FIC: Step Ball Change, Chapter Five
Title: Step Ball Change, Chapter Five
Characters: Love quadrangle Rachel/Puck/Finn/Quinn, with Brittany and ensemble
Word Count: 1980 this part
Rating: PG, some strong language this part
Disclaimer: If I owned Glee then all proceeds would go to the Howard Bamboo Legal Defense Fund.
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers up to "Mash-Up," diverges from canon from there.
Summary: Rachel, Puck, Finn, and Quinn try to sort out their relationships with one another, while Brittany tries to make new friends in glee club.
A/N: Beta'ed once again by the ridiculously good-looking cameroncrazed.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Puck couldn't sleep at all that night. His mind just wouldn't shut off. There were too many thoughts racing through his head, and he couldn't relax.
He tried to think of the things that used to make him feel better: throwing Kurt in the dumpster; locking Artie in a portable john; getting lucky with a cougar. These weren't really valid options anymore. He was starting to like Kurt, in spite of Kurt's superiority complex. And Artie was pretty cool, too. On the other side of the token, cougars were a lot less appealing when he couldn't rid his mind of the image of Quinn's face.
He wanted this - whatever it was he might have with Quinn, this family - to work out more badly than he wanted anything else before. God, he'd even give up dip if that was what it would take.
The problem was that he didn't know how to go about it, any of it - it was all messed-up and backwards. He knew how to get sex, but how to succeed at relationships was beyond him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in a relationship that worked... except maybe with Rachel Berry. She didn't let him touch her boobs, and they both really liked other people, but other than that, they'd, like, connected, right? If he hadn't been so obviously into Quinn, then maybe he and Rachel would still be together. Ergo, using his teenage boy logic, Puck figured that Rachel Berry must know a thing or two about relationships.
Puck sighed as he tossed and turned in bed. To win Quinn over, he'd have to do something worse than give up dip - he was going to have to ask Rachel Berry for help.
His mind thus made up, Puck turned on his television and fell asleep just as regular movies were starting to play again on Cinemax.
****
He caught her in the hallway between classes the next day. When he came up to her locker, she didn't say anything. Instead she simply grabbed her books and binder for the next period and ignored him.
"Rachel," he called out. "Where are you going? I want to talk to you."
"I'm going to be late for class," she answered. "What do you want from me?"
Puck shoved his hands into his pockets and let his voice drop to a whisper. "Things are so messed up between me and Quinn right now, and I can't talk to Finn about it. I can't talk to anyone about it."
Rachel clutched her binder close to her chest. "I thought you said this was none of my business," she said, unable to hide the genuine hurt in her voice.
"It isn't," Puck replied. "But that's why I thought you'd be good to talk to."
Rachel perked up at the suggestion. All she really wanted to do was help, and finally someone was giving her the chance. Besides that, his logic made some sense - she could be an objective party because she wasn't invested in all that was going on... right? It was flattering just to be asked for once. It reminded her when Puck asked for her help in glee. When she thought back to how nice he could be sometimes, she allowed herself a small smile. "Fine, I'll listen."
"Just don't get all self-righteous and screechy like you do sometimes at glee practice," Puck warned.
And just like that, her daydream deflated. "If that's what you think..." Rachel said, pouting. She meant to finish her sentence as she turned to walk away, but she was stopped when Puck rested his hand on her shoulder. He gripped more tightly than he needed to; she would have come back at the slightest touch, but here he was holding onto her like he was afraid to let just one more person abandon him.
"Sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
Rachel nodded. "So let's walk," she suggested, and he sidled up beside her as they went down the hall. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Puck drew in a deep breath, looking down at his feet as though he was nervous. "I thought when Finn found out..." he began, pausing to revise his thoughts, "I thought it would be easy from there. I was going to do the right thing, to step up and be a dad so that me and Quinn and the baby... so we could be a family."
Rachel's eyes darted across Puck's face. His voice was near breaking - was he crying?
