V.

"Chang! Rutherford!" Puck yelled to them as Matt and Mike made their way down the hall towards the gym, their preferred place to spend their free period. Seeing Mike shoot him a puzzled look, Matt could only shrug. He guessed Puck was a friend, although it was more a friendship due to years spent playing sports together over really liking the guy as a person. In fact, Matt could honestly say that it wasn't until this year, until he got to see Puck enjoying himself in glee club that he even thought of Puck as a real friend, someone he would want to hang out with after school ended.

The Puck Matt had known from the junior high football team was obsessed with his reputation. Even back then, it wasn't enough to just be good at something. Puck needed to be the best. It didn't matter what he was the best at, so long as it was something. And so long as it didn't involve people mentioning anything about his dad. Matt could remember vaguely hearing his and Mike's moms whispering about the horrible thing that Noah Puckerman Senior did when he was in the third grade. He could even remember being disappointed when he found out that all that meant was Mr. Puckerman had just moved out of town. Lots of kids in his class didn't have dads that lived in town. Mike didn't. Finn's dad wasn't even alive. At the time Matt just couldn't understand exactly what the big secretive deal was. Of course now he got it and felt a little ashamed of his youthful ignorance. Now, he got it. It even made sense now when fourth grade started and he started hearing all these stories about this kid who insisted he be called Puck.

Idly, Matt wondered if anyone even remembered anymore Puck's real name was Noah Puckerman Junior. He kind of doubted it. After all during that brief, strange week where he was dating Rachel, it had taken everyone a few minutes to even figure out who Rachel was talking about when she said the phrase "Noah and I". There were a couple of times there in the beginning Matt had thought she had misremembered Brad's name and Rachel was admitting a hot and heavy relationship with their accompanist. Later he figured that was probably a symptom of reading too many random crack pairing fanfics for Firefly, the greatest show on Earth.

He hated the bullying Puck did. He hated the running through women like used Kleenex. He hated Puck's need to make sure everyone knew he was the best and no one else could measure up. Sure he might understand it a little (he was planning on majoring in psychology after all in college) but he didn't exactly have to like it. Puck as a good guy to have on your team when you were on the field, but off the field? Matt preferred to keep his distance. If Puck would sleep with his best friend's girlfriend with what sounded to Matt like very little reason, then what exactly would he do to someone he was only sort of friends with?

After all Puck was on two teams with Kurt and Kurt still got hurled into the dumpster until about a few weeks ago. Matt was very suspicious that only stopped after Puck managed to get himself dumpster tossed, a feat he was still trying to work out the exact physics of. Developing empathy wasn't a bad thing, but Matt really thought it shouldn't take something like that to get Puck to step up and help Kurt. After all Kurt was the reason they even won a single game this year.

Still, Matt had to admit he had noticed a change in Puck as he continued in glee club. Oh sure, Puck was still determined to be the loudest, crudest person in the room but there were moments here and there. Moments where Puck stopped being Puck and was just Noah. After all, Matt doubted singing Sammy Davis Jr. and Neil Diamond were in anyone's category of badass.

Not to mention, Puck didn't exactly hang out with him and Mike during football's off season. So Matt couldn't deny he was more than a little curious as to why Puck had stopped them.

"Choir room." Puck announced without hesitation. "You're my backup singers."

Matt shot a confused look between Mike and Puck. They were his what? When did this happen and why didn't he remember it?

Apparently Mike was having the same memory failure Matt was, because it was Mike who asked the obvious question. "We're your what?"

"Back up singers. Now let's go. You all can't suck and bring down my awesomeness." Puck turned on his heel, not even checking to see if they were following or not. Matt looked over at Mike, who shrugged.

"We might as well go now. You know that was him asking nicely."

"Oh that was that was?" Matt joked rolling his eyes, but falling in step behind Mike anyway. His best friend did have a point. And he had to admit he was curious as to what Puck was even talking about.

