Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. I also do not own Titanic or Robot Chicken.
A/N: I would like to acknowledge medchemgirl. In a review, she totally predicted something I had planned for this chapter before I'd even written it. As always, thank you to all my reviewers and readers! This story has had over 9000 hits since I posted chapter 1 and I just find that positively amazing! Also, just a quick note on the story, I did some research into Ohio law for the final section of this chapter, so it should be accurate. If it's not, I apologize. Please read and review. Thanks!
Rachel was hot. And not temperature-hot either. Electric heat was running under her skin and coming to a boil in her blood. She felt as if her stomach was jumping; those butterflies that had gone on vacation when Finn smiled at her earlier were definitely back and had brought some new friends with them.
She had been turned on before, but this was just ridiculous. It had started the instant Noah picked her up for their swim lesson. She once again found herself locked in the tiny cab of his truck and not even the air conditioning on full blast could cool her down. By the time they arrived at the same farm house from the previous day, her nerves were as shot as they were at the end of yesterday's lesson. And Puck wasn't even shirtless yet!
She was clearly doomed.
To make matters worse, that damn spot on her forehead where he'd kissed her last night started tingling again the instant they made eye contact. Nothing eased it, not even when she rubbed it discreetly while he was looking the other way (the last thing she wanted was for him to know something so simple had such a strong effect on her). If this was how her body reacted to a mere press of his lips to her forehead, what would happen if he ever truly kissed her? The question disturbed her on so many levels (it certainly didn't intrigue her at all). The awkwardness of the almost-kiss had disappeared finally, but only because there was a brand new discomfort in the air.
He had said they were friends last night, but she definitely had the feeling that he hadn't meant to say it. So, were they really friends? And if they were friends, what did that mean for this whatever (heat, passion, desire-her traitorous mind was all too happy to label it) that was brewing between them. If he really had taken her up on that offer that she made so many months ago (at the end of their not-a-real-relationship), did she want to risk ruining that by giving into the urges he stirred up? Urges that she knew perfectly well he acted on with everyone? As she had pulled off the blouse and skirt over the top of her swimsuit (the one piece, she didn't want to think of what might happen if she ever wore that bikini in front of him), she had pondered these questions.
The answer? No, she didn't want to risk their new friendship, if that was in fact what they had.
So, she had come to a conclusion. If she was going to avoid doing something stupid (like kissing him), she would need to distract herself. She had learned two things the previous day. Number one, thoughts of Quinn, Santana, and cougars cooled her ardor for him. Number two, if she didn't want to throw herself at him, she needed to get angry. Luckily number one inevitably led to number two. A little too well actually.
"Damn it Rachel! I said turn your head away from the arm you're moving. Do you want to drown?!" Puck yelled at her from the deck as she surfaced near the edge of it and tread water.
Turns out? Her snapping at Puck clearly pissed him off royally. They had been fighting pretty much from the moment they'd stripped down to their suits. It had started when he told her to demonstrate treading water for him and she had retorted that she had done that all day yesterday and didn't need to do it again. He had angrily responded that he was in charge and she'd do what he said if she didn't want to embarrass herself on Saturday. Things had just gone downhill from there.
Not that they weren't making progress. After she had demonstrated treading water and the doggy paddle, he'd instructed her on how to actually swim. After she'd shown that she could use the movements he'd shown her, he'd climbed out of the pool to give her room to practice. He had continued to observe her from the deck, critiquing her technique extremely harshly in her opinion (also not helping her anger). They'd been at it for just over an hour. She'd already made several laps around the pool and she thought she was doing quite well. She was no longer swallowing water with her every stroke and she was keeping her head above the surface for the most part. He, however, obviously disagreed.
She glared up at him. "Don't yell at me! I'm doing perfectly well. I'm doing it just like you told me to, so you clearly gave me incorrect instructions if you think I'm doing it wrong!"
Puck let out a frustrated roar. "You're so fuckin' annoying! I don't know why in the hell I ever offered to teach you to swim!"
