A/N: so I've decided this will be the story to work on while I wait for more input from cannon episodes to continue Green Thoughts. Plus 'Feud' scared the crap out of me with that last bit, even after 'Guilty Pleasures'. So I've decided this would be a good way of testing out 's 4 character selection. Without further ado, Chapter one,

Rolling her eyes at herself, Kitty Wilde decided that this look was a little too 'girl detective'. There was nothing wrong with her clothes; it was just a frame of mind, and actions that she took.

Kitty just starting her first year of college, and was looking for a fresh start, something that didn't directly borrow from her application essay. In other words, it was time to ditch the leggings and peasant blouses, make her own way, and step out of her identity as that girl from McKinley high school- didn't you hear what happened?

Settling on a pair of yeans and a t-shirt that was just a size too small- it rode up a tad, giving a small expanse of skin the opportunity to peak through as she turned, studying herself in the mirror. Deciding 'good girl' was as close as she could get without falling into some other less likable and less desirable archetype, she accepted the look and surveyed the rest of the dorm room.

Basically, two beds, one for her roommate, obviously, two large panning windows, and a white wash treatment that Kitty suspected was the kind of money saving tactic the university writ off as a do it yourself art project for the walls. Kitty took little in the way of personal items. Besides the mirror and a few essentials, she took her camera (a gift from her mentor and third letter of recommendation writer, Quinn Fabray), a photo of her, Marley Rose, Jake Puckerman and Wade, AKA Unique, grinning like idiots in a group shot taken the day before graduation, and a Mac Notebook, plus her E-reader. The campus provided most odds and ends, what was too expensive to be bought on campus could be found in stores around the university, as this was a large city.

Kitty hoped large enough that her infamy wouldn't trail her here. Mostly, people left her alone, which was at first disconcerting, with her being in the spotlight for more than one reason back in high school, but then she welcomed the anonymity, as it gave her the freedom to do what she wanted, without coming across as distant.

And right now changing her style was what she wanted to do. Shedding her identity or at least the indicators of a past one, came easy. Cheerios went the way of the wind half way through junior year. Glee ended before it could really start. Being a bitch left her as people became unbearably nice, as though she suffered anything close to significant given the others who could have used their sympathies. Kitty became just a footnote for other peoples processing of events, and an excess one at that, were it not for her role in things. For a year the four in the photo stood apart from each other, and after that only Jake and Marley talked, seen sitting together in a comfortable silence that was preferable, and it wasn't until the last semester of their senior year that the four would come together, careful not to be seen, and become some fodder for gossip and rumor mills.

Kitty relished that time, and it was odd; being alone didn't bother her- she was the only member of her own unholy trinity, after all. Kitty chalked this up to the feeling of camaraderie and the absence of guilt: talking couldn't get anyone in trouble or under renewed interest without it being the fault of someone else who just as much should know better. Kitty took her place as a background character as their high school careers ended, eager to slip by unnoticed and coddled in their little nucleus of a group with the figurative castles collapsing around them.

Mr. Shuester was the first to go. Apparently there was some conflict, in which the teacher wanted to know how anything like this could have happened on school grounds and accused Principal Figgins of cutting security to the bone, and his cheapness being the cause. The administrator didn't take that too well, and ordered Mr. Shuester on paid leave.

The glee director reportedly told him to shove it up his ass.

Afterwards, the commotion carrying out into the hall, with Mr. Shuester escorted out of the building by an oddly sympathetic Coach Sylvester, and Coach Beiste playing damage control, students pooling out into the hall as the apparently drunk educator screamed at the top of his lungs. Kitty wished she hadn't stepped out to see. Upon seeing the diminutive blonde, even with what remained of the glee club only a door or two down, it was her he called on, to what exactly, Kitty still did not know, and when she averted her eyes from the near a hundred or so pairs on her and his erratic and wild ones, Shuester hissed something under his breath that sounded a lot like "you make me sick" although she couldn't be sure, as a slightly less Coach Sylvester pulled him hard followed by Coach Beiste's pitying look over her shoulder. Kitty wanted to stay in class, was determined to not look like she trying to slack off, or that anything out of the usual- she was the first back in her seat, and did not pay attention to how the rest of third period pre-Calculus burned holes into the Whiteboard, trying not to look at her, at least not directly. But the teacher, he asked her if she wanted to stay out the rest of the period. Kitty said no, but he insisted that if she wanted to, she could, and eventually Kitty gave in, leaving aware of the amount of restraint it took the class not to watch her go. She wandered the school aimlessly for twenty minutes, until her next class started, but then the same thing (word travels fast when the drunk instructor tells off the short defenseless blonde) the teacher implied that if leaving would be desired it was okay, and so by lunch, Kitty called her mom and asked to be picked up, as she really shouldn't be driving.

Finn fell next, unsurprisingly, even with Figgins trying to find a spot for the former student, in what was suspected as trying to avoid confirming Shuester's accusations. He left on his own accord, having no club to coach or fellow students left at the school from his time, easily slipping past and like Shuester never being heard of again by any of the current McKinley student body.

Coach Sylvester tried to keep her squad on the winning circuit but constantly fell to suspicions, especially after Kitty left, ironically to avoid that fate, that her Cheerios were emotionally damaged.

As McKinley's two stellar points fell, the school became lackluster, more so than it was, with dropping admission rates and frequent Superintendent visits. Figgins stayed, but as a shell of his former self. Other groups tried, somewhat on his behalf, to fill the void, but never attracted much attention, even if they won significant titles, which were hard to come by with worried boards, divisions and contest personnel.

As the auditorium and choir room went unused, Kitty became more adamant on graduating. Marley managed to do so early, with a few Advanced Placement courses under her belt, earning college credit. She took a semester off, and spent it at various volunteer centers, while spending time with her former cohorts.

As Kitty recalled, Marley looked much better outside of school than when attending, and her openness and renewed vigor restored Kitty's, Jake's and Unique's appetite for friendship.

Kitty felt like it was the first day of summer, here, on the first day of school even as the days began to cool, or the hours after a fever broke- damp but freer, as though something had let go, the breeze was sweet, and she could enjoy it now.

And it's still warm enough to go without a coat, Kitty thought brightly. Before she went out, though, she would check her mail. Bouncing on the bed, she queued up her provider, scrolled over the contents, particularly interested in her syllabus that should have been sent, ready for new classes: an elective in photography, a psych course, a hard science and a few the Registrar had picked out.

The syllabus was there. However, above it sent about an hour ago, with the McKinley notation, identifying its source. Perhaps a notice of a transcript or something, they would fuck it up… better check it out.

Kitty's breath caught in her throat after she clicked. The message was two lines, in two sentences, with a name she never thought she would hear again. Never wanted to hear or see again.

It read,

Have info on Katie Fitzgerald. Want to talk?