A/N: Once again, I just want to say, this story has no beta, so any mistakes are mine and I apologize in advance. Also, thank you for the lovely reviews so far, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one enjoying Aly.
"Hey, Baby Girl, what took you so long?" Puck asked when Aly finally made it to their table and sat down.
"Ran into Quinn in the hall," she answered setting her bag on the floor next to her chair and pulling out her lunch. Everyone at the table went quiet, Mike looked concerned, but Puck was simply waiting for her to continue. "She didn't seem to believe the story I told in glee, so I had to give her a little more proof. I honestly thought when she heard my name and then saw us together she'd be able to figure out who I was, but she really had no idea. I get that you never mention me, but she lived with you, did your mom and Becca really not say anything about me the entire time? And she never asked about all the pictures?"
He just laughs and shakes his head a little, "I think she did ask once who the girl in the photos was, Becca told her 'family' and left it at that. Becs doesn't like Quinn, like at all, so there was no way she was gonna bother explaining who you really were, she spent as little time around Quinn as possible. And I don't know what Ma's deal was, but whenever you were mentioned she'd refer to you as Amanda. I think she just did it cause she knew it pissed me off."
Mike and Aly glanced at each other and both started laughing so hard they were crying, Puck was mumbling curses under his breath and Tina and Artie were looking more confused than ever. Brittany, of course, was off in her own world.
"Wait," Tina said once Mike and Aly had calmed down enough to hear her, "why Amanda?"
"Cause thats her real name." Mike said as if that explained everything instead of just confusing them further.
"When I was little, like super little, everyone called me Mandy, which I hated. I am so not a Mandy. So when I was 5 or 6 I finally told them all to stop, no one was allowed to call me that anymore. But I didn't really like Amanda either, and there was a kid in our kindergarden class that went by his initials, PJ or something like that. I figured if he could do that then so could I, but my first two initials were A. L., which actually spelled a name. I told everyone they had to call me Al or I wouldn't respond. It turned into to Aly because someone," she turns to glare at Puck, "said that Al was a boy's name and there 'ain't no way I'ma let you have a boy name'. I'm pretty sure my parents only went along with it because they thought it would last a week and I'd forget about it, but it stuck, for the most part."
"Still think it's stupid," Puck grumbles.
"Right, and Puck is just the coolest name ever," Aly threw back bumping her shoulder against his lightly. "He still refuses to call me Aly, and it's funny that Mrs. P was calling me Amanda, because no one has ever called me that except Puck, and he only does that when he's super pissed at me."
"Then what does Puck call you?" Artie asked.
"Baby Girl," Brittany said matter-of-factly shrugging when she realized everyone was staring at her. "The was he said it when she sat down was like it was her name, not an endowment."
"Endearment. She meant endearment." Artie said.
"Well, she's right," Aly said surprised. "No one's ever picked up on that before. Anyway, enough about me, I feel like thats all I've been talking about all day. Tell me more about the game tonight. Why are the girls playing? I'm sure Rachel explained it to me on the phone the other night, but she had been rambling for a while and I think I blocked most of it out."
The rest of the day passed without incident, though she did catch Santana shooting her dirty looks a few times. This didn't really concern her much; from what Aly had been told of Santana she seemed to merely be a female version of Puck. Assuming Santana could get over the delusion that she held some claim to Puck, Aly was sure they would end up being good friends. But those were thoughts for another day, now she was at the piano in the choir room working on a melody that had popped into her head during Spanish, and waiting for Kurt to meet her so they could head out to the game together.
Meeting Kurt had been something of happy accident. During one of her visits last spring she and Puck had taken Becca out to Breadstix and unexpectedly run into the Hudson-Hummel clan on one of their family dinner nights. Aly had tried to slip past their table without being noticed, but Carol saw her and called out to her before she had a chance to get away. She had spent quite a bit of time with Kurt that visit, explaining everything and asking him not to mention it to anyone else and they had been friends ever since.
