Puck liked to maintain the reputation of a player, one of his favorite activities, one that he was most known for, rhymed with his name and that was a coincidence that always made him smile. As he sat on the steps with Rachel leaning against him crying he couldn't help but realize sex was actually the last thing on his mind at the moment. He sort of felt protective of Rachel, only half attracted to her, well, more than half attracted to her, she did have a sort of charm, like, a teacher from the 50s or something. He leaned his cheek on the top of her head and patted her arm, hmm, her hair smelled good.

"I'm so sorry," she sniffled, sitting up straighter, she patted his leg, "Thank you, I'm so sorry, really, I, I hate to cry in front of people like that, and I really am sorry," Rachel stood up, she took her glasses off, wiped them, then set them down on the step and wiped her eyes with the bottom of her shirt. Puck smiled, amused to see this side of Rachel that was so different from her school persona, seeing someone who was always all prim and proper, wipe their tears on their shirt, well, it made her seem real. If only she would wipe her nose on her sleeve, he'd probably have to grab her and kiss her right then.

"No problem, Rachel, I'm sorry you had such a rotten day. What happened anyway?" He hadn't been planning to ask, but, what the hell, she probably wanted to talk about it anyway, she liked to talk, he knew that much about her. Well, that and she had gotten good grades in history all year, which was why he was here in the first place. He hoped she would calm down enough to get back to the studying…

"Finn dumped me," Rachel blurted, she hadn't been planning to get into it, but she hadn't spoken the sentence out loud yet, and it felt good to do so. "Finn," a pause, she frowned, "Broke up," another pause, she looked down at Puck, still sitting on the step, she stifled a sudden giggle, "Finn broke up with me," once she got all the words out she laughed. Puck raised his eyebrows and stood up. What an odd reaction she was having. Rachel stopped laughing and shook her head, she pulled the legs of her shorts down and reach down and pulled her socks up. Once she seemed to feel a little more put together she started for the dining room table, pulling the sides of her sweatshirt down and tucking the ends under about two inches. Puck followed her.

"I'm not really sure what's so funny about that," he said, "But I guess laughing is as good as crying for letting your emotions out," he sat down next to her at the table. He glanced at her book and opened his to the same page, then looked at her expectantly.

"You know, Puck, eh, Noah, I don't know what to call you," her words trailed off.

"Well, what do you feel comfortable with?" He asked her. She smiled and nodded, flipped a page in her book, found the review questions at the end of chapter six and grabbed her pencil.

"Okay, Puck, I'm going to ask you the questions, then you can either write your answers or tell me your answers. Either way works."

"I would rather tell you then have to worry about writing them down," he answered. He felt a little curious and wanted to talk more about Finn, but honestly, what difference did it make, they'd probably end up back together again. He wondered if he should give Finn a little talk tomorrow at school, about breaking up with girls, there had to be a better way to do it. Ah, but screw Finn, he was not exactly competition, but why give him any sort of edge.

The phone rang after about four review questions, it was the home phone, not Rachel's cell, but she pushed her chair back from the table and went to answer it. Puck looked at the notes she'd written down in response to his answers to the questions. She had written that he needed more well-formulated answers, basically, more words to make his answers seem more like he knew what he was doing. He sighed and read ahead the next review questions, preparing the answers in his head.

Rachel stood in the doorway to the kitchen with the phone to her ear. She felt silly talking on a corded phone, surely her dads were the only parents in town to still use a phone with a long spiral cord, though it did give one something to do with their hands while they were on the phone. It was Mercedes on the phone, saying she and Kurt were going to a movie Friday night, well, they had been planning it, but Mercedes had just been asked out for that night by the big hulking hunky quarter back of a foot ball team from their conference, and she really wanted to go, but didn't want to hurt Kurt's feelings. She was asking Rachel what she thought was the best way to change the plans. Rachel said not to worry, she knew there was an exhibit at the museum about an hour away that night that she thought Kurt would enjoy, she would call him right then, ask if he could go, and then call Mercedes back and let her know. Then Rachel glanced up and saw Puck looking at their books and she told Mercedes she would call Kurt later, she was busy.

"Ooo, what kind of busy?" Mercedes teased. Rachel laughed and told her she was just studying with Puck. Mercedes let out a little gasp and asked if Finn knew, then Rachel realized she shouldn't have said anything, because she was dying to spill to her friend all about getting dumped (getting dumped! Still so hard to believe) but she didn't want to get into it and possibly get all weepy again, with Puck right there. Plus she had promised him a good study session.

"Mercedes, I just have to call you later, "she said, then she whispered, "I will explain everything later!"

"I'm sorry Puck, okay, where were we?" Rachel sat down and looked at her notebook. Puck put his hand over her hands and looked at her, waiting for her to look up. He heard her take a breath and look up at him.

"What?" She asked.

"Come on, Rachel; get it off your chest. Why did Finn break up with you? I know it's all in there right now, bouncing around inside that head of yours, and it needs to get out, once you let it out you can really focus on something else, on the ever thrilling Civil War, for example." He smiled, and did a Vanna White gesture toward their school materials. Rachel laughed, then she looked into his eyes, his earnest expression and she put her hands on his wrists and held onto them and leaned forward and kissed him. She kissed him for a long while, and much to her relief he kissed her right back. Finally he shrugged out of her grip and put his hands on her face, kissed her a little more then pulled back and looked at her.

"Uh, Rachel," he began. But she interrupted him by kissing him again, then she moved onto his lap and continued kissing him, he put his arms around her waist.

"Rachel?" her dad's voice came in the back door, startling her back to reality. She jumped off Puck's lap and into her chair, she pulled her sleeve across her mouth and picked up her pencil.

"In the dining room dad!" She called out in the clearest voice she could manage. Puck scooted his chair in closer to the table and wiped his mouth and picked his pencil up.

"We're just in here studying, the Civil War," he called out. Rachel's eyes widened for a moment. She got up hurriedly and went to the kitchen to meet her dad. He came into the dining room with her, she was pleased to see Puck was standing up to greet him by the time they got to the table.

"Ah, the Civil War huh? Yes, brothers fighting brothers, the last great war fought on American soil. Phew, thank goodness for that," her dad put his hand out to shake Puck's hand, "You must be Noah, nice to see another young man around here once in a while," he looked at Puck's Mohawk, "Not that I have anything against Finn, he does give me something to chuckle at now and again." Puck stifled a laugh.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Berry, Rachel is quite the history whiz you know, she's helping me get back on my game in history so I can stay in glee club," he smiled at Rachel, "Not that I ever thought glee club would be my thing, but sir, well, the chicks like a guy with a guitar."

"Yes, so do the guys actually," Rachel's dad teased. Rachel's face grew red and she started pushing her dad out of the room.

"Okay dad, thanks, good to see you, we'll be getting back to our studies now," she pushed him all the way out of the dining room and into the kitchen, he was laughing the whole time and when she came back to the table Puck was laughing too. Men! They could really be annoying!