Back 2 Good Chapter 4
Song Key: Italics=Puck; Regular Text=Rachel; Bold=Both
As expected, Rachel made Puck rehearse almost every day after school. But Puck didn’t mind really, because she lets him eat almost anything he wants and she lets him watch her awesome TV when they took their breaks. The only time they couldn’t rehearse was when Quinn was having one of her wild pregnancy cravings and insisted that there was no one else to help her.
And Puck doesn’t really ever feel like banging his head into the wall until he’s unconscious. That is until the day she suggests costumes. Their song is old, so when Rachel suggest that their outfits match those of the original performers, he nearly goes crazy. She showed him a youtube video and those outfits were totally not badass. They were ugly and she expected him to wear these glasses that he adamantly protested against. But instead of arguing, he just rolled his eyes at her when she went on about how costumes are part of the performance.
He does that a lot; roll his eyes at her that is. Because he’s learned that arguing with Berry over her insane ideas isn’t a good idea. He did that the first day when he tired to tell her a fully choreographed number wasn’t necessary. He ended up at the receiving end of a thirty-minute lecture about the definition of show choir and she told him that if he didn’t want to do choreography he could join the Lima Community Choir. Puck definitely didn’t want that. He knew that the LCC was full of old women. And not the cougar kind, the ancient ones. And Puck had standards. So instead of waiting for lectures, he rolls his eyes, which he surprisingly hasn’t gotten in trouble for.
Friday at school, Puck is invited to a party at Jeffrey Sampson’s house that night. Sampson has had some pretty awesome parties in the past. But Puck declines, he has plans with Rachel. Which could seem pretty lame, but he ends up having a good time.
He meets her dads, which completely freaked him out at first because dads don’t like him around their daughters. Even if he and Rachel were just friends, he fully expected them to take one look at him and kick him out of the house then force him to leave the district so he could never be around their little girl again. But he’s pleasantly shocked when they only ask a few questions (none of which involved his pending fatherhood) and then invited him and Rachel to play board games with them. And they did. Rachel told him several times that they could do something else. But it wasn’t anything childish. It was Monopoly, which Daddy totally won. He was a real estate agent so Puck was pretty sure that was some kind of cheating, but he wasn’t about to argue with him over it. Afterward, when Puck was sure it was late enough for Rachel’s parents to hurry off to bed (it was eleven o’clock), they pulled out a deck of UNO cards, UNO! Rachel totally won (and he may have let her) but he hadn’t played the game in a few years when he played with his sister. And it totally wasn’t as badass as getting drunk at Sampson’s party and possibly getting some action from a Cheerio (who would hopefully actually remember his name this time), but the night totally didn’t suck. He learned that Rachel is as determined to win board games as she was at being on Broadway. This totally made Puck laugh at her tantrums a couple times. She just slapped his arm. He totally liked less scary Rachel.
When Rachel walked him to the door, she was apologizing profusely about making him hang out with her fathers. They were leaving in the morning to see her grandmother and would be gone the rest of the weekend and she wanted to spend as much time as she could with them. After he reminded her that if he wanted to leave he would have.
“It’s fine Rachel really,” he said, “but that means that tomorrow you have to do something that I want to do.”
That idea scared Rachel. Not because she thought he would put her in danger, but the thought of what crazy, safe activities that Noah Puckerman could possibly include her in left her in the dark.
“Like what?”
“You’ll find out. Be ready at noon tomorrow.”
“Noah, you know I don’t like surprises.”
Puck placed his hand on Rachel’s shoulder, “Are you questioning my badassness again Berry? Don’t you trust me?”
“I assure you this is not a moment where your bravado is in question at all. And of course I trust you but as I said I am not a fan of surprises.” Rachel said looking Puck in the eye. She had confidently found alternatives to the term ‘badass’ in order to avoid the risk of Puck using it to hear such language come from her lips.
“Then you don’t have a damn thing to worry about,” Puck said smiling.
As Rachel’s dads were calling her back into the house, “I’ll see you promptly at noon tomorrow Noah.”
