AN: So this is my very first attempt at a glee fic therefore the journey should be interesting for the both of us. This is also going to be the first story uploaded after a very long hiatus. The story overall will be AU but I do plan to incorporate some things from the actual content of the show during season 3. This story will begin in the beginning of season 3. I just could not get the idea out of my head so here goes. I also don't own any of the characters except the OC's you do not previously recognize.

Dear mother,
Can you hear me whining?
It's been three whole weeks
Since that I have left your home
This sudden fear has left me trembling
Cause now it seems that I am out here on my own
And I'm feeling so alone

Chapter 1: Welcome to Paradise

Marissa Novak began her first day back to school hitting the floorboards like a pile of bricks. If anyone else in the house actually cared or were not suffering a routine alcohol induced blackout, they may have scurried up the attic steps to check on her. Seeing as there were no such inhabitants, Marissa's slight embarrassment was hers alone to bear. It had been about a month since her beloved friend Kailani had left for a visit with her grandparents who still resided in Hawaii. She was gone till the end of summer which forced Marissa to bite the bullet and go back to her father's house. Yet even after almost a month, she was unable to get used to sleeping in this awfully small twin bed. Marissa stumbled over to her dresser fumbling with the drawers to find something to wear. A pair of dark denim jeans and a maroon t-shirt would be just fine.

To say that Marissa and her father did not get along would be the understatement of a lifetime. It wasn't till 6 months ago that they even spoke a word to each other, yet she was supposed to live with him until the next summer when she would finally be 18. Her mother had raised her in California, and after meeting her father in person, she could see exactly why. Alcoholism and cruelty were his most obvious traits, but let's not forget his racist mindset either. Kailani was only known by one name to him and that was "the savage". After that incident, Marissa learned never to bring another person to this house again. When she looked in the mirror, she was reminded that she was nothing like him, not even in appearance. Her pale complexion and thick dark brown waves directly resembled her mothers. The piercing blue eyes staring back at her were identical to her grandmother's. Her father had honey blond hair and dark chocolate eyes that never lightened.

Her parents had both been from this small town of Lima, Ohio but her mother had been the only one with the guts to leave and never look back. Her grandfather had followed shortly after his wife passed on when Marissa was about 3 years of age. From that day on, her mother and grandfather were her world. She benefitted from the surrogate father figure till his timely death when she was 12. Marissa always smiled when she got into his blue 1969 Camaro that was now hers. He used to take her to the local ice cream shop on the way to the pier for fishing, she remembered fondly. This car was really the only thing she had left that was still the same as she remembered.

Since she had met "Lani" and they bonded over their involuntary displacement from their dwellings by the sea, she had heavily relied on her as a way out of the confinement of her father's presence. For the first part of the summer, Marissa had become a permanent fixture at their estate on the outskirts of town. Lani loved to dance so the girls spent most of their free time developing dance routines and listening to music. As a result Marissa had lost a lot of the weight she had put on after her mother's death. While Lani had been gone, she started volunteering around town for another excuse not to be home. Marissa was probably the only senior right now that was ecstatic for the beginning of the semester.

As she made her way through the mass of students to get to class, there were none of the regular "hey, how was your summer"s or "oh it's so good to see you"s because aside from Lani, nobody knew who she was. She had kept to herself mostly and flew under the radar when the opportunity arose. Mckinley High was nothing to brag about except their levels of gossip seemed to be at a record breaking high. Marissa had believed that flying under the radar had been her only saving grace. People still couldn't place a name to her face if their life depended on it, and frankly that was fine by her. There were days when she honestly thought people looked right through her without noticing her existence at all. She had never been like that before, but social interactions just had not felt the same since. The more people who knew her, the more sympathetic stares she would have to endure, and she just hated the thought with a passion.

This year would be different than the last. It had to be and it would be, Marissa had decided over the summer. This was her senior year and she was determined to make the most of it. Transferring to a new school midway through junior year had been far from ideal but she had survived so far. She would raise her grades back to the A and B range that they had never strayed from until the year before. Focus was key. All she needed to do was be attentive and all would be back to normal again. Wait what are we doing? As if on cue she was brought back to reality, when the teacher stopped talking and students started getting up out of their seats and forming a line. Had they not just finished taking attendance a few minutes ago? This was only her first class of the day and she was already falling into the daydreaming habit she had picked up recently to distract herself almost constantly. Photography seemed like a great class to take to maybe express those pent up feelings that muddled her thoughts. She had loved taking photos of friends and events and the world around her before so why not get an art credit for it now? When it was her turn, she walked up to the teacher, responded with her name and was assigned a camera. Apparently she had lucked out because the school had cut the art department's budget, so some people would have to share equipment but no one was familiar enough with her to ask. They had not gotten new cameras this year but at one point when the faculty actually cared about photography they had insisted on multiple dark rooms to increase productivity and decrease wait times. Now that just meant you would have to squeeze into one of these cubicle dark rooms with an extra person to bump into. As the teacher began going over the syllabus but before she could tune out in the back of the classroom, the door abruptly flew open.

