Chapter Two

The bell rung at 7:50 in the morning. Ugh, too early for action.

People trolling around McKinley High weren't morning people, for sure. Students lazily walked to their first class. Some of the teachers, although acting cheery, didn't feel the need to get up and listen to millions of complaints about missing homework each day.

Everyone seemed to have a laid-back morning. Everyone except Quinn.

To the elegant blonde, beauty and energy depended on a good night's rest. All of her evenings in her calm and quiet room were perfect, unlike most of the juniors and freshman who may have been hooked to video games and social networking.

She even told a couple of people that she hardly uses her MySpace or Twitter that much anymore. Not only it'll ruin her perfect hazel eyes, but it gave her headaches having to type in some random sentences with poor grammar, or having run-on chats with other users.

How unfortunate for the majority of the United States population.

The porcelain blonde felt that today was going to be a good day. All of her homework had been completed. She'd chosen one of her favorite outfits: a hot pink cropped sweater, covering her sleeveless black top of her dress, with the white skirt part embroidered with horizontal purple and hot pink stripes, and sandal-like wedges on her small feet with the hot-pink ribbon. Her early sleep gave her enough energy to run the halls of McKinley High.

She opened the combination lock in which accompanied her locker. One by one, she took her textbooks out, neatly stacking them in her arms and ready for the next class. Her eyes drew to the pictures in her locker.

Finn Hudson at the Titans' winning game, 2009.

Noah Puckerman with me at Sectionals, 2009.

Sam Evans with me at Sectionals, 2010.

She couldn't continue to look at the pictures nor read the captions after that. Something was obviously up with her after those couple of seconds. She needed to focus on something else.

Quinn closed her locker and the combination lock, and walked in the straight direct—

Smack!

All Quinn could hear after bumping into the unknown person was an "oomph!", somewhat masculine.

Joe Hart. He happened to be headed down another direction. Both Quinn's books and Joe's books were in a messy pile on the hard floor. The girl's eyes shot up to the boy's for a second before they landed on the books, and she bent down to retrieve them.

"Joseph! Um…I—good God—I'm so sorry."

Quinn couldn't stop stuttering ever since she came in contact with the dreadlocked boy.

Joe bent down with her and handed her all of her books. He seemed to have not mind. "No worries. That was actually my fault for not moving over."

Joe handed Quinn the last book and gathered all of his things together. Not even a second past as they found themselves staring at each other.

The blonde girl was drowning in Joe's beautiful eyes. They were like cherry-flavored Jolly Ranchers to her. Time stopped instantly around. Everything was put on a pause.

Quinn was officially frozen. Just the thought of him made her drown even more…

Everything motionless.

"So…are you—crap. Joe, um…"

This was embarrassing. Usually girls didn't have that much trouble finding what to say to a boy…wouldn't they?

Teen Jesus just laughed. Quinn found herself hiding her discombobulated expression on her face. "Nervous, huh? I am, too. It's only my second day seeing other teenagers like me walking around in a school building."

Quinn took a couple of slight nods, still looking at the young boy's face…and still somewhat caught in the moment.

"I would be happy to show you around if you like." Quinn smoothed down her dress with her left hand, the skirt reaching down to her tiny knees.

"Thank you so much. I would like that." Joe sends more waves of charm.

The lost boy turned in every direction possible. He was supposed to be heading to class, but didn't know where. Bumping into Miss Fabray must have sent him off.

In a way, Quinn saw this as cute. I mean, this is a new student—awfully handsome—wandering around to find his place. Well, what's a previously homeschooled child to do?

"What class do you have next?"

"Chemistry."

"Go straight, to the left, and then find the last door on the right."

"You really do know your way around here."

"It was my classroom in sophomore year, too."

Coincidence much?

Quinn didn't move just yet. The awkwardness still swirled around and made an invisible force field. "Can I walk you there?"

"You wouldn't want to be late, don't you?"

"I'm quick on my feet. I usually get there 3 minutes for the bell rings anyway."

