Only Young Once
He meets Mike when he's transferred into his class at the end of fifth grade. He's been causing trouble in Miss. Anderson's class of late, dipping Brittany's long blonde plaits into paint pots and helping Noah and Finn creating mischief for the substitute teachers, normal stuff like that.
So they decide he would be better off in the other second grade glass, where all the smart kids are. They think that being around smart kids will help calm him down, but he doesn't see how they think he's ever going to cope. He's never been the smart kid in the class, he's always border lined on average. But they've transferred him, and he can't do anything about that.
The only spare desk in the class is located right next to Mike, and beside him is a pretty blonde girl who introduces herself as Quinn, with two n's please and thank you. He grunts softly at that, pulling out his English book as his new teacher writes spelling words on the chalkboard. He studies them slowly for a moment, before drawing out a pen and writing them down, hunched over his workbook and eyes squinted as he tries to concentrate. He wants to make his Mom proud, for once.
He scribbles down pollution, and moves onto handkerchief, glancing over at Mike's book for a second. Mike's already onto delightful, and at the sound of Quinn's furious scribbling, he can guess that she's even further than him. He bites down on his lip softly before moving onto annoying, gripping the pen so tight he fears it might break.
After the g on annoying is finally complete to his satisfaction, he glances around the room for a moment, taking his very first look at the rest of the kids in his new class.
There's a brunette with a dog sweater on sitting in the back row, and a light-brown haired guy in the middle row, sporting a pink blouse with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a blue scarf winded around his neck. He probably would have been hit for wearing that back in Matt's old class, and Matt himself probably would have helped. Noah would have been the ringleader, of course, and Finn would have been his second man in charge for whenever Noah was away.
But he's not that type of kid anymore, he's not going to hit anyone. This is his last chance, and he cannot, will not, mess it up. He just can't.
That guy with the blouse is probably a nice kid, maybe. The girl with the dog sweater could be a brilliant actress one day. Just because he doesn't like the look of them now, doesn't mean that he won't befriend them later on. Just because Mike is Asian that doesn't mean people should judge him on his race and not his persona. Just because Quinn is too attractive for her own good, that doesn't mean that she might make mistakes in her life. And just because he did bad things in his past, doesn't mean that his future is going to be dreadful.
The rest of the morning passes in a blur of English work, and by the time the bell rings for recess he finds himself grinning a little bit. At least he can still see Noah, Finn and the rest of their little gang at recess-time, they haven't taken that away from him.
He's packed up and out of the door before Mike and Quinn have even registered that the bell has even gone, hands furiously scribbling away.
The girl with the dog sweater as she's now known to Matt approaches him during their art class, a too-big apron tied around her neck. It swamps her, leaving half of her chest open and the ends of it drag on the floor. She waves a paintbrush in front of his face and gestures to the big mural that half the class is working on, something about a garden, he doesn't know. He sort of dozed off during the teacher's talk, exhausted from the dodge ball he played with Noah and Finn at recess.
"You're going to work with me on my section of the mural," she tells him, with a voice so perfect that it seriously couldn't even belong to her. It sounded like his grandma's, honestly. Did she take lessons on how to speak properly? "No one else wanted to work with me, and at first I was alright with that, I could make my own paint choices and draw my own things, but now I've realised that my section is too big for even Rachel Berry to handle." She blushes softly, before sticking out her hand. He stares dumbly down at it for a moment, before taking it and giving it a weak shake. "That's my name," she says, sitting down on the stool, her feet dangling in the air. "Rachel Berry, I mean. Sorry to be so rude, I didn't even notice that I hadn't introduced myself. Politeness is one of the great values, Daddy says."
