Will The Real Rachel Berry Please Stand Up?

8

Rachel tried to disguise her inner turmoil with a purposeful stride and a beaming smile as she entered school on the Monday. She was repeating Ali's wise words in her head "I can't see how her befriending you gives her any more opportunity to be nasty to you than she already has unless you do something extremely stupid like letting your guard down."

She was half expecting an outraged mass of Glee members to be awaiting her, Quinn having showed them her impersonation videos; after all 'Quinn Fabray' and the word 'trust' should only appear in a sentence with the qualifier 'don't'. She and Ali hadn't really managed to come up with a reason for Quinn's sudden interest in befriending her although Ali's suggestion of "Maybe she wants to be friends with her daughter's stepsister?" made her smile – her family tree did have the makings of a badly written soap opera about it. Anyway she had a strategy if she was prepared to use it - Miss uptight 'n' Repressed just needed a touchy feely friend. Quinn projected a fierce hands-off aura around her so what better way to scare her off then by constantly touching her? Ali had not been convinced but Rachel thought her plan had a hint of genius about it (and not just because it was her plan!) Honestly Quinn probably wouldn't last the day. She took a deep breath to calm herself – she'd dealt with the unwanted attentions of Jacob Ben Israel so she could deal with the unwanted attentions of Quinn Fabray. Or could she?

Quinn strode into the school with a smile on her face and a confident demeanour masking her nervousness. Her Sunday had been Rachel-lite – well, maybe an excess of video clips towards the end of the day – so now she was ready for her Rachel 'fix'. Quinn stood at her locker and watched as Rachel made her way down the corridor noting her short skirt and almost tasteful top. Suddenly Rachel flew sideways hitting the lockers quite hard as some of the football team shoved past her shouting insults the clearest being " outta the way car crash."

"Are you okay?" she asked a dazed looking Rachel. She watched a bright smile being put in place and then a cheerful "I'm fine Quinn - nothing that hasn't happened before" was directed towards her as Rachel continued towards her locker. There was a surprised gasp from Rachel as she opened her locker and numerous, thankfully empty, slushy cups fell out. A printed note taped to the inside of the door stated "next time they'll be full." Rachel gave Quinn a questioning look.

"Nothing to do with me I swear" she said realising that in fact it had everything to do with her – she'd declared open season on Rachel all that time ago.

Rachel looked completely unconvinced and then stepped into her personal space and looked her in the eye. Quinn swallowed nervously.

"Some ground rules Quinn. I'm going to do what I usually do - if you want to tag along, fine. In fact it'll be a lot like last week but this time with my reluctant permission and I won't deliberately hide from you. If you get me into trouble in class deal's off and if you turn up unexpectedly to my house deals off. Is that clear?" Rachel stated with a serious expression and a voice to match.

"Crystal," murmured Quinn trying to disguise the hitch in her breathing from Rachel standing so close.

"In that case then," Rachel slipped her arm through Quinn's," you'd better drop me off at English."

Quinn's head was spinning at the abrupt change in Rachel's tone and her heart was racing at the feeling of Rachel's hand on her arm yet she still managed to walk towards the English room.

"Thanks Quinnie" said Rachel squeezing her arm gently before letting go.

"Rachel, some ground rules - under no circumstances call me Quinnie" she managed to force out between her clenched teeth.

"Sorry Hun" said Rachel lightly patting her cheek before spinning off and skipping into the classroom. Quinn was beginning to doubt the wisdom of her befriending Rachel, half an hour in and her cheek was aflame and her libido fully awake.