A little boastful, but still a good trait to consider.

Joe felt a little safer. The other day he had to suffer through hockey players bumping their bags up against his sides and back. A junior football player even shoved him into a locker before he made it to the lunch room.

The blonde girl hung her white leather purse over her left shoulder, and held her school books in her right arm. She beckoned Joe to follow. "Come on."

The young dreadlocked boy followed Quinn and past another set of lockers and about 2 or 3 classrooms. He was lucky Quinn was there for look-out. One wrong turn, and it would be even more awkward.

At a split second, Fabray's peppy energetic body moved further down the hall, nearly beating Joe to the end. Joe's eyebrow cocked. He figured Quinn wanted to race. He sped up, nearly bumping into Quinn's left arm.

"Joseph, you're going to fast!"

The young teen Jesus couldn't contain his laughter. The girl yelled at him with an adorable pitch. He was practically playing with her. Half of the time, Quinn didn't think he was a sophomore, but a freshman!

Rachel may have been right on this one.

Or maybe not.

Quinn's cackle bounced off the walls. There was no worry in the back of her mind if a teacher would come out and scold her. She moved wickedly fast, and there was no one stopping her.

Were they really doing this? Quinn had to go to class. She was going to be late.

But then…visions of the boy appeared. The hallucinations came back. Joseph. Joseph Hart. A sweet and bright ball of entertainment whom Quinn happened to have thoughts about. She couldn't stop. She had to keep going.

And keep going she did.

Too bad she was wearing wedges while running after someone about 2 or 3 years younger than him. Lucky for Joe, he didn't have any shoes on, though it could be dangerous in some situations. Still, Quinn didn't realize how fast he was.

The two rascals didn't even feel like they were in high school anymore; they felt like 7-year-olds. Little youngsters would play tag out in the nearby park by McKinley High. They'd shout out loud and stretch their legs out wide, attempting to reach out to whoever was in front of them.

It was just the right exercise to get Joe wide awake today. That old feeling of being alert when someone was directly after him gave him the drive to—literally—keep moving forward.

Some of the students watching them run didn't even know why they were even doing this. Joe didn't mind. Neither did Quinn.

The dreadlocked boy made it before Quinn to the chemistry classroom, regaining some of the breath he lost while running and with Quinn chasing him. He nearly fell to the ground, trying to suck in all the air he can take.

The blonde followed behind, nearly slapping her palm into Teen Jesus' chest. He tried not to laugh again, but Quinn's facial expression looked hilarious to him.

Quinn smirked. "How dare you beat me like that?"

Joe shrugged with a clever grin. "I try."

The blonde laughed, and then they both froze to calm themselves down. The bell was going to ring in about 4 minutes.

"Well…we're here anyways."

"Thanks again for that."

"See you next period."

"And fifth."

Quinn grinned. "Of course."

Joe walked in the classroom and left Quinn out in the hallway. The door closed in her face.

The energetic senior couldn't stop thinking about him. She thought he was sweet like the honey in tea whenever she got sick. Like the popsicles she'd buy from the store on a sweltering day. If it's anything Quinn liked, it was something sweet to butter her up.

Feeling as if she accomplished interaction with Joe, the preppy blonde turned the opposite direction, walking to her first-period class, when—

"Quinn Fabray!"

Holy crap.

Quinn was in trouble this time. Was Joe trying to get her detention? Would he ever be that cruel to his first high school friend?

The girl tapped her fingers together, keeping her books intact. It wasn't the principal; he didn't have a girlish, raspy voice. It could've been her Algebra teacher. Or Miss Pillsbury. Or Rachel Berry. Or—

"What are you doing? We're going to be late!"

Santana Lopez.

Two twin-like teens in Cheerios uniforms had their arms folded and their backpacks hanging on their backs.

"Oh, sorry Santana. I guess I wasn't keeping track this time."

The witty and confused Brittany S. Pierce looked at Quinn's figure. "But aren't you on the track team? Have you been ditching?"

