Happy Monday! Well...happier Monday since work is done for me for the day! I think we should all be eight. Nothing to worry about all summer long except drinking Kool-Aid and making sure you have as much fun as humanly possible.

Here is Chapter Twelve! I hope that you like it!

-Chapter Twelve-

***June 2008***

"Jesus, Suck-it-lots! How old is your first kid again? Like, two? You guys don't slow down, do you?" Noah walked onto the school bus with his duffel bag. He stared down as the summer camp counselor…now the official youth activities director for the Synagogue, checked his name off of her list.

Andrea Sokoloff-Leonardo signed and rubbed a hand over her rotund, expectant belly and said, "Apparently, my husband, darling Catholic that he is, believes that the rhythm method is the only acceptable form of birth control. And he truly believes that if we use any other, we'll both go to hell."

"You know what's effective birth control? Cutting Mr. Leonardo off entirely," Noah smirked.

"Believe me, I'm seriously thinking about it," Andrea smiled. "So, we're totally going to have fun, right? Three weeks in the Poconos…hiking, fishing, camping, bonfires, smores."

"Rachel already recited the brochure to me a bazillion times. Apparently she wants to find a barn and put on a show too," Noah shrugged.

"You guys are talking through the school year? Is everything normal now?" Andrea wondered curiously. She had a firm investment in Noah and Rachel's relationship, she had been the one to technically introduce them after all. In her years of working with children, she had never seen a pair so perfectly matched in a friendship. He calmed her down. She straightened him out. He gave her a sense of practicality and humanity. She gave him music and vivid color. He gave her his vegetables and she gave him all the meat he could eat. Andrea was sure that if Rachel could get over her insane martyr complex, they could be the very best of friends for the rest of their lives.

Noah's nose wrinkled in distaste. They were about to enter their freshman year at McKinley in September and no, things were still not normal. It seemed unfair and slightly hilarious that all the kids from school thought he was this awesome badass and yet he couldn't force Rachel Berry to be friends with him at school.

"Oh," Andrea sighed. "She'll come around. Maybe this summer she'll realize that she doesn't want to-"

"Save it, it's never going to happen," Noah shrugged, walking towards the back of the bus to stake out his and Rachel's seat.

"Rachel Berry will be mine before the Noah and Rachel angle ever gets out," Jacob Ben-Israel, who had been hiding outside of the bus until Noah disappeared, said earnestly to their camp counselor. He shuffled his feet and said, "There's a reason I've not interfered. One day, she'll be so upset that their friendship just doesn't work, that she'll have to turn to me for comfort. And making out. And possibly third base action."

"Jacob?" Andrea raised a dangerous looking eyebrow. It was the look she gave her two year old son when he was about to do something idiotic.

"Yes, Ms. Sokoloff-Leonardo?" Jacob smiled creepily.

"It's good to see that you're still working on earning that restraining order."

***January 2010***

"Woman! I've repeatedly asked you not to blow up my cell during the school day. My dad is totally going to kick my ass when he sees how many texts I got. No, being scared of my pop doesn't make me less of a man. Cadi, he's six foot six!"

Matt Rutherford breezed into the choir room, when he heard a sniffling from the corner. He looked curiously and saw Rachel sitting on the top riser, Indian style, her head in her hands. He stiffened and whispered into the phone, "Baby, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later."

Rachel continued to try and control her tears as Matt walked up to her, sitting next to her with his long legs in front of him. He stealthily managed to send a text, to hell if his father cursed his ear out for an additional charge to his phone. He patted Rachel's shoulder and mumbled,

"I'm not good at tears. So helps on the way. Promise."

"Kay," Rachel sniffled, taking solace from Matt's friendly gesture. "It's been a really atrocious day."

"Cadillac texted me eight times about the slushy attacks. You'd think that people would find better things to do with those things. Like drink them," Matt shrugged. "Puck started a really expensive, dumb tread."

"Yeah," Rachel miserably sniffled.

The front door to the choir room burst open and Mike Chang and Puck rushed through the door, looking around wildly. They walked quickly towards where Matt and Rachel were sitting and threw themselves to the ground in similar fashion, Puck immediately settling himself close to a now sobbing Rachel as he quickly hugged her to him, allowing her to cry into his shoulder.

