Lima Loser - Part Two.

Puck walked into the Glee meeting the next day, and everyone’s faces turned to pure shock. Why? Well, in a nutshell, his mohawk was completely gone. Nobody knew what to do or say. Most of us just looked away as he took a seat, away from everyone else. Isolating himself, I guessed. I knew the feeling.

Mr. Schuester walked in shortly after with a top hat in his hand, which lessened the awkwardness just a little.

“Good afternoon, guys,” he greeted us. He then noticed Puck’s new…look. “Interesting choice of haircut, Puck.”

“Thanks, Mr. Schue. This bad boy needed a change,” Puck smiled a little, but to be honest, he didn’t look as confident as he would any other time. He looked more insecure than anything.

“Ha!” Quinn snorted. “You can kiss that title goodbye.”

“Anyway! This…” Mr. Schue pointed to the hat in his hand. “…is the magical hat.”

“What’s so magical about it?” Santana raised an eyebrow.

“Rabbits,” Brittany answered her.

“Well,” Mr. Schue began. “It pretty much lets you know who you’re partnered up with for the duet part of this assignment.”

“Wait, you’re picking our partners?” Artie’s face dropped.

“Yep. Sorry, Artie, but I’ve noticed that whenever I let you guys pick your own partners, you pair up with the same people everytime. We need variety!”

“Yeah, and it’s always nice to get to know different people,” Blaze smiled.

“Excellent point, Blaze. Come on up and pick a name.”

Blaze walked up to Mr. Schue and stuck his hand into the hat. He pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. His face lit up as he read out my name.

I glanced over at Puck and noticed that his face had just completely dropped. I felt a small amount of pity for him, but at the same time, he was getting back what he deserved.

Blaze pumped his fist into the air and walked back to where I was sitting, giving me a peck on the lips.

Santana pulled a name out of the hat next. “Brittany!” she exclaimed. I thought it was pretty fishy how they were always partners, whether they picked or not. But I didn’t say anything about it because it would just start a shitload of drama, and I wasn’t up for that.

Rachel was next. She skipped up to the hat, wearing a wool sweater with a snowman on it and a jean skirt that came past her knees. She pulled out a name and read it aloud. “Mercedes,” she said, simply. I don’t think she knew how to feel about it. I mean, she and Mercedes weren’t real close, and they didn’t really have the same taste in music, either. The only real big thing they had in common was the power and emotion in their voices.

Artie picked next. He wheeled himself over to the hat and unfolded the paper he took. “Quinn,” he looked up at her, giving her a cute smile. She smiled back at him, which let me know she’d definitely changed her bitchy ways. Otherwise, she wouldn’t give Artie a second look, and would probably find some way to switch partners with whoever Finn was paired with.

Speaking of, Finn was next to pick. He awkwardly walked up to the hat, quickly picked up a name and read it. “Puck,” he said aloud. He didn’t look overly enthused with this name, and I guessed it was because Puck had just gotten rid of his mohawk, which mean he’d gotten rid of his badass, “popular” reputation.

“Dude, we’re gonna rock this,” Puck grinned.

“Yeah…” Finn replied as he quickly went back to his seat.

Kurt stood up without warning and fixed his hair. He then did his cute little gay walk over to Mr. Schuester, picked out, and unfolded his piece of paper. “Tina,” he chirped. Tina gave a small “yay!” from where she was sitting. I couldn’t blame her. I mean, I hadn’t had the chance to work with Kurt yet, but he was so talented and I just couldn’t wait until the day I had the opportunity to sing with him.

Also, all of the partners were picked besides Matt and Mike, which meant that they’d be paired up together.

“Does everyone have a partner now?” Mr. Schuester glanced around the room, and it looked as if everybody was paired up with someone else. “Good. I want you all to get into your groups, and get to work. Good luck.”

We all got into our groups. Blaze and I decided not to worry about the assignment because we both liked the exact same music. It wouldn’t be a problem to find a decent classic rock song, at all. The hardest part would be deciding on one, considering there were so many great ones out there.

We wrote down a few possible songs before the bell rang for class. Blaze told me that he had a doctor’s appointment, and his mom was picking him up, so he wouldn’t be in school for the rest of the day. He quickly kissed me before leaving the room.

It seemed like as soon as he left, Puck thought that this was the perfect opportunity to talk to me. I was standing at my locker a few minutes later, obtaining my books for Biology, which I had next. I was about to close my locker door, only to see a fucking bald eagle right nearly face-to-face with me.

“Hey,” he said with almost no emotion in his voice.

“What do you want?” I rolled my eyes.

“I just wanted to sincerely apologize to you for everything I’ve done. I know I’m a complete asshole, and I’m seriously trying to work on that. I’m really sorry.”

“You know what?” I slammed the locker door. “You can apologize all you fucking want, but do you know how much it changes? It doesn’t. You’re only apologizing because you’re mad that I’ve found someone else, and you just want to try to convince me to come crawling back to you. But you know what else, Puckerman? I don’t need you. And Blaze treats me a lot better than you ever did. He doesn’t treat me like employment. So, fuck off.”

To be honest, I didn’t think I had the guts to say that much to Puck, but apparently, all the emotion and anger built up in me decided to come out at that point.

He just sighed. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about…”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snapped.

“First of all, I shaved the mohawk for you. I knew that it would flush my ‘badass’ reputation down the toilet, which meant that it would flush all of my popularity, badassery, and booty calls down the toilet…”

I cut him off. “Okay? What’s your point?”

“Well, I’m pretty much choosing you over everything good in my life,” he told me.

“What happens when it grows back?” I asked.

“I’ll keep it shaved for as long as you want,” he replied. “And even if I do grow it back, I promise I’ll stay with you for as long as you want me around.”

“You had your chance.” I couldn’t even look at him. “I loved you.”

“I loved you, too,” he put his hand on my shoulder. “I still do.”

I couldn’t help but snort.

“I’m serious!” Puck started to get pissed. “The only reason I broke up with you is because I got paranoid that you were going to break up with me first. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do.”

“You could have talked to me about it instead of letting me and everyone else know at the same time.”

“I know. And I’ll never let myself live that down,” his face turned to complete sadness.
“Go away, Puck. I’m done.” I began to walk away, but he gently grabbed my shoulder.

“One more thing,” he told me. I turned around. “Can you please come outside with me for a second?”

“What? Fuck no.” I pushed him away.

“Please? It’ll only take a second. I want to show you something.”

“Will you promise to leave me alone after this?” I rolled my eyes.

He hesitated for a few moments. “…Fine.”

He led me outside. We walked behind the school, where a trail was. “I’m not going into the woods with you…” I shook my head.

“It’s not very far.”

“Seriously, Puck, I’m not fucking going in there. You’re just trying to get me to a place where if I scream, nobody can hear me.”

“Wow,” he frowned. “You really think I’m that bad?”

“Look at everything you’ve done to me. I have absolutely no reason to think you’re a good person,” I told him. “I’m going back to class.”

“Wait,” he stopped me. “I really need you to see this. I promise that this isn’t a plan to get into your pants. I may be a dickhead, but I’m better than that.”

“Whatever,” I replied. “Hurry up. I’m missing an important test review.”

“Follow me,” he held his hand out for me to take, but I rejected it. “Fine. Just close your eyes. I’ll tell you where to go.” He directed me through the trail until we came to an opening, where he told me to stop. “Okay. Open.”