I Plead the Fifth (We the N.I.C. bitch, the Nerds in Charge) (2/?)
Title: I Plead the Fifth (We the N.I.C. bitch, the Nerds in Charge)
Rating: T, cuz swearing :O
Pairing: Faberry
Words: W<2000, where W is Wordcount
Summary: What Quinn doesn’t tell anyone is that her family’s a little group of intelligent math freaks, and they have nerd down to a science. The only problem is that Quinn’s not so good at math.
Warning: Contains math and nerdiness galore.
Two days later, Rachel returned to the Fabray household, and they’d set up camp on the floor of the twins’ room, Tetra having been seated at her desk on the other end of the spacious room, headphones sitting neatly on her ears. Turning to the bag that sat beside her, Rachel pulled out several leafs of paper, and a pad of lined paper, handing it over to Quinn. “Now, I’ve prepared a pre-test, so that I can see what concepts you need reinforcements in. I won’t be timing you, but remember that I’m typically only here for two hours twice a week.” Quinn nodded, barely listening, her mind already reeling from the number of equations Rachel had in mind for her to answer already. “Today’s special, since last week.... we’ll forget about that. But we have double time today.”
“You could just pretend that we do all this, and you could go home, you know, Berry.” Quinn already had a feeling she knew Rachel’s answer.
Rachel shook her head. “You do know, Quinn, that if you continue to do badly in calculus, that you’ll end up being kicked form all your extra-curricular activities, right?” Quinn nodded resignedly, trying not to pout “Right. So if I am capable of raising or maintaining your calculus mark, we’ll have no problem keeping you in Glee club.” Rachel beamed at her. “I have an investment in your mark.”
“She’s invested in you, Quinnie!” Tetra remarked, smirking. “Maybe she can get some dividend!”
“Go to hell, Tetra.” Quinn was mortified when Rachel brought a hand up to hide a giggle. “Oh, hell no, Manhands, you don’t get to laugh at my expense.”
“She doesn’t have manhands either.” Rachel turned to the other blonde, a large smile spread on her face. “It’s not very nice to be cruel to someone who, in all intents and purposes, can ruin you at school.”
Rachel’s smile fell slightly, confused. “How?” Tetra raised an eyebrow, pointing at herself. Rachel just smiled self-deprecatingly. “No one would believe me anyway. Now, you can take as long as you’d like on this.” Quinn groaned, knowing Rachel was going to force her to write the pretest. The brunette didn’t disappoint, pointing at the reams of paper in Quinn’s hand with a smile.
“When you finish, let me know!” Rachel pulled out a novel, flipping it to a dog-eared page. Quinn sighed, pulling out a pencil and a calculator to work on the questions.
The room settled into a kind of silence that was broken by pages turning, humming, the whine of music from Tetra’s headphones, and the frequent groans of Quinn as she hit upon a question she didn’t quite understand.
Two hours into the session, Tetra had gotten up, evidently having finished the work she’d been doing at her own desk, and left the room. Rachel had dog-eared the book and had pulled out blank scoresheets, working out arrangements to songs she meant to present to Glee club.
Quinn was still over a page from finishing, but, with her furrowed brow, it was obvious she was working quite diligently.
“Rachel?” The mentioned girl turned to see Tetra at the doorway, bemused smile on her face. A quick headshake from the brunette stopped any snarky comment that the girl had been about to make at the expense of Quinn’s concentration. Instead, Tetra asked if Rachel was interested in staying for supper.
“Alright. If you’d like, I can stay longer, since Quinn seems to be just about finishing.” Tetra nodded, heading back down to let Judy know.
“Just about finishing my ass, Berry! What did you put into these equations? Steroids?” Rachel looked at Quinn incredulously, clearly disappointed.
“You do realize all I did was take questions from the ends of the chapter questions, right?” Quinn blanched. “I fiddled with a couple numbers, but I made them easier, Quinn.” Quinn gaped, unable to respond. “You evidently haven’t been doing your work.”
