Welcome to "No Longer Children"! Now, while I suggest reading The Hummel-Andersons first since that's got all the start of the different storylines in them, I suppose you're all intelligent enough to catch on quickly.
There's a page on my website I set up to show the characters of The Hummel-Andersons and there is now one for "No Longer Children" - so be sure to check it out!
Chapter 1
At that moment, Kurt Hummel-Anderson was pacing the kitchen and rattling off comments of some kind to himself so quickly that neither of his children could understand - even his husband was quite confused, watching with his head tilted rather like a puppy.
"-So you've packed your lunch, right?" Kurt questioned his daughter urgently.
Meggie nodded silently.
"Good," Kurt breathed before remembering something. "Oh no. Did you-"
"Yes, Dad, I packed all of my equipment," The teenage girl interrupted for what felt like the fifteenth time.
The countertenor bit his lip softly. "Okay...stand up. I need to see how you look."
"Dad!" Meggie groaned, shooting him an icy glare. "I'm nearly fifteen! I can dress myself, you know!"
Kurt folded his arms and sent her a look. "Meggie. Stand up please."
Knowing she had no choice, she did so and stepped away from the breakfast table so that he could survey her appearance properly. "Dad, this is a little drastic, don't you think?"
"Hmm... Okay, fine, your clothes are alright," Kurt mumbled, almost to himself, before stepping forwards to get a better look at her hair. "It's straightened, so I suppose that's not too bad. It could probably use a brush or something just to get out any hard-to-find tangles."
Blaine looked between his daughter and husband, grinning amusedly to himself. Liam also smirked, leaning in closer to the tenor so that they could mutter between themselves. "We're never gonna let them forget this, are we?"
"Nope," Blaine replied in agreement. "Definitely not. Still...if your Dad doesn't stop, she'll never even make it to school..." He stood up and stepped forwards, putting his hand on Kurt's shoulder. "Kurt, honey," He laughed affectionately, separating him from their daughter. "I get that you're worried, but I think Meggie's got this under control."
Kurt looked at him, bottom lip wobbling slightly. "I know," He sighed, looking quite saddened. "But it's just...she's so grown up and everything, and I just... I want to make sure that everything's going to be okay."
"It will be," Blaine assured him, shaking his head and smiling. "Kurt, it's only High School - what's the worst that can happen?"
The taller man sent his husband a look. "You know what could happen, thank you very much."
"Yes, but why depress ourselves with that kind of talk?" The younger man asked rhetorically, squeezing his husband's shoulders. "Look, I'm nervous too, but we've to just step back now and start letting her do her own thing."
Kurt sighed again, giving in. "Alright fine. But-" He sent his husband a mischievous look. "We can still step in sometimes, right?"
Blaine laughed. "Kurt, it wouldn't be the same if we didn't step in."
The halls of New York High were full within minutes that Monday morning; some students who had been attending in years prior grumbled about having to come back while others (particularly seniors) stated that they were going to have the "best year ever". Freshman were also in the halls, unsurely walking around and looking for their home rooms on their very first day - to them, this was not easy at all.
Mr Matthew Garretts - nicknamed "Garretts" by teachers and students alike - smiled as he surveyed the corridors that morning; drinking his usual cup of coffee, he stood with his back against a wall and sent the students passing by friendly smiles. "Hey!" He greeted, sending a group of freshman students an encouraging smile.
"Already trying to butter up the new students?"
Garretts turned to face his fellow teacher and smiled sheepishly. "What? They're nervous, you know: it doesn't hurt."
The other man just rolled his eyes at him. Mr Joseph Ryans - nicknamed similarly as "Ryans" - was slightly older than Garretts was, but was no less kind than his co-worker was. "So, do you have any freshman classes today?"
"Nope," Garretts replied cheerfully. "But I have a couple tomorrow. Why? How about you?"
"First and last," Ryans responded dryly, looking quite unhopeful. "I just hope that they're not like last year's freshman class - now they had no respect for literature or the English language whatsoever...and about half of them didn't know how to use grammar properly."
The taller man laughed. "Yeah, well, if it helps a lot of students don't take Drama all too seriously either; they see it as a chance to just hang out with their friends."