"Noah Puckerman" the teacher announced. "Am I going to have the pleasure of you in my class once again this semester?" She sighed.

The guy genuinely looked apologetic when he replied. "Yea sorry I'm late teach, there was some scheduling errors down at the office. Won't be a habit."

"Alright well I think there's a seat left in the back. Here is a copy of the syllabus. You unfortunately missed equipment assigning which means someone is going to have to volunteer to be your partner." She looked at the class expectantly.

Marissa looked around the room and not one hand had risen to help out. She found this a bit surprising since the guy definitely did not lack in the looks department. Although it was now common knowledge that he was repeating the course, that could be it. But really that didn't seem like a big enough deal for literally every guy in the class to avert their eyes from the front of the room and desperately look for something interesting in the syllabus that might just appear if they willed and searched hard enough. Noah Puckerman, the name sounded familiar and she could have sworn she had seen him before even if she had not kept up with the latest crucial gossip. People dawning mohawks did tend to stick out in the mind's eye. Before the teacher had to draw names out of a hat or that student had to bare a moment more of ridicule, she felt her hand slowly rise above her head. If she had to place a bet, she would most likely regret the decision later but she was not completely void of emotion, especially empathy. The teacher gave her a grateful smile and asked for her name once again, making it apparent that Marissa had not made an impression earlier.

"Marissa Novak." She emphasized and inwardly threatened her that she better not forget her name and act of compassion when final grades were posted.

As if he had received a sudden burst of reassurance to his ego, Puck sauntered to the back of the classroom and settled into the open seat beside hers.

"Thanks" he whispered to her with a grin.

She gave him a small smile and a reassuring "no problem".

"You can call me Puck…everyone does."

"I thought your name was Noah." She said in a tone that seemed more questioning than fact, which earned a chuckle from him.

"You can call me whatever you like baby."

Marissa almost had to do a double take because she simply could not believe there was the possibility he had actually winked at her. 'Oh boy this was going to be an interesting semester' she thought turning her attention back to the teacher.

The rest of class period was dull like most first days tend to be but their teacher was gracious enough to provide a homework assignment on the first day back from break. They would have to go through and read all about the different features of the camera in the textbook and fill out a worksheet. This way they would be able to begin with projects sooner she had reasoned. Being in a classroom for extended amounts of time was something Marissa personally detested, and one of the main reasons for taking this course was because she had heard the teacher allowed them to just go outside and around the campus in search of inspiration and taking photographs. As soon as the teacher dismissed the students, which happened to be a couple of minutes early as if trying to get back into their good graces, Marissa ambled out attempting to try and find the science wing. Literally out of nowhere, someone tapped her on the shoulder so lightly, for a moment she almost thought she had imagined the sensation. She swung around so fast, as if trying to catch the fleeting feeling before it disappeared, that she was pretty sure he thought she was going to punch him.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you. I just wanted to say thanks again for partnering up with me." There he was again with that same smirk.

"It's really not a problem, like I said. We can say you owe me one if it makes you feel better." She brushed it off and continued walking down the hall.

To her surprise, he continued along beside her and attempted to make conversation.

"Do you like coffee?"

"Love it." She confessed

"Well I could bring you some tomorrow morning if you'd like. It makes getting through Mrs, Hannigan's lectures bearable."

"Ok but you still owe me." She highly doubted he would make good on the offer let alone remember that early in the day.

"Of course, I'll happily owe you anything you choose." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"You're pretty forward with all of your innuendoes. Does that usually work with other girls?" He stared at her a bit caught off guard. "I mean we did just meet. What if they offended me?" she continued with a serious straight face.

"I'm sorry, are you offended?" he asked showing honest concern.

"Well no" she giggled. "I might be if I didn't have an endless supply of my own that are pretty clever if I do say so myself. Yours do successfully make me laugh though. I appreciate good humor." That sounded a lot flirtier than she had originally intended. Was that a glimmer of her former self?

