Scott was wrong. A backlash began. Most of it was against Rachel and David. Rachel was painted as a diva. The media began to tear her to shreds. She was reported as hard to work with, a bitch, a diva, and cold-hearted. She didn't have time for interviews. She couldn't be bothered to sign things for her fans. She was stuck up her own ass. David was officially out on every magazine. One little slipup in London and they all ran with it as his coming out. Again, Rachel was the diva who tried to upstage him. The press ran that she stepped on his toes when he was attempting to come out. She couldn't stop talking about her gay fathers and made everything into the Rachel Berry show.

"Alan is trying to get as much positive press as possible out there. He's running a counterattack as we speak," Chase explained, as the cast was all gathered at Quinn and Rachel's for another watch party.

"It's fine. People called me diva in high school. It's nothing I haven't heard before," Rachel sighed.

They were all crowded into the living room around the TV. The newest episode wouldn't air for another hour. The pizza was on its way. They were all drinking a little wine or beer…or ginger ale in David's case.

"If a man is professional and works hard, he's called driven. If a woman is a hard working professional, she's labeled a bitch," Courtney remarked, swirling the wine in the bottom of her glass.

"Think you've had enough, Court?" Matt asked slowly.

"You know what, fuck you Gilbert. You're the reason I'm now labeled as a floozy. I'm a slut who apparently just sleeps everyone," Courtney snapped.

"Yeah and I'm the playboy asshole thanks to you," Matt countered.

"Guys, the last thing we need to do is turn on each other," David pleaded softly.

"Please, you're the saint in all of this. The poor little gay who got shoved out of the closet by the big bad diva. You're getting your own storyline arc next season, I wouldn't complain about it," Matt grumbled.

"Hey, don't be a dick," Chase cut in.

"I'm not- I wasn't…it sucks man. I'm sorry you got outted. I didn't think it was going to be like this," Matt sighed.

"Well it's not as if I wasn't out already to my family and friends. It's a little terrifying to be out to the entire country but it wasn't a huge secret. I never really denied it. I wouldn't say I was forced out," David shrugged.

Matt smiled at him and patted him on the back as a silent apology for his earlier comment. David nodded at him.

"This is what Alan was talking about. It happens all the time. People skyrocket to fame and then there's inevitably a backlash. This is our backlash," Chase explained.

Brooke plopped down on the floor on her back. She stuck her feet up in the air. Courtney rolled her eyes and started rubbing Brooke's feet now placed in the Latina's lap.

"I know this is all part of it but I hate being labeled a slut. I've been fighting that stereotype my entire life. I don't mind playing one. Alessandra is a slut. But me, Courtney, I'm a nice girl. I've only slept with handful of people and I've been in relationships with all of them. This sucks," Courtney groaned.

"I know. My mom's been fielding phone calls from PTA members at my sister's school asking if she raised a womanizer," Matt scoffed.

They all chuckled a little. Matt even cracked a smile when Brooke started humming "Womanizer" by Britney Spears.

"So do we come clean?" Courtney questioned.

"And say what?" Matt laughed.

"We do a little press. We all say how much we love and adore Rachel. How entirely untrue all of that is. She's not a diva. She just works hard. We tell them about us. You and I dated. We broke up. We're still great friends. I think the world of you and in turn you…" Courtney trailed off.

"Still love you- but that part might put you in kind of a bad light….I don't know. I guess we could try to fix some things. Get the real stories out there."

"The SING! cast comes clean. A big interview with People magazine," Scott grinned.

"Seriously?" Chase asked with a chuckle.

"Wait, I like it. It could work. Think about it. They can interview us separately. All we have to do is tell the truth. We can come clean about our relationships. We can tell them how much we genuinely enjoy each other. This could work," David pressed excitedly.

"Twitter," Scott suggested.

"God bless you?" Matt laughed uncertainly.

"No! Twitter. Social networking. I know, I know, but think about it. Maybe Courtney had the right idea all along. How fast did the Squirt Gun War go viral? We all get professional, verified Twitter accounts, we start uploading pictures of our watch parties, onset antics, tweet each other birthday messages. We could build up online friendships for the world to see," Scott nodded, opening up his laptop and logging on to his twitter.