"But Quinn wants to give the baby up for adoption."
Rachel, too aware of everything but the feelings of others, immediately saw the reason in Quinn's decision. "Puck, that's not a bad idea," she told him. "You're both still in high school. And babies are a lot of responsibility. Maybe adoption is the best option after all."
Puck raised his head, and his eyes glinted with anger. When he spoke, his voice was tinged with bitterness. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Berry. I came to you for help."
"I'm just being realistic," Rachel said, defensive.
"You know what, Rachel? Forget I asked. Forget everything."
The bell rang, and Puck continued walking, leaving Rachel Berry stunned and confused and alone in the middle of the deserted hallway.
****
She'd considered not even going to glee practice that day, but it was like when she considered throwing herself down a flight of stairs when the pee-stick turned blue. It would be giving up, a show of weakness, the easy way out - and Quinn Fabray, in spite of everything, could not admit defeat. If she was going down, then she was going down swinging.
Still, the ice queen was not have prepared for the cold shoulder from everyone else in the room. Mercedes and Kurt looked her over in shared silence before returning to their regularly scheduled conversation. Artie and Tina lingered in the corner, so occupied with Artie's guitar that they appeared to be actively ignoring Quinn's entrance. Santana and Brittany already occupied the back row, and Santana was clearly giving Brittany a hard time about something or other. Quinn glanced up at them hoping to catch some sort of invite, but when Santana noticed her, she rolled her eyes cruelly and laid right back into Brittany.
"But I like glee club," Brittany kept muttering pitifully beneath her breath.
Quinn took a seat in the row in front of Mercedes and Kurt. She set her bag on the chair beside her, as though she were saving it for someone, and she crossed her legs as best she could, considering her "Where's everybody else?" Quinn asked, her question directed to no one in particular. It hung in the air awkwardly for a moment before Mercedes, of all people, decided to break the silence.
"There was a football meeting right after school," she explained. "They won't be here until later."
"Aren't you on the football team anymore?" Quinn turned, narrowing her eyes at Kurt. The best defense was a good offense, after all. It was better to attack somebody else about something before they attacked her first.
"They lost the privilege of my company when they insisted on calling glee club 'Homo Explosion,'" Kurt replied evenly.
"It's not offensive if it's true, is it?" Quinn asked pointedly.
"Excuse me," Mercedes interrupted. "I hope you're not trying to mess with my boy Kurt, because let me tell you, if I was a veterinarian, then I'd cut you like it was my job, bitch."
Quinn narrowed her eyes and tried to repress her hurt feelings, stone-faced. Quickly she turned back around in her seat, just in time to watch the football players and Rachel Berry enter on the heels of Mr. Schuester, who immediately started passing out new sheet music. "Okay, guys, I've rearranged some of the parts in 'Keep Holding On,' so if you could look these over..."
Mike and Mark climbed up to the back row with Brittany and Santana, while the Finn, Puck, and Rachel found seats among the other gleeks, as far as possible from Quinn.
As practice began, she could still feel the heat of their gazes, and she brought her hand to the back of her neck as though shielding herself from them.
Now, even in glee club, Quinn really was an outcast.
And it sucked.
Looks like it's just you and me, kid, she thought, not knowing what would happen when the baby left her, too, and she was all alone for real.
****
Sometimes Will Schuester could be a little blind to the problems going on around him - he could readily admit to his ignorance regarding the "Vitamin D" the gleeks were using for their first mash-ups - but he wasn't entirely clueless. Watching the way his students interacted at practice, he knew something was wrong. After an hour or so of awkward rehearsal, he let them leave. He crossed his arms and watched as they filtered out of the classroom, catching Finn by the arm before he had a chance to go anywhere.
"Finn, are you okay?" Will asked, rubbing his hand on his chin in a gesture of concern. "You haven't been yourself at all lately. The whole rest of the club seems... I don't know, down about something."
Finn tried to smile, to shrug off the question, but he couldn't for long. "It's complicated, Mr. Schue," he mumbled.
