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For Quinn and Rachel, this had become a regular event: They'd fight all through the school day, get out of school and fight some more, Quinn would leave and think about the fight all night and how beautifully Rachel's hair shone when she whipped it around, Rachel would leave and think about everything she had done wrong and how dangerously high Quinn would raise her skirt when she would grab fistfuls of it out of frustration, they'd dream of their fights escalating in the way that they did with their boyfriends and the other would grab them and kiss them just to shut them up and they'd wake up and do it all over again.
This week, Mister Schuester had another one of his schemes. "Recent Broadway Songs" was scrawled across the white board. "And, Rachel, Kurt before you even ask, you cannot pick your partners, and fate will not be picking them, either. I will." An influx of groans and protests echoed through the room until he crossed to the piano and pulled the list out of his folder. "It was fate, edited by me. I wanted to hear certain people together, but there were some that I left random." He scanned the room, noticing some very confused looks. "By that, I mean we hear Finn and Rachel together all the time, we hear Kurt and Rachel together all the time, we heard Kurt and Blaine together at competition so I can only assume that that happened often." Blaine began to interject, but was silenced when Mr. Schuester stopped him. "I want some different vocal pairs, and that's that. Some will even be forced solo if we've never heard you to the full extent." Mike blanched as Mr. Schuester nodded in his direction. "Here we go. Tina and Mike, you're the two on your own." He nodded solemnly and Tina smiled. "Kurt and Rory, you'll be up first." Kurt groaned and buried his face in Blaine's arm. "Puck and Finn, you're together." Finn raised his hand, but he continued, "It's not up for discussion, Finn."
Rachel looked around, that left Quinn, Blaine, Artie and herself. "Well, I've already sung with Blaine and Quinn, so it has to be Artie," she decided. "He has a nice voice and definitely won't over-shine my own." With that, she went off on her own list of songs that would give him a fair spot but not so much that no one would notice her.
"Blaine, you're going to be with Artie," the pair looked across the room and exchanged a nod of satisfaction, "which leaves Quinn and Rachel."
Rachel's eyes widened. "Mr. Schue, I don't know if you remember, but Quinn and I have already sung together last year. We did the mash-up-"
"Enough, Rachel. I remember, and it was lovely. I'd like to hear more like it, which is why I left the two of you paired up," he concluded, dropping his folder on the desk. "For the record, let's not do any songs that anyone else has already done, nothing from jukebox musicals," he turned to go into his office, but not before adding, "Oh, and no more Wicked, please." He eyed Kurt and Rachel who rolled their eyes. "Let's get to work."
The two girls sat on Rachel's bed, flipping through cast recording after cast recording in Rachel's book of CDs. They made small talk, trying to be as pleasant with each other as possible.
Quinn glanced across at Rachel, once or twice, careful not to be caught. "She's really in her element here, isn't she? She's so involved," she thought. "This is the kind of thing she loves and she lights up when she's talking about it." She shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts from her head, "Focus, Quinn. Now's not the time for this." A bright pink index card caught her attention. "Legally Blonde?" she asked. "I didn't know they made a musical of that."
Eyes bright and attentive, Rachel looked up at Quinn. "Yeah, it's sort of pop music-y. It's a lot of fun but it got a bad rap because it was more fluff than substance." She pulled the card with the track list out and handed it to the other girl. "I don't know if there's anything good in the duet department there," and she went right back to flipping through the pages.
She laughed at a few of the track titles and then suggested, "Bend and Snap? Like the bit from the movie?"
"How did I know that would be the first one that she would pick off of there," she thought. Rachel smiled, without looking up. "Yeah, it's pretty much all of the girls and sort of half spoken. It's a lot of fun."
"Oh," Quinn said, a bit disappointed. Bend and Snap would have given her ample opportunity to stare at Rachel and get away with it. "I guess that's not good for two people."
Biting her lip and thinking about it for a second, Rachel answered, "No, probably not." The pair sat in silence for a moment before the brunette pointed out a disk. "There's a good duet for girls in this one."
Quinn read the disk aloud, "Bracket title of show end bracket…" she said, sarcasm at the stylized title.
"Yeah, it's a backstage musical about writing and producing a show and there comes a point where the two guys leave and the girls theorize about what they could do with their time in the spotlight. It's really funny and I think you could get Susan Blackwell's sarcasm spot on." She smiled and looked at Quinn, seeing for the first time that her hazel eyes were completely on her and nowhere else and she loved it. "Do you want to listen to it?"
Momentarily, Quinn lost her sense of speech. When she regained part of it, all she could manage was a weak "Sure." As Rachel crossed to her little boom-box, she absentmindedly thumbed through the book, trying desperately not to turn round and stare when she saw it. "Wait, Rachel," she said, pulling the disk from the jacket and handing it to her. "I saw this with my mom over the summer, I remember there was one… It is a male/female duet and, well, it's a love song, but I think, with some minor changes, I could handle the guy part, and you and Mercedes did Take Me or Leave Me, so…" She chose not to mention that she could not stop thinking about how Rachel would have been worlds better than the girl playing the character.
