A/N: We've made it to Day 6 folks! Rachel wears Quinn's Cheerio jacket. Read to find out how.
Day 6: Wearing Each Other's Clothes
The icy impact was harsher than Rachel remembered.
As the slushie dripped down her face, Rachel felt the sting in her eyes instantly. Her eyes welled up with tears, both from the pain and the humiliation. It had been months since she'd been slushied, to the point where she'd stopped bringing her Emergency Slushie Kit to school. She stood, sweater soaked and dripping, watching Karofsky drop the cup in front of her, high-five his friends, and walk away. Rachel held her head high, turned on her heel, and headed towards the bathroom.
Well, Rachel thought as she licked her lips, At least it was grape.
She walked into the bathroom which was, thankfully, empty. Setting her backpack down next to the sink, Rachel pulled her sweater off and laid it on top of the sink. It was ruined, but it was all she had to wear that day, so she had to figure something out.
She put her hands under the faucet and began to splash water onto her face to clean the slushie off and lessen the stinging in her eyes. As she wiped the ice from her face, Rachel looked at herself in the mirror and nearly cried at what she saw. Bloodshot eyes from the irritation, face half-covered in purple slush, hair damp and starting to curl.
She looked like a mess. And she didn't want to start crying, she really didn't, but, up until this point, things had been going so well. She was getting bullied less and less every day, she was growing closer to her friends in Glee, and she was happily single after she realized Finn was not the man she had envisioned him to be. Rachel was happier than she'd been in a long time, and it felt like this slushie just brought her back to square one.
Sure, the bullying had stopped from Quinn and Santana and everyone else, but, if the slushie facial from Karofsky was any indication, their hatred for her remained present.
She grabbed her sweater and was ringing it out over the sink when the bathroom door opened. Rachel spun around to see none other than Quinn Fabray standing there.
Her eyes grew wide, and Rachel realized she was, in fact, wearing solely her bra and skirt. She raced to hold her sweater over her chest and stomach, not wanting to put it back on just yet, and watched as Quinn's eyes flashed from Rachel's face, to her sweater, to her hair, to the sink, to her backpack, and then back to her.
Rachel took in a shaky breath, cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Of course Quinn had to be the one that walked in to see her like this. Hell, she was probably the one that ordered the attack in the first place, and now she had come to laugh at the results.
Please let this be quick.
Instead, Rachel was (pleasantly) surprised when Quinn stepped towards her and frowned. "Did you get slushied?"
She sounded confused, and Rachel couldn't figure out why. Wasn't it obvious that she had been slushied, just on appearance alone?
"Yeah, I did." Rachel answered.
Quinn folded her arms across her chest and looked her up and down. She said, "I made those off limits months ago. Who was it?"
Off limits? Quinn made slushies off limits? Months ago? Rachel's mind was reeling with this new information.
"It-It was Karofsky." Rachel said.
Quinn nodded, taking in Rachel's appearance, yet again. Rachel felt vulnerable under Quinn's intense gaze, her eyes staring holes into Rachel as she looked her up and down. Then, her eyes flashed suddenly, and Quinn shrugged her Cheerio jacket off.
"Here," She said, handing the jacket to Rachel. "Put this on. You must be freezing."
Rachel took the jacket while Quinn took her sweater from her and started running it under the sink. Watching her curiously, Rachel slipped the jacket on, the sleeves falling just past her wrists. Quinn wrung the sweater out, laid it on top of the sink, and turned around to look at Rachel. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight before her, and Rachel's heart flipped in her chest when Quinn licked her lips.
"Yeah, that's…" Quinn trailed off, shaking away whatever thoughts were running through her head. "I'm gonna run and grab you a shirt from my locker. Wait here."
Quinn darted off before Rachel could say anything. The bell for class rang, signalling that they were both officially late, and Rachel sighed. Hopefully, her teacher would understand.
(Back when she was getting slushied on the daily, her teachers wouldn't even bat an eye when Rachel walked into class ten minutes late with damp hair.)
Rachel spun to look at herself in the mirror, and she gasped as she took in her appearance. Her hair was curling more, absolutely ruining the time she had spent straightening it that morning. The Cheerios jacket rested easily on her shoulders, unbuttoned, with just her black bra underneath it. Her black skirt, thankfully, had been spared.
Her eyes kept falling back to the Cheerios jacket around her, and Rachel shivered at the sight of it. She had worn Finn's letterman once when they were together, but it was huge and smelly and didn't feel right on her skin. But seeing herself in Quinn's jacket was a completely different experience. It was just slightly too big on her, and it smelled like vanilla, and the material was soft and warm on her cold skin. She couldn't deny the appeal no matter how hard she tried.
Then, Quinn returned, holding a plain white t-shirt and washcloth. She paused when she walked in, looking at Rachel again, eyes flashing with something Rachel couldn't quite identify, before she handed the items to her and grabbed Rachel's sweater from the sink. Wordlessly, Quinn moved to the hand dryer and proceeded to dry her sweater off using the heat from the dryer.
