INVESTIGATION
By now Rachel should be well aware of what the feeling of disappointment is. After all, there hasn't been an entire week of her life where she wasn't disappointed at least once. This week's disappointment could be traced directly back to Quinn. They were friends and have been so for months. And while Quinn talked to her, she had yet to confide in Rachel. It's not like she wanted Quinn to run to her with all of her problems. No, that would be selfish. She just, she wanted a little trust. Was that too much to ask? Hardly. Rachel could be another Jesse for Quinn. It wasn't that out of reach. Not to toot her own horn or anything, but…No actually, she was going to toot. It was obvious that after Jesse, Rachel was Quinn's closest friend. So really, moving up in rank wasn't impossible.
Besides, she was concerned about Quinn. After yesterday in the choir room, she had been focusing solely on the possibilities that had upset Quinn in such ways. So far her reasons had ranged from a death in the family to a bad breakup with a secret lover. For every reason that Rachel came up with, she came up with another reason that disproved it. For instance, she knew it wasn't a death because even Jesse wouldn't be playing games in that scenario. Just like it wasn't a secret lover because never once had Rachel seen Quinn so saddened by a boyfriend. She honestly had no idea what was causing Quinn such distress. And it's not like she could just go ask her.
Jesse had been speaking to Rachel in sentences that were missing words for a while now. And since that said sentences always pertained to Quinn, it was clearly something the blonde wanted to keep to herself. Therefore, Rachel had to obtain the words she was missing in a different manner. She couldn't simply ask Quinn or Jesse. Obviously neither had any plans to tell her. Instead, Rachel was going to overlook the fact that Quinn and Jesse were probably dealing with whatever it was on their own, and she was going to be greedy. She was going to get information out of them. She had thought over her plan of action last night. Rachel was not going after the source. She was going after Jesse. Frankly, she didn't care if she damaged her friendship with him as it would quickly fix itself over time. Her friendship with Quinn on the other hand would suffer greatly if she overstepped any lines. So, she'd be taking a different approach with Quinn. An indirect one.
At the moment, Rachel was currently taking a break from working out the kinks in her plan and heading to glee. And just like at lunch earlier, she wasn't going to sit next to Quinn. Though this wouldn't garner as much suspicion as lunch did considering they didn't always sit with each other in glee, she felt that it still sent a message. The message of course being that she was giving Quinn space. This was also doubling as a possible opening for Quinn to take. If she would just come to Rachel about whatever this was, then that would save everyone a lot of time. However, that has yet to happen. So far, all that's happened today was Rachel berating herself every time she almost threw all of this away just to go ask Quinn if she was okay.
Luckily for her, by the time Rachel had gotten to the choir room, Quinn had yet to arrive. Jesse was also missing. How noteworthy.
"Can we expect your vote?" Kurt immediately approached her as she entered the choir room.
"Vote?"
Kurt clasped his hands together as he took a deep breath. "Blaine and I are running for Prom King and King."
Rachel didn't know what to make of this. She looked behind her excited friend over to his boyfriend. He didn't look anywhere near as enthused.
"No we're not." Blaine corrected.
Kurt waved him off. "Don't listen to him."
"Kurt, is that even a category?" Rachel moved past him to take a seat.
"It will be." He sat next to her. "After last year, there are no longer any write-in submissions, and we can only vote for those running. Thus, we're running."
"Yeah, well good luck and everything, man." Puck told Kurt. "Really. But Rachel's going to vote for us." He put his arm over the back of Lauren's chair. It was then slapped away.
Kurt just shook his head. "Why would she vote for you when we're friends?"
"Because we're Jews." Puck explained. "And we all know what happens when Jews don't stick together. World Wars start. It's a historical fact."
Before Kurt could argue Puck's latest Jew point, Rachel regained his attention. "Kurt, why exactly are you running? I mean, this school made you Prom Queen last year in an effort to destroy your spirits and individuality."
"Precisely." He agreed. "Not only will it show that their crudeness has not deterred me in the slightest, but it might actually open up some eyes; change some minds."
"You don't think that you might be setting yourself up for humiliation?"
"If one truly wants to make changes, then they can't worry about something as humdrum as high school humiliation from their peers."
Rachel sighed. She didn't have a response for that, but she didn't necessarily think Kurt was making the right decision either.
"I think we should run." Brittany interrupted the silence Kurt and Rachel left. She turned to Santana beside her. "We could be Prom Queens together and rule the school. Then everyone will have to do what we say and maybe Dave can come back to glee."
"We're not running for Prom Queens together." Santana quickly shot the idea down.
"Why not?"
"Because people will only give us problems, B."
"See, Santana gets it." Blaine pointed to the girls, trying to prove his previous point.
"Don't ever compare me to you." Santana warned.
"Besides." Kurt looked to Blaine. "They're completely different."
"How?"
"Because they're not even out."
"Well, they're certainly not in."
"People know we're dating. It's not just something they infer from our very visual and wide open interactions where anyone can walk in and see something they'll never be able to erase from their minds." Kurt glared pointedly over at Brittany and Santana. One looked confused while the other simply did not seem to care. He won't name names. "We have a legitimate shot to prove something here." He readdressed Blaine.
"We also have a legitimate shot of having our night ruined. And that's the best case scenario." Blaine argued. "I don't understand why we can't just go and enjoy our prom. It doesn't need to be made into a spectacle."
"Because the idea of a happy and stable couple running for prom shouldn't ever be considered a spectacle in the first place."
"Don't seem to happy now." Finn mumbled over to Sam.
Before Kurt could lay into his step-brother a commotion that could only be drawn back to Jesse and Quinn caused everyone to look over to the door. Rachel paid close –though not obvious– attention.
"-that is no excuse not to listen to me."
"Well I wouldn't be tired if you didn't wake me up so early." Quinn snapped as Jesse trailed behind her.
