Originally, I was going to write something about the barbeque but nothing happened at the barbeque except for the fact that Puck didn't tell Rachel he saw his dad and they pretended to be 'normal' and not going out and Quinn and Puck had an intense staring competition while Isla jumped on top of Mike claiming she'd prefer him as a brother... there was a brief mention of Artie's 13 year old sister who I think I wrote as a lesbian (I'm not too sure myself) because she was hanging onto Marcia (Karofsky's sister) who only showed up cause she was hanging out with Brittany and Santana when Artie texted them... and... ugh! I skipped the barbeque because I really wanted just to get to this which I've planned for a while Hope you all don't mind...
REVIEWS:
SpencerCollins, renonoelle, xnerdark: :D THANKS!
Mag721: Oh, it is...
Novice242: When you get to this chapter, shout out! And sorry about the crappy grammar and spelling you've had to deal with along the way...
Love Sarah 93: Updated :D and thanks, that's like the best compliment...
Chrpangel: Here, here, here! :D!!!!
HiN4-ch4n: Ah, don't worry about it... I was at the beach so I couldn't update :S...Hehehe... you're not the only one and NOT YET! SHUSH!!!
Richiey: Little Puckerman is cute... Secretly, she's my favourite... LoL
FREAKTONIGHT: Maybe... either that or she has a sugar stash somewhere...
Sil3ntSn0fall: Yeah, sleep sometimes sucks... LoL its another reason why this update came out late... thank you! I'm so glad everyone keeps saying that it's their fave Puckleberry, but really, I know there are heaps better... Read Break Free by Astralis... I'm in the middle at the moment... it's great.
Kknelson2002: Yeah, I feel like it broke it up... which is good because from here on in, whilst it's still angsty/hurt comfort it's a different sort... I feel...
personally... I don't know where I am going with this now, but I know where the story is going so (grins happily) yay!
Sweet CrAzY Citrus: Updated. Soon enough? (Yeah, I agree about the last chapter, but what's done is done...)
Ncar08: sorry for the absence of Puckleberry for two chappies... here is some more...
Um... part of this chapter is kind of dedicated to Alien09 and the story they wrote called 'According to You', my request... Cause I read it and was pulled out of my funk :D
About this chapter and the three to follows naming... I read Lord of the Rings again...
Puck and Finn woke up Monday morning, both boys a little happier with themselves. Finn managed to score a raise because on Sunday he managed to accomplish some work that the able bodied people couldn't (because he was still kind of pretending to be in a wheelchair, but as soon as everybody left to go grab some help, Finn stood up and adjusted the stand that had been falling over at the time) and the boss had let him off early so he could spend Sunday night with Quinn.
Puck on the other hand had gotten through the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday without thinking about his dad or mum and his sister seemed genuinely happy again with no tear fits about going home. Mainly it was because both the Puckerman siblings had spent all of Saturday night and the better part of Sunday with Rachel. Also, for Isla, she had all of the Glee club fawning over her as she chucked her hissy fit at Puck. Upon entering the house, she had launched herself into Mike's arms and proceeded to tell him just how awful Puck was.
Puck had just rolled his eyes and let her go because really, what choice had he had? Plus, she had kind of upping his badass rep by exclaiming just how much he hated the Jonas Brothers and how he would only sing their songs if she pretty much abused him. Puck even joined in and explained how one time she had wrapped herself around his leg and refused to let go until he downloaded tabs for one of their stupid songs.
By the end of the night, she had still been refusing to let Puck be her brother but when he said 'fine, I'm leaving you here with Artie' she started crying and latched onto Puck's leg again.
(In the car she said it was because she knew it would be unfair on Puck seeing as Artie already had a sister, Ronnie and a brother Toby... Puck just chose to swallow down his vomit because it dawned on him that he too had, had a sister and a brother at one stage).
It was when he was walking past Rachel's locker, did his stomach twist slightly. Because while the two had both opened up to the fact they were taken to other people but not that they were taken with each other.
(Puck received over one-hundred messages on his email alone when he changed his relationship status on facebook and when he opened his messenger account he'd received over fifty-instant messages of webcam girls** he knew well, basically begging him to tell him he was lying. Rachel had reported that she changed her myspace profile too, receiving more jokes than boughts of depression from young male suitors. Her words, not his)
Puck kind of wondered what this meant. Because they weren't really together as anything more than what Quinn liked to call 'frenemies' in public.
