Chapter 3

Rachel couldn't even be bothered that someone's throwing spit balls on her back. She was too preoccupied. Too busy thinking about the conversation she'd had with Kurt. Not even when the professor called her name to answer a question was able to get her out of her stupor.

Finn Hudson. The infamous Finn Hudson is Kurt Hummel's b-boyfriend? Even in her mind he couldn't say the word without stuttering. Isn't he dating the captain of the cheerleading team, Quinn Fabray? Wait a minute. So then that makes this Quinn girl his big gay beard.

She shakes her head to try to focus on the lesson and suddenly she remembers Noah was supposed to be in this class with her and she looks around but he's nowhere in sight. Oh well he's probably with his best friend, Fi-oh God. Finn is best friends with Noah. Then this means..No. No. No.

Rachel reassures herself by thinking about the ridiculousness of it all. What if he's like in love with him or something that's why he befriended him. No. That can't be. Finn Hudson can't be gay because then he's going to be a threat to her too and the girls in the cheerios with their hot body and short skirts are enough torture to her already. How can he ever compete with a best friend who's practically known him all his life. She sighs loudly and ducks her head down.

But he is Kurt's boyfriend and surely he's not the kind that cheats. But what are the chances. You practically know nothing about the guy. What if he's hiding his feelings for him? But Kurt might still be lying and unless it actually comes out of Finn's mouth then it's still moot. God this is so confusing even for her and she's never confused no matter what the subject is. Well to her credit, this was something that's still relatively alien to her.

That's it. She's going to talk to Finn and she's going to talk to him now. She stands up and her chair screeches loudly against the floor gaining everybody's attention including the professor who shoots her a glare. She sits back down a little embarrassed.

Or maybe after the bell rings. Yes that would be more appropriate. She painstakingly waits until the clock strikes nine and then she practically bolts out of the door before the bell stops ringing.

Her head darts upward. Sometimes it's very hard to be five foot two in circumstances like this and she couldn't be more than thankful that the person she was looking for stands at six foot three and among the swarm of students getting in and out of their classrooms or heading towards their locker, it's easy to spot him.

This proves to be wrong as she is now five minutes late to her next class and she still haven't seen him or even his shadow. Well, technically, he wouldn't have a shadow given it is mid morning and they are inside school premises.

The number of students walking around the hallway has significantly decreased and still no sign of a tall, lean, brown-haired guy anywhere. She needs answers and she needs them now but she's never skipped class before and she's not about to start today.

She looks around for a few more minutes and the school hallway was practically deserted by now save for herself loitering in search of Finn who's yet to be seen.

She reprimands herself for being so incompetent that she found it so hard to spot someone as prominent as Finn and marches down to her next class. She was still mumbling to herself when suddenly all the books and papers she was carrying come flying out of her hands and her butt following the dropped items on the floor.

"How cliché," she snides sarcastically while sitting up to collect her stuff and she half expects to see Finn being the one who bumped her.

She quickly pulls herself up to give whoever did this a piece of her mind.

"I am already late for class and you had to choose this m-moment," she pauses. This is the second time of the day she was almost on the verge of shouting expletives if not for the strong dislike of such crude words because standing there with furrowed eyebrows looking at her is Noah. Oh God.

She should have felt his presence. She knew that smell. She was too preoccupied on the task to find Finn that it didn't register to her mind until she actually saw him. She should have known that this was the more cliché thing to happen. Of course she was bound to run into him but she hadn't been expecting that the universe would take it far too literal for her liking.

She stands up straight and looks at him in the eyes. At least now she had a reason to look at him, like really really closely look at him. God. In this proximity, she could see his eyes turn from brown to the lightest shade of green. She's never noticed it before although that might be because she never really has any reason to stand this close to him. He's absolutely gorgeous and oh God was she stupid. Stupid.

"Excuse me?" he suddenly muses.

Rachel was not sure if there were more words spoken before that so she fumbles for words and only a faint sound comes out of her voice. "What?"

"Did you just call me stupid?"

Did she just call him stupid? She shakes her head and she swallows hard. I mean sure he isn't getting a lot of high marks but that is not what she meant but she couldn't get herself to talk.

Speechless? Again? Really Rachel, could your timing be more appropriate? Noah Puckerman is talking to you. Here is your chance. Where are those big words that comes out of your mouth now that you need them?

"Was that out loud?" Shame.This is completely and utterly embarrassing.

He shoots her a dirty glare before speaking. "Well excuse me then for being in your way. If you're so smart, couldn't you have avoided bumping into me?"

He pushes past her and continues to walk away all the while speaking. "Don't wanna contaminate you with my stupidity."

