First fanfic :) Reviews are very much welcome..let me know what you think, so I can get an idea of whether or not I should continue.
*Everyone in this story is going to be a junior in high school.
Damian McGinty nervously paced about his room. He swung his navy backpack back and forth along the carpet. His first day as a junior in high school. More importantly, his first day of school in the United States. His family had left his home in Northern Ireland after his dad was offered a job in Lima, Ohio. He'd always dreamed of visiting the states one day, but not under these circumstances. If he could, he would hop on a plane back to Ireland without hesitation. He missed it there. It was much different than his new home. Damian sat down on his rather untidy bed and gazed out the window. He hadn't the slightest idea of what to expect at his new school, a place called William McKinley High. He sighed sleepily and placed his head in his hands. He began to hum a Dean Martin song under his breath.
"Damian my dear!" his mother called. "Come down and have some breakfast! We need to leave for school in ten minutes and you shan't be late for your first day of school!"
"Coming Mum!" Damian threw his backpack over his shoulder and ambled down the stairs.
"Ah, good. I was beginning to worry that you'd never get out of bed," his mother said jokingly. Damian chuckled and began eating his breakfast; scrambled eggs, toast with marmalade, and orange juice. He'd been having the same thing for breakfast for as long as he could remember. Once, Damian had gone to a friend's house for a sleepover. The following morning, he was forced to break his traditional routine and try pancakes. it didn't take long before he realized that he had gotten food poisoning. He took this as an omen to stay consistent with his breakfasts, no matter how silly it may seem to anyone else.
"Gemma phoned for you late last night, but you were already asleep. She must've forgotten the time difference," his mother informed. Damian grunted in response. Gemma was his older sister. Gemma, much to her good fortune, had stayed in Northern Ireland, along with Damian's older brother, Emmet. They had both chosen to attend university there, giving them the chance to skip out on the move. Damian was extremely jealous of the both of them.
"Well we ought to be getting on our way then. You can go get in the car; I need to grab the keys out of my bedroom."
"Alright mum," Damian complied and began to walk out the front door. He stopped halfway and checked his reflection in the mirror nearby, something he rarely did. His normally confident blue eyes conveyed nervousness for once. His already white skin looked paler than usual, making it contrast drastically with his dark hair. He had never missed the comforts of home more than he did in this moment.
Damian inhaled, looked his reflection straight in the eye and said, "You can do this."
He prayed to God that there was some truth in that statement.
Quinn Fabray stood in the girls' bathroom of William McKinley, applying her makeup flawlessly. She stood back from the mirror and evaluated herself. She had worked off all the weight that had come with her pregnancy mishap. Now she was in shape and worthy of the Cheerio's uniform once again. Quinn delicately adjusted the waistband of her cheerleading skirt.
"Quinn! There you are! I've been looking for you all morning," Rachel trilled as she burst into the bathroom. Quinn resisted the urge to roll her eyes and faced Rachel.
"What do you want Rachel?" Quinn asked, truly making an effort to keep her irritation with the girl out of her voice.
"Mr. Schue has bestowed the duty of telling all my fellow glee clubbers that we are in dire need of new recruits upon me. Therefore, I'm here to tell you that every member is required to seek out at least one new possible recruit to continue on our legacy as we prepare to graduate and move on to bigger and better stages."
"Rachel, we're juniors. We don't graduate for a good year or so."
"Details, details. Don't hate the messenger, these are Mr. Schue's directions. Now, if you'll excuse me. I need to spread the news to everyone else." With that, Rachel strutted out of the room. Quinn groaned internally. She was definitely not interested in recruiting new members for the club. She couldn't think of a single person with sense who would want to join. She could always blackmail one of the other Cheerios into joining, but she had lost any interest in being as mean as she was after she joined the glee club. It was simply too exhausting.
Quinn threw her makeup into her bag in frustration and started on her way to her first class, AP Spanish.