The bell rung and both men sighed to themselves. "I have a freshman class for homeroom," The older man said grudgingly, starting to walk away. "I'll see you at lunch."
Meggie Hummel-Anderson was fourteen - nearly fifteen, mind you - and nervous. Why? Well, because she was starting High School that morning. Even just sitting in homeroom was making her feel edgy, for God's sake. But it wasn't just that - oh, no... She had a gig that evening as well.
A singing gig.
Blaine had managed to organise it for her; since he had been working as an evening entertainer for one of the most popular restaurants in New York for the past few years, he was now on good enough terms with the manager to request that his daughter get a chance to perform. The only available slot was at dinner time (when it would be crowded, of course) and on the very day that she started a new chapter of her life.
Honestly? She wasn't having all that great a day.
Of course, she hadn't told her friends about this: they would have wanted to come and see her, which would have been nothing short of embarrassing and awkward. Hell, it was bad enough that her dads and brother were going to be there...and then they'd invited her Grandpa Jamie and Grandma Rosie too. It just kept getting worse.
"Oh, lighten up," She heard her friend, Thomas, chuckle as he leant back in his chair next to her. "High School's gonna be okay."
Meggie shot him a dark look. "Is that why you were up until midnight texting me about how much you didn't want to come in? Or maybe why you've been self-har-"
"There's no need to say it how loud!" Thomas snapped, sitting forwards in his chair properly and looking around nervously to see if anyone had overheard. "God, Meggie...I don't want to be labelled as an 'emo' or anything, especially not on the first day!"
The teenage girl just smiled dryly. "Then stop doing it."
At that moment, another girl dropped into the seat in front of them; tall with dark hair and high cheekbones was Pepper Pendleton, one of their best friends. "Hey guys!" She greeted brightly. "So? What did you guys do over the Summer?"
"We just hung out," Meggie answered, shrugging non-chalantly. "It wasn't anything too interesting. How about you?"
"I just helped my Dad out in the shop he works at now," Pepper replied. "I feel bad sometimes, you know, him working all of the time just to pay for all of the things I need...so I decided it'd be nice to help him out a little." She gave them both a large smile before looking at Meggie specifically. "So, I've been thinking all through the Summer that once we got here then there's be loads of clubs for us to join together - what do you say?"
Meggie raised an eyebrow. "It depends. What clubs are we talking about?"
"We're both great at dancing," The taller girl continued enthusiastically. "So...how about we try out for cheerleading or something?"
Thomas burst out laughing, ducking underneath the table to hide his sniggers and snorts from the girls. They both sent him scathing looks as he tried to calm himself down. "S-Sorry...I was just imagining you two in cheerleading u-u-uniforms!"
"Thanks," Meggie muttered, suddenly feeling really awful. "Pepper, I don't really think I'd be all that good at cheerleading-"
"But why not?" Pepper demanded to know, looking rather put out. "You're a great dancer, and that'll help you do well on the cheer squad...and don't listen to that silly little boy-" At this she sent their male friend a glare. "You wouldn't look ridiculous in a uniform either - in fact, they're quite slimming."
The shorter girl opened her mouth to answer - with what, she didn't even know - but then a teacher walked in and the classroom immediately fell silent.
"Good morning!" The man - tall with greying blonde hair - greeted, eyes bright behind his glasses. "So, my name is Mr Ryans-" He picked up a marker pen and wrote it on the board before continuing. "And you will address me as such when I am talking to you...but you may call me Ryans if you want to behind my back."
Meggie grinned, already liking him.
"So, since we have an extended homeroom session this morning to get us all settled back into school," Mr Ryans said, throwing the board pen down and clapping his hands together. "I think we should all focus on getting to know each other. So, if you will, I'd like you all to stand up and stand against the walls...that's right, like that...and in a circle shape so that we can all see each other."
There was a series of loud scraping noises as the students all stood up and scrambled to stand next to their friends; Meggie managed to squeeze herself in between Thomas and Pepper, waiting to see what this teacher was planning next.
"Very good!" The teacher announced, standing in the middle of the formation and grinning around at everyone. "So, I will point to someone at random, and you will each tell us all your name and one interesting fact about yourself. We will go around in a clockwise direction, okay?"
"Oh, how original," A blonde girl remarked sarcastically from across the room, causing her friends to giggle loudly.