“I... don’t have time?”
Rachel scoffed. “And I do? With my multiple clubs, lessons, and now, tutoring, I’m still capable of staying on top of my school work. Being busy isn’t an excuse for you, Quinn.” Quinn looked away. “You’re a smart girl, Quinn. You’re near the top of the class in just every other subject, so we’ll just catch you up, all right?” Rachel ignored Quinn’s huff about it being impossible, instead grabbing Quinn’s finished sheets, intent on marking them.
Quinn sighed half an hour later, looking up to see Rachel frowning at the page.
“Where exactly were you going with this question?” Quinn shuffled over, glaring at the question that Rachel was pointing at. “You’re... off.”
“Evidently.” Quinn’s retort was emotionless, somehow not showing her internal trepidation over the number of red marks on the page.
“Not to say your methodology is incorrect, it’s just... you keep forgetting negatives, and sometimes you just forget to add or subtract numbers. Simple things like that.” She looked back at the page. “Oh, and you forget about brackets all the time.” Rachel narrowed her eyes. “And you don’t understand the concept at all.”
“Okay, thanks. That’s...” Quinn sighed, defeated. “I suck.”
“Evidently.” Tetra walked in with a flourish and a massive grin on her face.
“Shut up!!” Rachel’s eyes widened as Quinn got more and more irate. “Why do you always just... God! I hate you!”
“The feeling is mostly mutual, Twinnie Quinnie.” Tetra laughed as she ducked the eraser meant for her face. Rachel watched the exchange in morbid fascination. “Supper’s ready in about five minutes.” She walked back out, leaving the blonde seething.
“I hate her. I hate her face, I hate her attitude, and I hate her predilection for large words.” Rachel turned back to her and watched as she clenched and unclenched her hands, face red in both embarrassment and rage.
“You...” Quinn whipped her head up, glaring at the brunette. “Never mind.” Rachel had to fight a smirk, the hypocrisy of Quinn’s previous statement obviously flying over her own head. Though, now that Rachel thought of it, this explained quite a lot about why Quinn was so incredibly cruel to her all the time...
Getting up, Rachel smoothed out her skirt before looking down at the blonde, still grinding her teeth in anger. “Come on, Quinn.” Quinn huffed out an angry sigh, before getting up herself. “Do you think your mother’s made a vegan alternative?”
“She-who-must-not-be-mentioned-in-my-presence-right-now is vegan too,” was ground out. Rachel just giggled as Quinn stomped off to freshen up for the meal, muttering obscenities under her breath.
*****
“So, Rachel, how’s Quinnie’s math coming along?” Quinn looked at her mother, shocked.
“Mom! I told you not to call me that in public!” Judy raised a perfect blonde eyebrow, as if to say, “We’re in my house, I can call you whatever I want.” Quinn sighed, poking at her grilled zucchini risotto.
Rachel swallowed, smiling politely. “This is absolutely amazing, Mrs. Fabray!” Judy smiled, nodding. “Well, Quinn’s got a little ways to go, but with my help, she’ll be doing just fine in no time.”
“Oh, I certainly hope so!” Quinn groaned, lowering her head onto her hands. She could recognize a Fabray rant from a mile away. “Fabrays come from a long line of mathematics. For her to be bad at math... that’s breaking the Fabray way...”
*****
“I had no idea...” Quinn looked up at Rachel from her seat on the floor as she flopped down on Quinn’s bed.
“No idea about what? How freakish my family is?” Quinn sighed, before gathering the pages of the test and thrusting them, crumpled and creased, in Rachel’s direction. “Look, I don’t really want to see your face anymore, so can you go now?”
“I.. guess I can mark these at home?” Rachel looked at Quinn, bewildered, as Quinn threw things from the floor into Rachel bag.
“Great. Have a nice night. Or don’t, because you’ll be marking math and shit, but... bye!” Rachel turned to look over her shoulder as Quinn pushed her down the hall, certain she’d left something in the room.
“You’re... kind of a mean person.”
