ANTICIPATION
The ride from the airport was a gregarious one. Nothing was going to kill the excitement for their first day back in New York City. Not even their minor exhaustion. Or at least that's how it was in the van Jesse rode to the hotel in. When the three van taxis reached their destination, the gleeks exited the vehicles and grabbed their luggage from the back. Jesse was sure to grab both his and Rachel's.
"What does this remind you of?" Jesse asked her, lifting the two bags slightly. "NYC, just got here this morning. Three bucks. Two bags. One me."
Rachel beamed at Jesse's abrupt choice in song. Most little girls who see Annie gravitate more toward the title character. Her favorite, however, was always the small cameo of Star-To-Be. "NYC, I give you fair warning. Up there. In lights. I'll be." She joined him, and the pair continued singing together as they maneuvered their way to the hotel.
"Why did we bring them again?" Santana muttered, earning some agreement as they all followed after the loons.
"I'm judging you." Kurt told Quinn quietly as he passed her, and they all finally headed into the hotel. And it was a finally.
The last week had been frantic. First of all, Monday marked the beginning of the final two weeks of school. Therefore, McKinley's students –particularly its senior class– had some last minute tasks to catch up on. Yearbooks were dug out of closets for resigns and signatures yet to be acquired. (No one still knew why McKinley released their yearbooks so early in the year.) Caps and gowns needed to be ordered. Graduation parties had to be planned. Those who had yet to know for sure if they were going to pass all of their classes had to complete their extra credit assignments and cram for their finals. Locker clean outs had been on Thursday. Text books would be returned the following week. This was just for excess material. For instance, Finn had found an old brown bagged lunch in his while Brittany had found her travel sized ant farm. Though neither had been happy with their losses, these minor tasks were easily handled.
Within glee club was where most of the final anxiety was coming from. They left for Nationals on Friday morning which meant four final afternoons of practicing. Five since they ended up including Sunday despite the collective prom hangover. It wasn't that they were nervous exactly, au contraire. They were confident in the fact that they knew the numbers. It's just they wanted to be perfect given that this was their final shot. Unlike the last two years, there weren't any second chances yet to come. They needed to win Nationals this year. That had been their common goal for three years. Sometimes it was the only thing that united them. If they didn't win, what exactly did that mean for them? Plus, the extra practices gave their newest-not-so-new addition some unquestionably necessary catch up time.
To Jesse's overgrown and for once warranted dismay, Karofsky had returned. In this pathetic example of a Prodigal tale, Jesse played the sensible older brother while the rest of New Directions played the moronic father. Karofsky had apparently seen some error in a way of his or something (Jesse wasn't listening) and wanted to go to Nationals with them. Jesse obviously was against this while glee welcomed him back with open arms. No one other than three ordinarily gay individuals knew what the hell happened at prom. The rest just knew Karofsky protected Kurt from some bullies which led to all of them having a really gay dance. But they all thought it was cool of him to do that so they were fine with bringing him to New York even if it did have the potential to screw everything up and make their final practices longer than they needed to be. They were a team, and Karofsky was a part of it or some other idiotic sentiment.
Jesse had tried exceptionally hard to talk them out of it. But the problem was they were stubborn, and if he wasted too much time, then Karofsky wouldn't learn the numbers and he'd still have to come and then they'd really be fucked. Based on all the information he had from the last three years, sometimes Jesse wondered if New Directions subconsciously sabotaged their chances at winning. There were no other possible explanations. Anyway, Jesse –having no choice– helped prepare Karofsky to the best of his abilities. The only consolation was that the numbers Karofsky would be included in were synchronized group choreography. Nothing actually had to be changed. He just had to learn the steps and be shoved into the back. The only slight adjustment came in "Under Pressure", but it was hardly something to call a problem. Either way, on the slim chance they lose, Jesse was blaming it all on his club. Granted, he had planned this hypothetical all along, but before, he was willing to at least give himself 10% of the blame. Not anymore.
"Welcome." The hotel's perky desk clerk greeted Jesse. "Are you here for the National Show Choir Competition?"
"We're here to win, yes." He said what was obvious. "The name is St. James."
"Well here are the rooms you ordered." The woman quickly looked up on her computer. "If you're interested, several clubs have once again broken themselves up via way of sexual orientation. Just a suggestion."
Jesse turned around to survey his club for a moment. He quickly turned back to the hotel employee. "That is much too much math for me. I think we'll just go by gender." He received the room keys and walked back over to where his club stood.
As a couple of bellhops came around to get their luggage, Jesse handed one of the key cards over to Rachel as he rejoined his team.
"Ladies, you'll be in room 502. Gentlemen, we'll be in 503. Now, ground rules for the weekend." This earned him some sighs. "As you know, you'll be here for four days this year as you'll actually move on past the first round. That means three days. Three days of nothing before we leave to go home. So please, try your hardest not to mess this up. We're in the position to win, but the only way that will happen is if you somehow refrain from being yourselves. It shouldn't be hard given that very few of you are likable. Just be someone else. Someone respectable." He implored. "I don't want any partying. No recreational drug use. No unnecessary sexual adventures. Everyone will be asleep by curfew. And most of all, under any circumstances, there will be no ill-timed kisses on stage. Try and be professional for once. If you somehow feel the need for any of this, just wait until after we win. You can sleep on the flight home. I couldn't be paid to care at that point as you'll already have become meaningless to me. Now go. Frolic through the city." He directed glibly before grabbing a hold of Quinn's arm. "You are coming with me."
