"Hey Kurt, what's up?" Artie asked, noticing that his friend wasn't as bubbly as he usually was.
"Well it's not a good day for me and my dad," Kurt explained remembering this morning when he walked into the kitchen to his father crying silently over a bowl of cereal.
"Do you want to talk about it? We both have next hour free maybe we could hang out near the choir room," Artie wasn't really good at being supportive since up till this year he couldn't really say that he had any friends. Since New Directions had started in the fall he finally was able to be around people who looked past the fact that he was in a chair and take time to be his friend. Although he was new at having real friends, he had had plenty of friends online, and watched a lot of movies, so he figured he could knew how to be a friend.
Kurt nodded and walked off to his next class. Artie took his time gathering his things and getting to class himself. Because he was in the chair he had the luxury of leaving class early and showing up late without getting into trouble. History class was his most dreaded hour of the day, so he took as much time as possible getting his things.
"Who can tell me the reason that President Garfield was shot?" Ms. Larson asked the class as Artie strolled in. "Elevator problems, Artie?" Artie gave her a small innocent smile and took his place next to Mercedes while the rest of the class stared blankly at the board.
Artie hated that no one ever raised their hand in high school. Like it was a bad thing to know the answer to a question, but it was social suicide if anyone knew that you were smart at McKinley High, so he sat with his mouth shut and started to draw on his notebook. He drew himself in his chair carrying an old fashioned boom box over his head. Mercedes looked over and wrote "Boy, you be jammin'!" on the side of the page. Looking over at the clock he saw that he had another four minutes of Ms. Larson attempting to get someone to talk, and then there would be nineteen minutes of her calling on people at random. By April, Artie had this down to a science. Ms. Larson was a great teacher, but no one had the ability to break the teens of McKinley from their laws of nature.
Three minutes later, Ms. Larson started to call on people in the class for answers. Even then the jocks and druggies would act like they didn't know the answer if they did, but usually they didn't. "Artie, tell the class why a law like that was put into place."
Artie thought for a moment about how to answer the question as quickly as possible. "Corruption was really widespread so they made a law to make sure that people deserved the jobs they got."
"That's right…" Ms. Larson continued but frankly Artie was no longer listening. He was looking over at Mercedes notes which were there but surrounded by her signature all over the page. She saw him looking and he tilted his head as if to ask, "What are you doing?" Mercedes just shrugged, the boredom of History class affected everyone differently.
Finally he saw that there were only a few minutes left of class so he started to pack up his things slowly, as students do to inform the teacher that it is time to wrap it up. Because of his wheelchair he often was allowed to leave class early. Ms. Larson, sadly was not one of those teachers that allowed that. She could be a hardass, but he knew that she only wanted the best for her students.
Mercedes gathered her things and started pushing Artie out of the room. She was gabbing about the new single that Beyonce just released, but that type of music really wasn't his style, so he just said the occasional "yeah" to keep her happy.
"I'm headed to the choir room, have a good day, sista," Artie said as he started to turn towards the choir room. She flashed a smile and he headed off. Roaming the halls of McKinley was a dangerous task when you were two feet lower than everyone else's eyes. It put him the same height range as heavy purses and swinging backpacks, which caused more than one black eye in his day.
Making it to the choir room with only getting hit once with a purse (a very sweet girl who apologized profusely), Artie saw that Kurt was already there. Kurt walked up to him and asked him if they should go to a practice room.
The practice rooms of McKinely High, like many high schools, were used for various activities but practicing music generally wasn't one of them. Emotional breakdowns, crazy hookups and occasionally a fight or two took place in the practice rooms, mostly because the schools cameras were not placed in the practice rooms. As the two went over to the hallway of small rooms they could hear the belting soprano voice of Rachel Berry. Artie looked at Kurt and made a barfing gesture as they looked for the room furthest away from her.
They hardly got into the room when Kurt started talking. "Okay well I totally forgot but like eight years ago today my mom died," he blurted.
"Oh man, Kurt that sucks."
"Yeah I know. I usually remember and make sure that I have something planned to distract my dad, but I completely forgot. I didn't remember until I saw him crying this morning. For me every year without her is easier, because I was so young. But for him it seems like it gets worse. Carol is his first girlfriend since my mom, and I am worried that he is feeling guilty today."
"What's the date today?" Artie asked, trying to formulate an idea of something that Kurt and his father could do.
"April 30th, and it's a Friday, why?" Kurt asked.
"Let me think… Oh! There's this robot vs robot thing going on at the convention center. I know it sounds lame to you, but to a guy like your dad it would be epic!" Artie thought about it some more and it seemed like the perfect idea. But something in the back of his head was telling him that April 30th is something he remembers.
It takes him a few moments to think and then he remembers. Or at least thinks he does. "Kurt, can we head outside, I need to call my mom and I never get service here."
Kurt was puzzled but did as he was told and the two of them headed outside. Once they reached outside the doors Artie wiped out his Blackberry and called his mom. "Mom, what day was my accident?"
Even though he wasn't the only one in the car, the accident was always called "Artie's accident" because he was the most affected by what had happened. "April 30th. Today, wow it's been eight years kiddo."
"That's what I thought. How many cars were there, three?"
"The drunk driver, us and a woman that was killed. So three. Why are you asking these things like you don't know?" Artie's mother asked.
"I'll explain later." Artie shut the phone and turned to Kurt, who was on the edge of tears himself. "Kurt, I was there, when your mom died. I was there. Shit, I was there Kurt! I was there! And now I'm stuck in this chair for the rest of my life!"
Artie lost it and was rocking violently in his chair. Kurt was shocked, but did the only thing he could think of: grab Artie and hold him down before he hurt himself. "Tell me what happened. My dad never did and I think it would be good for you."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Artie was starting to calm down. "I was eight, but you could have figured that out I guess. We were on our way home from Dairy Queen, my soccer team had just won our first real game, and my mom took me out for ice cream after. We were at the intersection of Elm and Cherry and this car came out of nowhere and hit the passenger's side of the car, where I was. After my mom spun us out of the way he hit another car destroying the driver's side, your mom was in the driver's seat."
Kurt and Artie were crying at that point. "It was probably a second, but it will be the longest second of my life. I've never walked since. It was eight at night, why was he drunk? Why couldn't we have stayed just a minute longer at Dairy Queen. I ask myself these things every time I remember," Artie said through the tears.
"I wonder too. Artie, I know you like to follow the rules and all, but my car isn't far and I think this requires some food," Kurt said.
"Let's pig out. I'm in," Artie replied and the two walked away from school in the middle of the day.