"Well I wouldn't have woken you up so early if I didn't run into your mother at the breakfast table." He returned. "There was no way I was going to stew in that disturbance alone."
"You're the one who set them up."
"And you're the one who kept us up late last night. If you're going to blame anyone for your exhaustion, perhaps you should invest in a good mirror." Jesse immediately dropped his smirk upon the wounded look she gave him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I was only trying to win the argument. That was careless of me."
Mercedes's eyes widened slightly. "Did he really just apologize for something? Sincerely?"
Sam looked on with her. "Damn. I think he did."
"So what's going on?" Jesse asked, not because he cared, but because he wanted to change the subject.
"Well Blaine and Santana don't want to run for prom so Kurt and me are gonna run together and beat everyone else because we're the best. Obviously." Brittany answered for the room before sending a seductive wink over at Kurt. Kurt turned away, disturbed.
"Oh prom." Jesse sighed much too wistfully for it to be authentic. "I've never actually had a successful one." He added to Quinn.
"What do you mean you're the best?" Tina ignored their humble leader as she spoke to Brittany.
"Deal with it." She responded simply.
"But people love Mike." Artie interrupted, earning some confusion.
"You're running against them?" Quinn asked Mike as she took her seat.
"I guess, why not?" He shrugged.
"Besides, as polls show people would vote for him." Artie informed them all.
Puck looked down at his friend. "Dude, why do you care?"
"No reason. An-and there definitely isn't a betting pool going around the school or anything."
Tina frowned. "Is that why you wanted Mike to run?"
"No, of course not."
"Wait how much is in this pool?" Puck jumped back in. "Are you running this thing? Is there any way to rig it?"
Mike looked over at Artie. "At least now it makes sense why you wanted me to run with Brittany?"
Tina also looked over at the boy. "You wanted him to run with Brittany? Why? Am I not good enough?"
Artie fumbled. "No I-"
"You're perfect." Mike assured his girlfriend.
"Hold up." Santana stopped them all. "So now we're just shipping off other people's girlfriends?"
"Well why do you care?" Brittany challenged her. "We're just glee girlfriends. Otherwise you'd be running with me."
Though never one to like putting that cute angry frown on her girlfriend's face, Santana was hardly going to back down on this. "I am not running for some lesbian queen crown. The golf team still likes to leave plaid swatches in my locker on occasion."
"Oh, they tag you too?" Kurt asked her horrified.
She snapped to her right. "What?"
Tina held up a hand before looking over at her ex. "I'm still caught on the fact that you don't think I should run with my own boyfriend."
"I'm sorry, but Brittany's really popular." Artie tried to reason. "People generally like her and would vote for her. She leads her female poll. Quinn, you also seem to remain in the top three if you're interested." He told her before Kurt was calling for his attention.
"Artie, where would Blaine and I rank?"
"We're not running." Blaine repeated.
Kurt turned back to his boyfriend. "Blaine, I see your side of things, I do, but this is prom. If not now, when? Graduation?"
"How about not at all? There's no reason to try and make a statement. Why cause problems when we're not even going to see these people next year?"
Artie looked between the two before deciding now would be a good time to interrupt. "Though the male rankings are a lot closer than the female ones, Mike has a slight edge on everyone." He began answering Kurt's previous inquiry. "Finn also ranks up there. And Karofsky's numbers have gone way up since quitting glee."
"Well that's it. I'm totally running with Mike then." Brittany shrugged, making her decision.
"Wait-" Santana and Tina both spoke but went ignored.
Puck frowned. "So I'm not even up there?"
"Man, how long have you been researching?" Sam asked Artie, slightly amazed.
"A few months." He informed. "After last year and everyone's strange obsession with it, I thought it'd only be increased this year being it's our senior year. So I took it upon myself to start a prom pool. It opens on Friday. I set up a 20% take, so I can't lose." He grinned.
"He's learning." Lauren observed.
Puck nodded along with her. "Our boy's all grown up."
"Well at least now we know how delinquency spreads." Mercedes chuckled.
"Perhaps this is why I've never had a successful prom. It's a night celebrated by idiots." Jesse muttered to himself.
"I'll take ten bucks on Brittany and Mike." Finn quickly told Artie, after finding a crumpled bill in his pocket.
"There's the proof."
"Finn!" Kurt shrieked, offended.
Puck also wasn't too happy about this betrayal. "Dude. I thought we were bros."
"But this is like inside information." Finn argued them both.
"Well I would like to bet five dollars on my close, never-estranged friends: Kurt and Blaine." Rachel told Artie. Though it was clear to be a foolish bet, siding with Kurt now may prove to help her later. "I think you two will make awe-inspiring gay royalty." She added sweetly, hoping it was convincing enough.
"Thank you, Rachel." Kurt smiled toward his friend before losing it. "At least someone has faith in us." He spoke to the rest of the club.
"Save your money." Blaine advised earning another glare from his boyfriend. "We're not running."
"Okay." Jesse swiftly cut Kurt off. "Before we can hear that lackluster argument again, let's just start today's meeting, shall we?"
Rachel stopped listening there. She would focus on Nationals once she had an actual song in front of her. As of now, she had a plan to put into motion. In order for her to pursue Jesse, she needed a partner in crime so to speak. Something needed to distract Quinn in all of this while she went after Jesse. That was something that Rachel felt was crucial. Her initial instinct was to bring Mercedes in since she was there yesterday, but truthfully, she wasn't sure she could trust the other girl with something so important. It took Rachel over ten minutes to bribe Mercedes into silence as Jesse requested. (She was now out of solos on the next three free days.) After Mercedes, Rachel saw only three options: Santana, Blaine, or Kurt. Santana would be perfect, but Rachel liked to avoid her in life so she was automatically out. Blaine, though a close friend she could trust, didn't lack enough morals to scheme. Kurt was left to be the winner.