He led her around a corner or two until they hit a lounge section in the hotel's rather massive lobby. "Do you know what this place is?"
She frowned. "The lobby?"
"Quinn, I'm appalled that you don't have immediate recall." He shook his head. "This is where it all began. Where I found you alone and sulking. As an amateur I might add."
"Here huh?" She joked, taking a seat.
He followed her actions and sat in the chair next to hers. "Yes, it was in these very chairs that we paved the way to our turbulent summer therapy sessions. It was here that I unintentionally guaranteed myself enough headaches to warrant the occasional CAT scan." He patted the chair's armrests before getting comfortable by crossing his legs on the small table in front of them and lounging back into the chair.
"Regret your decision?"
Jesse opened his eyes to peek over at her. "Never. You?"
"Only every single day." She returned lightly.
He chuckled, shutting his eyes once again. "And in Quinn-language, I'm choosing to translate that into a thank you."
Quinn rolled her eyes before following his lead and relaxing back into her chair. As she looked around rest of the lobby, she decided that it was really odd how hotels never changed over time. This place looked exactly the same as the last time she was here. They should really do something about that. "Strangely, it doesn't feel that long ago to me. You'd think it would given everything that's changed." She mused.
"You know sometimes it still seems like I just graduated from Carmel."
"What do you think that says about us?"
"That you're depressing, I'm intelligent, and we're both attractive." They laughed together for a moment. "I think it says it's a good thing we're switching districts in a couple of months." He added on seriously.
"The two of you realize that this isn't your living room, correct?"
They both snapped their eyes back open upon hearing Rachel's voice. Neither, however, sat up much prompting her to shake her head slightly before halfway sitting on the armrest of Quinn's chair between the two.
"Oh course we know this, but it's our spot, and you're currently tainting it with your trivial presence regarding the area." Jesse told her causing a frown to appear.
"Ignore him." Quinn urged.
Rachel took this in but still had to acknowledge Jesse anyway. "Some of the team wants to know if we can tour the city today."
"I planned on it." Jesse informed. "Quinn and I need to check on some things for next year anyway. Everyone just needs to be back in their room by 9:00 and at bed by 10:00 whenever that might be." He looked to Quinn. "I never got time zones. I don't see why we can't all be on the same time. It makes no sense. It's like every other country in the world using the metric system. Why should we have to learn it here when it's their problem?"
"Illogical." Quinn joked dryly. Jesse realized none of this.
"I know. Just like schools requiring taking a foreign language course. Why? If foreigners want to come here, they should have to learn English. Not the reverse."
Quinn glanced up to share a knowing look with Rachel at this latest St. Jamesism. Rachel smiled in return, resisting the desire to run her fingers through Quinn's hair. This had been a thing lately; wanting to play with Quinn's hair. It was just, the pretty and the cleanliness and right now, the reaching distance.
"Come on." She instead hopped off the chair, pulling Quinn up with her.
"And where are we going?"
Rachel looked back at Jesse. "You're coming too." He sighed but stood up as Rachel led the way back into the direction they originally came from. "There's a surprise." She explained as they walked around the previous corners. "What would you say to seeing a real life Broadway show after our day out on the town?"
"Will you be putting it on?" Jesse joked for a moment. "Shows cost money. Money we no longer have since Karofsky's re-addition."
"Good news. It's free." Rachel pointed over to the scene in front of them.
There stood one Will Schuester chatting happily with his former group of students about Nationals. Jesse likes to think the man was blown away by their ability to have numbers prepared before the day of competition.
"Ah, there they are." Will smiled at Rachel's reappearance with the missing members. "Quinn." He enveloped her in a friendly hug.
"Uh, hey Mr. Schue." She frowned, returning the brief hug. Little weird seeing as he hasn't been her teacher for a year now, but apparently she was the only one who thought this. Honestly, she just forgot the man was a hugger.
"Jesse." Will sent a nod to his non-student.
"Will." Jesse offered his hand to shake as if not to be upstaged in the moment.
Will shook his hand with a slight frown before moving on from his confusion. "Right um…Well, I was just telling everyone that I talked to Emma, uh, Miss Pillsbury a couple of days ago to find out when you'd be getting in. I wanted to be here to welcome you back and invite you guys to a show tonight." He grinned, handing Jesse an envelope of tickets.
"He's also coming to Nationals to cheer us on." Finn informed happily.
"The more the merrier." Jesse smiled with his St. James brand of sincerity. "We'll be thrilled to go see you perform tonight. I'm sure it will be memorable for everyone involved."
"Great." Will grinned again. "Come by early and we'll give you guys a tour of an actual Broadway theater." He brightened the group up.