"You've been onboard with the twitter from the beginning?" Brooke asked with a giggle.

"Yes, but mine is a private account. I can get a verified public account and so can all of you. Think about it. How many followers do you already have, Court? Chase and Matt have it. How many people follow you when you rarely even use it. We start using them more, promoting our accounts even. Bring it up in an interview. We'll have millions of followers and it will be the perfect way to reach our fans without a middleman. No reporters twisting words around. Nobody commenting on the way we say things. Nobody can say how one of us leapt on top of the other with energetic speeches about ourselves. It's just us and our fans. We control what they get to see."

"I like it. I also enjoy being told that I was right from the beginning. I've been telling you bitches to use Twitter for months now," Courtney nodded.

"We should run it by Alan," Chase agreed.

"Totally. Of course. And I still think we need a few articles out there from legit publications. If we tweet each other, they'll be picked up and ran again by blog after blog but a few actual magazine publications may not be a bad thing to see in the grocery story checkouts," Scott plotted.

"You, my friend, are a genius," David smiled, patting Scott on the back.

Later that night after everyone left, Chase, Rachel, and Quinn sat in the living room staring at the flashing television. The local news was on but the sound had been turned off the TV over an hour ago while everyone had been playing Apples to Apples…which Courtney took pictures of and tweeted. They were friends. The entire cast loved each other. None of them were necessarily looking forward to making a show of their friendships online but if that was the quickest way to squash the backlash, it would be worth it.

"So I guess we've really hit the big time," Chase sighed, collapsing back on the couch next to Rachel.

"Did you talk to her?" Rachel asked, patting Chase's arm.

Quinn quirked her eyebrow but remained silently as she finished off her glass of wine. She watched them both carefully.

"I told her everything. I explained but…I can't imagine how hard it is for her. I mean, I never denied I had a girlfriend but I didn't exactly proclaim it from the rooftops. It's been difficult," Chase groaned, shutting his eyes.

"Do you want me to talk to her? We just rode in the same car. I don't know how Quinn and Courtney snuck in under the radar like that but it wasn't like you and I went on a date. They could tell Cam that they were there, too," Rachel laughed weakly.

Chase looked like he'd aged a year in a week. His normal spiky hair was a little more unkempt from running his hands through it so often. He hadn't been on camera that day so his five o'clock shadow was far more pronounced than usual. He looked tired. Quinn was sure that they all looked exhausted but Chase seemed to be taking it the hardest. He wasn't being labeled a diva or gay but the press was trying so hard to link him to Rachel and it was taking a toll on his real relationship.

"It's not that. She knows there's nothing going on between us. I told her about Josh. She's just…she's tired, I guess. She's been sharing me with the rest of the world and…I haven't shared her with the world at all. I didn't want to. She didn't ask for this. I'm the one on the TV show. She's just a girl I grew up with. She should be entitled to her privacy."

"And that's it? You're just accepting that it's over?" Rachel pouted.

"I'm gonna refill. Anybody else want a glass?" Quinn interrupted gruffly.

Chase and Rachel both seemed to suddenly remember the blonde had even been there. Quinn squashed down the feeling that was creeping up in her chest. She wasn't even sure what it was but the increasing weight on her chest ached. If she ignored it maybe it would go away.

"Oh, um, no thanks, Q. I've gotta drive," Chase attempted a smile in the blonde's direction.

"Fill me up, dear," Rachel winked, handing Quinn her glass. "And Chase, you can stay here if you think you're a little drunk."

Quinn sighed and took Rachel's glass in hand with her own to walk to the kitchen. She paused in the doorway to watch her two costars interact a little more. She really hated the way her stomach was attempting to revolt. Maybe she didn't need anymore wine.

"Yeah right. Press caught me driving in. All I need is pictures of me leaving your apartment the next morning in the same clothes," Chase laughed dryly.

Quinn's stomach twisted violently again and the pressing weight on her chest threatened to crush her. She swallowed thickly and escaped to the kitchen. They were friends. Why would it matter if that changed? Quinn couldn't shake the unease in her gut.

