A/N: This is a really short chapter, sorry! But I'm starting the next one right now because I am leaving for two theatre conferences next week and won't be able to update. Hope you enjoy! Chapter 5 should be up very soon. This is another unbeta'd chapter, so again excuse grammatical errors please.
The next day at rehearsal, Quinn set her plan into action. She knew her first order of business would have to be to apologize. She had been putting it off, though. High as the stakes were, she just couldn't bring herself to apologize to Man Hands, for goodness sake.
The opportunity soon arose, however, during a fifteen minute break. Quinn swallowed her pride and approached the shorter girl, who was drinking from her water bottle thirstily in the corner of the room. Quinn could see the muscles in her exposed throat moving under tanned skin as she swallowed.
"Rachel..." she trailed off. Now what?
"Quinn." Rachel said coldly.
"Listen," Quinn paused and licked her lips nervously. She watched Rachel's eyes widen slightly and follow her tongue's path. Huh.
"You were right, yesterday," Quinn began again, "What you said about us being similar. I'm just…" Quinn paused, "I've just been having a rough time lately. I'm sorry for what I said." The rest of her breath left her in a rush.
Rachel paused a moment, considering her with her head cocked to the side.
"Thank you, Quinn, I accept your apology." The two of them stood awkwardly, Rachel looking at Quinn and Quinn looking at the ground, for a few seconds before Quinn decided to up the ante.
"You sounded good just now," she said, gesturing to the middle of the room where the shorter girl had recently been singing.
"Thank you, Quinn. I believe Jason Robert Brown's music compliments many young singers' voices. Although I love Songs for a New World, I have a soft spot for The Last Five Years, myself."
Quinn blinked and nodded slowly, then tried to smile like she knew exactly what Rachel was talking about. Luckily, Jason called them back at that moment.
After the break, the director decided to let Rachel try one of the older woman's songs for fun. Tiffany played the intro, and Rachel took her place in the center of the room.
Quinn couldn't deny that Rachel had a beautiful voice. When she heard her sing, it made her feel lightheaded and a little dizzy. In fact, and Quinn would never admit this to anyone, when Rachel sang she felt a stirring she had rarely felt with Puck and never with Finn. It made her hate the brunette even more, that she unwittingly held this power over her.
"I'll give you stars and the moon and the open highway
and a river beneath your feet.
I'll give you days full of dreams if you travel my way
and a summer you can't repeat.
I'll give you nights full of passion and days of adventure;
no strings, just warm summer rain."
The song wasn't really written for Rachel's normal vocal part, but even so she carried it off beautifully. Quinn couldn't help but notice how intently Rachel was staring at her. Quinn felt her cheeks flame in embarrassment and confusion and dropped her head, pretending to follow along with the lyrics printed in the script. The song mercifully ended, and Quinn exhaled quickly, causing Jason to eye her curiously before calling everyone to move on to the next song.
Once rehearsal was over, Jason called everyone together to make announcements.
"This weekend we will have our first work call to build the set. We ask that everyone come out and lend a hand in some small way. Sonya, our costumer, will be here to take measurements and Quinn will be scheduling you all for specific time slots throughout the day. We start at eleven on Saturday morning, so please be on time. We want to make good use of the day. Great rehearsal, everyone!"
There was a light smattering of applause as everyone collected their things. Since rehearsal had run slightly overtime, Rachel was rushing out the door in order to begin her nightly beauty regimen on time. Quinn helped Jason put chairs away and tidy up the room as everyone left, calling their goodbyes over their shoulders.
"I saw you speaking to Rachel during the break," Jason said cautiously, stacking a chair in the corner. Quinn shrugged noncommittally.
"That's good, I'm glad you are over whatever was wrong between you yesterday," Jason said, eyeing her again. Quinn turned away from him to shuffle some boxes of props into a better arrangement and didn't answer. There was a pause, then, "She's an amazing singer, isn't she?"
Quinn made a face at the yellowed wall in front of her. So he did notice her distress earlier. Great, Quinn mused internally before turning to face him.
"Sure is. Are we done?" She finally responded.
Jason nodded and she stalked out of the room, but didn't miss the smirk on his face. Once safe in her car, she again rested her head against the steering wheel and let out the groan of misery that had been building for the past couple of hours. And I thought this would distract me from my problems, she thought, turning the key in the ignition and steering the car toward home.