Perfectly Imperfect

The Rhodes Not Taken

"Stop staring," Dani sang in Noah Puckerman's ear as she took her place for "Don't Stop Believin'".

It had been a few weeks since the three football players joined the Glee Club, pushing them over their twelve man requirement to compete at Sectionals. Everyday, just to mess with him, Dani would tell Puck to stop staring at Quinn, most of the time she said it when he wasn't because she found it amusing. Puck, however, found her constant reminder to stop staring at Quinn Fabray rather annoying because it was another broken record he heard in that room, along with the complaints from their teammates that they needed Rachel Berry to return to the New Directions.

Puck playfully smacked the Cheerio's blonde ponytail, making her laugh at while Mr. Schue called Finn and Quinn to start the song, "How would you know if I was staring, Dani?"

"You make it so obvious," she teased as the band started playing the Journey song, cutting off their conversation.

While Finn and Quinn did the lighthouse move, circling each other, Quinn suddenly got very nauseous and ran out of the choir room. Their concerned teacher watched as the blonde ran towards the bathrooms, calling after her, "Quinn, you OK?"

Finn gave his teacher a pressing look, trying to convey the true reason Quinn Fabray ran out of the room without actually saying the words, "I think she just had a bad breakfast burrito."

"Can we please talk about the giant elephant in the room?"

Santana snickered at Kurt Hymmel's question, suggesting a snide comment, "Your sexuality?"

As Dani smacked her friend on the shoulder, as though to tell her to cut it out, Kurt shook his head and continued with what he actually was trying to discuss, "Rachel. We can't do it without her."

"That's not true. We may have to layer Santana or Mercedes over Quinn's solo, but...we'll be fine."

Artie clings to his guitar as though it were his life source, disagreeing with his teacher's belief, "Maybe for the invitationals, but not for the sectionals and certainly not the regionals."

"The wheelchair kid's right."

"Artie," Dani corrected.

Puck forced a smile at the blonde after she corrected him, not truly caring to know what the kid's name was, "That Rachel chick wants me wanna light myself on fire, but she can sing."

Not only did Will Schuester agree with the excessment that they stood no chance without Rachel, he knew that there was no way to convince the headstrong Jewish girl to return without compromising how he runs the Glee Club. He was angry and frustrated, but his job as their teacher was to inspire them to try, "Rachel left, guys. She's gone. If we want to make this thing work, we can't look back. Alright, take five minutes."

Dani left the choir room, telling Puck to cover for her if she didn't return in five minutes. She slowly walked through the empty corridors, finding her destination to contain Quinn Fabray. But Quinn wasn't in a stall upheaving, she was standing at a sink watching herself cry in the mirror. Dani rushed to hug her friend, never having seen her cry before, trying to console her, "What's wrong, Q?"

Quinn cried into her friend's shoulder, feeling the material of her Cheerios uniform becoming damp with her tears. She was terrified, terrified of everything that was in store and she wanted nothing more than for her best friend to hold her and assure her that everything was going to be okay. "I'm pregnant."

Despite wanting to question how she got pregnant, Danielle Karofsky held her friend tighter as she cried harder into her shoulder, "Shhhh, It's going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay, I promise."