She ducks her head and tries to apologize. "Noah, that's not what I-" she starts but when she turns around to look at him, he's already too far to be on earshot.

He hates her now. They haven't even officially met and he already hates her. Noah Puckerman hates Rachel Berry. The day he finally took notice of her and she stupidly calls him stupid. Can this day get any worse? And it wasn't even meant for him! She gives out a long sigh of defeat before allowing her eyes to travel to Noah's back turned to her.

Isn't he supposed to be in class? Ha-ha. Joke's on you, Rachel. Aren't you supposed to be in class too?

She glances at her watch and she's almost half an hour late. She will now be considered absent even if she still walks to her class. Well what the hell. She's a teenager and aren't teenagers supposed to break rules? Not really. But still she had never not attended class before and this is as far as she could go in breaking school rules and she's here now so why not make the most of it?

And by making the most of it she means following Noah to wherever he is going.

She surreptitiously follows him down the hall with extremely light feet to where he's supposed to meet whoever and she hopes against all hope that it's not another cheerio or some m-milt or whatever he calls those cougars he occasionally hooks up with.

Rachel's not naive. She knows all of Noah's activities including the sexual ones. She doesn't blame him though. He's a complete stud and a teenager with raging hormones If anything, it all just adds to his charm. She's lost count on how many cheerios talked about how Noah defiled them in all sorts of places and bizarre sexual positions. She cringes at the thought.

She knows how completely out of character it is for her to be interested on someone like Noah Puckerman and that's why she keeps it discreet or at least that's what she thought she'd been doing.

She's scared that once everybody finds out especially those Neanderthal puckheads on the football team and the whiny awful bitchy cheerios about her little school girl crush on him that they would call her out on it and make fun of her even more than they do now for the mere fact that she likes the guy. It means more slushies and more laughter directed towards her. So no thank you. She's more content on doing it from afar.

But this small part of her still hopes that maybe, just maybe one day she'll have shot at a relationship with one of the most popular guy in school.

But don't get her wrong, she doesn't want to be just another notch in his bedpost and that is saying if he ever decides to sleep with her in the first place. She wants to be that girl who saves the bad boy no matter how cheesy that sounds just like in all those sappy romance novels she's read back in 5th grade.

She sees Noah turn left down the corridor and she mentally thinks of the possible places he would go to but coming up blank because she was quite sure the only thing in that part of the school are rooms after rooms which without a doubt would be occupied seeing as it is class period.

When she gets nearer, she attaches her back to the wall and starts walking sideways. Being stealthy isn't that hard when you're that small. She bends her legs down and and slowly peaks at the corridor making sure only a part of her face is seen so she wouldn't be recognized if someone sees her but to her extreme disappointment, it was empty.

Had she been imagining that Noah went here? Impossible. He couldn't have disappeared so quickly, could he? Unless...unless he actually went to class. Well that seems more unlikely than disappearing into the thin air. Come on, it's Noah Puckerman we're talking about here. Besides she doesn't recall in his schedule that she has now memorized by heart that he has a class in this part of the school.

She purses her lips before fully emerging her whole body to walk down the path she was so sure Noah had taken. She looks around to make sure no one would do a sneak attack on her. For all she knows, Noah might have taken the hint that she was following him and waiting to attack her for revenge although she highly doubts it as she's been so covert while stalking him that she thinks if she was following herself, she wouldn't even notice. Okay, that may be a weird comparison but whatever.

She wipes her sweaty hands down her skirt and lets out a relieved sigh when she confirmed that the coast is clear. And now onto the task at hand.

She gingerly walks forward while looking at the names of the room until at the end of the hallway, she sees the entrance to the school auditorium. The auditorium? Of course, where else would it be? It would be the perfect place for Noah's indecent affairs with women at this school. It seems to her that his life motto was to live life to the fullest by defiling one hot cheerleader at a time. Hell, maybe even two at a time.

The only problem is that the auditorium is Rachel's place. It's the one place in school where people actually like her or rather her talent. Given that only happens twice a year during productions of school plays but she'll take what she can get. And she is not about to let Noah pollute her home in this school no matter how sexy he is.

With her whole body filled with indignation, she bursts open the door of the auditorium so whoever might be in it would know of her presence in the place. She was well-known for her storm-outs especially in the clubs she's in due to them not paying any attention to her and she's just as good at dramatic entrances.

She goes to take a few steps down purposefully making heavy thuds with her shoes, well as heavy as someone her size could muster, just so if Noah is having sexual intercourse with some bimbo here, he would at least have the decency to stop when he notices someone else is in the auditorium. Although when she thinks about it, she wouldn't mind a glimpse of what he's hiding south.