"I'll try to keep up."
Finn closed his eyes, trying to think. It wasn't that he didn't trust Mr. Schue - in fact, Mr. Schue was probably the person he could most trust, with anything. After all, he'd been nice enough not to bust him over the marijuana he found in his locker (Finn idly suspected that Puck might have had something to do with that, in retrospect). He'd taken Finn out to eat to talk when Finn first found out about the pregnancy; Mr. Schue had even driven them to the OB/GYN. But he wasn't sure how to explain this at all - it had gotten so crazy so fast that it was still a struggle to get his mind around it all. When Finn spoke, it was an effort to keep his voice level. "It's not my baby, Mr. Schue."
Will's mouth fell open. "Finn, I'm - I'm so sorry to hear that," he offered feebly.
"Puck's the dad, not me," Finn continued. He couldn't stop himself now; it was a relief to get this off his chest at least, as painful as it was to reopen the wound. "Quinn cheated on me and was leading me on all this time."
There was a silence between the two for a minute. Will honestly didn't know what to say; he didn't know that there was anything to say. Finn stifled a sob, and Will acted just as he'd done when Finn first came to him about Quinn's pregnancy - he embraced him, telling him "It's okay. It's going to be okay."
Finn let himself cry on Mr. Schue's shoulder until he didn't think he could cry any more. "Thanks for listening, Mr. Schue."
"Anytime, Finn. Just let me know if there's anything I can do."
"I don't think so," Finn replied. "But thanks. Really." He paused to wipe his nose on his sleeve before turning to leave.
Will could only shake his head in disbelief. Since when did high school have to be so complicated? he thought. It was beyond him that a girl could deceive a guy like that for so long, but he tried to withhold judgment. Quinn was just a confused kid; at any rate, at least the truth won out eventually. As he put away the extra copies of music, grabbed his briefcase and shut the lights off in the music rooms, he sighed. Well, he thought, at least I'll have some interesting dinner conversation with Terri tonight.
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Characters: Love quadrangle Rachel/Puck/Finn/Quinn, with Brittany and ensemble
Word Count: 1980 this part
Rating: PG, some strong language this part
Disclaimer: If I owned Glee then all proceeds would go to the Howard Bamboo Legal Defense Fund.
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers up to "Mash-Up," diverges from canon from there.
Summary: Rachel, Puck, Finn, and Quinn try to sort out their relationships with one another, while Brittany tries to make new friends in glee club.
A/N: Beta'ed once again by the ridiculously good-looking cameroncrazed.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Puck couldn't sleep at all that night. His mind just wouldn't shut off. There were too many thoughts racing through his head, and he couldn't relax.
He tried to think of the things that used to make him feel better: throwing Kurt in the dumpster; locking Artie in a portable john; getting lucky with a cougar. These weren't really valid options anymore. He was starting to like Kurt, in spite of Kurt's superiority complex. And Artie was pretty cool, too. On the other side of the token, cougars were a lot less appealing when he couldn't rid his mind of the image of Quinn's face.
He wanted this - whatever it was he might have with Quinn, this family - to work out more badly than he wanted anything else before. God, he'd even give up dip if that was what it would take.
The problem was that he didn't know how to go about it, any of it - it was all messed-up and backwards. He knew how to get sex, but how to succeed at relationships was beyond him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in a relationship that worked... except maybe with Rachel Berry. She didn't let him touch her boobs, and they both really liked other people, but other than that, they'd, like, connected, right? If he hadn't been so obviously into Quinn, then maybe he and Rachel would still be together. Ergo, using his teenage boy logic, Puck figured that Rachel Berry must know a thing or two about relationships.
Puck sighed as he tossed and turned in bed. To win Quinn over, he'd have to do something worse than give up dip - he was going to have to ask Rachel Berry for help.
His mind thus made up, Puck turned on his television and fell asleep just as regular movies were starting to play again on Cinemax.
