A/N~I truly do love the reviews that I have received for this story, and I have been trying to reply to each review, but I've lost track of the ones I've replied to and ones that I've left hanging. I don't want to leave anyone hanging, so I plan to reply to all of my reviews again, because two replies have to be better than one. :-) The reason I've lost track of who I have replied to is because I've been having computer and router trouble. This is also why it has been so long since the last chapter. Well, along with IRL popping up in big ways. Sorry!

Disclaimers~I do not own Glee, and I have no beta, so I can claim all mistakes as mine, but nothing else. :-)

*****GLEE!*****

Rachel woke up Monday morning and looked at her alarm. It was going to go off in about 10 minutes. She hated when that happened. Instead of turning it off and getting up as she normally did, she snuggled into her pillow and thought about her weekend. Instead of concentrating on extra dance and singing practice in her basement studio, with breaks to have meals and play board games with her daddies, she spent the weekend like a typical teenager. Instead of focusing on her future she...had fun. And she liked it! She really liked it!

After her marvelous date with Noah on Friday, he walked her to her door and gave her a kiss good night that left her toes curled a good twenty minutes after he left. Dad and Daddy couldn't help but tease her about the stars in her eyes and meeting the young man that put them there. Of course, they've known Noah for years, the Lima Temple did not have a large congregation. She couldn't help but wonder if the typical meet the parents dinner would be more or less uncomfortable for Noah considering it would be with men that had changed his diapers during their first play dates. And since Daddy always loved to bring up the time she talked Noah into playing dress up and made him wear the Shirley Temple wig...Maybe she could convince Daddy not to bring that up, just this once...

Rachel's thoughts were interrupted by her alarm. She quickly turned it off and started to get ready for her day. While she was on the elliptical, her mind wandered to Saturday. She and Noah texted most of the day, but Kurt made her turn her phone off for their Diva Slumber Extravaganza. She was so glad that she had a real friendship with Kurt and Mercedes. Her thoughts were once more interrupted, this time by her phone. She quickly hopped off the elliptical to answer it. "Good morning, Mercedes, I was just thinking about you!"

"That's kinda scary, diva. Are you planning ways to get rid of your competition?"

"Of course not, Mercedes, competition is healthy for the group!"

"Yeah, okay Rach. I was just wondering if you needed a ride to school since it's pretty rainy today."

"Thank you for the considerate offer, but Noah already told me he would be picking me up this morning."

"Puck called you earlier than I did? It must be love for him to get up this early."

Rachel laughed, glad no one was there to see her blushing. "No, actually, Noah and I discussed it last night before I went home."

"Before you went home? Don't tell me he has already talked his way under your skirt-"

"Mercedes! Don't be silly! Noah had to watch his sister yesterday while his mother was working, and I kept them company."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be the first time Puck talked his way into sexy times with his little sister in the house."

"While hearing such a thing from Noah would not surprise me, I am shocked that you think I would act so improperly in front of Hannah!"

Mercedes laughed. "Good to see he doesn't have you too corrupted yet. See ya at school."

Rachel huffed as Mercedes hung up before she had a chance to have the last word.

*****GLEE!*****

Santana rolled her eyes as she pulled into the school parking lot. There was Sam, in all his geeky jock glory waiting for her by his jeep. She sighed as she parked her red convertible next to him. "I told you that you didn't need to wait for me out here. Meeting by my locker is perfectly fine. Like I said before, I'm not like Quinn, needing her big strong boyfriend to tag along beside her everywhere she goes."

Sam shrugged, never losing his grin. "Well, yeah, I mean, I know what you said, but I know sometimes girls are all tricky, and say the opposite of what they mean, and then get mad because people didn't know that you meant the opposite of what you said. So, I thought, you know, better safe than sorry when my hot but kinda scary girlfriend gets here."

Santana smirked at him. "I guess you really are smarter than Finn." She pulled his head down for a kiss that lost none of its hotness even though it was brief.

Sam grinned at her again. " I really like your reward system when I get stuff right."

*****GLEE!*****

Quinn fumed as she pulled her car away from Finn's house. "I can't believe you kept me waiting for ten minutes in my car! "

Finn hunched his shoulders and smiled hopefully at Quinn. "Yeah, sorry about that, I couldn't find one of my shoes. But we still have plenty of time before school starts."

"The waiting isn't what has me so upset. It's the fact you made me wait in my car! Why wouldn't you let me in this morning?"

"Um, yeah, about that...Um, my mom doesn't like you because of last year still. I told her that you've changed, but she still thinks you're a lying tramp and doesn't want you in her house. And, um, I guess Burt kind of agrees with her...so, I think maybe it'd be better if, um, I drove and picked you up?"