Santana, grabbing hold of Brittany's arm, reached out her right hand for Quinn's. The Unholy Trinity walked together down the hall for first period. She couldn't put her finger on why she was acting wild today.

"Why are you so…well…"

"Moving?"

"Yeah, did someone put Red Bull in your cereal this morning?"

Brittany chimed in. "One time I did that, and I stayed awake almost all day and night. Amazing what these things can do to you, right?"

Quinn shook her head. She wouldn't know how Santana and Brittany—or at least Santana—would react to Quinn lollygagging with a sophomore boy. It seemed to childish to the two girls.

"I was rushing to find Rachel."

Santana shook her head. Lies. "We saw Berry at breakfast. She even told you that she was going to be in the library."

Strike one.

"Sam had snatched my books and almost ran off with them. Typical, playful jocks, right?"

"Would Sam even do that?" Sure, Brittany may be…well, coo-coo in the head sometimes, but she wasn't so random that she didn't know what was going on.

Santana looked next to her at her Rapunzel-haired, pretty cheerleader girlfriend. "He would do some stupid action-movie imitations, but he wouldn't spend his morning running after his former girlfriend, now would he?"

Strike two.

"I had to find a teacher before class started."

Santana and Brittany eyed each other and then at Quinn, giving her no verbal response.

Strike three.

"What?"

"Why would you find a teacher while laughing like a maniac? I'll bet you my neighbor Sally would've heard you from miles away."

Brittany shrugged. "She probably heard a funny joke."

Impressive. "Thank you, Brittany."

Santana snapped. "Brittany!" The poor child sheepishly looked away.

Ignoring Brittany's response, the sassy Cheerio turned back to Quinn. "Fabray, something's fishy with you. Did Puck offer you drugs?"

"You know I don't hang around with Puck that much anymore."

"Well, why would you—"

Sudden pause. Santana nearly squealed. "Is it a guy?"

Quinn shook her head all of a sudden. "No. No more guys for me. Each time, it never works out."

She made it very clear that she was no longer a part of the date train. Getting her life together, graduating high school, and attending Yale were the only three priorities on her list. Nothing involved adding "finding a boyfriend" to the list of things she wanted to do before her senior year ended.

Brittany and Santana awed at the blonde.

"Come on, Quinn. You know you want to." Brittany reached her finger out to Quinn's nose, almost playing around with her. Quinn pushed it away.

Santana nudged at Quinn's side. "Yeah, who's the lucky sucker this time?"

Correction, to Quinn: who was the unlucky sucker this time?

"I don't have a crush. You guys can stop it now."

Santana pulled at Brittany's arm, directing her attention towards Quinn. "Britt, she's blushing! Do you see that?" Brittany thought this was secretly entertaining. Quinn thought both girls were crazy. At least it made her stop thinking about chasing after a certain Teen Jesus.

"I'm not blushing," Quinn argued, but the girls were still gushing and cooing over the rosy red cheeks on the blonde.

Santana put her hand on her hip. "Quinn, you lied three times to us already today, and it's not even 9:00 yet. We want facts, now."

"Not gonna say anything, alright?"

"Lord Tubbington doesn't take no for an answer, and neither will I."

Ironic. About a couple of minutes ago, Brittany was on Quinn's side with the whole teacher thing. Now she's back as Santana's ally, trying to crack the mystery of the crush Quinn wasn't confessing about. Well, Brittany will be Brittany.

Santana rebelled. "We demand answers, Fabray."

"And you'll never get them."

Quinn opened the front door of the classroom and entered. The two Cheerios looked at each other. "Brittany, she's gonna tell us."

Santana was sure of anything. She's not a quitter when it came to one Quinn Fabray. Her girlfriend, however, had not one clue.

"What if she really doesn't?"

"It'll show eventually."

"What, her acne?"

The bell rung. Santana shook her head at Brittany. They both entered.

"Just wait and see."