Rachel headed down the hallway towards the room number Santana had given her in class the week before. She was a little wary of meeting the girl outside of class. Santana had seemed overly perky. She just hoped that the other girl wasn't too tactile. Rachel didn't do well with touchy feely. It reminded her too much of her fathers. She let her thoughts wander for a moment. Were her dads okay? Had people stopped bothering them? Did they miss her? She sighed and shook her head, not ready to go down that road at this particular moment.
Taking a deep breath, Rachel lifted her hand to knock at the door. She'd finally found herself in front of the door to the Lopez room. Letting gravity do the work, the brunette knocked on the door and waited for a response from the other side.
Quinn was first up, because Santana was still busily bopping along to her music and reading, and she didn't want to bother her roommate if she didn't need to. It might lead to conversation, and the Latina had a tendency to pry.
She opened the door and blinked, surprised. "Uh - hi. It's Rachel, right? Were you looking for San, or did you just have the wrong room?"
Rachel was caught off guard at Quinn's appearance at the door. "Oh, hello. Yes...I'm here to see Santana. She invited me. I had no idea you were her roommate..." she kept her guard up just in case this was another trick. She wasn't sure what to think considering the last meeting that had taken place between her and the taller girl in front of her.
"Come in," Quinn gestured, stepping back. "Lopez!" she shouted, waving an arm. "You've got company!" she rolled her eyes and gestured, creating an icicle that she used to poke Santana's cheek before she let it melt. She turned back to Rachel.
"I wanted to...apologize," the word came through gritted teeth. "I was kind of a bitch to you the other day - I mean, I'm kind of a bitch to everyone, just ask around, but...it wasn't much of a welcome, and this is supposed to be a safe place for specials. So I'm sorry."
Rachel hesitated for a moment before nodding and stepping inside the room. "Thank you," she said, staying relatively out of the way. She looked around the room, noticing it was a bit different than her single room. She'd specifically told Dr. Schuester that it would be better for her to live alone than to be given a roommate.
At Quinn's apology, Rachel looked surprised. "Well, I don't tend to hold grudges so you are forgiven. I apologize for...using my ability on you. I've never been to a place like this and most of the times I've been..." she trailed off, not wishing to give more of herself away than necessary. Thinking about her fathers has made her guard come down slightly. "Nevertheless, I'm sorry as well. I will not do that again. I hope we can be civil to each other during the school year."
"I'm sure we can," Quinn promised. "And I'd appreciate that - I had a migraine for the rest of the day, and it was like the memory of every bad thing that ever happened to me forced its way to the front of my brain. Kinda sucked," she smiled. She noticed Santana approaching and gave Rachel a hesitant nod. "Anyway - I'll be over there," she pointed at her bed, "but if you guys want some privacy or whatever, just let me know."
"Hey!" Santana bounced up. "Sorry, I didn't hear you knock. I have bad news - I'm not sure I have anything vegan in my care package. I'll make sure she sends something you can eat next time, I promise!"
She gestured at her bed. "Come sit! How's classes and stuff going so far?"
Rachel simply nodded at Quinn and watched the girl head back to her bed. She turned to Santana as the excitable girl bounded over to her. "It's quite all right. I figured that you probably wouldn't. Most people don't cook for a vegan lifestyle. Please, don't trouble your mother for me. I'm doing fine with the few options in the cafe," she explained with a small smile. "It was kind enough of you to offer."
The brunette moved into the room, but leaned against the wall. It was in her nature to never get too comfortable in one place. She never knew when an attack would come. Even in her own room she was always alert. "Things are going well. I should be caught up to the current material in my classes by the end of the week. How about you?" she asked politely.
"No, she'll totally do something up for you. I told you, I feed everybody around her," Santana laughed. She watched Rachel lean against the bedroom wall, still looking tense.
"I'm doing okay, I think! Classes are okay, and Puck's a pretty awesome trainer. Are you training with him, or did you get Jesse?"
Rachel smiled and nodded. "Well, then please extend my personal thanks to her. Your mother sounds like a very kind and wonderful woman," she said while running a hand through her hair. "I'm with Noah. Although, I really don't understand why I need the training. I'm hoping that I can talk to Dr. Schuester once the semester has finished and get out of it." She sighed at the thought of training every single day. There wasn't much that Puck could teach her that she didn't already know. The only person who could possibly help her at this point would be another stronger telepath, which would be rare.
She remembered her fathers telling her how powerful her gift was and that she had been a very rare case. The brunette frowned. She didn't want to go down that train of thought again. "I have yet to meet Jesse," she said simply to the other girl.
"I will, I promise," Santana agreed. "You should totally stay in training, though - even if he doesn't know your power, he can help. He helps me, and there's nobody like me around. And even if he can't do that, at least it's good exercise. And that can't hurt, right?" she smiled. "Jesse's...different. I mean, he's good at what he does," she couldn't find it in her to say anything bad about the young man, "but he's...hard. Kind of unforgiving."