“That’s not new information.”
Rachel laughed. “No, it’s not.” She slipped into her shoes before staring at the blonde. “You’re insane.”
“If you had to grow up with this family, you would be too.” Quinn crossed her arms, waiting impatiently. “Are you leaving yet? I’ve been subjected to your nose for too long today.”
“You were staring at the page the whole time.”
“Your nose was distracting me from focusing on the monotony of math.” Rachel stared at her, confused.
“Ignore her.” Tetra walked over, a pen in her hand. “She’s trying to blame anyone that isn’t herself so that she can feel better about failing at life.”
Quinn’s brow scrunched together before she turned around. “Make sure she leaves, T.”
“Yes, Twinnie Quinnie, whatever you say!” The answering growl was swallowed up by Rachel’s squeal as Tetra handed her the black metal pen, embossed with small gold stars. “That’s not ours... I figured it was yours.”
Rachel nodded emphatically. “You assumed correctly. That is my favorite pen, and I had a feeling Quinn had passed over something important while helping me pack...”
Tetra laughed. “Help is an overstatement.” Rachel raised an eyebrow. “Do you, by any chance, like Star Wars?” Rachel nodded, still confused. “Because I have tickets for the Star Wars original three marathon on Saturday night...”
Rachel gawked at her. “Are you asking me out?”
Tetra winked. “Do you want me to be?” Rachel’s jaw dropped open as her cheeks turned pink. Tetra smirked as Rachel’s lips flapped open and closed. “In all seriousness, I’m not. My not-date-like companion seems to have had something come up the day of, so now I’m scrambling to find someone to take with me so that I’m not all alone with a bunch of fellow nerds.” Tetra shrugged. “You were the first person that isn’t family that I’ve seen since I found out, so you were the first logical choice.”
Rachel blinked at her.
“Think of it as an apology for you having to put up with that heathen of a sister.”
Rachel stared.
“I’ll buy you vegan ice cream afterwards? At Joe’s?”
Rachel’s eyes lit up, and she nodded emphatically. “It’s a not-date! Expect me in full garb!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Rating: T, cuz swearing :O
Pairing: Faberry
Words: W<2000, where W is Wordcount
Summary: What Quinn doesn’t tell anyone is that her family’s a little group of intelligent math freaks, and they have nerd down to a science. The only problem is that Quinn’s not so good at math.
Warning: Contains math and nerdiness galore.
Two days later, Rachel returned to the Fabray household, and they’d set up camp on the floor of the twins’ room, Tetra having been seated at her desk on the other end of the spacious room, headphones sitting neatly on her ears. Turning to the bag that sat beside her, Rachel pulled out several leafs of paper, and a pad of lined paper, handing it over to Quinn. “Now, I’ve prepared a pre-test, so that I can see what concepts you need reinforcements in. I won’t be timing you, but remember that I’m typically only here for two hours twice a week.” Quinn nodded, barely listening, her mind already reeling from the number of equations Rachel had in mind for her to answer already. “Today’s special, since last week.... we’ll forget about that. But we have double time today.”
“You could just pretend that we do all this, and you could go home, you know, Berry.” Quinn already had a feeling she knew Rachel’s answer.
Rachel shook her head. “You do know, Quinn, that if you continue to do badly in calculus, that you’ll end up being kicked form all your extra-curricular activities, right?” Quinn nodded resignedly, trying not to pout “Right. So if I am capable of raising or maintaining your calculus mark, we’ll have no problem keeping you in Glee club.” Rachel beamed at her. “I have an investment in your mark.”
“She’s invested in you, Quinnie!” Tetra remarked, smirking. “Maybe she can get some dividend!”
“Go to hell, Tetra.” Quinn was mortified when Rachel brought a hand up to hide a giggle. “Oh, hell no, Manhands, you don’t get to laugh at my expense.”
“She doesn’t have manhands either.” Rachel turned to the other blonde, a large smile spread on her face. “It’s not very nice to be cruel to someone who, in all intents and purposes, can ruin you at school.”
