Two Months Later

I respect you, Quinn Fabray had once said to Lauren, right after Lauren had begrudgingly apologized for trying to sabotage her Prom Queen campaign, an effort that ultimately backfired. I had to get a nose job and go on a crazy diet to walk around this school like I owned it. And you just do it.

Well. Her nose was still the same, seeing as her father hadn't gotten some big promotion and thrown money at her. But crazy diet? Check. It seemed Quinn Fabray had overestimated her back then.

Lauren found she had new motivation for changing her appearance. The more she found herself getting into Matt, the less appealing a Frappuccino from The Lima Bean after work or class became. Even if Artie continued to invite her to join him for coffee after their regular work out sessions, she managed to find a less sugary alternative. She stuck with sugar-free vanilla and heavy cream in her fancy coffee, on the rare occasion that she'd even order something. Mostly, she just joined him so he could show her the animation projects he was working on, in preparation to attend the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, starting in the fall.

Today, he was proudly displaying a project he'd worked on for the Glee Club. He'd actually painstakingly drawn every single one of the kids from the first year digitally, in a depiction of their choreography for the famous 'Don't Stop Believing' number that Lauren had yet to ever be a part of, as probably one of the few ex-glee clubbers who hadn't ever strutted out to a Journey number.

"I like it," Lauren said, over coffee one day in May, as she took a conservative sip of her artificially sweetened drink, the smallest size they sold (it was actually a kid's cup). "I like that Matt's in this. But something's missing, Artie. Where are you? Where's the chair?"

Artie closed his laptop. "I couldn't quite get the wheels to look right." He attempted to use this excuse, but Lauren fixed him with a look that said she knew better. And she really did know better. Seeing as Artie was a temporary Lima Loser like her, for now, she'd gotten an opportunity to start a friendship with the guy. And what she found was someone quite likable and fun to be with. The friend she never really got to make whilst in Glee club being distracted by Puckerman and his antics.

"Okay, well, I'm not gonna give this my stamp of approval until you draw yourself in this," she said, leaning back and shrugging nonchalantly. "Sorry, but first year of Glee club is not first year of Glee club without Artie and his wheels." She paused, then added. "I really feel like a loser when all we seem to talk about now is the stupid Glee club."

"Well, Nationals is a week away," Artie pointed out, with a shrug. He looked down at his laptop before shutting it off and stowing it in the faded backpack that always hung on the back of his chair. "Anyway, thanks for feedback. I guess I could try to add myself onto the side or something. I'll submit it for your approval next week."

"You can draw me hanging onto Matt too, if you want," Lauren added, grinning at him as she thought about her boyfriend (yes, officially, boyfriend — for nearly two months now) and how quickly she found herself falling for him.

"Alright, well, which version of Lauren do I draw?" Artie asked, pointedly, causing her to actually blush. Given that they lived in their hometown and she still ran into people all the time, there was never any shortage of compliments for her, anytime she saw someone who hadn't seen her lately.

"Duh, obviously this version, a little more Carnie Wilson post-Wilson Phillips." Lauren tossed her head in the air and flicked a strand of hair off her shoulder. She was trying to be funny, but it didn't look like the small dude got the humor in her comment.

"So, let me get this straight," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms in front of his chest. "If I drew myself standing up with no chair, that'd be pretty messed up of me to do, but I should draw you skinny?"

Lauren rolled her eyes at him. "I wouldn't go straight to calling me 'skinny,'" she said. She'd lost a good 70 pounds in all, it was true, but she was still a thick girl and always would be. Husky, wasn't that the word her dad liked to use? It did mean she'd gone down several sizes at Torrid, to the point that new clothes were necessary, but she wasn't going to stop shopping in the plus size stores anytime soon. (Though she was pretty sure she could fit into a double-XL or maybe even just an XL at Old Navy now, if they ever sold something she actually wanted to wear.)

Artie just fixed her with a dubious expression. He'd been around her long enough now to know that she was putting up a front and had been ever since she'd unintentionally dropped some weight after her accident, landed a boyfriend with the rock-hard body of a dancer, and decided why stop there?

"And what do I care how you draw yourself?" she added, extra defensively. He just shrugged, but she was pretty sure he was now going to draw the chair and himself, just to spite her because she'd called him out for not doing it.

"I was just saying," Artie muttered, having gotten used to Lauren's tough girl routine by now. "That it's the same thing, isn't it? You're just following this crazy, strict diet because you think you have to look a certain way to date a guy like Matt."

Lauren figured there was no use pretending. If Artie was going to call her on what she was up to, she might as well explain why she was completely justified in losing some weight to look good for her man. "Do you know the kinds of girls he was with before me?" Lauren asked. "Actually, you do know them. Santana and Brittany."

"Please." Artie looked neither surprised nor the least bit phased by this information. Maybe he knew all along. Everyone talked about who was sleeping with who back in their McKinley days. "Brittany slept with the entire football team, that's no secret, and Santana used to tell everyone she was like a lizard, that she needed something warm beneath her or she couldn't digest her food."

