STOLEN KISS

(Rachel)

"Santy, your dresses are too short and pasted in the body!" I took a good look in her wardrobe at five-twenty in the morning.

"Just now you noticed?" She put her bag on the bedroom door.

"You need a more suitable outfit to watch a musical on Broadway."

"First, I'm not going to New York to watch musicals. Second, I won't go to a fucking musical. Third, If I have the opportunity to go out, I would rather visit a pub. Forth, even if I wanted to go to the theater, I think my dresses, my boots and my pants are perfectly adequate."

"I still think..."

"Ray, I'm going to New York to do a fucking test, ok?"

I looked seriously at my sister. Santana had prepared a bigger bag than mine. I sorted the clothes that we would wear in the competition and two seedlings, besides the pajamas. It was more than enough for a weekend. Santana, in addition to the things of the competition, prepared a suitcase to spend three days in New York. In one of them, she would at Stuyvesant High School auditioning for admission along with dozens of other candidates. If she gets it, and my intuition said she will, my sister will move to New York in the summer. It was so weird to think about.

"What are the real chances of you get it?" I sat on the bed as watched Santana get a small handbag.

"Remote!" She muttered. "Do you really want to discuss about this at five in the morning?"

"How remote it could be? You are a genius!"

"I can be for the Lima standards, but the education I receive at McKinley is lower than what is seen in Stuyvesant. I heard that students there learn college-level calculus. How can I compete with that?"

"Even if you doing special class?"

Santana grumbled. She didn't like being reminded that she attending three times a week the super-nerds class of McKinley, as she used to say. One day, she said that she spends most of the time in silence and doing exercises and that's better than interact with "peers". On the other hand, I think she would appreciate to be tested academically. Santana had little patience with the trivial and the math teacher was her master target of bulling.

"Do you think we'll go through the Regional this time?" I changed the subject.

"Our number to the technical round is very good, even if controversial. I honestly think it is our strongest. If we make it, the original songs will impact, mostly because the jury won't have other references to compare our performance with."

"What worries me most is that the only team that we know is the Warblers. At least they are predictable. Blaine would sing something by Pink or Katy Perry or any other pop music that appears in the Billboard Top 10."

"Truth." Santana giggled. "On the other hand, they are superior in set and they probably will win the technical round. But we have the best soloists and we know how to entertain, which is better for the artistic round, the one that matter." I started giggling, which confused Santana. "What?"

"I've never imagined us discussing technical points of Glee even in my wildest dreams!"

"You should throw water on your face." She finished her packing.

"Brittany is going with us?"

"No. It will be just you and me this time."

"Why can't we invite Finn?"

"I hate just being in the same room with that stupid, and then I won't be with him in my car. My stomach wraps to know that you are still like him."

"I have no interest in anyone else."

"It's because you haven't opened your eyes to anyone else. At the moment you do, you will see how much that asshole is just an ordinary talentless guy who loves to be the leader. Then you will realize how much you deserve somebody better."

I picked up Santana's suitcase and left dragging it down the stairs. Santana's disdain for Finn irritated me. They had a past and didn't like each other, I got it. But I expected a superiority act in exchange for peace, after all, Finn and I were getting along again and for officially dating again was a matter of semantics. And Santana was wrong: I haven't closed my eyes to other people: I had Jesse and Puck, I kissed Blaine and had an experience with Laura. But Finn was always the one who filled my feelings and desires. There was nobody else.

Santana and I said goodbye to your father and got in the car. Regionals were in Cleveland this time. The plan was first to arrive at our grandparents' and then go to the theater. Because of the larger number teams, the competition would take place in two days. In the first, 12 would perform and seven would be eliminated. The top five would return the next day when only one would be classified for Nationals. Our team would spend the night in a hostel, but it would be silly face a shared room if we had something more comfortable. That's why we ask our grandparents to allow the girls stay in the guest house and save some money. They agreed.

We left Lima at six in the morning. Santana drove over the hour and a half on the road and we arrived in Cleveland in time to have breakfast with our grandparents. Zaide was excited about the trip to New York. He was convinced that Santana would be approved and, thus, be prepared to proceed to the family business. Bubbee, on the other hand, seemed more interested in the competition. Arts had always been her favorite subject.