Rachel wasn't there, at her locker, which wasn't weird seeing as the boys were an hour early for school. Cause they had to empty out their lockers because someone had left a sandwich in their locker and Tanaka said whatever grew out of it looked like a small tree so everyone had a locker inspection that afternoon.
They came with two massive bags, one sports bag and one for garbage. Then the two boys started yanking things out and throwing it into either the sports bag or the garbage one. Puck pulled out two empty boxes of condoms which he threw out without even the decency to be sheepish about it. Finn just rolled his eyes and threw out some plastic sheet thing that must've held something else in them once upon a time. "You know, Rachel ain't gonna do stuff like that."
"Stuff like what?" Puck asked, only mildly curious because he was inspecting the used by date on an orange juice popper he found in there. He didn't remember putting it in, which probably wasn't a good sign.
Finn reached into Puck's locker and pulled out the half-full packet. "Stuff like this. She ain't ready for that stuff."
"Firstly, how do you know?" Puck snatched the packet from Finn's hands. "Secondly, what does Rachel have to do with me?" He threw the box into the sports bag. "And thirdly, what does all of this have to do with you?"
Finn rolled his eyes. "I know because I know. Rachel isn't up for anything like that. I don't think she'd be ready for it."
"Whatever Doctor Phil. Second point?"
Finn rolled his eyes. "Quinn is about the only person who has a myspace left cause her parents still have facebook blocked. You two changed your statuses together."
Puck frowned. "Third point?"
"I'm both your friends. But if you fuck up, she's a chick dude and someone's gonna have to bash you on her behalf."
"Fair point." Puck reasoned. "Firstly, I know she ain't up to that shit. We ain't doing that kind of shit. I'm not gonna say she's special or anything, but she's different from other chicks and I don't actually want to fuck her up mentally cause I like her more than just for sex. Secondly, no one else knows, so like don't you and Quinn go spreading things around."
"And thirdly?" Finn asked kind of smugly. He had been going out a whim. Quinn had briefly mentioned that she had an idea that the two had hooked up but Puck just confirmed it for him.
"I already told you. Fair point. But aim for my right side cause the left is kind of my good side."
Finn punched Puck in the shoulder and laughed as he continued to empty out the change room locker. "Don't worry. Like I said, you're my friend too. Plus, Matt, Mike, Artie and Kurt will get through you after."
Puck sighed as he leafed through some book he'd chucked into his locker, probably before some long forgotten practice. "I don't fucking know if we're gonna tell anyone."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, like we didn't tell anyone we were going out last time." Puck found a cookie and sniffed it, deciding better of it and throwing it out. "Some people figured it out but there was nothing definitive."
"Definitive?"
"Means certain." Puck blinked a few times. "Whoa, too much time with Berry."
"Next you're gonna be belting out show tunes." Finn threw something unidentifiable out.
"If that ever happens you have full right to shoot me." Puck tidied up the deodorant cans and cologne he had in there that he got from his birthday the previous year. There was his spare jersey and jumper on the bottom and Puck was pretty sure it looked fine. "I'm done. Got the majority of crap out. You?"
Finn nodded, tossing an old pair of socks into the sports bag. "Yeah."
"No, no, dude..." Puck grabbed one of the many random plastic things he had found in his locker from the bin and used it to protect himself from Finn's yellowing and slightly stiff socks as he reached into the sports bag. "Bin." He tossed it in and looked kind of pleased with himself.
"Dude, they're my lucky socks."
"They're stale Finn. There is nothing lucky about them."
~*~
What Puck didn't know was that Rachel was having a similar internal debate with herself about the current status of her relationship with Puck. Was it an open relationship? Would he come and kiss her in front of everybody today? If he did, what was the proper protocol?
Rachel had seen him making out with many girls on many lockers and she'd seen all of them recuperate but she wasn't exactly a 'making out on a locker' type of girl. Although, whilst they had been together last time she had agreed to an assortment of closest and once the boys change rooms up against one of their lockers...
Maybe she was a 'making out on a locker' type of girl.
She shook herself out over her reverie and walked to the auditorium at school. It was quite normal for her to be at school this early and the janitor let her in to play the piano.
She played and played until it was almost time for homeroom and packed up to go get her things from her locker. It briefly caught her attention that along the walls of the school were some posters that hadn't been there before but Rachel didn't think much of it because she realised she'd played overtime and small distractions could cause her to run late.
But there was other things distracting her. People. Looking at her oddly. Well, odder than usual. Usually people didn't look at her at all or just gave her quick glares. This looking had humour in it. Not nice humour. Sick humour.
