Fic: Life is Crayola Colored - Part II
Title: Life is Crayola Colored
Pairings: Finn/Rachel, Finn/Puck (friendship), some Finn/Quinn, a smidgen of Finn/Brittany and mentions of ensemble and other canon pairings.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6671
Disclaimer: Glee is the property of Twentieth Century Fox and affiliates and not mine.
Spoilers: Everything up season 1 and some season 2 spoilers.
Author’s Note: My first foray into the Glee fandom. What started off conceptually as a Finn/Rachel summer fic basically morphed into a Finn character study fic with a side serving of Finn/Rachel and copious amounts of Finn/Puck friendship. I think I like the boys too much.
Earlier Parts: Part I
LIFE IS CRAYOLA COLORED
ii. unmellow yellow
In his freshman year, Finn makes starting quarterback in the last two games of the season, mainly because Tommy Pearson breaks his arm when all the seniors in the football team decide to try rafting along the Hawg Creek. Everyone at school calls it the Great Rafting Disaster of 2008 and Coach Tanaka gets super super mad. Suddenly all the freshmen and second string players are on the playing field in a real match. Finn finds himself calling plays and people are actually listening to him and doing what he says and he thinks he kind of likes it. His throws are wide and long and Puck sacks everyone who tries to get in the way of his boy.
The William McKinley High football varsity team - the school is too small and underfunded to have a JV team - wins the last two games of the season. It is their only wins for the entire season. (It doesn’t matter that one of the teams has half its players off-field due to some super flu bug. Or that the quarterback, running-back and the offensive line from the other team get into a punch out with each other during the second half the game; it is something to do with a girl. They are still wins.) Finn is a star and everyone claps his back and high fives him when he walks down the corridors in school. There are even seniors who know his name.
When Finn gets a starting position on the basketball team, Brittany squeals, throwing her arms around him and kissing him real hard. Her lips are soft and she tastes kinda fruity like strawberries or something. He freaks out a little when Brittany’s tongue darts into his mouth and he’s not sure where to put his hands. His arms flail and his elbow bangs against a locker. Brittany pulls away just as Finn thinks he might be getting the hang of it all - and girls might actually be good for kissing and stuff - and there is a slight pop when their lips separate.
‘Thanks for making out with me, Finn,’ chirps Brittany. ‘Santana said you would be awful. But you’re like super cute so I don’t care.’
Finn’s just glad that the gym has emptied out and that no one (hopefully) saw him with Brittany.
He tells Puck later though as they’re shooting hoops.
The ball hits the backboard and swirls round the ring before sinking in and Finn says, ‘I made out with Brittany today.’
‘Cool,’ Puck grunts as grabs the rebounding ball, shoots and scores. ‘Brittany’s hot. The thing she does with her tongue. So hot.’
‘Yeah,’ he nods, bouncing the ball three times before shooting.
The ball hits the rim and Puck goes in for the rebound. Finn sighs.
‘Your aim is off,’ Puck tells him. ‘Dude, you need to be quicker on the uptake. Once you’re in the zone, I know you can score.’
Finn knows that Puck isn’t really talking about his basketball skills. And while Finn would never say it to Puck’s face because they’re dudes and all, it is nice having a best friend who knows him.
-o-
Everyone finds out anyway.
Gossip travels fast in McKinley High and by second period Finn still can’t get rid of this kid with crazy hair and glasses asking if he and Brittany are an item now.
‘Beat it, Israel,’ Puck barks, coming out of nowhere.
The kid is gone in like seconds.
‘I hate that kid,’ Puck growls, clenching the slushie in his hand. ‘Always got his fuckin’ nose in other people’s business.’
Finn notices that Puck’s mouth is a tight, twisted line and his eyes take on a familiar gleam as he talks. Before he has a chance to remind Puck about impulse control, his best friend is dumping the icy green contents of his cup over some girl with brown hair in a short skirt and leg warmers. Finn thinks he should feel bad, maybe say something to Puck, but everyone is staring and pointing at the girl and no one is talking about him and Brittany anymore.
-o-
During third period English, Quinn Fabray takes a seat next to Finn. Her thigh presses against his when she leans over to correct his spelling. He spends half the class watching for that glimpse of skin whenever the red and white pleats of her skirt parts as she shifts positions in her seat.
