"San. Who'd we get?" Quinn asked, raising her eyebrows, waiting for Santana to read what names were written on the slip of paper.
"What? Oh." Santana looked down at the folded paper in her hands. She opened it slowly, and didn't even have to look for more than a second to see who it was. She looked directly up at Quinn and said, "Rachel and Brittany."
"Fate does have a major sense of humor," Kurt said as he slowly flipped his hair and crossed his right leg over his left.
Santana turned around to look at him for a brief moment before walking back to her seat. "Does, doesn't it? That's all that needs to be said about that." She took a few steps before she looked back to see Quinn still standing at the piano. She turned back around, walked to the piano again, and grabbed Quinn by the wrist. "Earth to Q."
Quinn looked at Santana, and took a deep breath, composing herself. "Sorry," she replied as she let Santana drag her back to her seat. Halfway there, she yanked her arm out of Santana's grip.
"It's not that bad you have to sing to me is it?" Rachel asked, her eyes following Quinn as she walked up a stair next to her.
"No, they'll have fun," Lauren joked. "There are lots of songs about annoying people I'm sure."
Quinn had just made it to her seat, but was still standing in front of it, facing Lauren. "Shut up, Zizes."
"Whoa ho, Fabray," Puck said loudly. "What bit your ass? It was funny."
Quinn turned to look at Puck, giving him a look of annoyance. "No, it wasn't and you can shut up, too, Puck."
"Talk about being defensive over her 'friend'," Finn commented bitterly.
Before Quinn could turn around to respond, Santana did. "Why are you even talking to Q or about Berry? Neither one of their names should be leaving your mouth."
Finn cocked his head, not turning around. "Why can't I say anything to them?"
"Because Finney," Santana said, "You've never done right by either of them. You're douchey, and now that they are both finally away from you, they shouldn't have to listen to you speak."
He turned in his seat slightly so he could see her. "How are you any different?"
"Because I never dated them, and you're an ass because you played with their hearts. And while I'm a bitch, that's because that's me, honey. I speak the truth." She leaned back in her chair when she was finished.
"So," Sam started, turning everyone's attention away from Santana and Finn, "No annoying song for Rachel then?"
"No, Brittany is her partner. Santana wouldn't sing her something like that," Artie answered without much tone.
Sam turned his head back from Artie after he was finished to look down at Rachel. "I was asking because I don't think Rachel deserves that. I think she's pretty awesome."
"Thank you, Sam. That's very kind of you," Rachel replied smiling, turning just enough in her seat so she could only see Sam, and not who was sitting beside him.
"Yeah. Rollee was right." Santana shrugged. "I'd never sing that to Britt. Rachel maybe, but Britt saved you," she said the last part glancing at Rachel, who'd turned back around again.
"What a big lady duet fest. Can I watch you rehearse?" Puck asked in all seriousness, a bit too enthusiastic.
"Shut it, Puckerman!" Rachel snapped.
"All right, all right. Enough bickering," Mr. Schuester said, his voice only slightly elevated.
"Mr. Schue," Tina started shyly, "why do you always wait until after we're finished with one of these tussles to say anything?"
"I- I don't know. You kids move too fast for me I guess." He laughed awkwardly. "Next pair. Kurt and Blaine."
Blaine stood up, turned to Kurt, and held his hand out for him to take. Kurt smiled, took it, and stood up. They walked hand-in-hand to the piano and when there, Blaine picked up the hat and held it out for Kurt to pick a name.
"Making me do the dirty work?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, giving him a playful look. He reached in, pulled out a slip of paper, and let go of Blaine's hand to open it. He smiled widely as he read it, and let out a small squeal. "Mercedes and Tina!"
Kurt set the paper down, and turned to walk back to their seats. Blaine set the hat down and put his hand on Kurt's shoulder as he followed him. "Glad you're happy, Kurt."
"We have to start working on this immediately!" Kurt said as he sat down, gripping the sides of his chair. He turned around to Mercedes behind him, and Tina behind her, and gave them his biggest smile, and a small shoulder shrug.
