Lima Loser.

The rest of the performance was pretty great, too, but I was still clung onto Puck’s small part. It was just…so good.

All of them had the perfect voice to suit them, and I wondered how the hell I was going to fit in with my horrible singing voice and nerdy white girl dance moves. That’s right. I wasn’t going to fit in. I was going to attempt…and fail.

Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to audition, though. Of course I would. Once the performance was over, Mr. Schue looked at me for the verdict.

“Encore?” was all I could say. I stood up. “Give me a few days to find a song, and I’ll definitely audition.”

“Yesss!” Mr. Schuester did a fist pump, and everybody cheered.

Then, the bell rang. I was kind of bummed, because Math was next period. I’d never been good at Math. Well, I’d been able to do it once upon a time, and there was a point where I even had B’s in the subject, but when grade nine rolled around, it was like a foreign language to me.

Rachel walked up to me. “Did you enjoy it?”

“Of course,” I looked over at her with a big smile. “The whole performance was breath-taking, and Rachel, your voice is beautiful.”

“Aw, thanks!” her face lit up. “I can’t wait to hear yours.”

I winced and shook my head. “Oh, trust me, you can.”

“We’ll see,” she shrugged as we walked into Math class.

This time I grabbed a seat far, far away from Puck. He was at the back of the room in one corner, so I took the other corner. Being stupid, though, I took a seat in front of an empty desk, so when he saw me sit down, he came over and sat in the empty one.

“Is there a point in the day when you’re not following me?” I rolled my eyes and turned around so that my back was to him.

“No, not really,” he admitted. “Sorry. I just love picking on the new kids.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” I told him.

“Anyway, about the question I was going to ask you earlier,” he began, and I could only imagine what the question was.

“Yes, Fuck?” I turned around, and found his eyes again. They were so gorgeous.

“There’s a school dance in two weeks, and--”

“No,” I let him down easy.

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask,” his face dropped.

“Yeah, but the answer is still no,” I informed him. “I’m going to…be sick…in two weeks.”

“Did I just get shut down?” The look on his face was priceless. I guessed it was the first time a girl had said no to him.

“I believe you did,” Finn sat down in the seat across from Puck. Then he looked at me. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Puck here just doesn’t get turned down often.”

“Oh,” I nodded, and glanced at Puck, who looked like he was taking it pretty hard. “Well, glad I could be your first.”

“Would the answer still be no if I told you the Glee club is performing?” he looked hopeful.

“Hmm…” I thought about it. I actually did want to go to the dance with Puck. I just didn’t want to be known as another one of his skanks. But if the Glee club was performing, I could just say I was there for the Glee club, and not to get into Puck’s pants, which was mostly true. Plus, I’d probably be part of the Glee club by then, so I would have no other choice but to go.

“Come on, you don’t have to think that hard. Am I really that bad?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, you are. But I’m going to be really nice and say yes.”

He tried to hide his excitement, but I could totally see through it. “Alright. Cool.”

“It’d better be. I’m saying yes to a guy I never thought I’d say yes to,” I admitted.

“And why would you never say yes to a guy like me?” Puck raised an eyebrow.

“Because I know that when this is all done and over with, I’m going to be crushed.” And that much I knew would be true.

“Nah. You’re just judging me now, because I’m on the football team and I look like a player,” he rolled his eyes.

“And you’re super cocky and think every girl is going to fall into your arms as soon as you walk through the door,” I added.

“That too, but hey. I’ll prove to you that I’m not like the other jocks,” the look on his face looked promising, but I knew not to buy that look.

“We’ll see,” I smiled.