****
He caught her in the hallway between classes the next day. When he came up to her locker, she didn't say anything. Instead she simply grabbed her books and binder for the next period and ignored him.
"Rachel," he called out. "Where are you going? I want to talk to you."
"I'm going to be late for class," she answered. "What do you want from me?"
Puck shoved his hands into his pockets and let his voice drop to a whisper. "Things are so messed up between me and Quinn right now, and I can't talk to Finn about it. I can't talk to anyone about it."
Rachel clutched her binder close to her chest. "I thought you said this was none of my business," she said, unable to hide the genuine hurt in her voice.
"It isn't," Puck replied. "But that's why I thought you'd be good to talk to."
Rachel perked up at the suggestion. All she really wanted to do was help, and finally someone was giving her the chance. Besides that, his logic made some sense - she could be an objective party because she wasn't invested in all that was going on... right? It was flattering just to be asked for once. It reminded her when Puck asked for her help in glee. When she thought back to how nice he could be sometimes, she allowed herself a small smile. "Fine, I'll listen."
"Just don't get all self-righteous and screechy like you do sometimes at glee practice," Puck warned.
And just like that, her daydream deflated. "If that's what you think..." Rachel said, pouting. She meant to finish her sentence as she turned to walk away, but she was stopped when Puck rested his hand on her shoulder. He gripped more tightly than he needed to; she would have come back at the slightest touch, but here he was holding onto her like he was afraid to let just one more person abandon him.
"Sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
Rachel nodded. "So let's walk," she suggested, and he sidled up beside her as they went down the hall. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Puck drew in a deep breath, looking down at his feet as though he was nervous. "I thought when Finn found out..." he began, pausing to revise his thoughts, "I thought it would be easy from there. I was going to do the right thing, to step up and be a dad so that me and Quinn and the baby... so we could be a family."
Rachel's eyes darted across Puck's face. His voice was near breaking - was he crying?
"But Quinn wants to give the baby up for adoption."
Rachel, too aware of everything but the feelings of others, immediately saw the reason in Quinn's decision. "Puck, that's not a bad idea," she told him. "You're both still in high school. And babies are a lot of responsibility. Maybe adoption is the best option after all."
Puck raised his head, and his eyes glinted with anger. When he spoke, his voice was tinged with bitterness. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Berry. I came to you for help."
"I'm just being realistic," Rachel said, defensive.
"You know what, Rachel? Forget I asked. Forget everything."
The bell rang, and Puck continued walking, leaving Rachel Berry stunned and confused and alone in the middle of the deserted hallway.
****
She'd considered not even going to glee practice that day, but it was like when she considered throwing herself down a flight of stairs when the pee-stick turned blue. It would be giving up, a show of weakness, the easy way out - and Quinn Fabray, in spite of everything, could not admit defeat. If she was going down, then she was going down swinging.
Still, the ice queen was not have prepared for the cold shoulder from everyone else in the room. Mercedes and Kurt looked her over in shared silence before returning to their regularly scheduled conversation. Artie and Tina lingered in the corner, so occupied with Artie's guitar that they appeared to be actively ignoring Quinn's entrance. Santana and Brittany already occupied the back row, and Santana was clearly giving Brittany a hard time about something or other. Quinn glanced up at them hoping to catch some sort of invite, but when Santana noticed her, she rolled her eyes cruelly and laid right back into Brittany.
"But I like glee club," Brittany kept muttering pitifully beneath her breath.
Quinn took a seat in the row in front of Mercedes and Kurt. She set her bag on the chair beside her, as though she were saving it for someone, and she crossed her legs as best she could, considering her "Where's everybody else?" Quinn asked, her question directed to no one in particular. It hung in the air awkwardly for a moment before Mercedes, of all people, decided to break the silence.
"There was a football meeting right after school," she explained. "They won't be here until later."
"Aren't you on the football team anymore?" Quinn turned, narrowing her eyes at Kurt. The best defense was a good offense, after all. It was better to attack somebody else about something before they attacked her first.