Both girls smiled back as Mr. Schuester continued. "The sooner the better! Next up, Finn and Artie."
Finn stood up as Artie began to wheel himself forward. Finn got there first and picked up the hat and held it out for Artie to pick. Artie gave him a very small smile and reached in, pulling the slip of paper out. "Mr. Schue, there's only one piece of paper in here."
"Well, that's odd." Mr. Schue replied. "At least there's only one more pair after you. Who did you get?"
Artie opened the paper and read it aloud. "Lauren and Puck."
"All right. Interesting." He said as he wrote down the names. "Last up, Sam and Mike. You don't have to come up. Since there's no names for you to pick anyway. You're with Quinn and Santana."
Sam looked down to Quinn and Santana and smiled, but didn't say anything as Finn and Artie went back to their seats.
"Just so we clear here," Lauren said in the boy's direction, "Pizes is no longer an item. But we are still badasses."
"Yeah," Puck nodded. "So make it good."
Artie, slight confidence in his voice, responded. "I think I've got a pretty good idea for a number."
"Great, man. I wouldn't know where to start." Finn laughed.
"That's not a surprise, Finn. You're actually not that smart," Brittany said flatly from behind him. She sat in her normal deadpan as the laughter began. Whether it was at the comment or who it came from was undecided. Santana looked beside her at Brittany with her special smile again, this time catching Brittany's eyes. She smiled back bashfully.
The only one who was not laughing was Finn. "What the hell you guys? Is it pick on Finn day or something?"
Santana looked down to him and smiled. "Oh that could be any day Finnocence."
"Finn's right. Stop being rude to each other," Mr. Schue said, barely making an effort.
"That's how we function though, Mr. Schue," Mike said in a light tone.
Mr. Schuester walked away from the piano to stand in the center of the room again. "Yeah, maybe, Mike, but we should all try and be a little nicer to each other this year."
"You all should take after me," Santana offered. "I'm doing a splendid job."
Lauren laughed. "Really, Santana? You're like the biggest bitch of them all."
Santana turned around in her seat to face her, putting her arm on the back of the chair. "Have you not been paying attention at all, Lauren? I've actually been quite enjoyable today."
"You definitely were last night," Brittany said rather nonchalantly in response.
Santana froze. She was already facing Brittany from when she turned to look at Lauren. She quickly tried to cover up what Brittany had just said by acting like it was no big deal. "When we had our movie marathon. I'm good at quoting."
"Yeah," she said as if it was obvious. "You're good at that, but you're also good at-"
Santana cut her off, and forced a smile. "Making duck cookies with the yellow icing? I know."
Brittany slightly rolled her eyes. "No, you remember? What we do after the sweet-"
"After Sweet Valley High," she jumped in again, pushing the fake smile further. "We made the duck cookies."
Brittany smiled sweetly. "They were really good, weren't they?"
"Excellent. Very enjoyable," Santana said, relieved, relaxing back into her chair to face the front again.
The squabble was thankfully quiet since the pair was sitting close to each other, and only Quinn actually caught the whole conversation. Kurt, however, had heard the first comment, and knowing it could probably go nowhere good, loudly started going on about where he and Blaine could start looking for song choices.
In the middle of one of Kurt's sentences about a trip to the mall, Mr. Schuester cut in. "I'm going to stop you right there, Kurt. I just have a few things I want to say, and then you can talk about that sale."
Kurt raised his eyebrows and nodded slowly as Mr. Schuester continued to talk. "Okay, before you leave, I want you to take a few minutes with your partner. I think that because it's the beginning of the year and we're all still a little lazy from the summer, you might put the planning, or the rehearsing off. So at least decide amongst yourselves when you'll be working on your duets. Remember the sooner the better. I want this year's assignments to be the best yet. This is the last year for some of our members, and we want it to be a good one! Let's start this year off right! Go, on, get to planning, and then you can go."
