[[two]]
I'm stuck in this fuckin' rut
Waiting on a second hand pick me up
And I'm over getting older
If I could just find the time
Then I wouldn't let another day go by
I'm over getting old
Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass
As I go no where
And this is my reaction
To everything I feel
'cause I've been going crazy I don't wanna waste another minute here.
I woke up to my alarm blaring through the speakers on my phone, turning over and shutting it off I glanced at the time. The clock read '6:00a.m.' it was officially Monday; my first day at William McKinley High School. I made my way out of bed and over to the curtains, parting them I noticed a girl around my age doing the same and then making her way over to some sort of exercise machine. I shrugged my shoulders at myself and shook my head making my way towards the bathroom. An hour later I was walking out and letting my naturally wavy hair fall into its normal place. I walked into my bedroom and threw on the denim skinny jeans I had laid out the night before with a long, black, tank top under a red, plaid button down shirt. It was loose around my flat stomach and came to just below my hip bones. This by far was my favorite outfit I had bought for the new school year.
I ran down stairs and slipped on my black flats, I stood at five-foot-seven-inches; I was comfortable in my height. Heels made my feet hurt, so I usually avoid them at all costs. I quickly ate a cup of fruit and darted towards the front door swiftly grabbing my backpack off of the kitchen stool before exiting and locking the door behind me. It was nice out, so instead of driving in the car my brother had picked up from my parents at the airport, I decided I was going to walk. Fall was such a pretty time in Ohio; I loved looking at the different shades of orange, yellow, and red in all of the leaves. I paused and pulled my iPod out of my backpack and stuck the ear buds in my ears and turned on my Brand New playlist before continuing on my path. I lived about a fifteen minute walk from the school; literally in the same neighborhood. This of course was probably why I was unaware of the girl following only steps behind me until she actually reached out and grabbed me. I turned to face her and saw her close her mouth, realizing she had probably been speaking to me, I pulled my ear buds out, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I had ear buds in." I grinned sheepishly.
"I said hello." She smiled, "my name is Rachel. I think you moved in next door to my house."
"Yeah, I think so, my name is Taluca, but my friends call me Luca." I extended my hand towards her and smiled, "nice to meet you. Would you mind showing me around?" I rubbed the back of my neck. "Gosh I hate being the new girl." I laughed again before turning around and continuing on my way, only this time at a slower pace so I could talk to Rachel more. "So is there anything worth knowing about at this school?"
"No, nothing really well, I mean, there's Glee… but you'd have to try out, although we are always interested in more people. It's not really a try-out per say it's more… to show us what we're going to be working with." She smiled brightly and then looked away from me. "Can you sing?"
"I love to sing actually, all of my elective classes are music related." I smiled back before realizing that we had already made it to the front doors of the school. "Huge." I took a deep breath and pushed through the first crowd to find my locker. "1513?" I handed my paper to Rachel and smiled; she simply grabbed my wrist lightly and tugged me in the right direction. After showing me to my locker, pointed towards my first class, she said she'd see me during lunch, and pushed her way back through the crowded hallways.
I made my way towards the room I would be learning Spanish in, room 104, finding my way there pretty easily I took a seat next to the window in the back corner of the room, deciding there was nothing better to do I dug out my text book and began skimming through the pages. Five minutes later the kids started filing in one-by-one until finally I noticed someone was now occupying the once empty seat next to me. I looked over out of the corner of my eye to see a very tall boy, with brown eyes and hair to match, looking at me. He would open his mouth to speak but nothing came out; he did this several times before I smiled and turned my head towards him.
"Hi."
"Hello." He smiled warmly at me, "first day?" he laughed pointing at my text book, "obviously you're attempting to go unnoticed, heads up… the more you pay attention, the more they smell how new you are." He pointed to the students around us. I began laughing but was cut short by a man with short curly hair.
"Hey guys!" He half shouted, "We have a new student today." I felt my face flush, "her name is Taluca Boyd, she just transferred from Florida, so let's say hi."
"Hi." The class greeted in a less than enthusiastic tone, but I couldn't really blame them for it, it was eight o'clock in the morning, I'm sure I would have sounded the same.
"Hi." I answered sinking a bit in my seat. "You can really just call me Luca."
"Well, hello Luca, I'm Mr. Shuester and I will be you're Spanish coach." He laughed before turning his attention to the chalk board and began writing that day's lesson on it.
