A New Beginning

All too quickly, the following Monday came, and I was kind of miserable. The night before, I hadn’t gotten any sleep, and then when my alarm went off in the morning, I remembered that I was going to have to start stupid phase two of my dumb plan with Puck. If he still wanted to with the way I currently looked, of course.

Puck was standing outside the school, waiting for me with that stupid smirk on his face. I knew we were about to do step two toward ruining Santana’s life, but did he have to be so freakin’ obvious about it?

“Morning, Australia,” Puck greeted.

I shot him an annoyed look. “Let’s get this over with.”

“That’s not exactly the spirit I was hoping for.” He gave me a confused look. “You have to look like you’re happy.”

“What? I don’t look happy to you?”

He let out a loud laugh that caused a couple of people to look over in our direction. “Is that a trick question?”

Letting out a loud sigh, I hooked my arm through his. “Like I said, let’s just do this.”

It was like the first day of school all over again, with eyes and whispering following us wherever we went. The difference was that while the constant gossip made me kind of annoyed and slightly self-conscious (even though it was the point), Puck was beaming with pride next to me. He fed off the excitement and curiosity that his peers directed at him.

What a publicity whore.

While I was at my locker, Puck leaned up against the one next to it, one hand holding onto his backpack strap. “So you think people are buying it?” he questioned so softly that even I needed a second to figure out what he said.

I turned to look behind us for a second, only to find about three different girls giving me looks clearly showing that they would like nothing better than to cut off my head and run it around town with it on a pike. “Um, yeah, I think they’re buying it,” I responded, rolling my eyes.

“Well, the only one that really matters is if Santana buys it.”

“Obviously, brainiac.” I shut my locker and started toward our first class. Puck fell into step next to me, wrapped his hand around mine.

I knew that girls all over the school were looking at me with envy, but I just felt uncomfortable. I only kind of liked Puck as a friend, at best, and there I was, holding hands with him as we walked down the hallway, pretending to be infatuated with him. It wasn’t easy to do, believe me.

When we stopped in front of my classroom, Puck leaned in. “Only my cheek, or I’ll castrate you,” I threatened in a whisper.

He let out a small laugh and kissed my cheek. “See you later, Australia.”

“Bye.”

I walked into the classroom and settled down into my seat. Soon after, Finn settled in next to me, a confused, faraway look on his face. Then, so suddenly that I jumped a little, he turned toward me and spat, “Are you really going out with Puck?”

“Uh, hi to you, too?” I laughed.

He didn’t humor me, his eyes focused. When I didn’t end up answering, he pressed, “Are you?”

On one hand, I really didn’t want to lie to Finn. He was the best friend I had in Lima, and he hadn’t lied to me yet, as far as I knew. But on the other hand, if I told him, it was possible that the truth would somehow get around to the whole rest of the student body, making phase two a total failure. My indecision made sure that I said the most intelligent thing possible: “Ummm…”

Thankfully, I only had to hold that for a good five seconds before our teacher came back into the classroom from conversing with a couple of other teachers in the hallway. “Okay, everyone, quiet. Take out your notebooks and we’ll take down some notes for your test on Wednesday.”

Everyone groaned, including me, before following the directions. I could still feel Finn’s eyes on me as I reached down into my bag to get my materials, but it only lasted until the first note was put up on the board.

* * *

“People are totally buying that we’re going out,” Puck told me excitedly as we walked into the lunchroom. “I already got told, like, a million times that guys were jealous of me.”

“Yeah, okay,” I replied sarcastically. “People are jealous that you’re going out with the new girl whose only claim to fame is that she was held hostage and raped when she was a kid. Sounds plausible to me.”

Puck didn’t exactly have an answer for that, so we were quiet as we sat down at an empty table. “I didn’t realize that agreeing to this would mean that we had to spend every second with each other.”

“That’s what going out means, babe.” Puck rolled his eyes before standing up. “I’m going to buy lunch.”

“Bye.” I knew I sounded nothing like the part I was supposed to be playing, but I didn’t even care. It wasn’t like we had a secret spy that was making sure we acted just exactly like a couple or they were going to call our bluff.

At least, I hoped that wasn’t going to happen.

A few minutes later, Puck came back from the lunch line with so much food on his plate, I couldn’t distinguish one thing from another. “You’re a pig,” I informed him matter-of-factly, trying to ignore his tray.

He just sort of grinned before taking a bite of something.

I looked around the cafeteria for a second and found Finn sitting with a bunch of other football guys. Biting my lip, I started to feel badly. In all reality, I did want to be sitting with Finn, and I didn’t know that going out with Puck was going to mean that Finn and I weren’t going to be friends anymore.

“Daydreaming about your boyfriend?” Puck joked, followed by making some ridiculously immature kissy noises.

“You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, dumbass.” I rolled my eyes and shoved him away from me. “But no. I just didn’t know that us doing this plan thing meant that being friends with Finn was out of the question.”

“Technically, it’s not. But Finn hates me since I got his girlfriend pregnant when we were sophomores.” He said this so calmly, like it happens all the time.

“Um, ew. What’s wrong with you?”

“I couldn’t help it. I liked her, and she was drunk.”

I shook my head. “You really disgust me, you know that?”

“You know that’s not true.” He took another bite of food and grinned at me, and the sight just about made me puke.

Just remember how much you’re going to gain, I reminded myself with gritted teeth. If only those words could make me any stronger or more patient.