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Chapter Text

The first day of glee senior year, it didn’t surprise anyone when Rachel told Mr. Schue that she had a song prepared as she went to tell the band what to play, what did surprise them was what she was wearing, a Cheerios uniform.

Here's the thing we started out friends

It was cool but it was all pretend

Yeah yeah

Since U Been Gone

The gleeks had heard about Finn and Rachel’s breakup at the beginning of the summer and looked to the tall boy, right as he flushed scarlet and clenched his jaw in anger.

You dedicated you took the time

Wasn't long till I called you mine

Yeah Yeah

Since U Been Gone

And all you'd ever hear me say

Is how I pictured me with you

That's all you'd ever hear me say

The other three Cheerios in the room, the Unholy Trinity, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany had been sitting in the corner together with smirks on their faces, but everyone else had been too busy studying Finn to pay attention to them. That is until they started singing with Rachel and stood up to go surround Finn.

But Since U Been Gone

I can breathe for the first time

I'm so moving on

Yeah, yeah

Thanks to you

Now I get

What I want

Since U Been Gone

How can I put it? You put me on

I even fell for that stupid love song

Yeah, yeah

Since U Been Gone

How come I'd never hear you say

I just wanna be with you

I guess you never felt that way

But Since U Been Gone

I can breathe for the first time

I'm so moving on

Yeah, yeah

Thanks to you

Now I get ( I get ) what I want

Since U Been Gone

You had your chance you blew it

Out of sight, out of mind

Shut your mouth I just can't take it

Again and again and again and again

After this the three move up to surround Rachel, each of them having at least a hand on her.

Since U Been Gone (Since U Been Gone)

I can breathe for the first time

I'm so moving on

Yeah, yeah

Thanks to you (thanks to you)

Now I get, I get what I want

I can breathe for the first time

I'm so moving on

Yeah, yeah

Thanks to you (thanks to you)

Now I get (I get)

You should know (you should know)

That I get, I get what I want

Since U Been Gone

Since U Been Gone

Since U Been Gone

As the music fades everyone stands up clapping, except Finn who charges forward yelling, “What the hell, Rachel?!” Santana and Quinn quickly step in front of Rachel crossing their arms as Brittany pulls the short brunette against her chest. “You better step back Frankenteen or I will cut you” Finn stares dumbfounded as the three girls protect Rachel, he had been in a sort of angry trance during the song and has just noticed them. Rachel, having expected this sort of reaction, looks over her shoulder at Brittany, murmurs something in her ear that the rest of them can’t make out, then steps out of her arms and around to stand between Finn and Santana and Quinn. She gives Santana and Quinn a look “Tana, Bug there will be no need for violence, thank you very much.” Properly chastised the two shut their mouths but proceed to glare at Finn and step closer to Rachel as she turns to face the him, the rest of the club, and Mr. Schue.

Who, at this point, all have their mouths hanging open and their eyes basically popping out, it is quite a sight. Brittany is the first one to break and let out a giggle, quickly followed by Quinn and Rachel. This breaks Finn out of his stupor and he does a very impressive Rachel-like storm out. "Okay girls, that was really good. Following their example I want everyone to find a Kelly Clarkson song to preform on Friday, groups are allowed. I think we will call that a day, everyone go home." With that Schue walks into his office and shuts the door. Everyone starts talking at once.

"When did you join the Cheerios?"

"You rock my Hot Little Jewish American Princess"

"How are you not killing each other?"

"Bug?"

The four Cheerios just walk out of the choir room, three still giggling with their heads bent together and one glaring, now at Puck.

Chapter Text

"Well that went better than I expected" Rachel says, after her giggles finally subside.

"That's what you expected, Tiny?"

"Of course Tana, you knew today was going to be hard, you've known that since the three of you found me crying on the side of the road." The other three looked away, they had reached Quinn's car by now and they all got in to head over to Rachel's house. As they drove Rachel's mind wandered back to that night, when everything started.

 Summer break had started a week ago and everything was going great. At least that is what Rachel thought. It was the first official Friday of summer so Puck was having his first party tonight, it was supposed to be really fun. Except Finn wasn't taking her to the party he was taking her out to dinner and a movie, she didn't really mind she just didn't understand why they couldn't go, even the other glee kids would be there. That is how they ended up in the back corner booth of Breadstix.

"Maybe we should skip the movie, Finn, and go to the party to support Noah, you know how he loves throwing these things."