"Luca?" the boy next to me whispered, "you went to Middleton elementary?"
Shock overtook my face, "yes?"
"My name is Finn… Hudson, we used to play together during recess." He stated with a smile that stretched across his face. Of course I remembered him, well, now I did anyways. We hung out until the day I moved. How would I ever forget who he was?
"Finn, I'm up here." Mr. Shuester sounded stern, but you could see through his façade; he was the friend type, not the teacher type, he would be stern only when needed, otherwise he wanted you to be open and honest with him, much like he promised he would be with you. From what I could tell I was going to like this school.
"Sorry Mr. Shue."
For the duration of the class I stared at the boy sitting next to me, he was clearly struggling with the language in front of him; he caught me a few times, blushed, and shot a crooked smile my way.
[&takeachance]
It's Thursday. Rachel had been riding me since Monday to try for Glee. I sat and stared at the bowl of cereal in front of me for a few minutes before I decided it was useless and made my way to the front door. Just as I locked the door I heard a husky voice behind me, "Luca?"
"Yes?" I answered without even turning around.
"It's me… ya know, Finn?"
Pulling the key out of the lock I laughed and looked at him, "I know who you are, Finn, no need to tell me all the time." I pushed past him gently and began my fifteen minute walk to school.
"Can I walk with you?" I heard him ask from beside me.
"Sure." I smiled politely, after a few minutes I could see him opening his mouth to speak and shutting it again. This had been happening all week, "what is it that you want to ask me exactly? Because you've been following me around like a lost puppy since Monday."
"Will you please come to Glee?"
"Will you stop being so awkward if I do?" I shot back sarcastically.
"I can't make any promises." He mumbled something else quickly after but I couldn't quite catch it.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." He smirked.
"What happened to Amelia? I mean I haven't seen her around school and I've been trying to call her cell but there's no answer or anything."
"Oh." His head dropped to look at his feet. "She was in a drunken driving accident a month ago. Some idiot hit her; she-she didn't make it."
"Oh."
"Yeah, I'm so sorry." The rest of the walk was quiet. Not that it was horribly long, but enough for me to feel awkward. I made it to the doors before I looked up at Finn and let the tears flow. I had just talked to Amelia two months ago to tell her I would be back in Ohio. We were both excited for my return, I felt so stupid for not being more curious as to why I hadn't heard from her. But it was usual for us not to talk for months at a time. I felt Finn wrap his arms around me and pull me close to him, squeezing me tightly, putting his lips to my ear I could feel his warm breath, "it's gonna be okay. We have all of our classes together today; I'm going to be right here, whenever you need me." I just looked up at him, blinked, mustered the best smile I could, and then planted my face back in the soaked spot on his sweatshirt.
"Thanks." I whispered.
"Finn?!" I heard a shrill voice from behind me. "What are you doing?" Now the tone was demanding.
"This is one of Amelia and I's friends, no one told her what happened, I was just comforting her Quinn, chill out."
"Chill out!?" she stomped.
I slowly drifted my way away from the two as their argument progressed, I could tell this Quinn character was trouble. That's when I caught a glimpse of my cousin coming through the glass doors of school. Though I was still upset a huge smile crept across my face as he saw me. We had always been the closest in the family, which is why it was weird that I hadn't heard about Amelia, he was in love with her. Or so I thought.
"Noah!" I yelled running towards him. "I've missed you so much; I haven't seen you all week!" I laughed as he picked me up and spun me around.
"Yeah, well… I've been here." He smiled. "I've seen you with Finn so I knew you were in good hands. Speaking of where is he?"All I could do was point at the forming crowd in the hallway as you could hear insult to insult being thrown back and forth between the couple. "Don't worry about it." He laughed at my apparent nerves.
"Well… they may or may not be fighting because of me." I shrugged. "He told me about Amelia, I cried, he hugged me, and then she screamed." I paused. "It's actually kind of funny." I began laughing before hugging my cousin for a last time, "I'm going to my locker. Otherwise; I'm going to be late." I made it through the rest of the day smoothly bumping into Rachel a few times and assuring her she would see me at the Glee meeting at 3:30 that afternoon. I tried to avoid Finn for the majority but he finally caught me in the hall between our last two classes of the day.
"I would have said this earlier but you've been ignoring me all day. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, she just gets so jealous, and I don't know how to handle it. We never used to be like this." He grabbed the back of his neck and began rubbing, he was worried about something and of course I was going to pry.