He nods along to her babbling, taking her offered paintbrush and starting to twirl it around in the red paint contained in a yoghurt container. Art class in his old class used to be the highlight of the week, Brittany would always go home with the tips of her straight blonde plaits stained various colours, and Noah, Finn and him used to created havoc for the teacher, making newspaper and glue messes wherever they went. He just knows that this art class isn't going to be fun. Quinn's sitting in a corner, working on some sort of paper-mache creation silently, biting her lower lip, and Mike's working on the mural too, chatting along to some curly-haired kid whose name starts with a J, Matt thinks. Something like Jake, or Jacob, he doesn't really know, but then again he doesn't really care. He's apparently a big weirdo, as so the school rumours say. Probably would be best to steer clear of him.
The guy with the pink blouse and blue scarf is working on some sort of solo project, and humming softly while he paints.
He works silently on the mural with Rachel Berry, the girl singing underneath her breath while she criss-crosses her paintbrush over the mural. Then suddenly, her hand slams down onto his and she snatches the paintbrush away with a loud huff. "You're doing it all wrong!" she exclaims, gesturing madly at the mural. He blinks slowly, trying to take it all in. What just happened?
He shrugs carelessly, rocking back and forth on his chair. "I thought I was doing okay," he drawls out softly, grinning.
Rachel Berry raises an eyebrow, glaring at him. "Okay?" she practically screeches out. "Okay is not excellent! I need excellence, I deserve excellence. And 'I thought I was doing okay' is not the type of attitude that gains excellence!" she exclaims.
Matt lifts a hand up, waggling his finger at her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Seriously, you need to calm down. Take a chill pill or something." He shrugs again.
Now she's seriously fuming, so much so that he thinks steam is actually going to start pouring out of her ears. The whole class is watching them soundlessly, even the teacher. The guy with the pink blouse and blue scarf has stopped humming, and Quinn with two n's please and thank you has turned around from her paper mache, eyes wide as she stares. Even creepy Jacob is looking, after being nudged by Mike. He feels himself starting to redden from the stares being directed at him, and starts gnawing on his lip.
She pokes his chest with a finger, and it really does hurt. "I am calm," she says, before huffing and turning around.
The rest of the class turn around, and start their work again. The teacher starts marking papers once again, and Rachel starts singing.
He just sits there, dumbfounded while the world bustles around him, unconcerned and uncaring.
This is going to take a lot of time to adjust to.
The guy with the pink blouse and blue scarf comes up to him before the start of music class, and introduces himself. "I'm Kurt," he begins, smiling in such a way that Matt can't help but smile back. It would be rude not to, you know? He shouldn't judge him just because of the clothes that he wears, he's been judged against in the past just because of the colour of his skin so he knows how bad it hurts. "From the Sound of Music you know Kurt von Trapp and all," he elaborates, still grinning. He shrugs. "My mother had a thing for it when she was pregnant with me. She watched it nearly every day, and practically knew all the lines by the time I was born."
Matt chuckles softly, noting the boy's use of past tense but deciding not to pry any further. "I'm Matt," he says, before taking a seat. "Not named after anyone, sadly. Matt because my Mom had a thing for m names, and since I was the only boy so I got stuck with Matt." Kurt nods softly at this, taking his seat as well, right beside Matt. Sheet music is labelled in front of them, a bunch of notes that he never quite understood, with the heading Mr. Cellophane- Chicago. Kurt lets out a gasp of excitement once he spies the heading, clapping his hand together in joy. Matt eyes him carefully, lips pursed in thought.
"I just adore Chicago!" Kurt says, grinning so happily Matt would almost believe that he is faking it if he didn't know better. "My mom and I used to watch it together. We knew every lyric to every song, every move to every dance."
Again with the past tense.
The music teacher, Mr. Roberts Matt thinks he's called, clears his throat loudly.
Everyone immediately stops their conversation and looks at him, so unlike his past class. "Now, boys and girls," he says, smiling cheerfully. Kurt smiles along with him, clenching his sheet music tightly. "As your class has been progressing so wonderfully in music this past term, I have decided that you need something just a little bit well more challenging than the other grade five classes at this school." (Matt almost snorts at this, the last time he had attended music they had only made it to banging on the drums a little bit before the bell had rung. Anything would be more challenging than that.) "So, I've decided to introduce you all to the wonderful subject of musical theatre."