When he said things like that (as he had for the entire lesson), she wanted to hate him. Instead, all she could think about was the intensity of his eyes when he had been furious at Kurt last night on her behalf. And that led to memories of her dream. She hadn't been able to recall the dream this morning when she'd really wanted to, but it had all come rushing back when she spotted his chest. The same chest from her dream. And that nipple ring. Just the sight of it sent shivers down her spine. And she didn't want shivers! Every time the sight of him stirred those feelings up again, she would mentally repeat the litany of 'Quinn, Santana, cougars', which of course just made her angry again and restarted the whole process.
"Get out of the damn pool! I'm taking you home since you're acting like such a fucking bitch today!" he shouted at her, running a hand over his mohawk as he squatted near the water.
He did not just call me a bitch! She couldn't believe he would talk to her like that (okay, so she could, but she'd thought they were past that). Without even considering what she was doing, she used one hand to hit the water in front of her as hard as possible at him. A large wave arced through the air and hit him square in the face. Caught by surprise, his mouth gaped widely. He looked so ridiculous that Rachel immediately started laughing. Hard.
Three seconds later, he recovered his composure and his power of speech. "What the fuck, Berry?! Did you really just splash me?"
She giggled, her earlier rage forgotten. "Yeah, I think I did."
"And you're laughing at me?! Do you have a death wish Berry?"
She smirked (she'd learned well from him) smugly up at him. "What are you gonna do about it? You're up there and I'm all the way down here," she taunted.
"Oh, it is so on," he threatened, jumping into the pool.
He reached for her, but she'd already taken off, using her newly learned swimming skills. Unfortunately, in swimming, just as in walking, his considerably taller stature gave him the advantage over her. She managed to use her agility and tiny body to her advantage, changing directions easily, but her swimming skills weren't was strong as his. It didn't take long for him to pin her against the side of the pool near the deck, one hand gripping the edge of the wall on either side of her while she tread water.
"I've caught you," he said, his voice low. "Now, what should I do with you?"
Her stomach knotted at his proximity (and his tone).
"Let me go," she suggested hopefully.
He shook his head. "No, I can think of something much better."
Puck crowded closer to her so that she no longer had the room to move her arms and legs to stay afloat. With no choice, she grabbed his shoulders to keep herself above water. Trying to ignore how solid he was under her hands, she repeatedly thought, don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact. If she looked into those gorgeous hazel eyes, which she knew were simmering with heat right now, she'd be lost. She would lean forward and kiss him and there'd be no going back.
When he moved one hand to her chin and tilted her face up to his, she closed her eyes tightly. She wasn't going to look at him. She wasn't.
"Rachel," he murmured in a husky voice.
Against her will, she opened her eyes. Her breath shortened at his expression; he looked like he wanted nothing more than to devour her. Her grip unconsciously tightened on his shoulders as she pulled slightly closer. His lips were coming toward hers. Even as she pulled forward to meet him, she thought vaguely that she should panic, but oh, God, she wanted this so much. He was just millimeters away; she could feel his warm breath on her lips.
"Puck? Are you here?"
Letting out a low 'Fuck', he shrugged her hands off and pulled away. Moving slightly to the side, he climbed out of the pool onto the deck.
Luckily, Rachel started treading water automatically as soon as his support was gone. Her head was fuzzy; she couldn't think. What had just happened? In a daze, Rachel followed Puck out of the pool (using the ladder that he always ignored).
Her feet hit the wood just in time to see a beautiful 40-something woman with long dark hair and a figure Rachel envied kiss Puck on the cheek. She then quietly said something to him that caused him to smirk. Crap, crap, crap. She'd actually let herself forget about the cougars. And now, here she was, actually watching him smirk at one of them and she knew the power of that smirk.
She picked up her clothes from the deck chair she had placed them on earlier and slipped on her sandals. As she reached the couple, she overheard Puck saying that something worked for him (she didn't hear the something). She tried to slip past them unnoticed (she really didn't want to make small talk with one of his cougars, not so soon after their heated near kiss), but he grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.
"Berry, this is Naomi," he introduced Rachel to the gorgeous brunette who was studying her curiously. "Naomi, this is Berry."
"Right." Rachel looked away from the woman to stare straight ahead and pulled her arm from Puck's grip. "I'll be in the truck when you're done here Noah," she stated coldly.
