DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!
Chapter Five: English Lessons
"You're grounded," Burt said sternly to Finn as he sat in the kitchen shoving Rachel's pastries into his mouth with vigor. He shrugged his shoulders while licking the creamy filling off of his fingertips.
"Yeah, I figured as much," he said nonchalantly as he popped another one into his mouth. Rachel was watching him eat her pastries from her position in the kitchen with a shy smile and he could barely keep his eyes off of her.
"Finn, can you please be serious about this for a moment?" His mom said, visibly upset. "We're really worried about you. First you ignore your college applications, now you're getting into fights at school?"
"I told you that the fight wasn't my fault," he said, defending himself. "They were trying to slushie Rachel."
"We know that, Finn, Coach told us but fighting is still not the way to settle your differences. You know better than that," he could see the disappointment in his step-fathers eyes as he pushed the tray of flaky, sweet pastries away and focused on his furious parents. "Even though I am proud of you for standing up for Rachel. If only Figgins would outlaw that damn slushie machine on campus."
"Does that mean I'm off the hook?" Rachel was whisting a soft tune while she stirred a big bowl full of ingredients and it kept distracting him. She kept stealing glances at him with the same knowing, mischievous smile.
"No," his mother said firmly. "This weekend you're going to use your time to your advantage and start researching different programs and classes that you can be involved in next year. It's not too late to find something, Finn."
Shrugging his shoulders, he smiled for his parent's benefit and tried to focus on them instead of the French girl in his kitchen that was slowly becoming his obsession. "I guess I can try."
"Good. Why don't you go upstairs and give yourself a head start," Burt ordered and Finn pulled himself up from the dining room table and retreated upstairs to his room. Heading right for his computer chair, he opened Facebook, turned on some music, and played video games for the rest of the night, ignoring his step-father's command.
He had the whole weekend to start planning, he might as well enjoy his time now.
The rest of the week was slow and monotonous for Finn as his punishment continued. He was only allowed to leave the house for three reasons; school, glee club and the tire shop, so by Friday he was already restless for his freedom. It's not like he had much company; Kurt and Rachel were getting closer by the day, now that he was finally getting used to her, and he enjoyed taking her out and showing her all the perks that America had to offer. Finn mostly stayed holed up in his room, fixating on his many distractions so he didn't have to worry about his future plans. When he realized that he'd beaten Zelda for the third time in one week he knew that he had to find something more productive to do, but he was still procrastinating his search for future endeavors.
Rachel had been acclimating well to her new American life. She prepared dinner for the family every night and always made a few special pastries that she put aside for Finn to enjoy. Kurt was helping her make friends with the other members of the glee club and they even went out to dinner together on Friday night. Finn unfortunately couldn't go, but she was practically beaming when they had returned from the movies and would not stop gushing about the amazing time she'd had. It made him happy to know that she was enjoying her time in the US, and her English was genuinely improving by the day.
Saturday was borderline torture for Finn and Blaine during their detention with Beiste. She made them wax the gymnasium floor by hand and by the time he got out around noon, his back was killing him. All he wanted to do was take some Aleve and go to sleep for the rest of the day as he entered his empty house. He walked upstairs and was about to fall onto his bed and crash, when he noticed something in his room that shouldn't have been there.
Rachel. She was in his room, standing by his desk and staring intently at the pictures in the frames, completely unaware that he was home.
"Rachel?" He asked, and she was so startled that she let out a small scream, covering her mouth as she turned to face him.
"Feen!" She said as her face blushed crimson. She looked panicked and tried to immediately brush past him and leave, but he maneuvered his body so her only escape route would be blocked. Bumping right into his chest, she took a step back and looked up into his eyes. "I-I am sorry," she stuttered. "I do not belong here."
"No, it's okay, I really don't mind that you're in here," he looked around the room and nothing seemed to be out of place. "But why are you in here?"
"Um," she said shyly, tucking some hair behind her ear as she looked at anything but his face. "I am 'ze only one here and I am curieuse,"she admitted.
"Where is Kurt?" They had been practically inseparable for the past few days, so where could he be?
"He want to be with Blaine, so I say 'go'!" She said, emphasizing with a wave of her hand. "'Be with 'ze one you love.'"