Rachel Berry squeals softly at this, grinning like the cat that got the cream.
"Now, while all of you might not like this subject (Matt does snort at this, although softly, now that's the understatement of the year), I'm sure that you'll muddle along quite happily. We have a number of solos for those who you like to try their hand at them, and remember boys and girls the two high schools in the district area do hold a Glee club to their name, though Carmel High's Glee club is far more well-known, so these solos can be a good way of practice if you do decide you want to enter the Glee club once you attend high school. We do have a fair few numbers that contain many back-up singers, and so of you might be more comfortable at those instead."
Mike blushes red at this, burying his face in his hands.
"I am so trying out for a solo," Kurt whispers to him, almost bouncing up and down in his chair, unable to contain his happiness. "Especially for Mr. Cellophane!"
He nods softly, eyes the sheet music warily. It has a jumble of notes that he can barely recognise, he never did spent too much time before listening to the teacher drone on about the notes and their values, him and Finn were too occupied with banging loudly, senselessly on the drums too even care. But he has a feeling that his whole not-knowing thing won't exactly cut it in this class, so he needs to at least know the basics, pronto.
"Now, everyone who would like to have some sort of role singing a solo in Mr. Cellophane, please come to the front."
Rachel Berry, Kurt, and an Asian girl with long black hair and Jacob stand up and make their way to the front. Mr. Roberts glares down at Jacob, and he returns back to his seat, to Matt's amusement. Quinn with two n's meets his gaze, and gestures him over, pulling out the empty chair beside her.
"Hi," she says shyly when he sits down next to her. "You're Matt right?
"Hey. And yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out." He grins softly.
"So, you're not auditioning for a part?" she questions, fiddling nervously with her pens, arranging them from black, to blue and then red.
He half-shrugs. "I'm not much of a singer, I prefer the instrumental side of things," he explains, smiling softly.
Her eyes widen, and she returns his grin, revealing a pair of perfect white teeth. "Oh, what do you play?"
He laughs, to her shock and surprise. "Nah, I don't play. Well not really. I'm not very good, you see. Maybe if I take a few lessons, then maybe I'll get better. But back in my old class, there were two guys in there that were awesome at playing their instrument, and they didn't even really try. Finn could totally like shred at drums, and Noah was pretty much awesome at guitar."
Quinn nods softly along to this. "They sound like cool guys."
Matt nods along with her, smiling. "Yeah, they are," he says wistfully. "After you get behind of the tough-guy act, their actually kind of sweet. But shh, don't tell anyone, they'd probably kill me for revealing their secret." He winks softly at her.
Quinn giggles, shaking her head, an action that makes her blonde hair fly. "I'll be sure not to tell anyone," she says, winking back at him. "But in exchange for my secrecy, I'd like to meet this Finn and Noah you speak so highly of. Lunch, perhaps?"
He nods softly. "Yeah, sure."
She grins softly, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear with a giggle.
Kurt ends up winning the solo in Mr. Cellophane, to Rachel's displeasure. Mr. Roberts assured her that the next solo he gave out would most definitely go to her, that she had a voice that no one could match, but it didn't seem to comfort her. Matt was going to be sure to steer clear of her, at least for the next few days. Maybe by then she'd cool down, just maybe.
Quinn helps him with his music work, and by the end of the week he knows enough notes to stumble along with the class as they rehearse the song. She hasn't mentioned the whole meeting Finn and Noah thing since the last lesson and he hasn't brought it up either. He's kind of scared to combine his two worlds together, scared to let Quinn see the kind of guy he really was. Quinn was really cool, and probably his first girl friend he'd ever had. Like not a girlfriend, but a girl who he could act totally casual around and not even worry about it.
