An alarm blared next to a blond head shortly after sunrise. Dim light began to filter into Quinn's room as she wearily fumbled in the half light to silence her alarm. 6am on a Monday morning, how she loved being in the Cheerios. The blonde rolled out of the comfortable embrace of her quilt and sat on the edge of her bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes before slowly standing up and walking blindly towards the bathroom. She took a quick shower and dressed in her Cheerio uniform before grabbing a banana and her car keys and leaving the house to the sounds of her parents stirring at 6.30am. She was in the gym, jogging around the basketball court by 6.45am and then stretching out as the other cheerleaders arrived, bleary eyed and still not properly awake at 7am. Brittany and Santana walked in with the rest of the squad, looking as weary as the others.

Coach Sylvester walked in and set them to doing more warm-ups before having them run through their routine for Nationals an un-healthy number of times. Practice ended at 8.30 and after freshening up and putting her kit away in the locker room Quinn walked to class with Brittany and Santana.

"We didn't see you on Saturday after the party, where'd you go Q?" Santana asked as they exited the changing rooms, Quinn paled as the suppressed memories of Friday night flooded back into her head. She'd done such a good job of blocking out the memories of that recent mistake; they were safely stored in the locked chest at the back of her mind with everything else she didn't want to deal with.

"I... had stuff to do that day." She said unconvincingly. Santana raised an eyebrow but decided it best not to press the issue.

"Cool." She said as they entered the History room and took their usual seats at the back of the class; Brittany and Santana took one desk and Quinn sat alone on the one next to them as always. The class slowly filled up, the jocks taking the seats at the opposite corner to the cheerleaders, the nerds at the front and all the rest somewhere in the middle. Quinn never paid much attention to the groups, it was just what happened at High School, everyone had their place and they were content to be penned in, it was safe, it was normal.

Everyone was content except, of course, for Rachel Berry who was trying to break from the heard; making her way towards Quinn's desk. Quinn was unaware of the diva's brave yet stupid move as she stared aimlessly out of the window at the far side of the classroom. Santana was shooting a death glare at the bold brunette and Brittany was staring curiously at her with a slight smile on her face.

"Quinn?" The blonde was awoken from her day dreaming by a small voice. She snapped her head round to see Rachel looking timidly at her, an eyebrow rose automatically as she tried to reorganise her thoughts into something coherent to try and work out why the brunette was standing by her desk.

"Yes?" she asked with less coldness than she had wanted.

"Is that seat taken?" her other eyebrow rose to join its partner. The seat wasn't taken, that was obvious to anyone in the class but that didn't mean it was available. Quinn could see Santana's glare from the corner of her eye, she had to give Berry some credit for having the guts to ask but it could never happen. Quinn opened her mouth with a bullet of an insult ready to be fired full force at the diva but the trigger seemed to be stuck so she just sat with a partially opened mouth, staring at the diva with furrowed, questioning eyebrows. She couldn't say yes, because the seat wasn't taken but she couldn't say no because her image would take a serious pummelling. Why had Berry put her in this position?

"No" she said without knowing it. Santana's mouth dropped open as Quinn shot her hand up to her mouth as if she could force the words back in. Even Rachel seemed surprised by Quinn's acceptance however she didn't see Quinn's hand move to catch her words. Brittany was the only one who was instantly happy with Quinn's reply.

"Ok" Rachel said hesitantly as she sat down beside Quinn who had now gone into a slight state of shock and was unable to think properly, it was a wonder that Rachel hadn't just run away from her instead of lingering in the tension filled corner, she would have ran. The rest of the class were sat in stunned silence as Rachel took her seat and even the teacher looked slightly bemused as he walked in and began the lesson.

After a half hour lecture on something to do with the Great Depression, Quinn wasn't really concentrating on the teachers words but trying to ignore the questioning glances being shot at her from all angles, the teacher set the group to do some questions from the textbook. Rachel turned to the page as Quinn continued to stare self-consciously at her blank notebook. Rachel looked worriedly over at Quinn several times before speaking.

