Finn Hudson was worried. He was aware he shouldn't be. It wasn't like it was two years ago, when he still had absolutely no forseeable future lined up for him. Compared to two years ago, Finn definitely carried a lighter weight on his shoulders (Although two years ago, he didn't even realizie there was a weight on his back). He was going to college for one thing, which he had thought was impossible once. And he actually had a shot of shaking off his Lima Loser status now, which was something he'd been deathly afraid of his whole life, practically. But he couldn't help it. Finn Hudson was apprehensive.

It was all Puck's fault. If Finn had a dime for every crap that shot out of his bestfriend's mouth he'd be- well. A hell of a whole lot richer than he actually was, that was for sure. Admittedly, he used to fall for them pretty easy. Rachel said he was gullible, like that yellow fish in The Little Mermaid (Don't even ask him how that came up. He was too busy staring at Rachel's boobs and the way the thin material of her shirt clung to them in the rain. Okay, so maybe tagging along with Puck on his spy mission to scope out Quinn's new guy had been a stupid thing to do, especially since Puck essentially drove his car straight into a tree when he thought he saw the girl looking in the rearview mirror. Dude missed the dirt road by about six feet to the left. He totally had a bump on his head the size of a fist when it had hit the dashboard. But it ended with Rachel driving a good twenty miles to get to him, and forgetting her little pink, sparkly raincoat in all that worry. Hence, the shirt clinging to boobs thing, which was totally awesome. Except for the fact that Puck was around. But the jackass was totally concussed so it didn't really matter.).

He got better at deflecting his friend's crazy schemes though, and he was less inclined to believe Puck's bullshit these days. But seriously, the dude had a legitimate point. Finn wasn't so sure about the statistics thing, because if it happened to fifty percent of the graduating class, wouldn't there be some sort of warning about it already? Like maybe, Throwing Graduation Caps in the Air Might Cause Serious Head Trauma? But he could see the dude's point. The longer he thought about it, the more he realized that he was going to get into a freak accident that would poke his eye out.

Finn was a clumsy dude, yeah. But he was also really, really unlucky when it came to things like this. Half of the stuff that happened to him, he didn't even think could happen to any other normal human being. Who else could bite into a cookie and have a small crumb fly up into his eye and almost blind him? If those Final Destination flicks were real life, he'd totally be one of the dudes that got snuffed out by dental floss or whatever.

So yeah, Finn Hudson was worried. Because Puck told him that every year, when those graduating suckers throw their caps happily into the air, it would hit someone in the face and cause serious damage.

"Know Greg Robertson? He went to college with an eyepatch. Swear to God and my mom's kosher burgers, they called him The Dead Pirate Robertson for a whole year." Yeah. There was no way Finn could ever rock an eyepatch.

Rachel told him he was being ridiculous. They were in her room and he was sitting on the edge of her bed while she stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. She said the ritual of throwing your graduation cap into the air signified your freedom from high school and the carefree attitude with which to approach all the new possibilities that life could offer. She went on to tell him that to not do so was a blasphemy and a sacrilege to all that is holy about high school graduations. Well, he'd rather blasphere (blaspheme? Blasphemere? Whatever.) and sacrilege the life out of it than end up with an eyepatch, thank you very much.

"Are you sure we're really talking about graduation?" she had asked gently as she stood in between his legs and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Uh, yeah?" He was sure they had repeated that word like a million times in the past hour. Rachel really needed to get with the program. She sat on his right leg and stared at him apprehensively.

"Are you sure you're not projecting Finn?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, confused.

"Well what I'm trying to say is that I know graduation is coming really soon, and that after this, things are going to change. We'll be going to college in different states, and we'll be meeting new people, live a completely new and as of yet unknown life. I'm just wondering if maybe you're channeling all of your worries and doubts into this issue of graduation caps." Finn stared at his girlfriend like she just spoke in French. How in the world did she get all that out of anything he had been saying?

"Rach," he said slowly. "I'm pretty sure I'm just talking about those graduating caps being dangerous little mofos." She rolled her eyes and sighed like she didn't believe him. Seriously. He wasn't even thinking about all the things she said. He didn't like the thought of thinking about it so he just avoided doing it. Because thinking about life after graduation meant thinking about leaving not only home, (Which he had been dying to do ever since he realized that Lima was basically Loser Central.) but also Rachel (Which he didn't really want to do. Like, ever.).