‘It’s i before e except after c, Finn,’ she giggles, tossing her head so that her ponytail bounces.
The strands of gold are so shiny that Finn has to sit on his hands to stop himself from reaching out and touching Quinn’s hair.
It is the first time that Quinn Fabray has ever spoken to Finn. He wonders if it means they are friends now, that if he is officially popular. He wonders if Quinn is only sitting next to him because she heard about Brittany.
-o-
‘I think we should date,’ Quinn tells him a month before school ends.
Finn is shoving books in his locker when Quinn speaks and the words don’t seem real, don’t make sense. His mind goes blank, his fingers slack and his body is numb. He doesn’t even really feel his History textbook as it thuds onto his foot.
Quinn is like seriously the hottest girl in school, and she knows it.
‘Well, are you going to ask me out or not, Finn?’ she demands, a hand on her hip and an impatient look on her face as she draws out his name.
‘Will you go out with me?’ Finn manages.
The words feel hollow like they don’t belong to him. It feels like Quinn has just told him the answer to a test question so he can repeat it when the teacher calls on him in class and not look dumb.
Quinn nods her head with a pleased, approving look on her face as she stands on her tip-toes and presses her lips against Finn’s cheek.
‘Breadsticks at 7,’ she tells him. ‘Pick me up and don’t be late.’
By the end of the day, everyone knows that Quinn and Finn are dating.
-o-
Once, during the summer, Finn takes Quinn bowling as a surprise. Her eyes narrow and her hand is on her hip and Finn is really familiar with this particular pinched look on Quinn’s face.
‘This is seriously lame, Finn!’ she screeches. ‘I can’t believe you would ruin what should have been a perfectly good date to take me here. No Cheerio would be caught dead here. Bowling is for old people and losers.’
After that Finn isn’t allowed to plan anymore of their dates. They spend most of their dates at parties held by the popular kids at school or at Quinn’s house instead - she has a pool and a hot tub. They spend most of their dates praying and the truth is having a girlfriend isn’t really what Finn thought it would be like. Nothing like how Puck describes it.
-o-
It is the middle of the summer and Finn is still suffering from growing pains. There are all these extra inches that Finn doesn’t know quite what to do with and he’s actually the same height as Puck now.
Puck and Finn spend a lot of nights hanging out at the 7-Eleven convincing people to buy them beer. They totally have this good cop/bad cop routine down which is awesome and like always works.
‘Dude, it won’t work if you’re the bad cop,’ Puck tells him more than once. ‘No one is going to believe that the Puckmeister isn’t a total badass. ‘Sides, nobody does the puppy dog face like you do. People fall all over that shit.’
They sit on the curbside with a couple of open cans between them. Finn’s not too sure that he likes the taste of beer - it is kinda bitter - but if he downs it really fast, in two or three gulps, then he doesn’t really taste anything. Plus he makes the most awesome burps after a couple of beers. He can even burp the alphabet up until the letter ‘j’. He’s totally working on making it all the way to ‘z’ one day.
Puck sometimes gets into these moods. Like he needs to be an extra dick sometimes to be okay. He’s crushing the beer cans into tiny metal balls tonight and tossing them at the cars parked nearby.
‘I hate this fucking town,’ Puck starts, ‘with all the fucking losers and deadbeats. Like what the fuck do they know.’
Finn polishes off his beer and hands his empty can to Puck to crush.
‘I know they were all talking shit at temple last week. Ready to pounce and my mom just had to sit there and take that. Well fuck that.’
Finn is on his fourth beer and Puck’s words begin to blur. He hears deadbeat dad and ran off and left all this fucking debt and something about Puck needing to work. His beer is getting warm and sweat trickles down Finn’s forehead. It is really hot out tonight and he kind of wishes they were at Quinn’s because at least she has a pool although the last time he visited Mrs Fabray was saying it needed to be cleaned before they could use it again.
‘The Fabrays need to get their pool cleaned out,’ he slurs to Puck. ‘You should clean Quinn’s pool.’
Puck nods, reaching for another can of beer, ‘Yeah. I could totally do that. Thanks, dude.’