As Mr. Schuester turned around to go back to the piano to gather his things together, Rachel got up to go sit next to Brittany, since she was the only one not near enough to her partner. Puck stood up, grabbed his backpack, and started walking down the stairs, followed by Lauren, carrying her books. "See ya suckers Me and Lauren are goin' to my place. Ya'll have fun."
"We don't need to know that, Puck," Mercedes said, shaking her head after him.
Lauren stopped walking and turned around. "Did you all not hear what I said?" she asked, attitude in her voice. "We're not together."
Kurt forced a laugh, looking up at her from his conversation with Blaine. "That doesn't mean anything to Puck."
"Hey, hey!" Puck said defensively, as he turned back to face the rest of the class.
"Noah, you aren't really known for your ability to remain monogamous," Rachel offered, breaking away from her conversation with Brittany momentarily.
Before anyone could say anything back, Quinn, rolled her eyes, and in an annoyed tone, replied, "Can we just end this now? He is not sleeping with Lauren, he's with someone else. Let them leave."
"That's right. Listen to my baby mama." Puck gave her a small smile before her turned to walk out the door, Lauren by his side.
She rolled her eyes, but returned the smile, though only slightly as he was already out the door, as she stood up. She smoothed the back of her skirt with her left hand as she held her books with her right, and turned to Santana. "Ready to go?"
Santana looked up at her. "Let me say bye to Britt. I'll meet you out by the car."
"All right," she said as she walked down a step. "Don't take too long." She didn't look back as she walked towards the door. Rachel watched her the whole way, sadness written all over her face.
"Berry, can you hurry up with Britt so I can leave?" Santana asked, pulling Rachel's attention back to the conversation.
Rachel turned to look at Santana. "Of course. We were finished anyway."
Brittany watched Rachel as she stood up. "So we're going to Breadstix tonight? So I can practice rolling the meatball with my nose."
"Oh hell no! Berry!" Santana quickly said, nearly jumping out of her seat again as Rachel walked in front of her to go back to her seat. "I said you were trying to get with Britt!"
"And I told you I wasn't attracted to Brittany, Santana." Rachel calmly replied as she went down the stair, sat down, and began writing something down in her notebook.
Kurt shook his head, let out a small laugh, and tsk tsk'ed as he stood up to leave. "Holding in those feelings is making you crazy."
"What did you say to me, Hummel?" Santana asked, quickly turning her attention from Rachel to Kurt.
Kurt waved her off, as he and Blaine began walking towards the door, Finn quickly getting up to follow them. "Oh, nothing. Nothing."
Brittany, happy as always, jumped up from her seat and held her pinky out for Santana to take, completely wiping the slightly annoyed look on Santana's face when she did. "Come on, San. Quinn's waiting."
Santana smiled at her, took her pinky, and stood. "Okay, B."
As the two girls walked to leave, Rachel stood up, her books in her hands and turned around to Mercedes, Sam, Tina, and Mike. "Do you three mind if I talked to Sam for a minute?"
"Sure, Rae," Mercedes said as she smiled at her, and then Sam as she stood up.
Tina and Mike got up and walked towards Artie, who had wheeled himself to the piano where he was talking to Mr. Schuester, as Mercedes began walking towards the door. Mike stood behind Artie for a moment before he started pushing him, following Mr. Schuester as the two continued to talk and walked out the door.
The only ones left in the classroom now were Rachel and Sam. Rachel watched for a moment as Sam picked up his backpack from the floor. "I was wondering if maybe you and Mike would be willing to meet Brittany and me at Breadstix tonight to talk about your duet to Quinn and Santana."
"Sure, that shouldn't be a problem," he said smiling up at her.
She smiled widely back. "Fantastic. I really hope that you'll seriously consider the song."
"We both will. I'll tell Mike about it. What time did you want to go?" he asked her as he stood up.
She watched him as he took a step down the stair to stand in front of her. "Does 7 work for you?"
"Should be fine," he said as he turned to face her.
"Wonderful." She hesitated for a moment. "I've had a song selection in mind for some time now that's very fitting to both Quinn and Santana. It's really a perfect opportunity because your voice fits the song so well."
