After the sixth missed call, somebody picks up. And it's not Marissa; he's got the wrong number.

Cameron hangs up and holds his head in his hands. It's nine at night. There is no way that he's going to apologize over Facebook. That would be terrible. No, if he really wants to get down to the bottom of this, he's going to have to catch her at school. Not at her parents' house or her work place; even when he left, she was already becoming incredibly busy, and he doubts she's changed now, judging from her appearance last Thursday night. Six o'clock and she was still at school?

The lunch break or directly after school is the only time he's going to catch her. The next opportunity to skip is in two days: no core classes then, but classes that still like taking attendance.

He's going to own Blaine big time now.


Tuesday afternoon, and Glee practice is finishing up the meeting with Matheus' and Sunshine's auditions. Sunshine goes first; she'd received her new sheet music from Rachel yesterday and practiced in Hannah's room after Damian had finished his story. Her tiny body is able to produce so much volume and she's able to hold high notes with ease.

Listen to the song here in my heart, a melody I start but can't complete.
Listen to the sound from deep within; it's only beginning to find release.
Oh, the time has come for my dreams to be heard, they will not be pushed aside and turned
Into your own, all 'cause you won't listen...

Listen, I am alone at a crossroads, I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried to say what's on my mind. You should have known.
Oh, now I'm done believing you; you don't know what I'm feeling.
I'm more than what you made of me; I followed the voice you gave to me...
But now I've gotta find my own; You should have listened.

When she's done, the entire club gives her a standing ovation; who wouldn't, with an almost professional performance she just delivered. Everybody's excited except for Rachel, Hannah notices, who shifts uncomfortably in her seat while clapping halfheartedly.

Damian drops Marissa's hand to clap Matheus on the back as their second midget leaves their group to head onto the stage. Marissa does a good job of acting the part, Hannah notices, making up for Damian's lack of acting skill. And she seems to have eyes in the back of her head, because she never acts over-the-top unless it matters: when Santana or Quinn or Brittany are looking. She doesn't make eye contact with any of them, though; a wise choice, because Santana is literally blowing a fuse just being in the same auditorium as Marissa. She's got two hours of community service after cheerleading practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, after all; probably a manual labor job that will screw up her manicured nails. Hannah secretly cackles in sweet revenge.

So I won't hesitate no more, no more; it cannot wait, I'm sure.
There's no need to complicate, our time is short.
This is our fate: I'm yours.

Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly;
Birds fly over the rainbow—oh why then, oh why can't I?

Halfway through Matheus' song, Damian has to leave to catch the Lima-Carmel bus. Marissa grabs his hand and pulls him in for a chaste kiss on the cheek, one that has both Santana and Damian turning red for different reasons. Then Damian's gone, and Hannah's left to laugh at their strange group of friends thrown together haphazardly: their acting-couple Damian and Marissa, their midget not-couple, Sunshine and Matheus (they hotly insist they're just friends, having only known each other for two days), the Asian couple Tina and Mike... and her, the class clown.

She tries not to think about her single status too much.


Another day of familiar laps and drills has got Damian extremely tired at the end of the day but incredibly satisfied. He rinses off the afternoon's sweat in the school showers quickly, hops into his regular clothes, trades numbers with Samuel and some of the other guys, and catches the last bus to the main terminal.

Half an hour later, he's still waiting for the Carmel-Lima bus. A lot of Out-Of-Service buses keep dropping people off, but they're not taking on anybody. Damian's getting extremely worried that he won't have a ride home when a familiar face hops off a bus.

"Damian?" Lindsay exclaims, her tight ponytail bobbing as she walks over to him. "I heard you made it on varsity! The whole school's talking about how an amazing Irish exchange soccer star from Lima is playing for us."

Damian blushes modestly. "I've been playing a while," he admits. "But I'm nowhere near the World Cup."

"So what are you still doing here?" Lindsay asks. "I thought you'd leave early to catch the last bus to Lima. Did Coach Tyson hold you back?"

Damian groans. "There's no bus at six thirty?"

"Last bus is at six," Lindsay half-apologizes. "You don't have a way of getting home?"

"My mom works here," Damian remembers. "But she doesn't get off work till eight."