Rachel's entire face lit up. "You saw The Addams Family over the summer? How was it?" She took the disk from Quinn and placed it in the tray.
"It was good. Really cute, and they had some pretty neat effects," she recalled.
"That's awesome," she replied. When the Addams Family theme song came on, she asked "Okay, so what track?"
Quinn looked down at the index card in still in the book and answered, "Uh… Track 15?."
Rachel sat down on the floor, resting her back on the dresser and nodded her head along, humming along with a few of the strains.
When it got to the chorus, Quinn couldn't help but stare at the girl, who was smiling and someplace else entirely. She wondered what she was thinking about, probably Finn. She put her head on her arms and looked away.
She had to admit, she was impressed. Quinn was right; this was definitely a good song for them from a lyrical aspect. Still she had to ask, "Would you be okay with this one?" She hesitated a moment before adding, "I mean, are you comfortable singing a love song with another girl?"
Quinn's eyes grew wide. "Yeah," she stammered. "I mean, it's just for Glee, right?" she said, and would have sworn she saw a hint of disappointment in Rachel's face. "Now's your moment," she thought. "Tell her now and then it'll just be out there and there won't be an issue." She let it sit for a moment, took a steadying breath and decided to go with it. "Besides, the football team didn't call us the Queerios for nothing," she added.
With a nod, Rachel continued listening to the song then popped her head up. "Wait, what?"
The blond rolled her eyes and shot a daring smile. "Karofsky and Azimio walked in on all of the cheerleaders in the shower together one day. Most of the girls do it for attention, but a couple of us actually are."
"Wait, so," Rachel tried to wrap her head around the concept for a moment, but realized her road block. "Why are you telling me? You hate me."
She slid off the bed and inched closer to Rachel, placing her hands on her knees. "I could never hate you Rachel. I was scared of how I felt, but I don't care anymore."
Mouth falling wide, the girl was flabbergasted. "You're not teasing me, right? Because I don't think I could ever forgive you for that, Quinn."
"Why wouldn't you be able to forgive me for that? Wouldn't that be a—" but she was cut off by Rachel's mouth.
That Friday in Glee, everyone sat with their partners and chatted happily, but there didn't seem to be a drastic change in most people. Most, that is, except two; The two girls who sat quietly in the back of the room, one with her arm around the other, and the other with her hand on her knee. Mr. Schue entered the room, late as usual and called the meeting to order. "Alright gang, let's get rolling. I want to hear the soloists first."
Mike and Tina looked at each other and she stood up to go first. "Okay. I'll go first."
"That's great, Tina, what have you got for us?"
The girl hit her spot in the front of the room. "There's a Fine, Fine Line from Avenue Q," she stated and she started.
Rachel looked over at Quinn, "Tell me about it."
Quinn smiled and rested her head on the other girl's.
A few minutes later, Tina had finished, Mike had done a version of I've Been from Next To Normal and Finn and Puck were up. "We're going to be doing a song that's maybe not technically 'Broadway,' but it's written by Broadway composers," Puck said.
Rachel looked sideways at the boys. "Like, what?"
"Vegas, written by Kerrigan and Lowdermilk," Finn responded, only then seeing the position that the girls were in.
She smiled proudly. "Where'd you come up with that one?"
"You played it for me a while ago," he smiled in response.
Rachel nodded and looked over at Quinn. "What? Don't look at me like that," she giggled. "He makes the same kind of attempts for you. It just so happens that he and I may still sort of be together," she rolled her eyes and scooted a bit closer.
"Rachel," Quinn said, nearly scolding her, "You're not serious, right?"
"This was all sort of sudden," she said, moving a bit uncomfortably and trying to divert the attention. "I'll do it today, though."
The boys went through their playful romp, which fit them perfectly, and ended it in an obnoxious hi-five, which achieved a raucous round of applause. Mr. Schuester gave a pat on the back to each of them. "That was great, guys. Really well done. Maybe a bit inappropriate, but great none the less." He looked down at his list and called out, "Kurt and Rory, you're up next."
"Rory and I will be performing Are You There from the off-Broadway favorite, bare: a pop opera," Kurt said with a flourish. The song went smoothly and the pair went their separate ways with a handshake at the end.
"Blaine and Artie, come on up," Mr. Schue called.
"Of course, we would be last," Rachel groaned, shifting uneasily in her seat.
Quinn glared down at Mr. Schue, but said under her breath, "It's because he knows you're incredible and he doesn't have to worry about anything with you involved." In her mind, however, she was certainly giving him a piece of it.
She had to admit, though, that Blaine and Artie had quite a bit of charisma between them. Their playful rendition of We Can Do It from The Producers was absolutely adorable. They were like two little boys playing together.
"Alright, girls," Mr. Schue said when the boys had finished, "Let's see what you've got for us."
