Fic: I'm Still Waiting For the Rain to Fall - 4/? (R/Q, PG)
Title: I’m Still Waiting For the Rain to Fall (4/?)
Author: an_an0maly
Summary: ...pour real life down on me...
Pairing: Eventual Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG to NC-17
Word Count: 2,723 / 24,000+
Spoilers: I would like to say that spoilers would probably be from the Pilot to Sectionals. After that, there might be a few smatterings of references to events in the Back 9, but other than that, mainly just references to the first 13 episodes.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters unfortunately. Title belongs to Evanescence's 'Good Enough'.
Betas: grdnofevrythng for final touches in grammar, tenses, spelling etc. and gleek23 for fleshing this out with me almost on a daily basis. *hugs to both of you*.
The feedback has been spectacular, guys! Really, thank you so, so much for all the insights you each have. I'm really loving reading your thoughts! Thank you!.
Author's Note: There are two reasons I'm posting this next part so early. The first being that yesterday was my birthday and so I posted the weekly update as usual, but I love giving people presents rather than receiving them, although, this year, I got a 'gleek' t-shirt and a Harry Potter game for my DS, so yay! But anyway, my point is, I love giving presents. This year, my gift is the next part of this fic.
Posting this now, also leads me into the second reason I'm posting. I'm leaving for New York on Wednesday. I have tickets for the Saturday Glee Live concert (yay!) and am going to NY for nine days. I am so completely excited but it means that I probably wont be able to post next weekend. But never fear, our regular schedule of weekly updates will commence the following week. Apologies in advance though, because I completely forgot that I probably wont have time while in NY to post, or sadly to write.
Previous Parts: Prologue | I | II | III |
Part Four:
~*~*~
“Oh... it’s you.” Judy Fabray muttered as she entered the kitchen, three shiny designer bags hanging off her left arm. She placed her keys on the kitchen counter before carefully placing the bags next to them.
Quinn barely glanced at her mother before refocusing her attention back to the snack she was preparing.
“What are you doing?” Judy suddenly blurted out as she watched Quinn spread peanut butter over a slice of bread. Quinn ignored her mother as she made sure the peanut butter covered the corners of the slice. “I asked you a question.” Judy continued taking a step forward, her left hand instantly finding her hip.
Quinn sighed. “What does it look like I’m doing?” She answered with a mental eye roll before unscrewing the lid on the jelly. She wiped the knife on a piece of paper towel before dipping it into the jar. With a small smile Quinn began to spread the sweet substance over a second piece of bread.
“It looks like you’re about to stuff your face with an unhealthy mix of trans fats and sugar.” Judy began to get frustrated at the lack of response from her daughter. “If you’re hell-bent on letting yourself go, the least you could do is pick something a little less cliché than gaining fifty pounds.”
Quinn ignored her mother and with a small feeling of excitement she put the sandwich together. Using the knife she cut a diagonal line through her sandwich.
“Well?” Her mother asked both hands on her hips now. When Quinn ignored her and began to cut a second diagonal line through her sandwich, Judy Fabray practically growled before snatching up her bags and keys and storming out of the kitchen.
Quinn grinned down at her sandwich now perfectly cut into four triangles. She quickly cleaned up after herself, replacing the peanut butter and jelly and washing the knife she’d used. She wiped down the counter before taking her sandwich-filled plate with her up to her room.
She’d been living back home since the 2nd of April. Exactly three days after her daughter, Elizabeth (Ellie) Fabray, had been born and legally adopted by the Johnsons.
Quinn ignored the sound of her mother storming around in her parents’ bedroom and took a seat at her desk. She picked up a triangular piece of her sandwich and took a small bite as her gaze instantly found the photo of her daughter sitting in a plain black frame on her desk.
Reaching out, Quinn picked up the frame and brought it close to the edge of the desk. Shifting in her chair, she brought her knees up to her chest and firmly planted her heels on the edge of her seat. She took a second, bigger bite into her sandwich as she stared at the photo beneath the plate of glass.