"Looking forward to it. We're just going to spend some time site-seeing today first."
Unlike last year, Jesse viewed himself as being competent and believed in a little thing called preparation ergo New Directions didn't have to come up with what they would be performing at Nationals—at Nationals. So they had a day a freedom. As Jesse was aware from his Vocal Adrenaline days, this usually meant seeing New York City all while knowing you'd never get back again because you'd be trapped in the small town you hailed from. (Not personally, of course, as he had known since early childhood that he was meant for stardom but for his less than both fortunate and talented teammates.) New Directions wasn't much different. Those who would sadly probably never be back barring a miraculous string of luck, wanted to make up for last year's lost time. So with the borrowed allowances and vacation money from their doting parents (those whose parents could afford it at least), they hit the city's illustrious streets.
The first stop was advanced window shopping on Fifth Avenue. It was a dream of Kurt's to be fulfilled, and the majority vote allowed it to happen. The entire time was spent browsing and falling in love with items for sale followed by considering bodily harm after reading the prices. It was as painful as any form of forbidden love. They did have an enjoyable pit stop at FAO Schwarz in which Brittany led the charge in aging backwards. But even watching Finn, Brittany, and Sam pretend to be Power Rangers in an elevator lost its appeal after a while, and after heading out to a quick lunch, they decided to split up into groups seeing as they would never get to everywhere they intended if they stayed together at large.
From there Finn, Puck, Sam, Santana, Dave, and Brittany went to Central Park because it was free, and since the rest of the club was lame and didn't want to pool their money as a group of sixteen and get a discount rate for Madame Tussauds, they figured they'd have more fun there than walking around outside of other places that cost money they didn't have. However, Lauren, Mike, Tina, Mercedes, and Artie all headed to the Rockefeller Center for some type of a tour that stopped at Saturday Night Live's studio which is why most of them were going. And while Rachel and Blaine much rather would have joined the latter group, they instead tagged along with Quinn, Jesse, and Kurt who wanted to explore their respective colleges while they had the opportunity. Or well, Kurt did. He led them to where the Fashion Institute of Technology resided. He wanted to breeze by it and at least find his resident hall. This was very important after all. This is the place where he'd begin his career as a famous designer. Either that or this would be the place where he realized that he wanted to transfer out to another school and do something different with his life. Both were fine with him.
Jesse and Quinn, on the other hand, scheduled a weekend in summer break for this sort of thing. Instead, Jesse wanted them to look at apartments he had made appointments for much to Quinn's irritation. After FIT they headed north to scope out potential neighborhoods and residences. Personally, Quinn would have rather gone to look at their future campus. Or have continued their vacation day. She refused to participate in any of this, and honestly, had no recollection of any of the apartments they had already looked at. She did, however, remember Rachel lecturing them a couple of stops back on how one should always turn on lights and faucets when looking to rent just to make sure everything was in order. It was considerably adorable mainly because Quinn had no idea why Rachel had any reason to know that sort of a thing.
Thankfully (in Quinn's opinion) after a couple of hours of this, they had to start heading back to the hotel to get dressed for the evening. Currently Jesse, Quinn, and Rachel had the pleasure of walking a few yards behind Kurt and Blaine. They were having a rather loud discussion about next year and where they will and will not be. As far as couple's squabbles go, it was a pretty boring one to eavesdrop on.
"So I guess it looks like Blaine won't be joining us." Jesse acknowledged. "I should at least feign sadness."
"Those of us who are friends with Blaine are actually affected by this you know." Rachel reminded.
"I don't think I've ever had a conversation with him." Quinn frowned, trying to remember if she did indeed ever have a private conversation with the boy.
"Well it has an effect on me and Kurt. And Blaine." Rachel added on.
"He's going to be singing for a record producer. I imagine Blaine will have no trouble forgetting about the rest of us in a month or so." Jesse sensibly downplayed. "Frankly, I just want to know where I was the night this apparent producer attended an open mic night. I'm much better than Blaine."
"Despite the arrogance, he does have a point. Isn't this a good opportunity?" Quinn asked her.
"Of course. But I'll still miss him."
They listened to the boyfriends continue to bicker in front of them before Jesse decided he was bored with them.
"That last place was nice." He began. "The windows all had screens. No wall had a hole in it. And it had working electricity."
"I still don't see why you're willing to spend so much money on an apartment when you could just stay in a dorm." Rachel repeated her same grievance from earlier.
"Financially, we'll be paying just over what you'll be paying for your room and board next year spilt in half between the two of us. CCNY has a waitlist. We won't have any less than desirable roommates. We'll each have our own rooms. We'll have our own bathroom. Something my last dorm did not have. It was communal showers. As in shared. With many, many other people."
"He's been practicing that." Quinn told Rachel quietly.
"It's just better this way, Rachel." Jesse continued. "An apartment gets us more."
"Most NYU dorm rooms have their own bathroom." Rachel boasted her side of the argument. "It's because NYU dormitories have been converted from old apartment buildings. We have our own laundry rooms a-and their rooms are all spacious. I'll be in Third North. It'll be filled with several fellow Tisch students. A.K.A. my competition."
