"Do either of you know why Quinn quit Cheerios? She was really good today," Rachel asked as she, Santana and Brittany headed toward Glee club after school.

Santana looked pissed by the line of questioning but Brittany shook her head and replied, "Nope. She just left without a word. It was real weird too cuz it was all she could talk about over the summer. She was so excited. Coach basically fell in love with her the second they met. She was the first freshman Captain ever. Coach gave her the title the Friday before she quit. She came back on Monday and handed in her uniform."

"She looked like she was enjoying herself today. I wonder why she gave it all up."

Santana halted in the middle of the hallway and turned to Rachel, eyes afire. "Don't matter why she quit. She don't matter. Just stop trying to figure her out, Rach! You won't ever. 'Sides, if she hadn't quit we'd never have become friends, mi hermana. So don't even wonder, cuz this is what was meant to be. Entiendes?"

Rachel nodded quickly, completely thrown off guard by Santana's angry outburst. Santana turned on her heel and headed toward club. Brittany took Rachel's hand and squeezed comfortingly. "San was super hurt when Quinn stopped talking to us. Me too, but my hurt stays hurt. San's hurt turns into anger, but it's all still the same. I still miss Quinn and I think San does, too. But I'm glad Quinn stopped talking to us cuz it meant we became friends with you." Brittany beamed at Rachel happily, but then her face became serious and she said quietly, "But sometimes I wish Q would be our friend again and then all four of us could be besties." With that she took her hand out of Rachel's and jogged after Santana.

Rachel frowned at the floor. Quinn seemed to have been important in Brittany and Santana's lives. Why would she drop them? Rachel knew from experience they were some of the best friends anyone could ever have. And from the looks of it Quinn was all alone at McKinley. Did she not want friends? How could that be? Why would someone purposefully ostracize themselves from everyone? There must be a reason.

No one deserved to be lonely. Least of all someone as pretty as Quinn.

What? Where did that thought come from? Pretty?

Sure Quinn was pretty, but what did that have to do with anything? Rachel shook her head as if to clear it.

Still, she wanted to reach out to Quinn. The girl looked so isolated and unhappy. And that made Rachel ache. Maybe she could befriend Quinn and help mend the relationship between the three former friends! Brittany would be so happy and Santana would most certainly be grudgingly grateful. An image of the four of them laughing and sitting together at lunch filled Rachel with a surprising rush of happiness. Yes! It was all coming together nicely. No wonder she had zeroed in on Quinn. Her sixth sense had kicked in so that she could help.

Rachel squared her shoulders proudly and walked the rest of the way to Glee Club with new determination.

As soon as she rounded the corner her smile grew exponentially. This was her home. She liked being popular and she liked helping out with Cheerios, but glee club was all she truly needed. This was absolutely where she belonged.

"Uh oh, she has that look on her face," her friend Kurt Hummel said teasingly. "What's the big idea now, mon capitan?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Kurt, nothing to do with Glee unfortunately."

Kurt sighed dramatically. "Pity. We are so unprepared for Sectionals. Mr. Schue, tell me you have ideas in the works."

Rachel took a seat as Mr. Schuester began to throw out ideas. As Glee captain she should be giving feedback, but she was so absorbed in her new plan. There were over thirty kids in glee club, someone would come up with something. It didn't have to be all down to her.

When she'd joined the glee club in freshman year, it had been run by a Mr. Sandy Ryerson. She had been the only new kid to join. When she befriended Brittany and Santana a few months in, Brittany had liked the sound of singing and dancing for people, so she and Santana had joined. Shortly after Santana had gotten Mr. Ryerson fired for being creepy and pervy (her words, Rachel didn't know all the details). Mr. Schuester had stepped up, and because of the new school Queen Bee Santana's endorsement, people had trickled in. People who genuinely liked to sing, people who just wanted to sit near the popular spotlight. It didn't matter. Glee Club accepted everyone. Rachel made sure of that. She wanted anyone to feel safe and welcome. Her first month of high school had been positively awful. Name calling, books shoved out of her hands, things thrown. If she hadn't ended up helping Britt with math one day (and being genuinely nice to her, not condescending and superior like everyone else), Rachel dreaded to think what high school would have been like.

