Disclaimer – I don't own Glee
Hello dear readers, I am back, welcome to chapter 25, thanks for all your reviews and support so far, hope you enjoy the new chapter
Chapter 25 – Heads in the Clouds
After Quinn had moved in to the Berry household, it didn't take long for the student body of McKinley High School to learn that Quinn Fabray was pregnant. As the blonde had predicted, Coach Sylvester kicked her off the team and then presented Rachel with a contract stating that she was now a Cheerio.
"This isn't even my signature," Rachel claimed. "I didn't sign this."
"Of course you did," Coach Sylvester responded. "You're a Cheerio now, no arguments. Santana, Brittany, get her in a Cheerio outfit and fix her a high pony… now!"
"Congratulations, Berry," Santana smiled as she and Brittany shepherded Rachel to the girls' locker room. "As the newest member of the Cheerio's you are automatically popular now, yay."
"Being a Cheerio also means that you're hot," Brittany told her. "I know that because I'm a Cheerio and I'm hot."
"I don't even want to be a Cheerio," Rachel grumbled as Santana started applying make-up to her face while Brittany fashioned her hair into Coach Sylvester's required high-pony.
"Sure you do," Santana replied. "You get to wear an amazing outfit, you get to perform, and all the boys in school want to date you and the girls who aren't Cheerio's want to be you. It's the perfect High School life. Trust me, Berry, now that you're a full-time Cheerio boys will be throwing themselves at your feet."
"If you put the work in I think you could make out with every guy in this school before the week is over," Brittany said.
"But I'm dating Artie," Rachel pointed out. "I like him; I don't want to make out with any other guys."
"That's so homophobic," Brittany stated looking at Rachel reproachfully.
"Ok Berry, let Auntie Tana give you some advice," Santana placed her hands on Rachel's shoulders and turned them so they were facing the mirror. "At the beginning of the school year you were a particularly hideous breed of loser."
"So hideous," Brittany nodded her agreement.
"The animal sweaters made me want to punch you," Santana claimed. "Your personality was awful."
"So awful," Brittany affirmed.
"You couldn't get yourself a date if your singing voice depended on it," Santana insisted.
"Un-dateable," Brittany stated.
"But now you have the right look," Santana indicted to the Cheerio outfit. "You're on the right team and you have the right friends," she gestured to herself and Brittany. "Berry, you've gone from hopeless irritating Glee loser to hot new Cheerio. You could rule this school if you wanted to. Hell, you could win Prom Queen. So you see you shouldn't just limit yourself to one guy."
"Especially Artie because I think he's a malfunctioning robot," Brittany said.
"Boys will want to date you and you should make them think that they can," Santana advised. "Having a boyfriend just implies that they can't get with you. As a Cheerio you should always be available and be willing to have sex with anyone. Just be sure to use a condom or you'll end up like Quinn."
"Ok Santana, I have listened to your advice," Rachel said. "And I think it important that you know that I thoroughly disapprove. Now, as much as I'm trying to grow and develop as a person and be less…"
"Annoying," Brittany supplied.
"Annoying," Rachel repeated. "On this occasion I think it only fitting that I return to my old diva ways and storm out."
"Why is she so sensitive, all I did was tell her to break up with Artie and start sleeping around," Santana commented.
"She's always been very over-emotional," Brittany whispered.
XXX
As Rachel stormed away from Santana and Brittany in her Cheerio outfit, she couldn't help but notice how her peers parted ways for her as if she were royalty. At first, she expected to be hit with a slushie, but then she tuned in to some of the thoughts in people's heads and realised that Santana and Brittany were absolutely right. Girls were envious of her and boys were checking her out.
Berry's so hot; I'd totally bang her, a boy on the Football team thought.
She's so pretty and popular, I wish I was her, a girl from the 'too young to be bitter club' yearned.
"Hey Rach," Aaron Michaels grinned at her and Rachel blinked up at him in surprise.
"You know my name?" she asked in shock.
"Sure I do," he replied as he circled around her, flipping his hair out of his eyes in a way that was intended to make her swoon and very nearly worked. "The entire school wants to know more about Rachel Berry."
"Um…" Rachel didn't know how to respond. Aaron Michaels was a star player on the Football team and had even done some modelling work. He was a very good-looking boy and he was very aware of that fact.