Quinn shook her head fondly at Rachel's excitement. Jesse didn't share this sentiment at the moment.
"Well. Lah-di-dah." He mocked.
Quinn glanced back at Rachel. "I like the idea of having my own apartment."
"You haven't seemed excited since we've begun looking." Jesse pointed out, and Quinn rolled her eyes at being interrupted.
"Yes, because it's currently pointless. It's not like other people don't want to rent these places. They won't be here when we actually move here."
"No, but it'll give us an idea of what our lives will look like when that time does finally come."
Rachel nodded along. "Think of it as method acting, Quinn. By being here, you'll be able to envision your life next year clearly."
"I would love to master method acting." Jesse began longingly. "The finest actors to ever act are method actors. Brando, Pacino… Sadly, each time I've tried I grew to hate my character's life based on how substandard it was to my own."
"Personally, I always struggled more with the idea of falling in love with the character's lifestyle and not being able to leave it."
"Possible. But really, roles that aren't tragic and flawed are forgettable."
"True. But let me ask you this. What if it's a highly dark though dynamic character that lives an ideal lifestyle yet falls to the vices that surround them?"
"Interesting." He concluded. "Particularly since that if you reverse it, it would be the classic Depression Era feel good story. Those always sell."
"I'm starting to get a real clear vision of next year." Quinn interjected. Jesse simply rolled his eyes while Rachel was happy to link arms with the girl.
She and Quinn had been pleasantly free of complications and thought provoking moments recently. Well, not entirely free. There were plenty of thoughts. They just happened to be happy ones. In that regard, prom had done wonders. Still, Rachel wanted to spend some time with Quinn. Time that wasn't shared with Jesse or Kurt or Blaine or anyone else. It had been awhile since she and Quinn sought the other's presence without a definite reason for doing so. It'd be nice to just be for a change. Rachel was pretty sure people did this sort of a thing. And usually that pushed relationships forward.
So help her Barbra, but she only had so much patience to go around. She gave it a day or two before she would outwardly demand to know why Quinn hadn't yet asked her out on a date or hadn't tried to kiss her or heck, tried to take advantage of her in vulnerable, open states. Rachel had oh-so-subtly given her several opportunities in recent days. Never in any of her previous relationships had it taken this long for the pursuit of physical contact. At this point in her past romances, Finn was already experiencing his "mailman" issues, Jesse was pressuring her for sex, and Noah was discouraged by the fact that she wouldn't let him get to second base. And yes, she respected that Quinn was…Quinn which of course meant everything was, well, choose your adjective to describe the blonde but still.
Rachel doesn't seem to recall any of Quinn's own previous relationships to take this long either. She was dating Sam after one duet, and everyone knows what happened with Noah, though Rachel didn't see the logic in counting him as a relationship. And actually, she wasn't too sure about Quinn's relationship with Finn either. The first time was pre-Rachel, and the second happened in secret…Um, but yeah. This was taking too long which made no sense given Quinn's recent discovers in sexuality. Being gay (Though, she was using this term loosely since it was Jesse's label, and she had yet to hear Quinn define herself.), why would Quinn rush into relationships containing boys but delay the one with a female she had stated having feelings for?
Unless of course this was being done on Rachel's behalf in which flowers of some kind were definitely earned. Wow. This was fun. She never imagined being able to buy flowers for her romantic interest before. She obviously never could have done this in the past. It was interesting. What else could she buy Quinn that she herself could enjoy? Clothes? Did girlfriends share clothes? Boyfriends gave their girlfriends lettermans. Except this exchange would keep everyone fashionable and hands would actually come through sleeves. Wow. This girlfriend approach was turning out to be not only fun and enchanting but also practical. This information should be given out sooner. It's pertinent! What was wrong with adults? She would definitely be having a discussion with her fathers about this.
Anyway, to return to her gripe, she and Quinn needed a push. Alone. The only problem was the next two days were Nationals, and then they had their final week in school. She was not okay with waiting all the way until summer break. Today would have been perfect. Too bad other people gave them things to do because before they knew it, everyone was back at home base to get ready to go to dinner and then see Mr. Schuester. The girls were currently in their room taking turns getting dressed in their bathroom. So far Lauren and Mercedes had accomplished the task while Tina was up to bat. Quinn was reading her book-for-the-plane on a bed while Santana lounged on the other end. Rachel was sitting primly and awkwardly on the other bed with Brittany who was quite comfortable sitting cross-legged in the middle of the mattress while playing with the stuffed hamster named Peanut she purchased earlier.
"Do you think Mr. Schue will let us on stage with him to sing? He used to do it all the time to us."
"B, I don't think that's how Broadway works." Santana told her.
"But we're way better than him."
"Why don't you try asking someone who has tried starring in a show from the audience?" Lauren advised from her cot. "Now, out of the six of us in this room which one do you think has the best chance of making this hypothetical real?"
Everyone slowly looked in Rachel's general direction.