Finn gave her an incredulous look and spoke as he would if talking to a stupid child, "Rach, these things don't even start till about 9 we'll be done here at about 8."

"I know that Finn, I just thought we could go early and spend some time with the other glee kids, you know a few are going to show up early, then we could leave once it starts getting crowded, since you don't really seem like you want to see all of those people."

"I said no Rach, I don't want to go"  This outburst caused a few people at nearby tables to look their way and shush them.

"Fine, I don't want to fight with you, this is the first free time you have had since school ended, which I still don't get, why is Burt working you so hard at the shop?"

"I don't know Rachel, let's just eat."

After the movie Rachel waits while Finn uses the restroom. She looks at her purse when she feels the vibrations and pulls out her phone, smiling when she sees the caller I.D.

"Hello, Noah."

"Hey Rach, I tried Finn's phone but he didn't answer, I figured he might be with you"

"He is, he's just little busy at the moment is their something I can help you with?"

"Yeah, do you know when you guys are gonna get here? He said 10, yesterday, while we were playing video games, and it's almost 11. He promised me a rematch at pong and if I'm too drunk ,again, when he gets here it won't matter." Rachel just stares at the phone for a minute, sure she heard wrong.

"I'm sorry Noah I don't know, Finn told me we wouldn't be attending the party tonight."

"Oh okay? Maybe he meant next weekend then?" CRASH "Shit! I gotta go Rach, I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, bye Noah" but Rachel wasn't really paying attention anymore, tears came to her eyes as realization dawned on her.

That is how Finn found her ten minutes later when he finally came out of the bathroom. "Rach, you okay?"

A few tears slipped out when she looked up at him, she pushed his hand away when he tried to wipe them away. "Rachel? What's wrong?"

"You've been lying to me this whole week haven't you?" she practically whispered, she couldn't seem to get the words past the lump in her throat.

"What are you talking about Rachel? You're freaking me out."  Noticing that they were gathering a crowd Finn tried to grab Rachel's arm to steer her in to a more secluded spot, but she just yanks away from him and yells,

"No, you've been lying to me this entire week, and I know you have. Noah just called me because you weren't answering your phone, he wanted to know when you would be arriving at the party, because yesterday while you were together playing video games you told him that you would be there by ten. Is that why you were so angry when I had to push our date back a few hours, because then you wouldn't be able to send me home before going to the party and still make it on time? And lying to me? All you had to do was tell me you wanted to spend some time with Noah, you didn't have to lie to me about Burt making you work. How often have you lied this summer? It's only been a week Finn."

By now there were tears streaming down her face and quite a few people had stopped to watch. Then Finn said the worst thing you can ever say to an already emotional women, other than you look fat in that outfit.

"You need to calm down Rachel, your over reacting, it's not that big a deal." As soon as the words escape his mouth you could here a few of the women in the crowd chuckle, knowing that whatever came next was not going to be pretty.

Rachel's tears immediately stopped, her shoulders squared and Finn swore that the glare on her face could rival even Quinn's worst.

"You're right Finn it must not a big deal to you, obviously. I really shouldn't have expected better, you always lie. But I can't be with someone that is going to lie to me, or someone who so obviously doesn't want to be seen with me. So goodbye Finn, we are done." With that she turns on her heal and storms out the door as the tears start again.

Angry, Finn shouts "Get back here Rachel, you can't just break up with me." as she continues through the door he looks around and, trying to save face, shouts "Fine, I was going to break up with you anyway" but even the people in the crowd could tell that it was a lie.

Rachel gets five blocks before a car pulls up beside her.

 As they drove Santana's thoughts were also on that night, reliving how a few hours could change so much.

Santana huffed as she walked into Puck's backyard trying to find Brittany and Quinn. She had somehow gotten roped in to being the DD for the night, so even though it was only 11 she was bored out of her mind and just wanted to go home and have some sexytimes with her not-quite-girlfriends. Thankfully she spotted the two of them talking to Puck and Sam.

"Trouty Mouth, Puckerman, come on girls lets blow this joint."

"But San, I'm having so much fun" whined Brittany. "Yeah S, we were about to go dance." Quinn smirked, she knew what watching the two of them dance did to Santana.

Santana just glares at Quinn as her eyes darken, "I know B, but I want to go home and have fun, you might even still be able to dance" now it is Santana's turn to watch the eyes of Quinn and Brittany darken with lust as they say a hasty goodbye to the, thankfully oblivious, boys and make their way out to Santana's car.