As far as the rest of the afternoon went, Rachel really didn't need to focus on glee after all. All it was, was simple and boring choreography without any songs to sing yet. She could do it in her sleep. Plus, she also knew that Jesse surely had a plan for Nationals, so really, thinking of how she was going to convince Kurt instead of focusing on practice didn't make her feel guilty. She decided to wait until rehearsals were over and mostly emptied out before going over to her friend.
"Kurt." She greeted her friend, approachable smile set on her face.
"No," was his immediate response.
Rachel faltered. "What?"
"I recognize the tone you're using. You're plotting."
"I am not." She denied. "I resent your automatic accusation tha-that I'm scheming or planning something dishonest in nature."
"Your insanity has begun leaking out, and I'd rather not get involved."
"But we're friends, and you don't even know why I've approached you. You're just making assumptions."
"So then you're not planning anything?"
"Well, no-"
"See."
"You'll get something to gossip about. It's probably juicy." She pitched. "I'm not sure if I could allow you conversing about it with anyone who isn't me, but you'll still know."
"I'd really like to help, but I've got my own stories to put forth. I've got to spend the rest of the day trying to make Blaine see the light. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to play your accomplice when there doesn't seem to be anything in it for me." He briefly apologized. "But let me know how it goes." Kurt offered before walking off toward his exit. Well now what was she going to do? Kurt could forget about her vote. That was for sure.
Rachel looked around the stage for some inspiration. Nothing. All that seemed to be left in the entire auditorium was Finn packing up his backpack in the lowest rows of seats. This moment was worthy of a dramatic sigh. She needed a partner to do this. And she and Finn had worked through similar undertakings together in the past. This one wouldn't even be that complicated. For him at least. It was doable. But it was also Finn, and they had a history. One that was causing them to respectably avoid each other. And most importantly, she'd be using him. She couldn't do that. No. That would be wrong.
"Finn." She greeted as she walked over to where he still stood.
"Hey, Rach." He turned around, swinging his bag over one shoulder.
"How have you been?" She smiled.
"…fine." He answered slowly with concern. She mused that he was probably worried that she was trying to convince him to get back together with her. While that might have been true in the last two years, he hardly needed to worry about that at this second.
"That's great. So I need a favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"I need your help in getting some information out of someone."
"Uh…I'm kinda busy, and you've got that crazy, jungle wildlife look in your eyes so I'm like gonna stay out of it." He stepped backwards up a stair.
Rachel reached out to grab his arm, stopping him. "Finn, I need your help with this. I can't accomplish this on my own. Okay, well I could, but your assistance would make it a lot easier."
"But I-"
"You owe me a favor." She dropped his arm to fold her own.
"How do you figure?"
"You've broken up with me three times. One of which came after lying about the status of your virginity. Something I never held against you or even got all that mad about."
"You tried to sleep with my best friend to get back at me for hurting you." He returned incredulously.
"But I didn't." She reminded helpfully.
"Only because Puck stopped you."
"That's not the point here. The point is, is that sometimes exes come to collect their earned courtesies." She noted that his hesitance still remained. "I won't stop pestering you until you concede."
He sighed and readjusted his backpack strap. "What do I need to do?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked." She smiled brightly before dropping it to whisper covertly. "Jesse's withholding pertinent information from me."
"No way. You mean Jesse's being less than truthful about something. Wow I never would have thought he'd do that."
"Finn, sarcasm truly is not a good shade on you."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why do you even care about what Jesse is or isn't telling you? The guy's a liar. That's what he does."
"Because this is important."
Finn's mood shifted as he began to take this seriously. "Why? Does it have something to do with glee?"
"No, and before you even continue, it has nothing to do with Jesse either. It's about Quinn." She explained. "Something is going on with her, and Jesse's been dropping subtle hints to me for weeks which clearly indicates that he wants me to know and just can't tell me himself."
"Alright. Well have you tried asking him what he's been trying to tell you?"
"Finn." She said plainly. "You can't just ask people questions to get the information you want."
He frowned. "You can't?"
"No. There's a certain delicacy to these types of conversations. We'll be very careful about what words we choose and very patient about how and when we say them. Then before we know it, they'll be answering our questions without us even having to ask them."
"Okay, but wouldn't it be easier to just ask them?"
"Are you even listening to me?"
"I'm trying to. I really am." He just didn't have a clue what she was saying. "Maybe you could just tell me what you want me to do. That might go better."
"It's simple. While I'll be handling Jesse, you can take care of Quinn."
"Handling? Simple? You have met Quinn, right?"
"Finn." She scolded.
"Sorry, but Quinn's a really hard person to talk to. Like, about anything. And you want me to ask her a question without actually asking the question and hope to get an answer?"
"Yes." She lied to her distraction piece. "Look, I can't pursue both of them about this. They'll be onto me within a second. Given their own history, I'm sure they can just smell deception."
"Well, then how about you talk to Quinn, and I'll talk to Jesse. You know, it could be like girl talk." He watched as she frowned. "For you. Not for me." He clarified.
Rachel merely shook her head. "You can't talk to Jesse. He's aggressive, and he'd talk circles around you. Quinn is more…passive than he is. She'll be easier for you. You don't have as much experience in these operations as I do."
"So, what do I have to do?"
"Remain secretive. Don't give anything away. And just talk to her."
"About what?"
"Anything but me or Jesse or this conversation we're having right now." She smiled again. "Don't worry. You'll be fine." She tapped him on the shoulder, and walked past him up the stairs.
Finn dropped his bag off his shoulder in defeat. He just knew that this wasn't going to end well. How does he keep getting himself into these situations?
Jesse was pleasantly surprised with Quinn yesterday. He would have assumed that with everything that had happened back on Monday, she'd bury herself in some black hole of existence. Or something just as pleasant. Instead, she was fine. A little quieter than usual and extra irritable due to lack of sleep, but she was mostly fine. Monday, of course, was a different case all together. After he drove Quinn home, they sat in silence for a good hour before he got her to open up again. Then they talked with intermissions until Judy came home from work. She told them to order dinner as she had a date with Jesse's uncle. Quinn and Jesse didn't talk again until after they finished dinner.