He let out a small laugh. "If you keep this up, there's going to be no reason to have dinner."
"Of course." She shook her head, and bashfully smiled back. "It's just important to me Quinn feel her worth."
"I'm happy to help. I want that, too," he replied.
After Rachel didn't say anything thing for a moment, he turned to walk out. She took a step in front of him so he couldn't move forward without going a bit around her. "I care about her a lot."
He gave her a slightly confused look. "So do I."
She looked down at the ground. "Yes, yes, I know. It's just that the last time someone sang a song for her was when you sang her 'Baby'." She looked back up at him. "She deserves to be sung to again. Every day for that matter. I- I would love to be able to sing to her, but I can't."
Sam nodded slowly. "Are you trying to say something you're not saying, Rachel?"
"What?" Rachel shook her head. "No. I'll- I'll see you tonight. 7 p.m. sharp. Thank you!" With that, she turned and quickly walked out of the classroom.
Mercedes walked through the door right as Rachel walked out. She called after her. "Bye Rae."
Mercedes turned back to see Sam walking towards her. "Are you ready?"
He smiled at her. "Yeah. Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," she replied, nudging her arm against his, as he walked up next to her and they began walking down the hall towards the exit of the school.
They walked in silence for a minute or so before Mercedes continued. "So, what's up with Rachel?"
He threw his backpack over his shoulder. "Me and Mike are meeting her and Brittany tonight at Breadstix."
She smiled only slightly. "Oh. That's cool."
They got to the door to leave the school, and Sam opened it for her. "She has a song she wants us to sing to Quinn and Santana."
"What? Why?" She asked surprised as she walked through the open door.
He walked through himself, putting his hands in his pockets after letting the door go, and answered, "Uh, I'm not sure. She was acting kind of…weird. So I was gonna ask her if she wanted to meet early, so I can see. I mean if that's okay. With you?"
"Definitely." She turned to him and smiled, bumping her elbow against his arm. "You're really sweet, Sam."
He shrugged. "I just care."
"You're just a really great guy. Have I told you that before?" She looked up at him as she put her arm around his.
"You may have mentioned it." He replied, looking down and smiling at their linked arms. "You're a great girl."
"Stop it." She laughed as they got closer to where Mike and Tina were waiting for them at Mike's car.
Tina was leaning against the passenger side door talking to Mike. She turned her head to speak to Sam and Mercedes as they got closer. "Mike and I wanted to know if you guys wanted to come over to my house to watch a movie, instead of us just taking you home."
Mercedes smiled at Sam, who nodded and responded, "Yeah, we're in."
"Okay, then you and Mike can just work on your duets there, if you want." Tina said smiling, opening up her car door.
Mike replied as he walked around to get to the driver's side. "You know we'd never get any work done."
Mercedes chuckled. "You got that right."
Tina dramatically sighed. "True. Mercedes and I are so distracting."
Sam opened the back door to let Mercedes get in. "You two and Avatar….which is the movie we will be watching."
Mercedes paused halfway into the car. "Sam. Not. Again."
Rachel was sitting in the middle of the floor of her bedroom gluing rhinestones to a pair of her leg warmers when her phone buzzed. She put down her hot glue gun, and pick up her phone.
1 New Message from:
Sam Evans
Rachel was always ready for disappointment whether she showed it or not. On the off chance someone actually made plans with her, they typically ended up cancelling in the end. That's how it usually went, so she prepared herself for a message telling her he couldn't make dinner or they'd have to reschedule. But when she opened the message, what she read surprised her.
Hey rachel! I wanted to know if you wanted to meet me at breadstix early?
She couldn't imagine why he wanted to meet her before the time she'd already scheduled. Surely three hours between then and closing would be enough?
Certainly, Sam! :) Will it be the four of us, or just you and me? I'll have to let Brittany know.
If it's the four of us, it has to have something to do with the time, but if it's just the two of us, what ever could he want that for?
Just us
Oh. Oh dear. I can't even keep up with the thoughts running through my head right now. I need to write them down…
May I ask the purpose in this early meeting?
