Character/Pairing: Tina, Tina/Artie
Rating: PG-13 (seemed appropriate but not it's not a major PG-13)
Length: One-shot (or 772 words)
Summary: Her first kiss ends up being - very awkwardly - with Artie, and she loves it. Yeah, they may have done it wrong with his glasses ending up on the floor and her stuttering incoherently when they break apart - but who cares?
Author's Note: I'm pretty sure I've got the American lingo down, but if I've made a few mistakes with it - tell me please :). First time writing for Glee as well, so the characters may be a bit OOC. Feedback would be lovely :). Also, I tend to put the commas and such in awkward places so that's a warning. Thanks to NeoNails for beta reading this. :)
Disclaimer: Not mine, as much as I want it to be. I've just experimented with a couple of characters. The show belongs to Ryan Murphy.
Tina Cohen-Chang
1. She doesn't enjoy going to school. In fact, if it weren't for Glee Club she'd drop out.
Every day, as soon as she took a step inside and walked down the hall, there was someone being teased. Someone whether it was Rachel, Artie, Kurt, or herself. Generally when they teased her, it was because of her stutter - something she couldn't help.
2. The best moment she has is in the gymnasium at school when she and the Glee Club performed Push It, rebelling against Mr Schu entirely.
It's her favourite moment because she didn't stutter once during that song, and was confident enough to dance in front of the school. She felt exhilaration chill her entire body, Artie's hand on her butt, and doesn't make a fool of herself once.
3. When she and Artie first met each other, it was in first grade.
They never become close until they reach high school, and he finds her crying in the hall during class. Neither of them are actually in class, he because he had just visited the nurses office. She hates crying, he later learns. When he asks her what's wrong, she stammers it all out to him inbetween sobs and hiccups. She tells him how Quinn Fabray and her fellow Cheerios have started a rumour that she's a lesbian. Somehow they become close after that - she wheels him around, and he helps her with her stutter.
4. She just might swing both ways.
She admits to Artie a year or so later how she might have a slight crush on the pretty, blonde cheerleader Quinn. But strangely enough, she likes guys as well - and she finds Puck mildly attractive. When Artie says she might swing both ways, she embraces this idea.
5. She doesn't come from a happy family.
Tina doesn't come from a happy family, and this influences her style of dress. She has a mother from Korea, and a half-American father. The only time she has seen her father is in photographs her mother has taken. She has an older half-brother, Mike, who doesn't share the same father. Her mother, for some reason, puts her fathers surname - which is Cohen - in her last name, as well as Chang.
6. She likes to express herself, and doesn't give a damn what people think.
She has streaks of magenta in her hair, wears fingerless gloves, and crotch-smacks for a reason. She falls underneath the categories loser and goth, and doesn't really care. She likes to express herself, and enjoys wearing these clothes, and stutters for a reason. Everything happens for a reason, she tells herself.
7. If someone insults her friends, she'll be the first one to attack them with her stutter and all.
She once slapped Noah "Puck" Puckerman when he gamely decided to tease Artie about being a paraplegic, and she surprised herself. Tina isn't the kind of girl to just lash out at someone, but if they insult her friends, then she'll do anything to save them from being hurt.
8. She's always had a speech impediment.
As long as she can remember, she's had this stupid stutter. True, she's learnt how to deal with it over the years, but it takes her ages to get the words out. When she's confident and singing, it disappears - which she is grateful for. But now people know when she's unconfident, and she finds it hard to talk to them. The only people she truly can speak in front of is the Glee club, because she knows they won't judge.
9. She picks up on the little things - it's always been a gift of hers.
She notices how Rachel has this enormous crush on Finn, and how Kurt sometimes looks at Puck a little too long, and how Quinn's eyes sometimes travel down to the junction between Mr Schu's legs. All in all, she finds this amusing and shares this with Artie often, and together they grin at these things. This makes them forget all their worries and troubles.
10. Her first kiss ends up being - very awkwardly - with Artie, and she loves it. Yeah, they may have done it wrong with his glasses ending up on the floor and her stuttering incoherently when they break apart - but who cares?
It happens whilst she's sitting on the stage, and him in his wheelchair right near her. They're singing sheet music, and then their eyes lock, and she finds something in his cerulean eyes - a spark, perhaps. And so, she hops off the stage, bends down slightly and he closes the space between them.