The teacher closed his eyes and spun around to point at someone randomly; he ended up pointing at the blonde girl, clearly on purpose, and waited for her to start.
The blonde, while surprised, straightened up and shook her hair over her shoulder in a rather graceful way. "My name is Tammy, and I have won nine cheerleading competitions in a row."
Something told Meggie that she wasn't very nice - and that she'd definitely try out for the cheerleading squad.
They went around the circle, some people obviously making up facts on the spot to sound interesting while others just muttered that they had a pet or a sibling; a few people managed to come up with interesting points that made the teacher nod in approval and some of the students make impressed noises.
When it was Pepper's turn, she smiled around at everyone kindly. "Hi! My name's Pepper and I like poetry."
"Oh really?" Mr Ryans questioned, looking somewhat impressed. "Do you read a lot then, Pepper?"
Pepper went bright red when her friends looked at her curiously, clearly not expecting it to go further than that. "Yeah," She admitted, nodding truthfully. "My dad has a lot of poetry books at home, so I read those a lot."
"Do you have a favourite one?" Mr Ryans asked, smiling at her encouragingly. "And don't worry: I'm not expecting you to recite a whole poem for me right now."
The tall girl gave another nervous nod. "Yes. It's called "Woman Work" but I can't remember who wrote it."
"That's very interesting," Mr Ryans agreed, giving her a small smile to let her know she had done well. "And the poet is a woman named Maya Angelou, for anyone wondering. Anyway, let's carry on."
And now it was Meggie's turn.
"Hello," She greeted anxiously, looking around at everyone. "I-I'm Meggie and I...I like to dance."
The blonde - Tammy - burst out laughing for some reason, her friends joining in. The teacher turned around, giving her a look to silence her before his attention returned to Meggie. "Dancing, huh? I see. What kind of dancing?"
"A-All kinds, really," She continued, somewhat persuaded to keep going with the kindness in his voice. "I do it whenever I can; I go to several classes and stuff, so..."
"Fantastic," Mr Ryans told her, giving her a look in the hopes it would make her less nervous. "I hope that you continue doing that, Meggie, because dancing is one of the most amazing things out there."
Her mouth fell open, quite astounded. There were some mutterings from around the room, most of them mentioning something about her being a "teacher's pet" and she went bright red in the face.
"And what about you, young man?" The teacher continued, turning to Thomas now. "What is your name?"
"Thomas," The teenage boy said, looking quite uncomfortable; it was clear he didn't want to share anything about himself in the fear of rejection. "And...I...uhm..."
"He likes Harry Potter," Meggie interjected, unable to help it.
He sent her a thankful look. "Yeah, I like Harry Potter: my favourite book is the last one with the big battle and all that."
"Uh-huh," The teacher said, quite bemused by this. "Alright then. Let's carry on...what about you?"
"My name is Brodie," A familiar voice piped up, and Meggie craned her neck to look to see who it was. "And I used to live in London in England."
Brodie. Meggie felt her heart thump at the sight of her third best friend: she hated to admit it, but she had a rather obvious crush on him...well, apparently not all that obvious since he didn't actually know it himself.
"London?" Mr Ryans asked, looking quite surprised. "What a coincidence - I was brought up in England until I was fifteen and my parents moved out here for my father's job."
Brodie sent the teacher an easy smile. "Cool. I kind of miss England, I guess, but New York is great too. I've met some really great people here." Thomas, Meggie and Pepper all smiled around at each other, honoured by this comment: Brodie sent the three of them a cheeky smile, cheeks going pink.
As stressful as this whole High School thing was, at least they still had each other.
So, this is the first chapter. No, the won't all be this short but I find that nothing is harder than establishing a story, so...hopefully the chapters will become longer and longer.
Anyway, hello again guys! :) It feels kind of refreshing to write a few years into the future, when the kids are all grown up and their own people - they have lots to go through and they'll develop.
Alright, let me make this clear from the go: there WILL be a Glee Club. I mean, come on; Kurt and Blaine were both show choir champions, what kind of author would I be if their children didn't try to do the same? However, unlike GLEE, the story will not be focused all around the club trying to win competitions or anything like that - it's simply another plot alongside many others.
So, feel free to review guys!