"So, when am I meeting the totally awesome Finn and Noah?" Quinn asks during their Maths lesson. They made Mike trade seats with them so they could talk, but Mike doesn't really care. Matt looks up from his current sum, eyebrows raised.
He shrugs. "I don't really know. Haven't thought about it, really."
She punches him in the arm lightly. "Well you had better give it some thought over the next few days mister," she says teasingly, shaking her head at him. "I really would like to meet your so-called 'amazing' friends."
He nods softly, returning to his sum.
What Quinn with two n's, please and thank you wants, Quinn with two n's, please and thank you gets, that's one thing he knows for sure.
Monday morning the next week, he goes and sits with Finn and Puck for the day, the trio chattering on about nonsense. They play cars for a while, until the school bells rings and they separate into their two different classes. He misses his old class, sure the people are friendly enough here, but he doesn't have any close friends in here, despite the fact that Quinn's been friendly and Mike smiles at him sometimes. When they did dance class for sport, he notices that Mike can dance the hell out of anything, so he's befriended him. They are two minorities after all, the black kid and the Asian kid. Mike helps him with his Math, and Matt helps Mike in football.
Puck teases him about how he's apparently gone soft because of his new class, and Finn chuckles along with him, throwing a football back and forth to some kid.
They go along merrily, trying to figure out their friendship now that Matt's been pulled out of their class.
Then one day, a Thursday he thinks, Quinn walks out with him at lunch.
"I'm coming to meet your so-called amazing friends," she says, smiling softly. "I don't care what you say, it's been more than a week since music class, and me being the only girl in your class that is close to you, I think I deserve to meet this Noah and Finn characters."
All he can do is nod, and sling his Superman bag over his shoulder. He's idolised the character ever since his Dad first flicked the channel over to the cartoon channel in order to seize his wailing. Matt's big brown eyes had immediately locked onto the black-haired figure, and ever since then he has loved the mystery surrounding the enigma called Clark Kent. Of course, he'll never admit that to anyone, he just shrugs when people question about his bag and say that it was the last one in the shop, so he had to buy it. Finn and Puck have similar bags, both decorated with patterns and pirate logos.
There's nothing he can do to persuade Quinn not to meet Finn and Noah, and eventually she would have met them anyway. It's not like it's a big deal.
Quinn grins up at him as they cross the playground, Barbie bag across her small shoulders. Her blonde hair is pulled up into a ponytail and small strands of hair are falling out, creating a messy hairdo that would horrible on anyone else.
Finn and Noah both look up as they approach, faces blank. Noah drops his football and Finn smiles carelessly.
Matt clears his throat softly. "Guys, this is Quinn. She's in my class," he says as an explanation. "Quinn, this is Finn and Noah."
Finn's mouth drops and he shakes his head. "Whoa, our names rhyme! How cool is that."
Quinn giggles quietly, grinning. "That's pretty cool actually," she says. "I've never met anyone with the name Finn."
Noah eyes her warily, Matt sit down beside him. He raises an eyebrow and picks his football up. "I hope you're not thinking about sitting with us," he blurts out. "This is a guy's group. No girls allowed."
Quinn shakes her head. "I have my own group of friends, thank you very much. Anyways, I just wanted to meet you both, I better get back to Britt."
"Bye!" Finn yells, grinning.
"Bye."
Noah shakes his head softly at Finn, chuckling.
That wasn't so bad, he must admit.
Jacob walks up to him during gym, staring softly at the floor.
Matt raises an eyebrow, before shaking his head and continuing to bounce the basketball lazily, yawning. Quinn's over in the corner skipping happily, Mike's throwing a football to two girl's (Mercedes and Tina, he thinks?) and Rachel arguing with the gym teacher about how physical exercise could possibly make her break out in hives and how would he like her two gay dads to sue her for endangering their precious daughter, hmm. Jacob sits down beside him, and continues to stare at Rachel, almost fixated on her image.