Rachel felt herself clutching her music sheets and files, closer to her chest. She looked down to her outfit to make sure there were no stains or rumples or anything that they could be laughing at. Self consciously, she touched her hair and ran a hand over her face.
She tried to ignore it and turned to her locker. There was one of those posters, plastered on it with sticky tape Rachel stared at it, a frown on her face. The frown deepened and then turned into shock. Rachel looked left, then right and dropped her music folders before running towards the music room before the tears could spill over.
But she didn't make it that far because someone caught her. She looked up and saw familiar blue eyes and blonde hair, plastered with an evil smirk. "Morning Rachel. Good day, isn't it?" then there was a rush of coldness and Rachel felt herself be slushied, face first, from above. The Tropical flavour not only tasted horrible, but slipped down the front of her shirt, soaking her instantly.
Rachel narrowed her eyes, pushing Markus back. "You're evil." she spat, tropical slushie flying. "And when I figure out just how you did this all of this..."
"You should be more careful with who you send your photos to." Markus said simply. "I mean, you know Jewfro is back at school this week and he's just got to make sure he doesn't come within spitting distance of you..."
Rachel knew this but she didn't know how everybody else knew. "Go away Markus." she tried to push past him but Markus stood still, grabbing Rachel's arm and pulling her closer.
"Tell Puckerman to back off." Markus hissed in her ear. "If the football team try getting back for this one, we'll just have to kick their asses again.
"You're unbelievable." Rachel said, pushing him back. "And vile, and disgusting and a horrible person."
"I don't care baby." Markus let her go and Rachel stubbled back to find someone else's arms wrap around her middle and move her behind them. She looked up at the last minute to see Matt standing in front of her.
"Do we have problem here, Wilson?" Matt asked, pushing Rachel further behind him where she stumbled into Mike's arms. He was careful to hold her where the sticky drink didn't cling to her. Not that Mike would touch that general area. Ever. "Cause if there is, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." he cracked his knuckles and Markus just chuckled.
"No problem, Heredia." Markus nodded his head and him and his flanking basketball jocks walked off.
Matt turned around to face Rachel, concern in his eyes. "You alright?" he asked.
Kurt came out of no where and swept Rachel out from in between Mike and Matt and took her straight to the music room, while Mercedes pushed past with Tina and Artie wheeling behind. Mike and Matt stared at each other, confused, and followed in after them. "Damage?" Kurt asked, and Rachel didn't know how to reply.
Tina, however, did. "Posters covering entire school and I don't think it was a smart idea to where pastels today, Rachel."
Rachel looked down at her pink t-shirt that was now orange and groaned. "How long until you strip them all down?" Kurt asked, then looked at Rachel. "And how long until we strip her down?"
Rachel squeaked and clutched her top. "Kurt!"
"Brittany, Santana and surprisingly, Marcia Karofsky, have almost finished half." Tina said, ignoring Rachel.
Kurt snapped his fingers. "Artie, Tina, go. Finish the rest. Anyone on Puck-watch?"
"P-Puck watch?" Rachel stuttered out.
Artie rolled his eyes. "He butchered Markus last time for slushieing you. Imagine what he's gonna do now that you're going out?"
"What?" Rachel squealed. "How do you know that?!"
"Quinn." Everyone answered, except for Matt and Mike, who were both kind of peeved. Not because of the fact they didn't know, but because they knew the whole story while Rachel didn't.
"How does Quinn know?" Rachel panicked. Maybe no one else was supposed to know. Her and Puck hadn't talked about this much.
"You both changed your relationship status and sent each other flirty smiles all night on Saturday." Kurt rolled his eyes, clapping his hands in front of Rachel's face. "Keep up with the times, we all were pushing you two together anyway. It was very Beauty and the Beast and we were the servants turned silverware who pushed you two together."
"I'll go find Mohawk and make sure he doesn't kill." Mercedes said then paused at the door. "But it would be kind of cool if he did kill..."
"Go Mercedes." Kurt ordered and Mercedes rolled her eyes and followed direction.
~*~
Puck and Finn thought that seeing as they had half an hour before school, they'd dump their bags in Puck's truck and run out to 7/11. They got some dip and chips for lunch and two large slushies for then and there.
They decided to get extra dip and chip for the guys back at school because there was meatloaf surprise for lunch that dad and god only knew what the surprise was. They got back to school a bit after homeroom, not really caring much that they were late, and saw bunches of people gathered around, whispering and gossiping. "Dude, sometimes I wonder if we're at a school or in a knitting club." Puck shook his head. "This school has more freaking spiel than the Vagina club show."
