Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, or its characters. I only own Mouse.
Summary: After being ignored or used for her entire life, Jane "Mouse" Franklin joins Glee Club, and is no longer the singer in the back. It's nothing like what you're thinking ... Puck/OC
(a/n: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I will reply soon!
Read on, oh faithful ones!)
...
Chapter Two
...
Puck hated that he was stepping foot into the library for the second time in as many days. He'd avoided the damned place for the past five years, and had been proud of that fact... Heading to the back of the library to the staff office, he heard Mouse singing and shook his head. Wasn't this supposed to be a library, where people were 'shushed' at every noise? Where was the shushing now?
"Stop that singing; don't you know this is a library, Mouse?" Puck muttered, leaning against the door frame.
"You're in the library again. I just have to call the media. People world-wide will be stunned," Mouse replied, smirking over at him.
"For such a little mouse, you sure have a lot of confidence," Puck grumbled.
"For such a dumb jock, Noah Puckerman, you're awfully into stereotypes," she replied, rolling her eyes as she stamped a book and ripped out the front page.
"What're you doing to that book?" he asked in shock.
"It's my job today. No one's borrowed these books in the last five years, so they're getting thrown out. And since I work here, I get first choice," Mouse said, looking happily at the small pile of books near her feet.
"You're really into all this stuff, aren't you?" Puck asked.
"What stuff?"
"Books. Reading."
"Yeah," Mouse replied, shrugging. "I like knowledge and losing myself in other worlds, and why am I telling this to you? More importantly, why do you care?" she asked, turning to look at him.
"Never said I cared, chica."
"Then why are you in here?"
"Curiosity," he offered, grinning.
"If I'm a mouse, then you're a cat, and everyone knows that curiosity will kill you."
"I'll take my chances. So, what's with all the singing? Aren't you supposed to be shushing everyone?"
She laughed, and he would have glared if it had been anything but joyous laughter. "You haven't been in the library for a long time, have you, Noah?"
"No," he said, his pride faltering.
"Talking is allowed now. It's not the 70's where all the librarians where long skirts, shirts and have their hair up in buns," she said, rolling her eyes as she indicated her short hair.
Puck agreed with a nod as he looked her over, then he noticed the overly simple black shoes on her feet.
"Nice librarian shoes," he muttered sarcastically.
"Thanks," she drawled, just as sarcastic. "I'd like to see you walk around in heels all day, Noah. They're not really practical for shelving heavy books."
"Right... So have you had lunch?"
"Yes, and no, I'm not going to sleep with you," Mouse replied.
"What? I didn't even ask, and as if I'd want to sleep with you," Puck said. "I like to date within my own species."
"Your own species consists of you, yourself and no one else. Have fun with your hand," Mouse replied, smirking.
"Why'd you think I want to sleep with you?"
"Because you've slept with all of the Cheerios, most of the females at this school, including Sue Sylvester and Ms. Lemay... I'm one of about five females you haven't slept with, and then you'll have fucked all of the women at William McKinley High. Congratulations, I hear they make medals for that now."
Puck just stared at Mouse, wondering how the fuck she knew he'd slept with Sue Sylvester. Not his proudest moment, of course, but she was an older woman. He'd made sure it was protected sex, of course. Sue's hepatitis was a world-wide known fact because of her damned megaphone.
"You'd be amazed at what people say when they think no one's listening," Mouse said, answering his silent question.
He just looked at her, waiting for a continuation.
"Well, I know that Quinn's pregnant with your baby, and not Finn's. Kurt is gay, but everyone knows that; what they don't know is that he's in love with Finn. Tina likes Artie, but Artie wouldn't know that if she tattooed it on his guitar. Sandy Ryerson thinks he's not gay, but he still watches Brokeback Mountain and Dream Girls every weekend; and Principal Figgins has a video on YouTube involving knee-high plane socks. It's as weird as. Oh, and he's also a cheapskate, and still pays for Sylvester's European dry-cleaning because she scares the fuck out of him."
"I didn't know you knew how to swear," Puck said.
"You don't know a lot, Noah, but I won't judge you for it. Now scat, I've got to finish this pile in ten minutes before Ms. Lemay gets back," Mouse said, returning to the pile of books.
Puck was still reeling for a long while after he left the library.
...
"Start again from the top!" Will called out, clapping his hands together.
"Come on, Mr. Schue! We've been doing this one routine for an hour!" Finn groaned.
"How much more? We have Cheerio practice soon," Santana said, Brittany nodding her agreement.
"We keep working until we get it right, isn't that right, Mr. Schuester?" Rachel asked, smiling brightly.
