A/N: I know I'm probably taking a lot of risks with this story. Yes, certain bad things from canon may happen (obvious spoilers if you haven't seen 2.04), but I think they're necessary for this story. Hopefully, I can address the problems sufficiently. Like it? Hate it? Please review and let me know. :) As they say, nothing can be perfect without a lot of hard work. Or something like that.

Anyway, I really do appreciate my regular readers/reviewers, you know who you are. 8D

"Artie, can I talk to you?"

"Yep."

"I want us to be duet partners. We sing really well together. I just thought if we won, we could share a nice, free dinner together, as friends. We haven't really talked."

I crossed my arms, thinking about it for a minute. "Well... OK," I smiled.

Tina smiled, that warm, friendly smile that I'd missed so much. "Great, you won't regret it. We're gonna win." She leaned down and pecked me on the cheek and ran to her seat next to Mike Chang. I shook my head and threw a winning smile at Mike. He tried not to look too concerned, but all I could think was, maybe now I'd get my girlfriend back! I'd already won the duet with her. Thank god for little victories.

I turned my attention to Brittany, who seemed distracted as usual. I wheeled myself over to her. Careful, Artie, she's still your girlfriend. Two girls interested in me at the same time? It was almost unbelievable. Truth was though, Brittany was kind of irritating. She could never hold a complete conversation and always seemed to be looking around for someone else. I had my suspicions on who that was. Brittany smiled at me sweetly and I had to admit I kind of liked her sweet, uncomplicated way of showing her emotions. Still, if tina was interested, brit would be out of the picture in two seconds. Me and tina had been through so much... She was special. I didn't have to tell her that; she must know. Mike Chang sure knew.

Mr. Schue started class before I could explain to brit what was going on but maybe it was better that way. It always seemed to take her twice as long as anyone else tp figure out what was going on. Tina was quick. She always seemed to understand just what I was saying.

Stop comparing them, Artie. Brit's your girlfriend and she's totally fine and tina is barely speaking to you. This was all too much to fathom; I realized, smiling and listening to Kurt's duet with himself. I had to admit he was really good, even by himself.

Brittany took off right after Glee, practically running to make it to cheerleading. She tried to explain to me the punishment if they were late but I'm pretty sure nobody makes you burn all your dolls, not even ms. sylvester. She sent me a text on her way out, asking me to come to her house later to rehearse. What could I do? Nobody dumps somebody by text message; I'm sure not even puck would do that. I replied, agreeing to stop by later. Id break it to her easy, maybe even buy her something. Girls like presents right?

As I wheeled myself down the empty hallway toward my locker, I heard footsteps coming towards me. I could tell whoever it was was wearing high heels, so it was probably a teacher or something. "Artie?" A familiar voice asked. I turned around curious and stared at Tina's feet. I'd forgotten she had started wearing heels this year. I wonder if that had been on Mike's suggestion. Good idea bro. "where is mike?" I continued my thoughts out loud. Thank god he was shy because it want so bad now that he was avoiding me. I mean he always tried to be nice, but it wasn't like he was starting a conversation in the locker room or whatever. like I said, I don't mind.

"He had to go home to help his mom out, but I told him I needed to talk to you," she said softly. This was the side of jet that I really liked. The soft, willing to please girl that I first started to like. She was easy to get along with and usually didn't mind my word vomit. And best of all, she actually listened to me. Not a lot of people do.

"OK, so what's up?" I played it cool. I knew that tina had to like me now that I was getting popular and was on the football team, but I had to be careful. She still had a boyfriend and she could easily decide to go back to him. I still had to win her over. Again.

"Look, I just wanna make it clear, we're doing this duet as friends, OK? I really like you as a friend artie and u don't wanna lose that over some relationship drama. That's for people like Quinn and Finn. We're way too cool for stuff like that." She smiled softly. "I just don't want you to get the wrong idea, OK?"

I nodded slowly. This didn't seem like the victory I'd planned at all. When was she gonna dump mike and realize it's me that she really belonged with? I could be tough too. I'd been working on my abs... I started, "Tina-"

"Shh..." She interrupted me. "Just please go with this. I already have a song and everything. We'll practice tomorrow at my place, OK?"

I just nodded, looking into my lap and hoping my disappointment wasn't too obvious. Tina tried to press her hand into mine, but I just rolled away, trying to figure out what I was ever gonna do.