AN: So this chapter is shorter than I intended, but life has gotten kinda busy all of a sudden so I figured a short update is better than no update. It's also less dialogue and smut heavy but I wanted to spend some time on where the girls are mentally with things. Please review and let me know what you think. I will try and update again soon but it might not be until next week sometime.
Rachel wasn't sure that she'd made the right decision about agreeing to host another party. The memory of Brittany projectile vomiting on her in front of the school was still fairly fresh in her memory. But still the brunette had to contend that Puck had made some good points about standing up for herself. On the plus side the rest of the club seemed excited by the prospect which had surprised Rachel a little. Maybe Puck had been right the rest of the club would get bored and move on. Glee practice Wednesday afternoon had been particularly uneventful, which was unusual in itself. It also marked the longest amount of time Rachel had ever gone without performing. Not that she was upset by this; on the contrary the brunette was actually enjoying taking a slightly more relaxed approach. It also helped that Quinn had sat right beside her. Rachel also had a sneaking suspicion that Mr Schuester had forgotten which lesson he was supposed to be teaching them that week. If it had been any other week the brunette would have been in a rage that the club was being so unproductive and wasteful of their practice time. In truth she still cared very deeply about the club and wanted them to succeed so badly it hurt. However Rachel had spent some time re-evaluating her approach to the club there was no way that the New Directions would be winning anything anytime soon if they kept going the way they were. The brunette was sick of feeling alienated and while the incident in gym had been a horrific experience she knew it wasn't the only cause for her isolation within the group. She knew she had to make some changes in the way she treated the rest of the group and had to demand they make some changes in the way they treated her. Not just because she was the talent amongst them but because she finally felt like she deserved to be treated as more. After all she had won over the Unholy Trinity in less than a week. Quinn had been in her bed and had agreed to go out with her, Brittany had been giving her relationship advice and Santana of all people had been a true friend. Rachel figured a party was a good opportunity to re-introduce herself to the rest of the group.
The party wasn't the only concern occupying the diva's thoughts though her date with Quinn was also playing on her mind. She was excited it was going to be her first date but when Rachel had let herself envision what her first date would be like she'd never thought that she would be the one planning it. Still Rachel contended to herself that, that wasn't an all together bad thing. But the brunette was worried that her own ideal version of romance wouldn't match Quinn's. Rachel had a strong suspicion from what Quinn and Brittany had told her that the head Cheerio who had dated at least three of the most popular boys in school had not really seen much in the way of romance. Brittany had been a massive help to Rachel in regards to filling in some of the many blanks in Rachel's knowledge of Quinn's likes and dislikes. However Rachel was not going to ask Brittany to help plan her date with Quinn. She knew that Brittany had been romanced even less than Quinn and Rachel didn't want to accidently take Quinn out on Brittany's perfect date. When Rachel came to that realisation she felt incredibly sad for the blonde girls they both deserved romance and to be treated like princesses.
Rachel wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do for the date but she definitely knew what she wasn't going to do. There would be no cliqued dinner at Breadstix and it wasn't even because the vegetarian meatballs were really dry. Quinn deserved much more than bottomless salad and stale bread sticks.
Quinn had gotten home from school that day in a mood that wasn't as good as the one she had when she'd left for school, but one that had improved since her lunch with Rachel had been hijacked. She had gotten to spend all of glee sitting next to Rachel, afternoon Cheerios practice had been cancelled because Sue was in Figgen's office denying any and all knowledge of what had happened to Mrs Jenkenson's tires, glee had gone smoothly and Quinn had gotten to drive Rachel home afterwards. The two girls had also spent fifteen minutes making-out in Quinn's car until Leroy had wrapped his knuckles against the window and waved at them. Deep down Quinn knew that she was being stupid with her jealousy over Rachel. But part of her couldn't help it the only other person Quinn had ever had any sort of feelings for had been Puck. Puck had told her that she was his world that he'd do anything for her. Then he went and had sex with Santana, with Brittany and with whoever else would let him. Quinn knew that at the time Puck had made all those promises to her he had meant them but he messed up time and time again. Then there was Quinn's dad, who had been righteous to a fault about family values but that hadn't stopped him from cheating on her mom with some reject Tiger Woods hooker. Quinn just couldn't face that kind of rejection again and while deep down she knew that Rachel was different she couldn't be sure.