Rachel glared at the girl who prompted this. "I'll have you know, Lauren, that I have never once offered to take someone's role on Broadway from the audience. Though I have no doubt that I could if asked, the mere thought is insulting to those in the business."
"So then you aren't the crazy girl who got banned from The Sunnyside Theater for harassing the lead in last fall's production of Chicago about taking over as her abrupt understudy?"
She looked at Lauren with minor shock. "I don't know how you know this, but I'd hardly compare a local Lima community theater to Broadway." She defended and then glanced at Quinn seeing as she was the only one who was smiling at this news. "The so-called actress was stifling the role of Roxie Hart. It pained me to watch it. Besides, it's why intermissions were created."
Santana scowled. "How have you not been committed yet?"
Quinn sent the other girl a glare. "How have you not been incarcerated?"
"I already hate everything about you two."
"Yeah, we know." Mercedes chuckled from the other side of the room. "You hate everybody and everything other than the bubbly blonde sitting across from you. Now, which one should I go with?" She held up her bracelet options of the night.
"Aw, are you picking out your weave for the night?" Santana taunted, not turning around to look at Mercedes.
"Don't pretend like I'm the only one who has one."
"Well why don't you come see if my hair is real or not? Hopefully you'll cut off a finger or two."
"Oh right, I forgot. Wolverine Head."
"Ugh. Spend time with your dork of a boyfriend much? Don't know how. When I dated him, I constantly had to pinch myself to stay awake."
"Since that you're gay that makes sense."
Santana rolled her eyes before moving on. "Well what about you, Q? Spam ever bore you?"
She sighed. "Don't drag me into this."
"Excuse you. You're the one who dragged Sam into this club in the first place."
"No, actually I think that was Finn. Why don't you go ask him?"
"Wait. Hudson? You mean to say that glee is even gayer than everyone thinks? No way."
"The gold one, Mercedes." Rachel hastily interrupted whatever it was that was working its way through Santana's demonic mind. "Definitely the gold one."
"You think?" Mercedes returned.
"Absolutely. It goes wonderfully with your darker skin tone."
Mercedes nodded at Rachel's assessment and proceeded to go with the silver one given Rachel's taste. Rachel rolled her eyes at this exchange while Tina returned now fully dressed and ready for the night.
"Bathroom's free." She announced helpfully.
"Question, Cohen-Cohen-Chang-Chang." Santana stopped Tina, holding up her pointer finger. "How gay do you think glee is?"
"Um…what, uh-" The fake stutter returned with authenticity.
"It's just a simple question we're asking."
"What is your problem?" Quinn suddenly snapped.
"Problem? I don't have a problem. Really, Q. I think we should talk about these things. It will bond us closer together for the next two days." Santana nodded sagely before practicing her polite-smile. "Hey, you haven't answered. How gay do you think glee is? You know, after all the recent developments."
"Why are we asking how gay glee is?" Brittany questioned. "I mean, it's like super-gay. Like we could all be a team of gay heroes that went around in shady neighborhoods to save puppies. Especially after prom."
"Yeah, but that was just for Kurt. It doesn't mean we're all gay now." Mercedes spoke offhandedly, finishing up her makeup.
"It doesn't?" Santana mock-frowned.
Quinn narrowed her eyes. Something had obviously ruined her, well, friend's day. Which of course meant displaced anger for the rest of them. Yay. "What would we be called?" She questioned Brittany, looking for a distraction. "If we were a team of gay superheroes."
Brittany frowned. "I don't know. But I wanna be the captain." She turned to Santana. "You can be my tennille."
Santana smiled despite herself before forcing her attention back onto everyone else. "Is someone going to get dressed?"
"It's Rachel's turn." Lauren reminded.
"Then go." Santana directed Rachel. "We don't have all night, and I don't want to get stuck here while you attempt to render everyone speechless with a new line of OshKosh wear."
Rachel ignored Santana's mood and looked over to Quinn. "Can I talk to you?"
"Sure." Quinn set down her book and followed after Rachel into the bathroom.
Rachel shut the door behind them, and Quinn waited for her to turn around in order to offer some type of explanation for Santana's behavior. However, Rachel decided to say something that caught her off guard.
"Don't get dressed."
Quinn frowned, amused. "Do I get to ask why?"
She stepped forward, reaching out for one of Quinn's hands. "I was just hoping that maybe you and I could do something together. Here."
"What about the show?"
"There will be other shows. I looked it up, and CROSSRHODES doesn't seem to be going anywhere despite less than satisfactory reviews."
"What about Mr. Schue? You don't think that would be a little rude to do to him?"
Rachel lost her steam. "You're right. It'd be completely inconsiderate of us. We'll go and-"
"I was just kidding." Quinn giggled quietly, swinging their arms once. "We should still get dressed, though. We'll go out somewhere. Do something."
"Go where?" Her face lit back up.
She shrugged. "Where do you want to go? Between the two of us I'm sure you've studied New York City much more extensively than I have."
"True."
"Just one thing, how exactly are we going to get out of this? If we stay behind, it's guaranteed that someone else will bail too."
