I know some of the info is wrong, and I started writing this a long time ago.. so it doesn't really fit with the current episodes... haha, oh well. I really like this story.
Quartie!friendship will ensue.
Reviews are love.
Disclaimer- Pigfarts is real. Oh I mean... I don't own Glee. 0.o
I know how he feels. The way the laughter of obnoxious students
fuzzying your thoughts, which can only be ones of embarrassment. And
since this is high school, where everyone strives to be popular for
all four years of their life, no one would ever dream of helping a
"nerd" like Artie out. The bell rings, and everyone darts in to the
classrooms.
"Quinn?" Rachel startles me as she taps on my shoulder, pointing to
the chem. lab. I keep my eyes fixed on Artie as I tell her to go on
without me. Of course, being Rachel, she goes on with some speech
about how cutting class will affect my GPA, but I'm not listening.
"If you're so concerned about being late, why are you still standing
here?"
She sighs, and heads into the classroom on my right. I die a little
inside as I see Artie try to pick up his scattered books, failing. I
know what it's like, not being able to bend over. But that was just a
few months. Artie's had this his whole life.
I run over to him as I see him bending over, almost to the point of
falling on his face, and push his shoulders back on the seat. He
flinches.
"Look, if you're here to flush my glasses down the toilet again..." He
says with his head down, face scrunched up like he was anticipating
Karofsky's fist bashing his face. I give a small chuckle.
"Artie?"
He looks up slowly and gently clears away fog from his glasses. He
sighs, and gives me a small smile. "Quinn." He breathes with relief.
I softly let go of his shoulders, and proceed to pick up his books.
"Thank you. Really. I really thought I would be here forever." He says
quietly.
I smile as I place the rest of his books on his lap. "Anytime." I reply.
I gaze at him, thinking. What really do I know about him? He's in Glee
club, and he's such a sweetie. I know he's in a wheelchair, and has
been ever since he was eight. But really that's all.
I realize for the past nine months, I've been so sheltered. I've never
opened up to anyone, never told them any of my true feelings.
Mercedes, yes, but it was always hard with her. I couldn't talk about
feeling fat, that would just upset her. But not Artie. No, he was
different. We were both high school students who had so much on the
inside, but keep a shell over us. Forever letting ourselves be known
as the pregnant girl and the kid in the wheelchair.
Just as he's wheeling away, I call out to him.
"Artie! Wait!"
He turns around abruptly, with a puzzled expression. I give him a
small smile, and the tension in his face is relaxed.
I walk slowly toward him, my hands folded where my baby used to be.
"Do you want to just... go for a walk?" I catch myself, feeling bad as
he looks at his legs.
"No, I mean, I can wheel you around the school. And we can talk."
He still is confused. "That'd be wonderful, but what about our class-"
"We're already 10 minutes late. Plus, it's first period. They'll just
count us absent."
He's wary, but eventually he pushes his glasses back on his nose and
wheels to me. "Hi." He smiles.
I laugh and walk behind him, my hands firmly on the handles of the
chair.
We remain silent as we pass a few rows of lockers, then he speaks up.
"So... what do you want to talk about?"
"How about your family?"
"Alright. Well, I'm an only child-"
"Me too!" I interrupt. "Sorry, go on."
"No problem." He laughs. "I live with my mom most of the time, but I
go to my dad's on weekends. My mom has a sister, Delilah. When I was
little, my aunt Delilah used to take my family to Hocking Hills every
year."
"I love it there! My... my dad took me up there." My dad. Just
mentioning him disgusted me. He cheated on my mom for years with some
biker chick. Let alone bossing my mom around, never letting her make
her own decisions.
"Whoa, cool! My aunt told me stories of me playing with a little girl.
She said every year from the time I was 3 to 7, we would spend the
whole time playing with each other. Giving Aunt Delilah a heart attack
as we climbed up the rocks."
I laugh as I push the elevator button, pushing him in as he continues.
"She even said we kissed." I burst out laughing, and he looks
embarrassed.
"Don't worry Artie. I think that's so-"
"Stupid?"
"Cute." I laugh and gently tap his argyle sweater covered shoulder.
"Enough about me, what about you?"
"Well, I..."
I freeze when I see Santana making out with one of the football
players. I'm not surprised, but Artie's a little weirded out. I laugh,
and whisper in his ear, "Yell 'get a room!'"
"What?"
"Just do it!"
"Get a room!" The moment he says it, Santana breaks away from the guy
and looks at us for a minute, then rolls her eyes and walks away.
I run Artie down the hallway, laughing as we go. Santana hasn't gone a
day without saying that to couples sneaking kisses in between classes.
When I was her friend, she told me it was "repulsive." I swear, she's
been hanging out with Sue too much.
But now, we know her secret! She gets the job done during class!
I give Artie a high five, his big smile so sweet and cute.
"Nice one Quinn!" He says to me, through laughs.
"Thanks! But it was all you!"
He blushes, and turns to face forward again.
"So, you?" He asks.
"Me?"
"What is life as Quinn Fabray like?" He stops and looks up at me,
tapping his chin questioningly.
I laugh at him. He's so cute.
"Well, it's a little better actually, now that I'm off the cheerios
again. I mean, it's nice to be popular, but I just wasn't happy. And
right now that's what I need. Y'know?" I asked.
"Yeah. Well... not so much about the popular thing. That's not exactly
my area of expertise." His eyes jumped around to the posters for the
big basketball tournament this week and the Cheerio tryout flyers.
"What's it like?"
