Thanks again for all the reviews, favorites and alerts. I'm glad you are still enjoying my little story.

Once gain, I do not own anything but the mistakes in this unbeta'd story.

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

Later that evening, Rachel was doing her math at her desk while Puck was sprawled across her bed looking at the arrangement she had handed out earlier in glee. "You know this is really fucked up, right babe?"

Rachel's answer was an absent minded, "Language!" while still concentrating on her current math problem.

Puck rolled his eyes and went back to looking over the papers. "I don't get it, why did you spend hours making this instead of just singing a song? You know you woulda rocked it."

Rachel smiled as she looked up from her homework. "Thank you, Noah, for that show of confidence. While I agree with you on the sure success I would have with singing a fun song solo as Mr. Sheuster assigned, this is part of my strategy."

"Strategy?"

"Indeed. You see, even Mr. Shuester with his misguided notion of sharing the spotlight amongst everyone instead of showcasing his strongest talents cannot deny that with this number, I am being a team player. This is a number that involves everyone and will lend itself to intricate choreography to match the complexity of the music. If this number can be successfully performed by us at Regionals, it makes the likelihood of my securing a solo as one of the other two numbers even more likely. Since my favorite songs are ones that I can pour emotion into with powerful notes, a ballad I sing would show as a poignant counterpoint to this rousing number. Plus, since Mr, Shue insisted on giving the solos to less talented singers at Sectionals and we barely made it to Regionals, I am certain that even he will see that in order to ensure going on to Nationals, and to continue his own insistance that everyone share the spotlight, it only makes sense to give me that ballad. Well, I suppose I could see him giving the ballad to Mercedes, she is my fellow diva, and she did lose her chance at her solo last year because of Sue's nefarious actions. I would still be upset at not getting the solo, and really, thinking of it, it would have made much more sense for Shue to give Cedes the ballad this year at Sectionals, since originally she would have had the ballad and a major part of Proud Mary...I don't know that I have grown into a team player enough to suggest that though."

Noah blinked at her. "When did you last take a breath? That's some impressive breath control, babe. Love to put it to the test over here on your comfy bed." He patted the spot next to him hopefully.

Rachel rolled her eyes as she turned back to her desk. "Noah, as much as I enjoy practicing breath control with you, I need to finish this math assignment. You really should start going to class if you want to pass. Passing your classes will make it easier for you to get out of Lima, you know."

Puck groaned. "Babe, that shit is boring as hell. I'm not going to math class."

"But Noah..."

Puck grinned a little to himself as he debated what to say next. "No way babe, I'm not going to class. It's bad enough doing math once a month, If I went to class and listened to Mr. Steele going on and on about that crap, there's no way I'd stay outta trouble. I'd either sleep and bother people with my snoring or I would act out 'n' shit and get kicked outta the room. The teacher is boring, but he gets it and is down with it. They all are after first semester."

"What do you mean?"

Puck sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "Okay, babe. Toss me your book."

Rachel looked at him suspiciously before walking over to hand him her book.

Puck took the book. "Okay, so, what page are you on and what is the last problem you did?"

"Page 167, number 8."

He briefly looked at the page. "Okay, so the answer is 62.5"

Rachel stared at him a moment before moving to look at her paper. "Th-that's right! How did you do that?"

Puck smirked at her. "Like I said, math is boring ass shit. I don't go to class 'cuz I don't need to. The teachers always put up a fight about it at the beginning of the year, even though my last math teacher will tell him about me before the school year. They always think that this year will be different and I'll need to go to class because their class is so much harder, but so far they've all been wrong, and they hate that. Once a month I spend an hour or two doing the next 20-30 assignments and put them on the teacher's desk. Mr. Steele is a real dickwad, the first month he tried to flunk me, so I had to come in and talk to him after school and show him how I knew the answers he marked wrong were right. He's calmed down about it now, and he lets me come in during detention or free period to do whatever tests and quizzes he has planned for however long in the future he plans."

Rachel was staring at him in amazement. "You're like Good Will Hunting!"

"Huh?"

You've never seen that movie? The one by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the one that made them famous? It had Minnie Driver and Robin Williams in it?"

"Don't think so, nope."

"We'll have to rectify that at some point. Noah, have you taken physics yet?"

"No way, babe. I got Biology and Human Biology out of the way the last two years, why should I take more boring ass science when I have the classes I need to graduate?"

"Because physics is math...here, take a look at my physics book, We're currently on Chapter 6."

Puck flipped through it. Rachel grinned when she heard him muttering to himself..."Equal and opposite reaction, no shit, idiots...centripetal force, kinda cool..."

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

Sam looked up to watch Santana pacing in his bedroom. "Hey, San, what are you getting all worked up about? If it isn't anything too important, you might wanna look over this sheet music with me, it's crazy complicated and my dyslexia isn't helping any."

Santana stopped mid step looking over at Sam. "You mean it isn't some stupid Berry solo with the rest of us prancing around her and maybe getting a line or two as back up singers?"

"No, check it out."

"Huh. Maybe I'm not the only one trying to let up on the stuff people know me best for...How the heck are we supposed to practice this?"

"Not sure, San, I guess the best we can do is try to know when we're supposed to sing, like, who we sing after and stuff to try to start singing at the right time."

"Yeah. Hopefully someone else does worse than us so that Berry rants at them."

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

Quinn smiled happily at another couple that walked by. "Don't forget to vote for us! Prom Queen Quinn and King Finn!" She saw Finn making his way back over to her. "Well? Did you tell students in the food court to vote for us?"

Finn blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Um, no...but I got you a pretzel and some lemonade."

Quinn sighed as she tried to keep her temper. "Thank you Finn, but we really need to talk to people about voting for us at prom. Come on, we'll go back to the food court and you can talk to people about voting for us while I sip my lemonade and look cute."

Finn grinned down at her. "Okay, Quinn...hey, Quinn? When is prom, anyway?"

Quinn sighed, "Don't worry about it sweetie." With that, she took his hand and started walking determinedly toward the food court.

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

AN~ I know this is short, but I've become obsessed with the music that Rachel passed around last chapter. I tried to tell myself to just leave it since it really has no relevance to the story, but my brain wouldn't listen to reason. So, this is pretty much just a interlude, and the next chapter isn't a real chapter, it's the music that has been talked about in this chapter and in chapters to come. I'm hoping once I get this and the mash up posted I'll be able to focus and the real story once again. We've still got a ways to go to get to the final scene. :-)