Rachel adored Brittany immediately, because honestly who wouldn't? And anyone who liked Brittany was OK in Santana's books. And the rest was history. Santana got people to stop being mean to Rachel under penalty of being sent to the bottom of the school pyramid, and soon Rachel herself became popular.

Glee Club was a place for anyone to belong.

Of the kids in Glee, Rachel was friends with only a few and acquaintances with the rest. Footballers Finn Hudson, Noah Puckerman, Mike Chang and Matt Rutherford had been some of the first boys to join, along with fashionista Kurt Hummel and band geek Artie Abrams. And besides Rachel's trio, the first two girls to join had been Mercedes Jones and Tina Cohen-Chang. They were the originals, the kids who loved to sing and dance. Some of the newer members liked to as well, but most were content to sway in the background for a chance to say they were a part of McKinley's popular New Directions.

But the nice thing about McKinley's relatively new world order was that you didn't need to be in New Directions to be treated nicely.

Once Rachel had obtained any sort of social power, she'd tried her best to put an end to all bullying. Word out was that if you were a bully you were lowest of the low in the social rankings. Rachel couldn't cut it all out of course, as one of the popular kids sole weapons to keep other kids in line was their tongue and it was impossible to completely pull in Santana. But no physical stuff was tolerated. No throwing into dumpsters, shoving, kicking, throwing things. All gone.

Rachel prided herself in McKinley's golden age.

Rachel raised her hand and attentive silence fell. "Mr. Schuester," she said in her most animated voice, "Perhaps a selection from the popular musical In The Heights? As a powerful Latina, Santana would most certainly rock out the song 'Breathe'."

Santana elbowed Rachel affectionately and Brittany clapped at the suggestion. All was well in Rachel Berry's world.

.

Rachel had one idea about her regime. Quinn had another.

Not that Rachel hadn't improved the lives of geeks at McKinley. She had. Geeks were out of bounds. But bullies had to direct their animosity somewhere apparently. Since geeks were promoted, the second least popular band had been shoved to the bottom. The wasteoids and the skanks, the goths and the quiet kids not affiliated with any official grouping. Quinn found herself lumped with the new targets of all the bullies.

The once mostly ignored kids now had to watch their backs. Burnout boys were thrown in dumpsters and locked in port-a-potties and beat up and no one noticed because those kids hardly went to classes anyway. No one worried about a missing skank, they were perpetually missing. Quinn couldn't count the times she'd gone looking for one of her pseudo-friends to find them cornered in some deserted hallway, surrounded by laughing boys. More than once she'd had her shirt pulled away from her back to have freezing slushie dumped down it.

And there was that time she'd found one of the hockey players pining Mack to a wall. His hand was up her shirt and Mack was crying. Quinn had broken the boy's nose and almost got suspended, but Ms. P stepped in on her behalf.

McKinley High was still a crap school. Just in a different way.

But Quinn could deal. She could put up with the catcalls of "whore" and "slut", even though not one boy at McKinley could truthfully claim to have laid a hand on her or seen anything besides her wearing a swimsuit for gym. It wasn't as if they were technically wrong, not that any of them could ever know that. She could deal with the shoves and the crude notes and people stealing her shit. It was all better than home.

Besides, she had two hours of absolute peace every day after school.

No one was in Celibacy Club but her and Ms. P.

According to the rules, a club wasn't allowed to exist with only one student. But Ms. Pillsbury had gotten Figgins to make an exception. She thought more kids might eventually join and promoting abstinence was in Figgins' best interest. No one else ever did join. Which was absolutely perfect for Quinn.

If Quinn had one friend, it was Ms. Pillsbury.