Maybe he just wants to be a gentleman. Maybe see how I'm doing with my break up with Finn. That, that has to be it, right?
I wanna talk to you about some stuff
Oh no. Sam Evans. Please don't. Please don't let this be what I think it is.
I would ask about what, but I'm not sure I want the answer. What time did you want to meet?
What am I going to do with this situation? Aren't my feelings on enough of an emotional rollercoaster as it is?
Dont worry. How bout 630?
Only because it's Sam and he has no reason to lie to me, will I try to calm my worries.
See you at Breadstix! 6:30 p.m. on the dot! :)
This gives me considerably less time, considering its 4:37p.m. already. You wouldn't think 30 minutes would make much difference, but for an extremely organized and scheduled to-the-minute person like myself-
See ya then
-30 minutes makes a huge difference.
Rachel thought to herself for a moment and looked over towards her ferrets. "Looks like no dance lessons for Valerie Bertinelli and Mrs. Snuggleton today!"
It was 6:28p.m. as Rachel walked in the door of Breadstix, pulling off her dark tan overcoat. She'd decided when getting ready for tonight that her normal short skirt and some type of animal sweater would never do. Instead she opted for a purple turtleneck with tiny white bows stitched everywhere and a pair of high waist white pants. The animal sweater would have been okay, but she needed every possible inch of her skin covered as to distract Sam from any idea that she was interested in him.
It's all she thought about the entire time she was getting ready. Maybe it was egotistical of her to think Sam would like her, but why else would he want to have dinner with her? Just her? She'd just broken up with Finn. The Sam she knew wouldn't take advantage of her vulnerability, right? No, Sam was the sweetest guy she'd ever met. Rachel would feel lucky to have a guy like Sam.
What was she saying? She didn't want Sam. At least not like that. There was only one person she wanted like that, and it was not Sam.
"Rachel?"
Rachel turned to see Sam walking up to her from the direction of the restaurant rather than the door.
"Sam! How are you?" She asked following him to where he had been sitting.
He continued walking, and glanced over to her. "Fine. How about you?"
"I'm very well, thank you. Have you been here long?" She smiled at him.
As he sat down, he replied, "A few minutes. I wanted to make sure to get here first so you didn't think I wasn't gonna show."
Rachel now seated in the booth opposite, looked him in the eyes, and said, "That's possibly the most considerate act someone has ever done for me."
"It's really no problem," he said, taking a sip from his drink, and nodding towards it. "I would've ordered you something but didn't know what you'd like."
Rachel waved him off, "Please. It's fine."
"What do you normally get here? The vegan meatballs, right?" he said as he opened up his menu.
Without looking up from her menu, Rachel nodded her head. "Yes! Always."
"Umm…how can they be meat-balls and vegan?" He put a bit more emphasis on the 'meat'.
Rachel laughed. "You probably wouldn't be very interested in them if I told you what they were made out of. But I assure you there is no meat or dairy."
"Talking about our vegan meatballs?" The waitress who'd just walked up to their table asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Sam responded, smiling. "I believe that's what Rachel would like, and I would like the same. But we have two more people coming to meet us. Can you not put it in until you get their orders, too?"
"Sure thing, sweetie," the waitress said as she winked at him before she turned to Rachel. "What'll you be having to drink?"
"A peach iced tea, please. Thank you," she replied.
"I'll be right back out with it," she said as she took both of their menus.
As the waitress walked away, Sam sat as he watched Rachel lean forward on the table, her hands folded together. Rachel composed herself and with all seriousness, began the speech to Sam she'd prepared before she came.
"I'd like to start off by saying that you are a very lovely, sweet, and extremely talented guy, and anyone would be lucky to be able to walk down the halls of McKinley with you on her arm. You have probably been the kindest to me of every guy I've ever dated, and we aren't even dating! You even stuck up for me in class today, and you really had no reason to. You wouldn't get anything out of it. Goodness knows no one else sticks up for me...well, one other person, but anyway, it usually causes more harm than good. From what I gather from your behavior both in class and in asking me to dinner early today, I've come to the conclusion that you are attracted to me. If situations were different, I would be lucky to be the girl who walked down the halls with you, but I can't be. My heart is somewhere else, and I'm so sorry."