"That's really nice of you, Rachel," he said genuinely. "Where's Mom and Burt?"
"Burt works and Carole is at the marché."
"The marché?" he repeated.
"Oui, she does the shopping."
"Ah," he said, realizing that he was in his bedroom with Rachel alone and without any parental supervision.
He made no effort to move from his spot, though. What Mom and Burt didn't know couldn't hurt them.
She still looked worried, like he was upset that she had been trespassing in his room, but he seriously couldn't care less. The only real problem was the clear violation of the house rules, but it's not like it had happened on purpose. "You are mad at me?" She asked, her big brown eyes filled with panic.
"No," he said, trying to reassure her as he entered his bedroom and walked over to his desk to see what she had been looking at. There were pictures of him in uniform, at football games, performing with the glee club, even an old picture of him and Quinn from sophomore year when they used to date. She stood next to him and pointed to the one of Quinn.
"Quinn is très belle," she said, a bit of sadness in her tone. He scoffed harshly as bitter memories filled his head.
"Yeah, too bad she ripped my heart out and stomped all over it." She shook her head in confusion.
"I do not understand." He took the picture and placed it in the top drawer of his desk and out of sight.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He sighed deeply as the ancient pain he normally tried to ignore felt raw and fresh. "It was a long time ago."
"You love her?" She asked, her eyes wide.
"No," he said, shaking his head to make himself as clear as possible. "Not anymore."
"Ah bon," she said, turning to the picture of him in his football. He was leaning down on one knee with his helmet in his hand, a football tucked under his arm and a brilliant smile on his face. That was back when he'd thought that football would be his ticket out. "You play les sports?"
"Yeah, I played football." There was pure confusion in her gaze as she stared at him.
"Le football?" She repeated, pointing at the ball in his hands. "C'est le football américain."
"What?" He asked, confused. The language barrier that still existed between them was really inconvenient when Kurt wasn't around.
"In France, le football is different," she explained. "Le football is soccer," she said, struggling with the foreign word.
"Ah, so I play American football, is that it?" She nodded her head vigorously.
"Oui," she replied. "But I do not know 'zis football. You play good?" She asked, still looking at his picture.
"No," he said, turning away from her and sitting down at his desk as his depression returned in full force. "I mean, I thought I did, but it wasn't good enough."
"Not good enough?" She repeated, not understanding him. He really didn't feel like spelling out all of his failures for her when he was still so ashamed of them so he shook his head and tried to change the subject.
"So what did you do all day long?" He asked as he turned on his XBox.
"I watch movies and learn English," she said, puffing out her chest in pride. "I study all day."
"Good for you," he said amicably, trying not to focus on the fact that she was still in his room and all the house rules were being ignored. "Your English has improved a lot better since you got here."
"Vraiment?" she asked as she sat down on his bed. "You are sérieux?"
"Yeah, of course," he said as a rosy blush spread across her face. She really was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen and she was sitting on his bed like a present just waiting to be unwrapped. She even laid down on his sheets and relaxed into his pillows, watching him as he fiddled around with his video games and logged on to XBox Live.
They stayed like that for the majority of the afternoon; Rachel watched him play video games in silence while he tried to ignore the hot French transfer student on his bed. Didn't she have studying to do, or a movie to watch? She was tempting him in the worst kind of way and he could feel her eyes staring at him throughout the entire afternoon.
"Rachel, I'm back!" He could hear his mother calling for Rachel downstairs and she shot off of the bed like the sheets had burned her. At least she realized that she had been breaking the rules, but she didn't really seem to care.
"I return," she said to him before running downstairs. He exhaled a deep sigh as he watched her bounce out of his room. There were still so many things about her that he didn't understand, that he wanted to know, but the communication barrier was really getting in the way of their friendship. Throwing his controller on his desk, he lifted himself off of his chair and plopped down onto his bed face-first, inhaling the beautiful perfume that lingered on his pillows.
Rachel's flowery scent must have lulled him into a light nap, because when he opened up his eyes the sunlight in his bedroom was already beginning to wane. A soft weight was pushing down his bed and he could feel someone shaking him as he grunted into his pillows. "Feen!" A voice was calling him and he wiped the drool away from his mouth. "Feen!" Opening his eyes, he peeked up at the fuzzy image of Rachel hovering over his bed.