Which is why Santana is not very happy when just 2 minutes from her house Brittany points up ahead and tells her to pull over because she sees Rachel.

"B, that can't be Berry, I don't even think she owns a pair of jeans."

"Yes she does San, I've seen her in them at the dance studio" Santana always forgets that the two go to the same studio, even though there is only the one in town.

"Fine, but if this chick is some psychopathic serial killer and not the Hobbit I am blaming it all on you."

"S, this is Lima, we don't have serial killers"

"Yeah but we have psychopaths" Santana says while giving her a pointed look, Quinn just smirks back, completely unaffected, until Santana pulls the car over next to Rachel and rolls down the window to look at the girl, who stopped walking when she heard the car slow.

"Midget, it is you, look your in normal clothes." Santana can see the unmistakeable signs of crying, the blood shot eyes, the puffy face, but, not good with crying people, chooses to ignore them.

"Santana, Brittany, Quinn how are you tonight?"

Brittany is the one to voice the three's concerns first, "Rach, what's wrong? You sound funny, and you look like you've been crying."

And with that the barely contained tears break free again and a big shuddering sob passes through her body "I-I-I b-broke u-up w-with F-Finn", Brittany looks at the 2 other girls and they sigh, looks like sexytimes will have to wait. Brittany gets out of the front seat and pulls Rachel into the back as Quinn moves to the front. Rachel resists at first but ends up giving in to the warmth and protection of the blonds arms.

They finish the drive to Santana's house and Brittany and Quinn usher Rachel inside while Santana goes to the store to buy some vegan chocolate and ice cream, already knowing that it was going to be a long night, but also knowing that she isn't capable of refusing anything that Brittany wants, and what Brittany wanted right then, was to comfort Rachel.

Santana smile's at the memory of how against her tiny diva she was. It's odd and unsettling to remember, now that she can't imagine her life with out the little firecracker.

When she gets home from the store she finds the three girls all cuddled on the couch with Rachel in the middle, Quinn seems a little uncomfortable, but Santana knows that she would be too if that was her. At least Rachel seemed to have stopped crying, so Santana puts the snacks on the coffee table and snuggles in behind Quinn, hoping to make her feel a little more at ease but not willing to switch places with her. They must have been waiting for her to return because once she is comfortable Brittany gives Rachel a nod and the smallest girl starts the story of how her night, and by extension her entire summer so far, have gone so horribly wrong. About half way through Quinn stops her, " I think we could all use a little alcohol right about now"  Santana agrees, she is getting irrationally angry at Finn. Which is stupid because she doesn't even like the tiny diva, but really? Finn kills there chance at Nationals to get her back, then he ignores her, that's just not right. So Santana goes up to her room to retrieve the bottle of vodka that she has stashed there for emergencies and brings it and 4 shot glasses into the living room.

2 hours later all 4 are extremely tipsy and actually having fun. Rachel lets the three see the side of herself that almost no one gets to see. Everyone knows the loud-mouth goody-two-shoes perfectionist that she shows at school, but almost no one has ever seen the real her, behind all of the masks, but she lets them see it, and they actually like what they see.

Santana is the first one to kiss her, she is surprised when Rachel just kisses back, oh and what a kisser she is. The four of them make it up to the bedroom as quickly as they can, without letting go of one another, and spend the next 2 hours finding out just how many talents Rachel's mouth has.

The next afternoon Santana wakes up curled on her bed, naked, with three other women instead of two and is confused for a second, until she remembers what happened the night before. She is shocked at herself for not feeling grossed out or repulsed for having had sex with Rachel. Who new the girl was so good in bed.

'Yeah' Santana thinks as they car pulls into Rachel's driveway, 'that night was the start of something amazing'. Getting out of the car she grins at Quinn and Brittany, today had been the first day that the three of them had seen Rachel in her uniform. They planned to spend the next few hours doing to her all of the things that they had been wanting  but unable to do all day at school.

Chapter Text

The second day of school starts out a lot earlier than the first one, at least for the Cheerio's. Since Coach Sylvester was not able to make it back from her cheer conference in time for practice the day before she decided that in addition to afternoon practice there would be an hour long practice before school, which the four girls new was not as bad as it could have been.

