Quinn knew she should have stayed. Regret circled her mind during the rest of her lessons, distracting her from the information needed to retain her oh so important GPA.

It wasn't like they were friends, not anymore at least, both of them had changed beyond recognition, and yet a part of her felt like she owed it to him. No, if she was to keep her status as reinstated HBIC she needed to focus on other parts of her life: Finn, the Cheerios, her intimidation of the lower classes of students (which incidentally included Ray).

She knew she didn't have to worry about him spilling the beans about her alter ego of the past as her dirt on him was much bigger. So why did she care? She left that life and every part of it behind when she made the transition to Quinn. She made the sacrifices (namely students lower down on the social hierarchy) and now was revered. She even managed to come back from teen pregnancy for god's sake.

The thought of Beth sent the familiar twang of loss and longing into her diaphragm, which she then stubbornly suppressed. Those things were things of the past; she wouldn't let them cling onto her like Jacob Ben Israel to any mildly attractive girl. She was a self-made and remade woman. It hadn't been easy getting to the top and she sure as hell wasn't going to let herself slip down again like a teenage female Sisyphus.

The last bell rang and she groaned internally as she realised she had Cheerios practice. Jogging over to the pitch she ran into the other two members of the Unholy Trinity. Quinn rolled her eyes at the disgusting heart-eyes they were shooting at each other and tried to slip past unnoticed, but Santana wasn't going to let that happen.

"What's got its stick shoved up your ass, Q?" She smirked. "That came out dirtier than expected. Please don't say Finn."

Quinn wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Ew and there is no stick up my ass Santana. Get to practice or Sue will have your heads."

Santana snorted and followed after her as she strode away, Brittany dutifully skipping behind.

"You're even more tightly wound than usual, Juno. What's the deal?"

"When your face does that it usually means you make us do extra laps during practice." Brittany chimed in.

"If you two don't drop it now I'll make you wish you just had to do extra laps."

Santana give a low whistle.

"Whatever it is, it sure has your panties in a twist."

"Hey dude!"

Ray heard Sam calling down the corridor but decided it couldn't possibly be for him. He carried on down the hall, dodging the odd football player and cheerio, and headed to his usual lunch spot.

"Dude, wait up!"

Okay maybe it was for him. Ray turned around to face his new semi-friend. They didn't really see each other much but out of all the kids at McKinley, Sam was probably the closest Ray had to a friend.

"Finn invited the Glee guys to a video game night at his tonight as a sort of bonding exercise for us newbies. You wanna go?" Sam quirked his rather full lips into a hopeful smile, hoping to not be the only newbie there.

Everything in Ray told him to say no. Socialisation versus Friday night at home singing along to Chicago in his room. It wasn't really a comparison. But the look in Sam's eyes, that actually made him feel wanted, made him hesitate.

"I'm not much of a gamer…" He tried lamely.

"From what I've heard neither is Mike. Don't worry you won't be alone."

If he was going to be part of this Glee club, he should at least try and make some acquaintanceship with its members.

"Fine, as long as there are no disturbing initiation rituals."

Sam laughed heartily, which brought a smile to Ray's lips.

"I can't promise anything." He replied with a wink. "I'm gonna go hit the gym. See you after school!"

And with that he jogged off to further assert his masculinity. The warm smile stayed on Ray's lips as he made his way past the lunch hall to the chairs outside. Though it was kind of cold outside, sitting there for lunch meant less people noticed his loneliness. However as he sat in his usual spot, the seats next to and opposite him were suddenly filled.

Kurt and a girl he remembered as Mercedes made themselves comfortable as Ray stared, confused.

"You don't mind if we sit with you, do you?" Kurt asked.

Ray dumbly shook his head, unsure why the two resident divas had sought out his company.

"We noticed you don't have anyone to sit with and since you're in Glee, you're part of the family now." Mercedes added, as if reading his mind.

Warmth spread from his stomach into his limbs as the two of them tucked into their meals. Soon enough, Artie, Tina and Mike had all joined them, chatting with Ray like they were old friends. The group got onto the topic of slushies and when Ray mentioned how he'd never been slushied they all looked at him in shock.

"But… how?" Artie asked, perplexed. "I mean not to be rude or anything but you're not really high in the social hierarchy. How come you've never been hit by the ice grenade?"

Ray shrugged.

"I guess I just managed to keep under the radar. No one really knew who I was."

They all looked slightly sheepish at that, realising that they too hadn't known who he was before he auditioned.

"Anonymity has its perks." He added with a small smile.

"Well now you've joined Glee you should probably start bringing in a spare outfit, you won't stay under the radar for long." Kurt said sympathetically.

Trepidation crept into Ray's chest as he saw the uneasy faces of his fellow club members.

"You won't have to go through it alone though. We're all veterans." Mike added, noticing that they were scaring away a valuable asset to the New Directions.

The other glee clubbers nodded their agreement.