Quinn had apparently been concocting her own form of research over the last few weeks. Oddly enough, she had been doing what Jesse did months ago just on a much more personal level. When Jesse had first questioned Quinn's latent gayness and potential feelings for Rachel he had come up with several tiny theories to test. He was smarter so he had come to the conclusion that Quinn was obviously gay and had feelings for Rachel. Quinn's conclusion was the same but not as definite because she still enjoyed lying to herself. But she did declare an admittance which was probably as much progress as he could ask for. At least intentional progress anyway. Though comfortable, as always Quinn still had something to work through. So the last thing she needed at the moment was added distractions. This was why Jesse wasn't exactly thrilled with what he was looking at on this fresh Wednesday morning.
Jesse walked over to where Quinn stood near the drinking fountain. "I see Kurt was able to sway Blaine." He observed the poster she was looking at. It was advertising Kurt and Blaine's run for kings. "Not surprising considering Blaine has never struck me as someone who had a spine."
Quinn frowned. "You don't think it's a good idea for them to run?"
"Frankly I don't care either way. I was just referring to Blaine's apparent inability to stand up to Kurt. It's really not a concern of mine." He turned away from the wall in order to face her. "What is a concern of mine is your stance?"
"On Kurt and Blaine?"
"No, on prom." He corrected. "You seemed to be interested in glee's talks yesterday."
"Jesse-"
"I seem to remember a few conversations about this toward the end of summer." Quinn winced. She also recalled these conversations. Having fake therapy sessions with Jesse over her previous desire for Prom Queen was embarrassing on the mortifying level. "I see no reason for you to go back down that road. Particularly when your current plate has food spilling over the sides."
"So it's not a matter of what I should do, it's a matter of what I could do." She nodded to herself. "You know, despite everything that's happened, I could still run for Prom Queen." She didn't want to, but that didn't mean she liked the idea of Jesse trying to tell her what she was capable of.
"Oh I see. You think because we've finally talked through everything it's over with. Fine and dandy even."
"You're reaching."
"And you're enabling." He paused, suddenly mid-epiphany. "Oh wow. Now that I think about, you are your own emotional drug dealer."
She shook her head. "Why is it that people are constantly telling me to have a dream all while overlooking the ones I do have? Winning prom is a childhood dream of mine."
"Yes, I unfortunately know." He rolled his eyes. "Please try and set a higher goal."
"There is nothing wrong to aspiring to be Prom Queen."
Jesse quickly thought up a retort, but never had to use it as someone caught his eye. Rachel continued on her route to class, heading in their direction. This was going to be too easy for him. He almost didn't even feel like giving himself the point in the win column.
"Rachel." Jesse called his favorite singer over. She gladly joined them. "Do you think it would be a wise idea for Quinn to run for prom?"
"Absolutely." Rachel immediately answered prompting Jesse to lose his smirk. Rachel didn't notice this. "I know I placed a bet on Kurt and Blaine, but that was only to show my support as their friend. They have a snow ball's chance at winning. And Puckerman and Zizes should just throw in the towel now. Mike and Brittany on the other hand do seem to provide a challenge. They are the current favorites. It would take a strong campaign against them to—Oh my god." Her eyes went wide with excitement. "Jesse and I should be your campaign managers."
Jesse glared down at her. "Okay, you're not helping."
"Oh. Was I supposed to dissuade her?" Jesse nodded slowly. Rachel looked back to Quinn. "Running for prom can result in-in…an increased susceptibility to cancer cells."
"That's it?" Jesse asked her. He expected more from Rachel.
"Well I'm sorry, but you've caught me off guard. And I've never researched prom statistics."
Jesse looked away from his current disappointment and back over to Quinn. "How about that you chasing the crown last year was all a last ditch effort to fill voids and diminish insecurities? Ones that have already been filled and killed through other means. Why try and bring all of those out of placed feelings of failure back?"
"Ah, yes. See, Quinn. It would be a terrible idea." Rachel agreed.
"Horrendous."
"Okay, you both do realize that I've never actually said I was running for prom again this year, right?" Quinn challenged them. By their reactions, it was clear that neither had thought of this. "Last year I had actual reasons to run. As in like I wanted to win. And at this point, the only thing I want from this school is my diploma." Which was true to a degree.
Last year she felt the need to win to validate several things in her life. (Said things changed from week to week until it wasn't exactly clear what her motivations were.) But this year she didn't feel the need for those same validations. Besides, Jesse was right. She had too much else on her mind to worry about something that truthfully hadn't mattered to her in about a year now.
Jesse sighed in relief. "Good. That's less I have to deal with."
Before Rachel had the time to reprimand Jesse's insensitivity or Quinn had the time to volley an insult right back at him, their bubble was being interrupted.
"Hey." Finn greeted them. Rachel was the only one who smiled. Not too bad of timing.
"Oh goodie." Jesse tilted to his head. "I thought my IQ was increasing a tad too much today."
Finn ignored him and focused down on Quinn. "Right so, can I maybe talk to you?"
Quinn glanced to both Rachel and Jesse. She wouldn't have guessed that she would be the one Finn wanted to talk to here. "I guess."
"Like alone." He looked over to Rachel.
Rachel ignored his shortcomings in being at all stealth and simply perked up instead. "Oh, that's quite alright, Finn. I had to discuss certain matters with Jesse anyway." She linked arms with their confused instructor. "Come along, Jesse."
Quinn watched as Rachel dragged Jesse off and down the hall before they came to a stop. Oddly, they didn't seem to be talking about anything. And if she was asked, she would have sworn that they were trying to watch her and Finn. Creeps. Oh, right. Finn. She turned to look at the boy.
"So um…hi." He offered as an opening.
Quinn blinked. "Hi?"
"Yeah." He nodded faintly.
"Was there something that you needed?"