"Ah, but not after we explain the precaution to stay behind in the hotel rooms should some of our opposing teams realize we're the favorites and decide to sabotage us in a very Tonya Harding manner. Not on us of course but our rooms." She paused at the look Quinn was sending her. "Okay, so it needs some work, but we could just talk to Jesse and make it appear as if he's keeping us behind for some reason."
"I'll come up with something." Quinn volunteered, and Rachel grinned at this. Granted, she could better her own made up excuse, but it was nice having backup. Particularly, someone who was as tenured in scheming as Quinn was. Maybe they could start a league. There were two person leagues, right?
While Rachel continued to contemplate these very important facts of life, Quinn took this time to tug Rachel a little bit closer. Happy to have the other girl's full attention, she licked her lips before smirking and leaning forward some.
"Get dressed, Berry." Quinn walked past her and out of the bathroom, pleased to know that Rachel was not immune to her teasing prowess. Quite the useful information.
As it turned out, Rachel was very tired from the day's earlier events, and as their leading performer over the next two days, Jesse thought it'd be best for her to get extra rest and nourishment. Per Rachel's request, Quinn was to stay behind because, one, it was incredibly unfair that she would be the only one missing Mr. Schuester's musical just because Jesse was being paranoid. And two, it felt safer to stay behind with another person rather than spending a couple hours alone in a foreign New York City hotel room. Both were also very displeased that they would have to change their clothes all over again given Jesse's lack of planning. Jesse was pleased with none of this. He did not enjoy his involvement within the lie. Nor did he enjoy the fact that he still had to go see the show. However, Quinn did not enjoy the fact that Jesse convinced her mother it'd be a good project to repaint their house seeing as it's led to plastic lining most of her walls. Therefore, Rachel and Quinn were free to stay behind.
Initially, Quinn wasn't sure what to expect going into the night. And telling Rachel to get dressed up, leaving her to pick out what they were going to do, probably not her best idea. Of course neither was teasing her. Rachel was clearly someone who liked the idea of forwardness. Quinn really should have thought that through. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the added attention, quite the opposite. She just didn't want any accelerated progression. Quinn needed to maintain some semblance of control over everything. Because the second she handed that over to Rachel, she was done for. It wouldn't even be funny how fast she'd fall to Rachel's whim. Plus, Rachel was, um, Rachel. Thoughts tended to get exaggerated or romanticized in that head of hers. Quinn didn't like the notion of Rachel blindly leading her into whatever said head came up with. Luckily for her, she was remaining in complete control and didn't already relinquish these rights or anything. Oh. Right.
Thankfully, Rachel didn't get too extravagant. They had dinner at a small restaurant they found not too far from the hotel they were staying at. (And Quinn was really starting to fall in love with the fact that everything was not too far away. It was completely unlike Lima where you had to drive to everything other than a convenience store here or there.) Once their meal was over with, Rachel thought it would be enjoyable to walk around the city. And by city she meant the Theater District. ("Because how amazing is it that the National Show Choir Board has the foresight to always host Nationals so close to the Great White Way, Quinn?") Admittedly, it was much more fun than when Jesse tried this with her last year. Plus, the majority of their night was spent people-watching anyway. It was an amazing hobby to have. They both agreed that it was not at all weird. Besides, who doesn't want to figure out why girl-in-red-sweater won't give guy-with-Knicks-hat his keys back?
They went back to the hotel at their planned time in order to beat the rest of New Directions back. It was unwillingly done. They were having a good time and neither wanted it to end by returning to a stuffy hotel room. This is perhaps why Rachel extended their conversation-walk by pulling them down to sit in a bench outside the hotel's main entrance. It was close enough to maintain the pretense that they got back in time but far enough to still talk privately away from all the commotion.
"Are you nervous?" Quinn asked Rachel. Stupidly. Way to specify what you're talking about. "About tomorrow. Well, and Sunday." She cleared up.
"Some." She deliberated. "I'm always a little bit nervous even when fully confident. I don't think that will ever change." If so, it probably would've happened by now since her talent continues to grow with each passing day. "What about you?"
"Nope. Why would I be? I don't have much to do unlike yourself who has what was it, everything to do." Quinn teased playfully.
"Does that bother you?"
"You mean having no responsibility for glee?" She questioned then chuckled. "No. Should it?"
"I don't know. Outside of mandatory participation like duets week you haven't really sung anything. Given that it is show choir, it's not a great assumption to say those involved would want to sing, at least during the competitions." Rachel paused. "Would you really not have come back if it weren't for Jesse?" This was not something she understood back when she first heard of these facts. The glee club had been their epicenter the last two years. "Glee is glee."
Quinn looked away from Rachel's glee-smile. She wished she could return the notion, but glee didn't hold the same meaning for her as it did for Rachel. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what she would have done had Jesse not taken over. If anything, she would have rejoined only because she didn't have any other attachments at McKinley. Not that it would have mattered in the long run. Quinn would place good money on the fact that New Directions would have dissolved had they never gotten another leader after Mr. Schue's departure. Glee wasn't built to survive being a democracy.