They finish off the last of the beer and Finn fiddles with the plastic rings from the two six-packs that they got one of the community college kids to buy. The plastic wraps around Finn’s wrists like handcuffs and he wrenches his hands apart testing his strength.
‘Hey, it’s Mitchell and the others!’ Puck shouts, staggering towards 7-Eleven.
Finn wobbles forward to greet his teammates, the plastic rings still hanging off his left wrist, and the next thing he knows they’re in Mitchell’s car with cartons of eggs and more beer in the backseat.
‘Stop here,’ Puck tells Mitchell.
The car pulls up hard along the curb and Mitchell, Azimo and Adams are out of the car and tossing eggs at some chick out for a run, listening to her ipod, in hot pink shorts and a hot pink tank top. Finn thinks there’s a lot of pink.
‘It’s Berry,’ Puck growls. ‘Fucking batshit crazy chick who’s always singing and smiling. Smiling and singing. And never shuts the fuck up. Chick annoys the hell out of me.’
Finn watches as his best friend leaps out of the car and tosses half a dozen eggs at the girl. He stumbles out of the car because he knows everyone is waiting for him, for the quarterback. He takes a step forward but his legs feel unsteady so his left hand clutches onto the side of the car. There’s an egg in his hand and he doesn’t remember putting it there but it is in his hand anyway and then he pulls his right arm back and throws.
The egg is a white blur forming a perfect arch as it glides through the air landing with perfect aim on the girl’s back. The yolk leaves a trail of yellow streaks along her pink tank top and there’s shell in her brown hair, on her skin and shell pooling around her feet. He notices the way the egg white slips down the curve of her butt and suddenly he’s taking in each and every one of her curves and it comes to him that the girl is actually hot. And Rachel Berry - he somehow remembers that her name is Rachel Berry - is standing there, quiet and still and she isn’t singing or smiling.
Finn’s stomach lurches and then he’s bent over the sidewalk puking his guts out.
‘There better not be puke on my car!’ Mitchell yells at him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Rachel Berry move, dashing off like a wounded animal in those nature shows he watched in Biology last term.
-o-
Puck cleans the Fabrays’ pool and it is the start of his pool cleaning business. Double sessions for football begin and Puck tells the football team about these smokin’ MILFs who like to pay him for extra cleaning services. Everyone high fives Puck and he boasts about how he’s booked solid for the rest of the summer. Football training is the only time Finn really sees Puck anymore.
Quinn’s also super busy because she's set to make head cheerleader once school re-opens and nothing is going to screw up her plans. But any time that Quinn is free, Finn has his pre-season training; so they’re lucky if they even get to go out on a date.
Finn spends his spare time over at Sean’s instead. Mrs Fretthold always looks super tired whenever he comes over but she always greets him with a warm smile. The first few times that Finn came over it was awkward. He sat in silence as Sean stared stonily at the wall, at the ceiling, at the door, at anywhere but Finn. One afternoon, Mrs Fretthold left one of the windows open and there was a truck parked outside the street with the speakers on at full blast. Bruce Springsteen blared through and Finn didn’t realize that he’d started to hum.
They both stared at each other shocked after Sean sang, ‘We gotta get out while we’re young.’
The sun hit Finn in the face, blinding him for a moment and he could barely make out the unmoving, solid form of his friend. Finn blinked a few times before cupping a hand over his eyes and, when his vision cleared, he saw the smallest of smiles crack onto Sean’s face.
They belted out the chorus, their voices blending in harmony, ‘Baby, we were born to run!’
So Finn takes to regularly visiting Sean, and each time Finn comes back he tells him about training and conditioning and Sean talks about therapy and conditioning. Sometimes they pour over statistics like this sick, brutal hobby: estimated population of 37,829 people; median income for a family is $32,405; 22.7% of the population is below the poverty line; the percentage of college graduates is 9.5%; only 2 William McKinley High seniors left the State of Ohio to go to college last year. The words Lima and Loser belong together and sometimes the words echo in his head over and over but then Sean talks about his latest therapy session.
When he leaves, Sean tells him, ‘You’re gonna be all right, Finnster.’
And in that moment Finn believes Sean.
