A/N: Hey, here's the first official chapter. I hope you like it. This is a pretty major AU, but if I had to place the timeline, I'd say a season four and five hybrid with Finn included so, Sheldon Beiste is still Shannon Beiste, Ryder, Marley and co are sophomores. One major difference is the inclusion of a glee character that seemed to disappear without a word, so I guess you could say I'm carrying part of Sue's hurt locker mission on through this story. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

Marley's POV

"Are you ready for this?" Unique and I stood in front of my closet as she grinned.

I bit my lip. "I don't know why this is necessary."

Unique laughed. "Girl, that's why it so is. You need some serious style help if you're gonna avoid the blue raspberry bath." She pulled out a striped black and white quarter sleeved blouse, a gift from him for my birthday two years ago. She squealed. "Marley! You've been holding out on me!"

I shook my head pinning my hair back in a scrunchie. "That's not it and you know it. All that'll happen is that more clothes will be soaked."

"Mmhmm, keep talking like that and you'll never bloom Miss Rose." Unique shook her head reaching back and pulling out the scrunchie.

I scoffed. "What are you doing?"

"If you're going to land a man, you can't be hiding in caps and ponytails."

My eyes landed on the grey newsboy style cap on my bed. "How do you do that?"

Unique snatched the cap throwing it in my closet even as she grinned. "You're so predictable, it isn't hard."

"And anyway…." I grabbed my brush and began to tackle my mane. "Who said I wanted to land a man?"

An eye roll and a sigh. "Puhlease, I see the way you look out that window, like Juliet herself." She sat on my bed. "You may have been best friends once, but Honey, he runs a different way now. A year changes people. Hell high school changes people."

"He's still in glee." Ugh! I sounded so helpless, like I was just begging to be hurt.

Unique clicked her tongue. "Don't say I didn't warn you Girl."

I sighed standing up and taking one last look around my bedroom, making sure Unique was following before I turned off the light. "Let's do this."

Ryder's POV

"Hey Sport, how do you feel?" Dad stood in the doorway, playing the embarrassing dad cliche as far as it would take him, considering my girlfriend was standing just a few feet away and I was clad in nothing but my football jersey and boxers.

I gave a thumbs up through my grimace praying that Dad would get the hint and get out so I could at least finish getting ready and get few extra minutes with Haley before we had to catch the bus at the very public bus stop at the corner.

"You're gonna knock 'em dead Son." He tapped the archway in the sports movie style locker room exit. Ugh! Could this get any worse? I looked over at Haley. She was giggling, oh god she was giggling. "Have fun at school."

I groaned as his footsteps became more distant.

"Come on Babe, don't be like that. I think you're dad's cute." Haley grabbed my hand as we sat on the bed.

"Exactly," I raised my eyebrows. "Aren't you supposed to be afraid of my parents?"

Haley rolled her eyes skyward, considering it before shaking her head. "I think you're supposed to be afraid of mine."

"You've got a point there." I leaned in for a quick kiss, which in true Haley fashion morphed itself into a full makeout session in less than two minutes.

The door swung open "Whoa! Little bro, get some!" I groaned. The pitfalls of being the youngest in a big family was little to no privacy.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" I glared at Nick. "Or did you lose that job too?"

Nick clutched his chest. "That's cold Ry'." He leaned against the doorframe. "If you must know, I start late today."

I rolled my eyes, but bit my tongue. I could already feel Haley's daggers. I knew I'd get an earful as it was. It wasn't my fault that Nick could never finish what he started. I guess I played my role of the younger sibling a little too well for my girlfriend's liking.

"So, you're starting quarterback this year huh?" Nick hummed impressed.

"Well second to Sam Evans, but he has more conflicts than field time." I smirked. That was a half lie. He was in glee club, but so was I. Coach Beiste gave us both pretty good space when it came to competition season since she and Schue were friends. But it was most often Sam that missed the mark, being one of the lead soloists, and since those new kids Rory and Katie joined, I could cut and not be missed. At least that's what I wanted my older brother and Haley to think.

"He will be soon if that beach boy keeps missing games." Haley said.

I cringed, Sam wasn't a bad guy, we were actually friends, so why did I keep letting Haley be so mean? At least it wasn't to his face. That was something I could rest easy with.

"You'd better make sure you're on point." Nick said.

I shook my head. "I'm always on point."

Nick raised his eyebrows, but said nothing as Haley and I grabbed our backpacks and left to catch the bus.

William McKinley High School, home of the Titans and our palace. Us, being the football team. The whole social order turned my stomach, but it wasn't something anyone could change. These kind of things always found a way to revert back. That was where my thoughts were headed as I saw two of New Directions' members, my teammates, coming right toward us. I sighed. Of course, it had to be Blaine Anderson and Rory Flanagan.

"Yo Lynn!" Freddy tapped my shoulder. "Where's your head at man? Did you hear what I said?"

Freddy had been one of my best buddies since I had been officially welcomed to the football team. Hardly anyone called him Freddy though. Anyone that did got a firm right hook against a locker. Around McKinley, he was called Striker.

I shook my head. "Sorry, what was that? I guess I was out of it."

Striker sighed. "I said, we let you slide last year because you were a freshie, but it's time for you to decide. And I've got the perfect way to test you."

Test, what did that mean? My mouth went dry. I had a bad feeling about this.

Striker pushed a cup into my hands. Oh shit! No, no, no. Anything but this. I'd locker check someone. At least then, I could manage the amount of pain. But not this.

"Take your pick." Striker leaned close to my ear as I saw Rory grin. He had seen me. Turn around damn it!

"Hey! Ryder right?" Rory stopped in front of my locker even as I saw Blaine cast a sideways glance at the cup in my hand. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see that Striker had disappeared, probably hiding behind a garbage can somewhere to jump out and pin the losers in their place.

"Yeah, you got it." I smirked halfheartedly.

"Hey look, it's the leprechaun and the hobbit!" Haley shouted. She and Striker snuck behind Blaine, pinning him against a locker as Haley coated him in sticky blue liquid.

Now I had to do this. "And just to make sure you don't forget…" I pulled my hand back. It was moving on autopilot. I don't remember even seeing the drink leave the cup. The next thing I knew Rory was looking at me coated in a red tinged ice bath. He wasn't afraid though. He just looked… disappointed?

"Nice one babe." Haley walked over, pecking me on the lips. "I knew you had it in you."

I kissed her back, another autopilot move, at least at this moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blaine taking Rory to his locker. Blaine was experienced at taking slushie hits. My guess was he'd let Rory borrow a change of clothes before glee practice.

I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me! So, OCs. Haley is portrayed by Shay Mitchell, Nick is portrayed by David Lambert, Ryder's Dad is portrayed by Rider Strong and Freddy "Striker" is portrayed by Jeremy Jordan. Nick is three years older than Ryder, so 19 at this point. Striker is a junior. Reviews keep me writing. I've got the next chapter already finished so if you want I can post it before the weekend if the site cooperates. Let me know! :)