Dedication - To my number one fan and sometimes co-author, QuinnAbrams!

A/N: This story starts a few months after "Going Public." Season 6 canon is irrelevant. Kitty is a junior. Artie and Sam are freshmen and roommates at Ohio State. Since the Glee club won Nationals in "Going Public," they are still going strong! Marley, Unique, Jake, and Ryder did NOT transfer. Sugar and Joe are back. (Myron didn't happen.) And the season 6 newbies are part of this power glee club!

Story order:

Tales of a Third Grade Dropout

Lucy and the Incredible Journey

The Rest of the Journey

Going Public

Dorm Daze

Daddy Daze

Artie

Indoor swimming at the university aquatic center wasn't nearly as pleasant in November as it had been back in August. He dreaded having to wheel himself into the locker room and strip off his layers, still shivering from head to toe. Or, at least in his case, from head to waist. He had to force himself to work his legs into the form-fitting black workout pants that he'd fashioned into his usual swimwear. The pool was a lot emptier these days, though, which suited Artie just fine. He could usually count on Sam to be there, in another part of the giant L-shaped pool, practicing with the award-winning, all-girl-plus-Sam synchronized swimming team. Every now and then, he'd stop by before or after practice to coach Artie.

Or, at least, he did until he got his first modeling gig. As it turned out, Sam didn't even have to go to New York to be a male model, like he'd always dreamed of doing. He'd already found himself an agent in Columbus whose calls were becoming more and more frequent.

One of those many calls was why Sam came flying into the locker room, getting tangled in his scarf, as he ripped it off and stuffed it in the first empty locker he touched. He also tore off his shirt and jeans in record time, his speedo already on underneath, and pulled a towel out of the bag he'd brought with him.

"Ten seconds," Artie commented. "Damn you, Evans, I wish I could do anything in ten seconds." Sam only acknowledged the comment with a chuckle, as he ran past Artie.

"I take it you're late?" Artie called after him, to no response but the slamming of the locker room door. Artie stifled a laugh and followed behind Sam, his towel folded in his lap, goofy-looking bathing cap in place, and goggles atop his head, as he pushed his way through the swinging door, into the huge aquatic center. The smell of chlorine greeted him like an old friend.

Sam managed to perform a swan-like leap into the middle of the sea of girls, as they warmed up, whilst their coach had her back turned. He was rewarded with giggles from his all-female teammates.

Sam certainly lived a charmed life.

Once he was finally in the water and free, though, Artie had no regrets about the hassle it had been to make himself go swimming that day. He loved the way it cleared his mind, every single day, after those long days of pushing himself across campus. On the plus side, his biceps were looking pretty great these days, thank you very much. Rio was still a few years off, which Artie figured was exactly how much time he'd need to become a Paralympic athlete.

It hadn't been easy, to exchange one dream for another. Every now and then, he wondered what life would have been like, in an alternate universe, in which he had chosen film school in Brooklyn over being Sam's roommate at Ohio State. Living just an hour and a half away from Lima, Artie could easily visit home every weekend if he wanted to. If he wanted to, being the key words. Ever since he and Kitty had, as she'd predicted that day in the choir room, inevitably called it quits, visits to home were less appealing. Consequently, Artie hadn't even been home since late September, when he and Sam had attended the homecoming game.

But now Thanksgiving break was coming up, and home he would go, for an entire week. He'd heard that a change in the school calendar, back at McKinley, meant that they were only getting three days instead of the whole week. Sam was the one who had told him, proposing that they ought to take advantage of the fact that school would be in session and pay their Alma Mata a little visit. Plus, word had it, Sectionals were the weekend before Thanksgiving this year.

"Don't you think we'll look like losers?" Artie had said, when Sam first suggested the plan to visit McKinley and pop in on a glee club rehearsal. "Besides, I mean, there's so much to do to get ready for, uh, Thanksgiving..."

Seeing right past this lame excuse, Sam had helpfully pointed out, "You just don't want to see Kitty." At which point, Artie had dramatically fallen back on his pillow, taking a second pillow and smothering his face with it. Sam offered a gentle word of encouragement, as he reminded Artie that he'd felt the same way, when they'd been at Nationals back in the spring and Mercedes had shown up and surprised them.

"Not the same thing," Artie had argued. "You'd moved on way before that happened. You were into that nurse, at the time, remember? And now... you won't leave my sister alone." He removed the pillow from his face to show Sam his eye roll over that. "Sam, face it, you haven't been serious about any one girl long enough to feel what I'm feeling."

"Okay, first of all, ouch," Sam had said, sitting on the foot of Artie's bed. He idly patted Artie's knee, and Artie just shook his head at him, grinning in spite of himself, at how dopey Sam could be.

"Secondly," Sam went on to say. "I know just the thing to cheer you up." Artie's eyebrows went up expectantly at this. "This girl on my team, Julie, she asked me about you the other day..."

And those words were what Artie replayed again and again in his mind, as he diligently completed his laps. This was the first practice since Sam had mentioned that a girl named Julie might actually be interested in Artie. He didn't know how, in his ridiculous leggings, goofy bathing cap, and goggles, he'd managed to attract female attention. If his guns and bare chest were that impressive now, then this really was an encouraging development.

As promised, Sam brought her over at the end of practice. Artie finished a little early, so that he might have the opportunity to dry off and remove the bathing cap and googles while he balanced on the edge of the pool, feet dangling idly in the water.

