Chapter Two: A/V is for Geeks

The theme for the yearbook had been decided. It hadn't really been a hard choice between Rachel's dreams idea, Jacob's possibly unconstitutional one and the anonymously submitted "boobs," though some of the boys (and Brittany) had argued for the last one, earning a rather pointed glare from Rachel and a rolling of the eyes from Quinn. Ms. Pillsbury, the teacher advisor for the yearbook committee, had vetoed it before it had gone to voting, eliciting groans from several people.

"So dreams it is," Quinn had announced, after counting the almost unanimous votes (shockingly, one person had voted for Jacob's).

Squealing, Rachel had jumped from her seat. "I am so honored that all of you have chosen my theme idea for the yearbook-"

"Rachel," Quinn cut her off, gesturing for the girl to resume sitting. "This is not the time for a thank you speech."

Sitting back down, in a rather disgruntled manner, Rachel pouted. "It's always the time for a thank you speech…" she muttered.

Ignoring her, Quinn started assigning people to specific areas of the yearbook, taking into consideration their requests. Brittany and Santana were in charge of a handful of random clubs, as well as the Freshman section. Rachel had, rather exuberantly and annoyingly, demanded that she have control over the Senior section, which was a huge undertaking but if Quinn could trust anyone with it, she knew she could trust Rachel. Jacob wanted the sports section, which he took to mean that he had unfettered access to the locker rooms. That wasn't true but Quinn had neglected to inform him of that. After handing out some more assignments, she noticed Artie still sitting, waiting for his. Glancing at her list, she noticed that he hadn't requested anything. She walked up the table where he was sitting and leaned her hip against it.

"What about you? There are a couple of things left."

"I'm not picky, what have you got?"

Flipping through her pages, she took a moment before answering, "Theater, glee club, band…a few other things."

"I'll take theater, glee club, and band," he said, "unless you wanted any of those. Just give me whatever's left over."

"That sounds good." She quickly jotted his name down, gave him a quick smile, then turned away, heading back to the desk at the front of the room that she had made her own (at least for yearbook meetings).

After several minutes, she heard Artie leave and she was all alone in the room. It was kind of nice. Sighing, she made a few notes in her notebook before a noise distracted her. Lifting her eyes, she saw Finn, righting the desk he had toppled over.

Laughing a little, she stood and met him, helping him to right the desk. "Hey."

Grinning, he leaned down, way down, to kiss her. "Hey. How was yearbook?"

"Good. I'm really enjoying it." Grasping his shirt, she brought him down for another kiss. "How was…?" Trailing off, Quinn tried to remember what Finn had on Monday afternoons. First was glee, then he stayed on campus until football practice. But there were a couple of hours between, at which time she had yearbook committee.

"Puck, Mike and I have Halo time in that little room where the A-geek club meets, remember?"

Resisting the urge to narrow her eyes, Quinn smiled. Sort of. "Oh, yes, that's right. And it's the A/V club."

"…oh, right. Geeks are in that club, though."

Shaking her head, Quinn kissed him again, in an effort to keep her biting remarks to herself. Sweetly, she reminded him, "Artie's in that club, remember?"

Furrowing his brow, Finn tilted his head and thought for several seconds. Minutes. More minutes. "He is?"

"Just go get ready for practice," she told him, pushing him toward the door. "I have to go get ready for my own practice anyway."

Without objection, he allowed her to almost shove him out the door, calling over his shoulder, "See you on the field!"

Sighing, she gathered up her stuff, turned the light off and made her way slowly to her locker, thinking about the theme of dreams yet again. Ms. Pillsbury had suggested she write something on the theme that could be added to the yearbook as a student editor's note. It was still awhile away yet but Quinn had jotted down a few ideas, always thinking of Finn, trying to make him her inspiration. Thus far, nothing had been fitting but she had plenty of time. She would think of something.