Okay so he had thought about it a little bit. It was all Puck's fault again. If he hadn't told him about those graduating caps poking people's eye out, he wouldn't be thinking about eyepatches that had led him to thinking about all of his accidents in his life. And how those accidents stopped being so bad once Rachel was around, and she would bake him her awesome banana bread so he'd get better soon. And thinking about Rachel's banana bread made him think about those super amazing Double chocolate, chocolate chip cookies that she makes just for him because she knew how much he loved chocolate even though she kept telling him how all that fat was clogging up his arteries (But she makes them for him anyway).

And then that had made him think of how when they're both in colleges that were eight hours apart, he wouldn't be able to smell her banana bread first thing when he wakes up from a concussion or how his arteries would stop being clogged up by all that chocolatey goodness because Rachel wouldn't be around. And that would make him think about how he wouldn't be able to just see her anytime he wanted to and he'd think about that time the year before, when she went for that art's program in New York for a whole month and he was totally miserable without her. And that was the point where he just forced himself to stop thinking about it.

Whatever. That so wasn't the point. The point was that graduation caps were dangerous suckers and that he wasn't throwing his in the air for anything.

So when graduation day finally arrived, while Suzy Pepper gave her Valedictorian speech (That Suzy Pepper was a really weird chick. But she must be super smart or something, because Rachel was pretty damn smart and she totally beat her for the Valedictorian post. Which, Rachel was still totally PMS-ing over, by the way.), Finn decided that he was totally going to keep his head down when the time came.

So when the time did come and he was in the middle of all his classmates, his hand firmly grasping Rachel's so that they wouldn't get torn apart in the shuffle, he had kept his eyes firmly trained on the ground while everyone else around him was whooping and yelling and as a rain of mortarboards fell around his feet. He felt Rachel's hand trembling with excitement the whole time and grinned to himself. That girl was just a whole bundle of perkiness. He didn't look up until Rachel had tugged on his hand.

"You're safe now," she told him, her voice amused. "All caps have landed." Gingerly, Finn had looked up and gave her his best lopsided grin. Rachel was smiling up at him, her hair matted flat against her forhead. He ruffled them playfully and she slapped his hand away with a mocking sigh.

"We've got our diplomas," he told her.

"Yes we have," she answered, the little hitch in the casual tone of her voice betraying her giddiness.

"High school can go suck it!"

"Finn!"

Apparently there had been no catastrophe. No eye had been poked out in the event of the cap throwing. Puck really needed to work on his data collecting skills. They made their way over to their group of friends, Rachel running towards Tina, finally unleashing all her pent up squealing. He fist-bumped Artie and stood next to a smirking Puck.

"You fell for it, didn't ya?"

"Whatever," Finn muttered. Who's to say it woudn't have been his eye that would have gotten reamed if he had looked up?

"Okay beautiful people, line up!" Kurt yelled as he shoved a camera into Burt's hand. "Dad take a picture of us!"

"Of course," Burt answered sarcastically at his son who was already taking his place in between Mercedes and Quinn.

"How about a reenactment of the best part of graduation? Throw those little suckers into the air for effect. Mortarboards. I meant mortarboards," he amended when Finn's mom pinched his shoulder. Finn stifled a groan. Not again. Was he never going to get out of this graduation unscathed? Rachel giggled next to him and he glared at her.

"You think getting my eye poked out is funny huh?" he mumbled under his breath as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in closer.

"You're being ridiculous Finn," she whispered back in amusement. "Nothing's going to happen. Hundreds of caps just sailed through the air not ten minutes ago and everyone is perfectly safe. Come one baby, you don't want to miss this and regret it for the rest of your life. This practice is an essential rite of passage in the American way of life!" He stared at her doubtfully as Rachel looked up at him with those huge brown eyes, batting her eyelashes for full effect. Finn sighed.

"Fine. But if I lose my eye and people start calling me Dead Pirate Hudson, it's all on you."

"I'll be your caretaker for life," she promised.