Ms. Pillsbury was kind and didn't pressure Quinn to 'participate'. Most of the time they passed the two hours of club reading quietly. Sometimes Quinn would tell Ms. P about what she was reading or offer her book recommendations.

At the beginning of each club meeting, Ms. Pillsbury would pull out a tupperware and open it to reveal two triangle halves of a PB&J with the crusts cut off. One side belonged to Quinn. They'd eat and then talk or read or both. And at the end of each club meeting Ms. P would pull out a bible and they'd flip to a random page, point, and that was officially the stanza they'd discussed at length in club that day.

Quinn lived for Celibacy Club.

When Quinn told Ms. Pillsbury about the blackmail, the usually calm and peaceable ginger-haired woman visibly reddened with fury. Ms. P hated Coach Sylvester. According to her, "We have enough student bullies that not a person in the faculty can keep a hold on. The fact that we have one on staff is appalling." Ms. P wanted to go to Figgins with it but Quinn calked her out of it. Because honestly, it wasn't any big deal. And as Quinn saw it, after two weeks of free help Coach would be on the owing side of things.

At Quinn's explanation that she had owed Coach a favor after the run-in with Schuester, Ms. Pillsbury shook her head, trying to hide the look of affection that crossed her face. "Mr. Schuester just worries about you, Quinn. You're an exceptional student and he's scared you'll throw it away.

"But I haven't," Quinn muttered impatiently. "I've been a good student since day one and my grades never slip. He has no right to judge if I'm living up to my potential if I'm consistently acing his tests and turning in homework. Just because I look a certain way and do certain things-"

"Well, I get that, Quinn. And I've talked to him about it. He just has this idea that if everyone acts like they don't care you will stop. We don't get many like you, Quinn. The truth of it is that you'd be this school's pride and joy if you didn't dress the way you do or skip all your classes. But you're not 'marketable' to the parents or school board. So even though you're a golden student a lot of the teachers see you as a lost cause."

Quinn bristled and snarled," Well, I'm glad I'm not some product to be auctioned off or some shit, Ms. P!"

"Language," Ms. Pillsbury chided gently. She smiled and Quinn relaxed as she only could with the counselor. Ms. P looked at her like- well, it couldn't be love. But it seemed close. "I know. And in many ways, I'm glad you're not that girl. You're you and this is the Quinn I share a sandwich with every day." Ms. P giggled softly against her fingertips. "Maybe I'm selfish, but I don't want to have to share you with the other teachers. And I know you, I know you'll do just fine out there." But then she paused and her big doe eyes went somber. "I worry about you sometimes too, though."

Quinn looked away and said awkwardly, "I know Ms. P. It's sweet of you, cuz I know it's not just cuz you feel obligated to. But I'm fine, you don't have to give me a second thought."

Ms. Pillsbury's eye looked sad. They sometimes got that way when she looked at Quinn. Like she knew there was something wrong just below the surface but she couldn't see it clearly through the ice. Sometimes it made Quinn scared. What if Ms. P started to push too much? Would she have to give up celibacy club, too? The only thing that kept her going? Ms. P never did push. Quinn knew if she had any idea she would push. But she didn't. Quinn would keep it that way.

"So what are you reading today?"

Quinn smiled genuinely and opened her book.

.

Rachel had a plan of attack.

According to Quinn's schedule (she had her ways of getting these things), they had almost the same classes every period. Problem was, Quinn was never in any of them except Spanish that Rachel could remember, even though her attendance record was practically absence-free. A chat with the principal's office secretary revealed that Quinn came in every morning at 7:30 and dropped off all her homework into the teacher's mailboxes, and she showed for all tests. Since she was an A student and that reflected well on their teaching, not one of the teachers complained about the system. One less potential disturbance to deal with.