"You mean The View?" Finn offered.
Puck looked at him seriously. "That's what I said, dude."
Finn just shrugged his shoulders and followed Puck inside the school. He saw Santana and Brittany clawing things off of the wall at the end of the hallway and Quinn yanking papers out of someone's hand. "Is it that time of the month or anything?" Puck asked.
"Can't be. Apparently Quinn doesn't get them anymore."
"Doesn't stop her from being hormonal."
"True." Finn flinched as he remembered one of her more recent spats about pickles on her pizza. Pickles! As if it wasn't enough they had to ruin a perfectly good Quarter-pounder...
Puck looked at the closest locker and saw something stuck to it. He blinked once. Twice. Three times.
The picture he saw in front of him didn't disappear. Jacob Ben-Israel's photos were posted up. On the walls. Back, to cause more trouble. He looked to his left, then his right and everyone was whispering, laughing, pointing at the photos.
Slowly, the anger bubbled under the surface and he felt his muscles clenching, one by one, ready for a fight. Rachel. They did this to her again. Why this time? Who was it this time?
He stalked down the hall, down to Quinn, Brittany and Santana who were all frozen, seeing him look a bit more crazy than usual. "Who was it?" he growled when he was about three meters away from them, so half the hallway heard too.
Quinn and Santana shook their heads and Brittany shuffled through the papers in her hand. "I don't know who it was, but I found this on your locker." She stuck out a piece of paper with messy handwriting on it.
"Brittany!" Quinn and Santana scolded together, snatching the paper and subsequently ripping it in two.
Puck stuck out his hand. "Give it to me, now."
Santana shook her head. "Not until you throw that slushie over your head and calm the fuck down. Cause we're only going through this hell," she waved the full coloured posters they'd pulled from around the place, "So you don't erupt like a large zit on a freshman's face."
"I will erupt on you if you don't fucking hand me that shit now." Puck reached forward and snatched the paper out of Quinn's hand and then went for Santana's. She pulled away from him but then Puck gave her a pointed look and she relented, handing it over.
Wat u goin 2 do bout ur gf being poster-girled? Love from the Basketball team
Puck growled and was about to punch the lockers when Finn grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms underneath Puck's and resting his own hands behind Puck's head so Puck's arms were up in the air. "Chill out." Finn told him.
"Get off me!" Puck yelled, yanking down and out of Finn's grip. "You see these?" he yelled, grabbing some of the papers off of Brittany and shoving them in front of Finn's face.
Finn just pushed Puck's hand aside. "Chill out." he repeated. "Now."
"What's wrong Puckerman?" Puck turned his head to see Markus standing with his basketball friends, his eyebrows raised. "You like the photos? I kind of do. Especially the pink lacy..." Puck darted for Markus but Finn grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. "Oh... so you don't like it when I talk about Rachel, do you?"
"Remember when you said you and Rach didn't know where you stood? By reacting, you're fucking that up further." Finn whispered into his ear.
When did Finn become smart?
Puck narrowed his eyes and breathed deeply. "No. I just think the red one looks better." and with that Puck turned on his heel and marched out of there, angrier than ever. He went straight for the only place he knew Rachel would be.
And when he walked into the choir room to see Rachel leaning on Matt covered in slushie; well you didn't need to be a genius to figure out that he got more freaking angry. "What the fuck?!" he yelled out but Rachel darted out of Matt's arms and shot across the room, hurtling into him.
"You didn't kill him, did you? Because it would be terrible if you went to jail now and whilst I know it would be for good reasons and whilst I would still maintain my relationship with you, it would be hard to convince my fathers for me to visit you in prison and I'm not quite sure what the rules of juvenile detention are, but there would be a large chance they'd send you to an adult prison and..."
"Rachel!" Puck put his hand over her mouth, her rant sapping all the anger out of him. "I didn't kill anyone, okay? You can thank Finn for that."
Finn trudged in behind, holding the rest of the posters in his hand, Quinn, Santana and Brittany next to him. "Got the last of them." he said, dropping the sheets into the bin. "Rachel, you're slushied."
Rachel nodded sadly. "Yes, well Kurt has gone to bring some clothes from my locker."
Puck stroked her hair gently and felt himself rocking. "I'm so sorry Rach. This is cause of me, not you."
"It started out as being about me, Noah." Rachel sighed, looking down to the ground. In the room was Mike, Matt, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Finn, Tina and Artie, all of whom looked seriously uncomfortable. Mercedes and Kurt barged in and then froze, the room feeling more awkward.