"Quinn? Did you get the page number? It was 111, questions 1 to 5..." she trailed off when Quinn didn't move. "Is something wrong?" she whispered. Quinn slowly turned her head, careful to avoid her eyes. The teacher had left the room and the class had broken into chatter almost instantly meaning that their conversation couldn't be heard.

"Why are you sat here?" she asked, straining her voice. Rachel's eyebrows rose.

"I thought you said the seat was free." She replied.

"It's always free, that doesn't mean it's available." Quinn stated as though it was obvious, which it was, to everyone else in the room, heck, in the whole school. Why couldn't Berry leave her alone? Why did she want to be friends so much? She should just give up like everyone else had; it would be easier for everyone involved.

Rachel couldn't think of a way to reply to Quinn's statement, once again she was short of words around the blonde. Eventually she caught Quinn's eye and watched as her eyes darted away nervously again instantly, she was acting very strangely at the moment, like that time in the hallway a month ago or just on Saturday when she had managed to spend time with her without calling her a degrading and humiliating name. Her mood swings were disconcerting to say the least.

"Is something wrong?" she asked again with more concern. Quinn turned back to her notebook and gripped her pen firmly turning to page 111 and writing the title of the page.

"Nothing's wrong, I just don't want you sat here." She said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, why did you say I could then?" Rachel asked simply. Quinn turned to face her with an angry look that quickly disintegrated.

"I couldn't say no, could I?" Quinn said, sounding uncertain in herself, as though she was asking Rachel to tell her if she'd done the right thing, if she could have humiliated her without thinking about it, if that was acceptable. Rachel turned back to face her paper.

"It was what I was expecting." She replied sadly. Quinn's stomach seemed to drop with guilt once again, she didn't want to hurt the girl anymore; it was starting to grate on her, starting to actually become a weight on her conscience. She looked sadly at Rachel before turning back to her notepad and the questions awaiting answers.

"I know." She stated forlornly before starting her answers. The rest of the class was spent in silence and when the bell rang Rachel was up and out of the room before anyone else. Quinn watched her leave; the guilt was still obvious in her stomach.

"What the hell Q? Why did you let Treasure Trail sit next to you? Do you want people to think you and the freak are friends?" Santana spat, awakening Quinn from her musings as they left the classroom.

"I couldn't say no, not when she'd asked me." Santana's eyebrows rose almost up to her hair.

"Of course you could! It's not like Manhands has any feelings!" she shot back; Quinn instantly cast her eyes down in shame. Rachel really didn't deserve any of what she got, sure she could be annoying and speak too much and her fashion sense left a lot to be desired but she was so accepting and kind to people even when they'd been treating her wrong for so long. The guilt wouldn't leave her because she deserved it, she deserved to feel bad for hurting Rachel because Rachel had never done anything to hurt her.

"Don't call her that." Quinn said quietly, her usual cold, angry demeanour had disappeared and was replaced with remorse which shocked Santana.

"You made the name up Q!" she said angrily.

"I know and I'm telling you to stop using it!" Quinn snapped back without thinking. She was getting weird urges to defend Berry. Santana looked even more shocked and slightly mad but just as she was about lash out at Quinn, Brittany came in.

"I like Rachel, she's nice." The blonde said dreamily. Quinn and Santana turned to look at the girl who was smiling at the Latina. Santana softened and Quinn breathed a sigh of relief, she didn't want a confrontation with the other girl.

"Whatever, I'll see you at lunch." Santana said before linking pinkies with Brittany and walking towards their next class. Quinn sucked in a short breath and went the opposite way towards the Spanish room and her so called boyfriend Finn, she could just skip, avoid seeing him and feeling even more guilt.