Quinn, Brittany, Rachel, and Santana were the first ones onto the field that morning. They had all driven together which was easy enough since they had all slept at Rachel's, which was where they almost always were because Rachel's dads were never home. They had only seen them like twice in the two and a half month summer. None of them had particularly wanted to leave her house, no one actually knew that they were together yet, so they were reluctant to leave the one place that they could act like it. Outside of Rachel's house the four of them were friends, the best of friends, which was still a complete 180 from just a few months earlier.

If seeing the Unholy Trinity being all chummy with the girl who had last year been just one notch above Jacob Ben Israel wasn't enough of a draw to get the other Cheerios, and a few curious students, to practice early then wanting to know how the hell Rachel got on the squad in the first place (and they knew she did because the whole school had seen her walking around in her uniform yesterday and Coach would skin anyone not on the team who was caught wearing one), certainly was.

The four had gotten there a whole half an hour early, hoping for some peace while they stretched, luck was not on there side though and everyone else started arriving just a few minutes later.

Quinn could feel the stares and new that the other three could as well, she and Santana shared a look before moving to stand between their two girls and the rest of the group, who were now whispering as well as staring. She couldn't hear the words but she knew what they were saying, the same things the entire school had been saying yesterday, which basically boiled down to two things "When did they become friends?" and "How did she get on the Cheerios?" The first she just ignored because Rachel wasn't her friend, she was so much more than that, they all were, but  no one in this town was smart enough to figure that out. The second still kind of boggled her mind but made her smile nonetheless whenever she thought of the afternoon that it happened.

It's been two weeks since the first night Rachel joined the three of them in bed and she has joined them almost every night since. Quinn finds herself baffled at how much she likes this Rachel, the one that wears regular clothes(extremely well), the one that laughs at Brittany's jokes and doesn't take Santana's bitchiness to seriously, the one that lets Quinn protect her even if she doesn't need it. The one that fills the holes in the threes relationship that they didn't even know were there.

That's not what this was though, they weren't in a relationship. They were...friends with benefits, that is what the three had been before Rachel joined and that was what the four were now. Satisfied with her thoughts Quinn tuned back in to the conversation happening between the other three and wished she had been paying attention, when she tuned out they had been talking about the baby beauty pageants Rachel had won.

"...won state for tumbling when I was 13." Quinn heard Rachel finish.

"Sorry I spaced out for a minute can someone catch me up?" she asked, deciding it was safer than jumping to conclusions.

Brittany was the one to answer her while Santana smirked, like she knew exactly when Quinn had 'spaced out' and Rachel just smiled, knowing her stories weren't always the most exciting.

"It's awsome Q, I asked Rach how she knew so many different styles of dance, more than me even, so she was telling us about all of the classes her dads put her into when she was little. How, other than voice of course, gymnastics was her fave because of the tumbling, she even won state when she was 13."

All of this comes out in a single breath and Quinn has trouble keeping up. Something in Santana's mind clicks and she straitens up in her chair.

"Wait, your almost an entire year younger than us, so State Championships at 13 would have been the end of 8th grade how did Coach not snatch you up? "

"You might remember that I didn't go to your middle school, we moved right before freshman year when Daddy got his promotion, before that we lived in Indiana. I decided that I wanted to focus on getting to Broadway, so I quit gymnastics."

She gives a sheepish smile as she finishes and Quinn can't help herself, before she give it permission her mouth is moving and words are coming out.

"Do you miss it? I mean, do you think you could still do it?"

Santana's smile goes predatory, but in the good way, "That is something I would pay money to see you do" Quinn can practically see the fantasy play out in Santana's eyes; Rachel in a tiny little outfit, showing off her strength and flexibility.

Everyone is startled from their thoughts when Brittany speaks "Let's do it, we all have keys to the field at the school, Coach told us to come practice at least once a week, we could go this afternoon and practice tumbling, we actually haven't worked on that particular skill yet."

Quinn can see the flaws in this plan and can see that Rachel is conflicted about wanting to go, Santana looks absolutely giddy at the fact that she might actually get to see what she was imagining. Brittany sees their indecision and pulls out the kicked puppy look that is just so not fair, Quinn can feel her resolve slipping but doesn't give the 'okay' nod until Rachel let's out a soft "Why not?"

 Brittany squealed and dragged Quinn and Rachel upstairs while Santana raced out to grab the three gym bags that were in the car, so they could all change.

Half an hour later the four were walking on to the, thankfully empty, William Mckinley High School football field clad in sports bras and tight workout shorts, they almost didn't make it out of the house.