Quinn's jaw clenched as she tried to control her temper and her speed. "Let me guess, your mom just loved Rachel and thought she was such an angel and doesn't understand why you didn't get back together with her?"

Finn stared in amazement, "Yeah, how did you know?"

"Nevermind. This is an obstacle, but I can work around it. Your mother loved me once, and she will again. I'll just have to be persistent. Not a big deal. Right? Right!"

Finn hunched into the seat. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer Quinn or not. He didn't remember her talking to herself last time they dated...

*****GLEE!*****

The day was a pretty typical Monday for the Mckinley students, other than the fact that the majority spent all day watching and talking about three couples.

Quinn and Finn drew some stares and whispers, the news had spread over the weekend the way Quinn hoped, but the reactions at school were muted. They walked to their lockers hand in hand. Quinn was slightly curious about the lack of reaction, until she realized most people were staring at the other side of the hall. No. Not just the other side of the hall, they were staring at Santana's locker. No, they were staring at Santana and Sam making out in front of Santana's locker. Quinn fumed as she opened her locker. She couldn't grab attention away from Santana by making out with Finn, because Santana would always be willing to go further than she would, especially in front of a crowd. She would just have to ignore the spectacle of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend. She would be her ever graceful self, and soon people would get bored-

"Hey Q, isn't that Santana and Sam making out?" Finn's loud voice almost made Quinn slam her head against her locker, but she reminded herself, dignity and grace before looking over at Finn cooly. "Yes, I believe it is. She never did have any inhibitions. Walk me to my first class, please."

Jacob was lucky enough to get a picture of the two girls glaring at each other before first period. Artistically speaking, it was a great shot. A ray of light highlighted Santana's glare over Sam's shoulder as Sam appeared to be kissing her neck. Right behind Sam, Quinn's head was turned toward Santana, eyes rolling up in mid scoff while Finn's head was angled closer to Quinn. He seemed to be talking intently and had no clue that Quinn wasn't paying any attention.

This image set the tone for the entire day. Whenever the girls saw each other between classes, glares and hissed insults flew. They guys tried to keep their girlfriends happy, and Mercedes was sure that Sam saw the Inn's coming toward them between third and fourth period, when he twirled Santana around and started kissing her until they were past.

Most students were occupied by watching the drama between the two former cheerios, but many still found time to watch and gossip about Puck and Rachel. This couple had little to no drama around them right now and instead were just...happy. Puck rushed out of any class he went to in order to get to Rachel's classroom before she was more than five steps away from her previous class. Rachel beamed even brighter as soon as she saw Puck, and he would quickly scoop her books into one of his arms before offering her his other. Students were used to seeing Rachel talk nonstop, but it seemed that Puck was not only actively listening, he was adding his own thoughts to the conversation. A few people close enough to hear assured Jacob that his replies were not douchey as they expected. Puck and Rachel seemed completely wrapped up with each other, and unaware of the stares and whispers around them. The only clue that they were still aware of the world around them happened before the last class of the day when Karofsky walked up with a Big Gulp. Puck's hand shot out and knocked it all over Karofsky and the couple walked by. Rachel's statement about this year's Grammy nominees was interrupted by her short giggle at the sight of a bright blue Karofksy.

*****GLEE!*****

Tuesday passed pretty much the same as Monday. The only difference was for the Gleeks. Mercedes promised Kurt she would at least get a vocal recording of the smack down that seemed certain to come in today's Glee practice. Quinn and Santana's glares and insults had been escalating for the past two days, so something juicy was bound to happen.

Tina and Mercedes ran to the choir room as soon as the final bell rang. They slid into the room and stared in disbelief. Somehow Puck and Rachel had beat them there, and were sitting all snuggled together in the back corner of the room. "Well, at least they didn't take the good seats." Tina nodded at Mercedes' words and they sat front and center of the room, waiting for everyone else.

Mike was the next in, and he frowned a little at the sight of Tina sitting in the front row, but shrugged and sat next to her, slinging his arm around her shoulder.

Slowly everyone else trickled in except for Quinn and Finn. Santana made sure that she looked comfortable in Sam's lap while the gleeks waited for the Inns and Shue.

Soon Mr. Shue cam bounding into the room. "Okay, guys, this week—Wait, where are Finn and Quinn?"

Just then, the two came through the door. "Sorry we're late," Quinn beamed sweetly at Mr. Shue. "We were just getting an early start on our campaign." She noticed everyone was staring at her blankly (except Santana, who was glaring as if she was trying to make Quinn's hair catch on fire), and rolled her eyes before explaining, "Our prom campaign, of course! Those crowns won't just appear on our heads, you know."

