"We met for the first time since high school at Yale..."
Quinn Fabray sat in the main courtyard of Yale University. On her first day back from summer break, she saw a few familiar faces, and more than a few new ones. Quinn couldn't help but scope out the freshmen. They looked so lost, with their suitcases and campus maps tucked under their arms. A year ago, that was Quinn, making her way into the drama department, and now...Well, now, she was hardly noticed by anyone but the drama department. This place was not at all like high school, and she discovered that long ago.
Quinn began to walk, roam campus, and probably go down to the theatre to see if any old friends were hanging out over there. In her hands, Quinn carried a three-ring binder, a coffee cup, and a copy of the movie Serendipity, starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. She had promised Kacie, a friend from the drama department, that she'd bring her the DVD as soon as classes started back up. The movie had always been one of Quinn's favorites, with its portrayals of fate and romance, and the two combined, being one of those feel-good romantic comedies that just made her melt.
Suddenly, Quinn's face met the chest of a rather tall guy with a broad chest and a polo shirt a size too small for his body. He muttered a quick apology, but without hesitation, continued to meet up with whatever friend he was in such a rush to see. Quinn grimaced, kneeling over to pick up all of her fallen belongings. Her coffee had spilled, her sunglasses had fallen off of her face, and her binder was in an almost painful disarray. After getting the stuff back together, Quinn quickly recovered and restarted her walk toward the theatre. The soles of her shoes were sticking to the ground, because they were covered in spilled coffee, and were making this awful peeling sound every time she took a step. What a fantastic way to begin her sophomore year.
Amidst all the noise, Quinn couldn't help but hear a few "Hey"s stand out in the crowd. In such a big college campus, it would be ridiculous to even assume that someone was adressing you when they said "Hey." But something made Quinn turn around. When she did, she caught glimpse of a boy in a wheelchair, wheeling furiously toward her. Quinn propped her sunglasses up on top of her head, wondering what he could be wanting to talk to her for.
"You-" he started, clearly out of breath as he slowed down in front of her. "-you dropped this back there." He heaved, and held up the copy of Serendipity. Quinn sighed, and instantly felt embarrassed, awful, and like a completely bad person all at the same time. He rolled all this way...just to give her a DVD. How sweet. "I um..." started the boy, "...I love that movie too."
Quinn smiled, and took the DVD from him. "Thank you. I was bringing it for a friend. It's one of my favorites." She looked down at the boy. He had brown hair and was wearing a sweatervest. He looked familiar, but missing something. Something that would make it click as to exactly who he was. And suddenly, Quinn gasped with realization. "Artie Abrams." she exclaimed, a hand over her mouth. She did not expect to ever see anyone from McKinley here at Yale. Ever. This was some kind of strange mixture of her old life and her new life, and she was unsure as to how to handle it. Sure, Quinn had gone home for about a month during the summer. The rest of the vacation she spent in Hawaii with her mom and Frannie. But while she was in Lima, the only people she saw were Santana, Brittany, and Mercedes, not counting the few other familiar faces that she passed by in the grocery store.
Artie reached down into his pocket and pulled out his glasses (so that's what he was missing). He blinked a few times, then looked taken aback himself.
"Quinn Fabray." he commented, kind of in disbelief. "That's right...you go here." he smirked, looking embarrassed himself.
Quinn chuckled. "Uh...yeah." she said, nodding. "I've been here for a year now. So...freshman?" she smirked down at Artie, and decided to take a seat next to his chair.
Artie gave a mocking smile, and shook his head. "Nope. I took enough AP classes last year and now I'm in here as a sophomore. I'm one of you, Q." Quinn laughed.
"Well, I was just on my way to the theatre. It's kind of...a hangout for the drama and film departments." she shrugged, standing. "You can come, too, I mean, I know you liked directing..."
Artie smiled. "Talk about serendipity..." he gestured to the DVD. "...I'm actually looking into Film Studies. It's a real major, I checked." Quinn laughed. She knew a bunch of film majors, and they were mostly cool, but a few were stuckup aspiring Spielbergs. But that didn't stop her from accepting roles in their student films. A role was a role. "I was actually kind of lost until now."
Quinn smirked. "Yeah, the campus map can be sort of confusing." she sighed, remembering her first day there and how lost she was. "I guess the freshman feeling still exists even when you're a sophomore, huh?" she bumped the side of his wheelchair with her hip teasingly.