"Once you've had a few you almost get used to it." Artie said.

"Welcome to my humble room." Finn spread his large arms wide and hit one into the wall.

The glee boys (minus Kurt as he didn't like to be associated as such) squeezed into Finn's room, Puck carrying Artie bridal style. He placed him down on the bed and the rest of them made themselves comfortable on various pieces of furniture as Finn fiddled with the console.

"There's only four controllers so we're gonna have to take turns."

Puck and Artie stuck their hands out immediately.

"Bags first go." They said simultaneously.

Finn chuckled and chucked the controllers to them. He held out the other two to Ray and Sam. Sam grinned and thanked him but Ray declined.

"Uh I think I'll sit out of this one." He said.

Finn shrugged and handed it to an eager Mike. Puck snorted.

"My man Artie and I are gonna destroy you guys."

"It's on." Sam responded in traditional competitive spirit.

Naturally, he and Mike lost spectacularly, getting killed in multiple creative ways. Having observed in horror the decimation of the game characters, Ray wasn't particularly looking forward to his turn. They had the winners stay on and Ray and Finn inherited Sam and Mike's controllers. Artie and Puck fist bumped and tried to psych out their opponents but Ray was having none of it. His game face was on and he was going to win this.

The characters appeared on the screen and he got to work. The first minute or so was him pointing his gun at the floor and spinning in circles. Fortunately, the others didn't manage to find him before he figured out the controls and got his act together.

He went on the prowl, exercising precision and patience. His fellow club members didn't see him coming. Sniper rifle, grenade, AK 47. He was ruthless. Ray Berry was a machine. Whenever he got competitive he would go all out and he was a fast learner.

"Bro, what the hell!" Puck exclaimed after he'd been killed once again.

Sam chuckled.

"I wanna be on Ray's team next."

The boys switched in and out but no one could beat the prodigy and soon the others got bored of being killed in inventive ways.

"How 'bout we jam in the garage, I got a drumkit, guitar and I think Kurt has a microphone somewhere?" Finn suggested as he saw Puck's face grow stormier and feared for the survival of his controller. He'd been on the receiving end of Puck's passes during football.

Artie and Sam, who were on the same page as Finn agreed but Ray cried out in protest, completely engrossed in the action.

"I'm just getting the hang of this! We can't stop now!"

The others looked at him incredulously.

"What have we done?" Whispered Artie.

With some struggling and arm locks, Finn and Sam managed to wrestle Ray and Puck from the screen and into the garage. Once away from the narcotic graphics Ray recaptured his senses and felt a little sheepish. Puck seemed to have gotten over the embarrassment and rushed for the guitar while Finn went to find the microphone.

"Couldn't find any other instruments apart from this one." Finn said holding up a bright red ukulele that looked miniature in his giant hands.

The ukulele ended up with Sam and with Finn on the drums and Puck on guitar, Ray and the others were singing.

"Uh I'm not much of a singer." Mike said.

Inwardly Ray fist pumped, more parts for him. Outwardly though he obviously showed his consolation.

"You could always do backing vocals?" He suggested.

Mike shrugged and muttered something about there not being enough space for his moves.

"What're we even gonna play?" Sam asked.

The ukulele was an interesting addition but they managed to struggle through most of an acoustic version of Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. By the last chorus they were all in the groove of things and it was starting to sound pretty awesome. Ray could feel the warm feeling of a sense of belonging stir inside him as he sang along with the other boys. If younger Ray could see him now he'd be so proud.

A week later they were playing it in Glee for the girls, Kurt and Mr Shue. Mr Shue was extremely excited by the co operation of such a large number of them without prompting.

"That was amazing! A little... explicit for competition, but your dedication is exactly what we'll need if we're gonna beat Vocal Adrenaline."

Kurt and the girls all looked stunned, so used to being the ones pulling the weight at Glee.

"Are we going to get a response from you guys?" Mr Shue asked the dumb audience. "Not hopped up on drugs this time I hope."

"Oh it's on." Santana said, the idea of competition rousing her from her surprise.

"Right! Next time we'll hear from the girls- oh and Kurt, sorry."

"Don't worry I get it all the time." Kurt replied nonchalantly.

Mr Shuester chuckled uncomfortably and motioned for the boys to sit down.

Ray hadn't been paying attention to any of the discourse happening. His attention was completely fixated on trying to figure out the gaze he had felt on him since the beginning of the song. He couldn't quite figure out the expression on Quinn's face and trying to not be too obvious in his examination was making it harder. Her eyes had an almost narcotised quality to them, as if her mind were completely somewhere else, which completely contrasted her fixed eyeline in his direction.

Mr Shue clapped loudly which seemed to snap them both out of their reverie.

"Okay, its sorted then. The girls and Kurt will come up with a response for next lesson. That good with everyone?"

A chorus of murmured affirmations replied and the students began heading home, the spirit of competition buzzing in their veins.