As she stomped across the yard and around the house, she fumed. How could he stand there and act so...so close to his cougar right in front of her. And then to introduce her by her last name as if she were nothing more than one of his football buddies? How could he? Clearly she had been right when she thought she was no more than a sexual conquest to him. She obviously couldn't trust herself around him, so she'd just cancel her last swim lesson. She had the hang of it now anyway.
She was already dried off, dressed, and sitting in the truck by the time Puck joined her. She waited impatiently as he also toweled off and pulled his shirt back on. She just really wanted to go home.
Neither of them spoke until they were on the road back into town. Then, not taking his eyes from the road, he addressed her in a deceptively casual tone.
"You were pretty rude to my aunt back there Berry."
Rachel was ready to haul off and tell him what he could do with his admonishment when it hit her.
"Your aunt?" she asked.
"Yeah, Naomi's my aunt. My mom's sister," he replied.
"But..." she stuttered in confusion, "I thought you said the pool belonged to a cougar."
"It does. Husband number three is 24," he explained easily.
"She calls you Puck, not Noah."
"I asked her to do that. Only my mom, sister, and you, for some reason, call me Noah," he said.
"You said that you had to convince her to lend you her pool." Even as Rachel said it she realized how moronic it sounded. "Why did you have to convince her if she's your aunt?"
Puck rolled his eyes. "Because she was worried about what would happen with her insurance if something happened to you. You didn't know how to swim; some risk was involved in teaching you. I had to agree to clean her pool all summer for free to get use of it."
Rachel was surprisingly touched by his admission. He had given up the whole summer's worth of income from his aunt's pool cleanings to teach her to swim? No one had ever done anything so sweet for her. And he hadn't even so much as mentioned it to her until she behaved so horribly to his aunt. Oh, no, what she must think of Rachel!
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that was your aunt. I thought..." she trailed off. What she had thought wasn't flattering.
"You thought I'd fucked a cougar to use her pool," he stated matter-of-factly.
She blushed but answered honestly. "Yes."
He smirked over at her. "Babe, I totally could have," he focused back on the road and shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "but I sure as hell didn't want a lecture about how sex is special and all that shit."
She thought there might have been more to it than that (what was with all the squirming?) but she let it go. They were silent the rest of the ride home as she mused over what he'd just revealed. When he brushed against her turning on the radio as they entered town, her arm tingled and her blood heated. Now that she knew that Naomi wasn't one of his cougars and he hadn't traded sexual favors on her behalf, her desire had rushed back, even stronger than before if possible (darn, she always was highly attracted to sensitivity-and Puck had shown it, even if it was in his own way).
When he pulled up to the curb in front of her house, she placed her hand on his arm.
"Thanks Noah."
He glanced briefly at her before looking away.
"Whatever Berry," he acknowledged in a gruff voice.
When he pulled away from the curb, she wondered what he had told his aunt about her, because she just realized that Naomi's expression had been awfully interested when Puck introduced them.
ooooo
When Rachel parked against the curb in front of Mike's corner house later that evening, she was feeling pretty good. The Noah stuff was still as confusing as ever, but she was starting to think there might actually be hope there. Surely his discomfort in the truck had meant something. And, she'd just grasped that he had initiated their almost-kiss this time, so he had to be just as attracted to her as she was to him. So, she was smiling widely when she rang the doorbell.
She stood there for about a minute waiting for someone to answer. She was just beginning to get impatient when the front door swung open revealing Mike.
"We're all out back; you could have just come around," he greeted, letting her in.
"Hello to you too," she responded with a grin (he laughed) before following him through the house and out the back door.
His large back yard was made up of lush grass and dotted with trees at the edges though the center was clear. The far end of the yard was edged by the alleyway. They were standing on a large concrete patio. The wonderful scent of cooking burgers was coming from the slightly smoking grill to one side.
Mike placed both hands on her shoulders and turned her to face the back of the house. A grinning Matt, scowling Puck, and excited Brittany, arms thrown wide, were facing her from behind a nice wooden picnic table. Mike joined them, shaking his head.
"Guys? What are you doing?" Rachel asked, grinning at the oddness of the scene.
Brittany crossed her arms. "Read the banner." She jabbed her finger over her head.
Rachel noticed a white banner attached to the yellow siding of the house above their heads. 'Rachel Berry is hot!!!' was written on it. Rachel cracked up.
"What on earth?" she managed to get out breathlessly.