Ellie Fabray - no, Ellie Johnson now, was nearing ten months and had already started walking. Her first birthday was coming up and Quinn made a mental note to start looking for presents. Her daughter had luckily inherited many of her mother’s physical traits - blonde hair, hazel eyes and fair skin. Puck was ecstatic over the fact that Ellie’s hair was growing in the shape of a Mohawk though. From what Quinn had read, this was common in children, but Puck insisted it was genetics.
Quinn didn’t have the heart to tell him that just because he might style his hair in a particular way didn’t mean that it could be passed down in genes.
She smiled as she remembered holding Ellie’s hand as they slowly walked around the playground, bundled up against the winter chill in coats, beanies and gloves. They had been lucky that visit as the sky had cleared and the sun shone down on them and even though the air was crisp and chilled, the weather had allowed them some time to go exploring through the park.
Sarah and Alex Johnson were the last in a long line of couples that had hoped to adopt Ellie. The search had taken months and contributed to the tension that continued to grow between Puck and herself. She’d moved in with Puck after Sectionals since Finn had asked her to find other living arrangements. She’d been sleeping in Puck’s room while he camped out on the couch. The situation wasn’t ideal for anyone, especially Elaine Puckerman who had grudgingly allowed Quinn to live with them only out of a sense of duty. Quinn knew that if Mrs. Puckerman could have had her way, this child would have belonged to a nice Jewish girl, like Rachel Berry.
The main source of tension brewing between Puck and Quinn had been caused by Quinn’s determination to find a family for Elizabeth. Puck couldn’t understand how Quinn could so easily give up their daughter. At the conclusion of one particularly heated argument, Quinn found herself searching for yet another set of living arrangements.
“But they live here! We could see her all the time!” Puck argued as he slammed his open hand against the row of lockers they were standing next to. Quinn noticed a group of freshman whispering and pointing as they walked by. This was not the ideal location for another argument with Puck.
“That’s not the point! She needs a good family! The Allens’ already have three children. I want her to go to a family that I think will give her all the attention she deserves. Don’t you?” Quinn argued back as she grabbed her Alegbra II text from her locker. She held the book to her chest before slamming the locker door closed to turn away from Puck. She took a few steps down the hall and away from him.
She didn’t make it far before Puck jumped in front of her, blocking her path, his body close to hers and his arm resting against the lockers. “She’s my daughter too.”
Quinn met Puck’s hurt and angry stare. “I know that,” she replied with conviction. “We’re going with an open adoption because I want you to be able to visit her. I want to visit her. But I want her out of Lima. She needs a better start to her life than what this town can offer.” Quinn said before moving around Puck’s sturdy form.
Puck watched as she began to walk away from him again, dismissing him. “Quinn Fabray, you’re a cold-hearted bitch.” He saw her step falter but she didn’t stop to defend herself. She just continued on to Algebra II.
Puck’s words had been the deciding factor. She’d been contemplating finding other arrangements when their arguments had begun to move toward shouting matches at all hours of the night. Puck didn’t know it, but his words had broken her. He assumed that giving up Ellie was the easiest decision she had made during the entire pregnancy, but it was the hardest. She loved her daughter, more than she was willing to admit and the decision to give her up was not taken lightly. They’d worked their way through four couples already and none of them had measured up to the family she wanted Ellie to grow up in.
She really had been trying to provide the best future she could for her daughter and if it meant getting her out of Lima and only being able to visit her once every year or two, then so be it. Her daughter needed her to make the right decision about this.
The three months leading up to Elizabeth’s birth were spent living in the spare room at the Hummel’s house behind the family garage. Burt had been sympathetic to her cause and had commented that had Kurt’s mother still been alive, she would have definitely welcomed Quinn into their home. Quinn appreciated that Mr. Hummel was providing her with a roof to live under as some sort of ode to his late wife’s memory and so she made sure to pull her weight around the house cooking and cleaning.
Living with the Hummel’s had definitely been an eye-opening experience for her. She’d learned how to adjust the hem on a pair of pants, change the air filter on her car and cross-stitch. Although all very important life lessons, Quinn found she learned what it meant to be a real family while living with Kurt and his dad. Dinner was eaten sitting close together around the kitchen table wherein Kurt and Mr Hummel were genuinely interested in how her day had been. They took turns cooking breakfast in the mornings and set aside weekends where Kurt would drag them shopping for a shirt or pair of shoes he’d seen and thought they just ‘had to have’ in their wardrobe.