"First of all, you need to get this through your little head: you are
ten times better than every popular guy at our school. They have
slushie stained hearts."
"And I have slushie stained pants."
I turned my head to look at him and we both burst out laughing.
"Seriously though," I say as my laughing dies down, "being popular
isn't that great. Honestly, I've never felt more insecure than being
in Cheerios and being Finn's boyfriend last year."
He looked confused, so I went on.
"It was like this constant pressure to be perfect. I was the top
bitch, and everyone expected me to be the leader. It's too much
pressure. But here, now, pushing you down the hall... it's the first
time I feel like I've been happy in a long time."
I stopped pushing for a second. I walked around to stand next to him
and smile. He gave me a nerdy smile that made my whole body go warm.
Then he surprised me.
He stared to wheel forward like he had a plan.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"The courtyard." he said. What?
"We have a courtyard?" I had never even been past the east wing except
for Lunch.
"When you're a nerd, it's sometimes the only place to eat." He tells me,
and I just nod.
I see the glass door and I quickly open it for him.
He enters the courtyard and wheels over to a bush of some sort.
I wasn't focused on him at that moment though. The place was
beautiful. Full of thick, lush roses and snap dragons. And my
favorite, lilies.
I placed my hand on the ivy growing up the wall and let my fingers
trace down it. When I look down, I see Artie next to me, holding
something behind his back like little kids do when they're hiding
something from their parents.
"What-" He cuts me off.
"Bend down."
I get on my knees, my dress barely brushing the grassy patch on the
cobblestone.
"Close your eyes." I do as he says. I feel silky petals caress my
forehead and the stem sink into my curls.
"Open." He smiles.
I turn around and look at my reflection in the mirror. I stand up and
lean in to get a closer look. It was a pink and yellow lily, the
shades perfectly corresponding with my dress. It was beautiful.
"I love it, Artie," I told him exactly what I thought, "it's beautiful."
"I thought you might."
I bent down once more to give him a soft kiss on the cheek. I felt him
blush.
I ripped some of the ivy down from the wall and wrapped it around the
back of his wheelchair.
"There."
I patted his hair softly and grabbed the handles of the chair. We
walked around the courtyard in silence for a few minutes when I
quickly realized that we hadn't been keeping track of time.
"What time is it?" We simultaneously checked his watch and let out a
sigh of relief. It was exactly 8:20.
We left the courtyard and I started wheeling him toward Spanish, which
we both had next.
"Wait. We still have ten minutes don't we?" He asked.
"Unfortunately. Why can't we skip the next six?" I laughed.
"I know, but we can't. If we miss school than we miss Regionals
practice."
He was right, though I hated to admit it.
"Anyway," he continued, "I have an idea. You know what you said? About
the guys having slushie stained hearts?"
What on earth?
"Um, yes?"
"What if we showed them that?"
Slushie them! Was he insane?
"Artie, we can't-"
"They wouldn't know it's us. I know Azimo and Karofsky's combinations
from the one time they locked me and Kurt in them. I think, if we
attach a string to the cup and stick it to their locked door, they're
open it and wake up to an extreme slushie facial." He explained.
Oh my god. He was a genius! I knew that already, but this.. this was a
different kind of smart.
There's just one thing.
"How are we going to do this in five minutes?"
"Trust me. You run and go get two slushies. The brightest colors they
got. I'll grab the string and tape from my locker- don't ask," he said
to my confused look, "-and meet me in the jock hallway."
I nodded and ran down the hall toward the slushie machine by the
bathroom.
They moved there two days after we bought it. It's easier for the
nerds to quickly hide from embarrassment.
I took two extra large Big Gulp cups and filled them up as fast as my
hands could go. I couldn't let Artie down.
Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention and the sour apple slushie
overfilled and stained my French manicure neon green.
"Crap!" I loud-whispered to myself.
I licked the green away from the sides and started to walk them down
the hall.
Two minutes until the bell.
I picked up my pace, but made sure not another drop spilled out. Artie
got closer and closer and I could see his hand waving me toward him.
"Hurry!"
I finally reached him. Thank god their lockers were right next to each
other. Artie already had the string set up, all he needed was to
attach the slushies.
He took one from my hands and wrapped the string around the top. He
placed the slushie right in front and carefully shut the locker.
The bell rang.
"Quick Artie! Go!"
He repeated the process for Azimo's locker as kids started piling out.
He carefully shut the locker like before. No one noticed, thank god.
The one benefit of being an outsider. We whistled innocently as he
wheeled himself down the hall, me by my side, when we turned the
corner, we smiled evilly and looked around the corner.
"Quinn! There you are-" Rachel Berry started as the two jock victims
approached their lockers.
"Rachel, please shut up. For just a minute." I told her and I felt
Artie laugh.
She stormed off toward Spanish. I'd explain when I was there.
They rustled with their combinations as Artie and I's heart rate
increased.
SPLAT! Like clockwork, the next bell rang and they were rewarded with
green icy faces.
The whole hall went quiet. Then, as loud as a lion's roar, Karofsky
and Azimo turned to each other and screamed, running in the direction
of the men's bathroom.
Artie and I couldn't stop laughing. It was perfect.
"That was amazing, Quinn!" He said in-between laughs.
"And you know why? Because you came up with it." I looked at him and
smiled.
"Come on, we have a Spanish test. Salemos reality." I groaned.
"No me gusta." He chuckled.
"Seriously, you need to stop using my lines against me, Wheels."
Santana commented as we walked into Spanish, Brittany following behind
her.
I think I'm skipping tomorrow, too.