"What happened? We got the text," Mike asked his partner in crime, looking at his phone where Matt had sent Berry 911 Choir room now.

"It's stupid," Rachel blubbered. "Finn-"

"Yeah, he's definitely stupid," Puck drolly asserted, rolling his eyes. "I mean, Quinn said that he was scared for a while that the baby would be born evil when it came out, since it was out of wedlock and a bastard and stuff. So he became an ordained minister online so that he could perform the exorcism."

"Reverend Finn Hudson," Mike shook his head in disbelief. "I say we convince him that Sue Sylvester's possessed and he can try to exorcise her."

"Then we can all laugh at him when Sue shoves him in the trophy case," Matt grinned.

Rachel let out a giggle into Puck's shoulder, which had been the boys' goal. They seemed to be more at ease then, none of them being entirely comfortable with an emotional girl, but with an emotional Rachel girl, they were very much on edge.

"So he fell for the girl on girl action?" Puck wondered softly and felt Rachel nod against his shoulder. "Sucker. I hope they bought the expensive food and then didn't even let him watch them make out."

"They let me watch them make out…it's like…a really awkward heaven," Mike admitted softly, eliciting another giggle from Rachel. "When I asked her about Finn, Brit said they were just following orders. Don't be too mad at them, they have to or else it's like…Sylvester will lock them into cardboard boxes of shame."

"I'm not mad at Brittany or Santana. I'm mad at Finn," Rachel mumbled. "Really really mad. Super…duper…pissed."

All three boys looked at Rachel incredulously. In all of Puck's years in close proximity to her, he had never heard something so crass come out of that gorgeous little mouth of hers. She had better not do it again. He was not going to walk around all tent-pantsed due to her again. He would tattle to her dads in a heartbeat that she needed her mouth washed out with soap.

"All right, you're pissed. That's good. Do something instead of crying your eyes out about it. Get pissed," Puck encouraged.

"Put a stink bomb in his locker," Matt suggested.

"Nair in his shampoo?" Mike wondered.

"Kick him in the nads!" Puck helpfully offered.

"You boys tend to forget that I'm Rachel Berry," Rachel laughed softly. "I'm not going to cry about it, but I'm not getting expelled for petty revenge."

"You're going to sing, aren't you?" Puck chucked as an exasperated little smirk took over his face.

"I think so," Rachel nodded, and all three boys could see the wheels clicking in her mind. "I might even be able to semi-complete Mr. Schuester's assignment."

"Mr. Schuester's lame-ass assignment," Puck rolled his eyes.

"Will you guys back me up today in Glee?" Rachel wondered hopefully. Upon seeing all three boys nod eagerly a small grin lit up face. "You know what, guys? I think I'm a very lucky girl."

***August 2008***

"AWESOME! Berry-pants, look it, I totally exploded the hot dog…"

"Your mother will be so proud," Rachel smirked at Noah as he placed the still burning hot dog dangerously close to his mouth. "NOAH! You're going to burn your vocal chords out."

"Relax," Noah rolled his eyes as he blew the flaming hot dog off. He smirked at Rachel's long wooden stick, that she had forgotten in the fire. "Your marshmallow is being incinerated."

"Oh no!" Rachel squealed, pulling out the charred marshmallow. She pouted and wondered, "You don't think the chemicals in it were mutated by the fire, do you?"

"I'm pretty sure you won't be getting marshmallow chemical cancer," Noah assured her. He watched in fascination as she brought the crispy marshmallow up to her mouth and bit tentatively. "Rach, what are you thinking-"

"OWWWW!" Rachel yelped, flinging the marshmallow away from her burnt lips, having it cross through the bonfire, catching aflame again before landing in Jacob Ben-Israel's hair. The boy screeched as his hair caught fire and the rest of the campers, including the counselor rushed to his aid, putting him out. Noah was too busy rolling on the ground with laughter as the rest of their group filtered off to the first aid cabin with Jacob. Rachel cringed as the boy shrieked over the charred remnants of his hair and she looked at Noah and said, "Woops."

