Puck walked into school side by side with his younger sister, Sarah. It was time to begin the second week of school - the first full week - and Puck couldn't decide yet it he was upset at coming back to the school work or glad to be out of his house for most of the day. He might not be the biggest fan of school, but at least there was Glee, though they had all already come to the conclusion that it felt very weird to be in Glee without Santana. At least one of them still went to visit her every day after school. That day would be his and Sarah's turn.

He knew that Miles would be there too, Miles hadn't missed a day with her yet unless his mother wouldn't let him come or she was to sick for visitors, though she usually made an exception for him even then. He was glad that Santana had Miles. They had been friends for years, they had even dated for a while and he had been proud of the way she had changed lately. She definitely deserved a guy like Miles to be there for her.

Nearly as soon as they walked into the doors, Sarah headed off in search of Justin and Puck nearly laughed. His younger sister clearly had a crush on Artie's cousin. Luckily for Justin, he seemed totally oblivious to Sarah's feelings for him and didn't seem remotely interested in being more then friends. Friends Puck could deal with, but he didn't think he'd approve of Justin if things became more then that. Justin had the troubled and angry vibe, a bit of a bad boy - basically, Justin seemed to be a less violent him in Puck's eyes. And that was precisely the problem.

He didn't want Sarah dating anyone, but certainly not anyone like him. She had enough to deal with already and she didn't need that. He had learned his lesson, he wasn't going to be treating girls anywhere near the way he had in the past, but he wasn't trusting Justin to be the same way. He had enough to protect Sarah from as it was. At least he had been able to set the kid that was living with Finn and Kurt on protection detail during classes. His friends had vouched for the younger boy and he seemed to be a little to wary of Puck to let him down.

Speaking of them, the brothers came walking up as if on cue, Rory following behind them like he always seemed to do.

"Hey, Puck!" Finn called, half jogging towards him.

"Hey, man." he replied once his friend caught up.

"Second week of school already. It seems like Summer just started. Only ... not really. Sometimes it does." Finn said, looking mildly confused as Kurt fought back a laugh.

"I know what you mean." Puck replied.

It was true, sometimes it seemed like they had just won nationals - or that it was only the other day when they were all practicing that song with Sam's younger siblings. Other times however, when he thought about how tense things were at home, or of how long it seemed like they had all been worried for Santana's life, it seemed like last year was forever ago. Finn had it right, he just hadn't worded it the best. Then again, Finn tended to do that a lot.


Tina gave a soft sigh as she sat at her desk. The new rules might prevent the worst of the bullying, but it didn't suddenly make them popular and as such, it didn't put an end to the whispered comments. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle though. After what they were used to, it was almost nothing in comparison, but still, it would be nice if people would just keep their comments to themselves.

It wasn't like she didn't have enough friends either, the Glee Club was a pretty big group. They might still need some time to get to know the new kids, but everyone from the year before was like family and they already knew Miles pretty well. It wasn't like they hadn't met Sarah before either. It didn't really matter if they were popular or not, she decided. They had enough people that cared about them that they could ignore the rest. But still, it got annoying sometimes.

Quinn suddenly interrupted her inner monologue by whispering to her, "What do you think of the new guys so far?"

"They seem nice. I think Sarah's a lot tougher then Puck thinks she is, and Justin can be a little ... I don't know but Rory seems really sweet." Tina replied.

"He is and he's definitely pretty shy. Sam says he pretty much attached himself to Finn and Kurt the moment he got here." Quinn said with a soft laugh.

"Yeah, he seemed pretty happy when he realized he had some classes with Sarah too, I guess because their at least in Glee together." Tina told her friend, remember the look on the boys face on the first day of school.

"I think he has a crush on her." the other girl revealed.

"Poor thing. He doesn't have a chance with Puck around." Tina responded with a quiet laugh of her own.

"I feel sorry for the first guy that Sarah dates. Puck certainly won't make things easy." Quinn replied.


Kurt was currently pretending that he didn't notice the young freshman who seemed to be shadowing him. Rory had clearly memorized his and Finn's schedules and did his best to stay as close to them as possible when changing classes if Sarah wasn't with him. The exchange student seemed to be more then a little afraid of being alone in the hallways and surrounded by people he didn't know. Finn and Kurt's assurances that the new bullying policy made it very unlikely that anyone would hurt him, but that didn't seem to do any good.

Kurt was beginning to wonder if some of the schools bullies had been threatening Rory. The younger boy was both shy and very naive and that made him the perfect target for the jerks that went to their school. Kurt knew that it wasn't likely there was anyone left at the school who would risk physical bullying anymore, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried about how afraid Rory seemed to be. The younger teen had fit into their family almost perfectly and it wasn't hard to be protective of him.

