All her life, Tina Cohen-Chang had lived in a perfect little bubble. Perfect meaning her parents were successful and they had money and nice material things. They had friends in all the right places and nothing was ever out of place in their gigantic house. They went to tons of parties and stayed out till the wee hours of the morning.
Tina was dragged to tons of these events, dressed up in pretty pink, yellow, and white dresses. She wore Mary-Jane shoes and a bow in her long, jet black hair. She was the image of the "perfect child."
The parties were endless for her growing up. Most of them boring. Sometimes, though, she'd get lucky and a kid around her age would be at the party, too. All in all, she'd had a happy childhood. She even didn't mind wearing the pastel colored dresses and clothes, even though those weren't her favorite.
Then, as she got older, her parents would be on business trips more often and the Nanny would watch her. At first, she didn't mind. Anna, the Nanny, was a kind woman who let her have treats and watch movies and would even play with her, sometimes.
But, by the time she was thirteen, the absence of her parents was getting hard to handle. Sure, Anna was great. But she wasn't her parents. She tried everything to get their attention. She got Straight As, did community service, even got the lead in her school's production of Grease (revised, for obvious reasons) freshman year. Nothing worked.
If that wasn't bad enough, then the fighting started. At first, her parents were discreet about it, but then she saw the arguments.
Still, the clothes stayed. Pastel polo shirts, khaki pants, and Mary-Jane shoes. Her black hair was always slicked back into a ponytail. It had been this way from kindergarten. She was in eighth grade at that point.
She had come to hate the way she looked. It gave off this false image of perfection. It was an image she wanted to break, wanted to destroy. She didn't want to be stuck in her perfect bubble anymore. She wanted out. She wanted her parents to care that she didn't care about the image they had worked so hard to create anymore.
The summer between eighth grade and freshman year, she completely reinvented herself. She became the person she wanted to be. Blacks, reds, purples, and blues filled her closet. Studded belts and bracelets. Black fingerless gloves. Skulls and crossbones. She even took to streaking her hair blue. Her shoes were replaced with combat boots. It was the best she'd felt in her life.
Her parents had freaked out when they saw her that first day of school, demanding she went upstairs and put on the outfit they had settled on. She held her ground, though. It wasn't going to happen. She wanted to get back at them for everything. When they stopped fighting and caring so much about work, she'd be ready to compromise.
That day never came. The fighting increased. They blamed each other for petty things and working got more intense. Tina kept her gothic look up. It was the only thing that gave her solace.
People in her parents' social class always asked why she dressed the way she did. She had told them it was what made her feel good, comfortable.
Tina knew the real reason she wore her clothes, though. Besides the fact that she finally felt like herself, it was her silent protest against her parents for putting her through everything. For making her a part of their "perfect" image. It was to see how much they really cared.
And, as far as she could tell, it wasn't a lot.
Kind of an angst-y ending, right? Well, I just want to say that I ADORE Tina (her, Kurt, Jesse, Puck, Mercedes, Quinn, Brittany, and Sue are my faves). I've wanted to write something Tina-centric for awhile but I wasn't sure what. Then I thought, why not try to get in her head and see why she dresses the way she does? It's pre-show, so she doesn't know the Glee clubbers yet.
I hope you guys liked it. And I hope I did my favorite character some justice. Let me know what you guys think. I love hearing your opinions.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, if I did, you'd see a lot more of the background characters (Kurt, Tina, Mike, Matt, Santana, and Brittany) AND they'd have more songs/solos. Cuz, even though Cory and Lea have WONDERFUL voices, it doesn't mean they need to lead EVERY SONG