When they reached the center of the field Quinn turned to Brittany "Okay, this was your idea, what should we do?"

Brittany smiled, "Well I was thinking that the three of us could each take turns and have Rachel see if she could copy us."

That got a chorus of "Sure"s. They started off easy, a few cartwheels and backflips to see if she still had it in her, and it was very obvious that she did.

Two hours later after finally conceding that they had nothing harder to throw at her(they had even made her try some of their cheer routines, at which she wasn't half bad) the four laid down, sweaty and out of breath, where they started right in the center of the field with their heads together, so they could talk and gaze at the nonexistent clouds,  and their body's pointing in different directions.

Which was why they all sat up immediately when a shadow covered their faces, knowing that it had to be a person. They let out a collective horrified gasp when they realized which person specifically it was.

Coach Sylvester was standing in front of them with a smirk on her face and an agenda in her eyes.

"Hello girls, I caught the last few minutes of your practice. Berry see that you get me your measurements so the uniform fits right, I'll see you all at the first practice bright and early."

Quinn watched her walk away pretty sure that if she looked the other girls faces would reflect what she was feeling, utter confusion.

It had taken them about an hour to make sense of Sue's words, and another week after that for them to convince Rachel to officially join, but she did, and Quinn couldn't be happier even with all of the staring.

"You chose to be here early you can deal with the consequences, everyone give me 10 laps as warm up" she demands, her HBIC look firmly in place. The smile she shares with Santana is a little sadistic, since they can see the instantaneous regret cross many of the faces.

They then turn back to their girlfriends, who are laughing quietly at a private conversation, not quite oblivious to their surrounding just very good at ignoring them.

Sue's day is made when she walks onto the field 10 minutes before she expects the last of her Cheerios to arrive, to find that not only are they all already there, but the majority of them are what looks to be a couple laps in. In the middle of the field, the same spot that she found them at the beginning of summer are her, now four, stars calmly stretching. She smiles to herself, thinking of that day.

It was only one in the afternoon but it was shaping up to be a horrible day. Sue was sitting at the very top of the football fields bleachers, trying to think up new routines for the next year. Usually she would do this later in the summer, it's been just a little over 3 weeks since school let out, but she has a month long cheer coach conference that she has to leave for in just a couple weeks so she would like to get this done. Only she had been sitting here for an hour and in her office for two before that and she still had nothing to show for it.

Frustrated, she was about to give up and call it a day when the last four people she ever thought that she would see hanging out together walked to the center of the field.

An hour in Sue's notebook was filled and new ideas were still flying into her head, but she didn't get up to head for her office, that could wait, right now she need to think of a way to get the unexpectedly talented little firecracker on her Cheerios.

By the time that it looked like the girls had exhausted themselves and were laying in the middle of the field she had her plan, she just wasn't going to give her a choice. So she walked up to them, enjoying how scared they looked that she had caught them and said,

"Hello girls, I caught the last few minutes of your practice." No need to let them know how long she had been there or exactly how much she had seen(like the few little furtive kisses between all four). "Berry see that you get me your measurements so the uniform fits right, I'll see you all at the first practice bright and early."

With that she turned and headed in the direction of her office to jot down the rest of her ideas, a slightly evil smirk on her face.

Sue shakes herself out of her thoughts and puts a smirk back on her face before lifting her blow horn to her mouth and yelling "Come on people this isn't kindergarten, put some effort into it."

Chapter Text

It is only third period of the second day of school and Brittany is already missing her girls. Yes, they were all together at Cheerios practice, and she has had at least one of them in each of her classes, but it is not the same. They had grown very codependent over the summer, spending almost all day, every day at Rachel's house, where they were free to touch and kiss each other, and do cute, mushy relationship things as much as they wanted. Now they couldn't do any of that, strictly platonic only.

She had been pouting for the last few minutes, she knew that it was making Santana (who shared this class with her) sad but she couldn't help it. Third period was almost over and that meant she had to go endure fourth period, Spanish, which most years wouldn't be so bad, because San did all of her homework in that class anyway, except, it was the only class in her schedule that she didn't share with any of her girls. It was that way for all of them, they had gone to Miss Pillsbury this morning after Cheerios, not wanting a repeat of yesterday, the four of them had had barely any classes together. Miss Pillsbury had helped them come up with a schedule that had at least two of them in each class, except fourth, for some reason in each of the different scheduling scenarios they had tried there was always one period were they all had to take separate classes, so they chose the one where that class was right before the four of them had class together. That didn't mean that she had to like it.