"Why can't I go watch you today?" Bubbee asked slightly offended.

"Because the technical round is the most tiring day, and the best numbers are always made on the second day." Santana argued. What she wanted was not allowed bubbee to see our first controversial number.

"What about the girls who will sleep here?" She asked.

"They will come at night, after the round, bubbee, if that is okay." I said.

"It's all right. I just want to be sure to leave everything prepared for you and your friends. We've never welcomed any of them before, even Brittany. It's quite exciting."

When we left to the theater, Santana had the pleasure of driving Zaide's brand new Cadillac. The car looked like a comfortable spaceship full of appeals that you barely hear the engine noise. Our modest Nissan couldn't compare with. Once I parked my car besides Zaide's, I saw my team right there near the school bus, stretching arms and legs after a not so long trip. Most of the team members have a car but the bus was a school police rule, I think, that's why my fellows travelled so uncomfortably.

"At least I know I won't see that damn bus until tomorrow" Mercedes took her bag on the Cadillac suitcase. "The others can go with Rachel. I wanna get in this damn Cadillac. What a car, Santana!"

"It's my grandpa's." My sister helped Tina with her bag.

"I think I will love meet them."

I was surprised by Quinn's approach with a camera in hand. She smiled and took my photo. I didn't remember seeing her with that kind of professional camera and even knew Quinn liked to take pictures. She seemed lighter too, after had left the cheerios. I thought she was even more beautiful with her hair down, if that was possible.

"That was great!" She smiled and showed me the result. Flawless.

"I didn't know that you photographed!"

"I've photographed since I can remember." She lifted the camera. "This was one of the few things my father couldn't take from me."

"You will take photos of the Regionals?"

"I was thinking more on registering our backstage."

"We could make a gallery in our choir room! It would be inspirational, especially if we win."

"That's a good idea."

"Rachel, Quinn..." Mike called us.

It was time to get dressed and focus. The New Directions would be the seventh group on the program. As more teams were qualified from the Sectionals this year, so the organization changed the maximum time to seven minutes for each performance. The competition began in the afternoon with a surprising full house. Most of the teams have opted to perform tunes from the popular repertoire. Things like the beautiful "Sound of Silence", a great adaptation of "Let it Be" and a unusual "Gimme Shelder".

It was a shock when New Directions went to stage with black clothes as if we would go out to a party on a chic night club. Artie started singing "Blame It (on the alcohol)" and the rest of the choir followed with a good, consistent sensuous choreography. Artie, Mercedes, Puck and Santana had the most of the solo lines and the rest of the team made the vocals. The audience was divided. Choir competitions traditionally attracted older people and Vocal Adrenaline, who had a rejuvenated public, was not present. The younger audience made a standing ovation, the older clapped respectfully. This created a tension on the backstage.

"I knew it was a bad choice of repertoire!" Finn complained "We should have composed an original song for this part too! But you insisted to vote." He accused Santana.

"You think we could do a full album when we barely could make one decent pop song on time. Quinn and Rachel took a week to write Get it Right and they fought in the process. Of course one more original song was out of the question. It was logic, something you don't understand." Santana fought back.

"And we were impeccable." Mercedes helped. "The song was awesome. You're complaining because we no longer accept your pathetic duet with Rachel!"

"My pathetic duet with Rachel guaranteed a championship!" Finn raised his voice and looked at me wanting my help. But I couldn't. The girls had a point.

"What? We lost on the last time you two took the lead vocals!" Santana put her hand on her hip and glared defiantly. I followed everything in the corner of the room trying to maintain my neutrality. "My sister is great, but you suck and took our performance down! Artie and Puck sing better than you!"

"Will you two stop?" Mr. Schue got into the room. "The result is not out yet, so we don't know anything. We agreed with this setlist as team, and as a team we will accept the victory or the defeat."