Everyone knew but at the same time, everybody didn't. Rachel swallowed and pushed herself out of Puck's arms. "I'm going to go get changed. I will see you later and thank you very much to all of you for helping me with my problems, it's very kind of you all but from here on in I think I have it covered."
Rachel walked over to Kurt and took her bag off of him and left the room quietly. Puck cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. "Excuse me." he walked out of the room, but headed to the weights room instead of Rachel because he seriously needed to blow of some steam.
**There are girls at my school in the younger grades (freaky as hell, cause some of them are eleven and twelve) who we called 'webcam girls'... they're basically girls who sit in front of their webcams in bras and knickers and some of them go further which is really fucked up... I don't support it but I do know it exists...
REVIEWS:
Avidreader90: Yeah, I'm interested too... I feel like this story is a sandwich. I know how it starts (with bread) and I know how it finishes (more bread) but I'm trying to figure out the middle (the filling). Because things need to be in between so this isn't two slices of bread stuck together... This sandwich is gonna be like... a BLT.
JustAmazing: Hahaha! I'm seeing him 2morrow... at the beach again...hehehe... Planning. No, there was something better than Glitter... attention... Isla is sort of a mix of my three little cousins (all hyper crazy boys) and what I've been told I was like as a kid (easily distracted by shiny objects) Puck ain't going back home... give it some chapters... LoL... I became a list person for this story...
Diva(dot)divine: YES IT'S EVIL!!! It's horrible! Bush? Why would you do that? I go out to farm country and I need an intense bath... I'm not very outdoorsy, although at camp I'm the one that made my friends go on a bush hike and when we got lost, I'm the one who figured out where we were using bearings and all this stuff I never really knew I knew... I figured I only knew it because I like reading comics and books where they usually explain that sort of thing...
Ch3lsBishop: Eww... Yeah, I found a photo on facebook of me hyped up on V and I put my hair in pigtails... but I don't remember doing that... ever...
Karma22: Yes. It's horrible. In a green can. It's... it's HORRIBLE! But yeah, I had four cans in one night... didn't sleep for thirty-nine hours... then ended up collapsing on stage, crying myself to sleep... (shakes head) I'm never gonna get over that... My life is stuck in permanent confusion... you'll get used to it after a while...
Alimard: Yay! I never saw it like that... If you like that, just hang around ;) Cause I got another one... at the end though... I always write endings first... then adjust them as I go along...
Belove: at first it was supposed to be 20... then I planned until the end of Summer Holidays (aka 28th of Jan), now I'm planning end of Summer full stop... I don't know... really, it started out as an iPod challenge and look where it bloody got me? I haven't touched my religion homework and Finnegan ain't gonna be happy about that... but then again that woman is never happy...
QUESTION:
Hey, on a serious note... I'm thinking about (okay determined to) go to America for University... If I was to stay in Australia, I was going to do a BA majoring in psychology/philosophy/literature OR go do a Dramatic Arts course at NIDA or something... I have three passions that are equal to each other, Drama, Music and Writing... I wouldn't ever do a Music course though simply for the fact that I suck at music theory (I can't name a note by hearing nor can I tell whether something is a third or a fifth... I failed music theory) I was just going to ask what the equivalent in America are to those two courses and/or where would be the best place to go... I love the East Coast of America (simply because it's the furthest away from my psychotically loving family... I do love them but they drive me nuts) plus I'm not a big summer fan... I can only take the heat in small doses... but like, I also love California (San Francisco and Sacramento) and I've always had a secret desire (not so secret, all my friends and family know... fuck it, my teachers and people I haven't even met know because I wearing a tragedy/comedy masks necklace everyday of the freaking week) to be an actress, cause I'm a better actress than writer (I don't care what these new 'proper terms' say, I'm not a bra burning feminist, I like my doors being opened for me, I like going first, but yeah I kind of like the equal wages too.... BUT I REFUSE TO USE THE TERM ACTOR BECAUSE I'M NOT A DUDE!)
I've gone off on one of my rants... I was just wondering what universities/colleges there are in America that are good, offer overseas students and have an arts program...
Review please! When I hit 400 reviews, I'm gonna write a small one-shot based off of this about which ever characters my 400th reviewer asks for (Outside of Puck/Rachel and can be any of my own(ish) characters aka Marcia, Isla, Josef, Deborah, Carol, my version of Karofsky... I think that's all of them) So yeah... GO!