If it made Rory feel better, Kurt would happily let the boy follow him around like a lost puppy as long as he wanted to and he knew that Finn felt the same way. Hopefully soon, Rory would realize that he really was safe at McKinley. He didn't want his newest friend to be so afraid, especially not a friend as innocent as Rory. Kurt didn't think Rory was capable of hurting a fly. He hoped it wouldn't take long for Rory to realize that he wouldn't be hurt.

Rory turned a confused glance at Kurt when he realized they had already passed Kurt's class, but the older boy simply smiled and kept walking until Rory turned into his own classroom. Kurt made his was back to where he was supposed to be, making a mental note to see if maybe they could get a few friends to help keep an eye on him. If there was someone threatening him, if they heard it, they could report it.


Lauren wasn't sure yet what she thought of the new Glee members. She obviously knew Sarah already, and Sarah was a pretty cool kid, so she was fine with her. Miles had been around the year before, so everyone knew him already as well. The two new boys, however, were just that, new and she was trying to decide how exactly she felt about them. Justin had a bit of an angry at the world thing going on, but she could get that and he didn't seem like a bad kid. Rory however, had yet to speak to her at all beyond a short greeting the day they met.

Neither boy spoke very much, with the exception of to the people they lived with and Sarah, but it seemed to be for very different reasons. Where Justin seemed to be trying hard to be mad about being there, Rory seemed an odd combination of shy and talkative. The younger boy would nearly talk Finn and Kurt's ears off, but looked nervous when the others spoke to him. It was worth investigating, in her opinion. Maybe she could get Puck to help.

Speaking of Puck, she needed to track him down to see if she could tag alone on his trip to visit Santana later. She might not have gotten along with the other girl at first, but by the end of the last school year that had started changing. Of course, everything had changed even more after Santana had been diagnosed. The realization that they weren't immortal, that one of them could really die had shaken them all. Things were different now for all of them.

Lauren couldn't help but admire Santana. The other girl had stayed strong and never given up, but then again Santana always had been tough. They really were a lot more alike then Lauren had been willing to admit at first. Lauren had never been quite as mean as Santana used to be, but she could admit to herself that she'd had her moments. Santana had the tough girl act mastered and sometimes Lauren had even thought about asking for a tip or two. The more she thought about it, the two of them could turn out to be pretty good friends.


Artie rolled himself towards his cousin once he spotted him in the hallway.

"Hey, man! What's up?" he asked, trying not to looked concerned.

He had yet to see Justin even speak to anyone outside of the Glee Club and he was worried that his cousin wasn't even trying to fit in to his new school. He knew that Justin was angry at the situation he had ended up in and it wasn't fair that he had been forced to leave his home and his old friends, but he wished the younger boy would try and make the best of the situation. As long as he had to be at McKinley, he thought that Justin might as well make some friends, but apparently, the other boy didn't share that opinion. Artie kept hoping that he would change his mind soon, after all Justin had come to terms with the fact that life isn't always fair a while ago when the doctors told him he likely wouldn't be getting to much taller.

"Nothing." Justin replied, looking over at his cousin.

"Find anybody to talk to?" Artie asked, doing his best to keep the conversation sounding casual.

"No." the other boy replied, shooting Artie a look that clearly meant he wanted him to drop it.

"Not everyone outside of Glee's that bad." Artie informed him, "Not everyone can sing." he added.

"I know that. I'm fine, Artie." Justin answered before turning into his classroom and effectively ending the conversation.


Mercedes smiled softly as the members of New Directions began to file into the choir room. It was nice to be back to seeing almost everyone all together every afternoon, but she would be glad when it really was everyone - when Santana was back. She had visited her friend at the hospital the day before and they had spent quite a while talking as she had tried to fill the other girl in on all the gossip. Santana hated feeling out of the loop.

They had spent a good portion of the afternoon discussing the two new Glee members that Santana hadn't met yet. As Justin walked in she remembered how she had described him to Santana - a mini Puck minus being involved with half the school. Looking closer at him she wondered if she had really done him justice with that. He certainly gave off the troubled bad boy vibe, but Artie had never described him as getting into much trouble before. Then again, Puck hadn't always been that way either.

As Sarah rushed in and sat next to him, Mercedes couldn't help the small amused smile that found it's way to her face. Wasn't it said that girls often fell for guys with similar personalities to their father? She knew that Puck - despite being only a few years older - had taken over the role of a father in Sarah's life. Of course that wasn't always true, one look at Quinn and Sam proved that. Sam would never do the things Quinn's father had done, all you had to do was see him with his foster siblings to know that he would never abandon a child.

When Finn walked in, making a beeline for Rachel as Rory trailed behind him, Mercedes turned her attention to the other new boy. He wasn't quite as confusing as Justin was, but he was still a bit of puzzle. She had seen first hand how talkative the boy could be when he was comfortable with his surroundings, but he clearly wasn't very comfortable around all of them yet. Ever since Kurt had shared his worries about the younger boy with her, she had found herself keeping an eye on him as well. There was definitely something off, but she wasn't sure what.