Damian was absolutely lost. He had no idea where to find his first class because the secretary hadn't given him the room numbers for his classes, only the names. Bad omen number one. He had tried to ask a brunette in a cheerleading uniform who looked about his age, but she couldn't understand what he was saying because of his accent. Bad omen number two. Damian leaned up against a row of lockers in resignation. Class started in three minutes. He would never make it in time.
"Excuse me, but you look a little lost. Do you need help with anything?" Damian turned to see a redheaded woman who he assumed was a part of the faculty.
"Yes please, ma'am. Sorry, this is my first year and I have no idea where to find my first class," he replied apologetically.
"Ah, I see. What's your first class called?"
"English 3 honors."
"Okay, that's on the second floor in room 52. I'm Ms. Pillsbury by the way. I'm the school counselor."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Damian McGinty. I just moved here from Ireland."
"How nice. Well, you'd better get to class. Come by my office if you need any more help."
"Alright, thank you."
Ms. Pillsbury departed with a smile. Damian sprinted up the stairs and searched for room 52. He entered the classroom just as the bell rang and took a seat near the center. He leaned back in his chair and exhaled deeply. At least he'd made it to his first class on time. Then he realized that he had no idea where his others classes were. Damian groaned quietly and sunk down in his chair.
"You okay man? You look a little overwhelmed," noted an Asian boy sitting beside him.
"Yeah I'm fine. I just have no idea where any of my classes are. I just moved here and the secretary only gave me the names of my classes. And yes I am feeling a bit overwhelmed."
"Oh here. Let me see your schedule." Damian passed it to him hesitantly. The boy started
filling in room numbers. Damian was instantly relieved. The boy stopped at the last class listed, Spanish 3.
"Sorry man. I don't take Spanish so I'm not sure where that class is," he said as he passed Damian's class list back to him.
"It's fine. I'll find it somehow. I've actually never taken Spanish before either."
"Wow, you're screwed. What's your name?"
"Damian McGinty."
"I'm Mike Chang. Hey do-" Mike stopped talking when the teacher walked in and plopped his bag on the desk up front. On the whiteboard, the teacher wrote: "MR. WATERS." He then proceeded to write the class' first homework assignment underneath his name.
Damian felt exhausted. Homework already?
Mike Chang was definitely right when he said the Damian was screwed with his current Spanish class. The good news was that he found which room the class was in. The bad news was that he could not understand anything going on the in class. It was an immersion course, meaning that no one there was allowed to speak any English. You could say that this is a problem for a boy who has never spoken a word of Spanish. It didn't take long for the teacher to realize Damian's condition. At the end of class, Damian was asked to stay behind.
"Mr. McGinty! Espera por favor," Señor Garcia commanded. Damian had no idea what he had just said, but he thought that it would be best if he waited for the teacher.
"Mr. McGinty. Tú no hablas español, ¿verdad?" Damian just stared at him blankly. "I see. Well it's too late for you to switch classes now. I think-" Senor Garcia was cut off by a girl rushing through the door.
"Sorry to interrupt you Señor, but I'm kind of in a jam. Is it okay if I use your printer?"
"Go ahead Miss Fabray."
"Thank you so much," she replied and ran toward the computers. All the while, Damian was staring at her. She was arguably the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She looked about his age and had wavy blonde hair tied up in a pony tail. He also noticed that she was wearing a red and white Cheerio's uniform, meaning that she was extremely popular and extremely out of his league.
"Now where were we Mr. McGinty? Oh yes, it's too late for you to switch classes and I'm afraid that I can't make any exceptions for you. My best advice is to start being tutored by one of the other students." Damian resisted the urge to groan.
"Thanks Señor Garcia!" said the blonde as she rushed towards the door, paper in hand.
"Wait a minute Miss Fabray! I'm afraid I need to ask a favor of you."
She warily walked back to his desk. "Okay sure."
"I need you to tutor Mr. McGinty here three times a week."
The girl looked a little taken aback. "I don't know Señor. I have a lot going on right now
between cheerleading and glee and keeping my grades up and-"
"Please Miss Fabray," he interrupted. "The sessions don't need to last longer than an hour and you can schedule them any time you'd like. You're the best student I have in AP Spanish.