"That was awesome. Jew-fro was like the human torch," Noah chuckled mercilessly. He dusted himself off and plonked down next to Rachel again. He placed an arm around her shoulder and said, "I can't believe this is the last summer we get to spend with Suck-it-lots and Jew-fro."

"Mmmm," Rachel nodded, her fingers tenderly grazing her burnt lips. "It's so strange to think that next June, we won't be going to the Synagogue."

"We'll have other adventures," Noah promised. "I'm going to have my license by then. We'll have to teach you to drive, and the best way to do that? Road trip."

"We can go see Avenue Q in New York City," Rachel grinned.

"The sexy puppet swearing show? ." Noah smirked.

"Every thing in life…is only for now," Rachel sang softly and sweetly. She furrowed her brow in sudden annoyance and brought her hand to her tender lips.

"That's what you get for being greedy and trying to jam a flaming hot marshmallow into your mouth," Noah teased.

"This comes from the boy who looks like he's trying to suck the chicken's soul out when he's eating a drumstick," Rachel threw back feistily, pursing her lips in annoyance, only to whimper again from the sudden pain.

Noah reached for a cooler and brought out a cold can of pop. He gingerly placed it against Rachel's burnt lips and laughed when she puckered her mouth eagerly. They stayed silent, the only sound swirling around them was the crackling of the bonfire. Noah's free arm snaked around Rachel's shoulder and she placed her head there comfortably as she soothed her burnt lips on the icy cold can that Noah held to her lips.

"Things aregoing to change, are they? When we get to high school?" Noah wondered hopefully. "I mean…it'll be a whole new thing, new people. We don't have to do what we've been doing, right?"

Rachel shrugged and Noah took that as a positive. She didn't turn him down immediately, which had been her mode of operation usually. Of course that could be because he was holding a can of cold soda to her lips. He pulled it back and his eyes widened in amused surprised to see that her full lips had turned slightly blue. He pulled the can off and rubbed her lips and said, "You burn your lips off and I freeze them off."

"It's cold, but it was good," Rachel nodded shivering slightly.

"Yeah," Noah nodded, feeling nothing less than a god damned gravitational pull towards that pout. It was summer. He was allowed. Their lips had a very liberal visitation schedule over the summer since they were thirteen. He kissed her softly and could only open his eyes in amazement as Rachel quickly went from zero to sixty in less than a millisecond.

Where in the hell did she learn all that? Was it Chang? He'd kick his ass the minute he got home, he swore it. Woah…tongue stuff…woah how was she moving her tongue like that? He just went with it, not realizing that Rachel Berry was teaching him more about kissing than any of those high school girls had. She leaned into him heavily, and he found himself reaching out for her with his hand, to grab her closer somehow, like, on top of him, if it was possible.

Clunk.

"NOAH!" Rachel squealed, holding her forehead, where the can that Noah had been holding had made its forceful impact.

For his part Noah looked apologetic and immediately fell off the log they had been perched on, landing in front of her with a look of shock on his face.

"Berry-pants, I didn't mean it, I'm so sorry-"

"Noah, you're on fire!" Rachel screeched, and indeed, Noah had suffered the same fate as Jacob, as his hair quickly ignited from the bonfire.

"SUCK-IT-LOTS! You fire safety is shit!"

***February 2010***

"Run…Pucky Run…Pucky Run…"

"You. Are. Dead."

Matt shrieked, in Mercedes' words…like a bitch, as Puck launched himself at his friend, chasing him around the choir room. Matt used the piano as a reliable shield as Puck wielded one of the chairs over his head. Brad cleared his throat from the door and both boys immediately took five steps away from the piano. Neither wanted to piss the pianist off, and they knew that the baby grand was completely off limits. Matt decided instead to hide behind Mercedes.

"Wheelie, give me Matt's cellie," Puck demanded, and easily caught it when Artie tossed it his way. He paged through the contacts and smirked, "Let's see, I'm gonna call Cadillac…who do you think will answer."