"Ha-ha." Artie remarked. "I guess so. What's the drama department like?" he asked.
Quinn shrugged. "A lot of them are cool. A lot of them are pretentious. I mean, this is Yale after all. One of the most prestigious schools in the country. Pretention is inevitable. But I try not to let that handful define the entire campus, because, well...it's breathtaking here."
"It is. I've been here for two hours and I'm just...in awe." Artie gushed.
Smiling, Quinn looked down at Artie and replied, "I know. It takes some getting used to." She paused. "...So how was your senior year? How's Mr. Schue?"
Artie shook his head. "Senior year was crazy. It was so weird in glee club without all the seniors. No Rachel to irritate everyone, no Santana to make rude remarks, no Puck being awesome as all hell. We...really missed you guys." He then quieted, as if mentioning Quinn's baby daddy might have turned the conversation to an awkward note. Quinn smirked. Puck was one other person she'd somewhat kept in touch with in the past year. He kept her posted on whenever he got to see their daughter, Beth, and though Quinn wasn't necessarily granted access yet, he said that Shelby was on her way to forgiving her.
"Do you and Puck still talk? I mean...I know you were good friends at the beginning of junior year." she commented, since Puck had never really mentioned Artie. But that wasn't fair to jump to such an assumption because, well, she and Puck hardly spoke. Quinn could hear a similar peeling sound like the one from the bottom of her shoes coming from Artie's chair. So he'd rolled through the spilled coffee, too, huh?
Artie nodded. "Sometimes. He used to come over and play Halo. But we're still friends, yeah." he nodded. Quinn gave a grin. She'd always really liked the friendship between Artie and Puck. They were the kind of friends that balanced each other out. As they approached the theatre, Quinn felt her chest fill with nostalgia. She hadn't performed in there since last March, and as long as she was with an old high school friend, nostalgic feelings were unavoidable.
"Here it is." she smiled and leaned against the stage door. "It's kind of like a second home, but I think the musical theatre kids would probably come at me with pitchforks for saying that." Artie laughed.
"Well lucky me, I'm a director. Anywhere I can boss people around is a home to me." The two chuckled, and soon began reminiscing about West Side Story, the first musical Artie had ever directed.
"You did brilliantly in West Side Story. Did you do any directing last year?"she asked curiously. If the thought had crossed her mind then, Quinn definitely would've attended any production directed by this amazing guy. He was a visionary, and she loved that. And she could tell that he was the happiest when he was watching people bring his visions to life.
"Yeah, actually. We did Guys and Dolls. It was a blast." he sighed, obviously remembering the production. Judging by the look on his face, it was something amazing. Quinn wished she'd have seen it. But for now, all she did was smile down at this piece of her past who just waltzed into her present, and it felt kind of...right.
The stage door to the theatre opened, making Quinn jump. Kacie stood there with her arms folded over her chest, eyeing Quinn. "Making new friends already, Q?" she smirked. "And gee, I thought we had something special." Her brown curls bobbed, beneath her beanie, as she waited for Quinn to say something.
Quinn quickly snapped out of her nostalgia, and looked up at Kacie. "Oh! Um...Artie, this is Kacie, Kacie, this is Artie. He and I went to high school together."
Kacie sized Artie up with a glance, didn't look particularly pleased, then looked back to Quinn. "So wasn't there a movie you were supposed to bring me?" From the sound of her voice, Quinn knew she was expecting her to have forgotten it.
"Actually, thanks to Artie here, the movie would still have been on the pavement in the main courtyard." Quinn rested a hand on his shoulder, a gesture she'd done a few times before in her life, and handed Kacie the DVD. The look on her face was priceless.
Artie popped the collar of his sweatervest and smirked. "You know how I do." He and Quinn were then sent into a fit of laughter. Kacie rolled her eyes and looked at the cover of the DVD.
"Serendipity." she read aloud. "I've heard that word so many times in my life, and I still have no idea know what it even means." she frowned.
Artie spoke to Kacie, but couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of Quinn. "It means something that happened...by fate." he said. Quinn smiled down at him, and pushed his head away with her hand, breaking the eye contact. The eye contact was kind of intense, and she needed a better way to break it than by just turning away.
"Yeah." she nodded to her friend. "What he said." she took a breath in the silence, and let it out before peering back over to Artie, who quickly looked away. "What he said." she repeated.