Two days later saw Puck and Rachel in the Glee practice room after school, staring each other down.

Rachel was hating this. Puck was relatively apathetic.

But it was a staring contest bordering on two and a half minutes. There was nothing short of a fire outside the room that would make either of them move.

"You are so immature!" Rachel exclaimed, her eyes watering as she stared Puck down.

"Blink, bitch!" Puck growled, refusing to budge. Rachel doubted he had even breathed twice the entire time.

"Stop it, we need to get to work!"

Neither of them moved. Finally Puck stood up rubbing his eyes furiously. Rachel took the opportunity to grab her purse and find her eye drops for her contacts and quickly squeeze a few in each eye before Puck turned back around.

"You," Puck began, turning around as Rachel pushed the extra liquid out of her eyes, blinking furiously, "Are really annoying."

"And you're insufferable." Rachel muttered. She stood up and quickly brushed by Puck, who was leafing through his sheet music, obviously unhappy.

"Okay, I found the song without singing, and I brought the song with singing, just so we can hear what we have to do."

"Right."

"Pay attention, Mister Shu also wants us to help with the choreography, so we need to be thinking about that too."

"Fantastic."

Rachel glared at the stereo. Why was he being such a jerk about this? She spun around on her heel and saw Puck sighing over his music and then glance up at her. He didn't look angry or mean or like he was preparing to make a snide comment, which was a distinct change.

"Is something wrong?" Rachel really wasn't a mean girl, honestly, it just seemed like this boy could pluck all her nerves without even trying. "I know I'm pushing this hard but we don't have very long and I-"

"Stop making everything about you."

Rachel shut up and stared at the boy, who shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, a bad habit he had picked up since he had gotten it cut. Puck looked up from the papers in his hands to catch Rachel staring at him, but instead of glancing away she stood up a little straighter and raised her head, daring him to say something. Puck rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with so I can go home."

Rachel bit her tongue again and put on the original Katy Perry song, going over to sit where she had been, her co lead sitting next to her, just close enough to make their knees touch.

Why did he make her so uncomfortable?

Why did she insist on making him say things that he really didn't want to say?

They sat in silence, listening to the song.

"This is gay." Puck muttered.

"You've mentioned."

Another long pause as the chorus ran through.

"So who was that girl you were with?"

"Why do you care?"

"Why are you getting defensive?"

"I'm not getting defensive."

"So who was she?"

"Why do you care?"

"I feel like we've done this before." Rachel said, glaring at the sheet music.

"We might have."

He would have to get in the last word. Asshole.

"Well are you dating her?"

"No."

"You two are just hooking up?"

"Yeah, pretty much." He said as the song ended.

Rachel stood up, rolling her eyes as she walked over to the CD player. This boy was ridiculous. Was there really something there when they were dating or was he just acting along to get what he wanted? Rachel really wanted to just give up on Puck, but she couldn't help that a little bit of her was a little bit jealous when she had seen that girl kissing him. Yeah, he was a man whore, but Rachel could have sworn that two weeks ago there was something there.

"I mean," Puck paused and waited for Rachel to turn around. "I'm basically single. Or maybe I'm just an asshole. You know, either way."

Maybe.

"Yeah. It's so strange that Quinn choose to date Finn over you. You're just such a keeper." Rachel said under her breath, wincing as she realized the sound carried behind her to where Puck was sitting.

"What the fuck does that mean Berry?" Puck said, straightening his back as he looked at Rachel, frowning.

"Noah! Did you not just hear yourself? You sound like a complete idiot! Do you want me to break it down for you? You sound like a tool, a douchebag, you sound like a gorilla with an ego issue, and you wonder why girls don't like you? Noah, you're not exactly the nicest guy out there when you don't get what you want." Rachel even seemed surprised at her outburst.

"I get it, okay, I get it. I try too hard for what I want too. But I know when to draw the line. I'm not exactly hanging all over Finn just so that I can get what I want. Because right now Quinn needs Finn more than I want him. And that's okay."

"Doesn't it drive you insane though," Puck asked, still a little angry at her, "to have something right in front of your face and you can't have it."

"Noah, it hurts just as bad for you as it does for me." Rachel said, softer, walking over to stand in front of Puck. He glanced up at her and then away, almost as if he was embarrassed to ask her something.

"Do you think she hates me?"

Rachel tilted her head. That seemed like an odd question to ask. She wasn't exactly bff's with Quinn but she didn't want to hurt Pucks feelings.

"She doesn't hate you. She just thinks you need a personality change, a deflated ego and a heart that will grow three sizes overnight."

Puck frowned. Right. That was totally going to happen.

"On to part two." He said, standing up and looking down at Rachel. "C'mon, we'll run through this once and I'll drive you home."

Rachel smiled and nearly skipped back to the CD changer. She put on the instrumental and turned around to face Puck. Neither of them had the music memorized but they had a good idea about what they were going to do.

"You change your mind

Like a girl changes clothes," Rachel started.

They sang through the whole thing once and by the end of it Rachel was beaming.

"Not bad, look you're hitting most of the notes, even if you're falling flat a few times, but that's really only because this is a girls song and not really meant for guys, but it's good. You have like, zero energy, but we'll work on that later. Not bad." Rachel said, not ecstatic about the piece but at least happy that she could get through a song without wanting to kill him.

"Think I pulled through?" Puck asked, smirking.

"For now, I won't be so easy tomorrow."

"What about tonight? Will you be easy tonight?"

"Puck!" Rachel's happy mood vanished relatively quickly and Puck laughed. "Tomorrow we'll do choreography too. We can work longer too-"

"Whoa." Puck just realized what she was talking about. "You realize tomorrow's a Saturday?"

"I am well aware of that fact."

Puck's face fell and he stared at Rachel as she pulled out what looked like a two weeklong time tables with his football practices and glee club sessions outlined in different colors. There was also a section marked 'studying' that Puck took to mean 'study sessions with Evan'.

"Really?"

"You want to prove me wrong? This will help you do it."

"Rach, tonight's a Friday. Do you know what people like me do on a Friday night?"

"Yes." Rachel pushed her hair back. "And I am certainly not condoning underage drinking, partying, stripping, poker, or gambling in any way shape or form, that's why I labeled a good nine hour block for sleeping – just look on your chart right-"

"Let me take you out."

"What?" Rachel stood, shocked as Puck spoke. He smiled and took the timesheet from her hand and walked over to his bag, stuffing it in there. Rachel couldn't help but wince.

"Let me." A finger on his chest, "Take you." Now he was pointing at her, staring at her like she was stupid and pronouncing every syllable like he was speaking to a particularly slow first grader, "Out. To a party. I bet you've never had a beer in your life."

"I-"

"What? Finally found something you can't do?"

"That's not the point. Puck that's illegal!"

"Technically, so is getting knocked up at age seventeen, but I don't see you pointing any fingers at Quinn."

"Noah." Rachel said, holding her head high. "No. I will not. You cannot make me. You will not make me. I will not go."

"Fine."

They walked out to his truck in silence and Puck quickly started the vehicle, pulling quickly out of the lot and driving to Rachels' house. Rachel quickly exited the truck and Puck watched as she made her way up to the door.

"Nine!"

Rachel turned around. "What?"

"Be ready by nine, okay Berry? You don't have to drink if you don't fucking want to, I won't spike your lemonade. Promise."

She paused. What would be the one thing that would make him shut up? She walked up to her door and glanced back at Puck, who had one eyebrow raised. Shit. He already knew the answer, didn't he?

"Don't be late." Came her smug reply as she slipped into the house.

Puck smirked. Oh yeah. He still had it.