Quinn’s circle of friends had expanded considerably by living with Kurt. Brittany and Santana had been welcomed into the Hummel home and Kurt had practically died from sheer excitement when he found himself in the seldom-breeched ‘in’ crowd. Mercedes had slowly worked her way into the fold and soon day-long shopping trips and Mani/Pedi Parties became the norm for the Hummel household.
Even now, living back at the Fabray’s, she found her social calendar was just as full as it had been before she’d been pregnant with Elizabeth.
The buzzing of her iPhone startled Quinn out of her thoughts. Quickly putting the photo back in its place on her desk, she reached for her phone and let her feet drop to the floor. She pressed the menu button at the bottom and slid her thumb across the screen.
My place. 8. Be there. The message read.
Quinn rolled her eyes before pressing lightly on the screen to reply. Deep throat, much? ;)
Puck never complained, was the instant reply. Quinn’s whole body shuddered at the implications.
Ew.
Just be here.
Quinn grinned at Santana’s text before checking the time and realizing she still had a few hours to finish her homework assignment for English. Setting aside her sandwich, she reached for her English folder and To Kill a Mockingbird. She looked over the essay question she had been assigned to answer:
Discuss the concept of family and Lee’s presentation of the American family. What does it consist of?
Quinn folded her arms and let her body sink into her chair before resting her forehead on her arms. Great. She took a few minutes for herself before sitting up and flipping through her folder to look for the notes she’d taken during class. They had touched on her essay topic briefly earlier that day. When she located her notes she found them lacking and growled in frustration. She tried to think back to why she’d been distracted and had missed so much on the topic.
She remembered Mrs. Gilbert prattling on about community expectations. How in such a small town it was the norm for parents to raise their children to be like them and that it was difficult to resist living up or down to those expectations. Quinn remembered understanding all too well what it would have been like in Lee’s portrayal of Maycomb County. Sometimes Quinn felt Lima was a little too similar. Sure, some kids made it out of there but more often than not, once a Lima-loser, always a Lima-loser.
Suddenly she remembered why she’d been distracted.
Quinn sat furiously scribbling down all that their teacher Mrs. Gilbert was saying. She was focusing on the theme of ‘family’ in relation to the text and Quinn knew she needed as much information as she could get down for her essay.
Quinn set her pen down quickly to switch to her green highlighter. She ignored her pen rolling off her folder and onto the floor trying to hurriedly highlight the last note she’d taken. She capped her highlighter and bent down to the side of her desk to search the floor close to her feet for her pen. She eventually spied it lying beneath the crossed legs of the person to her right. Reaching out to scoop up the pen, she suddenly recognised the white knee high socks and argyle skirt barely reaching mid-thigh. As she began to pull herself back up, Mrs. Gilbert droning on in the background, she noticed Rachel’s head propped up on her hand, her eyes closed, breathing deep and even. In her right hand, she had her pen poised ready to write, but as Quinn glanced at Rachel’s folder, the page was almost completely blank save for a title and date.
Although bent over in an awkward position, Quinn craned her head to the left to find Mrs. Gilbert walking toward the back of the classroom, two aisles over. Using the end of her pen, Quinn poked Rachel in the side.
Rachel startled awake and with a confusing question on her face she glanced to her left to lock eyes with Quinn who straightened herself up. Quinn shot her a pointed look as Rachel quickly averted her gaze down to her folder.
Quinn sat confused for a few seconds, staring at Rachel’s profile as she began to furiously write. She sat immobile for a few seconds trying to remember when Rachel Berry had been assigned the seat next to hers in English.
Quinn tapped her pen against the top of her desk as she stared at her incomplete notes. If she hadn’t seen it for herself, she would never have thought that Rachel Berry would ever fall asleep in any class, even if she found the class to be ‘lacking in appropriate instruction and content’ - Rachel’s words, not hers.
She thought back to Wednesday night and the argument she’d overheard and Rachel’s reluctance to exit her car until the last possible moment. Ignoring her essay, she reached for her phone again. She chalked up her Rachel Berry distraction as avoidance and quickly dialled Brittany’s number.