"Don't do it!" Matt demanded, although it was too late. Mercedes' phone began ringing and showing a speed and agility that even she was surprised by, she grabbed Matt by the collar, and dragged him through the band and into one of the sound proof practice rooms.

Puck smirked as everyone could hear her screaming at him and could clearly see him repeatedly saying "Baby, baby, baby…"

"What's going on? Why is Matt turning purple? That can't be healthy," Rachel furrowed her brow as she came into the choir room. She looked around at the members who had assembled so far, the only ones missing where Quinn, Finn and Jesse. "Do you think they'll be long?"

"It'll take ten minutes at least until Mercy's voice starts to hurt," Mike shrugged.

"Or Matthew's testes completely drop off," Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Well, I got everyone, I'm sorry gifts. I realize that the last few days have been a travesty for everyone," Rachel shrugged. She walked towards the practice room and opened the door slowly.

"OH HELL NO! You aren't getting any tasty treats ever again…"

"WOMAN. SHHHH about the tasty treats!" Matt screeched.

"Uhhh…I got you both gift cards for Itunes, as an apology for yesterday," Rachel said quickly, tossing the cards into the room and quickly closing the door. She turned to face the rest of the crew and handed out her gifts. Mike grinned as she handed him a special edition of Step up 2 the Streets and advised, "There's a young Asian dancer who really reminds me of you."

"Thanks, Rach," Mike grinned, aiming a waggle of his eyebrows at Puck, who could only roll his eyes.

"Brittany and Santana receive a twelve pack of tasty Lipsmackers," Rachel gifted the girls who happily accepted. "You may do whatever you see fit with them."

"Make out?" Artie whispered his desperate wish fervently, earning him a smack on the arm from Tina.

"Kurt, a gift card to the mall," Rachel smiled. "I knew that you would have burnt whatever I would have picked out for you."

"Hallelujah," Kurt squealed.

"Artie and Tina, an assortment of very amusing buttons and patches from Hot Topic," Rachel thrust the bag at Tina.

"Ahhh DOMO!" Tina giggled, showing Artie their gifts.

Rachel turned to Puck and he smirked, "I don't want no stinking buttons, Berry-pants. That video sucked. You tricked me and we didn't even get to make out. You know what I want."

Mike covered his mouth but began to make obnoxious kissing noises that echoed throughout the choir room. Puck smacked him on the back of the head and Rachel smirked as she walked towards Puck and handed him an extra-large box tied up with a pink ribbon. He grinned and tore off the ribbon, pocketing it as he dove in, his hands suddenly full of cookies as he began to eat them as if he was seriously starving.

"You just gave him cookies. In front of like…people," Brittany said quietly. "It's like seeing the tooth fairy for the first time. She's got a killer blue dress, but her butt is kind of ginormous."

Rachel sat next to Puck and reached for a cookie, laughing when he swatted at her hand. Mike was staring at them, his eyes wide with astonishment. He continued to swivel his head back and forth between them, as if some exciting miracle had just occurred.

"Brit, you owe me a year's allowance," Mike whispered, afraid if he talked too loudly, some sort of spell might break. Because only magic could have performed this miracle. Rachel Berry and Noah Puckerman were interacting with each other at school. Not making out, not fake dating…but simply interacting as if they were friends. "You gave him your cookies at school."

"Metaphor," Brittany sighed, rubbing her lips against the Root Beer flavored lip-smacker.

"What in the ever living hell is a metaphor?" Puck demanded as Rachel fidgeted uncomfortably beside him. He pulled Matt's phone out of his pocket and quickly accessed Wikipedia through the web browser. He read for a few seconds as Rachel's cheeks reddened. "So…the cookies are…"

"Rachel Berry," Santana rolled her eyes.

"And I'm addicted to the cookies, so…"

"You're totally addicted to Rachel Berry," Mike grinned. "And now, everything can be normal. I think I might faint."

Puck shrugged and placed another cookie into his mouth, smirking at Rachel. His mouth totally full he crassly mumbled, "Cookies can totally mean…you know. Cookies."

"I hope that someday, God listens to me just once, and you choke on those cookies," Rachel rolled her eyes.