Lindsay checks the time on her cell phone. "Yikes, that's a while to wait," she sympathizes. "Why don't you come to my house for dinner? I could drive you home afterward."

"No way," Damian rejects. I tried that yesterday, and it didn't work out so well. "That's too much of a hassle for you."

Lindsay puts a hand on her hip. "What else are you going to do for another two hours? Wait for your mom to come pick you up? Besides," she says, grabbing his elbow and dragging him forward, "My parents are totally cool with people dropping by all the time. Miki's actually there right now, editing her pictures."

"Miki?"

"McKynleigh's a mouthful," Lindsay explains, releasing Damian's elbow as he begins to follow of his own accord. "Plus, in conversation, we'd keep getting her and your school mixed up."

Damian stops in his tracks. "Wait... Dinner?" he gulps.

Lindsay cracks up at his expression. "Not like that," she laughs. "Friends swing by my place all the time—it's right next to the bus terminal, and my parents are used to feeding huge crowds. My older twin brothers left for college this summer, and I don't think my parents want to get used to the empty nest feel yet." She insistently pulls Damian along again, and this time, he keeps on walking.

"But it won't an empty nest unless you're gone," Damian corrects.

"My twin brothers? Oh boy, they were a riot all by themselves."

Despite being roughly ten centimeters shorter than him, Lindsay walks much faster; Damian has to consciously speed up his pace to keep up with her. "So you're the only child left?"

"I have three older brothers," Lindsay nods. "And they're all off at college. I'm the only one left! But I'm trying to make up for it by being twice as loud."

A car that looks like it's held together by duct tape turns the corner and almost runs into Lindsay; she hops onto the hood of the car, slamming her rear end into the metal surface hard. People laugh inside and the driver's window slides open. "Hey! Are you trying to split my car in half with your ass?" yells the brunette inside.

Lindsay leans into the window. "Heading out already, Kay? I thought you were going to wait for me."

The girl nods sadly. "Sorry, but my mom called. She actually wants me home for dinner, for once."

"Oh, well have fun eating dinner with your family," Lindsay drawls sarcastically, giving the girl a hug. She rejoins Damian walking in the middle of the street, explaining, "She's a theater friend."

"One of my friends is involved in theater," Damian recalls.

"Who is he? Or she. I might know them; Lima does a lot of stuff with Carmel, since they're so close and Lima is so small."

"Marissa?"

"I think I might have met her a couple times, during workshops," Lindsay recollects. "Redhead, perfect body?"

"That's her," Damian agrees.

"That's really cool," Lindsay grins. "Small world. Whenever we do workshops, we always do at least one improv together. She's amazing at making stuff up on the fly. A natural actress in general."

Damian thinks back to his day's interactions with Marissa; although they'd started off their pseudo-relationship-friendship with the common knowledge that this was all an act, she really threw a lot into public displays of affection (and wink afterward when Damian breathlessly blinked at her; she was ten times a better kisser than his girl back in Ireland). "Yeah," he agrees wholeheartedly.

They turn a corner, and immediately Damian spots Lindsay's house as the one with four cars parked out front and music blasting from the open front door. Lindsay runs the rest of the way to her front porch, dragging Damian behind. "I'm hoooome!" she trills as she crosses the threshold, slinging her bag off her shoulder as she enters the living room. Sitting on one of the couches, McKynleigh gently places her laptop on the floor and runs over to embrace Lindsay. Smells of cooking lace the air; the entire house just has a warm, homey feel to it, from the coffee colored walls highlighted by golden sun pouring in the large front window, to the cozy couches with an assortment of coats and backpacks strewn over it, to the gigantic television with some guys in front of it playing Halo.

"Hey, Damian!" McKynleigh greets. "I've heard you made it onto the school soccer team, congrats!"

"Yeah, everybody keeps talking about it," moans another voice, and Samuel enters the living room, wearing a hot pink shirt. "Man, if you'd told me you were coming to Lindsay's, I would have taken the bus with you."

Damian looks at Lindsay in surprise. "You two know each other?"

Lindsay half hugs Samuel as he slings an arm around her shoulders. "She's my best bud's little sis," he clarifies casually. "Besides, this house is the place to hang."

"Samuel didn't exactly graduate this year," McKynleigh explains; Samuel doesn't look offended by her blatant remark. "He's Carmel High's best shot at winning nationals this year, so they held him back."