Rachel sighed and looked over at Santana, crossing her arms. "You're still learning your power though, Santana. You and I are...quite a bit different. I have no doubt Noah is a great mentor. He seems like a very nice guy and I don't have a problem with him. I just don't need a mentor and I'm sure his time spent with me could be better allocated elsewhere," she shrugged, explaining herself in a bored tone.
"I suppose it's a good thing I had Noah instead of Jesse then. I have a feeling we wouldn't have seen eye-to-eye and I don't take well to unfriendly people," she said, smirking across the room at Quinn for a moment before turning back to Santana.
Quinn raised an eyebrow, but didn't rise to the bait. She didn't want to fight.
Santana nodded agreement. "Well, sure - but practice is good, right? I mean, even if you know how to use your power outside of school, learning to use it someplace controlled, it's got to be good. Plus it means spending time with Puck, which is pretty awesome." She grinned.
"Yeah, you probably would have got in fights with him. It does happen sometimes," she admitted, still trying not to be too critical of the trainer. "But hey, that might have been good practice too!"
Rachel just shrugged. "I suppose practice is good. I don't like using my power though, Santana. I hate it..." she address the other girl. 'And myself a lot of the time,' she thought with a sigh. "As for spending time with Noah, he seems sweet. He's not my type though. Feel free to have him." She rolled her eyes slightly and chuckled.
"I don't like fighting with people. Especially when the fights are unnecessary. There is already enough hatred in the world, why would I wish to propagate any more of it?" she questioned sadly. Santana was so naive and innocent about these things. Rachel could tell. She didn't want to dampen the girl's spirit.
"Oh," Santana frowned. She was used to her power, which she barely noticed most of the time. Even Quinn, who'd seemed withdrawn and barely ever happy for as long as she'd known her, seemed okay with her power. She didn't know there were people who were unhappy with using them. She blushed at Rachel's last sentence. "I - uhm, I didn't mean that, I just..." she cleared her throat and tried to stop blushing.
"I didn't mean - you know, real fighting, not the kind that hurts people, but sometimes people got mad at being pushed so hard. Sorry - I didn't mean anyone really fights around here. We're all kind of a family, we don't really fight."
Rachel just gave her friend a sad smile. "It's quite all right, Santana. You didn't offend me. I was just explaining my own views," she said, offering the girl a nod to let her know everything was all right. "I know what you meant. I just don't really like it. It doesn't mean I don't push back when I get pushed around, but I don't like to do it." She looked over at Quinn and shook her head with a sigh.
Quinn raised both eyebrows this time. "You know, for someone who doesn't hold a grudge, you sure seem to look at me a lot when you mention getting in fights."
She caught a glare from Santana (or the closest thing the overly-bouncy girl could manage, at least) and sighed. "Sorry. Forget I said anything. I'm not even here."
"That's not what I..." Rachel just shook her head and pushed off of the wall. "My apologies. I believe I have overstayed my welcome here. Please extend my thanks to your mother, Santana, for thinking of me when she doesn't even know me. It is very kind of her." She walked over to the door and opened it.
"Thank you for allowing me inside your living quarters. I shall leave you to continue your studies in peace," she nodded to both girls in thanks and stepped back into the hallway. It seemed that her encounters with Quinn would not get any easier. Perhaps it was her fault, she should have explained herself more clearly. It didn't matter anymore.
Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she began her trek back to her own room.
"Rachel, wait!" Santana followed her outside, her socks skidding on the slippery floor. "Wait!" she caught up to her in a few steps. "I'm sorry. Sometimes people don't really...get Quinn. She wasn't really serious. She does that eyebrow thing when she's making a joke. She's not very good at joking."
"You don't have to come back right now if you don't want, but you're always welcome, okay? Quinn's like that with everybody, but she won't throw you out or anything. I'd really like to hang out with you - listen to music, or play cards or something. Just know you can, okay? Or I can come to your room?"
Rachel turned at the sound of Santana's voice. "You don't need to apologize, Santana. Quinn is right, I suppose. Today hasn't been the best of days and perhaps I may not have been making myself very clear," she sighed, thinking back to her fathers before wiping them from her mind again. "Thank you for the offer. I will keep it in mind." She offered Santana a broken smile and turned back to head to her room.
"Thank you again for inviting me. That was kind of you," she called out over her shoulder.
"Anytime!" Santana called after her. "I'll have some food to share with you soon!" She wanted to chase after the smaller girl, but something told her that might be what Doctor Schuester had once referred to as her overaggressive tendencies, and so she clamped down on it and turned back toward her room.
"Quinn," she whispered under her breath. Her roommate had never been particularly friendly, but she seemed even more distant than usual this year. She didn't respond well to being pushed, though, so she couldn't even ask why.