The phone rang three times before she heard some giggling and a soft moan Quinn was sure sounded like a drawn out ‘S’.
“Brittany? Ignore Santana’s mouth for a minute. I need to ask you something.” Quinn said as way of greeting.
A few more giggles were heard and then a light-hearted voice came through the line. “Do I ignore her teeth too?”
Quinn rolled her eyes at her two best friends. “Yes, B. Just for a minute. I need to ask you something about Rachel.”
Quinn heard some shuffling, an exclamation followed by a pained groan. “Sorry, S. It’s Quinn.”
“Juno! Get your own girlfriend!” Quinn heard through the phone line and ignored it. Santana was known to be cranky when she was deprived of sex for too long. Well, grumpier than usual anyway.
“B?” Quinn called out softly to get Brittany’s attention again.
“What did you want to know?” Brittany asked her full attention on Quinn.
Quinn ignored her subconscious telling her it was none of her business. “At the invitational, what did you overhear exactly? From Rachel’s parents?”
“Um... oh!” Brittany exclaimed. Quinn could practically hear Brittany’s grin as she recalled the conversation she’d overheard.
“They were talking about MySpace videos?” Quinn asked confused about why Rachel’s dads would care about whether Rachel recorded and uploaded a video that night.
“Mhm! And Rachel’s dad was pissed because there wasn’t time for her to practice the piano before making the next video.” Brittany recalled with a nod of her head that Quinn couldn’t see through the phone.
Quinn was still confused. She quickly thanked Brittany and hung up the phone, but not before reassuring Brittany she would be over at 8 o’clock that night. Staring at her phone, Quinn thought over the information she had so far. MySpace videos? Quinn quickly closed her folder, dropped it to the floor by her desk and pulled her laptop closer to her before lifting the lid and turning the device on.
She quickly navigated to MySpace and logged in. She hadn’t been on the site in almost two years, since around the time she’d found out she was pregnant and leaving Rachel Berry insults on her videos had become less of a priority. It was easy to find Rachel’s page in her bookmarks. Rachel had recorded and uploaded over two hundred videos and as Quinn scrolled down the page, she noticed the date on the most recent video. Thursday, 3:27am - the morning after the invitational.
TBC...
Author: an_an0maly
Summary: ...pour real life down on me...
Pairing: Eventual Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG to NC-17
Word Count: 2,723 / 24,000+
Spoilers: I would like to say that spoilers would probably be from the Pilot to Sectionals. After that, there might be a few smatterings of references to events in the Back 9, but other than that, mainly just references to the first 13 episodes.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters unfortunately. Title belongs to Evanescence's 'Good Enough'.
Betas: grdnofevrythng for final touches in grammar, tenses, spelling etc. and gleek23 for fleshing this out with me almost on a daily basis. *hugs to both of you*.
The feedback has been spectacular, guys! Really, thank you so, so much for all the insights you each have. I'm really loving reading your thoughts! Thank you!.
Author's Note: There are two reasons I'm posting this next part so early. The first being that yesterday was my birthday and so I posted the weekly update as usual, but I love giving people presents rather than receiving them, although, this year, I got a 'gleek' t-shirt and a Harry Potter game for my DS, so yay! But anyway, my point is, I love giving presents. This year, my gift is the next part of this fic.
Posting this now, also leads me into the second reason I'm posting. I'm leaving for New York on Wednesday. I have tickets for the Saturday Glee Live concert (yay!) and am going to NY for nine days. I am so completely excited but it means that I probably wont be able to post next weekend. But never fear, our regular schedule of weekly updates will commence the following week. Apologies in advance though, because I completely forgot that I probably wont have time while in NY to post, or sadly to write.
Previous Parts: Prologue | I | II | III |
Part Four:
~*~*~
“Oh... it’s you.” Judy Fabray muttered as she entered the kitchen, three shiny designer bags hanging off her left arm. She placed her keys on the kitchen counter before carefully placing the bags next to them.
Quinn barely glanced at her mother before refocusing her attention back to the snack she was preparing.
“What are you doing?” Judy suddenly blurted out as she watched Quinn spread peanut butter over a slice of bread. Quinn ignored her mother as she made sure the peanut butter covered the corners of the slice. “I asked you a question.” Judy continued taking a step forward, her left hand instantly finding her hip.