Puck nodded and then turned and walked from the porch to his truck parked on the street.
~~~~&~~~~
After saying goodbye to her fathers, Rachel realized she had no idea how to dress for whatever occasion Puck had planned for her. She sent him a text asking what the attire was to be required for their outing and she laughed and shook her head when he responded.
U mean clothes? Jeez Berry. No jeans no skirts gym shoes. U do own those right? And a change of clothes.
Rachel alerted Puck that yes, she did own the required clothing and began getting ready. She debated berating him about his lack of proper punctuation but she had learned from him recently that it was proper to abandon common writing practices when texting. Not that it stopped her.
Puck arrived punctually at ten after twelve. As she climbed into the truck, she told Puck how proud she was of him for not being extremely late. And Rachel is utterly shocked when they go rock climbing. And Puck is surprised when Rachel doesn’t struggle as much as he expected her to. He was fully prepared to tease her all afternoon about her lack of strength but she was able to hold her own and even out shined him a few times. When they had finished and both of them had showered and changed, Rachel reminded Puck of her rigorous diet and exercise routine that allowed her to build great upper body and leg strength.
“Where are we going now?” Rachel said when she realized that Puck had taken a turn that didn’t lead back to her house.
“We need food.” Puck said.
Rachel realized that he was correct, but she had intended on going home and preparing something and lounging around watching a movie. But as Puck pulled into one of the little diners of Lima, she figured that this was a more entertaining choice.
When they finish, Puck didn’t bring Rachel home. Instead, he brought her back to his house. His mom isn’t home and his sister just kind of sits there and doesn’t bother him (which is finds weird since she is always bothering him). Rachel tucked herself into the corner of the couch and when Puck took the seat on the other end; she stretched her legs out until they rested on Puck’s lap. Puck doesn’t say anything but just lets her and rests one hand above her ankles and the other just below her knee. They stayed that way until her dads called to check up on her and both teens thought it would be for the best if Rachel went home. Puck dropped Rachel off in front of her house and only let her out when she promised to call if she needed anything since she was home alone. Rachel promised after she reminded Puck that they had another rehearsal Monday after glee. He shook his head and rolled his eyes as Rachel jumped out of the car and headed inside. He waited until the light was on in her bedroom before he pulled out of the driveway.
~~~~&~~~
Monday during glee saw the beginning of the performances of everyone’s regional suggestions. Brittany, Tina, Mike and Matt performed ‘Sugar Rush’ by the A-Teens. Everyone was completely put off by the choice. But after their performance, which Rachel enjoyed despite their bubble gum pop genre choice, the group revealed that they had allowed Brittany to choose the song. Why no one argued with her was completely lost on Rachel.
Unfortunately, the second performance on Monday was Finn and Santana. Rachel crossed her arms over her chest as she watched them walk to the front of the room. When the music started and Finn began to sing, Rachel was suddenly furious.
Summer lovin' had me a blast
Grease? They were doing Grease? Rachel was certain that Grease was her and Finn’s thing. And now she was watching him in front of everyone performing with Santana Lopez of all people. Rachel did her best to keep herself composed while the two danced around. And when they were done the room erupted in applause. Really? That was truly less than awe-inspiring. Rachel knew right at that moment that she was not going to allow this song to make it onto the set list. There was no way they were going to win using a song from Grease that she wasn’t apart of. It just wasn’t allowed.
Rachel made Puck rehearse extra. They weren’t suppose to perform until Thursday and while Rachel had thought about giving Puck a break after Monday, since he had been such a good sport. There was no way she was going to lose this, especially to Santana Lopez. They were teammates yes, but it was just a little friendly competition right? Of course.
On Wednesday Mercedes and Kurt were scheduled to perform first, then Artie and Quinn. But after Kurt and Mercedes AMAZING (yes, Rachel would admit that it was quite a stellar performance) of 4 Minutes by Madonna and Justin Timberlake the fire alarm ironically went off. Rachel heard Kurt saying repeatedly that it was because their performance was on fire. Rachel thought that if Kurt should gloat he should come up with something original instead of being so cliché.