Quinn had caught up on her homework which she had been neglecting and was lying on her bed thinking about Rachel. More specifically she was thinking about Rachel's sexual stamina. To Quinn it seemed that no matter what the brunette and the blonde did together Rachel was never fully spent. While Quinn was grateful that Rachel didn't have to chant 'mailman' every time they made out, she was also a little worried that she wasn't meeting Rachel's needs. Puck had implied that, that had been the reason he had man-whored around on her. With Finn and Sam the blonde hadn't felt any obligation to reward them sexually but things with Rachel were very different. Quinn got up off her bed and made her way towards her mom's room. Her mom was downstairs making dinner. Judy always made sure that when she spent the night with her boyfriend Quinn got her undivided attention the next. Judy Fabray had also made other changes in her life, Quinn wasn't supposed to know about them but since dumping Russel, Judy had become an avid reader of sex manuals and had formed a decent sized collection which she hid in her closet. Quinn entered the room and looked through her mother's stash she glanced over the titles looking for one that would help her with Rachel and that hopefully her mom wouldn't miss. Most of the books were more concerned with increasing the female orgasm which ironically didn't really help Quinn all that much. Finally she settled on one that seemed more concerned with penis orientated pleasure. Quinn tucked the book under her shirt and sprinted back to her room to study it.
Santana was the happiest she had been in a long time, she and Brittany had popped in Sweet Valley High and were getting their best platonic cuddle on. The Latina was reminded of old times back before the two had crossed the line into more than just friends. Before things had gotten so complicated between the two of them. Over the past couple of days the two girls had really re-discovered the things that had made them so inseparable in the first place. Santana not only understood Brittany's weirdness but adored it and didn't belittle her for it. Brittany made Santana feel safe and let her drop her guard. Brittany had noticed a change in Santana, for the first time in a long time the Latina wasn't trying to manipulate anyone. She hadn't said a bad word to Brittany about Artie or anyone else really except maybe Lauren but that was different and Brittany knew it. Also Brittany knew the reason that Rachel hadn't been slushied that week was because Santana had skipped practice to go all Lima Heights on the machine. She'd also put the fear of god into Karofsky to prevent any of the football jocks from going to the 7/11 close to the high school for slushy supplies. Santana had been punished mercilessly by Coach Sylvester for skipping practice but still hadn't taken credit for her kind deed. Brittany knew the good that was at the heart of Santana, that when it came down to it she was actually all heart, she was just afraid of being hurt.
The unfortunate thing for the blonde was that the catalyst that had caused her best friend to start making some much needed changes had also caused her boyfriend to start acting like a jerk. Brittany liked Artie she really did, she was pretty sure she still liked him. But she had started to notice the boys flaws, the worst of which was that he was a hypochondriac, no wait that's not right...hypocrite. Artie was very good at pointing out when life wasn't fair to him at finding ways to make everything bad in his life someone else's fault, at making other people feel guilty. But he had spent the week so far making fun of someone who had only ever been nice to him. The boy hadn't even been present at the incident but was the taking the most pleasure in Rachel's humiliation. It annoyed Brittany to no end; she knew that Artie had found himself in similar if not worse situations. There had been occasions when Artie didn't realise that he was at attention himself and would be about to wheel his way through a hallway full of students when the blonde girl would notice and put her back pack in his lap or something else to protect him.