-o-
He doesn’t tell Quinn about Sean and she never asks what he does with his time when he’s not with her. He thinks their current dating arrangements are working pretty well for them. Finn likes Quinn. She’s hot and all, a Cheerio, popular and he really likes kissing her although he wishes that she would let him get past first base.
So Finn is a little surprised when Quinn says, in between her third cup of punch at Santana’s end of summer party, ‘I see more of Puck, who cleans our pool every week, than I do of you. You’re meant to be my boyfriend. I love you. Do you even love me, Finn?’
Quinn’s eyes are big and wide and her bottom lip trembles and Finn thinks she looks like an angel or whatever with her blonde hair falling across her face and her cross gleaming around her neck. Something stirs inside of him and he thinks that this might be the real Quinn - the one he only gets to see. Finn knows everyone expects them to get married one day - he can’t really think that far ahead because he’s like only fifteen - and he’s one lucky dude to have a girlfriend like Quinn Fabray. He feels like a total douche when he looks at her clutching her cup tightly in her hand.
He quickly downs his beer, tossing the can aside before blurting out, ‘You’re really hot, Quinn, and I think I love you.’
Her arms wrap around his neck in a tight hug and they stumble to a corner away from the rest of the party. He kisses Quinn and she doesn’t even protest when he sticks his tongue in her mouth. She even lets him put his hand on her breast for the first time ever (although only over the top of her Cheerio uniform, which she still wears even though it is summer and school is out) and it is the most awesome thing. Finn would have totally told Quinn he loved her earlier if he had known it meant he would get some breast action. He erupts in his jeans when Quinn starts grinding against him and he’s praying that she doesn’t notice.
Quinn notices.
‘I got a little excited,’ Finn mumbles and he is sure the tips of his ears are red.
There’s a brief moment where Finn thinks Quinn looks almost grossed out but then she’s smiling and there’s a glint in her eye that Finn becomes familiar with once Quinn is made head cheerleader at the start of their sophomore year.
-o-
By the time school starts, Finn has outgrown Puck. His mom fusses and worries and they head to Walmart to buy him new clothes during the Back to School sale. When he walks into the halls of McKinley High, wearing his new jeans and sweatshirt, Finn is still trying to get used to how everything now fits on him.
On to Part III...
Pairings: Finn/Rachel, Finn/Puck (friendship), some Finn/Quinn, a smidgen of Finn/Brittany and mentions of ensemble and other canon pairings.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6671
Disclaimer: Glee is the property of Twentieth Century Fox and affiliates and not mine.
Spoilers: Everything up season 1 and some season 2 spoilers.
Author’s Note: My first foray into the Glee fandom. What started off conceptually as a Finn/Rachel summer fic basically morphed into a Finn character study fic with a side serving of Finn/Rachel and copious amounts of Finn/Puck friendship. I think I like the boys too much.
Earlier Parts: Part I
LIFE IS CRAYOLA COLORED
ii. unmellow yellow
In his freshman year, Finn makes starting quarterback in the last two games of the season, mainly because Tommy Pearson breaks his arm when all the seniors in the football team decide to try rafting along the Hawg Creek. Everyone at school calls it the Great Rafting Disaster of 2008 and Coach Tanaka gets super super mad. Suddenly all the freshmen and second string players are on the playing field in a real match. Finn finds himself calling plays and people are actually listening to him and doing what he says and he thinks he kind of likes it. His throws are wide and long and Puck sacks everyone who tries to get in the way of his boy.
The William McKinley High football varsity team - the school is too small and underfunded to have a JV team - wins the last two games of the season. It is their only wins for the entire season. (It doesn’t matter that one of the teams has half its players off-field due to some super flu bug. Or that the quarterback, running-back and the offensive line from the other team get into a punch out with each other during the second half the game; it is something to do with a girl. They are still wins.) Finn is a star and everyone claps his back and high fives him when he walks down the corridors in school. There are even seniors who know his name.
When Finn gets a starting position on the basketball team, Brittany squeals, throwing her arms around him and kissing him real hard. Her lips are soft and she tastes kinda fruity like strawberries or something. He freaks out a little when Brittany’s tongue darts into his mouth and he’s not sure where to put his hands. His arms flail and his elbow bangs against a locker. Brittany pulls away just as Finn thinks he might be getting the hang of it all - and girls might actually be good for kissing and stuff - and there is a slight pop when their lips separate.