Brittany startled when the bell rang signaling the end of class before sighing and linking pinkies with Santana, a gesture that they had decided was platonic enough, before walking the brunette to class, which was only allowed because it was on the way to her own, and continuing on to the Spanish room for 45 minutes of lonely torture.

She had only gotten a few feet from Santana's classroom when someone fell into step beside her. She almost cussed out loud when she saw who it was, which if you really knew her you would know was practically as rare as Rachel cussing. Puck was walking beside her smirking, like he knew exactly what she had done, but he couldn't, because that would mean that he knew everything and that would be bad.

She was saved from trying to think of something to say when he started talking "So which one of you is she dating?" Uh oh, they had though they had gotten away with the glee kids believing their friends story too.

Brittany was stuck, she could tell Puck that she didn't know what he was talking about, but she had a feeling that he wouldn't believe her. She couldn't tell him that Rach was dating all of them, her girls had explained to her why that was a bad idea. She just couldn't get herself to say that Rach wasn't dating any of them, or even just one of their names, so she just stayed quiet as they both entered the Spanish room and took their alphabetically assigned seats.

Seeing that he wasn't going to answer he continued, "Fine, don't tell me, I can guess. Obviously it's not you" Puck missed the sneer that Brittany sent his way when he said those words, "so that leaves Quinn and Satan. Since I'm pretty sure that Satan is strictly dickly, that just leaves Quinn. How did I do?"

Puck took Brittany's utterly horrified face as 'How did you guess?' and smiled. "You know last year I never would have believed it but you are Satan's deviousness and Rachel's innocence all rolled into one."

Horror at what Puck had said momentarily forgotten, lust visibly flashes across Brittany's face, she practically purrs as she speaks "Rach is so not as innocent as people think."

Puck nearly chokes on the drink that he had taken from his water bottle. Mr Schue turns from the board to look at them " Are you okay Puck?"

"Yea" Puck sputters, "maybe I could go to the nurse though, I feel weird all of a sudden."

Mr. Schue looks at the clock, it has only been 15 minutes but it is only the second day back and Puck does look a little flushed, nodding he agrees, "Brittany why  don't you go with him, you can take your stuff in case you don't make it back before the next bell."

They don't go to the nurse, instead they went to the bleachers. She was a little worried they headed in the direction of the field because that is her and her girls spot, but Puck told her that the bleachers were kind of his and Rachel's spot and he didn't think that Rachel would mind if they shared.

They sat in silence for about 10 minutes, she knew she had messed up, Puck had drawn his own conclusion, yes it wasn't friends like they were telling people, but it was better than the truth. He hadn't seemed grossed out, she was pretty sure he wasn't homophobic, he had briefly dated Rachel that one time in sophomore year knowing about her fathers. But then she had gone and ruined it and now he would have questions and she didn't know what to say. She wished, not for the first time, that one of her girls was there holding her hand.

In the end Puck was the one to break the silence, he kind of felt like a dick for assuming that she couldn't be the one that had feeling's for his Jew-babe. "So, Quinn isn't dating Rachel..."

She knew she shouldn't but she couldn't stop herself from blurting out the truth "No, you were right Quinn is dating Rachel, it was just everything else that you were wrong about."

Now Puck is confused, and Brittany decides that it is now or never, besides she knows that Puck out of everyone in the world will understand, he loves her girls just as much as she does just in a different way.

"Okay, I am going to tell you something but you have to promise not to tell anyone. No one but me and San and Quinny and Rae-Bear know what I am about to tell you"

Puck nods, so she continues. "Quinn is dating Rachel and so am I and so is Santana, Quinn and me are also dating, and Quinn and San, and San and me. We are all dating. Each other."

Puck looks remarkably like he did yesterday afternoon at glee club when they sang with Rachel, she doesn't find it quite so funny today. "But... this summer..."

"That was exactly what you thought it was, once we found Rachel everything was perfect, until it all started falling apart, and you were the perfect person to get to all of them, without anyone getting hurt."

She flashes a small smile his way, remembering...

She is having the perfect summer. Her and San and Quinny are together and now they have Rae-Bear and it's like she was always there, like it was meant to be. Until a few days after Coach catches them practicing with Rachel and basically demands she join the team. The others don't see it but Rach starts to pull away from them, just a little. And then a little more. Three days after Coach catches them they don't see Rachel at all.