"We're having a Rachel-is-hot cookout," Brittany informed her, looking a bit put out by her reaction.
"I told them this was a fucking stupid idea, but Mike's so damn pussy-whipped he let Brittany do it anyway." Puck announced, frowning over at Mike.
"I am not," Mike muttered at him.
"Yes, you are. I said we should go kick Kurt's ass, but you let her do this instead," Puck argued back.
Brittany elbowed Mike in the ribs and glared at Puck. "Quiet. You're ruining it."
Matt just met Rachel's eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh.
Rachel laughed harder. God, she loved her friends.
"It's a lovely idea Britt," she reassured the blonde when she regained her breath. "You know I don't approve of violence Noah," she reminded him sternly before smiling, "but thanks for the thought." She sniffed the air. "I think the burgers are burning."
Mike looked past her and shouted, "Damn it!" He ran by while the other three stared at the grill.
Curious, Rachel turned around just in time to see Mike lift the lid of the grill. Smoke poured out and Rachel could see the flames that had jumped up. Once Mike managed to get the flames down, he flipped the burgers and reclosed the grill.
"I hope you guys like your burgers crispy because they definitely are on one side," he declared.
Fifteen minutes later, Rachel had gotten a strawberry soda (bought specially for her) from the cooler on the patio and helped Brittany and Matt carry the chips, Mike's mom's mac and cheese, buns, cheese, condiments, plates, napkins, and forks out from the kitchen to arrange them on the picnic table. Puck didn't help; he claimed he was supervising (which apparently meant sitting at the picnic table drinking his Mt. Dew). Mike was manning the grill of course. While they worked, Brittany asked Rachel if she wanted to stay over the next night and drive to the school together the following morning. Rachel happily agreed. Her very first sleepover!
Shortly after, they joined Puck at the picnic table to enjoy their meal of slightly burnt burgers, chips, and mac and cheese. As with both of their previous meals together, there was a lot of fun and laughter. Mike explained that his parents had taken his two younger siblings to visit his grandmother overnight. Halfway through, Brittany let out a yelp, hopped up from her spot, and ran inside the house. Rachel was happy to discover she was just as relaxed with the guys without Brittany as she was with her.
"Hey guys!" Brittany called from the edge of the patio after she had come back out.
Rachel and Matt, who was sitting next to her (Puck hadn't been happy about that), turned to face her while Mike and Puck looked up from their conversation. As soon as they were all looking at her, she lifted a pink camera and took a picture of them.
Mike groaned. "She's got her camera out again."
"I heard that," Brittany said, snapping a photo of Mike as she retook her place on Rachel's other side. "How will we ever remember our time together if I don't take pictures?"
Puck snorted. "They're called memories. We don't need the actual pictures because we have them up here." He tapped the side of his head.
"I wouldn't mind the photographs," Rachel offered softly. It'd be nice to have proof she finally had friends.
Puck's expression softened and she knew he understood what she hadn't said.
"Yay!" Brittany cheered. She threw an arm around Rachel and pulled her so that their heads were pressed together. Holding the camera out in front of them, she took a picture.
They cleaned up when they were done eating. Matt and Rachel rinsed and loaded what little dishes there were into the dishwasher while Puck hung around the kitchen, supervising again. Brittany gathered the trash up and Mike put away the leftovers and other items they hadn't used. All the while Brittany snapped photos. She claimed she needed proof that the guys actually helped.
It was still early when they finished, barely after 7:30, so Mike suggested that they play football after grabbing one from his room.
"I don't like football," Brittany whined. "It hurts."
Mike sighed. "We'd play touch football, not tackle, Britt. Besides, you suggested it last night when you said Rachel would need shorts if we decided to play football. Rachel's wearing shorts, so we're going to play football."
Mike had a point. Rachel was wearing her new gold star shorts. She also had on a new gold spaghetti strap tank top over her navy bra, the straps of which were showing due to how thin the straps of her top were (Puck's eyes had spent an inordinate amount of time on her shoulders tonight). She had settled for a pair of brown leather sandals with ankle straps to hold them on. Her hair was in a high, curly ponytail and her makeup was minimal once again. All in all, it wasn't a horrible setup for her first experience with football.
"I'll try it," she decided.