‘Thanks for making out with me, Finn,’ chirps Brittany. ‘Santana said you would be awful. But you’re like super cute so I don’t care.’
Finn’s just glad that the gym has emptied out and that no one (hopefully) saw him with Brittany.
He tells Puck later though as they’re shooting hoops.
The ball hits the backboard and swirls round the ring before sinking in and Finn says, ‘I made out with Brittany today.’
‘Cool,’ Puck grunts as grabs the rebounding ball, shoots and scores. ‘Brittany’s hot. The thing she does with her tongue. So hot.’
‘Yeah,’ he nods, bouncing the ball three times before shooting.
The ball hits the rim and Puck goes in for the rebound. Finn sighs.
‘Your aim is off,’ Puck tells him. ‘Dude, you need to be quicker on the uptake. Once you’re in the zone, I know you can score.’
Finn knows that Puck isn’t really talking about his basketball skills. And while Finn would never say it to Puck’s face because they’re dudes and all, it is nice having a best friend who knows him.
-o-
Everyone finds out anyway.
Gossip travels fast in McKinley High and by second period Finn still can’t get rid of this kid with crazy hair and glasses asking if he and Brittany are an item now.
‘Beat it, Israel,’ Puck barks, coming out of nowhere.
The kid is gone in like seconds.
‘I hate that kid,’ Puck growls, clenching the slushie in his hand. ‘Always got his fuckin’ nose in other people’s business.’
Finn notices that Puck’s mouth is a tight, twisted line and his eyes take on a familiar gleam as he talks. Before he has a chance to remind Puck about impulse control, his best friend is dumping the icy green contents of his cup over some girl with brown hair in a short skirt and leg warmers. Finn thinks he should feel bad, maybe say something to Puck, but everyone is staring and pointing at the girl and no one is talking about him and Brittany anymore.
-o-
During third period English, Quinn Fabray takes a seat next to Finn. Her thigh presses against his when she leans over to correct his spelling. He spends half the class watching for that glimpse of skin whenever the red and white pleats of her skirt parts as she shifts positions in her seat.
‘It’s i before e except after c, Finn,’ she giggles, tossing her head so that her ponytail bounces.
The strands of gold are so shiny that Finn has to sit on his hands to stop himself from reaching out and touching Quinn’s hair.
It is the first time that Quinn Fabray has ever spoken to Finn. He wonders if it means they are friends now, that if he is officially popular. He wonders if Quinn is only sitting next to him because she heard about Brittany.
-o-
‘I think we should date,’ Quinn tells him a month before school ends.
Finn is shoving books in his locker when Quinn speaks and the words don’t seem real, don’t make sense. His mind goes blank, his fingers slack and his body is numb. He doesn’t even really feel his History textbook as it thuds onto his foot.
Quinn is like seriously the hottest girl in school, and she knows it.
‘Well, are you going to ask me out or not, Finn?’ she demands, a hand on her hip and an impatient look on her face as she draws out his name.
‘Will you go out with me?’ Finn manages.
The words feel hollow like they don’t belong to him. It feels like Quinn has just told him the answer to a test question so he can repeat it when the teacher calls on him in class and not look dumb.
Quinn nods her head with a pleased, approving look on her face as she stands on her tip-toes and presses her lips against Finn’s cheek.
‘Breadsticks at 7,’ she tells him. ‘Pick me up and don’t be late.’
By the end of the day, everyone knows that Quinn and Finn are dating.
-o-
Once, during the summer, Finn takes Quinn bowling as a surprise. Her eyes narrow and her hand is on her hip and Finn is really familiar with this particular pinched look on Quinn’s face.
‘This is seriously lame, Finn!’ she screeches. ‘I can’t believe you would ruin what should have been a perfectly good date to take me here. No Cheerio would be caught dead here. Bowling is for old people and losers.’
After that Finn isn’t allowed to plan anymore of their dates. They spend most of their dates at parties held by the popular kids at school or at Quinn’s house instead - she has a pool and a hot tub. They spend most of their dates praying and the truth is having a girlfriend isn’t really what Finn thought it would be like. Nothing like how Puck describes it.