"They lost the privilege of my company when they insisted on calling glee club 'Homo Explosion,'" Kurt replied evenly.
"It's not offensive if it's true, is it?" Quinn asked pointedly.
"Excuse me," Mercedes interrupted. "I hope you're not trying to mess with my boy Kurt, because let me tell you, if I was a veterinarian, then I'd cut you like it was my job, bitch."
Quinn narrowed her eyes and tried to repress her hurt feelings, stone-faced. Quickly she turned back around in her seat, just in time to watch the football players and Rachel Berry enter on the heels of Mr. Schuester, who immediately started passing out new sheet music. "Okay, guys, I've rearranged some of the parts in 'Keep Holding On,' so if you could look these over..."
Mike and Mark climbed up to the back row with Brittany and Santana, while the Finn, Puck, and Rachel found seats among the other gleeks, as far as possible from Quinn.
As practice began, she could still feel the heat of their gazes, and she brought her hand to the back of her neck as though shielding herself from them.
Now, even in glee club, Quinn really was an outcast.
And it sucked.
Looks like it's just you and me, kid, she thought, not knowing what would happen when the baby left her, too, and she was all alone for real.
****
Sometimes Will Schuester could be a little blind to the problems going on around him - he could readily admit to his ignorance regarding the "Vitamin D" the gleeks were using for their first mash-ups - but he wasn't entirely clueless. Watching the way his students interacted at practice, he knew something was wrong. After an hour or so of awkward rehearsal, he let them leave. He crossed his arms and watched as they filtered out of the classroom, catching Finn by the arm before he had a chance to go anywhere.
"Finn, are you okay?" Will asked, rubbing his hand on his chin in a gesture of concern. "You haven't been yourself at all lately. The whole rest of the club seems... I don't know, down about something."
Finn tried to smile, to shrug off the question, but he couldn't for long. "It's complicated, Mr. Schue," he mumbled.
"I'll try to keep up."
Finn closed his eyes, trying to think. It wasn't that he didn't trust Mr. Schue - in fact, Mr. Schue was probably the person he could most trust, with anything. After all, he'd been nice enough not to bust him over the marijuana he found in his locker (Finn idly suspected that Puck might have had something to do with that, in retrospect). He'd taken Finn out to eat to talk when Finn first found out about the pregnancy; Mr. Schue had even driven them to the OB/GYN. But he wasn't sure how to explain this at all - it had gotten so crazy so fast that it was still a struggle to get his mind around it all. When Finn spoke, it was an effort to keep his voice level. "It's not my baby, Mr. Schue."
Will's mouth fell open. "Finn, I'm - I'm so sorry to hear that," he offered feebly.
"Puck's the dad, not me," Finn continued. He couldn't stop himself now; it was a relief to get this off his chest at least, as painful as it was to reopen the wound. "Quinn cheated on me and was leading me on all this time."
There was a silence between the two for a minute. Will honestly didn't know what to say; he didn't know that there was anything to say. Finn stifled a sob, and Will acted just as he'd done when Finn first came to him about Quinn's pregnancy - he embraced him, telling him "It's okay. It's going to be okay."
Finn let himself cry on Mr. Schue's shoulder until he didn't think he could cry any more. "Thanks for listening, Mr. Schue."
"Anytime, Finn. Just let me know if there's anything I can do."
"I don't think so," Finn replied. "But thanks. Really." He paused to wipe his nose on his sleeve before turning to leave.
Will could only shake his head in disbelief. Since when did high school have to be so complicated? he thought. It was beyond him that a girl could deceive a guy like that for so long, but he tried to withhold judgment. Quinn was just a confused kid; at any rate, at least the truth won out eventually. As he put away the extra copies of music, grabbed his briefcase and shut the lights off in the music rooms, he sighed. Well, he thought, at least I'll have some interesting dinner conversation with Terri tonight.
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