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

Gawking faces. That was the only thing I saw staring at Puck and me as we made our way into school Monday morning, holding hands. People were wondering when, exactly, this relationship had become real. Where had it even come from?

I only knew where they were coming from because I was thinking the exact same thing.

When Puck dropped me off at my locker, he kissed me quickly, so fast that I could barely tell that he had done it. “I’ll see you in Glee, okay?” he questioned.

“Okay,” I smiled. He disappeared into the crowd, and I turned back to my locker.

It didn’t take my long to gather all my materials, and I shut my locker. Out of nowhere, Kurt appeared, wearing a smug expression.

Jumping, I held onto my heart, feeling it palpitate. “Thanks for the premature heart attack,” I snapped at him.

“Thanks for telling me about you and Puck,” he retorted.

“Touché.” Snickering, I started down the hallway.

“I’m not done!” he exclaimed. “When did it happen? Why didn’t you call? What’s even going on? Are you guys official?”

As I answered, I mulled the questions over in my head. “Saturday. I’m not really sure. We’re together, I guess, but not really boyfriend/girlfriend thing. And so that makes the last question a no,” I rattled off.

“Well, you guys are freakin’ adorable together, though I’m assuming that you already knew that.”

“Thanks,” I grinned. “Well, anyway, I should be getting to class. I’ll talk to you-”

“At lunch, oh, yes you are. Mercedes will want to know this, too.” And then, poof. He blended in with the rest of the kids, and he was gone before I could even process what, exactly, he said.

The day passed by pretty quickly. At lunch, Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, and Artie were all throwing questions at me. Most of them were the basic, ‘What happened? How did it happen?’, which I could answer easily. But then came the hard questions.

“What happened to you wanting nothing to do with him?” Mercedes asked.

I bit my lip and sat back in my chair. What was it, exactly? Slowly, I let out, “I think it was seeing him with my cousin, how easily he fell under the spell of a toddler.”

They all stared at me. “T-T-T-That’s what it was?” Tina stuttered.

“Well, yeah. I mean, his looks didn’t hurt, but I’m not a person to go for someone just because they’re hot. Plus, Puck’s pretty much on probation, since I’m watching, waiting, for him to make a move on another girl. Just one, and he’s gone.”

“Wow,” Artie breathed. “I don’t think anyone’s ever done that to Puck before.”

“I’m not like the other girls Puck has dated or slept with,” I expressed, even though it was kind of widely known that I was not Puck’s norm. I was too goody-two-shoes (at least, that was how it looked to the outside observer), too pure. I may not have been immune to Puck’s charm, but I was definitely tough enough to stand up for myself.

I was not going to be the teenage girl who got cheated on, so they sat at home and bawled about it, then took their boyfriend back anyway. That was not who I was.

Picking at a loose chip of the black polish that coated my nails, I looked around the cafeteria. A couple of tables around us had people glancing at me before turning toward each other and whispering. Even though I wasn’t with Puck then, it seemed like everyone knew that we were an item.

That was kind of embarrassing.

And along came Spanish. In my head, I counted down from five, trying to guess when Rachel was going to pop up in front of me and strike up a conversation about Puck.

I was a little late, her bright and cheery self (dressed in yellow) showing up in my eye-line when I was only at two.

“I couldn’t help but hear the news,” she greeted in that nosy way of hers. She pulled out a chair and sat down. “You and Puck are totally great together.”

“Thanks.” Letting out a fake yawn, I tried to signal her to go away, but she wasn’t catching on. Bummer.

“It’s about time that you got together. There was a lot of sexual tension between you two.”

Suddenly, I started coughing, choking on my own saliva. Sexual tension? Did this girl ever know when to shut her mouth?! Could she have said anything more awkward? At that time, I thought not.

“Sorry, did I say something wrong?” Her eyebrows drew together with worry.

Oh, no, of course not, you friggin’ awkward turtle. “I’m not sleeping with him!”

Rachel stared at me as if she didn’t quite understand what I said. “You didn’t sleep with him?”

“No!” My face was growing redder and redder with each passing moment, and I wished that it would stop.

“That’s not like Puck. Are you sure that you didn’t sleep with him?”

“I’m pretty sure that he didn’t drug and rape me, yeah,” I rolled my eyes.

“Are you-?”

“Can you go now?” I snapped before thinking.

Her face fell, looking like a kicked puppy. Without another word, she gathered her stuff and took another seat across the classroom.

I let out a sigh of relief and put my head down on my desk. “Mariana?” Mr. Schue asked, putting a hand on my back. “Are you feeling alright?”

Whoops. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I smiled.

“Then can you keep your head up? I don’t want to mark you absent.”

“Sure.” Leaning forward, I propped my head up on my hand and half-listened for the duration of class.

Finally, it was time for Glee Club. Glancing around the room, I realized that I was the first one there, even before Rachel. An awkward feeling settled in my stomach.

“Hey, Red,” Puck greeted. My heart skipped a beat when it sank into my brain that he had picked up his old nickname for me. “How was your day?”

Scrunching up my nose, I described the encounter with Rachel quietly, since she was sitting not too far behind us.

“I don't rape anyone. Girls never say no to me. She's just a pain in the ass." The last part was said too loudly, so it was obvious that Rachel heard us and knew we were talking about her.

Laughing, I smacked him in the chest. “Do you ever keep your feelings to yourself?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted. His eyes were intense in mine for a second, like he was trying to say something, but he quickly backed up his statement. “Just not too often. After all, sometimes, people just gotta know if they annoy the hell out of you.”

“Thus my outburst in Spanish,” I snickered quietly.

“Right.”

I could feel eyes on my back, and I turned to face Santana. She was giving me total cut-eye, forgetting completely what Mr. Schue said. All it took was for me to smile back at her innocently for her to remember. I wasn’t about to be the one that reciprocated the hostility, ending with the both of us getting the boot from Glee.

When Mr. Schue arrived, he raised his hands. “Alright, everyone! On your feet! It’s time to learn the moves for Jailhouse Rock.”

I swallowed noisily. Oh, lord…not dancing…