Chapter six: That Mike

Word Count: 3, 239

"Tell me again what happened."

Rachel rolled her eyes and forced herself to look at Quinn as she drove them both to school. Rachel couldn't claim that she was looking forward to coming back but skipping school for two weeks was a little too much in spite of her current situation.

"He said that he was sorry. They had no right to force me to tell anyone why I chose to quit and then he said that he thought it was sad that I didn't feel like I could be myself anymore and that he hoped that I would eventually feel like I could."

Quinn scoffed. "That Mike…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Quinn shrugged. "I have no idea. I just get really annoyed every time we talk about this."

"Then why do you keep asking me to tell you what he said again?" Rachel frowned.

"Because…" Quinn scoffed again. "I have no clue why I want you to keep telling me. I only know that I was hoping that he was going to tell you something more than just sorry. Maybe I was feeling a bit idealistic at the moment and hoped that he would go all out and by all out I mean John Hughes all out."

"You wanted me to experience something that could have happened in a 1980's movie?"

"Yes, and I figured if anyone was going to make that happen it was going to be Mike."

"So, why the sudden idealistic feeling?" Rachel asked and glanced at Quinn. The blonde's cheeks had quickly turned into a violent shade of red. "Could it have been because of a certain Noah Puckerman?"

"Noah Puckerman makes me feel the very opposite of idealistic." Quinn hissed. "He makes me feel so angry sometimes that I don't know what to do with myself."

"I agree about the not knowing what to do with yourself part… not the anger." Rachel said and smirked at Quinn. The blonde was not amused. "Look Quinn, I'm not saying you love the guy or anything. But you have a daughter together. He will probably always mean something to you."

"Yeah," Quinn nodded. "Trouble."

Rachel didn't bother answering her. She returned to looking out the window and allowed her thoughts to soar away while Quinn hummed and occasionally sang whichever song was playing at the moment. Mike really had only come to her house to apologize. Rachel had been hesitant. She thought he was going to tell her something else. Maybe he would ask her to come back to Glee. But he didn't. He just said that he was sorry and those words alone had Rachel feeling better than she had in a long time.

"I forgive you, Michael." Rachel spoke softly from the chair where she sat in front of her desk.

Mike sat on her bed, fidgeting with his hands while his eyes skipped between her and the floor. When she said those four words however he looked up at her with a smile on his face. Rachel had never noticed before that Mike had a crooked smile. Not in an obvious way like Finn but it was crooked. He released a deep breath.

"I'm so happy to hear you say that." He sighed again. "I thought for sure that I was going to have to crawl in the dust or something. Not that I wouldn't deserve it but I was just not looking forward to it."

"Is that what people think of me?" Rachel asked in a low tone. "That I like making people crawl in the dust. Do people assume that I have some kind of superior complex?" Mike hesitated. "And don't lie."

"I don't know." Mike raised his hands in defense as Rachel gave him a disappointed look. "I know that people think you're high-strung and stuff like that but I don't know about what you just said."

"Oh," Rachel nodded. "I don't know why I asked. I mean I know these things. I know what people are saying about me. It's not like it's changed for the past years or so."

Mike shrugged. He could tell her that they were wrong. But they weren't wrong. Rachel could be so obnoxious sometimes it wasn't even funny. She could make people want to – in the words of Noah Puckerman – put themselves on fire. But Mike couldn't tell her that. He wasn't going to tell her that. So, he opted for looking around her room. Like the awkward teenage boy that he was. That's when his eyes caught something.

"Hey, is that…" he glanced at Rachel. "What kind of music do you listen to?"

Rachel shrugged. "I listen to pretty much everything. Why?"

"May I?"

Rachel nodded her head, not really sure what she had just agreed on, and watched him cross the floor of her room. He stopped when he reached her curtain and moved it slightly to the side revealing a stack of albums that were not musicals. Mike sat down in front of it and took the first album in his hands.

"Tupac…" the brunette laughed and walked over to sit next to him on the floor. "You listen to Tupac?"

"I happen to appreciate the emotion he puts in his songs. He also happens to be a very good actor and I believe him to be an excellent example of a person that can categorize himself as both an actor and a musician." Rachel took another album. "I think Ice Cube is pretty good at that too."

Mike nodded and the smile on his face grew as he looked at Rachel.

"What are you looking at?" she asked feeling a blush appearing on her face.

"You," he said. "You just surprised me that's all."

That Rachel hadn't told Quinn. Not that she didn't want to. She just wanted to keep it to herself. Not that there was any reason to. It didn't mean anything, right?

GLEE

"Quit jumping around man, sit still!" Puck hissed. "You're making me nervous and the Puckerone does not get nervous."

Mike nodded and forced himself to lean against the locker next to Puck. "Sorry dude." He did try to stand still but it appeared to be impossible because seconds later he was fidgeting with his fingers.

"Okay, what's going on? What did you do? I thought you made things alright with Rachel last night?"