The team fell in silent. Tension reigned until Schuester called us again for the classification results. It was a close call. The New Directions was ranked forth, while the Warblers won the round and would be the last to perform the next day. The good news was all the teams had its score reset for the next round, so everybody had the same chance to win. We hugged each other, but we were tense. Santana and Finn even greeted. Finn and I shared a discreet kiss. Quinn and Sam did the same. Mike and Tina were less discreet. No matter, we fulfill our goal to qualify for Saturday. Then yes, we would show our new songs.

Santana drove Mercedes, Tina and Brittany. I was responsible for driving Lauren and Quinn, and followed my sister back to our grandparents' house.

"Turn on the radio!" Lauren demanded along the way. I didn't like this girl. She was rude and couldn't sing, but she was with Puck and had beat up my sister once. Furthermore, she saved us at the Sectionals.

"Turn of the radio. I appreciate the silence after so much noise and singing." Quinn was so relaxed in the passenger seat that amused me. "Do you think we could go to Eire tomorrow? I bet it must be like to see the sea."

"Except for the big waves." I was smiling. "Have you ever seen the lake."

"I haven't." I found it surprising.

"The Eire is near from where my grandparents live. Not that close, but it is perfectly feasible to go by bike or walking if you want to exercise. There is a public park where my grandparents used to take me and Santana. If you want, I can take you there in the morning."

"It would be great. Deal!"

When we got home. The girls met our grandparents and we took them to the guest house. They were impressed with the comfort of the place. Bubbee received us with a feast that also caused a great impression. Tina and Mercedes found the DVD collection and chose Harry Potter's movies to watch and relax. Santana and Brittany locked themselves on the only bedroom of the guest house and the rest of us rested peacefully on the mattresses around the small living room.

…

So I wake up and noticed a warn body perfectly embraced to mine. I thought it was Santana's. We cuddled this way every time we slept in the same bed. But such was my shock when I realized my sister slept with Brittany in the bedroom, and that arm on my waist was way paler. I discreetly looked to my behind: it was Quinn. My heart was pounding. I didn't know if I was embarrassed or happy. I mean, I have wanted be close friend with Quinn like forever, but what I felt was odd, different. Definitely, I didn't know what that was about. Maybe I should just ignore. Maybe Quinn, like Santana, was a cuddle person and the embrace against my body overnight was circumstantial.

I gently took her arm from my waist and got up. I ran to my room on the main house where my stuffs were. Bubbee fixed a terrific breakfast, and I have never seen such happy faces during a meal. The clock still marked half past nine in the morning and I remembered my promise to Quinn the day before. We had a plenty of time to enjoy the city since the second round started at seven and we had to be in the theater at six p.m.

"So, do you want to see the Eire?" I asked to Quinn. It was cold but the weather was clean.

"Of course. I was looking forward this tour."

"Should we invite the other girls?"

"I think Santana will show the city for them, so it's just you and me."

"If you say so."

We get in the car and in less than five minutes we were in the park at the margin of one of the biggest lakes in the world. It was just a piece of public land since most of the coast of the city was woefully subdivided and privatized. We could have walking a little further, to the museum Rose Hill, to enjoy a bit more of the coast and the beach. But that little space seems enough.

"This is beautiful!" Quinn smiled and took off her shoes so she stepped in the sand. "Looks like the sea."

"Yes. It is a freshwater sea."

She wet her feet in that cold water. I admired the courage. People who visited the ocean or other significant body of water like to do it, I didn't know why. I am too afraid of any body of water that exceeds the height of my hips. I drowned once when I was a kid in a lake on Oregon and I've never got over the trauma.

Quinn picked up her camera and began to take photos.

"The weather is good today." I tried a small talk. "You should come here at sunset. The tones of the sky are pink and lilac… so wonderful. Too bad we don't have a sky like that in Lima. You would take great pictures." She pointed the camera at me and fired a few times.

"Do you come here often? I mean, in Cleveland?"

"At least three times a year to visit zaide and bubbee."

"Why do you call your grandparents zaide and bubbee? I think it's cute, but don't understand the meaning."

"Zaide and bubbee mean Grandpa and Grandma in Hebrew. That's it. The Berries represent the Jewish side of the family and Santana and I learned to speak a little Hebrew."

"And the Spanish?"

