This fic (my 50th!) is a companion to my Favors Between Friends chapter "Goals," but you don't have to have read that first. (All you need to know is that Rachel and Puck have a sort of loose agreement that they'll be moving to New York together after graduation.)

My own insecure disclaimer: I laid on the clichés pretty thick. I couldn't help it; Rachel and Puck are just too cute, and this story is all about wish fulfillment. It may not be the most original story out there, but I had fun writing it and I hope you have fun reading it.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Puckleberry ride!

-Brandi

Disclaimer: The following and any other click-through links on this or connected pages lead to content that is not copyrighted by me. But since I'm making no money from this story, I am well within my rights to do things with the characters that Ryan Murphy might not necessarily have them do. (But I wish he would!)

i.e., This and all following chapters are hereby disclaimed.

Prologue: Be True to Your School

Puck wheeled Artie to his locker, giving him a fist bump as he turned around to walk toward his own. Puck had just aced another math quiz. Well, aced might be too strong a word. But he had passed, definitely passed.

Senior year was shaping up to be a real success. Somewhere between June and September he realized that the upcoming semesters were his last ones at McKinley, and if he had even a snowball's chance in hell of getting into any sort of college, he'd better buckle down.

So he started going to classes in September, actually going to classes, and to his surprise that made the tests a lot easier. He was pulling solid B's by early October, and he was pretty confident he would end the semester with at least one A. His mother would have a coronary. Of course, he was getting lots of help—Artie was still his faithful math tutor, and he sometimes got help from Rachel in English and Santana in science. And Mr. Schue had been helping him pass Spanish.

He'd convinced Coach Beiste that playing on the football team should give him an automatic pass in gym even if he only showed up half the time, and she'd miraculously bought it. He spent his daily nurse's office naps in there during gym, and it was scary how much that brought up his GPA.

The Titans were actually on a winning streak, New Directions was the odds-on favorite to win Sectionals, and he was back to his cougar-comforting days, enjoying the single life. Yes sir, senior year kicked some serious ass.

As he reached his locker after dropping Artie off, he was surprised to see a pink piece of stationary flutter out. He caught it before it reached the floor, and right away he recognized Rachel's neat handwriting.

It was pretty cryptic—she wanted him to meet her out on the bleachers during lunch. Oookay then. He tucked the paper into his back pocket, smiling at the possibility that this letter was her version of a booty call. He doubted it, but a guy could dream, couldn't he? He had no idea what it could possibly be about.

He was officially counting the minutes until lunch.