"My band's touring after the season's over," Samuel rationalizes. "They'll give me my diploma then, but I'm not interested in wasting my money in school when I'm alright making it."

"I thought I heard a new voice," says an older blonde woman, who sidles past Samuel to stand on Lindsay's other side.

"Mom, this is Damian. He's the Irish transfer."

The woman shakes his hand warmly. "I'm Shannon. You must be the soccer player from Lima."

Damian grins ruefully. "I'm that famous?"

"Carmel High is all about competition," Shannon states. "And they make sure to shine plenty of light on their stars. Even Samuel's received music scholarships despite showing only soccer prowess in school."

"Food's ready," shouts a male voice, and a surge of people push Damian through the house into the backyard. He glimpses an older man, also blonde, on his way past; both of them look nothing like Lindsay, with her dark hair and blue eyes.

How does he know she has blue eyes?


"San, you really didn't have to slushie the Irishman," Brittany says, shedding her Cheerio jacket as she drops onto her bed. "It's a good thing he's not a redhead, or he might have turned you into a leprechaun."

Santana tries to make the mental connection in her head but fails. "Look, I just did it because I was pissed, okay? It doesn't mean anything."

Brittany smiles tenderly. "But you slushied an international student. Two international students. You broke the only rule about slushies."

"Whatever." Santana shrugs off her jacket as well and crawls onto Brittany's bed, slinking over seductively. "Now give me one of those sweet lady kisses. I need some reward for my freaking community service."

Brittany speaks as soon as they come up for air about five minutes later; Santana scowls. It's one of Brittany's worse habits: talking in the middle of making out, as if it's just another casual, friend-making activity they do everyday like painting their nails or crushing boys' hearts.

Then again, they do make out quite often. But Brittany talking in the middle really kills the mood.

"San," she gasps, even as Santana tries to keep the mood going by suckling on the sweet spot on her neck. "Stop that, it tickles. I think we should do Come to My Window together. For our duet."

"Less talking, more sucking."

And that's all that Santana intends to do, but Brittany suddenly becomes unresponsive. "But it totally applies to us," Brittany argues.

Not willing to out herself through song, Santana feigns disinterest and sits up to tie her hair back into its characteristic ponytail. "No, it doesn't apply to us at all," Santana contests. "I'm only making out with you cuz Puck's in the slammer and I'm like a lizard; I need something warm underneath me or else I can't digest my food."

Brittany's eyes suddenly go huge with grief, and Santana's distinctly aware that she said the wrong thing. Or maybe the right thing; she needs to make it clear that they are not romantically involved, even if everything they do indicates otherwise. She's doing it to protect Brittany; if the school found out, they'd tear her to shred mercilessly. Santana knows the social ladder; she'd been the queen bitch during the second semester last year after Quinn had been kicked off the team. Quinn had been able to stand being bullied every second of her pregnant life, finding refuge in Glee club and strength in herself. But Brittany has none of that. She's too airheaded to really connect with anybody except for Santana, who already knows her inside out.

Nobody can know. Not even Brittany. She wouldn't survive a day if she announced to the school that she and Santana were more than best friends. So it's best if Santana ends the conversation right now before it can even start.

Brittany remains distant for the rest of their time together, and Santana goes home early. While she walks home alone, she realizes that Quinn is one of the strongest people she knows (and resents, but that's beside the point).

Because if she came out, Santana knows she wouldn't be able to survive the bullying either.


Author's Rant

Whoo! So many reviews for just six chapters! All your guys' feedback makes me incredibly happy! Now, 100 reviews is very possible—and to celebrate, if you guys hit that mark, I will cram time into my schedule to write and post two chapters next time! So tell me what you think about Damian and Lindsay and Brittany and Cameron! Also, Damian-centric-ness ends here; I'm moving onto other people's lives!

Somebody asked if Emily, Ellis, and Bryce would be appearing. Yes, all Glee Project members will appear at some point or the other; it's only that they appear later rather than sooner. They still play pivotal roles, however. (Hey, I just realized they were the first three eliminated... I mapped out who was going to be where in my head during the first week, though, so funny how it ended up that way.)

Exactly 20,000 word long story for the win!