Rachel didn't want to sneak attack Quinn, so she decided her best bet would be to be as friendly as possible for the two weeks that Quinn would be working with the Cheerios. Build a rapport and after the two weeks were up invite her to hang out. Maybe be partners with her for some kind of Spanish project. Small things. When Rachel had been younger she'd had a problem with being too intense with people. She still had a powerful personality, but had learned to not overwhelm people as she once had. It felt terribly slow, but her success rate had gone up a great deal.

She had not been prepared for Cheerio Quinn.

When Quinn came out of the changing room wearing a Cheerios uniform, Rachel's jaw dropped. She looked like she belonged in one even with the pink hair. Quinn had tied her hair up a bit from its wild mane-like quality. It was tucked loosely behind each ear where it hadn't been caught up in the ponytail. She wore less coal black eyeliner and her lips were moist with gloss.

She looked so kissable.

Rachel blushed from top to bottom at the stray thought. She spun away and made a dash for a bench on the sidelines, but not before Quinn let out a harsh laugh and yelled, "Glad you picked your jaw up off the floor before any drool could make some Cheerios slip and fall."

"Shut your trap, Fabray," Santana yelled from where she and Brittany were stretching out. Quinn extended a middle finger the latina's way but Rachel noticed that Quinn wouldn't look at her. Rachel heard some muted Spanish swear words and then Brittany's quiet soothing tone.

Rachel breathed out shakely, then stood up again and walked back toward Quinn. Screw embarrassment. She would live. Quinn looked startled but tried to cover it up with a smirk. "And what do you want, Berry? I don't even understand exactly why you're here. Is McKinley's new mascot a gnome?"

"That's it!" Santana screeched from across the gym and Brittany had to grab her to stop her from running at Quinn. Rachel saw Quinn's entire body switch to defense far too easily. Upon further inspection, Rachel noticed a slight discoloration towards the middle of Quinn's forearm. Was that a bruise? Rachel felt an uncomfortable sinking in her stomach.

"Relax, San," Rachel called over her shoulder. Quinn's gaze shifted to Rachel and she narrowed her eyes in distrust. Rachel smiled and said in a gentle voice, "You don't have to be so defensive, Quinn. We'd all love to be friends here." She wanted more than anything to reach out and place a comforting hand on Quinn's arm, but every instinct in her body told her it would be ill-received. So instead she just smiled openly, hoping that putting herself so far out would be enough of a start.

"Fuck that! I don't want to be her friend!" Santana said angrily. Quinn's face became impassive and Rachel's heart broke. Lost in an instant. But then the pink-haired girl shrugged and muttered in a low voice, "Whatever. I can play nice for two weeks. Sorry about the comments, Berry." And she went over to her assembled group.

Hope fluttered in Rachel's chest.

.

As the week passed, Quinn began to become playfully teasing again, as she was on that first day in the hallway. But Rachel started to notice as it became more genuine. Santana still wouldn't speak to her and Quinn avoided both Santana and Brittany, but every break in Cheerios practice Rachel would seek her out and strike up a conversation. At first, Quinn had seemed both parts mystified and annoyed by Rachel's persistence but soon Quinn started to tease and then laugh with and then smile during their chats. Every time Quinn would smile genuinely even just a little, it filled Rachel with an indescribable amount of joy.

On Friday when Quinn said, "See you next Monday," instead of just leaving without a word like she had the days before, Rachel knew she'd made a thread of connection.

The marked improvement in the girls Quinn was coaching made Ms. Sylvester as close to happy as she ever got. All she said on the matter was, "About time," but Rachel could see she was pleased.

Over the weekend, when Santana and Brittany came over, Santana complained loudly about the amount of effort Rachel was putting into trying to befriend Quinn, but Rachel ignored her. Britt looked uncertain about the whole situation but finally asked in a hopeful tone, "Do you think Quinn is starting to like us again?"

"I don't think she ever stopped," Rachel answered honestly. Everything about Quinn screamed loneliness and loss and when she thought no one was looking she would glance longingly at her former friends. Rachel still had no idea why she'd pushed them away in the first place, but she had the distinct impression Quinn hadn't wanted to.