For a few moments, they continued to sit in silence over this. The only thing that could be heard was the rustlings within the street ahead of them. While Quinn thought, Rachel simply continued to wait for a response or a change in subject. She'd prefer the former.
"I was so angry last year, Rachel." Quinn eventually whispered.
Rachel watched as Quinn continued to stare off somewhere in front of them. It was as if Quinn was entering into her own little flashback sequence.
"There wasn't one person in my life that I wasn't mad at, and glee just didn't mean anything to me anymore." Though, to be fair, nothing mattered to her toward the end of last year. "I had to watch Finn go after you only days after we broke up like I didn't even matter." Her face hardened with resentment at this. Honestly, if she thought about it long enough, a part of her still wanted to punch Finn Hudson. "Santana had Brittany and you had Finn and Puck had Lauren. Everyone else was happy, and I just remember feeling so…"
Rachel waited for Quinn to finish her thought, but when nothing came, she softly prompted her to continue. "Feeling what?"
"Isolated." Quinn finally found her word. "I was surrounded by people and I was a mess and no one cared enough to notice. And I get now that that was all my fault, but at the time I was irrationally mad at glee. Everyone always preached about how glee was a family, but it didn't seem like it to me so I grew to hate it. All while still wanting to be a part of it and it just– I was seriously a mess." She decided that was an understatement as she thought back over poor plans of sabotage and haircuts and mini-breakdowns that weren't even done correctly. God, she wasn't even upset about the right thing. All of her relationship woes stemmed from the fact that she never actually loved anyone. Not the reverse. "It sucks figuring out that everything that hurts you is your own doing."
As Rachel tried to think up a response, she reached over to thread her fingers through blonde locks. After all, she did finally have a legitimate reason to do so. It provided comfort, and it got Quinn to look at her again. It wasn't even a stretch.
"As most are aware, I know what loneliness feels like, Quinn." She began quietly. "I mean, when glee began I was an outcast in a supposed group of outcasts. The only person in school who sought to talk to me was Jacob Ben Israel, and I'm hesitant to count that seeing as it was usually to benefit his own need for perverted desires. I detested coming to school every day."
"Which is something else I'm responsible for. At least partially."
Rachel sighed at this train of thought. It was hardly her intention. "That was a long time ago."
"Not that long."
"Maybe, but I don't seem to remember knowing you before high school which doesn't explain why I didn't have any friends then either."
Quinn nodded once and then stood up because distance seemed like a pretty good idea right now. Distance was much better for breathing.
She turned back around to face Rachel from her new spot, letting out an empty laugh. "So this is your first real dealing of what Jesse likes to call my ideal Freudian model. What do you think?"
Rachel stood up herself, though she didn't see any need for humor at this very second. "I think it's troubling. Not to mention unfounded." She paced over to her across the sidewalk. "Being lonely can't solely be placed onto your shoulders. That's not your fault, Quinn."
"Why not?" Quinn narrowed her eyes in skepticism. "I push people away or I disappoint them. That's what I do."
"Well you haven't pushed Jesse away." Rachel remarked, stepping closer almost to prove her point. "Or myself for that matter."
"Not for lack of trying." She muttered.
"So then maybe it's not about you. Maybe it's about the other person being willing enough to come back." She half-shrugged before smiling some. "I'm right about these things. Most things actually. I have been a top McKinley debater for four consecutive years now after all."
Quinn tilted her head quizzically. "The McKinley High Debate Team?"
"It's an atrocious club. But I do go into every argument confident that I will win." She grinned proudly.
"Oh so that's how this is going to be?" Quinn bit her tongue. "You wining all the arguments and starting fancy actor discussions with people who aren't me?"
"You should just get used to it now. Although feel free to jump into the discussions, Quinn. Outside opinions are always welcomed."
Quinn smiled gradually. She should just get used to it. Because that's what people did when they knew things weren't going to change. This wasn't going to change. She and Rachel were going to have a relationship. Everything else would be different, but they would be fine.
"Quinn?"
"Hmm?"
"I know I told you that you didn't need to be ready for anything, and I have no desire to force you into anything or make you feel as if I'm placing some type of an ultimatum over you, but if you don't kiss me soon, I fear that I may explode." She rambled anxiously.
Quinn bit her lip. "No pressure." She quipped.
Rachel wasn't sure if that was supposed to make her feel guilty or not, but she decided to use that skill she has that allows her to disregard her pesky morals. Not needing to dwell, she moved closer into Quinn who, as previously stated, wasn't going to win this. (Or anything.) Quinn, for her part, seemed to understand this if her line of sight was anything to go by.
Quinn continued to stare at Rachel's mouth, leaning in. And how had she never noticed Rachel's lips before? Okay, fine. She had noticed. Several times in fact but definitely never acknowledged. Which she should have because they were kind of beautiful. God, she was terrible at this gay thing. She seriously needed to reevaluate her attraction to this girl. Or, you know, evaluate at all.