"Are you questioning my badassness?"

"How can I when we just met? I haven't figured you out just yet."

"You will though" he assured.

"Okay well, I should be getting to my anatomy class…..if I could find it. I'll see you tomorrow."

"What room?"

"405."

"I'll have you there in a few seconds, come on." He grabbed Marissa's hand and led her down the hall a ways and up a flight of stairs. The simple act of Puck grabbing her hand, made Marissa need to catch a breath. Well it could have been the fact that he was practically dragging her along, because when he said a few seconds, he had meant it. Although it most likely wasn't that because she was in the best shape she had been in a long time.

"Artie man, wait up!" Puck briskly walked toward a boy in a wheelchair who was approaching the classroom marked 405. She recognized him from previous times volunteering to hold various doors open, but had never caught his name.

"Hey puck, are you taking anatomy too?" he asked with a furrowed brow as if skeptic of the idea.

"Naw I'm off to es-pan-yol with Schuester, Finn, and Mike. But my girl Marissa here is so you can keep her company for me." And as quick as he had appeared he was gone.

Upon entering the classroom Artie seemed to get psyched, then proceeded to roll over to a table with four chairs that only had one occupied so far. A blonde guy with blue eyes gave a huge smile. They greeted each other with an air of familiarity and she was soon introduced to the boy Sam. After meeting him, she swore mentally that the Bieber song would haunt her for the rest of the day. After 15 minutes had gone by and there was still no sign of the teacher, the students all became restless. Then suddenly the door popped open and in ran Santana Lopez, the local queen of bitch fits. Marissa had never spoken to her, but she had witnessed her getting wiped across the floors by a much larger girl last year. Santana was sporting a look of dread as she approached their table.

"We are all screwed."she said sitting down on the other side of Sam. She then proceeded to explain that Sue Sylvester was replacing our teacher who was assigned previously. Marissa watched ad heard several students bang their heads down onto the tables and curse under their breath when Sue appeared in the doorway, making her presence known. She instantly wondered how a cheerleading coach from hell was going to teach them about the internal body structures. Although as soon as Sue opened her mouth, she realized there would be a lot more to worry about than just that issue. Sue began taking attendance, but instead of going through the list like any normal teacher would, she decided to rename each student with a specific nickname she preferred. According to Sue, Marissa had fallen into a social black hole by associating with glee club members. After the attention was off her, she caught Santana giving her a look filled with questions, which she guessed was based on the fact they did not really know each other and Sue basically had just drawn attention to that fact. And as if on cue, Santana vocalized the inner question of who exactly was she?

"She's dating Puck." Artie replied as if it was common knowledge.

"Um no, we actually just met today. We share photo equipment, that's all." Marissa assured.

"If that's what you call it. Wait till Quinn finds out. " Santana sneered.

"I'm not dating anyone!" Marissa insisted. "And who the hell is Quinn?

"You don't know who Quinn Fabray is? I highly doubt that. Scandal is like her middle name. Especially when Puck is involved." Santana continued.

"Okay well I transferred during spring semester and I know basically one person in this school until today. Sorry if I'm not all into who's dating and who isn't and who has. In all honesty I don't really care either." Marissa confessed.

"Well that's good because the gleeks can't seem to stop trading dates like they're pokemon cards." Sue chirmed in. "That's enough for today, tomorrow we'll start in on how to properly use the instruments. Now get out of here."

"This semester is officially going to suck now." Santana lamented.

"I wonder if it's too late to switch classes?" Sam pondered aloud partly to himself.

"So from what I gather, Sue equals the antichrist." Marissa deducts.

"No, actually I'm pretty sure even the antichrist would say FML if they met Sue." Artie concludes.

Dear mother,
Can you hear me laughing
It's been six whole months
Since that I have left your home
It makes me wonder why I'm still here
For some strange reason it's now
Feeling like my home

Lyrics: Welcome to Paradise by Green Day

AN: If you actually got to this point I applaud you and would love to know what you thought! This first chapter is a lot of background and might be a bit slow but I promise there will be more story progression in the following chapters to come. Let me know what you guys think, should I continue? Good or bad, let me know. Also I have some general ideas on where I want the story to go but we will see. This chapter seemed a lot longer than I originally planned, but it was a lot of background details. If you enjoyed it, reviews will definitely motivate me to update faster :) Also make sure to subscribe for the latest updates