Santana scoffed from her place on Sam's lap. "Oh, whatever, Tubby. There is no way that you are going to win Prom Queen. Okay, sure, Finnocence has a chance to get king since he still has people hanging all over him because of the football championship game, but prom is still over a month away, and those mouth breathers that roam the hall aren't smart enough to remember that far back. As for you...hate to break it to you, but you're just a gleek like the rest of us now. You have no Cheerio outfit, no clout with the jocks...Face it, girls no longer want to be you, and guys do not want to get with you."

Quinn glared, "Oh, and you're social staning is so much better? You aren't a Cheerio anymore, either."

Sanatana smirked and stood up, walking closer to her former captain. "I'm not a Cheerio anymore, but I still have clout that you'll never have. I might be in a relationship with Sam now, but all the jocks remember the hotness of a make out session with me. They're dumb enough to do whatever I want them to do just hoping that I'll reward them without me doing or promising anything."

Quinn scoffed. "Oh, so you're still popular because you're a slut? Please. There are plenty of current cheerios that the jocks can go to for that. They might not be at your level of slut, but I'm sure the jocks can cope."

Tinkles hunched on the piano seat, trying to hide behind the piano. He was decently far away from the two girls, but he was pretty sure Santana's eyes glowed red for a minute.

Santana took another step closer to Quinn. "Not so fast, Blondie, I wasn't done. The biggest reason why I'm not just a gleek loser like you Man Hands. Fear. Students still make way for me in the halls because they know that I am still a scary bitch. I've seen how you have to fight your way through the halls without that Cheerios outfit, last year you couldn't get any space even with that huge beastly stomach in front of you like those pushing things in front of a train...what is that called again?"

"A cow pusher."

"Right, thanks, Brit!" Santana kept her glare focused on Quinn while everyone else stared at Brittany. Brittany just shrugged and nodded her head in the direction of the current drama, reminding everyone they should be watching Quinn and Santana. This also seemed to remind Mr. Shuester that he shouldn't be encouraging fighting.

Mr. Shuester walked up to the girls and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Now, come one girls, I know you aren't getting along right now, but remember, we're family!"

Santana rolled her eyes and jerked her shoulder out of Mr. Shue's reach. "Okay, first of all, don't ever touch me again. You're old, so that's just gross. And second, we are not a family. I know you love to talk about how we're a family, but that's crap."

"Now, Santana-"

"No, Shue, it's crap, and I can prove it to you." Santana looked over at the front row. "Hey, Mercedes, what are you doing?"

Meredes jerked at the sound of her name and managed to look a little guilty. "Um, I was just recording your...discussion with Quinn to keep Kurt up to date."

Santana whipped her head around to smirk at Shue. "See how concerned the 'family' is about infighting? It's just gossip for them to lap up."

Mr. Shue was silent for a moment before triumphantly replying, "But Kurt is still considered part of our Glee family even though he did have to transfer. So, Mercedes is kindly keeping him up to date with our current doings."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Right Mr. Shue. And since Kurt is still considered family, she should keep recording while we talk about our set list for regionals, because he should know everything we are doing, right?"

Mr. Shuester flushed before snapping back, "Okay, fine, Santana, but that is just one instance. All families have some fights, but it brings the group together more strongly when we work out our differences!"

Santana huffed and turned back around, walking to were the group was sitting, muttering that she couldn't believe she was doing this. She stomped up to where Rachel was giggling over something Puck was whispering in her ear. She grabbed Rachel's hand and pulled her out of her chair and in front of Mr. Shue. This caused Rachel to look puzzled, and Puck to look pissed. They didn't know what was going on, since they hadn't been paying attention to anyone else in the room.

Tina blanched and Brittany leaned closer to to Artie to say, "Uh oh, San broke the Puckleberry bubble of happiness. I think you get more years bad luck for that than for breaking a mirror by throwing a salt shaker at it." Artie patted Britt's arm comfortingly while watching the action in front of him.

Santana slung an arm around Rachel. "Okay, so, Berry, I got a question for you."

Rachel smiled uncertainly at her. "Um, okay, Santana, what is your question?"

"Is Glee a family?"

"Well, yes, I mean, we try to be there for each other, wash slushie out of hair and get the victim's clean clothing-"

"No, I mean, how does Glee treat you? Do you feel like Glee is your family"

"Um, well, that is..." Rachel looked around the room, for once uncomfortable with having everyone's attention.