"What are you worried about?"
"How'd- ah." As the realization hit him he smiled and pulled his hand away from his neck, "good memory. Anyway, I uhm… I broke up with Quinn. Which I don't know if that was smart. She's pregnant. She says it's mine, but I know she's lying, the way she says it happened, it couldn't have. But I stuck around anyway, she can't do it alone, but she doesn't know that I know. Nobody knows that I know, except you." He paused, "I'm rambling sorry."
"It's okay." I laughed, "But I would tell her you know that you aren't the father."
"You're right. I just want to know who is before I spill." By this point we had successfully made it to our classroom and taking roll call.
An hour and a half later I was making my way into the music room at WMHS. It wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. I sat down on one of the three platforms that held desks and waited for Mr. Shuester to walk through the door. A few minutes later I was relieved to see Rachel walking through the door on the heels of Mr. Shuester. "Hi. I'm in your Spanish class, I wanted to join Glee."
He smiled at me for a second, "can you sing?" he questioned.
"Definitely, I can definitely sing, or so I'm told."
"She can." I turned to see Finn entering the room with a few people behind him, one being my cousin and the others were all sorts of characters. I was positive the doe eyed, fashion trendy, boy standing next to a heftier girl with dark skin was gay. Moving down the line I saw a girl with bright colors in her hair, it looked like she had a bit of edge no matter how coy she appeared. The rest were football players, and then three cheerleaders. One of which I recognized as Quinn from the earlier spat in the hallway. I smiled at Finn to say thank you and made my way towards the piano. Sitting down I nervously placed the sheet music in front of me. "You're going to do great." Finn spoke from next to me.
"Yeah, I'm just nervous." I smiled sheepishly.
"Come on, just like the old days. I'll play, you sing, and look it's even the same music." He laughed. "We can totally do this." He smiled again before I laughed back and addressed the room of people in front of me. "My name is Taluca Boyd and I will be performing Celine Dion's song Taking Chances. Finn is going to accompany me on piano."
There were various whispers across the room before they stopped and waited for the music to start playing, as if on cue the notes echoed through the room as I opened my mouth to sing, "Don't know much about your life// don't know much about your world// but I don't want to be alone tonight, on this planet they call earth// You don't know about my past// and I don't have a future figured out…"
"Come one Luca, it's only a solo. I've heard you sing before, you're going to be amazing." The same boy with the same brown eyes and crooked smiled was trying to pump me up before the rehearsal. Tomorrow was the day for solo tryouts. It's sixth grade; I still think he's perfect. Instead of the butterflies crashing around my stomach I could feel them flapping through my veins. He always made me feel this way; everyday since I was eight and sitting on the swings with Amelia. He sat down and motioned for me to sit next to him, we were sitting in his living room, his Mom usually watched me after school, and it made my parents feel more 'safe'. So I would hang out with Finn and they had some peace of mind. "Come on." He pushed.
"Okay, I'm ready when you are." I laughed admitting defeat and taking a seat next to him on the piano bench.
"From the top." He smiled as he began playing the song I wanted to use to audition for the solo that year. It was Celine Dion's song Taking Chances. As I finished the song I looked up at the boy who even at a young age towered over me. He stood and pulled me towards him leaning in as he did so and gently pushed our lips together. Pulling away we both blushed as his mom yelled to let us know that she had just arrived home.
I smiled as I finished the song, "what do you say to taking chances// what do you say to jumping off the edge? // never knowing if there's solid ground below// or a hand to hold, or hell to pay// what do you say, what do you say? // don't know much about your life// and I don't know much about your world." I stared at the people in the room for a few minutes before I looked at Finn, and shot him a pleading look, but he stared at me just like the rest of them. "Was I that bad?" I laughed.
"No you were amazing." Rachel broke the silence.
"Yeah, I knew you could sing Lu, I just didn't know how well." My cousin spoke from behind Rachel.
"You know her?" Quinn asked sitting to the side of him, "how?"
"She's my cousin." He laughed, we shared the same dark hair and eyes, but nothing else was the same.
"There's no way you're related to Puck." She snapped.
"Well… my family tree differs from your opinion." I shot.
"You're in." Mr. Shuester finally spoke from the corner of the room, "we could definitely use your talent." He smiled.
"Awesome." I smiled looking to Finn who seemed to be just as excited.