guarding the heart

chapter 20: Pushing Forward

The Glee co-captain walked into the choir room well ahead of schedule (as she always strived for), noticing the room was empty with the exception of Finn, who sat in his normal spot, his right leg supported by his left with his ankle on his knee, and something odd in his hands that he was staring at intently. Rachel did a double take before slowly walking over to him, glancing wide eyed between him and the focus of his attention.

Finn glanced up and smiled that killer, lopsided smile at her, causing her heart to flutter a bit. "Hey, Rachel."

She focused back on the item in his hand. "What...are you doing?"

Finn followed her eyes back down. "Uh...reading."

"Reading what?"

He turned the item in his hand over. "I think these things are called 'books'."

"I can see it's a book, Finn."

"Then why did you ask what it was?"

Rachel sighed in frustration and closed her eyes momentarily before looking at him again, confused. "I'm just wondering when this started?"

"Me reading, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Not sure, really. I think they started teaching me in grade school; somewhere in those years, at least." His eyes danced with mirth and that half-smile spilled across his face again. "I can read, you know."

Rachel's eyes narrowed at him as he smugly turned back to continue his reading. She wasn't entirely certain she liked this new, confident, cocky side of Finn Hudson. Okay, scratch that, she loved this confident, slightly cocky side of Finn Hudson, just not when that attitude was directed towards her for the sake of humour at her expense.

She crossed her arms, noisily blowing out a breath. "But Finn...you don't read."

Finn turned back up to her. "I don't?"

"No."

"Damnit!" Finn shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Now I'm gonna have to change my answers on all those National Guard forms. You know how much paperwork that'll cause?"

The young ingénue pursed her lips and clenched her hands in annoyance. Was Finn Hudson, FINN HUDSON, verbally running circles around her with teasing phrases and out-of-context meanings? How the hell could he suddenly start sparring with her like this after only a summer's worth of different experiences in the military?

Deciding to allow him the victory for that little battle she took another breath and pointed at the book. "What I meant, and what you know I meant, was that I've never seen you read just for the sake of reading. You've never seemed to enjoy it before. I've never seen you even think about opening a novel, let alone be half-way through one."

Finn's smile fell off his face a bit and he shrugged. "Okay, you're right. But...well, it's kinda fun reading something that isn't required by class. Like, this is better because I can grab whatever I want. Honestly, reading Shakespeare all the time in English just confuses me. I mean, they all speak in that weird idiotic pentagram way-

"You mean iambic pentameter?"

"-and you don't even know if the people in the play are supposed to be mad or happy or upset or anything. You'd think for such a 'great play-write' he could have added in some extra stuff to tell the actors how they're supposed to feel and-"

"Finn!"

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling."

He looked sheepish, blushed, then shrugged a bit. "Sorry." He looked back at his book briefly, then back up to her. "I guess...reading something for fun just helps to slow my mind down a bit."