There were other issues in the relationship as well, Brittany had come to the conclusion that Artie was pretty selfish when it came to sex. Brittany knew that having sex with boys was very different to having sex with girls (well having sex with Santana at least) and that sometimes it took boys a little longer to figure out how to please girls. But Artie didn't seem to think that Brittany had any sorts of needs at all. He'd never been able to get the blonde to climax, he'd let Brittany climb on top of him and he'd finish when he was ready. Although the two hadn't actually had sex since Brittany's pregnancy scare, the boy still felt he was entitled to certain benefits without offering anything in return.
Brittany knew it was wrong to compare Artie with Santana but she couldn't help it. While Brittany had always been the top in the relationship when it came to sex, Santana was no pillow princess. There were also cuddles and plenty of affection Santana might not have always been so great with words but her actions had always let the blonde know how she felt. Needless to say the blonde was feeling conflicted she didn't want to hurt Artie; she knew even though he was acting like a jerk he wasn't a bad person. He sang her songs, talk her to see Santa, gave her his fake magic comb, he was proud to show her off as his girlfriend, with Artie she wasn't anybodies little secret. That's why when he called during Brittany's cuddle session with Santana, Brittany agreed to go over to his house and hang out with him once the movie was done. Brittany could tell that Santana wasn't exactly what one could have called happy about the situation but she tried her best not to show it. Santana was really trying her hardest to be a better person; Brittany was just worried that once again she would be the only one who would get to see the good in Santana.
Santana had driven Brittany over to Artie's house and then found herself at a loss as to what to do with herself. She didn't feel like going home, her first thought was to go over to Quinn's to hang out but she suspected that, that wasn't a safest option. The Latina continued to drive around aimlessly and without realising it had found herself driving down Rachel's street. The Latina decided to hell with it she had nothing better to do and Berry wasn't as annoying as she'd once thought; why not hang out with her. The Latina didn't see Quinn's car in the driveway so she assumed the blonde was at home having a mother daughter night in with Judy. Santana rang the doorbell, she almost jumped out of her skin when a tall black man answered the door. For a second she thought she had the wrong house and then realised who the man actually was. Santana suddenly felt a little nervous, she didn't do 'good parent'. Brittany's parents had gotten used to her over time and slowly grown to like her. Russel Fabray had hated her, Santana suspected that had more to do with her not being white than anything else. But she still made Judy Fabray a little nervous for reasons the Latina didn't fully understand.
"Um hey is Ber—Rachel home?"
"Yes she's upstairs, can I ask who you might be?"
"I'm Santana, Rachel and I are in glee together I had to drop a friend off over this side of town and I was wondering if Rachel wanted to hang out." Santana was scared that the man before her would recognise her as one of Rachel's former tormentors and go all Papa Bear on her.
"You're the one who sang Valerie at Sectionals aren't you?"
"Yeah that was me, wait you were there for that?"
"You were very good, Rachel even said so. We go to all her performances we've never missed one. Its just that Rachel's other dad Hiram tends to set off Rachel's nerves so we try to keep a low profile...you should really come inside Santana"
"Thanks...you know I was beginning to think Rachel had invented the whole gay dads story" The tall man just chuckled at the girl. Leroy knew full well who he had just invited into his home, the things the girl before him had done to his daughter. He also knew that she had come to his daughters defence when she had needed it most. He figured that he had forgiven Quinn Fabray, he could forgive Santana Lopez as well.
"Rachel's room is upstairs on your right, knock first but if she doesn't answer that probably means that she's got her music too loud to hear you, we had to get the room soundproofed because the neighbours threatened to sue"
"Yeah she's mentioned it about thirty or forty times" The man chuckled again, he liked the girl's whit. Santana mad her way up to Rachel's room, it would have been hard to miss it, pink door big ass yellow star on it with RACHEL written on it just in case you still weren't sure whose room it was. Santana knocked and got no response. She knocked again and still no response. Sick of knocking the girl opened the door and charged into the room. What she noticed first was that Black Berry had been right the diva did have her music playing loudly. The second thing she noticed made her swear aloud.