When Thursday rolled around Puck was still surprised that he hadn’t killed Rachel, but he had found that he actually enjoyed hanging out with her. He obviously hadn’t gotten to know the real Rachel in the days that they dated (there really wasn’t time for that with all the making out and breaking up a few times). She was kind of cool once you got adjusted to her wacky abrasive personality. And sometimes, like the time she was just listening to music for them to perform when she was just silent and it looked like she was just letting the music over take her. Puck thought it was kind of cool how she could just be one with the music and all. But it had taken him until after seven the night before the performance to convince her that the song was as good as it was going to get. And if hadn’t already gotten used to it, it would have totally made him drive off the cliff when she agreed, and her speeches turned from how the music sounds to how excited she was to perform in front of the rest of the glee club.
So that being said the moment he walked into the choir room he could feel the anticipation coming off of Rachel in waves. He took his seat next to her and immediately he could hear Kurt scoffing in the background. He turned around and looked at the boy who was looking at Mercedes with an unhappy frown, his arms crossed over his chest, and his legs crossed tightly at the knee.
“You’ve got something to Say Hummel?” Puck asked annoyed.
“I was just wondering what number you two have come up with. Something I’m sure that features Rachel’s voice far more frequently than yours since that is how Rachel works.”
“You’ll find out soon enough what we’re doing. But you better untwist your panties so you can enjoy it better.” Puck said turning back around to Rachel who was quietly taking in the bickering between the boys.
“How long are you going to deal with him and his Beyonce attitude?”
“Noah, while I appreciate your grand gestures of masculinity in my defense, keeping the peace between the team is what’s best right now. So I will just let Kurt’s words roll off of me just like the slushies and the graffiti and we can just go on to win regionals without some kind of drama that can only mirror that created at Sectionals by Coach Sylvester.”
“You know that was partially my fault too right? The whole Finn not being there.”
“Noah you mustn’t forget my part in that whole debacle as well. But we must move forward with no feelings of resentment.”
“Sounds good.”
When Mr. Shuester came into the classroom he immediately called Artie and Quinn to the front of the room where they did a good rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Puck found it a little odd to see Quinn and Artie pair up. But he was kind of relieved. It seemed that since starting this project with Artie, Quinn called him less for trivial things, which he was kind of enjoying. Not that he didn’t like that he was taking care of his kid or anything, it was just something Quinn used the baby mama card to get away with a lot more than rides to the doctor and picking up random things from the store because she was having a craving that she didn’t even understand.
Everyone applauded the pair as they finished the song. And Rachel was immediately up and in the front of the room before Puck had any idea what was going on. He was happy that he had somehow convinced Rachel that full-blown costumes weren’t really required but he decided that he would please her and wear the glasses. He immediately heard laughter coming from the rest of the club but he didn’t care. He had worked like crazy on this song and he was going to rock it. Rachel gave a nod to Brad who began the song.
Don't go breaking my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
Baby you're not that kind
They were only one verse in but Rachel knew that all of her and Puck’s hard work had paid off. She was surprised that he was able to keep up with her behavior that had pushed people away in the past. She wanted nothing but the best for her and Puck. She had to show off his potential. But she was still Rachel Berry and after watching Finn and Santana perform, she knew that she had to win this more than ever. She had to prove to Mr. Shuester that her choice was the best choice for the group. She couldn’t guarantee that she would be allowed to have the spotlight that she had at sectionals again this time around, so she fully understood that this was her only real shot at creating a spotlight for herself.
Don't go breaking my heart
You take the weight off me
Honey when you knock on my door
I gave you my key
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
And nobody told us
`Cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe
I think we can make it
Puck was just really glad that no one had started throwing food at them. He did realize that he was performing with Rachel, so the chances that their performance was that bad didn’t even exist, however the thought may have crossed his mind a time or two. After the whole sing off debacle, he was sure that Rachel (even though he understood that she wasn’t Hudson’s spy) still believed she deserved to sing with the best. And everyone had proven that that wasn’t him. But she sang with him and she had that look of her face that she got when he got the choreography right and he thought that was pretty awesome.