Speaking of Kurt, her ponderings about Rory were cut off when he walked in and sat next to her. She quickly turned her attention to her best friend.

"Hey, boo. How was your day?" she asked still worried even after all this time that one of the old bullies would suffer a bit of memory loss about the new rules.

"As good as any day in this school can be. What about you?" Kurt replied.

"I had a pretty good day too." she answered with a small smile, "Have you figured anything out?" she questioned with a small nod in Rory's direction.

"Nothing yet, but hopefully I will soon." Kurt replied.

They kept up small talk until the rest of the group trickled in and Mr. Schue finally began things. There was a lot of excitement when he announced he wanted them to split into duets and trios for the weeks assignment. Mercedes and Kurt instantly decided to sing together and glanced around the room to see who else paired up. Sarah seemed to have instantly claimed Justin, which caused Rory's face to fall and Finn shoot an apologetic look at Rachel before promising to sing with him. The rest of the groups formed quickly and Mercedes couldn't help but be curious when Puck, Artie and Sam were suddenly sitting together and looking much to excited for their own good.


Rory smiled softly when they pulled into the drive way of the Hudson-Hummel household. He didn't trust the school, there were to many whispered remarks and veiled threats - and a few outright threats - for him to believe that it was really as safe now as Finn and Kurt seemed to think. He did trust this house though. Finn and Kurt had been so much nicer to him then he had ever expected and their parents were awesome. He knew he was safe with them.

He was just starting to get used to the rue tine here. The three boys would get home about two hours before Mr. and Mrs. Hummel did. Kurt always went straight to his homework and tried to get him and Finn to do so as well, but so far Finn had joined Kurt as soon as they got home once. The other days he had insisted he needed to stop thinking about schoolwork for a while and headed for the x-box. Rory had found himself always joining Kurt at the dinning room table to work on his own homework because if he looked too confused, Kurt would come over to help without him even having to ask.

"Let's get our homework over with." Kurt said as he took off his backpack and carried it into the dinning room.

"I think I need to get my -" Finn started.

Rory nearly laughed at the look Kurt sent his brother as he interrupted him, "Finn, it's a Monday. You had the whole weekend to get your mind off of school work."

"Fine." Finn said with a sigh, quickly giving in to his younger brother and picking his own bag back up off the floor as he followed the others into the dinning room.

"Do you think you'll need any help?" Kurt asked as Rory pulled out his homework.

"I don't think so, I have Math and Science today. It's English and History I have trouble with." Rory admitted before turning to his work causing the other boys to do the same.


Santana couldn't help the excitement she felt when she heard the soft knock at her door before it opened. Over the Summer as long as she was well enough to talk there was either someone visiting her or someone talking to her on Skype, but now during the day all she had to focus on was how bored and miserable she was while she tried to keep up with the schoolwork her friends brought for her. She was grateful that the school was allowing her to do her work in the hospital though, because she was determined to keep up. Stupid cancer was not going to make have to repeat her Senior year.

Her work had been done for hours now though and the soap operas she managed to get herself addicted to while in the hospital had gone off. She was just a little bit thrilled to see Puck, Lauren and Sarah walking in. She had never imagined that she would miss being in Glee as much as she did. It meant more then she could ever say that they all still made sure to visit her. She was sure that without her friends and Miles, the boredom would have driven her insane.

"Hey, San." Puck said with a smile as he walked in, "I have your work." he added, holding up a pile of papers.

"Hey, guys." she greeted, "Just set it down there next to yesterday's stuff. I finished that a while ago."

"Are you feeling okay today?" Sarah asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah, today's a good day." she replied, giving the younger girl a small smile, "So ... any gossip?" she asked, directing the question at Lauren.

"Nah, it's been crazy boring. I think everyone's still trying to impress the teachers. I guess that makes their reactions later funnier when everything goes nuts." Lauren informed her.

"I'm pretty sure Sarah can tell you some more about our little newbies though, especially Justin. I don't think anyone pays more attention to him then her." Puck said with a teasing grin.

"Noah!" the younger girl yelled, turning around to hit him.

"Oh, come on. Tell me, it's not like I can go find him and spill the beans." Santana said, causing Sarah to blush even more.


Author's Note: I hope this is alright guys, my Beta's computer is broken, so she hasn't edited this yet. When she does, I'll replace this chapter with the edited one! I'm so happy that you guys have liked this so far and I hope you continue to like it. The first five chapters are going to basically be build up chapters - I'm letting you know what everyone thinks about things now and trying to let you get to know the new characters (by the way, please let me know what you're thinking of them). Chapter six is when things are really going to get started. I'm going to try and get back into writing now and get more ahead. I've had a hard week as life decided to imitate art for a bit. My twelve year old cousin (who was being horribly bullied in school) attempted suicide. They had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital to figure out how to help him and he was diagnosed with PTSD. He's home now though!