A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews! I checked my email and got so many nice alerts and reviews! Thank you so much- makes me want to keep writing! I decided to put up a second chapter quickly for you all- I hope you enjoy. If you have any suggestions/comments, don't be shy and drop a review!
DISCLAIMER: No, still don't own Glee. If I did, Puck and Quinn wouldn't be on a "slow journey to couples-ville".
Eight Days a Gleek
"You have to get up," A very open-eyed Rachel Berry stood at the foot of Quinn's bottom bunk bed, whispering at the volume of a mouse, which was uncommon for her.
"Seriously," Santana added, slipping out of her robe, "We've been up for like, two hours."
Brittany yawned, "I like, saw the sun being born. Right, Rachel?"
Rachel nodded in confusion, trying not to pay attention to Brittany's very unaccurate comment and walked over to where Quinn's head lay.
"D-did something happen?" Rachel placed an arm on Quinn's upper-back, getting quickly rejected.
"Don't touch me, man-hands!" Quinn rose from her pillow and moved her hair out of her face.
"Ooh," Santana walked over to the girls' too, "Someone get into a little fight with her baby-daddy?"
Quinn rolled her eyes and slammed her body back down on the large pillow, letting herself sink into it, "Would all of you just do me a favor?"
Rachel nodded and whispered a small, "anything," while Santana and Brittany joined in agreement.
"Go to breakfast without me."
The breakfast hall was even more crowded then the dinner hall had been the night before. The girls', minus Quinn, entered early and yet still ended up in the back of the ever-growing buffet line.
"Good morning, ladies," A small voice came from behind them, startling Rachel, "You all sleep well?"
"Morning Ms. P," Mercedes turned around to face the petite red-head, "I slept okay."
"The beds are like rocks," Santana snickered and turned to Emma, who stood wide-eyed next to the girls, "And Rachel. Frigging Rachel. Thanks to you, I didn't get any sleep. Or should I thank Funny Girl?"
Rachel, ignoring her comment, noticed Finn walking towards all of them. At least, she thought he was.
"Over here, boys!" Emma yelled and waved her arm up in the air, trying to get the whole group to join her and the girls.
Puck spotted her and jogged over to where everyone was, stopping at Santana only to give her a smirk.
Puck, followed by Mike, Matt, Artie and Kurt, grabbed a plate off of the rack and stood in line, tapping his feet impatiently.
"Y'know, there should be like, room service," Puck held up his plate and pretended as if he were about to smash it into the ground, "This camp's wack."
"Dude," Finn looked over to Puck, "Relax, it's just food."
Rachel smiled at his comment and anxiously waited to see if he'd notice.
"Hey," Finn approached her, yawning and rubbing his eyelids, which looked like they could close on him in a matter of seconds, "Good morning."
"Morning." Rachel returned, almost coldly.
"Ouch. That was..." Finn said, placing his hand over his heart- this time on the correct side- and glancing at Rachel, who looked the least bit amused.
"Cold?" Rachel tapped her fingers nervously on her side, "I've been meaning to talk to you."
"S-sure," Finn looked confused but was responsive anyway, "Y'know you can tell me-"
"Get in line, you two!" Ms. Pillsbury waved toward the pair and signaled for them to pick up their plates and start grabbing food, knowing it'd probably be all gone.
"Later?" Finn shrugged and looked towards Rachel.
She didn't answer, quickly avoiding eye-contact with Finn and storming off into the line with Tina.
"The point of this activity is in no way to judge," Mr. Schuester looked specifically in Puck and Santana's direction when he spoke, the two sitting on a piece of a log with their legs crossed and eyes rolled, "The point is solely to learn and explore."
"Do I look like Christopher Columbus to him?" Puck spoke in a whisper only meant for Santana, not realizing the whole club had heard.
"Aside from Puck," Mr. Schuester cleared his throat, "Who's excited to begin?"
Emma flashed a smile his way, biting her lip.
"The first topic of discussion in our circle tonight is acceptance," Mr. Schuester clapped his hands together, "We'll start over here with you, Artie."
Everyone was shocked Artie was speaking, let alone going first.
"Acceptance," He started off, moving his hands off of the wheels of his wheelchair and onto his lap, "Acceptance is something I've been lacking since I was...eight."
Rachel gulped and looked at Finn to see if he gulped too. He didn't.
"Being in a wheelchair is certainly not fun," Artie looked down and then back up at the club, a tear forming in his eye, "And it's definitely something I'd change if I could."
Quinn glanced at Artie. After crying in a cabin almost all day, hearing this story wasn't helping her situation.
"It hurts," Artie played with his glasses, Mr. Schuester noticing it was probably out of nervous habit, "It hurts knowing that your friends are going to play football on Saturday and don't even think to invite you. But you can't blame 'em. Who wants a kid in a wheelchair with them on a football field anyway?"
Artie wrapped up his story pretty quickly after that, sharing his story about how he had tried to find a way to walk but failed.
Santana felt a tear forming in her eye, her glance still on Artie. She wanted to get up and give him a huge hug at this point. He had sacrificed so much because of his wheelchair. Damn wheelchair, she thought to herself.
"If we could have-" Mr. Schuester was cut off.
"I want to go next." Santana cleared her throat and stood so that she was facing in front of everyone.
Mr. Schuester found himself smiling at Santana's actions, as did most of the Glee club.
"Look," She gulped and looked everywhere but at her peers, "I don't have a story about not being accepted because I'm in a wheelchair or because of my gender or my looks."
Puck lifted an eyebrow at her words and smirked.
"I-I was never accepted at home," The tears began to fall fast now, Santana could feel her face grow pink, "When you're thirteen and all you want your mom to do is take you shopping for a dress for the eighth grade graduation dance but she's too busy with her 'boyfriend of the week' to deal with you, it really fucks you up."
Will, ignoring her language, began to feel as if his chest was closing up. He gulped and looked up at the young girl trying to hold it together in front of her peers.
"When you're little, all you want to do is be just like mommy," Santana quickly snapped her head in Rachel's direction and then Kurt's, remembering that they didn't have mothers' growing up, "Or daddy."
Rachel and Kurt both approved, nodding their heads and giving off a smile.
"Well," Santana began to choke up, leaving even Brittany with a teary-eyed expression, "When mommy's busy five out of seven days a week 'meeting new friends', chances are I'm gonna want to meet new friends, too."
Puck got red in the face on that one, glaring up at Santana.
"I met lots of new people," She made air-quotes around 'new people', turning even more pink then she already had been, "Why? I wanted my mom to accept me."
Puck looked up at Santana and then down again on the floor. He grabbed a twig that was loose on the ground and started to fiddle with it.
"Santana," Mr. Schuester cleared his throat and interrupted her, just as more tears started to form, "Is that all?"
She nodded and took a seat, Puck patting her shoulder as she sat down.
It was one in the morning and she had no idea if the pounding on the door was just her imagination. But when Mercedes got up and yelled, "Some ass is at the door!" Rachel quickly fumbled out of bed.
"Hey," Finn, who didn't seem the least-bit tired, greeted Mercedes, "Rachel up?"
"Figures," Mercedes said with an eye-roll, "Oh diva, your man candy wants you!"
Rachel snickered at Mercedes' comment, slipped on her robe and then ran to the door.
"Rach, we need to talk," Finn gulped and directed her outside of the cabin, "And I mean it this time."