Real Magic

Chapter 7: Main Street Electrical Parade & Wishes

"So, what do you want to do for the rest of the night?"

Rachel turned to Quinn and contemplated what she wanted to spend the rest of their night together doing. The sun had set hours earlier and left her looking out at the park and across to the castle as both were beautifully lit in the darkness. It was a fairly easy decision based on the sight in front of her what she wanted.

"I would very much prefer to remain to watch the parade and the fireworks with you, if you are willing to stay with me?"

"Of course, Rachel," Quinn smiled and looked down at her smaller companion, "You don't think that I'm going to ditch you now, do you?"

"No, I suppose not." Feeling Quinn's arm wrap around her shoulders put a smile on Rachel's face as they crossed back from the restaurant towards the castle. It took just a couple of minutes for the two to reach the central circle of the park. Rachel felt Quinn hurry her along through the crowd that was beginning to mill, until they reached a bench on the right side of the circle, right in front of the castle.

"What's the rush, Quinn? We still have three-quarters of an hour before the parade begins?"

Quinn laughed before answering, "Come on Rachel, I thought that you read a bunch of guide books before coming here? If we didn't get a seat now you'd be standing the whole time behind a bunch of ten year olds who are taller than you."

Rachel was offended by Quinn's explanation. "There is no way that I am shorter than a ten year old! I find your description of my stature to be highly inaccurate and offensive."

"Okay fine. I guess you're more like a twelve year old."

Rachel was about to deliver an angry retort, when she noticed that Quinn was attempting not to laugh. "Quinn! I do not appreciate jokes about my height, no matter how good natured they are."

"Is argyle off-limits too? Because if you keep wearing those sweaters when we get back I won't be able to help myself."

"This isn't fair! If we're friends you can't keep making fun of me, because I have no comebacks to your jokes."

Quinn stopped laughing, as she felt simultaneously terrible that Rachel lacked the self-confidence to make fun of her, and flattered that Rachel didn't think she had any flaws. "Okay, that's not true. There are plenty of things that you are better than me at that you could tease me about."

Rachel scoffed, "Singing is the only thing that you could possibly be referring to, as there is nothing else that I am good at."

"Not true! You are first in our class and you have a 4.0 GPA! How could you not be proud of that?"

"You're second with a 3.96, Quinn. 0.04 doesn't exactly give major bragging rights."

Quinn had hoped that she wouldn't have remembered who came after her as long as she was first. "Okay, so that wasn't the best example. Although it does let me come clean that part of my hostility towards you was from the fact that you always ended up first every semester, while I was stuck in second."

"Really?" Rachel was shocked to hear this confession from Quinn. "I know it's probably wrong, but that actually does make me feel a little better."

"Good to know that beating me makes you feel better."

"No it's no that. It's just...you've always been someone that I've envied because of how great you are at school, cheerleading, popularity. It's just surprising to think you would have envied anything about the least popular girl in school."

It astonished Quinn how Rachel's last sentence was spoken honestly and without a hint of understanding how people truly felt about her. "Rachel, everyone in school envies you. It's why most of them are so horrible to you; they don't know how to show their envy any way other than slushy facials and insults on your MySpace page."