"Wassup?" He slurred, his voice heavy with sleep.
"Ta mère, she calls you," Rachel said, pulling him by the wrist until he finally pulled himself out of bed. He must have looked positively frightening as he dragged his sleepy body downstairs to where his mother was working in the kitchen. She took one look at his disheveled appearance and almost dropped her mixing spoon into the bowl she was stirring.
"Finn, have you been sleeping all afternoon?" She asked as he yawned widely.
"Uh, no, I was just really tired after detention." Rachel sat down at the dining room table with a newspaper, a French to English dictionary and a bright pink notebook that she was scribbling in furiously.
"Have you looked into any new programs yet?" She asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she put down the bowl. When he didn't answer right away she sighed heavily and threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Are you telling me that you wasted your entire afternoon sleeping and doing nothing when we made a deal about this weekend?" He could feel the pressure building up around him as he struggled to come up with an excuse.
"Well . . . ," he said, but was suddenly interrupted when Rachel jumped up from the table.
"Mais non!" She said, coming up next to Finn and placing a hand on his arm. "Feen helps me learn!" He looked down at her in confusion and she nodded her head enthusiastically.
"He did?" Carole asked.
"I did?" He repeated dumbly.
"Oui! He help me today and I help him tomorrow," she suddenly pinched the skin on his arm tightly and he had to bite back a small yelp of pain as he realized what she was trying to do. She knew that he had spent the day doing nothing, but was giving him an alibi so he wouldn't get in trouble as she gave him her signature knowing smile.
"Oh yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "I was helping her study English after detention and then I took a nap."
"Oui," Rachel said brightly, "and tomorrow, I help him find futur!"
Carole looked impressed as she continued her work in the kitchen. "Well Finn, I didn't realize that you cared so much about Rachel's education."
A faint blush stained his cheeks and Rachel kept staring at him with mischief dancing in her eyes. "Well, she came here to learn English, right? I might as well help."
"Why don't you two get some studying in now before dinner is ready?" His mom suggested as Rachel beamed at her.
"Oui! Vas-y!" She said, pulling him by the wrist and pushing him into the chair next to hers at the dining room table. He didn't know how he'd gotten roped into this, and he definitely wasn't the one who should be teaching anyone English, but he couldn't say no to her as she held up the newspaper with a grin.
"I read, for ma prononciation,"she said, turning the page and reading the articles out loud to work on her speaking skills. When she came across a word that she didn't know she wrote it down in her notebook and looked it up in the dictionary. It seemed like way too much effort for Finn, but he dutifully corrected her pronunciation like he had promised.
". . .The O-ee-oh state caucus will be meeting. . . " Finn shook his head and fixed her mistake.
"O-hi-oh," he said, emphasizing the 'h' as she tried to repeat it. "Ohio."
"O-ai-o?" She said, not pronouncing the 'h' at all.
"No, you have to say the 'h', you never do when you talk." She huffed indignantly and narrowed her eyes at him.
"'Zis sound does not exist en français!" She said, crossing her arms.
"Well it does in English, so you have to try," he said, trying to give her encouragement. His mom called to them from the kitchen and they both turned to face her.
"I'm running upstairs to take a shower, the timer for dinner is set. Just turn off the oven when it goes off," with a smile, she went upstairs and they returned to their lesson. He took her notebook from her and scribbled down his name in his messy scrawl.
"See, my name is Finn Hudson," he said, underlining the H. There was confusion in her eyes as she looked up at him.
"But, 'zis is la famille Uh-mell!" He shook his head.
"My mom married Kurt's dad last year," he explained. "My last name is Hudson."
"Ud-son," she repeated. "Feen Ud-son." He couldn't help but laugh. He thought the way she pronounced his name was adorable, but she had to learn the right way or else they were just wasting their time.
"Finn."
"Feen."
"Finn," he repeated, more slowly.
"Feen," she said, and he noticed how her mouth stretched out widely as she tried to say his name. He shook his head and leaned closer to her, picking up his hand and placing the back of it against her cheek softly, dragging it lightly against her skin.