"No." He said simply. He really needed to think of something. "Friends!" It suddenly occurred to him.
"I'm sorry?"
"A while ago you said that maybe later we could be friends, and since it's later I wanted to know if we were friends. Or if we could be friends."
"Sure, Finn." She agreed in hopes that it would end whatever this was. "We're friends."
"Cool."
"Yeah."
Finn smiled slightly again, still nodding. Well now that they were established as friends, what was he going to talk to her about? Quick, what did they talk about when they were dating? Let's see. There was glee, their popularity, Rachel, um…there was glee…Crap. Friends. Well what the hell did he talk about with his other friends?
"So…it's time for baseball to start. Do you think the Indians might be good this year?"
Quinn just stared at him for a moment before snapping. "What?"
A few yards down the hall, Quinn and Finn's (lack of) discussion was still being observed by the other pair. For two completely different reasons.
"What do you think Finn wants with Quinn?" Jesse asked for her opinion as they finally turned away from the former couple.
"I'm sure it's nothing other than what you'd expect." Rachel tried to reassure him. Tried to.
Jesse didn't exactly look at this positively. There was nothing good Finn could bring to Quinn's life. "We're getting sidetracked. What did you want to discuss with me?"
"Just recent events really. I was hoping you'd-"
"I was wondering when we were going to have this conversation." He smiled, interrupting her.
Yesterday both Quinn and Jesse had been surprised by Rachel's lack of questioning. And while Quinn was pleased with this and Mercedes's silence, Jesse was left to wonder why Rachel was acting out of character. "Quinn's perfectly fine. She was just upset on Monday." He informed.
"Yes, I'd say that would be an understatement." She agreed. "I'm glad she's okay, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
Jesse frowned. "Oh."
"What are your plans for glee?"
"I'm pretty sure I went over all of this during yesterday's meeting." Okay, so maybe Rachel should have paid some attention. "When I choose the songs, you'll know what you're singing. Until then: Choreography."
"Yes and our free days?"
Jesse bit his tongue in thought. "I don't know if we'll be having any more of those this year. There's not enough rehearsal time between now and Nationals."
Hmm. Well at least now she wouldn't be losing any solos to Mercedes. Of course, that would also mean the last non-competition solo she sang in glee was "Hit Me with Your Best Shot." Well, that wasn't ideal. Though a fun performance, it was certainly not something she wanted to look back on and remember as a significant glee performance in her early career as an artist.
"Perhaps we could have one more." Jesse continued.
"Good let's come up with a scheduling plan later. After school? Unless you're busy with Quinn or something."
"No. Quinn and I have no plans."
"Excellent." She smiled brightly, walking away from him.
This was perfect. She knew Quinn was okay. She knew Quinn was free after school which meant Finn could work overtime. Jesse seemed somewhat confused, but he wasn't at all suspicious. By the end of the week, she'd definitely know what Jesse had been keeping from her regarding Quinn. She was quite happy with her plan thus far.
Quinn on the other hand, not so happy about the plan. She didn't know about it of course, but she was receiving some of the after effects. For the rest of the day, Finn was waiting for her outside of each one of her classes. Then he'd follow her around like a puppy on a leash all while trying (desperately) to make small talk. He had never even paid this much mind to her when they were dating. Either time. In fact, the only time he ever paid attention to her was when she forced him to or when he wanted something which begged the question of what Finn wanted. It had to be something. There was no way he just suddenly woke up this morning and realized that he wanted to start a friendship with her. Regardless of the reasons she would make sure to find out, by the time lunch rolled around, she honestly wanted him to get knocked unconscious.
"I can't believe you did this without my consent." Blaine shook his head in anger.
"Well, it's not like you were agreeing." Kurt returned.
The other four occupants of the table gave up on trying to eat in peace a few minutes ago now as Kurt and Blaine's argument continued to play on a loop. It had been going on before Quinn had even gotten to the table. (She had arrived late because of Finn's incompetence.) She contemplated joining the dysfunction or going to stand in line for something before she realized that Rachel had been in her usual seat again today. So sitting down won out.
"So your next plan of action was to go behind my back and do it anyway?"
"Blaine, this is important."
"Yeah, well so is respecting the person you're dating." Blaine stormed away from the table in a manner strong enough to make Rachel proud.
"Don't worry. I'll get him to come around." Kurt quickly told the table before moving on. "Blaine!" He chased after him.
"I guess it's not all paradise in Happyland." Sam was the first to speak.
Mercedes opened her bag of chips. "I understand what Kurt is trying to do…kinda, but that ain't right."
"Let's not worry about them. I'm sure they'll work it out." Rachel dismissed the subject. "Let's talk about glee. Now do you remember the party we had on Monday?"
"Yeah." Sam chuckled. "Monday wasn't that long ago, Rach."
"Well, according to Jesse that might be our last free day."
"What?" Mercedes blanched. "Ah hell no. We're not doing straight rehearsals until graduation."
"I think it would only be until Nationals, but that's not the point."
"This sucks." Sam complained.
Quinn reached down into the suddenly buzzing pocket of her cardigan. She had a text. It was from Finn. "Ugh. Speaking of things that suck." She put her phone back away, not even bothering to read it. She looked across the table to Sam. "Hey, you're friends with Finn."
"Not really." He left off the part of why, not wanting to bring up sour memories.
"Whatever. You're a guy and guys talk to each other about things so what is he trying to do?"
"Um…"
"What's going on?" Rachel asked Quinn.
"He keeps talking to me." She explained what Rachel secretly already knew. "He's being doing it all day. Ever since he found us this morning. And I don't know why."
"Well Quinn, I'm sure it's nothing." Rachel tried to calm her. "Maybe he wants to reunite with you in order to rerun for prom. It would improve both of your chances." She grinned.
Quinn observed Rachel and her smile for a moment as she narrowed her eyes. "Why are you okay with this?"