So don’t misunderstand me
You put the light in my life
Oh, you put the spark to the flame
I’ve got your heart in my sites.
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
When the song ended Rachel bounced over and flung herself at Puck hugging him tightly. He would admit that while they had been friends for a few weeks now, and they spent quite a lot of time together, this was the first time they had hugged since he had chosen glee over football all those months ago. He held on to her tightly.
“That was awesome guys!” Mr. Shuester said as Rachel and Puck broke apart.
The two took their seats with the rest of the club as Mr. Shuester took control of the class again, “Okay. Now you know that we need to have a solid set list for Regionals. Going up against Vocal Adrenaline is going to be hard, but from what you’ve demonstrated this week, I don’t think we lack the talent it takes to get it done. But there is only so much room. So I have decided that we are going to add two of your selections to the set list for regionals. I think with enough work, we can turn both of them into great numbers. So Kurt and Mercedes I’ve decided that we will do 4-minutes. Your performance was amazing and caused the fire alarms to go off. But the second one I thought would fit perfectly is the duet that Rachel and Puck just performed for us. I think these two have found a song that we can have fun with. So starting Monday we are going to get to work on perfecting those two.”
Rachel is practically beaming when Mr. Shuester dismisses glee.
“See Noah,” she said as she was literally bouncing towards the parking lot with him, “If you just use that potential you can do create amazing things. You’re going to be lead on a song at regionals. You will have the spotlight instead of that little place you took in the back. People will know your name by the time they leave. Doesn’t that just make you absolutely ecstatic?”
“Yeah, totally.”
“You don’t seem ecstatic.”
“I’m sorry. I really am excited. But I don’t get off on this stuff like you do.”
“Noah! That is no way to describe my happiness over this. We are going to steal the show.”
“Hell yeah!” Puck exclaimed.
~~~~&~~~~
Two weeks later, Puck was hanging out with Rachel in her bedroom. She’s sitting on her bed and he’s at her computer. When it came to music, Rachel knew a lot about the classics and Broadway; however her knowledge beyond that was very limited. So she told Puck that he needed to help her. Well actually she told him she had never heard of some band that he was talking about one day and took it upon himself to broaden her musical horizons a little bit. When his phone vibrates in his pocket he’s almost reluctant to even see who it is because most likely it’s Quinn with some sort of request. When he sees that it’s his mother, it’s not that much better.
“Hi Mom,”
“Where are you?”
“At a friend’s house Ma.”
“Quinn?”
“No.”
“Mike?”
“No.”
“Finn?”
“Hell no. Rachel’s Mom. I’m at Rachel’s.”
“Rachel? Rachel Berry?”
“Yes Mom.”
“She’s that lovely Jewish girl from glee club is she not?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s lovely,” Puck scoffed because really his mother had not ever really met Rachel, only seen her perform, “If you and Rachel would like to hang out at the house tonight and watch a movie or something feel free.”
Puck couldn’t help but shake his head at his mother over the phone. She never gave him free reign to bring people over, especially when she was home. Except Finn. But if he wanted the other guys to hang out, she thought it would be too noisy. It was the Jewish thing and that worried Puck.
“Uh, we’ll see mom.”
“Alright Honey. Have fun.”
After quickly hanging up his phone, Puck immediately went back to searching on Rachel’s computer.
“What did your mother want?” Rachel asked.
“Just being motherly. She says we can hang out at my place tonight.”
“Oh. Is she working late?”
“Not that I know of,” Puck said, “We don’t have to go over there.”
“No, Noah that’s fine.”
“Are you sure? You’re going to have to meet my mom.”
“You’ve met my dads.”
“But Rach, my mom is….well she’s kind of intense.”
“I think I know a thing or two about intense women.” Rachel said and they both laughed.
“So you’re up for this? If we go over there late enough she won’t have that much time to bug you before she goes to bed.”