Entering the choir room, Matt wasn't shocked to see Artie and Finn waiting there as well. Nodding a greeting to them, Matt sat down next to Artie.

"Got the same polite invitation I did I see?" Artie muttered under his breath.

"Great. Now here's the song we're doing so memorize it and don't suck." Puck announced as he had Finn hand out sheet music. "Finn's going to help me on part of this but I need the rest of you all to make us sound good."

"Did he always sound like Rachel or is this a recent development?" Artie whispered, causing Matt to stifle a chuckle. He really needed to hang out with Artie more. The guy was seriously funny.

Looking down at the sheet music, Matt felt confusion wash over him again. He knew the song. They had listened to it briefly while planning their Kiss tribute, but rejected it once they got wind of the girls and Kurt doing Bad Romance. (Finn had played reluctant spy on that mission) In fact Puck had been the strongest opponent against doing this song, declaring it a "total chick song". Now he wanted to perform it?

"And we're doing this song because?" Mike asked, speaking for the remaining group's confusion. "We already did our assignment for Mr. Schue."

"None of your business." Puck spat out before turning towards Brad, who once again just happened to be there. (Seriously, one day Matt was going to stalk Brad and figure out exactly how he managed that)

Matt just shook his head and stood up to start to practice with Finn, when he overheard Puck's mumble.

"Even though Jack Daniels is a way better name, Kiss is still badass enough to make Beth work."

Now he got it. Matt had overheard Quinn relating Puck's rather unique name choice for their daughter to Mercedes the other day. And personally Matt thought Quinn was totally right in rejecting that choice. It was just begging to get the girl teased down the line. And while he understood Puck's desire to be involved in something since Quinn had completely shut him out of this pregnancy, still naming the child should be the right of whoever adopted her.

Puck was just setting himself up for a big time kick in the ass. Matt could tell that even though Quinn had been clear for months now that she was going to give up Baby Drizzle (alright it was a stupid name but he had heard Finn refer to the baby as nothing else for weeks. It was stuck in his head for all time now) for adoption, there was a part of Puck that wanted her to change her mind. He had overheard her talking about the child rearing books he stole for her, even caught sight of it in her locker once. He might not agree with Quinn shutting Puck out like she did, it was still largely her choice to make. And it was a choice she had not wavered from once.

This was going to end in nothing but disaster for Puck. Now that he thought about it for a second, Matt could see Puck was trying to set up a fantasy of him and Quinn raising Drizzle together. It wasn't going to happen. All that Puck was going to get was probably a few minutes with Beth depending on if Quinn had already found an adoptive family for the little girl. Matt had no doubt it would be hard for them, but really the reasons Quinn cited where perfectly logical. Neither Puck nor Quinn was ready to raise a baby. For all his talk about wanting to be there, Matt had noticed Puck hadn't actually found legitimate employment yet. And he had met Mrs. Puckerman a time or two. The woman worked hard to support Puck and his sister. She was not going to stay at home to raise her grandchild. And Quinn's family was completely out of the picture. What exactly did Puck think Quinn was going to do? Bring the baby to class with her?

If this song was just to perform another piece by Kiss that was one thing, but if it was Puck mounting a campaign to make some decisions or possibly change Quinn's mind? It wasn't going to end well. For anyone. He wondered if anyone else had heard Puck. Or was even wondering why he wanted to perform this particular song. Probably not. Finn had been distracted all day over something Matt could tell had to do with Kurt given the way Kurt was avoiding Finn all day. Artie just liked performing and Mike was probably too busy freaking out over doing a song that was more about singing than dancing.

Someone needed to talk to Puck. And not just talk like guys normally did, all surface and no feeling but really talk to him. Finn was probably the best person to get Puck talking but he was dealing with his own stuff. The idea of Artie or Kurt talking to Puck was just hilarious. And he and Mike weren't that close to Puck really. And it wasn't like Matt actually thought Puck would talk about this with them. Maybe Mr. Schue?

He wasn't the right person to have this discussion, he knew that. But someone had to talk to Puck. And soon.