"What?" Crap. Quinn seemed to be using her accusatory tone. Did she say something incriminating?
"Hypothetically, in some insane world, if Finn were ever trying to reignite something, why would you ever be okay with that?"
Crap again. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because you've never been okay with Finn dating me or anyone for that matter. In fact, I seem to remember you trying to destroy my relationship with him several times."
"Yes, but we're friends now. It's completely different."
"No, it's not. It's not different at all."
"I don't understand why you're angry about this."
"I'm not angry. I'm just baffled. This is Finn Hudson we're talking about, and we don't talk about him. Now all of a sudden you'd be okay if we were running for prom together?"
See. This is exactly why she didn't want to be the one to talk to Quinn. The slightest mistake and she'd be caught.
"So are you running again because I kind of wanna know the odds?" Sam interrupted them.
"She's not running." Rachel quickly told him causing Mercedes to frown.
"Then why are you…You know what, never mind." She went back to her boyfriend. It wasn't that out of ordinary for Rachel and Quinn to be, well, less than ordinary.
Rachel turned back to the girl next to her. "Quinn, I really didn't mean to offend you."
"I'm not offended." She was just incredibly confused on Rachel's uncharacteristic behavior. There is no way, under any circumstances that Rachel would ever want to see her with Finn again. This entire day was backwards.
By the next morning, there was no indication on whether or not the world had righted itself yet. What was clear was that it was probably going to be another long day anyway. Quinn frowned as Jesse greeted her by her locker.
"Here. For you." He placed something onto her head. "It's not your birthday, but a lovely Burger King worker named Vanessa thinks so. She also thinks your five."
Quinn pursed her lips. He didn't seem to care about her discomfort. "I'm guessing there's a reason for this."
"Yes. It is to show you that a piece of cardboard is about as useful as a piece of plastic won at a high school prom."
"I thought we dealt with this yesterday." She pulled the cardboard crown off of her head.
"True. But I do know you." He lost his grin as she flattened the crown. "Oh don't do that. Those are hard to come by. It's not like our childhood, Quinn. Not that my parents ever took me to Burger King on my birthday. They don't believe in fast food."
"Well, then here." She handed the crown over. "Now your childhood is complete."
"I'd put it on, but I don't want to ruin my hair."
Quinn's eyes shifted to some commotion behind Jesse. "Move."
"What? Where are you taking me?" He complained as she dragged him around the nearest corner to the next hall. "Problem?" He asked when they came to a stop.
"Finn was down the hall. For once I'm thankful for his height."
He frowned. "So we're hiding from Finn Hudson?"
"Yes. He hasn't left me alone since yesterday morning. And he came over to my house yesterday after school." She whined.
"Is he bothering you?"
"Not on purpose. He's supposedly trying to be my friend."
"Supposedly?"
"I don't know. It just doesn't make sense to me."
"Then tell him to leave you alone."
"Yeah, because I haven't already tried that."
He shrugged. "Well, then maybe you've just got yourself another friend."
"But I don't want this friend."
"How is that different than any of your other friendships?" He smirked.
"Whatever. You could have at least answered your phone yesterday."
"I happened to have my own preoccupation yesterday afternoon."
Jesse spent the rest of the day after school with Rachel. Originally he was to spend yesterday afternoon finalizing a Nationals set list. He agreed to Rachel's invitation to work in any possible free days because he assumed she'd help with the song selection. Sadly, this wasn't the case.
"Thanks to Rachel, I'm now yet another day behind in my preparation for Nationals. I almost wonder if that was her intention." He pondered.
"What are you talking about?"
"I went over to Rachel's yesterday under the pretense that we'd be organizing a schedule and perhaps choosing songs, but we got nothing done. All she did was argue with me and start absurd conversations that went nowhere."
"Rachel was acting weird yesterday." She agreed. "At lunch it was almost like she was approving of Finn and me potentially getting closer."
"Maybe it's just an off week. Because see, I expected her to come to one of us after Monday. It's unlike her not to want to know what was wrong with you."
"Yeah, maybe."
Though, Quinn didn't actually believe that. Rachel didn't have off weeks. That just wasn't who she was. Rachel only changed her behavior to this degree when there was a purpose to it. But what would be the purpose of Rachel distracting Jesse from glee or not getting upset over Finn doing whatever it was he was doing with Quinn? Then there was the point of Rachel not asking how Quinn was after Monday which was actually something Quinn was dreading after Jesse took her home. She hadn't thought anything of it on Tuesday because it was one less thing she had to deal with. Still none of this made any sense. Rachel was compulsive and at times meticulous. If Quinn went through life defensively, then it was Rachel who took an offensive approach. She was up to something that much Quinn knew. She also knew that this all started after Monday. And when you hear hooves…
So then if this was all because of Monday, there was most likely only one thing Rachel was trying to accomplish. And that was coming up with something insane to find out what's been going on. Come to think of it, Quinn wouldn't put it past Rachel to team up with Finn to interrogate her and Jesse. Finn was dumb enough to control. She knew that better than most. Anyone else, this would be absolutely ridiculous. But this was Rachel. It was more than possible. She briefly considered just saving Rachel the trouble and telling her about everything. She could do that. It would undoubtedly save everyone some headaches. It ended up taking several class periods before Quinn came to a conclusion. The conclusion being that her morning was obviously spent in idiocy because there was no possible way she was telling Rachel anything. She would, however, make sure Rachel told Finn to get lost. Or, you know, something nicer.
"Why did you tell Finn to stalk me?"
Rachel paused going through her locker as she heard Quinn's question behind her. She was simply going to kill Finn if he ruined this for her. However, she couldn't give anything away until she knew just how badly he had messed up.
She shut her locker and turned around. "So now he's been upped to stalking you?" She returned skeptically.
Quinn wasn't happy with her avoidance. "Rachel."
"I'm sorry that you're paranoid enough to think that I sent my ex-boyfriend after you when I did no such thing."
