04/01/2010 16:52:00

So this is my first attempt at a TinaxArtie fic. Just as a note, I for one am appalled that they just dropped the tina artie story line after the date and made everything dandy between them in time for proud mary! I personally like their characters much more than Quinn, Finn, Puck, and Rachel and hope that in the next season the other more controversial characters aren't so underrepresented. ( I hope you enjoyed my rant, hope that doesn't happen again…….) I know that later chapters will be better that this, its sort of just an introduction but tell me what you think and if you are interested in where this story is going. Oh, and any ideas of what you think they should look like after the makeovers are much appreciated! Thanx!

-Quills

(Note to self, make authors n otes shorter in the future)

I do not Own Glee or any recognizable characters. You would think that people would get the hint already…

Tina

I gazed at my reflection in the mirror on my bathroom wall and inspected my face. My long black and blue hair was parted to the left and fell halfway down my back. I inspected the creamy skin of my face, free of blemishes besides the light sprinkle of freckles splayed across the bridge of my nose. My dry lips were coated with peach flavored lip balm. Cranberry colored blush was smeared across where I thought my cheekbones should be. Dark purplish bags hung underneath my clear blue eyes and my eyelids were dark charcoal. I had glued fake curly eyelashes over my stubby brown ones and lined my eyes with thick black pencil. I adjusted my signature fishnet gloves over my hands and slid silver rings that I had bought at the art fair last year over my electric green painted fingers. I ran my fingers over my Death Cab tee shirt of which I had spent all of last night cutting fringes into the hem and sleeves. I pulled on my studded leather jacket and tied the laces of my sharpie covered high tops and fastened a bottle cap belt on my ripped black jeans.

I looked…different.

I liked different.

I had never liked blending in and going unnoticed and my style never went unnoticed. It was always a relief each morning when I got into my clothes and put on my makeup. I got to look different. I got to look intimidating. I got to look like I knew what I was doing. But mostly, I got to cover up. It was like putting up my own personal shield. My shield was my friend. My shield kept people from talking to me and making me feel insufficient or ugly or awkward. The shield made me stronger and bolder and more self assured.

So even though when I looked in the mirror I didn't see pretty or confident or charismatic, I saw protected and to me that was all that mattered.

I made my way to the street corner where I usually met Artie to walk to school together. As I turned the corner I saw Mercedes, in all of her glory, standing with all of her attention focused on the screen of her sidekick, her fingers moving at 100 miles per hour across the keypad.

"H-hey Mercedes"

"Hey Girl! Listen we need to talk" she said, snapping her cell phone shut and hooking her arm into mine pulling me towards school.

"I'm s-s-supposed to w-wait for Artie here. Don't you usually get a r-r-ride with Kurt?"

"I've got Artie covered. Don't worry just walk with me" My brows furrowed in confusion but I followed Mercedes. She had that effect on people that made you want to follow her no matter what. "I heard about your little date with wheels." she said, glancing sideways at me. My eyes widened in shock and I jumped away from her.

"How did you figure out? Who told you! Who did you tell! Never mind, you already told everyone. Oh God! But how on earth did you figure out? Who told you? I'm going to kill that little…" I launched into a nervous babble forgetting momentarily about my stutter until Mercedes interrupted me.

"You just told me. Oh come on, don't act so surprised. You two lovebirds have obviously been mooning over each other for weeks now but girl, something is definitely up with you and you'd better tell me before I bitch slap both of your asses."

I realized at that moment that Mercedes was serious about her threats so I laid out the story for her.

"So, I liked Artie for a really log time but we were best friends so I didn't say anything to him because I was afraid to ruin our friendship but I started to get the idea that maybe he liked me so I started dropping hints, you know and eventually he asked me out and everything was going well. But…" I finally took a breath. I needed to find a way to tell Mercedes about my lie in a way that wouldn't get the same reaction that Artie gave me, but one look into her deep brown eyes told me that she wouldn't judge me the way Artie did. "But I told him that I have been faking my stutter. It all started in the sixth grade when I was really shy and I wanted people to just leave me alone and I'm really sorry that I lied, but well…" My face fell "He wasn't so sympathetic. So we didn't talk for a while but we've kind of made peace. So we walk to school together and we talk at glee and he's forgiven me. We talked about it and he understands now. I thought that it would all go back to normal now but it hasn't and I think it's because everything is awkward. I don't think that I can just stay friends anymore but I don't think that he feels the same way. I knew this would happen! I just had to ruin the best thing that in my life…" By then tears were rolling down my cheeks and I was so glad that I was wearing waterproof makeup.

Suddenly, Mercedes grabbed me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug; her bubblegum perfume tickling my nose. We were only a few blocks away from school but Mercedes stopped me.

"Listen Tina, you wanna get Wheels back? I'll help you, but you have got to trust me. Mercedes is gonna give you a makeover!" She jumped up and down and squealed. I tried to smile while I internally groaned. I wasn't sure how makeover would help anything, but I was grateful to have made a friend.