Perseus sat quietly in the practice room as Artie played on the electric guitar. He'd been listening as the others had been practicing, and had stayed behind when the others began moving off in different directions. When the boy in the wheelchair took a break from playing, Perseus began clapping.

Artie looked over in surprise to see the dark eyed teen still in the room. "Thanks… Pierce, right?"

"Yes. Artie, right?"

"Indeed," Artie nodded. "Sorry for taking over your house like this for the entire weekend."

"No apologies necessary," Perseus waved him off. "First, I find it entertaining listening to and watching you guys, and second, you bring hot women with you."

Artie grinned. "Yes, yes we do."

"Would you be the one to ask if I wanted to know if one of them were dating anyone?"

"Not always, but I do happen to know that currently all of our girls are available for datage."

It looked like Pierce was about to respond, but he was cut off as his brothers Lee and Ian and his sister Phoebe entered the room. The boys were whining good naturedly as Phoebe made them carry refreshments into the room. Artie wheeled himself over to see what there was to eat.

"Oh, yum!"

Phoebe had brought in a large arrangement of meats, cheeses, stuffed olives, vegetables, fruits and dips, along with an assortment of water, tea, and juice. "What can I get you to drink, Artie?" Hebe asked.

"I love that Apple-Cranberry juice."

She brought him a cup and he smiled up at her.

"Thanks!"

"You are welcome," she blushed at his graciousness. "If you need anything else just let me know."

"OH! Look at all the goodies!" Brittany exclaimed enthusiastically as she and Santana entered the room. "It reminds me that I'm starving." The blonde moved directly over and began munching on a feta stuffed olive.

"Is this Gouda?" the Latina Cheerio asked. "I love Gouda."

The others began entering the room, returning from wherever they'd all disappeared to, and they all settled into having a snack before they would begin practicing again. If anyone found it odd that Mr. Schuester seemed to be on first name basis with the parents of the Pallas teens, nobody said anything.

They spent another two hours practicing after their snack, and then decided to go swimming again. It was just after ten at night, but the kids felt like they had hours left before they'd be tired enough to sleep. This time they all got into the water, including Artie, and everyone broke into smaller groups, speaking softly instead of the rough-housing they'd been doing earlier in the day. Mr. Schue had left when the kids had headed for the pool.

Finn lay in the pool, his head on the edge, his body floating out in front of him.

"And how are you this night, Finn Hudson," Aphrodite spoke softly from his side.

He jumped slightly, but looked over to see Didi. She was breathtaking. Her long gold hair trailed along the water, and her tanned flesh rose out of the water almost sparkling. Didi's swimsuit was deep blue, and molded her curves perfectly. And Finn had noticed that Didi had curves, lots of them. "I'm doing good. How about you?" Mailman, dead mailman, mailman, dead mailman, he kept thinking.

"I too am doing well," she shared and leaned against the wall next to him, one of her breasts pressed against him slightly. She acted as if she didn't notice. "It seems that everyone is getting along well. I must admit I was concerned that this would not be the case."

Finn had thought he might have a stroke when her boob touched him, but he seemed to be finding it easier to be around her than other girls… not that he didn't want her, because he really, REALLY did. Then Finn frowned as her words registered. "What do you mean?"

"I thought, perhaps, there might be too many boys in one room; too much testosterone. I thought perhaps you all would not get along and there would be arguments, perhaps even fights."

Understanding now, Finn nodded, "Nah, well, I mean, I guess with Puck there's always a chance of a good fight, but he really seems to like you guys, and well, your brother, Ari, well he's the one that actually got us talking to each other again, so we couldn't fight with him…"

Didi smiled. "Ari too enjoys a good fight. Perhaps he and Puck will have a chance to find one together. Tell me… what do you think of that development?" she asked softly, turning his attention to where Gus and Quinn were just beginning to talk.

Finn was silent and serious. "He seems like someone who'll give her what she needs. He won't be stupid when she needs someone smart, or irresponsible when she needs an adult."

She nodded. "You are exactly right. And will she be able to give him someone who will not care that there are scars that mar his body? Will she stand for him when others laugh?"

"Once I would have said no, but now, I think, yes, I think she'll be exactly what he needs if not more."

"I too think this."

"I used to love her. I thought it would kill me, when I found out she and Puck were lying to me."

"You have a tender heart," she told him, her eyes soft. "They never meant to do such harm."

"It's funny, but I know that now. I don't know how I know that… "

"I like to think it is part of the growing process."

"No… I think it's part of the 'Pallas' process," he cracked a grin. "You and your family, you all really do have a different way of looking at things."

"Maybe… we do like to be better than average," she told him, leaning a little closer.