"I can talk to Josh. Maybe he is okay with the idea of going public," Rachel suggested.

Chase smiled at Rachel gently. Rachel was always willing to put herself in the crossfire for her friends. How the media labeled her a diva was beyond him.

"Don't worry about it. Your relationship is yours. Deal with it all on your own terms. Don't go public just to save my sinking ship. I think Cam and I have been drowning for a while."

Quinn sulked back into the room and caught the end of Chase's thought. She couldn't figure out why she hated Chase and Rachel's friendship so much. Chase was a wonderful friend to both of them. Once the press started running stories about a budding relationship between the two costars, things started getting weird. Chase's relationship with Cameron went from on-the-rocks to practically non-existent. Rachel's casual flirtation with Josh, the friend of a Broadway friend that she met in San Francisco, went from just that- casual flirtation to a secret romance that only Quinn, Chase, and of course Josh were aware of. It had been eating away at Quinn for weeks. Her stomach twisted again and she fought against it. She wouldn't focus on such feelings and let them get to her.

Also Jessica's name had been thrown around by the press a few more times in random outings with the paparazzi. Apparently, the other girl had spoken to a blog or something about her history with Quinn Fabray. She didn't out Quinn per say but she had certainly hinted that the blonde TV star cheerleader might be something other than 100% straight. So the backlash had continued for everyone.

Quinn had in turn become a recluse. She avoided going out in public unless she was heading to work or it was mandatory for work. She'd been caught several times glaring at paparazzi who asked the wrong questions at the wrong times. She was getting a reputation as a bitch in Hollywood by the media.

Rachel the diva. Chase the boy in love with the diva. Quinn the bitchy cheerleader. Courtney the slut. Matt the playboy. David the homo. Scott and Brooke were the only ones to come off relatively clean in the whole thing. Though there had been some speculation about whether Brooke's relationship would last and if Scott wasn't totally straight because he had been in a boyband once. The rest of them were being labeled as their characters. The only upside had been that Quinn's actual bitchy cheerleading past hadn't come out yet.

"Quinn, get in here," Rachel shrieked.

Quinn finally made her presence known. She walked further into the room with the two wine glasses and bottle of wine in hand. Rachel nodded towards the TV and turned the volume back on.

"Sources are now saying that Quinn Fabray may be a little closer to her onscreen character than originally let on," came spilling from the speakers.

An image of Quinn in her Sam Ripley costume was paired next to a picture of high school Quinn in a Cheerios uniform. Both pictures were scowling.

"And then the earth opens up and swallows me whole," Quinn muttered, clutching the wine glasses tighter.

"Turns out, Fabray was a national cheerleader champion on McKinley High's Cheerios squad. However, the story goes deeper than that. Remember when SING! first started gracing our televisions with its upbeat songs and witty dialogue-"

Cut to a clip of the pilot of SING! with the glee club members performing one of their biggest hits which shot straight to the top of the iTunes charts in the first week after the premiere. It had been the song that really made the show a phenomenon as it was currently being labeled.

"We previously ran a story about SING!'s resident glee club diva being in a glee club with her cheerleading costar in high school. The girls were in fact classmates and glee-mates but now we're finding out also enemies. That's right, you heard it here first. SING!'s best friend duo and now real life best friend duo and roommates used to be enemies. Fabray was the popular girl who tortured the glee club for years. Berry was the star receiving the brute of her torment."

"Oh God."

"Oh no."

Rachel and Quinn muttered at the same time.

The show cut to actual footage of Quinn shoulder checking Rachel in the hallway during sophomore year. The Cheerios uniform was firmly in place and Finn Hudson was by her side looking back to Rachel and the camera. It was eerily familiar to the first episode of SING! before Emily and Sam had become friends through glee club.

"Jewfrow," Quinn hissed.

"That's not all. Fabray's past is twisted. The girls have both talked about sharing a high school history. But their history is complicated- involving teen pregnancy, adoption, and you guessed it: the same boyfriend," the voice over played over clips of the two singing and dancing together on SING!

There was a loud crash and Rachel squeaked. She turned to find Quinn shaking amid a mess of broken glass. The shattered wine glasses and bottle were at her feet. She was pale as a ghost and her whole body was quivering.