Please say that you'll tutor him."
She bit her lip and stared at the floor for a moment. "Fine I'll do it," she replied with a sigh. She then locked eyes with Damian. "Come on. We can work out a schedule now. Bye Señor Garcia." Damian gathered his things quickly and followed the girl without getting a chance to say goodbye to his new teacher. Damian followed her downstairs and through the hallway in silence until the reached a choir room. The girl rattled the door knob and rolled her eyes in frustration. Damian finally snapped out of his silent trance.
"Y'ari?" he asked her.
She stared at him with irritation. "What?"
Damian blushed when he realized that people here didn't understand Irish slang. "Sorry, old habit. I just moved here from Ireland and the Irish slang phrases kind of stuck to me. It's difficult to remember that you all don't-" she raised her eyebrows at him. Shoot, he'd rambled. "What I meant to say was are you alright?"
"No. I mean yes. I mean, I'm just overwhelmed and frustrated," Quinn replied and closed her eyes gently.
"Me as well. Those are exactly the words I would use to describe my first day here."
She opened her eyes and looked at him in silence for a good moment, trying to decide what to make of Damian. That's when Damian first noticed how beautiful her green eyes were. "I'm Quinn."
"D-Damian McGinty." He cursed himself for stuttering. Damian didn't notice the smile that was playing on Quinn's lips.
"Come on," she instructed, "we can make up a schedule in the library." Quinn took off ahead of Damian without waiting for him to respond. She did this partially because she didn't have much time until cheerleading practice. However, her real goal was to prevent Damian from seeing the small smile on her face.
Cameron Mitchell walked down the hallway of McKinley feeling rather awkward, as always. His first day of school was uneventful, except for the mishap explosion in the chemistry lab. Don't ask. At the moment, he was on his way to third period, when he was hit full in the face with a slushy. Boy, was it cold. Cameron indignantly wiped it out of his eyes and saw none other than football player, Bryce Vine.
"What the hell man?" Cameron yelled at Bryce. He didn't raise his voice often, but the slushy was just too cold for him to handle.
"That's what you get for talking to Arielle," Bryce sneered and turned away. Cameron glared at his back as he walked away. Arielle was a Cheerio. The only reason she had had any contact with Cameron in the first place was because she dropped everything in her book bag right in front of him. Being polite, he had helped her pick it up and they ended up walking to class together after they realized that they were heading the same way. He hadn't talked to her since.
Cameron looked at himself. The slushy had gone down his shirt and it was getting really uncomfortable. The slushy had hit his face and his upper body. Just then, the bell rang for class.
"Ugh no," Cameron groaned. What a perfect way to start off his junior year. He swung his book bag against a row of lockers in frustration.
"Hey," said a voice timidly behind him. Cameron turned and saw a redhead that looked about his age. "I'm Marissa. Um...do you need any help with that?" she asked, gesturing to his problem.
Cameron was a little embarrassed to say the least, but nevertheless, he accepted her offer. She led him into the boys' bathroom and turned on one of the sinks.
"Er, not to be rude or anything, but you don't mind being in here?" Cameron asked her.
Marissa reached for the paper towels and ran them under the sink. "Well I'm just using the sinks. Unless you boys have poisoned the water or something, I'm good," she replied as she turned off the water.
"I can assure you that we boys have not poisoned the water, as far as I know," Cameron said with a chuckle. Marissa gave him a small smile and hesitantly began wiping the slushy off his face with a damp paper towel.
"Well the good news is that it's not in your hair. The bad news is that you might need to take off your shirt to get it all off," she said and averted her eyes. Cameron was amused by her shyness, but he was also uncomfortable at the same time.
"Oh, uh, okay," he replied with not the least bit of confidence.
"Actually I really need to get to my English class. I have big report due and I need to get it in today. I'm really sorry this happened. Later Cameron!"
"Wait, thank you!" Cameron answered, but she had already bustled out of the bathroom. Cameron sighed internally. If girls were scared away by just the idea of him taking his shirt off, his future love life wasn't looking so bright.