PFP #5
Characters Requested: Quinn, Rachel
It was Rachel’s first time in that particular bookstore, and it was difficult to decide where to look first-everything was beautiful and antique and exquisitely detailed, and she got the impression that she could walk around the shop for hours and still not admire everything there was to see.
It was understandable, then, that she didn’t notice the blonde girl, sitting quietly at a table with a mug of coffee and a book, until she was more than halfway down the stairs.
“Quinn?” she asked incredulously. “What are you doing here?”
Startled from her book, Quinn looked up, her previously serene features slowly turning into a frown. “What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked dryly, before taking a sip of coffee and looking back down.
Rachel was undeterred. “I just meant, what are you doing here?” she clarified cheerfully. “I remember where your house is, since I brought you cookies last year, and you live much closer to the bookstore in the mall, and the one in the plaza near the grocery store, and-“
“Can you please stop talking?” Quinn interrupted, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. “I come here every Thursday;
Brittany reads to the kids in the children’s room after school, and she needs a ride home.”
She pursed her lips. “Plus, I like the atmosphere,” she added. “Everything is very soothing and nobody bothers you.”
Rachel was slightly taken aback. “Brittany can read?”
Quinn sighed. “You can climb trees?” she replied, exaggerating Rachel’s tone.
Rachel frowned. “It was a fair question,” she pointed out. “The literacy level at McKinley is appallingly low, and our test scores are some of the worst in the state.”
Quinn didn’t look up from her book.
Rachel looked around. “And for the record,” she added, “I took the elevator.”
A light gust of wind blew a handful of leaves past Rachel’s feet. “I’d be very interested in talking to the owner,” she mentioned to Quinn. “Putting a multi-level bookstore in a tree shows a lot of architectural ingenuity. I wonder what gave him or her the idea. What do you think they do when it rains? Or during the winter months; given our location, they must-“
“Will you stop talking,” Quinn hissed dangerously. “I am trying to read.”
Rachel was momentarily startled.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I was just excited to find that someone else in New Directions shares my passion for literature. I mean, Mike does, but we don’t ever really get the chance to talk about books.”
Quinn nodded slowly.
“I’ll leave you alone now,” Rachel added, still subdued. “I don’t want to bother you while you’re reading.” Slowly, she walked back toward the stairs.
She heard Quinn groan behind her. “Fine,” she sighed dramatically, “whatever. Go get a book. If you promise to shut up and let me read, you can sit with me.”
Rachel raced back up the stairs to find a novel.