"You're speechless," Aaron acknowledged with a smug grin. "I have that affect on most girls." He ran a hand through his hair and down his chest, causing his shirt to hang looser and show off more skin. "My parents are away this weekend so I'm having a party on Friday night. You should come." I'll give you a wine cooler, we'll slow-dance, we'll kiss and then I'll take you upstairs to my parents' room and see what you're hiding under that pretty little Cheerio skirt. Rachel scowled at him, repulsed by the idea that he wanted to have sex with her in his parents' bed. Oh yeah, she wants me, he thought arrogantly. "So, I'll see you Friday?" he asked reaching his hand up to rub the back of his fingers across her shoulder.
"Sorry, can't make it," Rachel told him.
"Wait, what?" Aaron asked completely taken aback by being shot down. "You do realise I'm Aaron Michaels, right?"
"Uh-huh, and I'm Rachel Berry," Rachel replied fully aware of all the nearby students watching and listening with rapt attention. "And I have better things to do on a Friday night than hang out with you… especially if the rumours about your tiny penis are true," she added before turning away and flouncing down the corridor with her hands on her hips, titters of laughter breaking out from the surrounding students. "Was I too harsh?" Rachel wondered to herself in a whisper.
"No way," Tina said in her ear making Rachel jump. "That was hilarious."
"I hate to admit it but there is a small part of me that really enjoyed it," Rachel confessed. "But doesn't that type of behaviour make me as bad as him?"
"He's the guy who punctured the wheels in Artie's chair one time and it was his pee in the balloons that the jocks threw at Kurt. If anything you let him off easy," Tina said. "Nice outfit by the way. You're looking good." Smelling good too.
"No biting," Rachel warned her and Tina rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry," Tina replied brandishing her thermos. "I've got my pig's blood from the Butcher's. Not anywhere near as good as human blood of course but it will satisfy my cravings for a while. So… you're a cheerleader?"
"Apparently so," Rachel nodded as she and Tina made their way through the corridor. "Coach Sylvester didn't really give me a choice in the matter and now…" she looked about them before lowering her voice to a whisper. "Now everybody looks at me differently. And I can hear in their thoughts that their opinions have changed too. I literally put this Cheerio outfit on and just like that I became popular. I feel like a star. I have to admit the positive attention is feeling really good and it's like being back in the spotlight again. I've always been desperate for attention and I always wanted people to like me and now I'm suddenly popular and guys think I'm hot and I feel like I could burst into a solo at any minute and yet…"
"And yet?" Tina prompted.
"Being noticed, being popular and being the centre of attention," Rachel listed. "Those are things I've always wanted and now it's happening."
"Pretty awesome right," Tina smiled. "You're a hot popular Cheerio and I'm a total badass. Nobody in this school would dare call us losers now. We're on top. We rule."
"I… I guess we do," Rachel said. "But Tina, I… I'm not sure if this is really what I want. I always thought the popular girls were really beautiful but at the same time they were really mean to me and damaged my self-esteem on a daily basis. Do I really want to turn into one of them? Being pregnant has humbled Quinn considerably and I think she and I are actually sort of friends now which is great but Santana's just a bitch, am I going to turn into Santana 2.0 now?"
"Rachel, relax, you're nothing like Santana," Tina assured her. "And now that you're on the Cheerio's it doesn't mean you have to start being a bitch. It isn't just the Cheerio outfit people are responding positively to. It's you. Nobody really liked you before, Rachel, not even us Glee kids. But you've changed for the better recently. You're not being selfish and annoying anymore. You're actually being nice and thinking about other people instead of just yourself. People like the new Rachel regardless of the Cheerio outfit." Your neck looks so biteable.
"Please stop looking at my neck," Rachel said linking arms with Tina.
XXX
At lunch time, Quinn took refuge in the Choir Room. Stares and whispers had been following her around all day and she didn't have the confidence to face it in the cafeteria. She looked down at her food, not really wanting to eat it, but knowing that she needed to for the sake of the life growing inside of her. She looked up when she heard the door open, expecting Mr. Schue or Brad the piano man to wander inside, but it was Finn stepping through the door.
"Oh… hey," he mumbled staring at the floor.
"Hi," she replied quietly.
"I… um… I didn't think anyone would be in here," Finn said. "I'll just… go somewhere else."
"Finn," Quinn called to him and he released a huge sigh as he looked back at her, a sad puppy-dog expression on his face. "Please stay."
"With you?" he sneered.
The harshness in his tone made Quinn wince but she supposed she deserved it.
"With me," she confirmed. "Sit with me; yell at me if you want to just… I don't want to be alone ok, but I don't want to be in that cafeteria with people pointing and laughing at me either. Or worse, people casting me looks of sympathy and feeling sorry for me. I just can't deal with that."
