Another year at McKinley, another year of glee club and football and baseball, and well of course classes. And how could one forget another year of drama. The year's incoming freshman included, Heather Jones, Zoey and Elijah Lynn, Abigail Chang, Samantha and Aria Lopez-Pierce, Alexis Evans-Abrams, Kevin Abrams, Elizabeth Flanagan, Gannon Puckerman, Sienna Anderson-Hummel, and Trenton Hudson.
Joshua Hudson was on top of the world, he was almost exactly like his father. The top of the proverbial food chain. So naturally he was the one all his aunts and uncles went to, to just have their kid's backs. Uncle Ryder had asked him to watch out for Elijah and Zoey, but Josh was pretty sure Gracie had that one covered. His parents had asked him to watch after Trenton, but he seemed to be doing fairly well. His uncle Artie had asked him to look after Alexis and Kevin. He and Mark were best friends and they had been all their lives but he wasn't as popular as Josh and didn't have as much pull to keep Alex and Kevin safe.
In the process of going to find Kevin to see if he wanted to join him for lunch Josh found Elijah being held up against some lockers, two hockey dudes taunting him about his fag parents. "Hey knock it the hell off mullet boys!" the two boys fled, promptly dropping Eli. "Thanks Josh."
"No prob dude. I'll keep an eye on those two, make sure they don't mess with Zoe." Eli nodded and hurried off to the class he was no doubt late for.
Josh walked off, he was walking past the choir room where he saw Lexi sitting there with slushie all over him, Caitlin and Wendy were dabbing him with towels. Josh popped his head in making sure his sister was okay too. "Hey, you guys okay?" Lexi sniffled and Caitlin turned to him, her cheek was bruised.
"Who the hell did this to you? Did someone hit you? Did HE hit you?"
Caitlin looked at him, "Oh my god Josh! The floor of the girl's bathroom was wet and I slipped, some nervous freshman had puked earlier so the floor had just been mopped. If you really wanna help tell the jock who slushied Lexi to screw off." Josh sighed and slowly backed out of the room because his sister was kinda scary.
He was walking towards the locker room when he finally found Kevin. He was sitting in the hall slumped up against some lockers. "Hey, have you eaten yet?"
"No, too afraid."
Josh laughed and held his hand out to Kevin only letting go when they were walking through the cafeteria, "I- uh uh sorry." Kevin smiled and told him that it was okay repeatedly till he calmed down.
They sat down at a table and were soon joined by Mark, Wendy, Oscar, Frankie, Gracie, and Kayleigh.
"So," Wendy started, "have any of you guys seen Lissy?" Everyone made the nope not at all face.
"Has anyone seen Zoe and Eli, mum and dad said to watch them if I could but I haven't seen them once."
"Yeah- I saw Eli getting taunted by some mullet-heads, don't worry though I intervened. I haven't seen Zoey though." Gracie nodded calmly, but they all heard her plastic fork snap in half.
"So Kev, how's your first day been?"
"Scary at first, but now it's wonderful." Kevin glanced over at Josh smiling. Mark of course didn't notice the exchange between his little brother and his best friend. And he especially didn't notice that the smile was returned, Frankie, Oscar, Wendy, and Gracie on the other hand did. Before either had time to question it Caitlin and Kymmie sat down.
"Frankie." Kymmie started, "Have you seen Ali?"
"No, why the hell would I care if I had?" Kayleigh looked over at Frankie. "Frankie be nice, she's your baby sister." Frankie rolled her eyes giving into her best friend's request. "No, I have not seen Ali."
The lunch bell rang and they all got up and got their bags, Wendy walked over to Josh. "Hey can we hang out after school, I- I need to talk to you." Josh nodded
Wendy walked to her next class only stopping when she saw Lynn Karofsky harassing Zoey about her fag family of fag parents and her freaky fagilla sister.
Wendy immediately intervened. "Hey back off! You can't treat people this way and expect to get away with it! There's nothing wrong with her family! Clearly there's something wrong with you though!" Lynn huffed and stormed off.
Zoey fell to the floor and took a deep breath, Wendy helped her up just as Bailey, Sienna, and Heather came running down the hall looking for her. Wendy handed her off to the three girls and walked to class.
Zoey told her friends that she was fine and that she'd see them in a few she had something to do. They nodded telling her they'd see her in lunch. She walked down the empty hallway and just as she was about to turn the corner she heard a noise. It was two people in an intense conversation; the whispers were hushed but passionate. Zoey peeked around the corner and saw her "cousin" Caitlin being held by the arm by a boy in a black sweatshirt with long black hair. His other hand was holding onto her face tightly. She watched them whisper and then him stomp of. Caitlin fell to the floor and rolled down her sleeve to hide the already big purple bruise. Zoey forgot the reason she was walking down the hall and ran to lunch.
Caitlin stood up slowly and walked to the girls bathroom to re-do her makeup. Careful over her cheek she wiped off her make-up and applied a new coat, careful to hide her tear streaks. As she pushed up her sleeve to check the bruise Wendy walked into the bathroom. "Hey Caitie… what the hell is that!?"
"Wendy shut up it's nothing!" she grabbed her bag and pushed past Wendy running to her next class, totally skipping lunch. She rushed past Destiny and Shay who were up against the lockers whispering to each other sweetly. "Wonder what's wrong with Caitlin…"
Destiny laughed, "Probably another fight with auntie Rach over god knows what." Shay laughed and the bell ring letting them out for the day. "I need to go find Alex, Mark, and Kev. You should probably go find Kodey, Av, and Enna." Destiny sighed kissing her girlfriend and going off to find her siblings.
Shay found Alex sitting with Lissy talking about something obscure. Mark was off trying to find Kev who was with Josh, something that Shay found odd. She wrangled the troops and forced them to pile into her SUV.
"So Kev how was the first day?"
"Magic."
Shay and Alex giggled both knew that tone, he'd met someone; more particularly he met a boy. Mark was as usual oblivious. They watched as Kevin's phone went off and he smiled at who ever had texted him. The girls giggled some more while Mark mindlessly played candy crush.
Josh put his phone in his pocket and unlocked the door to the house, his dad a music professor at Ohio State was still at work and his mother a theater professor at Ohio State was also still at work. Caitlin was off at dance, Jackie was still at school, Trent was at a friend's house, and Bailey was off with Zoey. So he had the house to himself aside from Wendy who had ridden home with him since Lissy had gone to the Lynn's house with Bailey.
"You want anything to eat or drink?"
"Hot cocoa and Rachel's famous cookies please!"
Josh laughed and fixed them a snack and brought it to his room where Wendy was already laying on the floor. He kicked off his shoes and joined Wendy on the floor.
"So why is it that we're both here and ever so serious?"
"You like him. You like Kevin. You're gay."
Josh looked at Wendy his face was red and he looked terrified. "No- no I don't like him and I'm not gay, what are you on? What the hell made you think that I'm gay?"
"That right there just assured me. Look Josh it's nothing to be ashamed of and you know that. Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine, Uncle Sam and Uncle Artie, Auntie Britt's and Auntie Tana, Lexi, Uncle Ryder and Auntie Unique, Oscar, Kylan, Kodey, and Kevin's bi. Your grandfathers even. Josh sighed and he cried into Wendy's sweater.