AN: Warning- Puck's got a potty mouth. Other than that? Enjoy!
As I got to Berry's house, Santana and Brittany were walking up, holding hands. I had thought they were just "barsexual:—girls who make out in bars and parties just to get guys hot for them, you know? But they were doing this without knowing I could see.
Anyway, when we all got to the door, Lopez told Britt to go inside and shoved me against the house.
"Dude, putting the moves on me outside my baby-mama's house? Not cool."
She rolled her eyes. "You wish, Puckerman! Look, Britt and Quinn are going to want to do this the girly way, but I'd rather not waste my time. You and Treasure Trail: what's the deal?"
I growled at her nickname for Berry and tried to keep my temper. "Nothing's going on with Berry," I told her. "Quinn and I just broke up, and Rachel's with Jesse StJerk."
Santana raised an eyebrow and smirked at me.
"What, Lopez?"
"Nothing. I just think it's interesting that I ask you what's up with you and Berry, and you tell me she's taken. You used to say she was an annoying midget who made you want to pull out what's left of your hair. God, what is it about that girl? She wears bizarre clothes, and she's terminally uncool. She doesn't even put out, but you and Jesse and Finn can't get enough! She's like crystal meth or something: idiotic to try, but once you do, you're hooked!"
I laughed, because that was kind of what it was like. The thing was, a lot of the stuff that made Rachel uncool also made her a badass. She wore that awesome naughty schoolgirl shit even though it got her slushied. She announced that girls want sex at the celibacy club and convinced the original gleeks to perform Push It at the assembly, complete with perverted choreography. She said what she wanted and did what she wanted. Plus she was an awesome kisser.
"Whatever, Lopez. Is this about Finn? Are you jealous?"
"No!" she said, a little too sharply.
"It's not like she could steal the one you really want," I said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied, defensively.
I shrugged. "Whatever, Lopez. It's none of my business. Hot, but none of my business."
She smacked the side of my head, and then we went inside the Berry house. Brittany instantly grabbed my arm and led me to a room set up like a dance studio. Santana was right behind us. Quinn, Tina and Rachel were waiting inside. Rachel was dressed up in ballet stuff with her leg up on this rail-thing that was hanging on a wall of mirrors. She was stretching, and eventually, her foot pointed straight up in the air. Damn.
"So for glee?" Brittany began, "I think we should do some lifts? Vocal Adrenaline's always doing lifts and stuff. They're really fast, and they have so many people that it looks cool. But I was thinking that it's like figure skating, where there are technical marks and artistic marks? When it comes to singing, they have really good technical marks, but our singing makes people feel stuff. The audience gets up and dances sometimes, and we make them cry other times. And I think our dancing should make people feel stuff, too. Like a Mia dance."
She had me until that last part. I felt a tugging at my sleeve and looked down.
"Mia Michaels is a talented contemporary choreographer featured on a competitive dance show," Rachel whispered. I just nodded.
"So I came up with some things, but I need Puck and Rachel to try them out."
"Me?" Okay, I may have sounded scared just then, but I wasn't. At all.
"Yeah. Mike and Matt are busy today, and after them, you're the best dancer, so that's why I need you. I'd do it, but when I do it, I can't see what it looks like. I mean, I know there are mirrors, but my teacher says not to look in the mirror when someone's catching and throwing you, 'cause that's dangerous. So that's why I need Rachel."
"Wait, you want me to catch and throw Berry?" It was bad enough when they just wanted me to lift her.
"Don't worry, Noah," Rachel said. "You can do it. You're very good at catching and throwing in football and basketball. I know I'm significantly heavier, but I'm sure your lovely guns can handle it."
I flexed them a little before I could stop myself. "Of course I can lift you. You weigh like twelve pounds. That's not the point, Berry. The point is, unlike a ball, if I dropped you, you would get hurt."
"I'm a trained dancer, Noah. My instructors have taught me the safest ways to fall."
"Seriously?"
"Of course. It's like our ballet instructor always says," Brittany joined Berry in the quote: "You cannot fly if you are afraid to fall."
"Puck, have you seen Dirty Dancing?" Brittany asked.
"No."
"Oh, come on," Santana said. "You expect us to believe that you never used Dirty Dancing to get a girl to make out with you?"
Busted. That movie gets girls hot. They always end up wanting to grind, and since I've got moves, it's not hard to take it from there.
"Okay, maybe I've seen it once or twice. Why?"
"Well, the movie gives a pretty good idea of how lifts work. Rachel's going to kind of run at you, and you're going to catch her and just lift her straight over your head. But it's going to be easier than in the movie, because Rachel has the hard part, but she's trained. She won't break form."
"Isn't lifting harder than being lifted?" I asked.