Artie sat, willing himself to be quiet while Rachel attempted to give her thank you speech. He was happy with the theme that had been chosen...but, then, he supposed anything was better than Jacob's suggestion, and no one really thought "boobs" would be used, did they?

When Quinn had sent around the list for people to sign up for things they might like to cover, he hadn't signed up for anything. He didn't really have a preference, and everything he knew he definitely didn't want had someone's name beside it. He was surprised that no one picked glee club, and he was glad when Quinn offered it to him. He knew he would be able to do all three of his areas justice.

After his discussion with Quinn, Artie headed for the A/V Club room. He went in there every so often to make sure everything was in order...one of his seemingly endless duties as the A/V Club president.

The first thing he noticed was that the layout of the room looked different. Chairs had been moved around facing one of the TVs, and his first thought was that someone had been playing video games. He quickly dismissed it, though, because he was pretty sure no one would do that at school, much less in a room designated for the "geeks" of the school. But then...they did have the best equipment, so maybe that first thought wasn't so far-fetched after all.

He was just finishing up, when he heard a soft knock at the door. He still couldn't figure out why people knocked on doors...it was a public space, not something private and requiring knocking. Maybe they were just worried they might be interrupting something. Everyone knew the A/V Club met in there way more frequently than had originally been intended, so everyone expected that there would always be someone there. It was the only extracurricular activity that a few of the members took part in, and they took pride in being part of the club.

"Hi Artie," Tina said, making her way into the room.

He turned. "Hey, Tee," he said, moving the last of the chairs out of the way so he could get by.

"What're you up to after you're done here?"

He thought for a moment, before replying, "I was actually going to text you to see if you wanted to come for dinner and maybe do some homework?"

That hadn't actually been his plan, but she didn't need to know that. Judging from the smile on her face, he had said the right thing, and she hadn't noticed the moment where he almost said something else. He had planned to do some homework and have some alone time, but spending time with his girlfriend did sound like a good alternative to spending time with himself.

"Yes! I was coming to find you to see if you wanted to do something after you were finished here. I'd better let you finish up then, so we can hang out tonight. See you around 6?"

He nodded.

She kissed him, and then he watched as she half walked, half skipped out of the room. Apparently he'd made her day.

As he went to grab his coat, he noticed someone lurking outside the door.

"Can I help you?" he asked, wheeling towards him. It was AJ.

"Dude...are you and Tina having problems? Not that I was eavesdropping or anything, but are you?"

"Why would you think that? Even if you were eavesdropping, all you would have heard was me making plans to spend the evening with my girlfriend."

AJ squirmed a bit, before saying, "I don't know...you just looked kind of uncomfortable in there. I mean...I could see you squirming from here. Well...I could see your top half squirming. I'm surprised she didn't notice that and say something."

AJ always had such a way with words.

"Well, I wasn't. And even if I was...she just caught me off guard, that's all. Where's Martin?"

"He had to go see his grandma for a couple of days. She's sick. And it's not eavesdropping if you're watching...I think that's called spying. Or something. Eavesdropping is when you just listen in."

It was always strange for Artie to see one without the other...Martin and AJ was like Kibbles and Bits, or peas and carrots. They were always together. Kind of like how he and Tina used to be...only they weren't dating (that he knew of).

AJ looked lonely and a little lost without Martin, and Artie almost invited him over for the evening, before realizing that that would probably be the worst thing he could do. Tina wanted to spend time with Artie, not with Artie and AJ.

"I'll see you tomorrow, man," AJ said, as he turned to walk out of the school.

As Artie closed up the room, he found himself thinking about how his relationship with Tina used to be, before they decided to "take a break," as she was calling it. She still hadn't admitted that her reasons for dumping him had been mostly shallow, and he hadn't brought it up because he didn't want to rock the boat.

He missed the way things used to be, and he wondered if they would ever have that again. Everything seemed different the second time around.

He pushed those thoughts out of his head. He needed to live in the present, not the past.