Rachel laughed, “I can’t wait to meet your mother Noah.”
As expected, Rachel made Puck rehearse almost every day after school. But Puck didn’t mind really, because she lets him eat almost anything he wants and she lets him watch her awesome TV when they took their breaks. The only time they couldn’t rehearse was when Quinn was having one of her wild pregnancy cravings and insisted that there was no one else to help her.
And Puck doesn’t really ever feel like banging his head into the wall until he’s unconscious. That is until the day she suggests costumes. Their song is old, so when Rachel suggest that their outfits match those of the original performers, he nearly goes crazy. She showed him a youtube video and those outfits were totally not badass. They were ugly and she expected him to wear these glasses that he adamantly protested against. But instead of arguing, he just rolled his eyes at her when she went on about how costumes are part of the performance.
He does that a lot; roll his eyes at her that is. Because he’s learned that arguing with Berry over her insane ideas isn’t a good idea. He did that the first day when he tired to tell her a fully choreographed number wasn’t necessary. He ended up at the receiving end of a thirty-minute lecture about the definition of show choir and she told him that if he didn’t want to do choreography he could join the Lima Community Choir. Puck definitely didn’t want that. He knew that the LCC was full of old women. And not the cougar kind, the ancient ones. And Puck had standards. So instead of waiting for lectures, he rolls his eyes, which he surprisingly hasn’t gotten in trouble for.
Friday at school, Puck is invited to a party at Jeffrey Sampson’s house that night. Sampson has had some pretty awesome parties in the past. But Puck declines, he has plans with Rachel. Which could seem pretty lame, but he ends up having a good time.
He meets her dads, which completely freaked him out at first because dads don’t like him around their daughters. Even if he and Rachel were just friends, he fully expected them to take one look at him and kick him out of the house then force him to leave the district so he could never be around their little girl again. But he’s pleasantly shocked when they only ask a few questions (none of which involved his pending fatherhood) and then invited him and Rachel to play board games with them. And they did. Rachel told him several times that they could do something else. But it wasn’t anything childish. It was Monopoly, which Daddy totally won. He was a real estate agent so Puck was pretty sure that was some kind of cheating, but he wasn’t about to argue with him over it. Afterward, when Puck was sure it was late enough for Rachel’s parents to hurry off to bed (it was eleven o’clock), they pulled out a deck of UNO cards, UNO! Rachel totally won (and he may have let her) but he hadn’t played the game in a few years when he played with his sister. And it totally wasn’t as badass as getting drunk at Sampson’s party and possibly getting some action from a Cheerio (who would hopefully actually remember his name this time), but the night totally didn’t suck. He learned that Rachel is as determined to win board games as she was at being on Broadway. This totally made Puck laugh at her tantrums a couple times. She just slapped his arm. He totally liked less scary Rachel.
When Rachel walked him to the door, she was apologizing profusely about making him hang out with her fathers. They were leaving in the morning to see her grandmother and would be gone the rest of the weekend and she wanted to spend as much time as she could with them. After he reminded her that if he wanted to leave he would have.
“It’s fine Rachel really,” he said, “but that means that tomorrow you have to do something that I want to do.”
That idea scared Rachel. Not because she thought he would put her in danger, but the thought of what crazy, safe activities that Noah Puckerman could possibly include her in left her in the dark.
“Like what?”
“You’ll find out. Be ready at noon tomorrow.”
“Noah, you know I don’t like surprises.”
Puck placed his hand on Rachel’s shoulder, “Are you questioning my badassness again Berry? Don’t you trust me?”
“I assure you this is not a moment where your bravado is in question at all. And of course I trust you but as I said I am not a fan of surprises.” Rachel said looking Puck in the eye. She had confidently found alternatives to the term ‘badass’ in order to avoid the risk of Puck using it to hear such language come from her lips.
“Then you don’t have a damn thing to worry about,” Puck said smiling.
As Rachel’s dads were calling her back into the house, “I’ll see you promptly at noon tomorrow Noah.”
Puck nodded and then turned and walked from the porch to his truck parked on the street.
