A/N: If you're new to my stories, I like to change what happened in seasons 5 and 6 but keep some of the better dialogue. So, be on the look out for that. Also, this chapter features a brief contribution from QuinnAbrams, so special thanks to my fan... and currently, only review *ahem*
Artie
Sectionals were being hosted at Carmel High School in Akron this year, even though Vocal Adrenaline had already won their own Sectionals the week before. Using Vocal Adrenaline's stage ensured that no team had home field advantage. That was a thing in sports, and it was a thing in glee club, too.
Sectionals was all Rachel could talk about in the glee alumni group text that Artie, Sam, Blaine, and Tina had all been added to shortly after graduation. Usually it consisted of an entire paragraph from Rachel, followed by lots of one-line responses from everyone else involved. Some former members, like Quinn, were completely silent most of the time, obviously more involved in whatever new thing they had going on in life.
And with her silence, Artie found himself more than a little curious about Quinn. Ever since she'd moved in with his family for several months, after the birth of her baby, she'd forever become someone important in his life. Even if they didn't talk much and he wasn't sure what she was up to at Yale, she was important nonetheless. And when they did see each other, it was like no time had passed and nothing had changed.
Rachel had been the first to arrive, of course, and she was saving them seats on the accessible row that separated the front section and the back section, that had a space in the middle for Artie's chair, and Artie was grateful she'd thought of it without a reminder. Or maybe, he quickly realized, it was the blonde beside her. When she turned, Artie realized the much lighter shade of blonde hair, cropped into a short style, belonged to none other than Quinn.
"This is different!" he remarked, smiling ear to ear because she still looked gorgeous and it still sort of intimidated him, anytime he was in the presence of her beauty, as she was the original girl he'd crushed on in glee club, even before he'd dated Tina... and Brittany... and Sugar... and Kitty.
And there was those... four times they'd kissed. Once in his room, when he'd been upset about Brittany. Then three times in the span of two days. They'd almost gotten together that time, but Artie was the one to hit the brakes. He just couldn't stand the idea of ruining a lifelong friendship by trying to date her.
"I could say the same about you!" Quinn exclaimed, looking Artie up and down as he parked his chair in the open space. "Different chair, no glasses. And I like the new clothes, too."
Artie had selected the black button-down shirt that Sam had helped him choose not long ago, but at Sam's advice, he hadn't buttoned it all the way up. He hadn't done that in awhile now. He'd paired that with dark denim jeans and his favorite converse shoes, and for the most part, it was pretty different than his usual choice of attire for a nice outing.
"And how about these guns?" Sam added, coming up behind Artie suddenly and giving his shoulder a pat for emphasis. Artie was now blinking red like a stoplight, flattered but mostly embarrassed by the attention.
After exchanging hugs with Rachel, they found their seats, Sam sitting on one side of Artie, the other chair by Artie's saved for Tina, who had texted earlier for him to "save her a seat." He was definitely anxious to see his best friend, but he had to admit that his eyes fell on the empty stage now, as he thought more about Kitty on the other side of that curtain.
He'd been mentally preparing himself to see her ever since he and Sam had set out for home the previous day. The last visit home Artie made had been in September, and he'd gone home then with an ominous feeling that it was over. Artie hadn't really talked to Kitty or even sent her much of a text all month long, seeing as classes, work, and swimming really were just as time consuming as he'd thought. So while he'd known that there was the possibility that things were now over, he'd never expected it to go down quite the way it did...
Artie had been sitting with Sam in the crowd of the Homecoming game. Kitty was representing the junior class on the Homecoming court, so she wasn't able to come and say hello before the game. He was anxiously hoping he'd see her afterwards, and that he'd be able to get a moment alone with her to apologize for being a terrible long-distance boyfriend.
She'd been standing on the field in a fiery red dress that matched McKinley's school colors, and Artie knew that if she were a senior, she would have been crowned queen.