"Nope," Brittany said simply.
"The hardest part," Berry explained, "is trusting the other person to catch you and lift you. If you don't trust them, you hesitate, and if you hesitate, you get hurt."
What about trusting yourself not to fuck up, I wondered. Then, it was like Berry could read my mind.
"You can do this, Noah. I trust you. You won't drop me. Look, this will be easier if you don't have time to worry about it," she said, kinda jogging away. "Ready?"
And then, she was running straight at me. I latched my hands on her waist and swung her up.
"Good," Brittany said. "Arms straight up, as strong as you can!"
I did it!
"Noah," Berry said, "I forgot one thing."
"What's that?" My arms were starting to shake a tiny bit from being locked this long.
"I jumped before we taught you how to put me down properly."
"San, come spot!" Brittany exclaimed. Then they did that cheerleading thing where they're ready to catch a girl if she falls. "Puck, can you slowly bend your arms?"
I did. I lowered Rachel, her body sliding against mine until her feet touched the floor. She wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed.
"You did wonderfully, Noah!"
"You scared the shit out of me, Babe," I said quietly, tucking some loose hair behind her ear.
"That's because you don't have my sixth sense." Rachel said, "I knew you could do it. I knew you would catch me."
For hours, they made us do all this dance stuff that was harder than anything I'd ever done. It seemed kind of fruity to me, but then Tina had showed me some online clips of these guys—Twitch, Joshua and a badass named Hok—doing similar moves. They didn't look like pussies, and when these guys walked onstage, the girls in the audience went insane. So I did what Brittany, Santana and Quinn said, and kept holding and throwing and catching Rachel. Sometimes the girls would use their hands to adjust my position.
"Ah, ladies, I knew it. This was all an excuse to get your hands on me."
Best of all, Rachel's body was all over mine, and I got to hold her and move with her. These dance guys are onto something, I thought. You get to spend time with a girl, putting your hands all over her. No one lectures you for using you body to say all the shit you can't say out loud. Instead of thinking you're a jerk for it, they think you're an artist. Hell, yeah!
Finally, we were ready to do the whole dance with the music, without Brittany and Santana acting it out for us. It was kind of like sex, only there was nothing to prove, and it wasn't about trying to get to that best part at the end. It was like Rachel and I were alone together inside the song. As song ended, I was on my back on the floor, holding Rachel parallel above me, and she was stiff as a board, but then I lowered her to my body, and she softened the minute her body hit mine. Our lips were almost touching…
"Yay!" Brittany squealed. "That was perfect!"
Next thing I knew, Berry had jumped up, breathing heavily. I got up more slowly.
"Well, Brittany," Rachel said, "if the dance looked like it felt, it's quite powerful. I'm very impressed by your artistry as a choreographer! However, the moves are far too demanding to perform while singing."
"Oh, yeah, I know." Brittany said. "Oh. But…" She looked distressed.
"It's okay, Britt!" Santana said, rolling her eyes. "We can have most people sing while a small group dances. Mike and Matt will pick it up, no problem, so having the six of us dance would probably make the most sense."
"Oh, good!" Brittany exclaimed and laid a big kiss on Lopez. I raised an eyebrow and…okay, maybe I smirked a little.
Santana walked over to me, cell phone in hand, and showed me a video she'd taken of me and Berry dancing. "You say anything," she warned, "and I post this on YouTube."
"Oh, no, a video of me with my hands all over a hot chick!" I said, sarcastically. "Go for it, Lopez. I'm a stud. I could go to school in a tutu and I'd still be a stud. Look, I'm not going to tell anyone about you and Britt, but you make a hot couple. Stop being a pussy."
"Excuse me?"
"When I first dated Berry, I knew I was going to take shit for it, but I was a man about it. Man up. Woman up. Whatever."
"It's not that simple."
"Yeah," I admitted. Berry was unpopular, but no one was going to claim our relationship was a sin or whatever. "Sorry. At least now I know the real reason we broke up."
"I already told you why: your credit score sucks. Britt's credit score is awesome."
"Rachel, let's go get everyone some water," Tina said.
"Okay," Berry agreed. "Noah, start stretching or you could cramp."
I nodded, but once she had climbed the stairs, I turned to the remaining girls. "What the hell? I thought we were here to figure out what was wrong with Berry and how to help her, not to dance all day!"
"I did figure out what was wrong and how to help her," Brittany exclaimed.
"Britt," Quinn said, shaking her head at Brittany.
"What, so now it's a secret?" I asked. "I'm not in on the plan anymore?"
"Remember what I told you outside, Puck?" Santana reminded with an eye-roll. "Girly way."
So, what do you think? Drop a review, please!