"You hired a classical violinist?"
Puck felt like he was on trial. He stood at the front of the choir room, facing an incredulous and entirely skeptical glee club. Mercedes, Santana, and Brittany were all giving him their trademark Troubletones 'tude, except for Sugar who was out to lunch as usual. Finn and Sam were blinking at him like they had just popped out the ground or a cave or something and the light was hurting their eyes, and Rachel and Kurt both looked like they had just swallowed eggs. Probably some acting technique they were trying to perfect. It sure skeeved him out, so they must have been doing it right.
"You're not listening to what I'm saying," he replied imploringly. "This girl is out of this world. Just wait till you hear her. She can play anything. She's going to win us that Nationals trophy. And I didn't hire her. She wants to try it out for a week and if she likes it, she'll stay."
"You know, being so close to Nationals, I wonder if it's at all prudent to introduce a new factor into our team dynamic," said Rachel matter-of-factly, her lips pursed.
"I think Rachel has a point, Puck," said Mr. Schue, jumping in. "We all appreciate what you're trying to do here, but don't you think it's a little late in the game?"
"Yeah, have a little faith, dude," chimed in Finn. "I think we can win it all without any help." He grasped Rachel's hand and smiled at her.
"Come on, just give her a chance," begged Puck. He couldn't believe he had to defend her so strongly. He thought they'd be all over him with thanks and praise and free gift certificates to Breadstix. "It's not like we've been much of a team lately anyway, with our songs still not picked and everything."
Rachel was clearly about to open her mouth again, but Kurt spoke instead.
"What's this girl like, Puck?" he asked. "You haven't told us anything about her yet."
Puck winced inwardly, mentally kicking himself for forgetting to bribe Kurt and Santana with something so they wouldn't freak out and tell everyone how she had stood up to Azimio, which wouldn't be so bad but he had put so much hard work and effort into that syphilis story that it would be annoying to have it all put to waste. Kurt would be easy – now that he and Blaine were obviously getting it in on a weekly basis, all he had to do would be to drop a few subtle hints about his thorough arsenal of data about what guys like – you know, the masculine ones. Santana was going to be difficult, though. It would have been a lot easier if she was still into guys.
"She's smart," he said a little wistfully, remembering their car ride home together. As soon as the glee club negotiating business was over, she started asking him a billion questions about what AP's he was taking and which colleges he wanted to apply to, and after a while he got tired of dodging the questions and just told her straight up that he was stupid in school and that was that, but she jumped on the opportunity like some kind of vicious animal and by the time they got back to Lima, she had taught him the proofs to seven trigonometric identifications and most of the chapter on the French Revolution. She had to be a genius to make that happen. "She's tough, doesn't take no for an answer. She's also kind of…" He trailed off, unsure of how to put it.
"Kind of what?" sneered Santana.
"She's special," he said, rather shortly. "Like, one of those real geniuses. People have just kind of made her life miserable for being so smart, so she has a hard time of it. She's just… defensive."
"So, what you're trying to say is that she acts like a bitch but she gets away with it by flaunting her superior intellect?" asked Artie, eyebrows raised.
"Represent," said Santana, smirking.
"No," said Puck, almost groaning with impatience. "She just doesn't act like you girls do."
"Oh, so she's like one of those lesbians?" asked Santana wearily. "They are so not hot…"
"For the last time, no!" shouted Puck. "And she's definitely not a lesbian."
"What, she tried to hit on you?" asked Quinn.
"God no," said Puck. "If anything it was kind of the opposite." He remembered flirting her up all throughout the car ride home, not just because he was trying to butter her up to get her in glee club, but because he genuinely though she was pretty neat, if a little annoying. He even tried to walk her to her door, but she jumped out of the car so fast you'd have thought it was on fire.
"Puck, just because you think a girl is hot doesn't automatically mean she has to be into you too," said Mike.
"That's not what I mean," groaned Puck exhaustedly. "She's not even…"
He looked around at the glee club. They were all gaping at him like fish. Great, he thought. Now you've really stepped in it.
"Listen," he said. "I've obviously got my foot stuck in my mouth here – "
"Among other places," mumbled Kurt under his breath.
"- so why don't we just give her a chance? She'll be here tomorrow after some meeting she has with some department head."
Mr. Schue looked around at the club, drawing a breath.
"Show us what you got."
Note: I began writing this story before "On My Way" and "Yes/No" aired, so I'm keeping most things the way they were roughly around the Christmas episode. Quinn is fine but not on the Cheerios, Finn and Rachel are not engaged, Sue is not pregnant, and Karofsky never tried to kill himself although he will most likely not be a part of this story. Will and Emma are engaged, though, and planning to get married shortly after Nationals. Hope you guys enjoy it so far! The next chapter will contain the first song. :)
