Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 40th cycle. Now cycle 41!
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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 41 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!
This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: The Family Box.
"Flying Solo"
Beiste & Ewan (OC, Damian McGinty), Mike/Tina
Ewan series #4 (following 'One more for the student body')
1. New Friends
Tina had taken to talking to him in class, before, after. It had been one week since he had joined the students of McKinley High. He wasn't a big talker at first, but he looked happy just having a friendly face there. It was on the fifth day that he decided she could be trusted with his secret. By day two they had at least known that Coach Beiste was his aunt, and that had opened the way for the rumors to start. Bad boy, runaway, orphan, what had brought the silent Irish boy to their town? Tina was the first to hear the truth, and perhaps only because he was fragile: it was the one month anniversary of his parents' death.
His aunt had told him he could stay home that day, but he wanted to be at school, be near people. So when Tina had come to him at his locker that day, seen the look on his face, she'd asked what was wrong, and he told her: "My parents died, one month ago… One month ago today."
Sunday night, she had been hanging out with Mike, and he could tell there was something on her mind. When he asked about it, she hesitated. Ewan hadn't flat out said 'don't tell anyone,' but it was implied. Yes, Mike was her boyfriend, Ewan had met him, and if Tina told him something in confidence she knew he wouldn't breathe a word, but even then it wasn't her secret to tell. She may have been something of a gossip peddler, but this was personal business, not hers. But then she didn't have to reveal Ewan's secret to deal with what she'd been thinking of.
"You know Ewan, the new guy?" she asked, sitting up with inspiration.
"Yeah, sure," he nodded.
"I was thinking, we've been talking a lot, me and him. He's a good guy, but he's new so he doesn't really know people yet. What if we… invited him to come by, your place or mine, from time to time, you know, hang out? I think you'd like him," she smiled, and she got one back.
"Sounds good," he nodded, leaned in to kiss her.
The next day, Tina had invited Ewan to join her and Mike at her house, figuring going to her house would be easier than inviting him to a stranger's house. She could tell he was hesitant… this was new to him. But he was growing more and more at ease, more willing to try to live normally. He had internalized his grief, carried it still but didn't get carried by it.
Ewan had concluded his second week at McKinley, the day he told Mike about his parents. The two of them had bonded just as easily as Ewan and Tina had, and these days the three of them were usually found together. Ewan had been opening up bit by bit, and now he had two trusted friends along with his aunt.
The day he'd told Mike about his parents would also be the day the 'Irish mystery' came to an end. It was neither Mike nor Tina's fault. Instead, it was just as his aunt had warned him: word travelled. In this case it had travelled into one ear in passing, out one mouth into another ear, and then it multiplied. By the end of the day, everyone would know. This wasn't a bad thing, not at heart… but he didn't want the looks, or the talk, and that was what he got. All at once he had lost his identity and become one to pity and, in some cases showing there was no limit to what certain people would latch on, the one to mock.
"They're going to shove him right back into his box if they keep this up," Tina had told Mike with obvious concern for their friend, pacing the ground around his locker. He kept having to look left and right to even find her. "I mean I know those guys are mean, but that's just cruel. His parents died, he had to move here, and what does he get? I'm not going to let them do that to him," she shook her head.
"Hey, hey," he caught her to make her stop and she let out a breath. "I'm with you on that, you know?" he brushed her hair behind her ears and she placed her hands to his arms, nodding with a smile. "What do you want to do?" he asked.
"I… I don't know yet," she sighed.
"We're with him, we'll look out for him."
"That's only a couple classes," she shrugged. What about the rest of the time?" He thought about it then, and he had to smile.
"So what we need is more people, looking out for him, like we are…" he stretched.
"Exactly, yes," she agreed. It took a moment more and when it hit her she almost felt foolish for not thinking of it herself.
"Does he dance? Sing?"
"Well I don't know, I mean he's not exactly in a singing and dancing kind of… head space, you know?" she pointed out. "But we can always ask him."
"Hey, I started off as 'better mute' and I got by."
"Yeah, but you've gotten so good now," she smiled.
"I have," he smiled back. "And Finn can be a menace to the dance floor, but… he's improved… some," he shrugged, making her chuckle. "Point is he can always learn. The important part is he'll have all of us," he nodded, and she was filled with relief…
"We need to know that it's what he wants though, can't just force him into one."
"Yeah," she agreed, nodding to herself, sighing. "If he can just do better than the last audition we had, then he should be fine," she seemed to be back to talking to herself.
"He will be fine," Mike promised her, reminded her.
"Yeah, I know," she continued nodding and he placed a kiss on top of her head, partially in an effort to get her to stand still for a moment.
She went out seeking him, found him coming out of the bathroom, nearly bumping into him. "Sorry," he was just as startled.
"Bathrooms and apologies, that's becoming a thing now?" she asked, and he gave as close to a smile as she'd ever seen on him. "Where are you headed?" she casually asked.
"My locker," he pointed, and she followed him there. When he opened the door he pulled out a flyer someone had stuck in this and every other locker. He showed it to her, asking with his eyes.
"Toss it, trust me," she frowned. "They could pay me and I wouldn't toss that pizza," she indicated the coupon.
"Right," he crumpled up the coupon and tossed it in a nearby bin.
She looked to him, how he was picking through his locker, almost with a quickness to his movements, not so much like he was in a hurry, but he'd never be accused of being a straggler. She looked around and it did occur to her that maybe the reason was he didn't want to stick around and risk running into the jerks, as she so tenderly called them.
"How… how's it going with class?" she tried to start easing into the topic. More often than not she would try to keep things in a 'good place' for his sake, so actually talking about this with him was new and she had difficulty. Ewan was her friend, sometimes he felt like the little brother she never had… It should have been easy to talk to him, but it wasn't… Really they hadn't known each other that long.
"Alright, I guess. I think it helps that I actually pay attention now," he nodded, making her smirk.
"Yeah, definitely." She was about to carry on, but then he closed his locker door.
"I should go," he told her, and before she could stop him he'd disappeared into the crowded hall and she sighed. She didn't look, knowing how she'd probably react, but she was willing to bet one of those guys had appeared, causing his fast retreat. Now she knew she definitely had to work her way toward talking to him about Glee Club. It wouldn't fix everything, but she truly believed it would help him. He would need time, but that was natural. She wasn't abandoning him, and neither was Mike.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)