"It is our second language. Papa made sure we learned Spanish fluently and I'm glad he did it. It's easier when you travel abroad and speak the two most important languages of the world, aside Mandarin."

"Then why Santana was in Mr. Schue's Spanish class?"

"Easy A. She said she sleeps most of the time because Mr. Schue sucks hard. And the books? Ridiculous. Santana and I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Quino in Spanish at home."

"Quino?"

"Don't you know Mafalda and her globe?" Quinn noted negative. "Basta!" I raised my fist as Mafalda makes in the comic, but Quinn was still clueless. "It's just a comic character."

"Interesting." Quinn enjoyed again the scenery. "It should be fun to grow up among this ethnic and cultural diversity."

"I don't know other reality. Maybe that's why I don't understand some of your attitudes or Sylvester's. You made racists comments about me and my sister once. I don't know if you realized in this way, but that hurts."

"You called me Barbie once and I could say that was a bit racist too."

"I'm sorry. I was just surprised and angry."

"That's ok. Well… not everything I said in that damn school was necessarily what I really think." Quinn had hazel eyes that changed color according to the light. At that moment, when I looked at her, the eyes were completely green. They were so beautiful and intimidating at the same time.

"It doesn't seem wise." I averted my gaze and turned to the lake. "You know? Hide yourself?"

"Not everyone has the luxury to be so crystalline as you, Lopez 2, and I think it's unwise to show yourself so clearly in a certain way."

"Really? This means that there is another Quinn Fabray I should know?"

"It will depend on how much you are willing to find out." This conversation took an awkward turn. Quinn challenged me as a predator and I not believed that it was only game scene.

"I think we better go." I cut the conversation. "We have a competition to face."

The ride to home was silent. Quinn didn't exchange another word with me, not even when we went out again to the theater. Zaide and bubbee accompanied us as our special guests. The girls occupied a single dressing room, so we wore our costumes, warmed up our voices and waited. New Directions would be the third to perform and it wasn't that good. But we had a lot of confidence and the certainty that our original songs would work. Who else would think the same?

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate as much as possible. I tried not to talk to anyone else before going onstage. When I finally did, with safe simple steps, and started singing "Get it Right" with my heart, my body produced that natural drug that made us be strangely happy. I was emotional, and, the same time, so high. Santana was the second to enter the stage and she had to stay three steps back and two steps to the left side to harmonize with me. Halfway through the song, the other girls came and completed the choir. Santana joined them to dance a simple choreography behind me. I heard nothing and saw no one, only my voice. When I realized, people in the audience were doing a standing ovation. "Loser Like Me" was performed next.

We were perfect and we won.

We celebrated as we were at a party and I could not believe we had won with my composition. I had to thank my mother to inspire me to create my own song, my own words. I saw the group hugging, people kissing, and everybody was congratulating me, even the other teams. But I needed to be alone, to take out the stage to isolate myself and unload the adrenaline, catch my breath and emotions. The dressing room was empty so I took advantage. I put my hand on my face and breathed deeply several times. After some time, the door was open and I was so sure it was Finn, but I preferred to stay with my back to him.

"Everyone is happy for the winning, but I think no one will ever know the true meaning it has to me. It's New York, the city I love most in this world, of which I am destined. Could you feel it? I've been there a few times, but now everything is different. How I get there is different, and so right. We won with our heart and it showed me all the good feelings I have for you..."

When I turned toward Finn, I was startled. It was Quinn. I didn't have time to apologize or say anything else. She put her hand on my neck and pulled me into a kiss on the lips. It was a firm touch, determined, warm. My heart was pounding. It hit so hard that I could have a heart attack. I didn't know if it was good or bad, just that I had never felt it in my life. Quinn stepped back and looked at me for a second before turning her back and exited the dressing room without a word. I also was speechless. I stood there, stunned, still feeling the impression of her lips on mine. I had this strange feeling in my stomach. My whole body had reacted and didn't understand why.

I shook my head. I didn't need that kind of felling in my life, even though it was perfectly natural that a woman admires another and physically express it. But I liked Finn. I loved him. We were endgame. Right?

Right?