Rachel’s smile fell slightly, confused. “How?” Tetra raised an eyebrow, pointing at herself. Rachel just smiled self-deprecatingly. “No one would believe me anyway. Now, you can take as long as you’d like on this.” Quinn groaned, knowing Rachel was going to force her to write the pretest. The brunette didn’t disappoint, pointing at the reams of paper in Quinn’s hand with a smile.
“When you finish, let me know!” Rachel pulled out a novel, flipping it to a dog-eared page. Quinn sighed, pulling out a pencil and a calculator to work on the questions.
The room settled into a kind of silence that was broken by pages turning, humming, the whine of music from Tetra’s headphones, and the frequent groans of Quinn as she hit upon a question she didn’t quite understand.
Two hours into the session, Tetra had gotten up, evidently having finished the work she’d been doing at her own desk, and left the room. Rachel had dog-eared the book and had pulled out blank scoresheets, working out arrangements to songs she meant to present to Glee club.
Quinn was still over a page from finishing, but, with her furrowed brow, it was obvious she was working quite diligently.
“Rachel?” The mentioned girl turned to see Tetra at the doorway, bemused smile on her face. A quick headshake from the brunette stopped any snarky comment that the girl had been about to make at the expense of Quinn’s concentration. Instead, Tetra asked if Rachel was interested in staying for supper.
“Alright. If you’d like, I can stay longer, since Quinn seems to be just about finishing.” Tetra nodded, heading back down to let Judy know.
“Just about finishing my ass, Berry! What did you put into these equations? Steroids?” Rachel looked at Quinn incredulously, clearly disappointed.
“You do realize all I did was take questions from the ends of the chapter questions, right?” Quinn blanched. “I fiddled with a couple numbers, but I made them easier, Quinn.” Quinn gaped, unable to respond. “You evidently haven’t been doing your work.”
“I... don’t have time?”
Rachel scoffed. “And I do? With my multiple clubs, lessons, and now, tutoring, I’m still capable of staying on top of my school work. Being busy isn’t an excuse for you, Quinn.” Quinn looked away. “You’re a smart girl, Quinn. You’re near the top of the class in just every other subject, so we’ll just catch you up, all right?” Rachel ignored Quinn’s huff about it being impossible, instead grabbing Quinn’s finished sheets, intent on marking them.
Quinn sighed half an hour later, looking up to see Rachel frowning at the page.
“Where exactly were you going with this question?” Quinn shuffled over, glaring at the question that Rachel was pointing at. “You’re... off.”
“Evidently.” Quinn’s retort was emotionless, somehow not showing her internal trepidation over the number of red marks on the page.
“Not to say your methodology is incorrect, it’s just... you keep forgetting negatives, and sometimes you just forget to add or subtract numbers. Simple things like that.” She looked back at the page. “Oh, and you forget about brackets all the time.” Rachel narrowed her eyes. “And you don’t understand the concept at all.”
“Okay, thanks. That’s...” Quinn sighed, defeated. “I suck.”
“Evidently.” Tetra walked in with a flourish and a massive grin on her face.
“Shut up!!” Rachel’s eyes widened as Quinn got more and more irate. “Why do you always just... God! I hate you!”
“The feeling is mostly mutual, Twinnie Quinnie.” Tetra laughed as she ducked the eraser meant for her face. Rachel watched the exchange in morbid fascination. “Supper’s ready in about five minutes.” She walked back out, leaving the blonde seething.
“I hate her. I hate her face, I hate her attitude, and I hate her predilection for large words.” Rachel turned back to her and watched as she clenched and unclenched her hands, face red in both embarrassment and rage.
“You...” Quinn whipped her head up, glaring at the brunette. “Never mind.” Rachel had to fight a smirk, the hypocrisy of Quinn’s previous statement obviously flying over her own head. Though, now that Rachel thought of it, this explained quite a lot about why Quinn was so incredibly cruel to her all the time...
