This is my first chapter fic. I promise I will update, honest, but knowing me it may not be updated particularly… regularly. BUT I will try I swear. Enjoy :)
Dissclaimer: Hey guys I'm actually Ryan Murphy disguised as a teenage girl! Yeh, no. I don't own Glee, Jeff, Quinn, or anything else you recognise.
Jeff had always been fascinated by fire. The way it flickered and danced, eating everything in its path to make it bigger, stronger, growing from a delicate flame into a roaring inferno. It held the power to save lives or obliterate them in a matter of seconds.
'Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with fire?' Quinn's voice roused him from his speculation and he pocketed the lighter in his hand, flicking his flame-coloured hair out of his eyes.
'Oh she told me plenty,' he shot back, 'I just didn't listen.'
Quinn sat next to him in their usual spot under the bleachers.
'I heard they're finally kicking you out?' she said, her cold voice giving away no trace of emotion.
'Yeh,' Jeff replied with a bitter laugh, 'turns out dumpsters aren't all too fire-proof.'
Jeff wasn't exactly what one would call a 'model student', and Figgins had been spoiling for an excuse to get rid of him all year, but finding a half melted dumpster in the parking lot had been the last straw. The funny thing was, for once Jeff hadn't actually been trying to set it on fire- he'd just forgotten to put out his cigarette. Not that anyone would believe him.
'You're lucky you didn't get thrown into juvie for arson.'
'I don't know,' Jeff sighed, 'Sounds better than this stupid preppy Dalton place my mom wants to send me to.' He was all too aware of what a petulant child he sounded like but he was just really pissed off about that. Upon hearing of his exclusion earlier that day, Jeff's mother had admitted that she'd been researching other 'routes' for Jeff's education for some time and had come across one Dalton Academy. A private boarding school that looked like it had been picked straight up out of Brideshead Revisited and dropped down in the middle of modern day Ohio. In other words: not Jeff Sterling's kind of place.
Quinn frowned at the ground for a while, before making a sound that could almost have been words had it not been muffled by her pink hair falling across her face.
'What was that?'
'I said I'll miss you!' Quinn huffed, 'I hope your happy now, Sterling, you've turned me soft.'
Jeff just grinned. This was the closest Quinn got to showing actual emotion and he had to admit he was kind of flattered. Out of all the students at Mckinley, Quinn and Puck were probably the only ones he would actually be sad to leave. But mainly Quinn. Like Jeff, she had been through hell in the last couple of years, and that made her one of the very few people Jeff had any respect for.
Jeff stood up.
'Well, I'd better go,' he said, 'clear out my locker. Say goodbye to my many friends and favourite teachers!' Quinn laughed half-heartedly at his sarcastic tone, before standing too.
'Life round here sure will be boring without you Jeffster,' she sighed, placing a kiss on his cheek and sauntering off.
Jeff wiped the lipstick from his face with a mock grimace and stood a while, watching Quinn's pink hair bob off into the distance.
The nature of Jeff and Quinn's relationship was a frequent topic of debate in Mckinley's halls. Of course, no one dared ask the feared 'skanks' up front, but Jeff had overheard many a whispered conversation about how Quinn had 'fallen sofar since the whole baby thing' and how she deserved more than 'that creepy ginger kid'.
But despite the rumours, Quinn was just a friend. His best friend. Not to mention the fact that Jeff was one-hundred-percent-steadfast-gay, Quinn being the only person at Mckinley who knew. It wasn't that he was ashamed of his sexuality, he wasn't even hiding it for his own protection, he just didn't really speak to other people all that much.
After Quinn disappeared around a corner, Jeff began his journey out of the school, and he smiled as a welcome thought crossed his mind. This was the last time he would be walking through these gates. He was never coming back to this shit-hole again. No more stale tater-tots. No more dumpster tosses. No more ex-friends and memories of the days before, cold reminders of the old Jeff, the 'nice' Jeff. He bit down a woop as he all but skipped out of the school, for good.
What has happened to turn Jeff so cold I wander? Patience my children all will come clear.
Next Chapter: Jeff arrives at Datlon and meets his new roommate YEY!