~~~~&~~~~
After saying goodbye to her fathers, Rachel realized she had no idea how to dress for whatever occasion Puck had planned for her. She sent him a text asking what the attire was to be required for their outing and she laughed and shook her head when he responded.
U mean clothes? Jeez Berry. No jeans no skirts gym shoes. U do own those right? And a change of clothes.
Rachel alerted Puck that yes, she did own the required clothing and began getting ready. She debated berating him about his lack of proper punctuation but she had learned from him recently that it was proper to abandon common writing practices when texting. Not that it stopped her.
Puck arrived punctually at ten after twelve. As she climbed into the truck, she told Puck how proud she was of him for not being extremely late. And Rachel is utterly shocked when they go rock climbing. And Puck is surprised when Rachel doesn’t struggle as much as he expected her to. He was fully prepared to tease her all afternoon about her lack of strength but she was able to hold her own and even out shined him a few times. When they had finished and both of them had showered and changed, Rachel reminded Puck of her rigorous diet and exercise routine that allowed her to build great upper body and leg strength.
“Where are we going now?” Rachel said when she realized that Puck had taken a turn that didn’t lead back to her house.
“We need food.” Puck said.
Rachel realized that he was correct, but she had intended on going home and preparing something and lounging around watching a movie. But as Puck pulled into one of the little diners of Lima, she figured that this was a more entertaining choice.
When they finish, Puck didn’t bring Rachel home. Instead, he brought her back to his house. His mom isn’t home and his sister just kind of sits there and doesn’t bother him (which is finds weird since she is always bothering him). Rachel tucked herself into the corner of the couch and when Puck took the seat on the other end; she stretched her legs out until they rested on Puck’s lap. Puck doesn’t say anything but just lets her and rests one hand above her ankles and the other just below her knee. They stayed that way until her dads called to check up on her and both teens thought it would be for the best if Rachel went home. Puck dropped Rachel off in front of her house and only let her out when she promised to call if she needed anything since she was home alone. Rachel promised after she reminded Puck that they had another rehearsal Monday after glee. He shook his head and rolled his eyes as Rachel jumped out of the car and headed inside. He waited until the light was on in her bedroom before he pulled out of the driveway.
~~~~&~~~
Monday during glee saw the beginning of the performances of everyone’s regional suggestions. Brittany, Tina, Mike and Matt performed ‘Sugar Rush’ by the A-Teens. Everyone was completely put off by the choice. But after their performance, which Rachel enjoyed despite their bubble gum pop genre choice, the group revealed that they had allowed Brittany to choose the song. Why no one argued with her was completely lost on Rachel.
Unfortunately, the second performance on Monday was Finn and Santana. Rachel crossed her arms over her chest as she watched them walk to the front of the room. When the music started and Finn began to sing, Rachel was suddenly furious.
Summer lovin' had me a blast
Grease? They were doing Grease? Rachel was certain that Grease was her and Finn’s thing. And now she was watching him in front of everyone performing with Santana Lopez of all people. Rachel did her best to keep herself composed while the two danced around. And when they were done the room erupted in applause. Really? That was truly less than awe-inspiring. Rachel knew right at that moment that she was not going to allow this song to make it onto the set list. There was no way they were going to win using a song from Grease that she wasn’t apart of. It just wasn’t allowed.
Rachel made Puck rehearse extra. They weren’t suppose to perform until Thursday and while Rachel had thought about giving Puck a break after Monday, since he had been such a good sport. There was no way she was going to lose this, especially to Santana Lopez. They were teammates yes, but it was just a little friendly competition right? Of course.
On Wednesday Mercedes and Kurt were scheduled to perform first, then Artie and Quinn. But after Kurt and Mercedes AMAZING (yes, Rachel would admit that it was quite a stellar performance) of 4 Minutes by Madonna and Justin Timberlake the fire alarm ironically went off. Rachel heard Kurt saying repeatedly that it was because their performance was on fire. Rachel thought that if Kurt should gloat he should come up with something original instead of being so cliché.