The crowns for king and queen went to Madison and Mason, who still looked eerily like a couple, rather than what they were, brother and sister. Bree Westbrook, another queen candidate, looked thoroughly disgusted as she stood on the field and failed to clap while the two were crowned and Madison was handled an enormous bouquet of roses.
It was then that Ryder, Kitty's escort who was currently holding her arm, leaned over and kissed her cheek. The gesture might have seemed harmless, except that in that moment, Kitty's eyes found Artie in the crowd and he bit his lip, giving a small nod. Kitty looked like she wanted to cry, and Artie felt the same way as an enormous lump rose up in his throat...
Artie's thoughts were interrupted by more former glee clubbers arriving. If Sam was uncomfortable about Mercedes arriving, given all the flirting he'd done with Artie's sister over the past few months, well, he didn't show it. He jumped up to hug her as she took a seat on the opposite side of him, leaning across him to greet Artie.
"Look at you, shorty," she teased. "Looking good."
Next came Kurt, who also stopped to make a fuss over Artie, who was beginning to wonder if they'd all been wishing for years to make him over, and here he'd finally given them what they were waiting for. He didn't know his former appearance had been such an eye sore.
After Kurt finished asking Artie if he'd finally donated his sweater collection to a nursing home (Artie had good-naturedly laughed at that), they turned their attention to Blaine, who had just come thundering into the auditorium a few minutes after Kurt. He quickly explained he'd spotted the Warblers in the lobby and had stopped to say hello.
"Sam! Artie!" Blaine greeted them, as Sam stood to hug him first, and then he leaned down to hug Artie. Kurt, who wasn't the hugging type, just smiled and stood behind Blaine, clutching his designer messenger bag. "How's Ohio State?"
"It's been great so far," Artie replied, with a grin. "But it's nice to be home for this."
"What about you, man? How's New York?" Sam asked.
"It's getting colder this time of year, but I love NYADA and my classes. Being out there with Kurt and Rachel is nice too," he shared, before turning to Artie. "Brooklyn is waiting for you if you ever decide to ditch the Olympic dreams and become the next Spielberg instead."
Artie appreciated that, happy to know that his presence was missed. But he had no regrets about changing his plans.
Kurt then added, "And hey, Sam, Blaine says you're dabbling in modeling these days. You know, there are a lot more opportunities for that in New York then there are in Columbus…"
Sam shook his head. "No, thanks, I'm good where I'm at," he said. "Artie and me are having a blast." And he exchanged a grin with his bro, who immediately returned the gesture.
"Tina!" That was Rachel, who had spotted the other girl hurrying down the stairs to grab her seat.
"Hellooo Big Fat Broadway Star!" she gushed, finding Artie first and leaning over to hug him, even though Sam had jumped up at that exact moment, trying to hug her first. "And holy crap, Artie, have you been wheeling three miles uphill everyday or what?"
"Feels like it," Artie said, with a laugh. "And it'll be snowing soon. Time for a little resistance training." Then he gave a nod to Sam. "It's mostly his doing, though."
Tina surveyed the crowd. "Where's Mike?"
"Oh, he had to bail at the last minute," Kurt reported. "Apparently, his school wanted to add three more performances of 'Don Quixote,' two today and one tomorrow. He promises to be here by Monday."
"Oh, that's too bad..." Tina looked really disappointed and Artie knew why.
After her break up with Kitty's brother last month, just one month after Artie and Kitty's, they'd been commiserating their heartbreak together on Skype, from time to time. Once, they'd both been eating pints of icecream, same flavor and everything, and it hadn't even been planned. That was the night that Tina confessed to Artie that she'd unsuccessfully tried to date her boss at the Zumba club, where she'd been working part time. At one point during the conversation, Tina had asked Artie if he thought she should try and get back together with Mike, since she'd heard he was currently single. He honestly hadn't known what to say to that.
"But what about Brittany and Puck and Santana?" Tina went on, looking down the row. "I mean, are they just not being supportive?"
"Tina!" It was Mercedes who cut her off. "Why don't you catch us up? How's Brown University treating you?"