Quinn sighed. “What does it look like I’m doing?” She answered with a mental eye roll before unscrewing the lid on the jelly. She wiped the knife on a piece of paper towel before dipping it into the jar. With a small smile Quinn began to spread the sweet substance over a second piece of bread.
“It looks like you’re about to stuff your face with an unhealthy mix of trans fats and sugar.” Judy began to get frustrated at the lack of response from her daughter. “If you’re hell-bent on letting yourself go, the least you could do is pick something a little less cliché than gaining fifty pounds.”
Quinn ignored her mother and with a small feeling of excitement she put the sandwich together. Using the knife she cut a diagonal line through her sandwich.
“Well?” Her mother asked both hands on her hips now. When Quinn ignored her and began to cut a second diagonal line through her sandwich, Judy Fabray practically growled before snatching up her bags and keys and storming out of the kitchen.
Quinn grinned down at her sandwich now perfectly cut into four triangles. She quickly cleaned up after herself, replacing the peanut butter and jelly and washing the knife she’d used. She wiped down the counter before taking her sandwich-filled plate with her up to her room.
She’d been living back home since the 2nd of April. Exactly three days after her daughter, Elizabeth (Ellie) Fabray, had been born and legally adopted by the Johnsons.
Quinn ignored the sound of her mother storming around in her parents’ bedroom and took a seat at her desk. She picked up a triangular piece of her sandwich and took a small bite as her gaze instantly found the photo of her daughter sitting in a plain black frame on her desk.
Reaching out, Quinn picked up the frame and brought it close to the edge of the desk. Shifting in her chair, she brought her knees up to her chest and firmly planted her heels on the edge of her seat. She took a second, bigger bite into her sandwich as she stared at the photo beneath the plate of glass.
Ellie Fabray - no, Ellie Johnson now, was nearing ten months and had already started walking. Her first birthday was coming up and Quinn made a mental note to start looking for presents. Her daughter had luckily inherited many of her mother’s physical traits - blonde hair, hazel eyes and fair skin. Puck was ecstatic over the fact that Ellie’s hair was growing in the shape of a Mohawk though. From what Quinn had read, this was common in children, but Puck insisted it was genetics.
Quinn didn’t have the heart to tell him that just because he might style his hair in a particular way didn’t mean that it could be passed down in genes.
She smiled as she remembered holding Ellie’s hand as they slowly walked around the playground, bundled up against the winter chill in coats, beanies and gloves. They had been lucky that visit as the sky had cleared and the sun shone down on them and even though the air was crisp and chilled, the weather had allowed them some time to go exploring through the park.
Sarah and Alex Johnson were the last in a long line of couples that had hoped to adopt Ellie. The search had taken months and contributed to the tension that continued to grow between Puck and herself. She’d moved in with Puck after Sectionals since Finn had asked her to find other living arrangements. She’d been sleeping in Puck’s room while he camped out on the couch. The situation wasn’t ideal for anyone, especially Elaine Puckerman who had grudgingly allowed Quinn to live with them only out of a sense of duty. Quinn knew that if Mrs. Puckerman could have had her way, this child would have belonged to a nice Jewish girl, like Rachel Berry.
The main source of tension brewing between Puck and Quinn had been caused by Quinn’s determination to find a family for Elizabeth. Puck couldn’t understand how Quinn could so easily give up their daughter. At the conclusion of one particularly heated argument, Quinn found herself searching for yet another set of living arrangements.
“But they live here! We could see her all the time!” Puck argued as he slammed his open hand against the row of lockers they were standing next to. Quinn noticed a group of freshman whispering and pointing as they walked by. This was not the ideal location for another argument with Puck.
“That’s not the point! She needs a good family! The Allens’ already have three children. I want her to go to a family that I think will give her all the attention she deserves. Don’t you?” Quinn argued back as she grabbed her Alegbra II text from her locker. She held the book to her chest before slamming the locker door closed to turn away from Puck. She took a few steps down the hall and away from him.
She didn’t make it far before Puck jumped in front of her, blocking her path, his body close to hers and his arm resting against the lockers. “She’s my daughter too.”