"Hell to the no! I've got sweat coming off my sweat here, Mr. Schue! Ten minute break!" Mercedes called out, lying on the stage.
"Really didn't need to know that, Mercedes, but you're right. Ten minute break. Breathe a bit, get a drink of water. How you going, Mouse?" Will asked quietly as she walked down the stage stairs to her bag.
"Fine. Just getting used to singing so much," she replied, shrugging.
"I can help you with that," Rachel offered quickly.
"Thanks."
"Puck, how you holding up?" Will asked.
"Fine," he replied. "Just need some water."
"Right. Go for it. All right, now this routine is ... " Will stopped as his phone started ringing. "Just a sec, guys. Hi Terri. Oh, I didn't know you were choosing the colours already... Yeah, sure yellow is good. I think pink and yellow is a bit much," he said with a small laugh.
Puck watched Mouse as he drank his water, and noticed the slight frown on her face. Following the direction of her gaze, he saw Quinn staring at Mr. Schue with an anxious expression, wringing her hands. Santana and Brittany stood in front of her, redirecting Quinn's attention.
He wondered what was wrong, and then his mind hissed 'Lima loser', reminding him cruelly that he shouldn't care about that bitch.
"You all right, Mercedes?" Kurt asked, hovering above her.
Finn walked over to look down at Mercedes too. "You don't look the best, Mercedes."
"I'm fine. Water," Mercedes said, fanning herself, still lying on the stage.
"You're going to ruin that gorgeous outfit if you don't get up, Mercedes," Kurt advised her.
"It is a good outfit," Finn acknowledged, grinning down at her.
Mercedes sat up, sighing. Mouse rolled a bottle of water over to Mercedes, smiling briefly when the other girl nodded her thanks. She noticed the puppy dog look on Kurt's face when he looked at Finn, and shook her head.
Some people were too easy to read.
"Love you too. Bye." Mr. Schuester shut his phone and turned back to face the stage. "Okay, everyone! Let's take it again from the top!"
A collective groan echoed through them, and even Rachel looked weary, but Mr. Schuester's enthusiasm was catching, and they started again.
...
"H-hi Artie," Tina said, smiling at him. "D-do you want h-help?" she asked, indicating to his guitar.
"I'm fine, thanks Tina. You did a good job today," he said, grinning at her as he started to pack up his guitar.
"T-thanks! Y-you t-t-too," she stammered.
Her stutter always got worse when she was nervous, except when she was singing. Tina hated it. Life would be so much easier if she could just sing her way through it.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Tina. Have a good night," Artie said cheerfully, balancing his guitar on his lap as he rolled out of the auditorium.
"Bye," Tina said, sighing.
...
"I've already said I'm not going to sleep with you, Noah. You can stop following me now," Mouse called.
"I'm not following you, little mouse. I'm just walking this way," he replied from a few metres back, grinning.
Mouse muttered under her breath. She didn't want him to know where she lived, but considering he'd already slept with both the receptionist and the student record administrator at the school, Mouse figured Puck could get access to her personal information whenever he wanted to. Sighing, she headed into her driveway and walked up to the house.
"Nice of you to invite me over, Mouse," Puck said, smirking as he caught up to her.
"Go away," Mouse hissed, glaring. She was just about to twist his ear and kick his knee out when the front door opened.
"Mousie! Mummy! Mousie has a friend!" Candon, Jane's younger brother, yelled.
"Thanks Candy," Mouse groaned, hitting her forehead on the doorframe.
"You brought a friend home, Jane?" her mother asked, coming into the foyer with a bright smile. "Hello, I'm Sarah, Jane's mother. It's nice to see Jane bringing a friend home. And it's lovely to meet you," Sarah added, her smile getting brighter.
"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Franklin. I'm Noah," Puck replied, looking her over with a slight grin.
"Stop looking at my mother like that, you pervert," Mouse hissed at him, glaring.
Puck just smirked at her in return.
"Mummy!" Candon yelled from the lounge room loudly.
"Oh dear. Jane sweetie, I was hoping you could look after Candon today. I've got netball this afternoon. I would have cancelled if I'd known you were bringing a friend over, but Jen twisted her ankle and I'm the only umpire left who isn't pregnant and can still run up and down the court. I think all of the men hatched a plan to get us all pregnant! I heard your teacher's wife, Terri, is pregnant too. Odd that she isn't bigger, but some women are just lucky like that, I guess."
"MUMMY!" Candon yelled again.
"It's fine, Mum," Mouse said with a sigh.
"Thank you, sweetie! Candon, be good for Jane, and Jane, you behave!" Sarah said with a wink and obvious look to Puck.
