CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Coming Up Rainbows
"Hey, Rocky!" Santana called as she and Brittany hurried after Rachel into the school parking lot.
"Hello Santana. Brittany." The petite brunette greeted as the two girls caught up to her.
"What's going on, Berry?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean." Rachel responded, clutching her books tight to her chest.
"You weren't all bossy in glee and you haven't returned our calls in three days." Brittany said softly.
Santana nodded "And you and Puckerman have stopped being disgusting all over the freaking place."
"Did you guys break up?" Brittany asked; her eyes wide. "You can't break up! I'm Puckleberry's number one fan!"
Santana rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Tell us what's wrong, bitch."
Rachel sighed and leaned against her car door. "I don't think we broke up; I guess it's really my call… I don't want to break up with him…"
"What's going on, Rachel?" Santana asked again, this time her words were coloured with concern.
"I- I don't think it's my story to tell…"
"Call Puck right now, tell him he fucked up and you're going to talk to your girls about it." Brittany nodded in agreement.
"How do you know Noah's the one that screwed up?"
The cheerleader planted her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes again. "Please. Now unlock the car, I'm freezing."
Rachel dug her keys out of her coat pocket and did as her friend instructed. When the three girls were settled in the car Brittany –who was sitting shotgun- turned to Rachel expectantly. "So, call."
"Alright, alright." The brunette consented, dialling quickly and lifting her phone to her ear.
"What?"
Rachel frowned. "Noah. That's hardly an acceptable way to answer your phone."
"Rachel?" Puck asked, relieved. "Thank God. You haven't answered any of my calls or returned any of my messages…"
"I know… I'm sorry. I've just needed some time…"
"I get it."
"Anyway, it's been brought to my attention that I may have an easier time of it if I'm able to discuss our predicament with a few of my peers."
"You want to tell El Diablo and Bendy Barbie about my baby daddy status."
"Noah! Brittany and Santana have perfectly lovely names; it wouldn't hurt for you to use them."
"Whatever." Rachel could practically hear Puck rolling his eyes. "I guess as long as it's not Aretha or Beyonce, they can't keep their fucking mouths shut to save their lives. Tell them if it helps you, just make sure it stays on the down low. I want Finn to find out from me."
"I appreciate it Noah."
"Yeah, well…"
"And I want you to know that we're not broken up." Rachel was about to hang up as Puck lapsed into silence. "Noah?"
"I- That's good to know, Berry. Really good."
Rachel let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding. "Good. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Later, Rach."
"Goodbye."
"So Puckleberry's still on?" Brittany asked as Rachel hung up her phone.
Rachel laughed softly. "Yeah, Brit, Puckleberry's still on."
"So what'd he call us?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You told Puckerman to call us by our real names," Santana reasoned as Rachel pulled out of the parking lot, "so what did he call us?"
"I'm not sure-"
"Oh please, Rocky, it won't be anything we haven't heard before, I'm sure." Santana scoffed.
"Well he called you 'El Diablo' and he called Brit 'Bendy Barbie'." Rachel confessed.
"Puck gave me a nickname?" Brittany asked happily "He does love me! I should make a nickname for him."
"Totally." Santana smirked, meeting Rachel's gaze in the rear view mirror. "Maybe you should call him Jellybean. Or Sunshine."
"Hmm…" Brittany said, seriously pondering Santana's suggestions. Rachel just glared at the Latina in the mirror.
"How 'bout Blossom? Or Tigerlily. Rainbow?"
"I do like rainbows…" Brittany said slowly.
"Brittany," Rachel glared harder at Santana, who was struggling to hold in her laughter, while she spoke softly to the blonde "you can't call Noah 'Rainbow'."
"Why not?"
"Yeah Rocky," Santana laughed at the speechless brunette "why not?"
"It's just not appropriate. We'll come up with something better." She promised the former cheerleader as she pulled into her driveway.
"Okay." Brittany agreed cheerily. She got out of the car and flounced up to the door followed by her two dark haired friends.