Matt grinned and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him and shaking her slightly to show his approval. Puck scowled at him and Brittany snapped a picture of them.
"Matt's on my team," Puck declared, pulling him away from Rachel.
Mike smiled. "That means you're with me Rach." He gestured her to his side. "Brittany?"
After she took a picture of Mike with Rachel and Matt with Puck, she dropped her camera on the picnic table. "I'll play but only if I can be on the same team as Rachel."
They set the boundaries for scoring and agreed on the rules, which the boys explained to the girls. Apparently the two teams would take turns with possession of the ball. They had four downs to score; if they didn't succeed, they turned the ball over to the other team for their four downs which started wherever the other team had gotten to on the field. If a member of the other team touched the person with the ball, the play stopped. Matt explained to Rachel that they were only using very basic rules for their game since it was casual and just the five of them. After explaining the rules, play commenced.
It was decided that Mike, Rachel, and Brittany could have the ball first since the girls were new to the game (Brittany had only played with them once before). They conferred to come up with their play and Mike clarified that they would do this before every play so they knew what to expect each down.
Their first down was a disaster. Mike threw the ball to Rachel, who shrieked and ducked when it came at her nose (what? she would need an unblemished face when she was on Broadway). They didn't fare much better for their second down. Mike again threw a pass to Rachel, but this time it bounced off her when she covered her face with her hands. Mike decided to give Rachel a break on their third down. Instead, he threw it to Brittany. She was watching a squirrel scamper up a tree and the ball ricocheted off the back of her head, causing her to squeal in pain. By the time they huddled prior to their fourth down, Puck and Matt were both doubled over with laughter.
"Okay, we have to make some progress this time and shut those two bastards up," Mike stated. "Rachel, I want you to run near me when the play starts. I'm going to hand you the ball and then you run like hell toward the goal."
Rachel nodded. It was time to step up and be the winner she has always been.
When the play began, she followed Mike's instructions. Puck and Matt were both focused on Mike, clearly expecting him to try something since it was their last down, so Rachel got past the guys with the ball easily. However, it didn't take long for them to catch on that she had the ball and give chase. She had nearly made it to the trees that served as their team's goal, Mike and Brittany both yelling encouragement at her, when someone grabbed her butt.
Stunned, she turned around and saw Puck smirking back at her. She hit him in the chest as hard as she could (she was already down anyway).
"I'm pretty sure that's not what you guys meant about tagging us out."
"No one ever said where we had to touch," he said, smirk still firmly in place.
She smacked him again. "You tag someone out on their arm, not their butt!"
He let out a husky laugh, "Babe, I wanted to touch a gold star. They're just too tempting to resist. The fact that they're on your ass is just a bonus."
Outraged, she kicked him in the shin before stalking back to her teammates, tossing the ball to Matt on the way.
When the teams faced off against each other again, Mike announced, "I've been asked to make an addition to the rules. No copping a feel when you tag someone out."
Puck raised a brow at Rachel. "You can cop a feel if you want babe. I wouldn't mind."
She huffed in frustration, determined that he wouldn't score (in the game at least, with her on the other hand...wait...what was she thinking?!).
Mike was quite good at catching the guys. The girls didn't have to do much to end the other team's downs. Neither team made much progress as they played, but they were all having a lot of fun. Brittany jumped up and down and forgot to run to the goal the first time she caught the ball. Rachel was fairly decent at getting past the other team, though they always caught her before she scored. Mike was just good all around, but then again he was on the football team.
They were playing their last down of the game and it was the other team's ball. Nobody had scored yet. Matt managed to slip past Mike and Brittany, so it was up to Rachel to stop him. She was running full tilt after him when he crossed into his goal and came to a sudden stop. She tried to screech to a halt, but she was running too fast and barreled into him as he turned to face her. He wasn't braced for the impact, so he fell backwards and she landed on top of him.
"Hi there," Matt said, smiling up at her.
She giggled. "Hi."
She had braced her hands on his chest to push herself up when she felt someone yank her arm and pull her to her feet. She knew it was Noah from the electricity that skittered across her skin.
She spotted Brittany holding her camera and Mike watching the scene, clearly amused, as Puck crossed his arms over his chest, the lovely muscles in them straining.