Mike nodded.

"Then why the fuck you acting like a twelve-year-old girl about to see the boy she's crushing on?"

"Just because I said I was sorry doesn't mean that she's going to want to dance with me for that stupid competition."

"The competition? You still doing that?"

Mike shrugged. "I was going to ask her if she wanted to."

"Why?" Puck asked.

Mike shrugged again. "Why not?"

GLEE

"Well, well, well… if it isn't the ice queen."

Quinn didn't have to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. But with her books already in her arms she did. Santana, Brittany and Quinn herself had been referred to as the unholy trio. What she saw in front of her now could only be called the unlikely trio. Santana, Brittany and Mercedes. Too much ego and willpower in the same group. And that was just between Mercedes and Santana.

"What can I help you ladies with?" Quinn asked.

"We were hoping that you could tell us what your baby's baby mama is doing here."

Quinn frowned. "Wait, what? My what's what?"

Brittany nodded. "That's what I said too."

Mercedes shushed the blonde and got given a glare from Santana. "What is Shelby Corcoran doing in this school? I thought she was working at that private school with all those snobs."

"I thought she was too." Quinn said still frowning.

Santana sighed. "Let's go. This is useless. Blondie looks more confused than Brit did when asked if the chicken or the egg came first."

Brittany looked up at the roof. "That was tricky."

The trio were just about to turn around when Quinn took a step closer. "Wait, why do you care about what Shelby is doing here?"

Santana pursed her lips. "You'll find out. Eventually."

GLEE

Something was up. It was hard not to notice really. The dramatic way that the Glee kids had left their meeting that morning. The way people glared at her in a more vicious way than they had the previous days. It was apparent that something had happened and Rachel had no clue what. She hadn't been able to ask Quinn and whenever she saw Mike or Puck in the hallways they were always heading in a different direction than she was. So, when lunch came Rachel marched up to Quinn's locker where the blonde stood.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked before the blonde had any time to say anything.

"Hello to you too," Quinn said with a crooked smile as she put her stuff into her locker and closed it.

"Hello Quinn, I trust you are doing as well as you were when I spoke to you like an hour ago," Rachel didn't give her enough time to answer. "Now, can you maybe tell me what is going on? People are acting really weird."

"I know."

"You know that something is up or you know that people are acting weird?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "I know that people are acting weird. But I have no idea." Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and gave the blonde that look. That look where her lips were somewhat pursed and her eyes pretty much demanded the truth. "Okay, I may have a tiny little idea as to why people are acting like they saw the abdominal snowman wearing nothing but his underwear."

Rachel frowned. "I have no idea what that last part was about but I did understand that first part about you having an idea as to why people are acting weird. Would you like to tell me?"

"No," Quinn responded. Much to Rachel's surprise.

The brunette didn't even try to hide it. Her eyes widened and she opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to come up with something to say. But it felt as if her brain had all of the sudden decided to stop working. The only words she could come up with at the spur of the moment were nothing but nonsense that would get her nowhere.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not sure if it's true and if it's not true then I'd feel terrible for telling you." Quinn sighed. "Can we just go to lunch? We could ask Noah and Mike if they know anything?"

"Noah?" Rachel couldn't help but ask.

Quinn rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile on her face. "I meant Puck."

"Sure, you did." Rachel said with a smirk and laughed. "I'm pretty sure that you meant Noah. Maybe you shouldn't have been interrogating me this morning."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I thought you were the smart one, Quinn." Rachel said with a teasing tone in her voice. "It means that maybe something more interesting happened between you and Noah. You are very welcome to share."

Quinn grabbed a tray and then picked from a number of various foods. Occasionally, she glanced up at Rachel. "I am not sharing anything."

"But you want to." Rachel said as she picked all the vegan options. "I can tell."

Quinn sighed again. "I am not telling you because there is nothing to say." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rachel open her mouth. "Hey, speaking of talking. Mike apparently told Puck that he was going to ask you if you were interested in the dancing competition? Have you talked to him about it yet?"

"Yeah," Rachel said nodding. "We talked about before he went to Glee. Exactly before to be specific. And I'd tell him that I would think about it."

Quinn frowned. "Why would you have to think about it?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to think about it. It's what I do. I don't make hasty decisions, as you should know by now."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I probably should."

She turned around and faced the rest of the students in the school. Quinn – prior to being friends with Rachel Berry – thrived in the attention she was given by the rest of her classmates. Nowadays it annoyed her to no end but whatever she did nothing seemed to make them less interested. She saw a few of her former friends from Glee-club glaring at her as if she was something disgusting stuck underneath their shoes. Quinn ignored them. And then she laid eyes on Puck and Mike sitting by their own table at the end of the room. Far from the football team, hockey team, Cheerios and the members of Glee. Perfect. Rachel didn't question her when she moved across the room. Quinn expected some kind of annoyance when she opted for sitting down next to Noah – leaving an empty chair next to Mike – but nothing.