"I'm not gonna yell," Finn told her as he sat down. "I want to," he admitted. "I want to yell at you until it deafens you and until I can't yell anymore. But you're pregnant and I know that it isn't right to shout at a pregnant lady. And it's not fair to the baby."
A silence fell between them as they ate their lunches. It wasn't a comfortable silence by any means, but Quinn would choose the awkward tension between them over being in the cafeteria any day.
"Um… are you gonna eat that?" Finn asked eyeing up a cupcake.
"Here," Quinn passed it to him and Finn sunk his teeth into it and let out an appreciative moan.
"These are good," he said, crumbs escaping his mouth.
"Rachel baked them," Quinn revealed. "She made a few batches of cupcakes last night, cookies too. I think baking helps take her mind off things and helps sooth all the headaches she gets from hearing everybody else's thoughts."
"So it's true that you're living with Rachel?" Finn asked. "Your parents really kicked you out?"
"Yeah," Quinn nodded.
"I'm sorry," Finn said truthfully. "I'm still mad at you and everything but I'm sorry your parents kinda suck."
"Yeah," Quinn repeated resting a hand on her stomach and rubbing gently.
"Do you love him?" Finn asked.
"What? Oh, I don't even know if the baby's a boy," Quinn replied. "But I want him or her to be healthy and I want what's best for them and I want them to have a happy life and have parents who love them through everything. I… I think I do love the baby… my baby. Yeah, yeah, I love my baby."
"Um, cool," Finn said awkwardly. "But actually, I meant Matt. Do you love him?"
"No," Quinn answered.
"But you cheated on me with him," Finn pointed out.
"Yes," Quinn said guiltily.
"Why?" Finn asked.
"Because Matt was there for me when nobody else was," Quinn replied. "My parents were busy, my friends… I'm not sure if I ever really had any and I hadn't even joined Glee Club yet so I wasn't comfortable enough to talk to Mr. Schue and Coach Sylvester just isn't the type of woman you go to for comfort. There wasn't anybody else."
"What about me?" Finn asked.
"You were doing something with Rachel," Quinn told him. "Possibly making out with her in the auditorium if Jacob Ben-Israel's sources were correct."
Finn looked down at the ground and in that moment Quinn knew that he had kissed Rachel.
"I guess we've both been unfaithful to one another," Quinn stated.
"It was only a kiss," Finn defended. "You did a lot more with Matt."
"I did," Quinn answered. "I never kissed him though," she didn't know why she felt it important for Finn to know that, but she needed to say it anyway. "Whatever you might think of me, Finn, I didn't plan to hurt you like this. I never intended to sleep with Matt, or anyone until I was married. And I always used to roll my eyes, scoff and judge whenever people excused themselves by saying 'oh, it just happened', but… honestly, me and Matt just happened."
"Do you regret it?" Finn asked.
"Look at me Finn," Quinn responded, her hand still resting on her belly. "Look at my life. Of course I regret it. But Rachel's right. I am going to learn from this mistake and I'll be all the better for it."
XXX
Kurt and Puck were in the Janitor's closet. It was like the two boys couldn't keep their hands off one another. They crashed their lips against one another, kissing each other desperately, Kurt mewling as Puck nipped at his lower lip. Puck's shirt was screwed up on the floor while Kurt's sweater was neatly folded on top of an up-turned bucket. Puck's hands were kneading Kurt's butt-cheeks while Kurt's fingers gripped at Puck's biceps.
"Fuck, Kurt," Puck moaned as his jeans pooled at his ankles and Kurt squeezed his balls experimentally for pushing his own trousers down to his knees. "Mmm, baby," Puck slipped his hands under Kurt's underwear to get a better feel of the boy's ass. "You're so hot," Puck claimed as he trailed kisses across Kurt's neck before finding his way back to the boy's lips.
"Noah," Kurt gasped as they kissed.
It felt like they were floating, high off the ground with their heads in the clouds.
Footsteps approached, sounding so close yet so far away all at once. Then the handle was being twisted and the door was pushed open.
Blushing a brilliant shade of red, Kurt simply clung to Puck like a deer caught in the headlights as Coach Sylvester peered inside. The boys held their breath as the formidable Cheerleading Coach looked right at them, yet right through them. She stepped away and closed the door without a word.
"What just happened?" Kurt asked.
"I dunno," Puck shrugged. "She couldn't see us."
"How is that possible?" Kurt questioned.
"Don't know, don't care," Puck replied. "Babe, I really need you to kiss me again."
Kurt returned his mouth to Puck's without hesitation, moaning as he once again felt that floating sensation.
To Be Continued…
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