Tweaking only a few of the notes and parts, they finally got the song down after about an hour of intense work.
"Quinn, have I ever told you that you have a beautiful voice?" Artie blushed again, Quinn noticed that he tended to do that a lot around her, she was slightly flattered.
"Oh thanks Artie, so do you, I have always been impressed by it, especially in Dream a Little Dream of Me." He blushed yet again; this time Quinn was expecting it. "Hey Artie, I have a question to ask you." She said it so quietly that Artie took a second before realizing that she had said something.
"Yeah, go ahead."
"Well the other day you said you weren't having the best day, I was just wondering if you were alright."
"Oh! Well it's actually my go to excuse for saying something stupid. I use it a lot actually."
"No way! Me too, I'm sorry I thought that you might have broken up with Brittany or something like that. Oh my goodness! I am so sorry for saying that out loud, I'm not having a good day!" To her surprise Artie burst out laughing. "What?" She snapped.
He recoiled slightly, "Oh its just that we were just talking about that was our excuse for saying something stupid, unless you are actually not having a good day, then I extend my greatest apologies to you."
She made a face, "I extend my greatest apologies to you? Hey Rachel where did you put Artie?" Again, almost simultaneously the two cracked up, their faces turning purple. Only a soft knock at the door brought them back to their senses.
"Quinn, dear, I was wondering if you would like to stay for dinner and then a movie, it's getting awfully late, and it is starting to rain." Caroline poked her head in.
"That would be great! My mom has to work late tonight anyway, so if it's no trouble I would love to stay."
"That's wonderful, dinner will be on in about twenty minutes." She closed the door quietly, leaving the two smelling wild rice and salmon.
Quinn looked around his room without saying anything about the nerdy posters until, "Ravenclaw Artie, really? That is probably the least important house in all of Hogwarts."
"Well actually Hufflepuff was until Edward Cullen played pretty-boy Diggory."
"No! Don't you dare compare Cedric Diggory to anything related to the T-word! Just because the same actor played them does not mean that they are related in any way! I hate it when Harry Potter and that stuff is compared!" Her face was turning red and her nostrils were flared.
"No, no Quinn I didn't mean it like that, it was um a joke." He started playing with his sheet music while she gave him a death glare. "My whole family hates the T-word as well, you think I would have learned from that." Her look didn't falter. "Look, Quinn, I-I-I'm sorry!" he gasped.
Finally she cracked a smile, "Fine, I forgive you, just this once though."
"Artie! Quinn! Dinner is on!" Leah, the youngest of the family came barging in to Artie's room.
"OK, Lee, we're going to be there in a second, can you show Quinn to the guest bathroom so she can wash her hands?"
"But can't she use yours?" Artie turned pink and violently shook his head no.
Thankfully, Quinn seemed to sense his embarrassment and said, "It's OK Leah, if I use the guest bathroom than we can eat dinner faster!"
"Oh yeah! You can follow me, it's right next to the kitchen!" Artie mouthed, "Thank you" and Quinn returned with a "No problem" and followed Leah to the bathroom.
"So, Artie, where did you find this one? She seems much smarter, not to mention hotter, than your last girlfriend. I can see that you are turning into quite the player, nice work bro." Jeremy announced as soon as they had finished saying Grace.
Artie choked on his asparagus and managed to say, "Quinn and I are not dating, and Brittany and I still are. Please, just eat your food." Jeremy smirked at him until he glanced at his mother, who was giving him a look that would even terrify Puck, and busied himself with taking the bones out of his fish. After that little incident dinner went well, and Quinn learned that Caroline was a English teacher at Lima Central Catholic High School, Jeremy went to University of Michigan, and Katie went to Notre Dame both of whom were home on winter break. Leah however was a fifth grader who wanted to go to Yale and become a cartoon artist, Keith, on the other hand played about five different sports and was apparently a star in every single one of them.
"So guys, how about movie time?" Eric asked when everyone had been sufficiently stuffed thanks to Caroline. "Whose turn is it to pick a genre?"
"What we do is one person picks a genre, another person picks three movies, and one picks it out of those three." Artie whispered into Quinn's ear while Katie chose musical, Caroline chose West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Sound of Music, Leah picked West Side out of the three.
"West Side Story it is! Ok everyone get in your pajamas, were meeting down here in fifteen minutes to make sundaes, Quinn, why don't you go up with Katie and she can lend you some of hers."
"Oh, Eric, I really shouldn't change if I'm just going home after the movie!"
"Quinn, it's raining," Artie mumbled, "it gets really slippery out, I hate to sound like a creeper, but I think it would be safest for you to wait for it to stop, which might take a while."
"Artie, I'm pretty sure I will be fine." She whispered back to him. His face got kind of twisted and he just shrugged and left the table to go to his room.
"Hey, Quinn, why don't you come up with me and we can get you some pajamas," Katie said. Quinn followed her up the stairs to a small second floor. "It's just me and Jeremy who live up here, so most of the time it's used as storage." Katie pushed open her door and riffled through her drawers until she handed Quinn a pair of sweat pants and a tee shirt. Noticing her hesitancy Katie said, "Look Quinn, I know this is all kind of awkward and everything, but do you know why Artie can't walk?"
"Sort of, I mean I know that he and your mom were in a car accident when he was eight, but that is it." Quinn looked down at her sock feet, fearing what she would hear next.
"Right, but it was raining really badly like tonight, Mom lost control of her car and they crashed into a bunch of other cars." Quinn looked horrified and ashamed, "It doesn't help that the anniversary of his accident is next week."
"Oh my goodness, Katie, I-I-I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry." Quinn looked as if she might cry.
"Quinn, it's fine, trust me. I just wanted to let you know that's why he and mom are acting really weirdly." Quinn nodded but did not look any better. "Our bathroom is right down the hall." She nodded numbly and slowly walked out of Katie's pink room. "Quinn, it's OK, you did nothing wrong, but can you try to act like I didn't tell you anything?"
"Yeah." She whispered, but that did not change how she felt about what she did at all.
Quinn found herself snug on one of the Abram's squishy couches between Artie and Leah, holding what was possibly the biggest bowl of ice cream she had ever seen in her entire life. When the lights were dimmed and the movie started to play, she found herself thinking not about Tony and Maria, but about herself and Artie. Once she was moving her feet and they ran another pair, with a jolt of energy she realized that they were Artie's. Slowly she entwined their feet, which were luckily covered by a blanket so Jeremy wouldn't make any snide remarks.
About an hour later she was woken up by Leah screaming when Riff and Bernardo died, she looked around and suddenly noticed that her head was on Artie's shoulder. She sat up faster than a bolt of lighting and saw that Jeremy was smirking at her. She looked over to Artie and whispered into his ear, "Sorry Artie, I must have fallen asleep."
"Anytime, Quinn." Instead of blushing, they smiled.
Sorry Twilight lovers, I had to let a little bit of that out!
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story, it means a lot to me!
P.S. I wish I owned Harry Potter (probably the best thing ever written in history), but I don't. I don't own Twilight or West Side either.