Rachel was stunned. She slipped the jacket off and put the t-shirt on, tucking it into her skirt. She watched as Quinn attempted to dry her sweater, focused intently on the task at hand, and Rachel set the jacket on top of her backpack and went to finish cleaning off her face and hair.
Besides the running water and the hand dryer, it was silent. A comfortable silence. Rachel wasn't used to silence, but she found she didn't mind it as much with Quinn. It was as if the comfort of her presence was enough to quell any intrinsic need to make conversation.
When Quinn finished, she walked to Rachel and handed her the sweater, enclosed in a zip lock bag. "It's not completely dry yet," She explained, "But I did the best I could."
"It's alright. Thank you, Quinn." Rachel said. Quinn was heading toward the door when Rachel simply asked, "Why are you being so nice to me?"
Quinn stopped in her tracks. She looked over her shoulder at Rachel and met her eyes. "Because it's the right thing to do."
Quinn walked out, and Rachel watched her go, confused as ever. Her Cheerio jacket was still sitting atop Rachel's backpack, and Rachel felt the overwhelming urge to put it on. So she did. She put on the jacket, gave herself a once over in the mirror, and left for class.
(She wore it for the rest of the day and then some.)
The next day, Rachel brought the jacket to school, intending on returning it to Quinn, but she wasn't gonna lie and say that she didn't want to give it back. Wearing it all day yesterday had been quite the experience.
At first, she'd gotten weird looks from people. People had stared at her, dug holes into her with their eyes, trying to figure out why the hell Rachel Berry was walking down the halls wearing a Cheerio jacket. But, after the initial shock wore off, people parted ways as she walked down the hall. She had seen it happen countless times for Quinn and some other popular Cheerios, but it was such a strange thing to see people step aside as she walked by rather than shoulder past her. It held a certain power, wearing that jacket, and Rachel couldn't deny the appeal of it. She liked the status it carried, and as the day had gone on, she was sure people had figured out that it was Quinn's.
Now, as she arrived at school knowing she would part ways with the jacket, she had to admit that she was upset. But she probably shouldn't just not return it because, well, that would be rude.
She made it all the way to her locker before she heard the news.
"Did you hear Karofsky got suspended?" Rachel heard someone say behind her. Ever the eavesdropper, she zoned in on the voices behind her, blocking out the extraneous noises in the hallway.
"Yeah," Someone responded, "They're saying it was because of that slushie he threw at that Berry girl yesterday."
Rachel gasped and stormed off to find Quinn. Luckily, she found her quickly, in the same bathroom that they had been in yesterday. It was empty except for one girl washing her hands at the sink, and she fled the room after Quinn so much as looked at her.
She held so much power, Rachel realized, and the Cheerio jacket was just an extension of that power.
"Can I help you?" Quinn asked calmly.
"Did you get Karofsky–No, I know you got Karofsky suspended." Rachel corrected herself, watching Quinn's face drop. "How did you do that?"
Putting on a mask of indifference, Quinn said, "I went to talk to Mr. Figgins, and when that didn't work, I had Coach Sylvester pull some strings."
Rachel's jaw dropped. "You did all of that… for me?"
Quinn's façade dropped, her cheeks turning red, and she said, "I guess, yeah."
"Well, thank you. Again." Rachel replied. "Oh, here's your jacket."
She pulled the jacket out from her backpack to give it to Quinn, but Quinn didn't take it.
"Keep it." She said.
Rachel was struck speechless. Quinn wanted her to keep the jacket? Like, keep keep? To have and to hold, until death do them part?
Maybe that was a bit dramatic, but Rachel truly couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that Quinn wanted her to keep her jacket.
"Why?" Rachel asked.
"So people know you're off limits." Quinn explained before her eyes widened at the implication. "I mean, for slushies and name-calling and stuff. So people don't mess with you."
The implied "because then they'll have to deal with me" was not lost on Rachel. She took a step toward Quinn, and, without thinking, she reached out to hug her. Quinn didn't move at first, and Rachel was about to pull back and apologize when Quinn slowly placed her arms around Rachel's back. It was an awkward hug, for sure, but Rachel couldn't deny the pleasure she got from it.
As Quinn let go and started to step back from her, Rachel quickly leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. It was instinctual; she didn't even realize what was happening until she stepped back and watched Quinn's expression morph into one of awe, her face flushing instantly.
Rachel smiled at her pink cheeks, a harsh contrast to the usual stone cold look on her face, and decided that she liked to see it, and she would do anything she could to see more of it.
"Thanks again, Quinn. I'll see you at Glee later." Rachel said coyly, walking toward the door.
She slipped the jacket on over her shirt and chanced one last glance at Quinn. The girl was frozen in place, her hand touching the cheek that Rachel's lips had been on moments ago, and she blushed harder when she noticed Rachel staring, quickly dropping her hand. Rachel chuckled and gave her a little wave before walking out the door.
As Rachel walked through the halls, she felt invincible, all of which she knew had to do with the jacket around her shoulders and the girl it belonged to.