Sam sat in silence for a moment, trying to take in everything Rachel had just said. "So, you think I like you?"
Rachel nodded. "That's correct. The only other reason you'd ask me out to dinner just the two of us I could think of was to check and see if I was okay after my break up with Finn. But I don't think I'm that bad off, so you would have no reason to do that either."
As the waitress set down Rachel's drink and she thanked her, Sam lightly chuckled.
"Is something funny?" Rachel looked at him in all seriousness.
Sam shook his head. "I don't like you, Rachel. Or at least not how you're thinking."
Rachel was holding her drink midway in the air, but set it back down before she spoke. "I- I am so embarrassed."
"Don't be." He smiled at her. "It makes sense, what you said…even if you talked a lot and really fast so I probably missed half of it."
Rachel turned her head away slightly. "I talk a lot. I know that."
"Hey," he said as he slid his hand on the table closer to her and tapped it to get her attention. "I didn't mean it like that. I think it's cool you have a lot to say."
Rachel looked at his fingers tapping on the table and forced a small laugh. "You're the only one." When she realized what she had said, and how untrue it was, that Sam wasn't the only one who liked that she talked a lot, it made her sad. She crossed her arms on the table, leaned forward, and looked up at him. "Sam, can I ask you something?"
Sam mirrored Rachel on the other side of the table. "Shoot."
She thought for a moment before continuing. "What- what was it like, dating Quinn?"
He gave Rachel an odd look. "Why do you ask?"
"Right now, Quinn and I- we're in a bit of a rough patch. Actually it's a lot more than a bit. We're not talking, or at least I don't think we are. I mean, we haven't spoken in a week. We spent so much time over the summer together, and now-"she paused, realizing she was rambling. "I wanted to see if something like that had ever happened to you."
He looked at her for a moment before answering. "Did something happen to make her not wanna talk to you?"
"I don't really know if I should say." She could hear the own sadness in her voice.
He nodded in understanding. "It's okay. Umm, well, you know how Quinn works. She pushes people away if they get too close."
"I know she does." She took a deep breath and sighed. "But I don't even think this is what she's doing."
"What do you mean?" He asked, her, picking his glass up and taking a sip of his drink.
She watched him as he set his glass back down. "It's just that, this summer, we've become so close. We've talked so much, about everything. Subjects that I'm sure she didn't like talking about, but she always did. So if she didn't over all of that, I don't think she's pushing me away now."
"Okay." It was clear he did not get what she was talking about. "I'm not trying to be nosy, but I can't help if you don't give me more than that."
He sincerely looked apologetic. Rachel could tell she was confusing him. She played with the straw in her drink as she thought for a moment. "Let's say, hypothetically speaking, something happened at a party that made the situation between the two of you rather awkward to where she didn't speak to you, and going along with my question from before, when did she start speaking to you again?"
"All right, uh, I can work with that. But first maybe I can tell you why I asked you here early, and then we can talk more." He smiled at her.
She looked up from the straw in between her fingers. "Oh my goodness. Of course! I got caught up in the moment! Please, do tell me."
Sam laughed. "You remember when you and Quinn went to Harry Potter with me and Mercedes over the summer?"
"Certainly. How could I forget?" She asked him, smiling as she lifted her glass to take a drink.
"Something you said has always stuck with me." He stopped to think. "Not what you said, because I don't remember what that was, and I don't know why. But today, when I talked to you, it makes more sense, whatever you said then."
She looked at him curiously. "What makes sense?"
"This is really weird for me, and I shouldn't even ask," he said somewhat uncomfortably.
Rachel reassured him. "Sam. It's perfectly fine. Go ahead."
Sam looked right at her, waited for a few seconds, and then quickly blurted out, "Do you like Quinn?"
"Oh." She was certainly not expecting that.