-o-
It is the middle of the summer and Finn is still suffering from growing pains. There are all these extra inches that Finn doesn’t know quite what to do with and he’s actually the same height as Puck now.
Puck and Finn spend a lot of nights hanging out at the 7-Eleven convincing people to buy them beer. They totally have this good cop/bad cop routine down which is awesome and like always works.
‘Dude, it won’t work if you’re the bad cop,’ Puck tells him more than once. ‘No one is going to believe that the Puckmeister isn’t a total badass. ‘Sides, nobody does the puppy dog face like you do. People fall all over that shit.’
They sit on the curbside with a couple of open cans between them. Finn’s not too sure that he likes the taste of beer - it is kinda bitter - but if he downs it really fast, in two or three gulps, then he doesn’t really taste anything. Plus he makes the most awesome burps after a couple of beers. He can even burp the alphabet up until the letter ‘j’. He’s totally working on making it all the way to ‘z’ one day.
Puck sometimes gets into these moods. Like he needs to be an extra dick sometimes to be okay. He’s crushing the beer cans into tiny metal balls tonight and tossing them at the cars parked nearby.
‘I hate this fucking town,’ Puck starts, ‘with all the fucking losers and deadbeats. Like what the fuck do they know.’
Finn polishes off his beer and hands his empty can to Puck to crush.
‘I know they were all talking shit at temple last week. Ready to pounce and my mom just had to sit there and take that. Well fuck that.’
Finn is on his fourth beer and Puck’s words begin to blur. He hears deadbeat dad and ran off and left all this fucking debt and something about Puck needing to work. His beer is getting warm and sweat trickles down Finn’s forehead. It is really hot out tonight and he kind of wishes they were at Quinn’s because at least she has a pool although the last time he visited Mrs Fabray was saying it needed to be cleaned before they could use it again.
‘The Fabrays need to get their pool cleaned out,’ he slurs to Puck. ‘You should clean Quinn’s pool.’
Puck nods, reaching for another can of beer, ‘Yeah. I could totally do that. Thanks, dude.’
They finish off the last of the beer and Finn fiddles with the plastic rings from the two six-packs that they got one of the community college kids to buy. The plastic wraps around Finn’s wrists like handcuffs and he wrenches his hands apart testing his strength.
‘Hey, it’s Mitchell and the others!’ Puck shouts, staggering towards 7-Eleven.
Finn wobbles forward to greet his teammates, the plastic rings still hanging off his left wrist, and the next thing he knows they’re in Mitchell’s car with cartons of eggs and more beer in the backseat.
‘Stop here,’ Puck tells Mitchell.
The car pulls up hard along the curb and Mitchell, Azimo and Adams are out of the car and tossing eggs at some chick out for a run, listening to her ipod, in hot pink shorts and a hot pink tank top. Finn thinks there’s a lot of pink.
‘It’s Berry,’ Puck growls. ‘Fucking batshit crazy chick who’s always singing and smiling. Smiling and singing. And never shuts the fuck up. Chick annoys the hell out of me.’
Finn watches as his best friend leaps out of the car and tosses half a dozen eggs at the girl. He stumbles out of the car because he knows everyone is waiting for him, for the quarterback. He takes a step forward but his legs feel unsteady so his left hand clutches onto the side of the car. There’s an egg in his hand and he doesn’t remember putting it there but it is in his hand anyway and then he pulls his right arm back and throws.
The egg is a white blur forming a perfect arch as it glides through the air landing with perfect aim on the girl’s back. The yolk leaves a trail of yellow streaks along her pink tank top and there’s shell in her brown hair, on her skin and shell pooling around her feet. He notices the way the egg white slips down the curve of her butt and suddenly he’s taking in each and every one of her curves and it comes to him that the girl is actually hot. And Rachel Berry - he somehow remembers that her name is Rachel Berry - is standing there, quiet and still and she isn’t singing or smiling.
Finn’s stomach lurches and then he’s bent over the sidewalk puking his guts out.
‘There better not be puke on my car!’ Mitchell yells at him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Rachel Berry move, dashing off like a wounded animal in those nature shows he watched in Biology last term.