No, she'd have to face him at some point anyway, best to just get it out the way. She walked into the class to see Finn at next to Puck, they were laughing with each other at a 'Kick Me' sign they'd just stuck on the back of one of the nerds sitting in front of them. Quinn rolled her eyes, she couldn't believe she'd slept with either of them, it reflected badly on her taste. Finn turned and smiled at her and she instantly felt the guilt again at Finn's innocent expression. She was still mad at him for humiliating her at the party but her anger was dulled by the sense of guilt that she felt at betraying him fully. She glanced away from the happy smiles of Finn and saw Puck with his eyes downcast on the table; his laughter was a ghost on his face. So he felt guilty as well even though it was his fault, or so Quinn told herself, she shouldn't have let herself get jealous in the first place, of course Finn was annoyed with her, and she'd been treating him with contempt for a month. She smiled weakly at Finn before taking a seat at the back of the room, Finn jumped up from the desk he was sat on and came to sit with her.

"Hey babe." He said happily, kissing her cheek quickly.

"Hi" Quinn said back without looking at him, the boy continued on oblivious.

"I didn't see you after the party on Friday, I called but you didn't pick up." Finn stated, pulling out his books. "How'd you get home?"

"I walked." Quinn said quietly.

"Oh, you must have left early, I didn't see you." Finn replied cheerfully.

"Yeah, I had to... do something, sorry." She said looking over to Puck who was giving her a nervous look. She scowled at the boy and turned to face the front where Mr. Schuester was preparing to start the lesson.

"Ok then, maybe we can do something this weekend or something." He suggested looking at Quinn.

"Um, maybe, yeah." Quinn said without looking at him, instead she concentrated on writing the date on her paper. She didn't feel as guilty as she thought she would with seeing the boy. She was angry at Puck but she wasn't as sorry as she should be. Finn was a good guy and she'd cheated on him with his best friend while she was drunk, she should be begging for forgiveness or at least trying to make it up to her boyfriend but instead she felt nothing apart from guilt at her loss of innocence. Great, now she was wishing for guilt as if she didn't have enough to deal with.

"Cool" Finn said eagerly as Mr. Schue began the lesson.

The hour was torturous to put it nicely. Finn kept trying to start simple conversation but Quinn just couldn't reply to keep him happy, she just didn't care about him anymore and the fact didn't surprise her in the least. He was a nice guy, he'd do anything for her but that just wasn't enough, the only thing that kept them together was social status and even that seemed to be losing its appeal. A combination of her parent's hollow life, rigorous Cheerios practice and dieting and the mostly superficial relationships she had with people were suddenly looking and feeling unattractive and unsatisfying. She wanted something real, something fun and worthwhile; she didn't want to turn into her mother, bossed around by some overbearing, shallow man, not that Finn was either of those things. He just wasn't real like so much of her life as she'd come to realise, she should get a chance at having something real and so should he even if that something would be Rachel.

The bell rang and they exited the room quickly. Finn was talking about something to do with football as they entered the crowded halls full of students going to their next lessons. Quinn closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Finn.

"Finn." She said sternly, stopping the boy's ramblings. "We need to talk." His face fell slightly before taking on a puzzled look.

"We are talking." He said furrowing his eyebrows. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Not about football, meet me outside at lunch." She said firmly, more for her own resolve than a need to berate Finn's ignorance. The boy's eyebrows furrowed still further.

"Um, ok, is something wrong?" he asked with concern that should have had the effect of soothing Quinn but just increased her determination as she felt nothing yet again.

"No, we just need to talk. See you at lunch." She said before turning and walking towards her next lesson leaving Finn stood looking dumbly at her retreating form. This was it now, the beginning of her new, genuine, life.

A/N: Ok well I'm obviously not really following the show at all so I'm not sure whether or not to make Quinn pregnant or not, what do you guys want to see? A pregnant Quinn or a Quinn who's learnt her lesson? I'll leave it up to you. Please Review guys, you're feedback really helps with motivation to write.