"You love me, Berry-pants," Puck said confidently. "Stop trying to fight it and just do what comes naturally. Ditch Saint Douche of the lower highlands of Douchebaggery, make out with me constantly and supply me with cookies until I get love handles."

***September 2008***

Rachel waited on the bus, on the very last row of seats patiently as they rumbled their way through the route towards the high school. The school bus lurched to a stop and Rachel looked towards the front hopefully, an expectant smile on her face. She had been thinking a lot about what Noah had said at the bonfire, before the kissing and his hair unfortunately catching fire. Things might be different in high school. The two middle schools in Lima were merging, meaning that their class would double. Surely Santana would find someone else to torture in that batch of fresh recruits.

She wouldn't be popular of course. But she wouldn't be in last place. She wouldn't have to worry about being a social burden to Noah. Things could really change now.

Her brow furrowed as a body slumped down next to her. She glanced over her new seat mate and her jaw dropped.

"Noah? What is that…thing on your head?"

"Like it? I'm a total bad ass," Noah grinned at her, running a hand through his new mo-hawk. "There was nothing else my ma could do with it, besides shave it all off. You like it, Berry-pants?"

"Hmmm," Rachel pursed her lips, tilting her head slightly to her right as she evaluated his new look. "It certainly does justice to your fabulous bone structure. And it really gives you a very…dangerous edge. You're like a modern day James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause."

"Right, totally hot bad ass. No one is going to mess with us in high school," Puck nodded in agreement with himself.

Rachel turned slightly pink at his use of the word us. She felt her emotions bubbling inside, as if she were a human-sized container of Bubble-gum flavored pop. They sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the bus ride, and soon the bus screeched to a stop at the front McKinley High. They ambled their way to the front of the bus where Puck smirked at the driver and said,

"Thanks Aggie. You know, for not crashing us today."

"I'll only crash you on test days. Promise, Puckerman."

Rachel giggled as she hopped down the steps to the bus to join Noah and they looked up towards the high school anxiously. It seemed…really large. Rachel flinched slightly when she felt Noah take her hand in his and squeeze it slightly.

"Here we go," he muttered, and they began walking towards the front door.

"PUCK!"

Rachel immediately wrenched her hand from Puck's and took two steps away from him, as if entirely on instinct. She flushed and looked up at his face, her heart breaking for the sudden sadness and anger there. Suddenly Mike and Matt were standing next to them, and Karofsky and a new boy they hadn't know before wasn't far behind.

Mike smiled and waved at Rachel, and Matt followed his lead. "Hey Berry. How was your summer?"

"Very lovely, thank you," Rachel nodded. "I trust yours went well?"

"We spent all summer playing Rock Band," Matt answered. "We need two more though to get all the band achievements, though. So if you and Puck are bored, and you feel like singing."

"When doesn't that nerd feel like singing?" Karofsky scoffed, finally having made his meandering way over to the other boys and Rachel. "Yo, Azimo, this chick was like the biggest loser at Mapledale. I mean, she'd be less annoying if she would just finally grow some boobs…"

"Watch your mouth, Karofsky," Noah grunted.

"What? Is Freaky Berry your girl now?" Karofsky chuckled. "You're going to start high school off with a bang…like…a bang to the head. That mouth must be good for something besides singing…"

"That's not cool, man," Mike said softly, his hand gripping Noah's jacket as hard as he could, because the last thing Noah needed was to be suspended for completely killing another student on the very first day.

"Please, it's fine," Rachel rolled her eyes slightly, her face a mask of boredom and disdain. "I'm really used to hearing all of these things from Puck, anyway. Why don't you boys go and bang a few rocks together in the hopes that you'll discover fire, finally. Oh, and if you didn't understand all the big words I just used there. You cavemen…really dumb."