Rachel swam to the deep end of the pool which was currently empty and leaned back against the wall. It had been an exhilarating day. For the first time she felt as if she had true friends and she felt as if they had a real chance at winning Regionals. The Pallas kids were very good singers, no… they were very good performers. Suddenly, for no reason she could think of she almost started crying, in fact she had to wipe away a tear.

"Are you well?"

Rachel spun quickly in the water, finding Ari had swum up next to her. "I'm fine."

"Rachel, while I find that you are an excellent actress, I have also found that you do not lie very well," he spoke softly, and his smile was just as soft. His ebony hair wasn't wet yet, and his bangs fell into his eyes, as if to highlight how green they were, even in the darkness of the corner they shared.

"I suppose I was just thinking about how… well, all I ever think of is singing, or dancing, or performing… I'm having quite an enjoyable time right now, but if we hadn't been invited over, I would have spent the weekend practicing…" she whispered.

"Practicing what?"

"Whatever… singing, dancing, anything that will push me closer to my eventual goal of Broadway."

"And these thoughts, they made you sad?"

Rachel looked down into the water for a moment. "I think I just realized that performing is my entire life. I don't have anything else."

"But you do."

She looked at him curiously.

Ari smiled. "You have your friends; sure you fight with them, but, they are still your friends and in some instances I would almost say family. And of course you are very intelligent. I have seen that you are taking several advanced courses. If you were not intelligent you could not take those classes. Let us not forget that you are also ambitious, so if for some reason you were not able to perform, you would be able to find something else to do and you would stay with that until you excelled at it."

Rachel found herself blushing. "Thank you, Ari. That's very nice of you to say."

"I try very much to tell the truth, Rachel, especially when speaking of such lovely women."

Before she could say anything else, and she wasn't sure she even could, he'd gone underwater and begun to swim away from her. He thought she was pretty? And smart? It almost sounded like he might like her… like 'like' like her… maybe. Rachel couldn't help the smile that now slid onto her face, and she decided to swim back to the others and hope they could distract her before she got herself all confused and began stalking him like the whole 'Finn' situation. She never wanted to act like that again. Maybe, she'd even talk to Quinn about it later… like when they went home on Sunday.

"Do you like to swim?" Gus asked Quinn.

Quinn glanced at the boy shyly. "Yes. I've always liked to. Of course I only ever got to swim during the summer months, but we had a hot tub… it's not the same though."

"We have a hot tub. When my muscles are hurting me, I sit in it. I use the pool often… it is good exercise and does not pull on my scars too much," he murmured frowning and looking down.

"Gus, your scars don't bother me. It makes sense that you would do most of your exercising in the pool. It's buoyant. And the hot tub would let your muscles relax if they tightened too much," she tried to let him know she truly wasn't bothered.

"I admit, I am not used to a girl such as you being as easy around me as you seem to be… besides my sisters that is."

"What do you mean?"

"Quinn, you are beautiful, nothing mars your skin… you are the opposite of me, which should make you uneasy when I come near, yet, you seem to accept me so easily…"

"Don't my friends accept you? Rachel, Brittany? Mercedes? They're all beautiful."

"This is true. And you are right, they do accept me, and none have looked twice or looked at me with pity, but you are different…"

Quinn felt her heart flutter at his words. She turned to face him more fully. "What makes me different?"

"With you… with you I feel things… with the others, they too are like my sisters, but with you I feel as if my heart might burst just seeing your smile when it shines upon me. When your eyes move in my direction it is as if my body would turn to stone so as to be there for your gaze to fall upon."

"I've never had anyone talk to me the way you do. I'm not a good person, Gus. I slept with my boyfriend's best friend because I was having a bad day. I lied to my boyfriend, telling him it was his baby, because I wanted my baby to have a good dad, which hurt my boyfriend and my baby's father. I don't deserve to hear the things you say to me, and I don't deserve to have someone like you."

Hephaestus moved forward, and placed his palm along her cheek. "Oh, Quinn, you deserve more than you shall ever know. We often make mistakes when we are young and scared. You were both. But the most important thing is that you have been forgiven for these mistakes. I have heard Finn's words of forgiveness, as well as Puck's happiness at being included in his daughter's life. It is time to get past the mistakes you made, and start forgiving yourself. It is time you allow yourself some happiness. Perhaps that is the Fate's plan for me…"

"Fate's plan is for you to make me happy?" she asked in disbelief.

He grinned and it made her stomach tilt. "Never question the Fates, they get crabby about that."

Quinn looked into his husky blue eyes; his dark, wet hair pushed back away from his handsome face and couldn't help herself. She leaned in and kissed him. When she pulled back she could see the pleasure on his face. "Well, we wouldn't want the Fates to get crabby now, would we?"