"So, spill Puckerman." Quinn said and took a bite of her sandwich. Carbs was a strict no-no when she was a Cheerio and now that she wasn't anymore carbs seemed to sneak their way into every meal of the day. "What's going on with Glee?"

Noah seemed to be at loss for words. He glanced at Mike and Rachel. "Are you two dancing in that competition or what? I need to know if I should mark my calendar so that I can support my brother Chang and my fellow sexy Jew. I'm a very busy man you know."

For a moment, no one spoke. Quinn squinted at Puck but when Rachel realized that he wasn't going to answer she nodded her head.

"Uh, yeah," Rachel shrugged. "I mean if you're up for it? I'd like to give it another go. It didn't exactly go well the last time but maybe this time it'll be better?"

Mike nodded. "It'll be awesome."

Quinn watched the two with a smile. It was hard not to react in any other way. She didn't know if she was good at telling when people were lying or if Mike was just unusually bad at lying but she could tell that something was very different. Just like she could tell that something was very different with Noah. Quinn squinted at her. "So, what happened in Glee this morning that has everyone acting like aggressive piranhas?"

Puck looked first at Mike and then back at Quinn. He opened his mouth several times, shrugged his shoulders and for the first time in her life Quinn saw a little bit of Finn in him. That awkward side that came out whenever Finn didn't want to tell the truth. Maybe they were rubbing off on each other.

Puck leaned closer to her. "I feel like we should talk about this somewhere else."

Quinn frowned. "Does just outside the cafeteria work?"

Puck frowned but nodded. "It's good enough. There's way less people out there and we've got way more accessible emergency exits."

The blonde got up from her seat first. She offered Rachel a smile and then began navigating her way through the crowd with Puck just behind her.

"Where are they heading?"

"Probably to talk about why people in Glee are acting so weird." Mike shrugged. It took less than ten seconds for Rachel to get up from her seat and start moving through the room. "Apparently, we are following them."

With the grace of someone who had danced for his entire life Mike managed to catch up with Rachel before she left the cafeteria. Even if they hadn't heard Quinn's upset voice it still would have been easy to find them. The hallways were completely empty excluding the blonde, Puck and a third person. But Rachel couldn't tell who she was.

"What's she doing here?" Quinn asked. She wasn't screaming but there was no doubt in Rachel's mind that she wanted to.

"I'm here to work. I'm starting a second Glee-club. The school decided that they wanted to put more money into it since it went pretty good the last time." Rachel would know that voice from anywhere. She wasn't surprised when she saw long brown her, like her own shade, a smile and a face with flawlessly applied make-up. Shelby looked up at the same time as Rachel did and she became quiet.

Rachel was somewhat aware of the fact that Quinn, Puck and Mike were all watching her. Almost as if they were waiting for her to explode.

"Hello Shelby." Rachel eventually said without as much as a waver on her voice.

"Hello Rachel," Shelby replied and took two steps closer. There were still meters of space between them yet Rachel felt as if her birthmother had moved just a tiny bit too close. "I was actually looking for you when I heard these two fighting in the hallway."

Shelby gave Quinn and Puck a stern look. Neither looked very affected by it.

"Did you need me for something special? Because I'm on my way to the dance studio with Mike." Rachel glanced at the boy next to her and released a sigh of relief when she saw him nodding. "We have a competition to practice for."

"It won't take long, I can promise you that," Shelby said with a smile. "I spoke to Mr. Schuster this morning and then to the rest of New Directions during their meeting and I was told that you are no longer a member of Glee."

Rachel nodded. "That's correct."

"Can I ask you why? I asked Mr. Schuster but he didn't know."

"You may ask but I don't feel like this is the right time nor the appropriate place to have this discussion. Also, I am in no way obligated to tell you or Mr. Schuster the reason why I chose to quit. I am quite frankly not even obligated to tell my parents."

Rachel waited for a reaction but nothing happened. Though she didn't want to admit it a hint of disappointment spread across her chest. She was hoping it would have a little more affect than that.

"You are right about that and I respect your decision," Shelby nodded. "I wanted to ask you to audition for me this Friday. You're a very talented girl Rachel, probably the most talented girl this school has to offer as far as musical theater goes and I would very much appreciate if you considered joining us."

"No thank you," Rachel spoke swiftly and without emotion. "I don't sing anymore."

She didn't give Shelby any time to react. She just turned around and did her best to ignore the way her eyes stung and her heart beat quicker with every step she took. There was no reason to cry she thought as she heard someone run after her. Rachel was going to tell the person who was following her that she wasn't sad at all. When they asked her if she was okay Rachel would tell them yes and they would believe it. The steps slowed down and then matched her speed. It wasn't Quinn, Rachel thought when a hand snuck around her own and clutched it tightly.

"So, are we dancing or what?"

Rachel sighed with relief and smiled at Mike. "Yeah, we are."