"Relax your cheeks," he whispered, their faces getting closer and closer as they made eye contact. "Look at my lips when I say it," he ordered, and he saw her eyes flicker down to his mouth. "Finn."
"Finn," she repeated, her eyes wide when she realized that she had said it correctly. He smiled at the sound of his name on her lips. There was still the slightest accent, but it was almost imperceptible.
"Hudson," he said next, trying to tackle the harder word. His hand moved to cup her cheek and he brushed his thumb gently over her lower lip as it trembled. "Just exhale a little heavier."
"H-Hudson," she repeated, her voice shaky. "Finn Hudson." His name sounded heavenly on her lips, especially with the light lingering accent. Their faces were mere inches apart as his fingertips stroked her silky skin. Her eyes closed and his body moved of its own volition as he closed the distance between them, their lips meeting in a tender caress as his heart began to race.
She gasped lightly as his lips pressed firmly against hers and his hand was still stroking her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss was full of yearning as their lips parted momentarily, and he leaned in for another when a loud beeping filled the space around them and snapped them out of their reverie.
"'Ze food," Rachel jumped up from her seat and went into the kitchen to shut off the oven while Finn's head was spinning from their kiss. His heart was pounding harder than a drum when she came back to the table and there was a bright flush to her cheeks. All he wanted to do was lean over and kiss her again, but he knew how wrong it was. If they were to get caught then Finn would get kicked out and then he would never be able to see her again.
Her smile was shy as she peeked at him through her hooded eyelids. "We kiss more?" She asked innocently.
"No," he said, going against every urge in his body that was screaming at him to take her into his arms and kiss her senseless. "We can't."
"Mais pourquoi?" She asked, her lower lip turning out in a pout.
"Because it's against the rules," he tried to explain. "If we got caught, Burt would send me away."
"Quoi?" She gasped, placing a hand over her mouth as he nodded his head.
"He would make me leave the house. I wouldn't be able to see you again, he's done it before." Shaking her head, she gazed at him with sad eyes.
"He is scary," she admitted quietly.
"But that's why we gotta follow the rules, Rachel. So we can still hang out and talk like this." He reached over and brushed his hand over hers, squeezing it lightly. "Do you understand?"
"Oui," she agreed, nodding her head vigorously. He could hear his mother coming back downstairs so he pulled his hand away from Rachel as she picked up the newspaper and started reading again. She kept peeking up at him while they were under his mother's watchful eye and Kurt returned home with Blaine in tow so they could all eat dinner together.
"Hey, what are you two kids doing over here?" Kurt teased while Rachel held up her notebook, talking quickly in French to Kurt as his eyebrows raised in shock.
"You're letting Finn teach you English?" He asked, incredulous. "I'm surprised you're not speaking gibberish by now."
"Mais non!," she said boldly. "Finn is très intelligent." Kurt and Blaine looked at her like she had three heads while Finn tried to contain his joy. No one ever thought that he was smart and her praise made him feel good about himself for the first time in a long time.
It was a full house by the time Burt came home from a long day at the shop and the family ate dinner together in peace while Finn tried in vain to keep his eyes off of the girl who had hypnotized him so deeply. Now that they had shared that forbidden kiss his feelings for her had solidified into something completely new and slightly terrifying. Everything about her pulled him in; her smile, her accent, the little white beret that she wore everywhere. They sat next to each other at dinner and every time she brushed up against him his heart started to race. He was lucky that Kurt and Blaine were monopolizing everyone's attention as they sat through dinner blushing and stealing looks at one another. Their fingers intertwined under the table for the slightest of moments and it left his skin tingling from the contact.
The four friends decided to watch movies together that night so Finn didn't have to be lonely, and in the darkness of the living room no one was even aware of Finn and Rachel's proximity as she placed her head on his shoulder, leaning up against him.
"Merci, Finn Hudson," she whispered to him as the movie began. He looked down at her smiling face with a frown.
"For what?" He asked and she shook her head with a smile.
"I tell you soon," she said, leaning up to place a quick kiss on his cheek before resting her head against him once more and shifting focus back towards the movie. "I learn more and more every day."
Merci mile fois, mes amis!
Don't stop reviewin'!