Getting up, Rachel smoothed out her skirt before looking down at the blonde, still grinding her teeth in anger. “Come on, Quinn.” Quinn huffed out an angry sigh, before getting up herself. “Do you think your mother’s made a vegan alternative?”
“She-who-must-not-be-mentioned-in-my-presence-right-now is vegan too,” was ground out. Rachel just giggled as Quinn stomped off to freshen up for the meal, muttering obscenities under her breath.
*****
“So, Rachel, how’s Quinnie’s math coming along?” Quinn looked at her mother, shocked.
“Mom! I told you not to call me that in public!” Judy raised a perfect blonde eyebrow, as if to say, “We’re in my house, I can call you whatever I want.” Quinn sighed, poking at her grilled zucchini risotto.
Rachel swallowed, smiling politely. “This is absolutely amazing, Mrs. Fabray!” Judy smiled, nodding. “Well, Quinn’s got a little ways to go, but with my help, she’ll be doing just fine in no time.”
“Oh, I certainly hope so!” Quinn groaned, lowering her head onto her hands. She could recognize a Fabray rant from a mile away. “Fabrays come from a long line of mathematics. For her to be bad at math... that’s breaking the Fabray way...”
*****
“I had no idea...” Quinn looked up at Rachel from her seat on the floor as she flopped down on Quinn’s bed.
“No idea about what? How freakish my family is?” Quinn sighed, before gathering the pages of the test and thrusting them, crumpled and creased, in Rachel’s direction. “Look, I don’t really want to see your face anymore, so can you go now?”
“I.. guess I can mark these at home?” Rachel looked at Quinn, bewildered, as Quinn threw things from the floor into Rachel bag.
“Great. Have a nice night. Or don’t, because you’ll be marking math and shit, but... bye!” Rachel turned to look over her shoulder as Quinn pushed her down the hall, certain she’d left something in the room.
“You’re... kind of a mean person.”
“That’s not new information.”
Rachel laughed. “No, it’s not.” She slipped into her shoes before staring at the blonde. “You’re insane.”
“If you had to grow up with this family, you would be too.” Quinn crossed her arms, waiting impatiently. “Are you leaving yet? I’ve been subjected to your nose for too long today.”
“You were staring at the page the whole time.”
“Your nose was distracting me from focusing on the monotony of math.” Rachel stared at her, confused.
“Ignore her.” Tetra walked over, a pen in her hand. “She’s trying to blame anyone that isn’t herself so that she can feel better about failing at life.”
Quinn’s brow scrunched together before she turned around. “Make sure she leaves, T.”
“Yes, Twinnie Quinnie, whatever you say!” The answering growl was swallowed up by Rachel’s squeal as Tetra handed her the black metal pen, embossed with small gold stars. “That’s not ours... I figured it was yours.”
Rachel nodded emphatically. “You assumed correctly. That is my favorite pen, and I had a feeling Quinn had passed over something important while helping me pack...”
Tetra laughed. “Help is an overstatement.” Rachel raised an eyebrow. “Do you, by any chance, like Star Wars?” Rachel nodded, still confused. “Because I have tickets for the Star Wars original three marathon on Saturday night...”
Rachel gawked at her. “Are you asking me out?”
Tetra winked. “Do you want me to be?” Rachel’s jaw dropped open as her cheeks turned pink. Tetra smirked as Rachel’s lips flapped open and closed. “In all seriousness, I’m not. My not-date-like companion seems to have had something come up the day of, so now I’m scrambling to find someone to take with me so that I’m not all alone with a bunch of fellow nerds.” Tetra shrugged. “You were the first person that isn’t family that I’ve seen since I found out, so you were the first logical choice.”
Rachel blinked at her.
“Think of it as an apology for you having to put up with that heathen of a sister.”
Rachel stared.
“I’ll buy you vegan ice cream afterwards? At Joe’s?”
Rachel’s eyes lit up, and she nodded emphatically. “It’s a not-date! Expect me in full garb!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”