She sees the figure of a guy sitting in one of the chairs a few rows down and for minute she thinks this guy is getting fellatio from a trollop and she had already braced herself for whatever traumatic images she would see but nothing could have prepared her for what she is hearing.

There was no moaning or groaning or crying sound of pleasure coming from two people fornicating and certainly no Noah Puckerman or a cheerio in sight but instead there's Finn Hudson in all his giant glory hunched over himself trying to fit in one of the chairs inside the auditorium. His elbows leaning on both legs and his face buried in his hands while he groans and cries in frustration.

Crying. Finn Hudson is crying for crying out loud. He looked so vulnerable and he must have been so wrapped up in himself that even the dramatic entrance Rachel had executed herself wasn't enough to pull him out of whatever has put him in this state.

Wait a minute. Finn Hudson is crying. It still won't sink into her head and she just stood there frozen The more concerned (and okay maybe a little bit nosy) part of Rachel wanted to come up to him and ask him what's wrong but then again they've never really talked directly save for some awkward obligatory conversations in a few classes she has with him.

She has no business with him and yeah sure she's been looking for him all morning to ask for confirmation of Kurt's claims of him being his boyfriend but as someone who has had more emotional breakdowns than the next person, she's not about to disrupt him in the middle of his own just for her own intentions. She may come across as selfish and abrasive but she has experienced breakdowns enough to know how weak it can make someone feel and most of the time she'd rather be left alone than be confronted so she just turns around and walk back to the door and make it as if she never went in but just as she was about to take the next step he hears him call.

"Raaach"

It was so faint that Rachel could have sworn she was just imagining it.

Truthfully, Finn wanted to call her a little louder but he sort of forgot her name so it comes out hushed and a bit strained. This way he wouldn't be embarrassed because if it's not her name, she wouldn't turn back.

He's not sure she would hear him but figures she did when she halts her footsteps and the two of them were encompassed in silence. She tentatively turns around and looks at him with questioning eyes. He looks back at her intently.

"Uh h-hi" she says with an obvious hint of hesitation. "Don't worry. I-I didn't see anything. In fact, I was just about to leave."

She turns around too quickly that she actually felt dizzy although that might also be from the shock of the events this day and it hasn't even reached noon yet. She reaches on her forehead and closes her eyes to steady the throbbing she felt inside it.

Finn would have laughed at her for looking so jumpy when she turned around had it not been for the previous events of the day. And just like that the heavy weight on his heart is back again.

She moves forward with eyes closed still trying to soothe the throbbing in his head only to miss the next step and come falling down with a loud thump for the second time that day. She growls in aggravation. When she had asked if this day could get any worse, she didn't mean it as a challenge. God. Whoever is in charge up there just couldn't take a hint.

She again collects the items that had fallen from her hand but she abruptly stops when she hears it. She hears the unmistakable sound of a guy laughing. How dare he. Rachel was seething. After showing courtesy towards him, this is what she gets? She picks up the last item on the floor and scrambles back up to face him again.

She tries to catch his eyes to shoot him a dirty glare but to no avail since he's head was tipped back up and his eyes closed while he just laughs uncontrollably clearly enjoying himself. She continues to stare at him in disbelief. And to think this was the same guy who looked so vulnerable while crying not just a minute ago. Is he bipolar or something?

Just when she thinks he's about to stop, he just laughs harder. It was so infectious that she could have joined him herself had he not been doing it at her expense.

She stands a little straighter and puffs out her chest before pointing a finger at him.

"Finn Hudson!" she calls out. "I hardly believe this is anything of a laughing matter."

He doesn't say anything but he finally looks back in her direction. He couldn't help it. He was just about to succumb back to his misery when all of a sudden he heard the loud thud of someone falling to the floor and she was so small that she actually disappeared from his sight when she fell. He just burst out laughing and felt lighthearted for the first time that day.

"And to think I actually felt sorry for you and was about to give you privacy," she spits out with fury evident in her voice.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I'm having a really shitty day and you just- look, I'm sorry."

She was still a bit mad but she could feel the sincerity in his voice and her heart softens a bit when he hears the sudden gloomy change in his tone again which probably had something to do with the reason he's crying a while ago. She knows it's not that easy to know that someone has seen you in your weakest state.

"Fine. I'm letting it go just this one time. I'm leaving now." She turns around this time slowly taking one step at a time. She doesnt need to fall a third time.

It suddenly occurred to him that this was Rachel Berry. The Rachel Berry that Kurt hated so much to the extent that he'd dragged him into becoming his boyfriend. Pwe. He mentally spits.

And an idea suddenly struck Finn. He's amazed because it doesn't happen very often. He smirks and quickly calls to gain her attention again. This should take care of one problem.

"No, stay."