"Oh shit," Chase shouted and ran over to Quinn.

He picked her up and placed her away from the shattered glass while Rachel ran for a rag. Quinn was leaning against the wall silently crying and shaking.

"Honey," Rachel whispered, her heart breaking as she wiped the wine from Quinn's feet and legs making sure she hadn't been cut.

"She's a minor. They can't- they can't run stories about her. She's not even mine anymore, she's- they can't print her name. They can't," Quinn muttered anxiously.

Rachel stood up and wrapped her arms around the blonde. Quinn cried into Rachel's hair. The brunette exchanged looks with the boy across the room. Chase finished sweeping up the broken glass and let himself out.

Later that night, the two were tucked under a blanket together on the couch. The television was off and the only light came spilling in from the kitchen behind them. The living room was basically dark. Quinn stared out of the glass door to their balcony, breathing deeply while Rachel's fingers danced over the blonde's palm. They were cuddled close together. Quinn had finally calmed down but only seemed to be calm when Rachel was touching her. If they were apart, Quinn's head took over and she started to freak out.

"So the lawyers say that Beth's name will be kept out of the media. Alan said we'll have to deal with this the best that we can. It will need to be addressed. We'll have to talk briefly about our past but the important thing is that we're here now. You're my best friend and my roommate. There is no one in the world who is more important to me than you. You're my sanity in this business," Rachel explained, keeping her voice low and soothing.

Quinn nodded but remained silent.

"He said maybe you could take to your tumblr. You could write a statement of sorts. We'll do a few interviews together. We'll talk about the normal high school drama. I'll mention how brave you were and the amazing person you are for giving your daughter the best life you could have at seventeen. You'll explain that since she is not an actor or has any aspirations toward fame, you would hope that people will respect her privacy and your own in leaving a child out of the mess of show business," Rachel continued, still tracing patterns on Quinn's palm.

"I talked to Shelby and Mark," Quinn said softly.

"Mark?"

"My old roommate. He's..he and his girlfriend, fiancé- they called it off. He's agreed to help me out. We're going to have dinner," Quinn replied.

"Dinner? I'm confused," Rachel smiled, laughing slightly at the strange direction the conversation was going.

Quinn finally looked at her sadly. She grimaced and nodded. She knew this next part wouldn't go over well. Rachel was such an open book. She wouldn't support Quinn lying to everyone.

"Mark and I will go to dinner. We'll see some movies. People can draw their own conclusions. He's not seeing anyone and he said it wouldn't hurt for his latest project to get a little more visibility. It's not like I'll go on record saying he's my boyfriend or something."

"A beard? Really?" Rachel asked, trying but failing to hide the disappointment in her voice.

Quinn groaned. She knew Rachel would be disappointment in her.

"Stop it, Rachel. I know, okay. I'm not going to say I'm dating him. We're not going public with a false relationship. We are friends who are going to catch up and if the media draws its own conclusions…people think I'm bitch. That's okay. I am. I really can be a huge bitch. And you know, I was. I was a horrible person in high school and it was only a matter of time until somebody leaked how awful I was to you. I made a lot of mistakes. Having Beth was never one of them. They may not publish her name. They may not hound her for pictures. But people will know. Not the entire country but more people will know than they did yesterday. I spoke with Shelby. I trust Shelby and I know that she will handle it. She'll take care of Beth and she won't let it change her life in any negative way…but…I've had one girlfriend, Rachel. I've been in love once…with a girl…I'm not like David. My family-they don't know, or maybe they do. We don't discuss it. Even if it's not a secret, it's not something we talk about. Shelby doesn't know. Beth doesn't know. Some of my friends know...but I'm still largely in the closet, "Quinn admitted, sounding more ashamed with each word.

Rachel stopped tracing patterns and laced her fingers through Quinn's instead. She locked their hands together and squeezed reassuringly. She smiled at Quinn. She knew this had to be difficult for Quinn. Being called a diva was something Rachel was used to. Having the entire country pry into Quinn's life, prying into Beth. Champs had been popular but not big enough that major publications even cared about the show or its stars. She'd been in Teen Bop. They didn't really dig into Quinn's past. They were concerned about her preference of vampires or werewolves.

