keep her squeals and excitement quiet as Santana starts her proposal. Tears rush to her eyes as Santana gets on one knee and asks her to marry her.
"Yes!" Brittany says and she screams, causing Sam to jump from beside her, still recording.
She let's Santana and Brittany hug and celebrate between the two of them. Santana laughs after a few minutes and then says "okay Fabray, come here."
She squeals and runs over to them, saying a million things at once, but mostly telling them "you have to let me help plan your wedding." over and over.
"I was actually thinking Hummel could take on that role." Santana says, causing Kurt to squeal as well and join them.
"It will be my third-year project!" He cries, hugging Santana.
She pouts, causing Santana to roll her eyes. "Don't worry, I will have a special role for you too." She says as everyone else comes down to congratulate them.
xxx
Rachel gets all of them to meet in the auditorium for the first student performance of the week. Sits with her back against Sam's chest on the rug Rachel put on the floor as they listen to Mason and Jane perform.
"Ten bucks says they end up dating." Sam whispers in her ear as they sway along to the music.
She furrows her brow. "What? How do you know?" She asks.
"I can sense it" He says and she scoffs and quietly laughs.
"Okay Spiderman." She teases.
"I can! I have great senses." He says and she rolls her eyes. Sam has always been terrible at predicting things.
"Give me an example." She says, giving into what he's saying for his sake.
"I knew from the second I saw you that we were going to end up together." He says and she blushes. Okay, she might believe him now.
xxx
They meet in the choir room after lunch for her and Tina's performance with Becky of So Far Away. They instruct Becky to just join whenever she feels comfortable, but she looks terrified the entire time and then eventually runs out of the room.
The music stops and she and Tina run after Becky and Santana and Brittany follow. She tries to comfort Becky, but nothing she seems to be saying seems to be getting through so she looks to Santana for help, her bluntness strangely always seems to work.
And just like magic, Santana's wise words of wisdom to be honest with Darrell seems to work so she takes on the role of closing the pep talk.
Becky thanks them and hugs them for the first time ever, causing them all to laugh.
xxx
She's sitting in her backyard doing her schoolwork when Sam comes out.
"What the hell, when did you get here?" She asks him as he slips into the chair across from her.
"A little while ago, I was talking to your mom." He says as he picks up one of her pens and fiddles with it.
She rolls her eyes. Sam and her mother have the strangest relationship. Well she guesses he could say the same thing about her and his mother.
"What's up?" She asks, noticing that he has something on his mind.
"Coach Beiste is transitioning." He says and she looks up shocked. She closes her computer and pushes it to the side so he can tell her everything.
"She told us after school today. That her psychologist diagnosed her with gender dis-something. I don't entirely get it." He says, looking a little distraught.
It makes sense, but she also knows she's more educated on these things than Sam is.
"All it means is that she's becoming the person her heart and body always knew she was. Her mind just needed a few years to catch up and realize." She says, but the look of confusion is still there so she places her hand overtop of his. "Coach Beiste is still going to be the same person Sam." She convinces him and he nods.
"Well I guess that's all that matters then." He says, his spirits lifted a little bit.
She smiles. Her boyfriend may be uneducated on certain things, but she is so lucky to be dating one of the most accepting people she's ever met.
xxx
She can't believe the week is already over. Rachel had them learn You Learn/You Got a Friend. She's going to miss it, staying to help out Rachel, but she has faith in Rachel and knows she's going to figure everything else out. Even if she only has nine members right now.
"It makes me sad that you're going to be coaching alone." She says to Rachel as the rest of the members chat with each other. "I know Mr. Shue did it, but still." She trails off, both of them thinking that she would always be doing this with Finn.
"I won't be alone." Rachel says and she looks at her confused. "Puck is staying." Okay, now she's even more confused.
Rachel looks over to where Puck is talking to Jake and Ryder and she follows Rachel's gaze. "He had the same idea, about how this would have been what Finn would have wanted, to restore the glee club. Plus with Coach Beiste transitioning they needed someone to fill the spot as coach while she's gone and he volunteered. So he wants to stay and help make Finn's dream come true." She says and Quinn nods, a small smile forming on her face. She looks up at the sky and thinks to Finn, nice choice.
Ahhh hear me out! I know some people love St. Berry and I promise, I love them too! For so long I was stuck between Puck or Jesse as an endgame for Rachel, which is partially why this chapter took me so long. But just with the way this story is going, it just fits for me. Rachel and Puck working together to restore the New Directions and falling in love in the process, tell me that's not beautiful. And some part of me thinks this is an ending Finn would have been okay with, which was really the deciding factor for me.
Can I tell I had a dislike for all the canon ships? But seriously I do like St. Berry and something tells me that I will be going back and forth on this decision for a while so there might be a change possibly?
Also I know this is kind of a spoiler because Puck and Rachel aren't even together yet but I feel like I needed to explain myself to those who love St. Berry. Please don't hate me, I love them too, just not for this story.
Also also, the S4 newbies being transferred out of nowhere just because Sue felt like it was horrible and made absolutely no sense at all. I know I always make changes and say it was because the original thing that happened made no sense, but this seriously made no sense. I loved the S4 newbies and I really liked the S6 newbies so why couldn't we have kept both?