"No copping a feel Matt. It was one of the rules, remember?" he reminded Matt in a stony voice, scowling down at him.
"Dude," Matt defended, climbing to his feet, "I wasn't touching her. If anything, she was groping me."
"Matt!" Rachel exclaimed with a laugh, hitting him on the arm, before heading inside to use the restroom.
Brittany just took another picture.
Several minutes later as she made her way back outside, Rachel came to a stop at the sound of an angry voice. She didn't want to interrupt, but when she realized that voice belonged to Matt (who she'd never seen angry), she couldn't help but edge into the doorway (okay, so eavesdropping is rude, but she couldn't help it).
"What is your problem?" Matt, who was facing Rachel, asked Puck. "You're acting like a total douche right now."
Puck, his back to Rachel, answered him quietly but furiously. "You ignored the rules of the game."
"What in the hell are you talking about? Since when do you care about rules?" Matt questioned, eyes still on Puck. Neither boy had noticed Rachel's presence yet.
"You're going to keep your fucking hands to yourself," Puck demanded, ignoring the questions, venom practically dripping from his words.
Rachel watched as Matt took an unconscious step back and looked away from Puck. The poor boy looked completely thrown off and more than a little terrified. She couldn't blame him; she felt a hint of that same confusion (and Puck could be pretty scary when he was angry, not that he scared her of course), although she had an idea why Puck was so angry. She wouldn't mind actually hearing the words though. In his efforts to avoid looking at Puck, Matt made eye contact with Rachel. Everything was silent for a few seconds as he studied her and then he apparently made a decision. Something flashed through his eyes, followed closely by a steely glint.
"Dude, is this about Rachel?" he confronted the problem directly.
Puck clammed up.
"You have no claim on her," Matt enlightened the other boy, rather bravely in Rachel's opinion.
Puck's entire body stiffened.
"If you like her, grow some balls and do something about it," Matt continued. "Until you do, she's available to anyone else who wants her. Including me."
With those parting words, he glanced past Puck at Rachel before heading back outside. Puck stood there silently for a few moments before punching the fridge, leaving a small dent (Mike sure wouldn't be happy about that, she thought with a wince) and then following Matt. Rachel hung out in the doorway for a few more moments, absorbing what she'd just witnessed, before going back outside.
Tension was thick in the air and Rachel clearly wasn't the only one who felt it. While Brittany was oblivious, snapping photos of the tiki torches Mike had just lit (the sun had finally gone down) and rambling about pineapple, Mike looked back and forth between Matt and Puck, his brow furrowed. Puck was lounging on the picnic table, drinking his soda and scowling at Matt, who was leaning against the wall next to the door. When Rachel stepped onto the patio, he straightened up and approached her.
"So, Rach, do you want to hang out tomorrow?" He was very direct.
Mike's eyes widened and Brittany stopped talking. They both shot their gazes over to Puck, who was watching Matt and Rachel with narrowed eyes.
This invitation caught Rachel completely off guard. She liked Matt; they were definitely friends, but she wasn't interested in him romantically. Looking back on their interactions, she realized that maybe he did like her in that way though, at least a little; she just hadn't seen it. Still, she was pretty sure he had figured out that she had feelings for Puck back in the kitchen; she had seen the momentary disappointment in his eyes before they'd gotten all determined. She just hadn't known that was what it was. At the very least, he had figured out Puck liked her. So, what was he doing?
"I'm sure we could find a fun way to spend some time together, just the two of us," he prodded. His eyes flitted quickly to the side in Puck's direction before coming back to Rachel. And then he winked.
Oh. Smiling a genuine smile at the sheer brilliance (and deviousness) of his actions, she accepted.
"I'd love to. Pick me up at 10?"
Brittany and Mike gaped at the two of them. This was clearly not what they expected. Puck shot up from his seat and marched to the edge of the alley. They could just barely see him kick a tree in the dark.
ooooo
"Hey, look what I found!" Brittany yelled, running out of the house.
She skidded to a halt next to the picnic table and dropped her armful of items on it. Rachel wandered over from the cooler after grabbing another soda and looked down.
"Are those fireworks?" she asked, popping the tab on the can.
"Brittany, were you in my closet again?" Mike questioned, taking in the sweatshirt she'd thrown over her T-shirt and the fireworks on the table. The temperature had dropped into the fifties once the sun went down. It was still very early June after all.
