It was her first day at Rosewood Day High School. It was actually pretty pathetic at how nervous she was. She was Quinn Fabray for God's sake. She could do this. She dressed quickly (although it felt weird not wearing her Cheerios uniform) and ran downstairs for breakfast. Her mom was talking on the phone, looking for a job, and she smiled when Quinn came down.

She hung up her phone a second later. "Good morning, Quinny. Ready for your first day of school?" She asked, smiling hugely at her daughter. Quinn smiled back, weakly.

"You're going to do great at Rosewood, my little girl doesn't settle for anything less than she deserves." Her mom said, stroking her hair.

Quinn looked at her mom, into her eyes. After her conversation with Alex, she was looking for any signs that her mom was hurting, she saw none. Her mom was just as good as hiding her feelings as she was - maybe even better. Her mom hugged her and Quinn pulled away a moment later.

"What are you doing today, Mom?" Quinn asked and picked up a chocolate chip muffin and bit into it.

"Job hunting, how fun. I'll be busy the next few days trying to get on my feet again, but I'll do it." She said, and looked down and closed her eyes, briefly. She looked back up at Quinn a second later and smiled a big, fake smile. "BUT, I won't be to busy to hear all about your first day at Rosewood!"

Quinn nodded, finishing her muffin. "Speaking of that, I need to get to school." She said, kissing her mom's cheek and running out the door.

She drove to Rosewood, thinking about her first day. Would she make friends or would she be the automatic social reject? She thought about her middle school years as "Lucy Caboosey" and shuddered. She couldn't go through that again. She just couldn't. She pulled into the school parking lot and felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She fished it out and saw she had a text from Kurt. Curiously, she opened the message.

You're going to do GREAT at Rosewood. Show 'em all who the HBIC is and take no prisoners! Miss you, Quinn. -Kurt

She smiled. Kurt had no idea how much she needed that text. If he hadn't texted her, Lucy would've overcame her and she would've been condemned. She was glad she still had her friends at McKinley to get her through this. She needed them more than ever.

She got out of her car and walked to the main office, handing the secretary her things. The secretary looked through the papers and smiled up at her. "Lucy. That's a pretty name, Dear."

Quinn cringed. "Thank you, but I actually go by Quinn now." She replied. The secretary nodded, looking back down at her information.

"Well, Miss Fabray, it looks like you're good to go." She said, handing her a schedule with her locker number and combo on it.

"Oh, and Dear? One more thing. To get your books, go to the library and give them this note." She handed her a piece of paper. "It explains everything."

Quinn nodded and hurried to the library. She gave the librarian the paper and went to her first class. English. She walked in and the male teacher stopped lecturing. "Mr. Fitz?" She asked questioningly. The man nodded. "I'm Quinn Fabray. I'm new."

Mr. Fitz walked over and looked at her pass before smiling at her. "Okay then. Take a seat, Quinn. We're reading Les Miserables." He handed her a copy of the play. She smiled and found an empty seat.

Mr. Fitz continued his lecture and Quinn contributed quite a lot. Rachel Berry wasn't the only one that knew a lot about Broadway plays and musicals. It was something Quinn used to love, before she transferred to McKinley and became HBIC. Mr. Fitz seemed impressed and that made her feel happy. Showing this school who was in charge was going to be easier than she thought.

The rest of the day went by without incident. That was, until she ran into a dark haired girl carrying last season's Prada bag. The girl snarled at her. "Watch where you're going, new girl." She said and brushed past her. She turned to her blonde friend and said, "God, Rosewood's taking all the freaks in these days, it seems." before laughing.

Quinn felt humiliated. She was about to slink back into herself when she remembered Kurt's text, take no prisoners. "Excuse me?" She called after the girl. The girl looked at her in disgust.

"What do you want, Loser?" She asked, finger combing her dark side-pony.

"I just wanna know who you think you are, treating me that way, as you clearly have no idea who you're dealing with." She said, coldly and forcefully.

The girl rolled her eyes. "No, geek, that's not the question. The question is who do you think you are, trying to mess with me, Mona Vanderwaal, the most popular girl in school?"

"Make that second most popular girl. Because by next week, I'll own this place, and you'll be a distant, washed up wannabe." She said. "So back off." She walked out the doors as the final bell rang, leaving Mona staring after her, gaping.

She smiled. Quinn Fabray was back.

AQAQAQ

Hours later, she heard her mom get home from work. She was doing homework for English, so she didn't go downstairs right away. She continued during homework until she heard a gut-wrenching sob pierce through the usual silence. She ran downstairs quickly to see her mom sitting on a chair, one hand covering her mouth and the other looking at a picture of her and her father on her wedding day. Tears were pouring out of her mom's eyes.

Quinn hurried over and hugged her, feeling her own tears coming up. Her mom hugged her back tightly and they cried together. Quinn thought it was strange, how they could always tie themselves together with smiles and harsh words when they were scared and vulnerable and the most broken and imperfect people she knew. There walls hardly ever came down, even around each other.

But as she sat there, crying and holding her mom while her mom held her, she was glad their walls were down, even if it was only for a minute.

So… sudden bursts of inspiration FTW? I know it's been FOREVER since I've updated this and that no one might be interested in it anymore, but I had major writer's block for this and school got really, really crazy.

But I'm on summer vacation now and my inspiration came back and this happened. I know it's not a very good chapter and it has no Alex in it whatsoever, but I wanted to do a chapter focusing on Quinn's school life and her relationship with her mom. Sorry if it sucked after all the waiting for it. Next chapter WILL be better, though. If anyone's still interested.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Pretty Little Liars. If I did, Sam and Quinn would still be together on Glee and Alex and Spencer would still be together on PLL (although, I will admit, I do love Toby/Spencer, as well. ANYONE'S better than Wren [as long as it's Spencer or Toby, that is. Haha])