Brittany talks to Santana and Quinn that night as they lie in bed, "She's going to break up with us."

She can't see their faces but since she is in the middle she can feel both of them tense. It's Santana that answers her. "She can't break up with us B, we aren't dating."

"Yeah, Britt we're just friends...with benefits. Besides I'm sure we will see her tomorrow."

Looking back and forth between them she sighs, she can here it in there voices and feel it in how they still haven't relaxed, that's not what they want but they are both still in denial of who they truly are. So shaking her head, she climbs out from between them, pulls a dress on, grabs a bag and walks to the door. Before leaving she turns to them one last time, "It's only 10, I'm going home, I'll be back sometime tomorrow." First she has to figure out a way to get the two of them to accept who they are and convince Rachel to stay.

It comes to her while she sleeps, she is convinced that Lord Tubbington had something to do with it, but she knows that it will work so she just thanks him and goes on her way.

Her first stop was Kurt's dad's shop, he had given both Finn and Puck summer jobs, today her mission was to completely avoid the first while having a conversation with the second.

She woke up late so it was around 11 when she got there, it was fairly easy to spot him, it looked like he was just coming out for lunch, 'Perfect' she thought.

"Puck, hey."

Looking her way he smiled, "Brittany, to what do I owe the pleasure? I haven't seen you since my first party. Satan and Q not being nice? Booty call? I'm up for anything, but I only have half an hour."

She knows he is just teasing, so she smiles along.

"I'll get straight to the point then, i want you to ask Rachel out."

They had been walking to Puck's truck, but he stops at this and turns to look at her. "Why?"

She smiles, she knows that he cares about Rachel, about all four of them really. That he loves them even, just not in a romantic way. That is why she came to him for this, but it is still nice to see. That doesn't mean that she can resist he opportunity to tease him about it. "Careful Puck, your emotions are showing."

Seeing that Puck doesn't think she is funny she rolls her eyes but softens, "I'm not doing this to hurt Rach, Puck. I swear. I just want her to be happy and I think that going out on a date with you could make her happy." Brittany was proud of herself, she was trying to get through this with as little outright lying as possible.

Puck still didn't buy it, Brittany wasn't mean Satan could have put her up to this, "When did you get all buddy buddy with Rachel?"

Brittany smiled relief coursing through her, this question was easy, "The same night San and Quinn did, the night that she broke up with Finn, the night of your party. She was walking along the side of the road and I made San pull over, Rach started crying so I made her get in and we took her with us back to San's house and make her tell us what happened. We ate vegan desserts and drank San's emergency Tequila. Rachel is our friend now."

For some reason this Puck did believe, and because he believed that, he had to believe the rest of it, so he found himself warily agreeing. "You're sure this will help her?"

Brittany kept herself in check, but on the inside she was doing a victory dance. "Yeah, just something simple, that is not Breadstix and a movie. Nothing serious, just something fun that reminds her that people other than Finn will find her attractive when she is ready to get back into an actual relationship."

Puck nodded, "I think I see, you want me to take her out now so that in a few months when she is ready to date again she hasn't already given up."

Brittany's smile turned into a smirk, but Puck was to busy planning to notice. "Something like that."

They were at Santana's again that night, they were sitting laying on Santana's bed looking through magazines when Rachel came into the room. She looked nervous, wringing her hands and chewing on her bottom lip, Brittany could tell that she had said yes to Puck so she sat back to enjoy the show.

Rachel looked at each of them in turn as she began, "Brittany, Santana, Quinn as much as I have enjoyed our time together, and I have, immensely. I am afraid that I have to withdraw from your arrangement. I will of course respect your privacy and not divulge any information that I may have learned over the past couple of weeks."

Rachel was going to turn around and walk back out the door, but Quinn's voice stopped her "Why? Why are you... withdrawing?"

Rachel hesitated thinking of the right way to say this "I know your stance, 'Sex isn't dating', and I am fine was fine with that. But I have a date tomorrow night, and I don't want to mix dating, even if it is just one date, with one person and sex with another person, or in this case people."

Rachel gave a small smile and an even smaller shrug before once again turning back toward the door. Only to, once again, be stopped, this time by Santana.