Quinn met Puck’s hurt and angry stare. “I know that,” she replied with conviction. “We’re going with an open adoption because I want you to be able to visit her. I want to visit her. But I want her out of Lima. She needs a better start to her life than what this town can offer.” Quinn said before moving around Puck’s sturdy form.
Puck watched as she began to walk away from him again, dismissing him. “Quinn Fabray, you’re a cold-hearted bitch.” He saw her step falter but she didn’t stop to defend herself. She just continued on to Algebra II.
Puck’s words had been the deciding factor. She’d been contemplating finding other arrangements when their arguments had begun to move toward shouting matches at all hours of the night. Puck didn’t know it, but his words had broken her. He assumed that giving up Ellie was the easiest decision she had made during the entire pregnancy, but it was the hardest. She loved her daughter, more than she was willing to admit and the decision to give her up was not taken lightly. They’d worked their way through four couples already and none of them had measured up to the family she wanted Ellie to grow up in.
She really had been trying to provide the best future she could for her daughter and if it meant getting her out of Lima and only being able to visit her once every year or two, then so be it. Her daughter needed her to make the right decision about this.
The three months leading up to Elizabeth’s birth were spent living in the spare room at the Hummel’s house behind the family garage. Burt had been sympathetic to her cause and had commented that had Kurt’s mother still been alive, she would have definitely welcomed Quinn into their home. Quinn appreciated that Mr. Hummel was providing her with a roof to live under as some sort of ode to his late wife’s memory and so she made sure to pull her weight around the house cooking and cleaning.
Living with the Hummel’s had definitely been an eye-opening experience for her. She’d learned how to adjust the hem on a pair of pants, change the air filter on her car and cross-stitch. Although all very important life lessons, Quinn found she learned what it meant to be a real family while living with Kurt and his dad. Dinner was eaten sitting close together around the kitchen table wherein Kurt and Mr Hummel were genuinely interested in how her day had been. They took turns cooking breakfast in the mornings and set aside weekends where Kurt would drag them shopping for a shirt or pair of shoes he’d seen and thought they just ‘had to have’ in their wardrobe.
Quinn’s circle of friends had expanded considerably by living with Kurt. Brittany and Santana had been welcomed into the Hummel home and Kurt had practically died from sheer excitement when he found himself in the seldom-breeched ‘in’ crowd. Mercedes had slowly worked her way into the fold and soon day-long shopping trips and Mani/Pedi Parties became the norm for the Hummel household.
Even now, living back at the Fabray’s, she found her social calendar was just as full as it had been before she’d been pregnant with Elizabeth.
The buzzing of her iPhone startled Quinn out of her thoughts. Quickly putting the photo back in its place on her desk, she reached for her phone and let her feet drop to the floor. She pressed the menu button at the bottom and slid her thumb across the screen.
My place. 8. Be there. The message read.
Quinn rolled her eyes before pressing lightly on the screen to reply. Deep throat, much? ;)
Puck never complained, was the instant reply. Quinn’s whole body shuddered at the implications.
Ew.
Just be here.
Quinn grinned at Santana’s text before checking the time and realizing she still had a few hours to finish her homework assignment for English. Setting aside her sandwich, she reached for her English folder and To Kill a Mockingbird. She looked over the essay question she had been assigned to answer:
Discuss the concept of family and Lee’s presentation of the American family. What does it consist of?
Quinn folded her arms and let her body sink into her chair before resting her forehead on her arms. Great. She took a few minutes for herself before sitting up and flipping through her folder to look for the notes she’d taken during class. They had touched on her essay topic briefly earlier that day. When she located her notes she found them lacking and growled in frustration. She tried to think back to why she’d been distracted and had missed so much on the topic.
She remembered Mrs. Gilbert prattling on about community expectations. How in such a small town it was the norm for parents to raise their children to be like them and that it was difficult to resist living up or down to those expectations. Quinn remembered understanding all too well what it would have been like in Lee’s portrayal of Maycomb County. Sometimes Quinn felt Lima was a little too similar. Sure, some kids made it out of there but more often than not, once a Lima-loser, always a Lima-loser.
Suddenly she remembered why she’d been distracted.