As the synchronized swimming team wrapped up their practice, sure enough, one of the girls on the team had followed Sam over to where Artie was. As she approached, she too removed her bathing cap, revealing short, dark hair and cute bangs. She had big, round brown eyes and a sweet smile that she flashed briefly, as Sam led her over.

"Artie, meet Julie," he said. "Julie, this is Artie, my roommate. We've been friends since high school glee club."

"Oh, glee club?" Julie said. "That's neat, so you sing then?"

"He was the best guy singer in our club," Sam bragged, as Artie blushed a little and shook his head. "No, it's true, this guy's got the voice of an angel. Anyway, uh... you two should talk. I'll just be at the dorm... exfoliating."

With his excuse given, Sam hurried in the direction of the locker room, leaving both Julie and Artie to laugh uncomfortably. Julie took a seat by Artie on the edge of the pool, dipping her feet in the water.

"I noticed you coming the pool with Sam, and I just mentioned... I'd like to meet you," Julie said, looking embarrassed. "I know that's a weird thing to do. Uh, so just so you know... I don't usually do that. Pick up guys at the pool."

"I don't either," Artie said, then quickly winced at his words. "That is, uh, I don't pick up guys. Or girls. Actually, sometimes they pick me up, literally..." He cringed at his own awful joke, but it got a laugh out of Julie. "What I mean is, I'm flattered."

"This is usually where the guy might say but..." Julie said, and Artie got the impression that maybe she'd gone through some kind of ugly duckling phase before turning out pretty. Why else would a girl like her act so self-conscious?

"As in, but I have a girlfriend?" Artie suggested.

"Or worse, but you're not my type," Julie said, with a laugh. "Um, I'm sorry, do you? Have... have a girlfriend, I mean, gosh, sorry, this is embarrassing, I swear I'm not always this forward. I'm usually this awkward though."

Artie laughed. "No, um, I, um..." he stammered, matching hers, unintentionally. "I'm used to being the awkward one. And to answer your question, no, I... I don't have a girlfriend."

"Good to know," Julie said. "For future reference. Anyway, I should get going but... but I'd love to have your number." She cringed, as if she couldn't believe she was doing this, and Artie had to chuckle again.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "And hey, where are you headed? What... dorm are you in? If you're headed the same way as me, I'll walk you back."

He was glad to see that she gave no reaction to his use of a perfectly natural phrase like 'walk you back.' It wasn't like he was going to change the wording just because he'd, in fact, be rolling along beside her while providing her company. That would've been stranger.

Another thing she gave no reaction to was seeing him get into his chair from the side of the pool. She didn't even do something awkward, like offer to help. A surprisingly large number of people who passed by when he was in the middle of transferring to his chair after a swim tried to help in some way. Once, someone actually gave him the opposite of help, by inadvertently unlocking his break and causing his chair to move away when he tried to get in it.

As it turned out, Julie lived in Lawrence Tower, too, so it was easy enough to accompany her back to her place. After they both changed into their clothes, piling on their many layers, they met out in front of the locker rooms to walk home together. The route back to Lawrence Tower took around 15 minutes, leading them all the way around Buckeye Stadium, the parking lot, and Remembrance Park. Usually, he and Sam would be taking this route together, but today, Sam saw fit to set Artie up for a private chat with this girl, Julie.

"So, are you going home for break?" Julie asked, as they headed in the direction of the dorm, and when Artie nodded, she added, "And I know you're from... Lima. Like Sam."

"Like Sam I am," Artie joked, making her smile at that, however corny it was. "Yeah, I'll be going home. Where are you from?"

"Arizona, actually," she said. "Just outside of Tucson. So it'll be my first time going home since school started, since plane tickets aren't cheap."

"Wow, and you came all the way to Ohio State from Arizona?" Artie commented. "What made you do that?"

"The synchronized swimming team at OSU is a big deal," Julie explained. "I'm actually working on a documentary about Sam being the first male member, did he tell you?"

Artie gaped. "No, he didn't mention that!" But now it sort of made sense why Sam was so keen on having him meet this girl.

"He told me you like making movies," she went on. "In fact, he said you picked coming to OSU over going to film school in New York. Which is crazy, because I did the same thing. Like... I was accepted to the Brooklyn Film Academy, but I turned them down. When he told me that you did the same thing, I knew I had to meet you."

"That is an impressive coincidence." Artie grinned. "You want any help with your documentary?"

"If you have time," she said. "It's just a small project though. I have some video editing equipment in my dorm. Maybe... maybe you could stop by and I could show you what I'm working on sometime."

"Sure, I'd love to," Artie heard himself say. Then he couldn't help what happened next, because even though Kitty had been the one to ultimately end things, he still felt weirdly guilty when he thought of getting to know another girl. He stopped in his tracks, causing Julie to stop, too.

"I'm sorry, Julie," he said. "It's just... this is hard to say, but I just got out of a relationship, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet."

"Oh, well..." Julie twirled one of her pigtails, her brown eyes wide with surprise. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean as a date. I mean, you seem great, but we just met. I meant just to, like, work together. If you want, that is."

"No, yeah, I do!" Artie said. "...want to help you with your documentary, that is." He cringed at himself, as he'd rightly achieved the status of the most awkward one of the pair. "Sorry, bringing up my ex-girlfriend was... random."

"It's fine," Julie said. "Your old girlfriend, did, um... did you two break up because you went off to school?"

"Well... sort of," Artie said, with a sigh. He hadn't meant to venture into this topic with some girl he'd just met. "It's a long story."