"Ah, I love everything about it!" Tina said, removing her scarf casually, as she took her seat by Artie. "Except my dorm room. My roommate — she's nice — but she's from Pakistan and she speaks almost no English and she's always watching that Al Jazeera channel. And no, I don't have a boyfriend. I was dating this really nice guy, but he turned out to be..."
"Gay," said Rachel and Sam."
"He's probably gay," added Blaine.
"Homosexual." That was Kurt.
"No!" Tina exclaimed. "Yes. Anyway..."
Tina didn't complete her next thought because the lights started to dim as they began introducing the random compilation of judges for this year's Sectionals competition.
"Remember when it was Olivia Newton-John and Josh Groban?" Mercedes said, with a nudge to Sam. "I'll always remember it because you and Quinn did an amazing job on the leads. And Santana, too, of course."
If that annoyed Rachel, then to her enormous credit, she managed not to show it. Maybe her big success on Broadway, getting the role of Fanny Brice, had finally given her the fortitude to overlook the few moments, usually in less important competitions like Sectionals, where Mr. Schuester had seen fit to extend an opportunity to someone else.
At the last minute, Will and Emma came rushing in, sitting on the end of their row, in the last two seats next to Mercedes.
"The New Directions are up first this year!" Emma announced, waving wildly to the huge row of alumni. On the opposite end, Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt looked worried.
"First is okay," Will added. "I mean... at least we can guarantee no one has an opportunity to steal one of our songs. This year, you're just supposed to come up with your own theme, so that each song in the performance shares something with the rest. We went with 'Night.'"
The curtain stayed down as the performance started out with a classic entry-from-the-back. The song was "Because the Night" and Kitty and Ryder were singing the duet. In order to make her way to the front, she had to pass all of them. Once again, her eyes met Artie's for a moment...
Take me now, baby, here as I am
Pull me close, try and understand
Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed
It was then that she remembered she was supposed to be looking down the aisle at Ryder. Her eyes darted to him, as they hurried onto the stage, grabbing hands as they sang the bridge.
Come on now try and understand
The way I feel when I'm in your hands
Take my hand come undercover
They can't hurt you now
Can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now
The curtain rose then to reveal the rest of the group as they launched into the chorus. As an opening number, it worked perfectly, grabbing the audience's attention. Artie couldn't tear his eyes away from Ryder and Kitty long enough to look at the sea of faces, new and familiar, behind them.
The next number was a little silly, but for that reason, Sam was the first one out of his seat, clapping along. All the guys donned shades and launched right into 'Sunglasses at Night.' Beside him, Mercedes briefly put her head in her hands before she remembered that Will and Emma were right next to her.
The main voice featured in this song was that of Joe Hart, who it was said returned to McKinley after taking half a year off with his missionary parents to visit Africa. Now he and the dreads were back for senior year.
Also returning was Sugar Motta, whose parents had taken her on a semester-long European vacation last year. She, too, would be graduating after this year. Sugar briefly took Joe's sunglasses to put them on herself.
"Not a total train-wreck, but I wouldn't have picked that song for them," muttered Artie, to Tina, who gave a tight nod of agreement.
Everything came together in the end, however, as the New Directions recycled an old number that hadn't ever been used in competition before but should have been — 'Some Nights.' Personally, this had been one of Artie's favorites, except it had been particularly crowded onstage and some of the newbies hadn't been quite as adept to working with Artie's chair, so they'd almost all taken a turn running into him during rehearsals.
It was another number that heavily featured the groups' juniors and seniors, especially Marley, Kitty, Jake, Ryder, and Joe. Unique was seriously getting overlooked this time around, and Artie only hoped they'd remember her in time for Regionals. He also hoped the second song being sort of lame hadn't just killed the New Directions' chances for Regionals.
"C'mon, let's go," Sam said, gesturing to Artie, as the curtain was dropping. He'd hung around the other guy long enough to know that, with the chair, they either had to beat the crowd out of the theater or wait for everyone to dissipate. Artie followed Sam, but with a sense of hesitancy as he braced himself in preparation to see Kitty.