When Aly heard that Kurt was going to be at the game that night, and that he was bringing his hot new friend Blaine, she stole Puck's phone and sent Kurt a text telling him that he needed to go to the choir room before the game. Now all she had to do was wait.
"What exactly did Puck leave for you?" Aly heard an unfamiliar voice ask.
"Who knows, it could be anything. Chances are Aly sent something for me and he didn't want to be seen giving me whatever it is," Kurt replied opening the door to the choir room and stopping dead in his tracks.
"He'd never actually give me to you, but he might loan me out for a while," Aly said, her back to the door as she hit a few keys on the piano then scribbled down a string of notes on her semi-blank sheet music. Setting down her pencil she spun around on the bench to face them with a smirk on her face, "Surprise! Come the rest of the way into room and introduce me to your attractive new friend."
Kurt choked on a laugh and did as he was told, "Aly Grey, this is Blaine Anderson. Blaine, Aly."
"Right, Puck's pseudo girlfriend. I've heard a lot about you," Blaine nodded.
"Puck's pseudo- What have you been telling him?" Aly asked amused, but Kurt was looking anywhere but at her. "You know he'd kill you if he knew you squealed. Not that it matters much now. And to set the record straight, I'm his actual girlfriend, theres nothing pseudo about it."
That got Kurt to look at her again, "Really? But...that means...you moved back! When?"
"Last night. I'll tell you all about it later, but let's head outside, I hear the halftime show is going to be awesome and I want good seats."
The halftime show was amazing, but the best part was the rest of the football team showing up for the second half. The girls stepped in to take over for the Cheerios who were on their way to a competition, and the team had miraculously managed to win the game; the first championship win for Mckinley High ever. Santana had announced that the after party would be at her house and Aly was waiting next to Puck's truck with Kurt, Blaine, and Rachel for the boys to emerge from the locker room. It had taken some convincing and Aly promising to be Kurt's personal body guard-
Blaine was skeptical at first, "I'm not sure you could actually stop Karofsky if he tried something."
"Do you really think Puck would be OK with me living so far away and not being able to protect myself from guys like Karofsky and Azimio? I've been kick boxing since I was nine. Puck said that if he wasn't around to hand out black eyes for me I needed to be able to do it myself. Trust me, if Dave tries anything, I'll be able to handle it."
-but Kurt had finally agreed to go to the party. Ten minutes later the team finally started to stream out still hooting and hollering about the game. When Puck reached them he threw his bag into the bed of his truck, grabbed Aly around the waist lifting her off the ground and spun around and around causing the group around them to laugh. "We won! Did you see that, Babe, I was fuckin' awesome!"
"Yes, I saw, and I'm so proud of you," She said smiling once he stopped spinning around. Her phone started to ring then and she pecked him quickly on the lips before saying, "Can you put me down now, Noah?" Her feet touched the ground again, but Puck's arms stayed around her as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "It's your mother," she said looking at the screen before answering the call, "Hey, Ma, what's up?... Yeah, we won!... mmhmm, yeah, he's right here... Ok, I'll tell him." Aly pulled the phone from her ear and looked up into Puck's face, "She says you're a putz, and I'm too good for you, and it's 9:30 and someone is asking specifically for you." He made a face when she tried to hand him the phone, "Oh come on, Noah. It'll take like three minutes, we'll wait, and I promise I'll do it tomorrow."
Taking the phone from her, he held it up to his ear as he started to walk away from their group, "Alright Ma, put her on..."
"Becca?" Rachel asked.
Aly nodded, and seeing the confusion on Blaine and Kurt's faces explained, "Becca won't sleep unless she hears her song, Rebecca Lynn, it's an old country song. Anyway, Puck usually sings it to her every night, if he's out they call me and I sing it to her over the phone, but tonight calling me meant finding him, and she was asking for him."
"That's actually really sweet," Kurt said.
"Yeah, but he doesn't think so, so don't let him know I told you or I'll get an ear full later."