Lauren made a face. "Gross. Hadn't heard that one before." She stood up, to deposit her tiny, empty cup in the trash. It had taken her exactly three minutes to polish that little overpriced drink off. Meanwhile, Artie was still working on his iced latte.

On her way back to her table from the trashcan, something stopped her. Or rather someone. She ran into a stunningly beautiful human on the way back, only this version of Joe Hart was missing his signature feature.

"Joe?!" Lauren gave him a once-over. Everything else, his hipster style, his sexy double nose ring, was exactly the same, but in place of the dreadlocks (which were cool, sure, but honestly kind of meh and appeared to be pretty heavy), his black hair was soft and wavy and cut just above chin length.

"Lauren!" He laughed as she instinctively reached up to touch the new hair. "Yeah... I got rid of the dreads after my girlfriend and I split. It was time for a fresh start. Speaking of change... whoa, just look at you!"

Lauren did a little twirl, as she couldn't resist showing herself off. Normally, she'd shy away from a comment like that or brush by it quickly, but hey, this guy saw her when she was her unapproachable self from high school and here he was, seeing her once more, in her new body. And mentioning that he and his girlfriend have now split.

Something, or rather both something and someone, bumped her from behind. She winced slightly as Artie's wheel bumped the back of her leg. Turning to give him a dirty look, she was surprised when his eyes were hurling daggers of their own. Stop flirting, you have a boyfriend, he managed to remind her, without even uttering a word.

"Hey, Joe, cool haircut," Artie said, inviting himself into this conversation, whether she liked it or not. "So, what brings you to Lima?"

"Oh, my grandfather's birthday," Joe reported. "He's turning eighty, which calls for a big celebration with the family. So, home I come. And no trip home is complete without a trip to the Lima Bean."

"Well, it was good seeing you." As Artie tried to hint at leaving with that comment, he rammed his wheel ever so subtly into her calf once more. She edged sideways, out of his path, shooting him a brief but meaningful look to mind his own business and to stop running himself into her. He acted oblivious, adding, "C'mon, Lauren, you're my ride today, remember?"

She was going to have to rethink hanging out with this guy. But before they could go, Joe flashed his impossibly pearly whites at her and said, "Well, I'll be in town all weekend. I'd love to catch up, if you're not busy. I think you still have my number."

"Pretty busy weekend," Artie cut in again, before she could speak, and she briefly imagined steering him in the other direction and giving the chair a hard shove, sending him across the coffee shop with it. "Glee club has Nationals next weekend, so we'll be helping them prepare. See, we're going along to Chicago with them, sort of as honorary sponsors. And her boyfriend, Matt, is the one in charge of their choreography, so we'll be helping him out with rehearsals."

"Oh." Joe looked from Artie back to Lauren, who gave the tiniest and most reluctant nod, in confirmation of everything her annoyingly informative friend had just said. Just then, the barista called Joe's name and the formerly-dreadlocked Hippie retrieved his drink from the bar. In his brief absence, Lauren stuck her tongue out at Artie. Joe returned just in time to see Artie returning the immature gesture right back at her.

Well, alright... great seeing you both," Joe said, looking uncertainly between Lauren and Artie. "Lauren... you really do look great, whatever you're doing is working..."

"Thanks," Lauren replied, again unsure if she should be happy about that compliment or not. She supposed she just looked downright awful to him before? As she watched Joe leave with his coffee, she pondered this for a moment before turning to stare down at the menace who had butted his way into her conversation, uninvited. She sneered at him, putting her hands on her lips.

He stared right back up at her, not even phased by her attempt to intimidate him. "I went down the same path before, Zizes," he reminded her. "I wasn't used to getting attention from girls, then suddenly, I was getting all kinds of attention and I responded to every single advance they made. And I think you remember where that landed me. I know my genitals still remember."

Lauren cringed at his unnecessarily detailed account of his own crazy past. "Fine," she told him. "But for future reference, the less you can say to me about your genitals, the better. Come on. We'd better go catch up with Matt at booty camp."

Booty camp was the name Matt had given to the extra Saturday lessons for some of the less experienced dancers of the group. Mostly, it was meant for Roderick, Spencer, and Alistair, because everyone else looked pretty good up there but those three had no actual dance experience prior to Glee club. With Matt's help, they were all showing improvement.

"So, you do remember Matt," Artie teased, retrieving the coffee cup he'd tucked between his knees. Lauren just rolled her eyes and reached for Artie's iced coffee, to carry it for him so he could have both hands free to wheel along beside her.

"Shaddup," she shot back.

"Just checking," he said, innocently, as he followed her out the door and rolled down the ramp by the accessible parking space. "Wanted to make sure you didn't forget that you found a guy who, from what I can see, is crazy about you."

He parked alongside her passenger seat, locked his breaks, opened the car door, and prepared to transfer in. He paused, though, to fix her with a meaningful look, which got an eye roll and a smirk from Lauren. But of course she knew Artie was right. There was absolutely no way she was going to let this guy get away.