"Right. So you didn't tell Finn to randomly take up talking to me in order to find out what was going on on Monday?"
Rachel looked on in shock. "How do you know this? Are you psychic too?"
"No. You just told me."
Damn. Well that was a nifty trick. "I should have seen this coming." Rachel muttered.
"You could have just asked me." Quinn told her.
"Would you have given me an answer?" She tested before going into some type of explanation. "Jesse's been teasing me for weeks regarding you mostly, and then he didn't even attempt to tell me what happened after you left the choir room."
"So instead you come up with some crazy plot that includes Finn?"
Rachel decided not to correct Quinn's assumptions that Finn was her first choice for this sort of thing "It's obvious that you don't trust me, and I'm aware that in hindsight, trying to go about finding out this information in the manner in which I did does nothing for my case, but I want you to trust me."
"I do trust you."
"Then what's going on?" She stepped forward hopefully. "I can help. I can be that friend for you."
"You can also let it go, Rachel."
"Quinn, please." She pleaded. "If you're concerned that I might tell someone, I-I would never do that. I kept Mercedes from telling anyone anything, didn't I?"
Quinn sighed. "You're making this exceptionally hard."
Rachel tried a different approach and put a smile on. "If you told me, I bet you'd feel better."
Quinn ran a hand through her hair as she tried to think of how to go about explaining this. "It's not that I don't think you could keep a secret or offer help if this was actually a situation I needed help in, it's just that I don't want to tell you. Like at all."
Rachel lost all traces of her smile. "That's worse."
She sighed again. This was not going well, and now Rachel was clearly upset. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine. I'll um…I'll tell Finn to leave you alone."
"Rachel."
"It's fine, really." Rachel repeated before heading away to class.
So that was a lie. But if Quinn didn't want to tell her then it wasn't like Rachel was going to force the other girl. She was, however, going to force Jesse. Her plan was to go after him all along. It was perfectly okay with her if she didn't have to include Quinn. Quinn being involved was never even her intention.
"Oh good. You're here." Rachel swiftly entered the choir room. What? It was on her way to class. Every single one of them. Genius contractors are the only explanation.
"Where else would I be?" Jesse spoke from his seat at the piano as he continued to do important show choir whisperer work. "You know I really do have to make some decisions since I didn't get anything done yesterday."
Rachel walked over to the piano and stood across from him. "Yes, and I feel badly about that. However, that's not why I've come here."
"Then why have you come here? Care to lose me another day?"
"I know why Quinn was so upset on Monday."
"Do you?"
"I understand why the both of you have been so reluctant in including me."
He frowned, though remained looking at his papers. "Alright?"
"It's because of me; why Quinn was upset that is."
"The blame can't solely be placed onto you, Rachel. I'm not sure there's even blame to be passed around."
Rachel absorbed this slip up. Now she was going to engage in Quinn's conversation trap. "Yes, it can. Quinn just told me everything."
"No, she didn't."
She internally huffed at Jesse not falling for it. "Yes, she did. We just had a conversation not five minutes ago in which she confessed everything."
He finally looked up and over at her. "I recognize what you're trying to do, but I can assure you that it's not going to work. Quinn would never confess this particular secret to you. And I will not mistakenly inform you of what's been troubling Quinn which I'm curious as to why you've waited until today to try and find out. Regardless, your bait is no good here."
"I haven't actually waited until today, but that's irrelevant." She skipped over his look of interest. Her backfire of a plan did not need to be made known to another person. "At least now I know this does pertain to me in some way. You've given me that much."
"Then you should be satisfied."
"Satisfied? I've just learned that I potentially had something to do with making my friend cry but have no idea what I may have done, and you expect me to be satisfied?"
He smirked pleasantly. "To your inner core."
"Just tell me."
He ignored her begging. "If you want to know, you'll have to find out from Quinn. This directly does not have anything to do with me."
Rachel thought about this, and for a moment Jesse thought she accepted this. Until she began talking. "Not about you but about me." She muttered out the facts to herself. They didn't do much. She needed more. "Jesse." She sat down next to him and was sure to bat her eyelashes a few times.
"Rachel." He returned in the same tone.
She scooted a little bit closer. "You know, you and I were quite the pair once upon a time. It would be a shame to waste that unmatched connection that we still share."
He tried not to laugh. "You're stooping magnificently low."
She dropped her head briefly. "I need to know. I'm terribly worried about my close friend and now guilt has been added into the mix. And yes, admittedly I have a curiosity streak that cannot be tamed."
"I can't tell you." He watched her face fall before continuing. "What I can tell you to perhaps ease your ever-working mind would be that this is Quinn's journey, not anybody else's. She's been making some discoveries recently that she needs to work through at her own pace. You should respect that."
She nodded once. "I should."
"Great."
"But I'm not going to." She concluded much to his dismay. "You're involved indirectly. Quinn was upset partially because of me. Otherwise, it's contributed to these mysterious discoveries of hers." Rachel began to process this aloud as she paced around the choir floor. Jesse didn't like where this was headed.
"Yes. Congratulations. You've figured it out. Please be done."
"Which leads me to believe that these above mentioned discoveries involve me in some way."
"Quite the stretch. Where's your put-away evidence?"
She ignored him and continued on with herself. "Has she discovered that I'm her best friend while you're merely the brother figure in her life? No, that wouldn't cause tears." She quickly shook her head. "Is she jealous of me in some way? I don't see how that's at all probable, but is she?" She looked back over to Jesse.
"I'm not playing 20 Questions with you."
"Fine. Then I need another theory." She searched her mind. The next possible answer she came up with hurt too much to contemplate. Still, it was more than plausible. "Does she-does she not want to be friends anymore? Is her discovery that she was wrong to pursue this friendship and that she actually still hates me?"
Jesse sighed. He certainly didn't want to continue this any further, but he didn't want to continue viewing that look on Rachel's face either. He settled for a compromise. "I'd place good money on the fact that Quinn has never hated you."