Matt follows his line of sight, and smirks. "You like her, don't you?"
Jacob splutters, shaking his head. "W-who?" he blurts out, eyes wide as he looks up at Matt. Matt gestures over to Rachel, who by now has given up winning her fight with Mrs Davis and has picked up a tennis ball and is eyeing it warily. "Rachel? Oh no, no, no I don't! Not at all. If you ever say it to anyone, I'll deny it. I don't like Rachel Berry!"
Matt shrugs softly, raising his hands. He lets the orange basketball drop and roll away, shaking his head. "Woah, no need to get defensive. I was just going to say that if you did like her, you should do something about it. She's not my type of girl, but hey to each his own."
Jacob shakes his head, before standing up and walking away, his hands in his pockets.
It's true, Rachel isn't his type of girl. He stands u and picks up the basketball, beginning to bounce it again. Quinn's moving figure catches his eye as she skips with a grin on her face. He smiles.
Rachel might not be his type of girl, but he thinks he knows who might be.
The other fifth grade class enters the gym just as they are leaving to return back to Miss Davis, after changing back into their normal clothes, Rachel whinging about how she had ruined a beautiful shirt, Quinn giggling behind her hand. He falls into step with Tina, smiling down at her.
Then Santana barges her way through, slamming into Tina. She yelps, falling to the floor with a wince.
"Oi!" he calls, running after Santana. Her ponytail flips him in the face as she whirls around, unlatching her arm from Brittany's. She looks him up and down with a scowl, placing a hand on her hip. He takes a deep breath.
No one ever stands up to Santana.
"You need to apologise to Tina," he says, gesturing over to where the girl is being helped up by Quinn and Kurt. "It was really rude what you did, and you need to sorry."
One of Santana's perfectly sculpted dark eyebrows raise, and she waves her hand at Brittany with a tiny grimace. "Oh, do I?" she says, chuckling softly. "Well you can tell your little friend over there that I'm not sorry, and that next time she can move out of my way. Honestly," she murmurs, clicking her tongue at him, "who would have thought that only a month in your new class would have changed you so much Matt." She shakes her head. "Truly pathetic."
She whirls around, and stomps off to the change rooms, ponytail swishing as she walks.
Matt shakes his head, and scans the gym before walking back to Quinn and Tina. He shrugs softly, lowering his gaze. "I tried. Sorry."
Tina giggles loudly. "A-a-at least you t-t-tried," she stutters out.
"It was really brave," Quinn says, grinning up at him.
Surprisingly their opinions mean more than Santana's ever could.
"Go fish!" Kurt yells out, chuckling. His red scarf has been discarded on the floor, and the first few buttons of his shirt have been undone. He ruffles his hair as he stares at his cards, concentrating.
Rachel sticks her tongue out at him, shaking her head. "This is such a stupid game," she says hurriedly. "I'm going to paint, anyone care to join?"
Tina walks over to the tiny easels with her, the two girls chattering quietly.
"Where's Miss anyway?" he asks, breaking the silence.
His answer is shrugs, no one knows. They walked into class finding no smiling teacher to meet them, and since then it's been a free for all. In his old class having no teacher would mean a chance to mess up completely, cause as much havoc as you could until another teacher came to break it up. Surprisingly, it's been two hours since school started and no teacher has come to check up on them, no one cares. He supposed it is because they're being so quietly, the game of 'Go Fish' has hardly generated any noise, and the other students are preoccupied reading or drawing. He half-expects Rachel to stand up and start commanding the class in lessons.
He places his cards down, sighing. "I'm out, have fun guys." Kurt, Mercedes and Jacob nod softly up at him, their eyes staring at their remaining cards. He walks over to where Quinn is silently sitting, a thick paperback in her hands.
"Hey," she murmurs, setting the book down. She smiles softly, patting the empty chair next to her.
He takes a seat, grinning as he picks up her book. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," he reads, shaking his head. "I wouldn't even attempt to read that," he jokes, smirking.