They stood up and Rachel nearly stomped up to the front of the room. "Thank you, Mr. Schuester," she said. "Quinn and I will be performing the song Crazier Than You from The Addams Family." Kurt looked at her questioningly; she winked and brushed his look aside, knowing he'd revisit the topic later.
"Whenever you're ready."
Rachel moved to her starting position, glanced over at Quinn who gave her a small smile and the pair nodded at Brad to start the song. She took a few steps toward Quinn and began. "Once, I was hopeful. Ithought we were one. Life, less than perfect, finally begun." She turned and faced forward and placed her hands to her chest, running one up to her face from there. "But, now I wonder: are we undone?"She faced back to Quinn and put her hands on the girl's waist. "I wanna treasure you in death as well as life. I wanna cut you with my love and with my knife." She backed up, pulling her hands away. "But can I live as your tormentor and your wifewhen I am crazier than you?" She shook her head and closed her eyes. "I'm crazier than you and nothing up 'til now has proved me wrong." She moved closer to Quinn, looking directly into the girl's eyes and smiling dangerously. "I'm crazier than you. That's just the overview, so get on board or simply move along." She flicked her hand in the direction of the door and moved to go that way herself.
The group was in a complete mixed reaction. They all moved a bit to the song, and it wasn't difficult to see that the girls had definitely worked on the song and it was going well. However, there were some people, Finn in particular, that couldn't get a full grasp on what was going on in front of them.
Quinn grabbed Rachel by the shoulder and turned her around. "I'm not impulsive."
Almost as though completing the movement, Rachel's hand went instinctively to Quinn's neck. "And yet I truly love you."
"I'm not deranged." Quinn smiled, shaking her head, daring someone to contest her and pulling the other girl closer.
Rachel didn't move away or even look away, "I'd never ask that of you."
Brushing the girl's bangs out of her eyes, she said, "But in this moment, I feel I've changed." She moved away and looked dreamily above everyone's heads. "I wanna climb Mt. Everest, go to Mozambique." She looked back and grabbed Rachel's hands. "I wanna be impulsive want to be unique. Can you believe I mean it when you hear me shriek? I'm crazier than you." She spun Rachel around and made an absolutely ridiculous face, causing the other girl to break into a fit of giggles. "I'm crazier than you and now I'll prove to you exactly how." She crossed behind her and wrapped her arms around the girl. "I'm crazier than you. I'll do what you can do." She kissed her on the cheek and darted away, hopping onto the top of the piano and pulled an apple from the pocket of her sweater. "From here on in, I give my solemn vow." Quinn balanced the apple on her head and closed her eyes.
Rachel pantomimed along, "Pluck the arrow from its quiver, hold it in your hand be brave."
"Pierce the apple not the liveror we're dancing on my grave." Quinn feigned a grimace and shivered.
"Place it in the bow and steady…"She made a dramatic draw back on an invisible bow.
Pulling her knees up to her stomach, she whimpered, "Can't you shoot that thing already?"
Rachel shook her head, teasingly. "I wanna demonstrate that fear is my ideal."
Quinn rolled her eyes and nodded, "Girl, believe me, fear is your ideal."
"Cause in the moment that you're frightened life is real." She dropped her stance for a moment and pointed accusingly.
Shrugging, Quinn sang back, "Then my life must be real real!"
Resuming the bow and arrow stance, she closed her eyes and feigned a shot, "And in a flash, when I release and seal the deal."
Knocking the apple off of her own head in place of the arrow, Quinn hopped off the piano and grabbed Rachel's hands as they both sang, "I'm crazier than you. I'm crazier than you and nothing hurts me when I hear you say," the pair pulled away from each other, circling around and crashing into one another, adopting a ballroom dance pose, "'I'm crazier than you.' Psychotically in two and that is all I need to face the day." Quinn spun Rachel, who continued to twirl across the room and the girls pointed at each other. "I'm crazier than you. I'm crazier than you and, live or die, I'll let you have control." Mirroring each other, they threw their arms wide and walked to the other. "I'm crazier than you," the two got close together, wrapping their arms around each other, "so say you love me too. From here on in, you're singing to my soul, my soul!" The pair laughed and pulled into a tight hug as the song closed out.
"Wow, that was… something," Schue added, confused, over the applause, "Great job, girls."
Rachel smiled and said "Thank you, Mr. Schuester," grabbed Quinn by the hand, who followed like a puppy on a leash, as they walked back to their seats.
"Uh, Rachel, the assignment's over… you can come back and sit with me, now," Finn said, a bit confused as to what just happened.
The rest of the Glee club looked on eagerly as Quinn edged her on. "Now?" She asked under her breath. Receiving a comforting nod from her, she said "So are you and I, Finn. I'm very sorry."
The quarterback quirked his head to the side, "Wait, Rach, are you serious?"
"Yeah, she is Finn," Quinn responded, putting her arm around Rachel and smiling that devious 'go-ahead-and-test-me-I-always-have-something-up-my-sleeve' smile. Despite anything else, she knew that she had found her match in this girl and she was in for quite a ride.