"Thanks to this show, people love us and we are everywhere now- but our privacy is disappearing and it's costing us. I know we'll handle it. The things that they've leaked already, we can handle it. Most of our relationships are okay if they were strong enough to begin with. I feel terrible for Chase and Cameron, but Brooke and Michael are fine. It sucks for Matt and Courtney but they're still friends and they'll be fine. It really suck for you and I but…but we're still friends and we'll be fine no matter how they twist our past and bring up awful feelings we've tried to put behind us. We'll be okay because you're my best friend," Quinn gave Rachel a tiny half smile.

Quinn's pep talk was more for herself than Rachel but the brunette nodded and agreed anyway.

"We're gonna be fine. I'm never worried about us, Quinn."

"I can handle the stories about Beth. Her status as minor and the fact that she's adopted- those things protect her. We haven't had a lot of contact. She's not really mine for them to pry into...I haven't told my mother. I don't know if we've had a real conversation in at least three years. It's still better than it ever was in high school but- I haven't actually told her. I'm sure she knows. It's not exactly a secret but I've never come out and said...those words to my own mother. My father- he even called me after the show started picking up steam. I know it was more for namesake or publicity. His daughter is famous now. I'm sure people were asking questions. I'm just…I'm not ready for the world to know. I don't care about him. I don't care if my father never supports me but I'm not ready to lose my mom again. I think she knows and I doubt she cares but on the off-chance that- well, I'd like to tell her in my own time than have Entertainment Tonight tell her for me. There are so many people who have no idea. Mercedes. Artie. Sam. Any of them really. You, Santana, and Brittany are the only ones from high school who know. I'm not ready and they're really digging for any stories they can get on us. If this is next- if this gets to Shelby and Beth before I can- if they need a story to write, I'd rather be in control of what they can speculate about."

"And Mark's totally aware of the situation and he's okay with it? When did you talk to him? Have you been planning this for a while?" Rachel asked, finding it difficult to swallow the entire idea.

Logically she knew why Quinn was concerned. Still, she was her fathers' daughter. They were proud. They were open. She couldn't imagine either one of them going on dinner dates with a woman just to let other people speculate.

"After London, I called him. We talked about it a little. Nothing was set in stone. I texted him tonight."

Rachel took a deep breath and nodded.

"I know you don't agree with this and I know you've been saying since day one that I should be proud of who I am, that I can be a real voice for a lot of teens. I wish I could be the person that you think I can be. I'm not that strong," Quinn sighed as a tear slid down her cheek.

Rachel's heart broke. As much as she didn't want everything to blow up in Quinn's face, she also couldn't stand to be the person to cause her any pain. If that meant going along with Quinn essentially having a beard then Rachel would support her for the time being. Things were changing far too fast and it was probably easier to deal with her issues with her sexuality than really worry about Beth when they've had so little contact.

"Quinn, I may not always agree with you but I will support you in whatever you feel you need to do to be happy. As far as the other stuff goes, you are the strongest person I know. You always have been. It's okay if you're not ready now. I know you will be. Someday, you'll be that strong and I will still be here supporting you no matter what," Rachel smiled, wiping Quinn's tears.

She cupped Quinn's face in her hands and leaned forward to press her lips against the blonde's forehead. Quinn sighed. The blonde closed her eyes at the contact. The twisting in her stomach returned in a different way. It twisted but it fluttered, almost like butterflies. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind again. She squashed down whatever she was feeling and focused on taking the heat off Beth and keeping whatever privacy she could manage. It wasn't the first time she questioned why someone with as many secrets and skeletons in her closet as herself chose to be in show business. One look at the brunette by her side and she remembered part of the perks of the business. It hadn't been her first career choice. Quinn never thought she'd end up here...but she couldn't regret having a second chance at the best friendship she'd ever known. She couldn't regret seeing the world from a totally new vantage point. Most importantly, she couldn't regret sharing her new experiences with Rachel Berry.

That's normal to feel for your best friend, right?