Quinn sat furiously scribbling down all that their teacher Mrs. Gilbert was saying. She was focusing on the theme of ‘family’ in relation to the text and Quinn knew she needed as much information as she could get down for her essay.
Quinn set her pen down quickly to switch to her green highlighter. She ignored her pen rolling off her folder and onto the floor trying to hurriedly highlight the last note she’d taken. She capped her highlighter and bent down to the side of her desk to search the floor close to her feet for her pen. She eventually spied it lying beneath the crossed legs of the person to her right. Reaching out to scoop up the pen, she suddenly recognised the white knee high socks and argyle skirt barely reaching mid-thigh. As she began to pull herself back up, Mrs. Gilbert droning on in the background, she noticed Rachel’s head propped up on her hand, her eyes closed, breathing deep and even. In her right hand, she had her pen poised ready to write, but as Quinn glanced at Rachel’s folder, the page was almost completely blank save for a title and date.
Although bent over in an awkward position, Quinn craned her head to the left to find Mrs. Gilbert walking toward the back of the classroom, two aisles over. Using the end of her pen, Quinn poked Rachel in the side.
Rachel startled awake and with a confusing question on her face she glanced to her left to lock eyes with Quinn who straightened herself up. Quinn shot her a pointed look as Rachel quickly averted her gaze down to her folder.
Quinn sat confused for a few seconds, staring at Rachel’s profile as she began to furiously write. She sat immobile for a few seconds trying to remember when Rachel Berry had been assigned the seat next to hers in English.
Quinn tapped her pen against the top of her desk as she stared at her incomplete notes. If she hadn’t seen it for herself, she would never have thought that Rachel Berry would ever fall asleep in any class, even if she found the class to be ‘lacking in appropriate instruction and content’ - Rachel’s words, not hers.
She thought back to Wednesday night and the argument she’d overheard and Rachel’s reluctance to exit her car until the last possible moment. Ignoring her essay, she reached for her phone again. She chalked up her Rachel Berry distraction as avoidance and quickly dialled Brittany’s number.
The phone rang three times before she heard some giggling and a soft moan Quinn was sure sounded like a drawn out ‘S’.
“Brittany? Ignore Santana’s mouth for a minute. I need to ask you something.” Quinn said as way of greeting.
A few more giggles were heard and then a light-hearted voice came through the line. “Do I ignore her teeth too?”
Quinn rolled her eyes at her two best friends. “Yes, B. Just for a minute. I need to ask you something about Rachel.”
Quinn heard some shuffling, an exclamation followed by a pained groan. “Sorry, S. It’s Quinn.”
“Juno! Get your own girlfriend!” Quinn heard through the phone line and ignored it. Santana was known to be cranky when she was deprived of sex for too long. Well, grumpier than usual anyway.
“B?” Quinn called out softly to get Brittany’s attention again.
“What did you want to know?” Brittany asked her full attention on Quinn.
Quinn ignored her subconscious telling her it was none of her business. “At the invitational, what did you overhear exactly? From Rachel’s parents?”
“Um... oh!” Brittany exclaimed. Quinn could practically hear Brittany’s grin as she recalled the conversation she’d overheard.
“They were talking about MySpace videos?” Quinn asked confused about why Rachel’s dads would care about whether Rachel recorded and uploaded a video that night.
“Mhm! And Rachel’s dad was pissed because there wasn’t time for her to practice the piano before making the next video.” Brittany recalled with a nod of her head that Quinn couldn’t see through the phone.
Quinn was still confused. She quickly thanked Brittany and hung up the phone, but not before reassuring Brittany she would be over at 8 o’clock that night. Staring at her phone, Quinn thought over the information she had so far. MySpace videos? Quinn quickly closed her folder, dropped it to the floor by her desk and pulled her laptop closer to her before lifting the lid and turning the device on.
She quickly navigated to MySpace and logged in. She hadn’t been on the site in almost two years, since around the time she’d found out she was pregnant and leaving Rachel Berry insults on her videos had become less of a priority. It was easy to find Rachel’s page in her bookmarks. Rachel had recorded and uploaded over two hundred videos and as Quinn scrolled down the page, she noticed the date on the most recent video. Thursday, 3:27am - the morning after the invitational.
TBC...