"Then what is it?" She asked desperately. "If it's not unresolved hatred or growth in our friendship or jealousy, then what is it? I'm guessing I didn't give her an emotional trauma that has caused such reactions. My therapist has told me that those sorts of things normally happen in childhood, but I didn't even know Quinn then. Just…what else can it be?"
Jesse waited as silence came over them. If he didn't know Rachel as well as he did, he would think that it was all over with. However as he did know her, he knew the look of concentration on her face. Then the look of confusion before finally, her eyes lit up with something along the lines of recognition. Well, he certainly dug a hole for himself this time. Quinn would be pleased. It'll give her a place to dump his body.
"Oh my god." Rachel finally said in amazement.
Jesse inwardly continued to panic. This was not good. "Rachel, I'm sure whatever you drudge up will be entirely false."
"Oh my god."
"You should really just stop." He tried to advise. "It's becoming a waste of all of our time."
"Quinn has feelings for me."
Jesse held his breath and kept a neutral expression on his face before responding in a way only a sane person would given the situation. "Seriously?" He threw in some incredulity.
"Oh my god." She reiterated a third time before a smile overtook her face. "Quinn likes me."
Jesse just continued in his acting exercise. "You do hear yourself right now, correct? Do you have any idea how insane you sound?"
"Feelings for me. Quinn Fabray"
"Rachel." He finally stopped her. "You couldn't be more off if you tried."
"Fine. Then if I am as wrong as you say, then what is it the two of you are keeping from me? Unless you have something different you'd like to tell me, I'm going to go with this conclusion." She challenged firmly. "Anything?" She waited.
Jesse weighed his set of lies. He knew Rachel wouldn't believe one of them. It would have to be an extreme and tragic one for her to buy into something else. God, this would be so much easier if what Rachel just stumbled upon wasn't the truth. And great. Now he's waited too long.
"Wow." Rachel breathed out with that dazzling smile returning to her face.
Jesse frowned at this. Her reaction was not making sense to him. But it's not like he could ask her about it. That would be playing Rachel's game. "You seem happy about this." Of course, he hadn't confirmed anything yet anyway, so really, there was no harm.
Now she was confused. "Who wouldn't be?"
"Lots of people, I'm sure."
"But this is Quinn. Quinn Fabray. And I'm Rachel Berry."
"Yes, I know who the both of you are."
"I honestly can't believe it."
"It's not that amazing."
"It kind of is."
"No it's not, and what's the matter with you?"
She frowned. "What?"
"You're not supposed to show signs of happiness over this."
"Why not?"
"For one, you're straight." He pointed out.
"Quinn's straight." She tried to argue.
"No." He spoke slowly to make his point. "Quinn's really, very gay."
"Whatever. I've always been raised to love the person not the gender."
"Yeah. I don't think it works that way."
"It could."
"Please stop doing that."
"Doing what?"
"This." He snapped before putting on what he viewed as a mature pout. "You're not supposed to be reacting this way." This was all terrible news to him. He had never once predicted any of this.
"Then what am I supposed to be doing?"
"You're supposed to take the stance of: 'Wow. I'm flattered, Quinn, but we're friends. I'm sorry. I just don't have those feelings for you.' Something along those lines. I was thinking cheap and predictable romantic comedy. You know, let her down easy."
"Why would I have to let her down at all?"
"Because you don't reciprocate."
Rachel glared at him. "I wasn't aware that you got to dictate what other people choose to feel."
He rolled his eyes tiredly. "Oh please, Rachel, I know you." He told her easily. "It's not as if you've been secretly pining away for Quinn, waiting for her to finally notice you in a different light."
"You don't know that." She weakly tried to defend herself.
"Right because I'm completely off base. It's not like you're just decorating that imaginative mind of yours with the idea of some unrealistic, fairytale romance between you and 'Quinn Fabray,'" he took the time to air-quote, "most likely just to fill the still empty spot of your leading –as of now– person."
"I've been separated from Finn for months and not once have I tried to get him back or chase after anyone else." This time she did defend herself. "Just because the potential Quinn and I share would make for great cinema-"
"Oh God." Jesse groaned before standing from his seated position. "I'm not going to let you do this." He warned.
"You're not going to let me? Let me do what?"
"Take advantage of Quinn just because you happen to be bored in life. This isn't some random infatuation developed within a glee club over a performance of some romantic song in nature. Quinn's dealing with a hell of a lot more than what she feels for you. It's taken her months to acknowledge anything and when she finally did, it came in the form of a breakdown. If you'd be so kind to take the time out and remember what brought you here, you might recall some of this." He snarled. "So no, I'm not going to stand by and allow you to just casually ruin my friend's progress without a second thought."
Rachel frowned, offended by his foresights. She didn't like that Jesse apparently thought that low of her. "I would never hurt Quinn."
"Maybe not intentionally." He momentarily agreed. "But like it or not, you're one of the few people in this world who can completely break her if you so choose."
Rachel took a moment to try and think up away to respect Jesse's point of view. "I'm very happy that Quinn has someone willing to protect her in life as you're trying to do but maybe it's time you realized that she doesn't always need protection. She's not as fragile as you perceive her to be. In fact, I've always seen her as someone with great strength when it's needed." She paused. "What happens between Quinn and I is not any of your business, Jesse."
"On the contrary, at this point it's more of my business than it is yours."
"I disagree."
"Then I guess it's left for Quinn to decide."
"Fine. Then we'll leave it all to Quinn." She lifted her chin before completing the perfect storm-out.
Jesse just sat back down on the piano bench heavily. This was all excruciatingly terrible. One, Rachel didn't seem to consider his feelings at all in the matter which completely destroyed even the smallest and illogical hope he still had for their failed relationship. Two, Rachel had her tunnel vision goggles on which could potentially end up in destroying Quinn. And three, Quinn was going to kill him. There was no 'which' necessary. It was just that simple.