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"speech"
thoughts
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Tina was confused about what was going on and why she agreed to get into a car with Noah Puckerman in the first place despite her needing a way to avoid running into Artie. Looking over at him, she saw that his facial expression had changed once they left the school parking lot. It was more focused and intense now that they were away from people that they knew and she found herself oddly concerned for the mohawked boy since he hasn't said anything to her after he told her to get into his truck. As she was contemplating the virtues of jumping out of the moving vehicle or when it comes to a stop at a light or something, she noticed that Puck was pulling into a parking lot of some sort, a very familiar parking lot indeed; one where she used to come with Artie when they were actually talking and were friends. Shaking her head, she pushed all the thoughts of her former friend away as she turned to focus on the boy sitting next to her. Somehow, he could tell that she was staring at him.
"Come on, I want some ice cream." He exited the cab of the truck and she followed suit, making sure to grab her money before she did so. "I could do with some ice cream myself." Tina entered the ice cream, she shuddered as the blast of cold air hit her then walked up to the counter where Puck was ordering his ice cream. "We're not eating it here, so get it in something that you can eat on the go." He moved out of the way so that she could get her own ice cream and after scanning the choices, she decided on some green mint chocolate chip ice cream with some fudge sauce in a bowl. Once she paid and had her ice cream, she turned her attention to Puck to see where they'd go next. He simply walked back out of the shop and to his truck then she followed suit and climbed back into the truck.
"I want to go somewhere more covert or discreet in order to eat." Tina wasn't sure why he would want to do this but she was just going to go with it. Eventually, they ended up at a random park where he shut off the engine then started to eat ice cream. Several minutes passed as they ate their ice cream silence. Tina wondered if she would ever find out what was going on inside the boy's head and what made him act like he was. It was still as worrying as it was before when they ran into each other a week ago. She was about to say something when he spoke and startled her out of her thoughts.
"Quinn's giving up the baby." Tina turned to look at him and was saddened by the sight that was before her. The boy sitting next to her was so different from the normal confidant guy that she had become so accustomed to since he joined Glee club. This was just something so different than she could figure out, so she wasn't sure how to respond to him and apparently, he didn't need her to. "She made the decision without talking to me and refuses to let me having anything to do with the future of the baby, our baby that we made together." She felt her heart go out to him because she didn't think that it was fair for the blond to cut him out as it effects him just as much as her. Sure, it was her body that was carrying the baby, the physical scars would heal but the mental and emotionally wouldn't. "My father may be a dead beat parent but that doesn't mean that I would be the same. But all she sees me as is a Lima loser." Tina tired to figure out what to say to him, when he got out of the truck and slammed the door close behind him. Deciding that it would probably be better to let him have some time to cool down and gather himself, she continued to eat her ice cream as she thought about the whole situation that Noah Puckerman found himself in.
Twenty minutes later, Puck still hadn't returned to the truck, so Tina got out in order to go looking for him. Even if he didn't want it, he didn't deserve to deal with this alone. It took a little bit to find the boy but she eventually did, sitting at the base of a tree and seeming to be staring at nothing. She moved over careful, as to not startle him from his position then sat down next to him and just waited for something to happen. After a couple minutes, she decided to say something because she did not like the silence and she couldn't tell what his mental state was like.
"You know, what Quinn is doing isn't right or fair to you. Sure, she's carrying the baby but half of its genetics come from you. Both you and the baby both deserve better than this because it's not only her life that will be effected by this which should be taken into an account but isn't. Despite what your reputation may make me think, you're still human and deserve to be treated like one." Without thinking, she reached over and squeezed his hand quickly then let go, not noticing the twitch of his lips. Several more minutes passed in silence but Tina didn't seem to care before a thought occurred to her that she didn't think that anyone had the presence of mind to ask him as well, they really weren't talking to him.
"You said that you don't want to be like your father and that's really admirable, that you want to step up and take responsibility for what happened. But have you really thought that through? I mean, you're still young yourself and not even legal yet." Tina could tell that he was getting a little upset at her words and reflexively grabbed his hand. "Wait. I'm not trying to insult you or anything, I just want to help you make the right and informed decision. This would be a big change in your life and you need to be prepared for whatever happens." The Asian girl was startled when Puck ripped his hand away and glared at her. "You don't know anything about this. So just stop." He jumped up and sent another glare her way before storming off the way that she had come earlier. She called after him, "I know better than you think." Leaning against the tree, she was suddenly glad that she decided to grab her things before coming to look for him because she was sure that he'd be long gone by the time she got back to the parking lot. And she was right, by the time she got there, ten minutes had gone by and there were no vehicles to be seen anywhere. The Asian girl let out a sigh and began the long walk home.