"You suck." Rachel announced.
"I'm awesome." Santana countered, throwing an arm about Rachel's shoulders.
"So," Santana said once the three girls were settled on Rachel's bed, laden with snacks and drinks courtesy of Rachel's dad, "what the hell's up with you and Rainbow?"
"I guess it started with a party at Aizimo's…" Rachel began. She told her friends almost word for word –minus the swearing, of course- Puck's story.
"So Puck's Drizzle's dad?" Brittany asked. Rachel nodded. "And you don't want to break up with him?" she clarified.
Rachel shook her head. "We weren't dating at the time, we weren't even friends when it happened, and I don't know… Something doesn't seem right about the whole thing."
"It's not." Santana said softly.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.
"Puck got rufied."
"Really?" Brittany asked.
Santana nodded. "Probably GHB."
"Santana?" Rachel stared curiously at her friend "Why do you know so much about this?"
"Just drop it Rachel. Okay?"
"But-"
"It's been taken care of. Just… We're on Puck's side."
"We are?" Brittany asked sipping at her cocoa.
"Yeah." Santana affirmed.
"Do you think Quinn really could have drugged Noah?"
"She's mean." Brittany said, alternating between blowing on and sipping her hot drink.
"Bitch is crazy." Santana shrugged.
"I really don't think she's capable of something like that." Rachel disagreed.
"She cheated on her boyfriend with his best friend."
"I need to talk to Noah about this." Rachel muttered to herself.
"Tell Rainbow we got his back."
"Yeah," Brittany chimed in "we'll still be Rainbow's friends."
"Hey Noah?"
"Yeah, Squirt?" Puck looked across the table at his sister. She had the little crease between her eyebrows that meant she was frustrated with something.
"What's 10 minus 4?"
"That's a tough one, kid." Puck said, sliding around the table so he was next to her.
"I know." Dani said in frustration.
"How 'bout we try this?" He grabbed the orange, which was meant to be the 7 year old's snack.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"Relax, Dani, I'm not gonna steal it. I just wanna show you something."
"Fine." The little girl mumbled, settling back in her seat. "This better be good."
Puck smirked and shook his head; his sister could be such a brat sometimes. He set 10 segments of the orange in front of her. "Okay, so you've got 10, right?"
Dani counted the 10 pieces and nodded. "Yeah."
"So now take away 4 pieces."
Dani glared at him when he ate one of the 4 pieces she set aside. "Hey!"
"Sorry, kid. How many you got left?"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Is that right?" Puck nodded and slid back to his own seat. "Thanks Noah." Dani beamed at him. "You're, like, the best big brother ever. Even if you did sneak my orange."
Puck grinned, he was an awesome big brother. He jumped when a hand touched his shoulder. "Ma."
"Mom!" Dani yelled, scrambling down from her chair and throwing herself at her mother's legs.
"Hi guys." Amelia Puckerman greeted, stroking her daughter's hair lovingly.
"Are you going to have dinner with us tonight?" Dani asked hopefully.
"Yeah, baby. I got off work early. How do you guys feel about pizza?"
"Yay!" Dani squealed "Pizza, Noah!"
"Yeah, kid, I heard."
"Finish your homework." Amelia said, putting her purse on the counter. "I'm just going to go change, then we'll order some food, okay?"
"Okay." Dani chirped. "Hey mom, guess what."
"What baby?"
"Noah teached me how to subtract."
"Taught." Puck corrected.
"Yeah, Noah taught me how to subtract."
"That's great, Dani."
"Mmhmm." The 7 year old said, already absorbed in her math again. Her little tongue poked out the side of her mouth as she concentrated on moving her orange slices around.
Puck watched his mom leave the room, before following her upstairs to her bedroom. "Ma?" He asked, knocking on her door.
"Come in, Noah."
He entered her room quietly. "Ma, I need to talk to you about something."
Amelia took one look at her son and sat down heavily on the edge of her bed. "Oh, Noah… What have you done?"