"You're not going home for Christmas? Why not?"
Loki looked up from his book to Santana's voice. He heard another girl reply bitterly, "Cause I don't want to face a Christmas of my sister calling me a freak. Besides, I've heard Christmas here is wonderful."
"Your sister is probably just jealous," said Santana. "You're pretty awesome, Fabray. But yeah, I've heard that Christmas here is the best."
The girls continued talking for a little bit, but Loki's attention was back to his book. After a few minutes, he noticed that someone was crying softly, and looked up. A blonde girl was sitting in a chair opposite him was the person crying, and Loki immediately put down his book and walked over to her.
"Um...can I sit here?" he asked. The girl looked up at him with tear-stained eyes and nodded, and Loki sat down next to her. He sat there in silence until the girl's crying stopped, then said, "I, um, I couldn't help but hear your conversation with Santana."
"And?" said the girl.
"I just wanted to say that I know what it's like," replied Loki. "That's the main reason I'm not going home this year either- my cousins will pick on me, Mum and Dad will ignore me in favor of Thor because he's their kid and I'm adopted, and I have friends here."
"Oh," said the girl. "I'm sorry, what's your name?"
"I'm Loki Laufey," said Loki.
"I'm Quinn Fabray," said the girl. "I'm- I'm sorry you had to see me cry like this. I'm usually not like this."
"It's okay," said Loki. "Crying is a human thing to do- it doesn't make you weak, which my cousins seem to think."
The girl- Quinn- offered up a watery smile, and Loki smiled back. They were silent for a moment before Quinn said, "You're lucky that it's only your cousins that pick on you."
"Why?" asked Loki.
"Cause my older sister is the one who picks on me," said Quinn. "I don't even know why. I try to be friendly with her, but she just calls me a freak."
"She sounds awful," said Loki. "Back home, the kids at my school would call me a freak too, and they always teased me for being adopted."
"That must be awful," said Quinn.
"It was, but now I'm here," said Loki. "And they're not."