-o-
Puck cleans the Fabrays’ pool and it is the start of his pool cleaning business. Double sessions for football begin and Puck tells the football team about these smokin’ MILFs who like to pay him for extra cleaning services. Everyone high fives Puck and he boasts about how he’s booked solid for the rest of the summer. Football training is the only time Finn really sees Puck anymore.
Quinn’s also super busy because she's set to make head cheerleader once school re-opens and nothing is going to screw up her plans. But any time that Quinn is free, Finn has his pre-season training; so they’re lucky if they even get to go out on a date.
Finn spends his spare time over at Sean’s instead. Mrs Fretthold always looks super tired whenever he comes over but she always greets him with a warm smile. The first few times that Finn came over it was awkward. He sat in silence as Sean stared stonily at the wall, at the ceiling, at the door, at anywhere but Finn. One afternoon, Mrs Fretthold left one of the windows open and there was a truck parked outside the street with the speakers on at full blast. Bruce Springsteen blared through and Finn didn’t realize that he’d started to hum.
They both stared at each other shocked after Sean sang, ‘We gotta get out while we’re young.’
The sun hit Finn in the face, blinding him for a moment and he could barely make out the unmoving, solid form of his friend. Finn blinked a few times before cupping a hand over his eyes and, when his vision cleared, he saw the smallest of smiles crack onto Sean’s face.
They belted out the chorus, their voices blending in harmony, ‘Baby, we were born to run!’
So Finn takes to regularly visiting Sean, and each time Finn comes back he tells him about training and conditioning and Sean talks about therapy and conditioning. Sometimes they pour over statistics like this sick, brutal hobby: estimated population of 37,829 people; median income for a family is $32,405; 22.7% of the population is below the poverty line; the percentage of college graduates is 9.5%; only 2 William McKinley High seniors left the State of Ohio to go to college last year. The words Lima and Loser belong together and sometimes the words echo in his head over and over but then Sean talks about his latest therapy session.
When he leaves, Sean tells him, ‘You’re gonna be all right, Finnster.’
And in that moment Finn believes Sean.
-o-
He doesn’t tell Quinn about Sean and she never asks what he does with his time when he’s not with her. He thinks their current dating arrangements are working pretty well for them. Finn likes Quinn. She’s hot and all, a Cheerio, popular and he really likes kissing her although he wishes that she would let him get past first base.
So Finn is a little surprised when Quinn says, in between her third cup of punch at Santana’s end of summer party, ‘I see more of Puck, who cleans our pool every week, than I do of you. You’re meant to be my boyfriend. I love you. Do you even love me, Finn?’
Quinn’s eyes are big and wide and her bottom lip trembles and Finn thinks she looks like an angel or whatever with her blonde hair falling across her face and her cross gleaming around her neck. Something stirs inside of him and he thinks that this might be the real Quinn - the one he only gets to see. Finn knows everyone expects them to get married one day - he can’t really think that far ahead because he’s like only fifteen - and he’s one lucky dude to have a girlfriend like Quinn Fabray. He feels like a total douche when he looks at her clutching her cup tightly in her hand.
He quickly downs his beer, tossing the can aside before blurting out, ‘You’re really hot, Quinn, and I think I love you.’
Her arms wrap around his neck in a tight hug and they stumble to a corner away from the rest of the party. He kisses Quinn and she doesn’t even protest when he sticks his tongue in her mouth. She even lets him put his hand on her breast for the first time ever (although only over the top of her Cheerio uniform, which she still wears even though it is summer and school is out) and it is the most awesome thing. Finn would have totally told Quinn he loved her earlier if he had known it meant he would get some breast action. He erupts in his jeans when Quinn starts grinding against him and he’s praying that she doesn’t notice.
Quinn notices.
‘I got a little excited,’ Finn mumbles and he is sure the tips of his ears are red.
There’s a brief moment where Finn thinks Quinn looks almost grossed out but then she’s smiling and there’s a glint in her eye that Finn becomes familiar with once Quinn is made head cheerleader at the start of their sophomore year.
-o-
By the time school starts, Finn has outgrown Puck. His mom fusses and worries and they head to Walmart to buy him new clothes during the Back to School sale. When he walks into the halls of McKinley High, wearing his new jeans and sweatshirt, Finn is still trying to get used to how everything now fits on him.
On to Part III...