"I'll treat her good, Mrs. Franklin," Puck said, putting an arm around Mouse's shoulders.
Sarah missed the look of hatred Jane gave Puck, and just smiled as she left the house.
"Get your arm off me," Mouse said, gritting her teeth as she moved away from him.
"Mousie!" Candon started yelling now.
"I'm coming Candy," Mouse said, hurrying to the lounge room.
"It stopped!" Candon cried, hugging his blanket tightly as he looked at the TV screen with tearful eyes.
"Oh sweetie, it's just been paused. You need to press this big button here, remember?"
"Don't want to. You do it," Candy pouted, sitting on his beanbag, his knees up to his chest.
Mouse sighed, pressed the play button, and ruffled Candy's hair up, grinning as he giggled.
"What's he watching?" Puck asked, having followed Mouse.
"The Incredibles. Thought everyone knew what that movie was," Mouse muttered, pulling her bag off. "You know where I live, so you can leave now," she said, sitting on her own beanbag.
"I'm all right," Puck replied, sitting on the lounge closest to her.
"It wasn't a question, Noah. Get the H-E-L-L out," she said, careful not to swear around Candy. He had a habit of copying words.
"I'm sure it wasn't. I want to see you play Halo 3," he replied, looking around the lounge room.
"Halo 3's in my room, and you're sure not going in there," Mouse said, unzipping her bag.
"What you doing now?"
"My homework, what else?" she replied, rolling her eyes.
"You actually do that?" he asked, laughing.
"SHUSH!" Candon yelled, not looking away from the movie.
"Wow, he's already set to work in the library with you," Puck said.
Mouse rubbed her temples and got off the beanbag as quietly as she could. Grabbing her bag with her free hand, she held her homework tightly in the other. Candy liked to make dolls out of paper, which is how her last English essay had come to an early death.
"Follow me, and be quiet," she told Puck.
He grinned and followed her upstairs. Mouse gripped her homework and bag tighter. No one outside of the family had been in her room since she was twelve, and even then her parents knew not to go in unless she was inside. If Puck said so much as a negative word about her room, she would throw him out the window.
Maybe not the window, too much to repair it. Down the stairs? Too likely to break his neck, and she didn't want his death on her hands, or staircase. Well, she'd make him leave one way or another.
Letting her bag drop into the crook of her arm, Mouse opened the door and stepped inside. Her TV, Xbox 360 and DVD were in one corner; her desk was near the window, her Mac sitting on top; single bed nearby, and the rest of her room was made up of bookcases.
"You've got a lot of books," he commented, seeing the four bookcases full of various books. "And DVD's. Geez, running your own library here, Mouse?" he added when he'd turned around and saw another two bookcases full of DVD covers. "Your folks must be rich if you bought all those," Puck said, going over to look at them.
"Not really. I borrow them from the library and copy them," she said, coughing slightly.
"That's illegal, naughty little mouse," Puck said with a grin.
"It's not actually... I don't sell them to anyone, and they're for my own personal use, so it's fine," she said defensively.
"How do you know that?"
"The internet, books; you know, more of that reading stuff," Mouse replied, rolling her eyes.
"Uh huh."
"So why did you really come over? You're not going to kiss me, are you? I'm not Rachel, you know, and I won't be fooled by a song."
"How the hell do you know so much about me? You stalking me?" Puck asked, glaring.
She laughed, shaking her head. "Awfully full of yourself, aren't you, Puckerman?" she asked, still laughing. "I have better things to do with my time."
"MOUSIE!" Candy yelled.
"Coming, Candy," Mouse called, leaving her room.
Her brother tended to get into hysterics if he wasn't answered, and the neighbours had already complained about the noise twice, and called the police once. It wasn't Candy's fault that he didn't understand how loud he was.
"How old is Candy? I haven't seen him around school," Puck asked, watching as Mouse changed the DVD over for her brother.
"He's thirteen, and he's home schooled by a tutor," Mouse replied tersely. "Please leave now," she added, suddenly feeling too weary to deal with Puck.
"I don't care that he's not all there, Mouse," Puck said, his voice as soft and caring as was possible for his usual attitude.
"Please, just leave," Mouse replied, not looking away from Candon.
It was as if a light switched on in Puck's head, and he could see everything clearly. In that one moment, he saw how old Mouse looked. Her eyes were dark and had bags under them, a deep inner tiredness shone through her entire body and demeanour, and as she told him to leave, an inner defeat seemed to well up around her and drag her down.
"All right. I'll see you at school tomorrow," Puck murmured, leaving quietly.
...
End of the second chapter. I hope you liked it.
Thanks for reading!
...