"Yeah. I was cold. Oh."
Brittany reached down and pulled a cloth from under the fireworks. She threw it to Rachel, who found herself holding Mike's gray McKinley High hoodie. She shrugged into it gratefully; it was a little chilly.
"Can we play with these?" Brittany requested. "Please."
The boys all nodded enthusiastically, causing Brittany to clap her hands together excitedly.
"Fireworks are illegal to light in Ohio," Rachel informed them all. "We could get in big trouble if someone caught us." She turned to Mike. "You're supposed to take these out of the state within 48 hours of buying them. Well, except for the sparklers; those are okay."
Mike gave her an exasperated look. "The guy across the alley lives alone and works nights, and the next door neighbors left for their yearly Florida trip yesterday. No one will see because no one's home."
"But loud fireworks could wake up your other neighbors further down the block and then what?" Rachel protested.
Puck elbowed her gently in the ribs. "You need to live a little Berry." She still appeared worried, so he sighed. "If we agree to only use the silent ones, will that shut you up?"
Rachel mulled that over. "I suppose that would be acceptable. I won't light any of them though; that way if we get caught I won't have technically done anything wrong," she declared.
"Wow, you guys got Rachel Berry to agree to break the law," an impressed male voice announced from the back door.
They'd been caught. The whole group turned guiltily to the source of the words. Luckily they just found Artie and Tina there.
Brittany bounced to a stop in front of the two. "You guys made it! I was starting to think you wouldn't. You missed dinner," she updated them needlessly, given the time.
"We ate before we left," Tina explained. "Sorry we're so late. It took forever before Artie's parents would let us escape."
"How was the wedding?" the blonde asked.
"Pretty boring as was the reception. We would have much rather been here," Artie stated, "but Dad wouldn't let us leave because it was family."
Rachel was extremely confused when she joined Tina and Brittany. Luckily, Tina noticed and addressed her while Artie rolled over to the boys who were still near the table inspecting the fireworks.
"We had to go to Artie's cousin's wedding, so we weren't sure we'd make it tonight," she looked over at the guys. The banner that was still attached to the wall must have caught her attention because she pointed at it and asked, "Why does that say 'Rachel Berry is hot!!!'?"
"It was Britt's dumb idea of a theme for tonight," Puck said as the guys joined the girls. "Hi, Tina."
"It was not dumb," Brittany pouted. "Come on Rach."
She grabbed Rachel's arm and dragged her to the table, leaving the guys to greet Tina.
"I hope you don't mind that I invited Artie and Tina," she whispered as she fished the sparklers out of the pile. "You looked like you were having fun talking to them last night."
Rachel smiled, taking the sparklers from Brittany so she could search for more. "I was. They're usually pretty nice to me you know. Why didn't you tell me you'd invited them?"
"They didn't know if they could come because of the wedding and in case they didn't show up..." she trailed off and Rachel understood.
Brittany didn't want her to think she'd been rejected again.
She brushed past the hovering words and instead said, "Well, I'm glad they were able to make it."
Tina joined the two of them and all three girls took their sparklers out onto the lawn. The boys, declaring the sparklers lame, hung out on the patio and watched the girls instead.
"The best thing about sparklers," Brittany stated lighting hers, "is the way you can spell things in the air with them."
She proceeded to do just that while Tina and Rachel watched, mesmerized. After she had written the letters, R-A-C-H-E-L-L-O-V-E-S-P, Rachel, finally registering what she was writing, risked burns and stole her sparkler before she could finish. It was too late though, because Tina was gazing at Rachel with a new understanding on her face. She didn't say anything though; she just lit her own sparkler and started drawing in the air with it. Rachel handed over Brittany's with a glower; the blonde smiled unrepentantly back at her. None of them noticed that Mike had taken over Brittany's camera, snapping pictures as the girls played.
The three of them got plenty of enjoyment out of the sparklers (Brittany especially liked to giggle and spell out swear words much to Rachel and Tina's amusement), before the boys declared that it was time to light the fountains that they had determined were silent. Brittany took her camera back from Mike (beaming at him for taking photos despite his earlier grumbling) and Puck pushed Artie over the lawn out to the edge of the alley. They were lighting the fountains in the center of the alley so that the sparks were away from anything that would catch on fire.