When Thursday rolled around Puck was still surprised that he hadn’t killed Rachel, but he had found that he actually enjoyed hanging out with her. He obviously hadn’t gotten to know the real Rachel in the days that they dated (there really wasn’t time for that with all the making out and breaking up a few times). She was kind of cool once you got adjusted to her wacky abrasive personality. And sometimes, like the time she was just listening to music for them to perform when she was just silent and it looked like she was just letting the music over take her. Puck thought it was kind of cool how she could just be one with the music and all. But it had taken him until after seven the night before the performance to convince her that the song was as good as it was going to get. And if hadn’t already gotten used to it, it would have totally made him drive off the cliff when she agreed, and her speeches turned from how the music sounds to how excited she was to perform in front of the rest of the glee club.
So that being said the moment he walked into the choir room he could feel the anticipation coming off of Rachel in waves. He took his seat next to her and immediately he could hear Kurt scoffing in the background. He turned around and looked at the boy who was looking at Mercedes with an unhappy frown, his arms crossed over his chest, and his legs crossed tightly at the knee.
“You’ve got something to Say Hummel?” Puck asked annoyed.
“I was just wondering what number you two have come up with. Something I’m sure that features Rachel’s voice far more frequently than yours since that is how Rachel works.”
“You’ll find out soon enough what we’re doing. But you better untwist your panties so you can enjoy it better.” Puck said turning back around to Rachel who was quietly taking in the bickering between the boys.
“How long are you going to deal with him and his Beyonce attitude?”
“Noah, while I appreciate your grand gestures of masculinity in my defense, keeping the peace between the team is what’s best right now. So I will just let Kurt’s words roll off of me just like the slushies and the graffiti and we can just go on to win regionals without some kind of drama that can only mirror that created at Sectionals by Coach Sylvester.”
“You know that was partially my fault too right? The whole Finn not being there.”
“Noah you mustn’t forget my part in that whole debacle as well. But we must move forward with no feelings of resentment.”
“Sounds good.”
When Mr. Shuester came into the classroom he immediately called Artie and Quinn to the front of the room where they did a good rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Puck found it a little odd to see Quinn and Artie pair up. But he was kind of relieved. It seemed that since starting this project with Artie, Quinn called him less for trivial things, which he was kind of enjoying. Not that he didn’t like that he was taking care of his kid or anything, it was just something Quinn used the baby mama card to get away with a lot more than rides to the doctor and picking up random things from the store because she was having a craving that she didn’t even understand.
Everyone applauded the pair as they finished the song. And Rachel was immediately up and in the front of the room before Puck had any idea what was going on. He was happy that he had somehow convinced Rachel that full-blown costumes weren’t really required but he decided that he would please her and wear the glasses. He immediately heard laughter coming from the rest of the club but he didn’t care. He had worked like crazy on this song and he was going to rock it. Rachel gave a nod to Brad who began the song.
Don't go breaking my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
Baby you're not that kind
They were only one verse in but Rachel knew that all of her and Puck’s hard work had paid off. She was surprised that he was able to keep up with her behavior that had pushed people away in the past. She wanted nothing but the best for her and Puck. She had to show off his potential. But she was still Rachel Berry and after watching Finn and Santana perform, she knew that she had to win this more than ever. She had to prove to Mr. Shuester that her choice was the best choice for the group. She couldn’t guarantee that she would be allowed to have the spotlight that she had at sectionals again this time around, so she fully understood that this was her only real shot at creating a spotlight for herself.
Don't go breaking my heart
You take the weight off me
Honey when you knock on my door
I gave you my key
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
And nobody told us
`Cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe
I think we can make it
Puck was just really glad that no one had started throwing food at them. He did realize that he was performing with Rachel, so the chances that their performance was that bad didn’t even exist, however the thought may have crossed his mind a time or two. After the whole sing off debacle, he was sure that Rachel (even though he understood that she wasn’t Hudson’s spy) still believed she deserved to sing with the best. And everyone had proven that that wasn’t him. But she sang with him and she had that look of her face that she got when he got the choreography right and he thought that was pretty awesome.