Noah watched as she walked away in a huff, pulling her trolley bag behind her with her nose in the air. It felt like she had just thrown a very large bucket of ice water in his face. All of their hopes for having a normal friendship in high school quickly burst into flames right in front of them. She had called him Puck…

It was a week later, when he was walking down the hall with Finn and Azimo on their way to football practice, his hand clutching a large grape slushy when something really broke. She was completely ignoring his presence. Cozying up to the male lead of that stupid Glee club she had joined, batting her eyelashes at the obviously uninterested boy, her hand on his puny bicep…

His hand jerked uncontrollably. And Rachel was covered in the purple icy drink. She looked at him incredulously and his expression was fiercely antagonistic, almost demanding that she do something in retaliation. Scream at him. Threaten to tell his mother. Something that would signal to the whole high school that she had been lying all this time about the both of them.

Instead, she held her chin in the air and walked very quickly to the girls bathroom. Not one hint of a tear in her eye.

"Fucking awesome," Azimo congratulated. "You're like...the king Puck."

Puck. King Puck of the badasses. Rachel wanted to make sure no one ever found out about their friendship. He could definitely handle that.

***March 2010***

"The big question for me…is who artfully arranged the stuffed animal collection, and who stapled their furry asses to the dress?"

Rachel couldn't help the small smile spreading across her face. She knew she had made the right decision when she had interrupted a conversation between Puck and Quinn and asked for him to drive her to Carmel. No one else in the world could have eased her nerves or given her the strength to go and see her mother again.

"I'm betting Micah dropped them all over the freaking place, and Jerome pretended he was like, Shaft or something and stapled them," Puck laughed. "I bet he was even humming the theme song."

"Singing it, and he replaced Shaft with BERRY! It was very artfully done, if I say so myself, but I'm going to be naked before the end of the day if I don't do something about this," Rachel gingerly picked at the Raggedy Ann Doll that was incorporated into her Gaga outfit. "Thank you for doing this for me, Noah."

"No prob," Puck shrugged. "Really, no problem if all those animals drop off and you have to be all naked in my truck."

"NOAH!" Rachel hissed at him, her cheeks turning a healthy pink color.

"Whatever, Berry-pants. Even Winnie Cooper had to give it up to Kevin eventually. I'll be waiting for the day you beg me for it," Puck raised what he deemed a sultry eyebrow her way.

"Yes, and then she ran away and he had to marry someone else," Rachel reminded him.

"Yeah…that did suck buckets," Puck acknowledged. Suddenly an explosive chuckle burst from his lips and he said, "You can't give me a downer on this one. Pacey and Joey."

"That's unfair!" Rachel cried out.

"And Finn is dumb ole Dawson. Even the forehead is perfect!" Puck continued to laugh as he pulled into Carmel High parking lot. "So, when do you want me to cash in your V-card? Should we go traveling around the world this summer or what?"

"We can't be counselors for Sokoloff until next year," Rachel shrugged, her lips puckering slightly as her eyes danced with sudden amusement. "But you have to give me a really big romantic gesture first."

"Aww, shit. You're not going to make me paint a wall, are you?" Puck groaned. "Cause I'm not that much of a man-gina yet. I'd probably draw a huge picture of boobs."

"Lovely," Rachel rolled her eyes. She stared at the entrance to the Carmel High auditorium and fidgeted in her seat.

"You want me to go in with you?" Puck wondered.

"No…hopefully it won't be too long. You should start to get ready for Glee," Rachel insisted.

"You want me to put on my whore lips? I can't do it, part of the deal was you had to do my makeup!" Puck whined.

"Fine, I'll be right back out, just…maybe get into your jumpsuit?"

"That just means you're going to be staring at my junk all the way back to school," Puck said confidently. "And we have to travel the world this summer before you can play with my junk."

"I could play with your junk right now and you wouldn't argue, Puckerman," Rachel assured him.

He smirked at her, the tiny stuffed lamb on the top of her head was really too adorable if he really thought about it. He reached out and patted it before surprising the hell out of her by planting a swift, strong kiss on her cheek.

"It's Noah, Berry-pants," Puck said softly. "Now go in there and talk to your mom, before I make all of those animals fall off."

##########

Okay. So. I've officially run out of flashback time. We're not going to see the summer before the Glee Pilot.

However, we are going to see a different sort of Flashback in the last chapter. Look for Chapter 13 by Thursday. Thanks again for reading! And the replies are eagerly read and appreciated. You are lovely and wonderful readers!