The day felt like it was dragging on and it wasn't even lunch time. Tina let out a sigh as she put her books away from her first two classes then grabbed the ones that she need for her next two. She wasn't sure what to expect from today after everything that happened with Puck yesterday and it was kind of weird. The Asian girl was torn in two between wanting to go up to the resident badass to give him a piece of her mind and avoid him like the plague. It seemed like the choice wasn't going to be made by her because she knew that he was at school but hadn't seen him yet, so apparently, he chose the second option and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. As she was about to head off to her class, her locker was slammed shut by someone else, so she turned and found a blond glaring at her.
"What the hell are you doing with Puck?" Quinn didn't bother to beat around the bush, instead chose to go right to the point and that caught Tina off guard. "I don't need to explain myself to you because its none of your business." As she turned to walk away, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled on it. "I'm not done with you. Puck's the father of my baby, so you need to back off." The Asian girl raised an eyebrow at the jealous blond. "Last time that I checked, you hated the fact that he's the father of your child, so excuse me if I won't let that fly." She bit her lip to keep from laughing at the look on the former cheerleader's face. "Let me tell you something, Fabray. On the whole, your decision to give up the baby is probably the right one so said child could get the life he or she deserves; however, your execution is sloppy. Just because you're the one that is carrying the baby doesn't mean that you're the only one that gets to make all the decisions about the child's future especially when the father shows interest in the child's well being. You do know, the baby only has half of your genetics, the other half comes from Puck, so he has as much of a right as you do. Besides, to put the baby up for adoption, you're gonna need him to sign over his parental rights as well."
Tina couldn't help shaking her head the blond who looked like she was getting ready to say something. Suddenly, her cheek was stinging because Quinn lost her temper and slapped her. "You have no idea about what's going on. Back off of Puck, this is your only warning." "He's his own person and you're not his girlfriend, so nothing you say matters." The former cheerleader glared at her again before storming off causing her to roll her eyes before walking into the nearest bathroom to check her face out because she thought that the other girl scratched her cheek, unaware that their little confrontation garnered some unexpected attention.
As she stood in the bathroom and looked into the mirror, Tina could make out a scratch on her cheek where Quinn's nails had collided with her skin. Letting out a sigh, she knew that most people wouldn't be able to really tell but then again, her friends weren't most people after all and she really didn't want to get into it with any of them. Suddenly, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her and turned to look where she saw that it was some cover up that was being held out by Santana with an undecipherable expression on her face. "It's Britts. You two are closer in complexion." She smiled at the cheerleader before using some of the cover up to cover the scratch up so no one could tell. "Thanks Santana." "Yeah, whatever." She watched as the Latina left the bathroom and she couldn't help chuckling lightly before following suit.
Lunch passed without incident and now she found herself in the library to do some work during her free period before she headed to glee rehearsal that afternoon. As Tina cracked open her math book and got ready to start answering the problems that were assigned for the homework when she heard someone cough to get her attention. Looking up, she was startled to see that it was Artie, who had approached her. This was certainly something that she had not been expecting and she wasn't sure that he meant to approach her because he was being all hesitant and wouldn't meet her eyes but she could tell that this separation was taking a toll on him as much as it was on her. Silence filled the air between them as she waited for him to say something.
"Um….hey Tina. Do you mind if I joined you?" Tina bit her lip because she knew that there were other open spots at different tables but he chose to come sit at the one that she was at, so maybe, things were starting to look up for them. "Sure, there's more than enough room for you to join me." Making sure that her things were contained, she watched as he took the space right across from her then returned her gaze to the math homework that she had started when he got her attention. After so long, this actually felt like there was some normalcy returning to her life and that the weird phase with Puck was starting to pass and they were returning to their normal roles at the school. Minutes passed by before something occurred to the Asian girl.
"I thought you normally had class during this period, Artie." His name felt so wonderful, falling from her lips that she almost missed what he said. "Mr. Logan managed to fall and sprain his ankle along with hitting his head on his desk, so class was canceled." She nodded her head in response and hoped that there wasn't anything wrong with the teacher before trying to return to her work but was stopped by Artie asking her something. "Tee-Tina, do you think, um, that you'd want to come over? I miss you, miss what we had so maybe, we could talk about everything and start over?" He shot her a pair of those adorable blue puppy dog eyes that always made her melt but it didn't quite have the same effect that it used to. This was what she had wanted, right? Since they had their fight and he left her in the hallway in the wheelchair after she told him the truth. So, why wasn't she jumping for joy internally? A familiar face flashed in front of her eyes, of a guy who enjoys sporting a Mohawk. She shook her head to clear it of that image because Noah Puckerman had nothing to do with this and she wasn't going to have anything to do with him since he left her at the park the day before and didn't seem to want anything to do with her either. Returning her attention to Artie, she realized that she hadn't given him an answer because she was distracted by thoughts of Puck which made her want to slap herself on the forehead.
"That sounds like a good idea, Artie. We'll head over after glee finishes up for the day." The pair exchanged a couple of smiles, both not sure what the afternoon could bring them before packing up and heading to said glee club rehearsal. Tina was unaware that their conversation was being overheard by the one guy that she can't seem to get out of her head lately and her agreement made him frown in response.