So don’t misunderstand me
You put the light in my life
Oh, you put the spark to the flame
I’ve got your heart in my sites.
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
When the song ended Rachel bounced over and flung herself at Puck hugging him tightly. He would admit that while they had been friends for a few weeks now, and they spent quite a lot of time together, this was the first time they had hugged since he had chosen glee over football all those months ago. He held on to her tightly.
“That was awesome guys!” Mr. Shuester said as Rachel and Puck broke apart.
The two took their seats with the rest of the club as Mr. Shuester took control of the class again, “Okay. Now you know that we need to have a solid set list for Regionals. Going up against Vocal Adrenaline is going to be hard, but from what you’ve demonstrated this week, I don’t think we lack the talent it takes to get it done. But there is only so much room. So I have decided that we are going to add two of your selections to the set list for regionals. I think with enough work, we can turn both of them into great numbers. So Kurt and Mercedes I’ve decided that we will do 4-minutes. Your performance was amazing and caused the fire alarms to go off. But the second one I thought would fit perfectly is the duet that Rachel and Puck just performed for us. I think these two have found a song that we can have fun with. So starting Monday we are going to get to work on perfecting those two.”
Rachel is practically beaming when Mr. Shuester dismisses glee.
“See Noah,” she said as she was literally bouncing towards the parking lot with him, “If you just use that potential you can do create amazing things. You’re going to be lead on a song at regionals. You will have the spotlight instead of that little place you took in the back. People will know your name by the time they leave. Doesn’t that just make you absolutely ecstatic?”
“Yeah, totally.”
“You don’t seem ecstatic.”
“I’m sorry. I really am excited. But I don’t get off on this stuff like you do.”
“Noah! That is no way to describe my happiness over this. We are going to steal the show.”
“Hell yeah!” Puck exclaimed.
~~~~&~~~~
Two weeks later, Puck was hanging out with Rachel in her bedroom. She’s sitting on her bed and he’s at her computer. When it came to music, Rachel knew a lot about the classics and Broadway; however her knowledge beyond that was very limited. So she told Puck that he needed to help her. Well actually she told him she had never heard of some band that he was talking about one day and took it upon himself to broaden her musical horizons a little bit. When his phone vibrates in his pocket he’s almost reluctant to even see who it is because most likely it’s Quinn with some sort of request. When he sees that it’s his mother, it’s not that much better.
“Hi Mom,”
“Where are you?”
“At a friend’s house Ma.”
“Quinn?”
“No.”
“Mike?”
“No.”
“Finn?”
“Hell no. Rachel’s Mom. I’m at Rachel’s.”
“Rachel? Rachel Berry?”
“Yes Mom.”
“She’s that lovely Jewish girl from glee club is she not?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s lovely,” Puck scoffed because really his mother had not ever really met Rachel, only seen her perform, “If you and Rachel would like to hang out at the house tonight and watch a movie or something feel free.”
Puck couldn’t help but shake his head at his mother over the phone. She never gave him free reign to bring people over, especially when she was home. Except Finn. But if he wanted the other guys to hang out, she thought it would be too noisy. It was the Jewish thing and that worried Puck.
“Uh, we’ll see mom.”
“Alright Honey. Have fun.”
After quickly hanging up his phone, Puck immediately went back to searching on Rachel’s computer.
“What did your mother want?” Rachel asked.
“Just being motherly. She says we can hang out at my place tonight.”
“Oh. Is she working late?”
“Not that I know of,” Puck said, “We don’t have to go over there.”
“No, Noah that’s fine.”
“Are you sure? You’re going to have to meet my mom.”
“You’ve met my dads.”
“But Rach, my mom is….well she’s kind of intense.”
“I think I know a thing or two about intense women.” Rachel said and they both laughed.
“So you’re up for this? If we go over there late enough she won’t have that much time to bug you before she goes to bed.”
Rachel laughed, “I can’t wait to meet your mother Noah.”