"Who was it? Who asked you out?" Rachel looked slightly confused by Santana's hard tone but answered anyway. "Noah"

Brittany smiled, her plan was working perfectly, she had seen Quinn and Santana's smiles when they saw the petite brunette for the first time in practically 24 hours, and she had seen their devastation when Rachel did basically break up with them. Just like she could see the jealousy rolling off of the two of them, now all she had to do was keep Rachel with them and everything would work out. "Rach why don't you stay, we don't have to do that other stuff, we're your friends now, that's what you said last night, right Quinn? We can help you get ready for your date tomorrow, and if you want, we can even stay over so you have someone to talk to about how amazing it was when you get home."

When Rachel tentatively agrees Brittany is the picture of innocence, at least on the outside, on the inside she is spinning cartwheels. She spends the rest of the night and into the next day talking to Rachel about her upcoming date and reassuring her shortest girl that all of them want to be there with her even if two of them aren't showing it.

Quinn and Santana have been jealously sulking in various corners, planning very creative, very painful ways to murder Puck, since Rachel told them she was going on a date with him. First in Santana's bedroom then moving with the other two girls to Rachel's house. Which is normally better because they can freely roam about the house as they please but they don't want Rachel or Brittany, because somehow she seems totally happy with this, out of their sight, so it's unspoken, but no one is allowed to leave the living room.

Around 1:30, while Rachel is in the shower, Brittany gets Quinn and Santana to reluctantly agree to help Rachel get ready. They don't really know what Puck has planned, he told Rachel that he would pick her up at 4:00p.m. so they figure casual. San and Quinn try to get her to wear some of her school clothes, but Brittany puts a stop to that. Picking out  a black bikini that Santana had bought for her (but had yet to see on her) , in case Puck took her somewhere with water,  high waist-ed jean shorts, a pale pink lacy crop top that hugged her body, and cork wedges.

They painted her nails, fingers and toes, a pink just a few shades darker than her top. They put very minimal waterproof makeup on, again in case of swimming, and finally they curled her hair to rest around her shoulders. At 3:58 Brittany steps back to handiwork.

She smiles when the doorbell rings and Quinn and Santana visibly stiffen before trying to race each other to be the first to answer the door. "Hold up you two" They turn to look at her with exasperated looks on their faces, she smiles at Rachel hands her the floral cardigan they picked to go over the outfit if she get cold, her small clutch purse, pushes her out of her own bedroom and closes the door behind her. "This is Rachel's night, you will not ruin it for her."

Rachel and Puck don't get back until 10:00 that night, it is the longest 6 hours of Quinn and Santana's lives, Brittany doesn't mind, she knows that Rachel is having fun and that after tonight she will officially be theirs. She can see it on her other girls faces, how much they hate this how they are going to do everything in their power to never have to go through this again.

They are waiting in the living room when they here his truck pull up, the three of them raced over to the window looking out at the porch, to spy around the edges of the curtains. The motion-detected porch light comes on as Puck and Rachel walk up the steps and stop in front of the door. The three of them can see their mouths moving but they can't hear what they are saying. Brittany has to repeat to herself why this was a good idea when Puck leans down to kiss Rachel and she meets him halfway. As make outs go it's pretty innocent, but Brittany is fairly sure that that is because Puck saw the three of them rustling the curtains while trying to kill him with their eyes and assumed it was Rachel's dads.

Quinn, the closest to the door, was the first one to Rachel when she walked in. She pushed her back up against the door that had just closed and kissed her, trying to kiss and touch every place that Puck had, to get rid of any trace of him. Rachel was caught off guard, so all the walls that she had put up against the girls were torn down with the first touch of Quinn's lips, all she could do was moan as she threw her head back to give Quinn better access.

Quinn pulled Rachel away from the door long enough for Santana to scoot in behind her before pushing her back again, this time against Santana, who started running her hands up and down Rachel's body, paying particular attention to her breasts. Brittany joined them, coming up behind Quinn, just in time to hear Santana start to whisper into Rachel's ear just loud enough for everyone to here over Rachel's moaning,"Your right, just sex isn't dating to me, but this isn't just sex. I can't imagine my life without one of you in it. I want to spend every day with the three of you, we could be doing anything, I would even watch musicals. I know that B and Q feel the same way, if that isn't dating then I don't know what is, so I want to make it official. From now on we are dating, no more dates with Puckerman, okay Tiny?"

Rachel was so far gone all she could do was nod, as Brittany finally slipped a hand into her very wet shorts.

Brittany spends the rest of 4th period telling him what actually happened this summer, the PG version of course. So by the time lunch rolls around, he understands, at least a little better, promises to keep their secret and support them anyway that he can.