At her response, Britt's brow furrowed in confusion and she looked like she wanted to question it, but one look at Santana's furious face made her stop.

On Monday, the fates aligned. Mr. Schuester announced a group project. Groups of four. It could not have gone better if Rachel had planned it (ignoring the fact that she had subtly mentioned a lack of group projects to Mr. Schue the week before). Rachel shot out of her seat and went to the back, where Quinn was writing something in a notebook and looking irritated at the prospect of working with others. When she noticed Rachel, wariness settled in her eyes. "What, Berry."

"Be our fourth?"

Quinn bit her lip and her eyes traveled past Rachel. Rachel turned to see Santana glaring daggers from across the room. But Rachel was relieved to see that both Cheerios were waiting to see what would happen rather than looking for a fourth themselves. "It doesn't exactly look like I'm wanted," Quinn said hoarsely, trying to keep her voice sounding bored instead of pained.

"I want you," Rachel blurted before should could stop herself.

Quinn's eyes narrowed and Rachel flinched. There was a long moment of silence, and then a grin formed on Quinn's face and she laughed. "Relax, Berry. Keep your lust in check and I'll be your fourth. Don't know if you're fully aware of what you're getting into here, but I can't say anyone else was chomping at the bit to work with me."

"Bits are cruel and should not be used on horses," Rachel fumbled. Quinn rolled her eyes as Rachel mentally kicked herself. Honestly, it was as if she developed some sort of mental block around Quinn Fabray.

Quinn followed Rachel back to her seat and waved half-heartedly at the two Cheerios watching her intently. Santana was practically vibrating with rage and kept shooting glares Rachel's way. Brittany had her hands in front of her chest and was nervously fumbling with her fingers until finally she couldn't seem to take it anymore and she said, "I'm afraid I'll say something wrong and you'll leave again and then we'll never ever get a chance to be friends."

Like magic the icy wall around Quinn melted away and her face was open and gentle as she said, "You don't have to be scared, B, I'm not going to up and leave. We're partners now. I'm sorry for scaring you."

At these words Brittany relaxed completely and she beamed at Quinn. Without hesitation she closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around Quinn solidly. Quinn stiffened. After a moment she returned the hug, but Rachel didn't miss Quinn's shaking fingers before they locked around Brittany.

"Oh good! I can't wait to be your partner. We can be friends again and San and I will totally get you to like Rachel even though I knew you wanted to not like her freshman year, but I think that was-"

"Britt," Santana said sharply, and three heads turned in shock her way because she was never sharp with Brittany. "Don't get attached. Don't let her fool you. She's just gonna leave again after this project's done. We aren't going to be friends again." Santana stepped forward and locked eyes with Quinn over Brittany's shoulder. She stared her down threateningly until Quinn lowered her eyes, then sneered as she said, "I know you, Fabray, don't forget that for a second. Don't you dare lead B on and go off and break her heart all over again. I'll kill you if you do."

"I wasn't going to," Quinn breathed into the fabric of Brittany's uniform. She stepped away from Brittany with her eyes downcast and hands back woodenly at her sides. "It's just a project Brittany. Listen to Santana, OK?"

Brittany looked on the verge of tears, glancing uncertainly between the three girls around her. Rachel stepped forward and took Brittany's hand. "Both of you need to stop it," she said firmly to Quinn and Santana. "Neither of you know what's going to happen. Britt was just happy. You don't have to be so protective of B's feelings, San, she can handle herself quite well. And Quinn, don't you dare let Santana bully you into backing off. That's not the Quinn I've seen this past week. Now sit down and shut up if your comments from now until the end of this period don't have anything to do with this group project."

Santana huffed something in Spanish but sat down obediently. Quinn stared at Rachel in astonishment for a second before doing the same. She pulled out a notepad and hid a smile behind its open pages.