At first contact, Quinn thought that she finally got it. Suddenly, it finally made sense why everyone was always chasing this. This wasn't an obligation or an expectation or an easy way to better her reputation. This was real. And it felt amazing. She was acutely aware of everything. Of how Rachel's hands were bunching up her dress. Of how her own hands couldn't actually find a place to reside but right now were getting comfortable on Rachel's waist. She could determine the exact amount of space between their feet if she had to. And yet, if a bus were to crash on the corner, she probably wouldn't even notice.
Breathless and overwhelmed, Quinn pulled away slightly to give a well-deserved sigh. But that was all she got before happy hands were yanking her back in.
Rachel smiled into the kiss because was this what next year was going to be like? Were she and Quinn just going to have city dates that resulted in this moment? Maybe Quinn would spend her evenings dropping Rachel off at her dorm with a good night kiss. Except no, because given the distance between NYU and where Quinn and Jesse were searching earlier, Rachel would panic until she heard back from the girl, stating that she had gotten home safely. Maybe she could practice the art of sneaking Quinn into her dorm instead. Regularly. Like nightly. It was quite the problem they needed to solve.
Quinn leaned back as she felt Rachel laughing against her. "What?"
Rachel shook away the question before placing a chaste kiss onto Quinn's mouth.
"This is our future, Quinn." She explained softly before pulling on her grip some. "Have I mentioned how glad I am that you decided on New York?"
Quinn put a playful frown on as her eyes shifted, seemingly trying to remember this answer. "No actually, I don't think you have."
"Terrible mistake on my part."
"Okay, can we kill the stripped sight of perversion please?" Santana's distant voice cut through them. "It's bad enough I just spent the last hour watching Mr. Schue mack on the middle-aged."
The girls separated at the intrusion. There came the entire glee club who probably would have not even noticed them if not for Santana's scent for possible destruction. Of course.
"Quinn and I were just-"
"Taking an evening stroll?" Jesse interrupted on their behalf. "I'm quite surprised. And here I thought you stayed behind for your team, Rachel. It's very unprofessional. And Quinn, letting her leave the room when you knew our star needed rest. Never go into management. Unless it's that of a reality television star."
"Not cool, guys." Sam shook his head in disapproval.
"Well if we lose, we know who to blame." Kurt pointed over to where Rachel and Quinn stood. "Les tourtereaux."
Brittany looked to Santana. "What did he say?"
"I don't know. I don't speak gay." She shrugged, earning a look from just about everybody. She rolled her eyes before explaining. "The European version of gay."
"I said they were the lazies." Kurt told the ever unwitting blonde.
"Funny, I thought you called them lovebirds." Lauren mused.
"Shoot. Did I?" He clicked his tongue sarcastically before glancing to Blaine next to him. "And here I thought I was improving."
If he cared enough to look, he would have taken notice to the two glares he was receiving on his right.
"Dude, did you even take French?" Puck laughed.
Artie frowned. "That was French?"
"I thought it was Hispanic." Brittany agreed with the confusion.
"Hispanic isn't a language." Finn corrected her.
Santana glared at him. "Your face isn't a language."
Mercedes snorted. "Someone's losing her magic touch of insults."
"Shut up. I just wasted two hours of my life watching something that was the funniest thing I've ever seen. The April Rhode's story is the most pathetic piece of tragedy that you just want to wet yourself it's so funny. Except the only problem was the damn usher kept telling me to be quiet because it wasn't actually supposed to be a comedy."
Jesse thought this over. It felt like a fair assessment. "Ever think of becoming a critic?" He asked Santana.
"Was it really that bad?" Quinn interrupted Jesse.
"You didn't miss much."
Mike shrugged. "I thought it was pretty awesome."
"Yeah, me too." Finn grinned. "We got to see Mr. Schue perform."
"Which was basically the only good thing about it." Tina argued.
"Except for those of us who never had him as a teacher and therefore don't care." Karofsky shrugged and turned around to go into the building, causing several to follow behind him.
"He's quickly becoming my favorite." Jesse informed.
Rachel frowned. "Well it couldn't have been that awful."
"No, it wasn't. Here, check this out." Finn handed her over his program before going into a recap which was then argued by several of his teammates.
While the rest of the gleeks finished walking through the hotel's entrance, Quinn held Jesse behind for a moment.
"You know I was kidding earlier, right?"
He offered this a bemused frown. "Is there a specific earlier you have in mind?"
"In the lobby. When I said I regretted your ridiculous idea of therapy." She explained. "I wasn't serious."
Jesse chuckled lightly at her apparent worry before swinging an arm over her shoulders and guiding her into the hotel. "Someone's had an interesting night. I'd ask but then I would have to know. Frankly, I'm just not inquisitive enough to hear about you and Rachel."
"I'm okay with that."
"Good. Because I'd appreciate the drama staying at a minimum. Nationals start tomorrow, and we're set to take first place." He sighed pleasantly. "We're so close, Quinn. I can practically smell everyone else's defeat."
"Then here's to tomorrow."
"I'll toast it with you once we've won."
She sent him a small smirk. "I'm holding you to it."