And Here's What You Missed on...GLEE

“I’m so sorry about my parents,” I muttered once we were both in the car, driving down the street. I didn’t know where we were going, but at that point, I didn’t really care.

“It’s cool,” he responded. “I just…kind of never expected that you had family problems or anything.”

“No one does. I don’t really like to announce it to the world.” Suddenly, I realized how I just kind of threw myself at him and demanded that he took me out of my house with him. That was kind of rude… “Oh, if you want to drop me off at Kurt’s, it’s the next-"

“Why would I drop you off at Kurt’s?” Puck cut me off.

“Because I don’t want to annoy you?” I answered uncertainly. He turned to me with a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

“You’re not annoying me, and we do still have to rehearse. After all, I don’t want to make myself look bad.” Ah, and we were finally back to the old, cocky Puck. Wonderful.

“Right, okay,” I chuckled slightly. “So where are we going to go?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really know.”

“Oh, good.”

We both laughed for a second before I leaned forward and turned on the radio. The sound of Teenage Dream by Katy Perry started playing.

Turning to Puck with a cocked eyebrow, I started to laugh. “Why, Puck,” I joked, “I never knew that you liked Katy Perry.”

He reached forward and turned the radio to the CD player. “I like to look at Katy Perry. I had to drive my sister to the grocery store last night so she could buy ice cream for her party, and she put it on that station.”

“Likely story,” I teased. Leaning back, I put my feet up on the dashboard and watched out the window. A few minutes later, the car pulled to a stop.

“This okay?” I looked around to find that we were at the school.

“I don’t know if you got the memo, but we don’t have school today.”

“I know, but it’s open for sports practices and stuff, so I figured that we could sneak in and use the auditorium,” Puck explained. He got out of the car and grabbed his guitar out of the back while I stayed glued in my seat.

Sneaking in and using the auditorium would be breaking a rule. That wasn’t good. Rules were there for a reason, and they should be followed.

“Oh, come on,” Puck sighed, opening my door for me. “It’s not a big deal.”

I was still biting my lip (Kurt’s voice was screaming at me in the back of my head, but I tried to ignore it), so Puck leaned forward and grabbed my hand, pulling me onto my feet.

Taking deep breaths, I got over my fear when we stepped into the huge auditorium. The lights shone brightly on the stage, and I could almost picture people in the rows after rows of seats.

I didn’t even notice that Puck was gone until I could hear his voice on the stage. “Now I’ve…had…the time of my life… No, I never felt this way before. Yes, I swear, it’s the truth. And I owe it all to you.” His smile was wide, showing off his teeth.

As I sang my first line, I made my way down the aisle, not being able to stop the grin spreading across my face. It felt awesome, imagining people watching me, thinking that I was good at what I loved.

The scene from Dirty Dancing played behind my eyes as I danced, letting me pretend for a few minutes that I was Baby, not Ellie. Not the girl with the home problems. Not the girl that didn’t really have any friends.

After all, Glee was a new start.

When Puck and I finished, we were close, so close that I could feel his slightly heavy breathing. “Well, that was good,” I congratulated before taking a few steps back.

Sitting down on the edge of the stage, I was sad to see that the people I’d envisioned were gone, just an empty auditorium stretching in front of me.

“Yeah, I was pretty great, wasn’t I?” Puck spoke up, taking a seat next to me. “And I guess you were alright, too.”

I nudged him with my shoulder, laughing lightly. “Maybe we should offer to go first tomorrow. It’s not like we’re not ready.”

“That’s true,” he agreed slowly. “I don’t know.”

“Better to get it over with, if you’re nervous.” I shrugged.

“Me? Nervous? I don’t think so. If anyone doesn’t like my performance, I can just throw them in a dumpster anyway.”

“That’s a good way to look at things,” I rolled my eyes. “Why work hard when you can just scare everyone into liking what you do?”

“That’s my philosophy,” he grinned, leaning back on his hands.

I turned to my left and looked at him with disbelief. His eyes ran over my face again and again as he propped himself up a little further, moving his face closer to mine.

Shaking my head, I stood up. “Look, Puck, that kiss was nice and all, but I can’t be with you. You’re a player, and I know that you’re not about to change that. Plus, I really don’t want Santana on my back.”

He looked like he was going to object, but my phone went off, signaling a text.

ellie u hav 2 come home. grayson is here and ur dad is pitching a fit.

“I have to get home. Do you want to drive me, or am I walking?”

Puck seemed slightly annoyed as he got to his feet. “I’ll drive you, I guess.” He grabbed his guitar, and we walked to the car.

The whole way home, we were quiet. That whole kiss, and then me rejecting him, just threw off everything. I wanted our relationship to be like it was before: joking around, being friends. Why did the romance dynamic have to throw off everything all the time?

“Thanks,” I mumbled before getting out of the car. Puck didn’t answer me, instead just keeping his eyes facing forward. Something told me that he didn’t get rejected too often.

When I got inside, Grayson toddled right to me, his eyes watery and red-rimmed. Sighing, I picked him up into my arms, grabbing his diaper bag and throwing it over my other shoulder. It seemed a little heavier than usual, but I figured that it was just my imagination.

Boobah must have figured out that Grayson was there because she was nowhere to be found. All the better for the toddler, really.

Opening the door to my bedroom, I turned to the baby in my arms, looking into his brown eyes. “Gray, will you promise me something?” I asked him.

He wriggled a little, but when I tightened my grip, he looked up at me. “Never be a pig, okay?”

“Sprout,” he answered. Something told me that my philosophy was not really getting much attention.

“Okay,” I allowed, putting him down on my floor and letting him wander. As I changed the channel to Sprout, the sound of Elmo’s World filled the room.

How I wished I could go back to the simplistic days of a toddler.