Puck jumped out of his seat to go wrap his arm protectively around his girl. "It's okay, Berry, you know you don't have to answer Satan's questions if you don't wanna."

Rachel smiled gratefully up at Noah and snuggled a little closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Noah, but it's okay." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her eyes drifting over the people staring at her. Family? That would be nice, but in reality... "I have managed to make friends with Kurt and Mercedes, we have bonded over out diva tendencies, but I supposed only Mercedes counts as a diva in arms now that Kurt has joined the Warblers...Noah, of course, has stood by me in multiple ways this year and last year..."

Santana sighed. "Yeah, okay, but what about the rest of us? Are we your family? Would we come bail your ass out of jail if you and Puckerman got caught doing the indecent exposure thing?"

Rachel blushed and looked down at her feet for a moment before looking at everyone in the room, slowly looking at each face, hoping for some sign of openness, acceptance...she sighed and looked down at her feet again. A squeeze of the arm around her shoulders caused her to once again look up and smile gratefully at Noah before she firmly stated, "No. I find myself reasonably certain that there is no one in this room other than Mercedes and Noah that I could count on for bail money if such an unlikely thing should occur."

Noah pressed a kiss to the top of her head while glaring at Santana and the rest of the room. Mr. Shuester's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he managed to say, "But, Rachel, what about me? I gave all of you my cell phone number in case you wanted to drink, you could call me to say you were in jail."

Santana rolled her eyes and fixed her glare on Mr. Shuester. "Oh, please. I let everyone know I'm a bitch and proud of it, she's used to hearing me insult her and tell her that everyone hates her. But you, you pretty much suck, Shue. You must have been sick on the day they taught that teachers aren't supposed to have favorites. Sure, it's great to share the solos with the whole group for invitationals and stuff like that, but even I have to admit not giving the Midget even a couple of lines of a solo for sectionals was a dumbass move. I mean, I totally rocked Valerie, but the blondies should never have had an entire song to themselves." She looked over her shoulder at Sam. "Sorry cutie, but it's the truth. The two of you were sweet enough to need another trip to see the hot dentist, but that should not have been a song for competition." She glared at Mr. Shue again. "Not when the existence of this club depends on us winning." She looked at Rachel for a minute before taking a deep breath. "I know that Mr. Shue has yelled at you and been pretty much a dick to you most of the last two years. And I know that I have done things even meaner to you. Well, meaner if you were a normal teenager. You probably think having a solo taken away is the worst thing in the world, because you're a freak like that. I'm trying to be a little bit nicer, so that is why, in front of everyone here, I want to tell you I'm sorry for all the names, slushies, rumors, writing your phone number on bathroom stalls in bars...well, yeah, everything I've ever done or said to you really. Including calling you a freak just a second ago. It is going to be really hard to be nice to you. It's pretty much a habit to try to trip you when I see you in the halls, or knock things out of your hands. But, I'm going to try to be nicer to you. Just don't tell anyone. In fact, if you just don't say anything ever, it might be easier for me to not be mean to you. I can maybe handle not being actively mean and then work my way up to doing something actually nice for you. That could maybe work."

Rachel looked up at Noah, silently asking if this was a trick. All Noah could do was shrug in return.

Rachel looked at Santana again, trying to see if she was sincere. She did seem to be, and Rachel knew that there was no way Santana was a better actress than she was...but she could easily be a better liar.

"Oookay"...Rachel said slowly. "So...do you want to, maybe hug or-"

"Oh, fuck no, don't even think about touching me Man Hands!" Santana took a deep breath and glanced at Sam before fixing a smile on her face. "Sorry, what I meant is, please do not touch me, I'm not a touchy feely huggy type person. At all. Unless it's making out, but that's different."

Mr. Shuester tried once again to take over his club's time and attention. "Okay, if you guys would take your seats, we should talk about what we want to do at Regionals."

Puck and Rachel hurried back to their seats in the corner, Santana sneered and went back to Sam's lap. Quinn and Finn sat in the only two chairs left next to each other...right behind Sam's chair.

*****Glee!*****

I know I royally suck because it's been so long since the last update, but between bad weather, bad router, bad computer virus, bad health including a consultaitons with a specialist out of state...yeah. Like I mentioned above, IRL can stomp hard. But the bright side is...I am not having any writer's block, I know where this story is going, I have scenes ready to go, I just have to flesh out the connecting passages. I don't make promises I can't keep, and I promise that the next chapter will be posted much sooner than this one was (barring death, maiming, tornado).

Thanks again for all the alerts, favorites, and reviews, I'll do my best to live up to your expectations and post again before the month is done.