The boys had their chance to play with the fireworks as they took turns lighting the fountains. Rachel felt guilty as she watched. They were breaking the law after all, and she had never done that before (unless you counted speeding-she didn't), but the guilt was quickly shoved aside each time the pretty colored sparks erupted from the cardboard cones. When it came time to light the final fountain they had picked out (a different type from all the previous ones), Puck decided to do the honors.
"This should be fucking awesome," he pronounced before lighting it and moving quickly away as Brittany snapped a picture of him.
The sparks were gorgeous and Rachel was really enjoying it. Then the whistling started. Surprised, they all clapped their hands over their ears.
"I thought you said it was silent!" Artie shouted over the noise.
"I was wrong!" Mike yelled back in response.
They noticed the lights turn on in the house next to the one across the alley. Fearing the neighbors would call the cops, Matt quickly pushed Artie back over the grass to the house while Mike, Tina, Rachel, and Brittany ran in front of them. Puck stayed behind to grab the fountain once it had finished and dumped it in the large trashcan on the edge of Mike's yard, moving the bag inside so that it was on top of all the fireworks detritus before dashing after them. Mike gathered the fireworks left on the table as the others took refuge inside. As soon as he entered after Puck, he shut and locked the back door and took the fireworks back up to his room. The others headed into the living room and arranged themselves on the furniture (Brittany and Rachel on the couch, Tina in a chair with Artie next to her, and Matt and Puck sprawled on the floor). They found a showing of 'Titanic' on TV (the ship had already broken in half) so that by the time Mike rejoined them and took the open space next to Brittany, it appeared they'd been inside watching TV all along.
There was a knock on the front door as Rose let a frozen Jack sink into the ocean. Mike got up and answered the door to find a cop standing there. When questioned about a noise complaint, he denied it. They had been inside watching a movie, he explained. The cop checked out the room and upon seeing the tears trailing down Tina's cheeks and the way Brittany and Rachel were leaning on each other sobbing, he grimaced and apologized for bothering them. It was one time when the male fear of emotion had worked in their favor. Mike retook his seat and they all rejoiced at getting away with the fireworks. Then the boys promptly began to tease the girls about their crying.
After the movie ended, they switched over to [adult swim] and watched two episodes of Robot Chicken. Rachel had never seen the show before, but she was quite impressed with it. Some of it was a bit disgusting and immature, but for the most part it was clever, biting, and very funny. She thought she might have to view more of it in the future.
After the shows ended, they all decided to head home for the night. In all the confusion of hugging and goodbyes, Noah pulled her into the corner.
"Naomi's having some friends over to use her pool tomorrow afternoon, but she said we could use it after six," he explained quietly in her ear so as to not be overheard (the swimming lessons were still their secret). "I'll pick you up at six."
Unnoticed to both of them, Tina tapped Brittany's arm and gestured to Rachel and Puck. Brittany pulled her camera out of her shorts pocket and snapped a picture of the two of them.
Puck started to walk away, but Rachel stopped him with a hand on his arm (and there was the heat).
"Actually, I need to drive myself. I'm staying the night with Britt tomorrow and she'd have a lot of questions if you dropped me off. I've never told her about our swimming lessons," she clarified. "And, I know how to find your aunt's house now."
He was nodding when Matt came over to them. Rachel dropped her hand.
"I'll see you at ten Rach," he said as he pulled her into a hug. The he whispered, "If this doesn't get him off his ass, nothing will."
"Thank you Matt," she whispered back with a smile that only grew when she looked over Matt's shoulder and saw the way Puck's fists were clenched.
She waved at Mike and Artie, hugged Brittany and was surprised when Tina also hugged her goodbye. Thanking her friends for having her over, as a good guest should, she exited the house. As she walked to her car, she wondered what would happen on her 'date' with Matt tomorrow. She also thought she could add two more friends to her list.
A/N 2: The fireworks in the alley thing is what my family used to do. We once set off an illegal firework and the neighbors called the police. The group's mad dash inside was inspired by ours. The cops didn't actually come to our door though; they merely cruised through the alley behind the house. Luckily, my dad had done like Puck and hid the firework debris under the bag in the garbage can.