"It's actually quite interesting," she says. "Long, but good."
He nods gently, sighing as he leans back, ruffling his hair. "So, do you know where Miss is?"
Quinn purses her tiny lips, thinking as she joins her hands together, chipped pink nail polish on her small nails. "Sick, I think," she tells him. "She has the flu or something, I don't know."
"How come you know this and no one else knows anything about it, hmm?" Matt questions. She giggles, shaking her head lightly.
"I overheard it from one of the staff members, they were talking about it when I came to school in the morning," she explains, grinning softly at him.
He taps his chin thoughtfully. "Quinn Fabray, eavesdropper. Never thought you had it in you."
She laughs wildly, shaking her head.
The next few months fly by in Miss Anderson's class. He still sees Finn and Noah from time to time at school and out of school, but Santana always glare at the two when he joins their conversation. He doesn't really mind though, he's become a lot closer to Mike after he discovered that they shared a love of Batman. Now Mike sits and watches the cartoons and movies with him, the pair shovelling one piece of popcorn into their mouth after another. They swim and play football together, surprisingly Mike's become a whole lot better since the first time he tried to play. He hangs out with Quinn most of the time at school, the blonde's become one of his closest friends and while he can't deny the feelings he has for her, he doesn't want to risk ruining his friendship just in case she doesn't feel the same way. Besides, Finn's confided in him that he sort of likes Quinn a little bit, and although he knows that he won't be able to do anything about it while Santana's on his back, could Matt pretty please make sure that no one asks her out. He can't turn his back on one of his greatest friends and claim Quinn for himself, and aside from that he's seen how Quinn smiles at Finn whenever she sees him.
They paint Christmas pictures the day before school ends, and happily Rachel joins in, despite the fact that she is Jewish. She mixes paint with a large smile on her face, Jacob staring at her in such a way that Matt can't help but chuckle. Maybe one day the curly-haired boy will own up and admit his feelings for her, but then again maybe not.
Quinn hums softly as she paints a picture of a candy-cane, grinning wildly. Her blonde hair is loose down her back, and she tugs her coat tighter around her, shivering from the cool breeze coming through the one open window. Matt smiles at her, before returning to his own picture.
Despite all his protests and complaints at being put into this class, he actually has grown to love it. Everyone in here has their own little personality, and he adores each and every one. Mike and him have banded together, and Quinn will always be one of his best friends he hopes. He doesn't want this year to end, he doesn't want the good memories to have to finish. Next year is a whole different year, and he doesn't want to be put into a class where there is no Quinn, Mike, Kurt, Rachel, Mercedes, Tina and even Jacob. He wants to remain in this class forever, even though he knows that he can't.
Most of the old gang don't even talk to him anymore, Brittany never smiles at him and whenever Santana sees him she shoots him a glare. He doesn't mind though, he's got plenty of interesting people to keep him company in his new class. Their opinions and thoughts are worth a lot more to him than Santana's ever would be and right now he doesn't care if they're regarded as 'nerds' or 'losers.' They're his friends and they care for him, and that's all that matters. To him anyway, they are the best people he knows.
So, with that thought in mind, he dips his pinkie into the pot of red paint and dabs a bit on Quinn's nose. She squeals, batting his arm away with a soft giggle.
Yeah, they are definitely the best people he knows. And he's glad that he found them and become friends, cause after all, you're only young once. He's glad that his fifth grade memories will include them.
A dab of green paint is placed on his nose and Quinn giggles shaking her head. He just smirks at her, swirling his brush in the white paint.
Definitely the best people.
He'll never forget them, that he is sure of.
Written because I was seriously disappointed in Ryan Murphy's writing, honestly I think Matt deserved a better explanation of why he left. Don't you? :) Hopefully you all liiiiiiiike, hehe. And if you're a big Matt lover like I am now, be sure to check out EHWIE'S story on him titled Transferred it's ah-mazing! Review?