"Geez would you two stop it with your vomit-inducing cuteness?" Mercedes called out. "We're all waiting here!"

Damn Rachel Berry and her ability to make him do things he didn't want to.

"One!" He grabbed the tip of his mortarboard.

"Two!"Rachel squeezed his hand tightly as he pulled it off his head.

"Three!" He threw it into the air and grinned at the camera. He had thrown the cap behind him, just in case. He knew there was no one there. He checked. He heard a yelp and Rachel yanked her hand out of his grip as the flash blinded his eyes.

Finn turned to see Rachel with her hands over her face, screaming a surprising string of expletives that both alarmed him and turned him on at the same time.

"Rach? Babe?" he called worriedly as he he gently grabbed her wrists. Everybody else was crowding around them, all staring at Rachel in surprise. "Are you okay?" She mumbled something incoherent, her hands firmly gripping half her face no matter how hard he pulled. Finn vaguely heard "Stupid" and "My freaking eye" before he put two and two together and his eyes widened. Finn looked down at the ominous graduation cap on on the ground next to her feet. He knew those things were evil.

"Baby," he said soothingly as Rachel continued her inchorent tirade. "You need to let me see your face. C'mon, let me look at it." He felt her hands slacken and gently pulled them down by the wrists.

The whole group had gasped simultaneously (They were nothing if not well choreographed). Finn winced and hissed under his breath as he saw the angry red swells around her left eye. Tears were streaming down Rachel's face and he knew she was completely humiliated by the fact that everyone was around.

"Girl, you need to see a doctor," Mercedes said in a low voice. Rachel sniffled in agreement.

"Make way guys," he ordered as Burt tossed him the car keys. Finn wrapped one hand around her shoulder and led her towards his car. He wondered where her parents went, but figured he probably didn't have time to look for them. He sped to the clinic as quickly as he could because the moment they Rachel stepped into the car, she had been a blubbering mess and it made him nervous because she looked like she was in real pain and there was nothing he could do about it.

An image of Rachel with an eyepatch popped up in his head, and he had to bite the insides of his mouth to keep from laughing.

Turned out Rachel didn't need an eyepatch after all. She had been hit by the edge of the cap, but it had nailed her temple, just a few inches away from her eye so she was safe. But there was going to be a nasty bruise there for a while. The doctor had told them that she just needed to ice it so he brought her home where her daddy had frantically grabbed a bag of peas and shoved it in her hands. Hiram made her promise to keep that thing on her face for at least another thirty minutes. Finn was pretty sure that he was being a little too dramatic but he kept his trap shut.

So there he was, sitting next to Rachel on the bed as she laid there morosely, gently holding the bag of frozen peas over her eyes.

"I can't believe this is happening," she grumbled and crossed her arms angrily. He grinned.

"It's okay baby," he said soothingly as he brushed back her hair with his other hand.

"We have dinner tomorrow night. I'm going to look ridiculous!"

"It's just a little bruise."

"Finn, people are going to think that we're in an abusive relationship." Good point.

"Well," he said slowly. "You could always wear an eyepatch." She glared at him with her good eye and winced in pain.

"I'm kidding."

"It's not funny." He glanced at the clock on her wall.

"Thirty minute's up," he announced as he pulled the bag away.

"How bad is it?" she asked sadly. The swelling had gone down, but her eye was squinting a little and he could already see the bruise start to purple. She looked a little pathetic, to be honest.

"You'll live," he announced instead, as he planted a soft kiss carefully on her cheek.

"Lie down with me?" she requested hopefully.

"Uh I don't know Rachel. Your dad's kinda downstairs-"

"Please?" What the heck.

"Move over." She beamed at him, the swollen eye falling into a slit, as she scooted a little to the left to give him space. He took off his shoes and the tie he had loosened earlier before he laid down next to her. Rachel lifted her head as he slid his arm under it and dropped it on her shoulder. They laid quietly side by side for minutes. Just as he was about to sleep, Finn felt her move against him.

"Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"It'll be okay. Right?" Somehow he knew she was talking about more than just that bruise on her eye. This was about them. And he really didn't know. But he hoped. And hope was the next best thing, right?

"Yeah Rach," he whispered as he tightened his hold around her. "We'll be okay."