A/N: Special thanks goes out to QuinnAbrams for writing a huge chunk of the middle. Don't forget to drop us a review - feedback drives inspiration!
"Aren't most teams supposed to, y'know, win their homecoming games?" Mike asked Artie, who chuckled in agreement. They'd just gone from being tied for most of the game to being behind by a touchdown and a field goal. Though Tina was seated right behind them, she'd been paying all of her attention to Blaine and Sam for the duration of the game, ignoring poor Mike altogether. So Mike had spent most of the game just talking to Artie.
The one thing Artie always despised about going to the high school football games was that his accessible seat was chosen for him, always right down front where people constantly walked back and forth and obstructed his view. Bleachers were among his least favorite places to visit in his chair, but he'd do it to be a part of the crowd. He would have loved to be able to roam the stands freely and find others at the game, but he was pretty much stuck in one place the entire time meaning people had to come to him. At least they had the dinner planned afterwards, plus the party on Saturday, and he'd have ample opportunity to visit with his friends there.
Due to the placement of his seat, he was parked right in front of where the Cheerios usually stationed themselves. Artie tried not to accidentally watch Kitty the whole time. He was trying to figure out how to talk to her, though, now that he'd insulted her earlier when they were backstage painting sets.
The Titans tried to make a comeback but it just wasn't enough. The game ended with a score of 38-35. Well, that was a typical McKinley Homecoming game for you.
Artie waited a few minutes to let some of the crowd clear out, but he saw his chance to leave right as Kitty was making her way to the fence to retrieve her bag. Leaving Mike and the others in the dust, he found his opening and headed down the ramp. He did sort of mow down a few people on the ramp in the process, but rarely did any high school student ever get out of his way voluntarily. Besides, that ramp wasn't technically for them.
"Hey!" He got Kitty's attention from the other side of the fence as she was stuffing her pom-poms in the bag and zipping it closed. She glanced up and gave him a small smile, which he took to be a good sign.
"Uh, listen," he said, moving closer so that his toes bumped the fence. "I know you're busy, probably in a hurry to get to the dance, but I just wanted to catch you and tell you I'm really sorry. I know you're not a spy for Sue Sylvester."
Kitty seemed to remember their argument now, as her smile faded and she hung the bag on her shoulder. "Uh-huh," she said. "I mean, I didn't know I had to convince you of the fact–"
"You didn't!" Artie said, quickly, following alongside her as she walked towards the opening in the fence. "You-you don't. I'm sorry, okay? And this is not an excuse, but Sue did initially try to use Santana, Quinn, and Brittany to spy on the Glee club. Lucky for us, that plan backfired because they all loved being in Glee club."
"And I love being in the musical," Kitty said, pausing before she got to the opening, the fence still between them as she fixed him with a serious look. "As long as you never accuse me of being a Sue-spy again, we're good."
Artie breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," he said. "I didn't want to lose you. And not just because you're an incredible actress, singer, and dancer. For those reasons also, but mainly because I'm just glad to get to know you."
He must have said the right thing this time. She smiled and stepped through, finally on his side with nothing between them. She stared down at him for a second, then tilted her head, her ponytail dangling in mid-air. "You gonna be at this dance?"
"Oh, uh, no," Artie said. Then, true to usual form, he opened his mouth and out came word vomit. "I mean, I usually go to dances, I do. I don't let being in a wheelchair stop me. But I just have other plans tonight. See, a lot of the alumni from Glee club are visiting, and I made plans to go to Breadstix with them instead."
"Is Breadstix that Italian-chain everyone's always going on about?" Kitty asked.
"Yup, it's pretty popular," Artie said.
She paused again, as though mulling it over before speaking. "Well, can I tag along?" she asked.
"I thought you were going to Homecoming with Jake?"
"I was, until today," she said, looking around before she spoke again. "I found out he had certain... certain expectations, and that if I don't live up to said expectations, well, then he's not really interested in going with me."
Artie was mildly horrified but not actually surprised. This was Puck's brother they were talking about afterall. "I'm sorry," was all he said.
She let out a bitter laugh. "Well, it's just a good thing I left the tags on the dress I won't be needing," she said. "So, can I get a ride to Breadstix with you?"
After he got over the shock of this, he nodded. "Do you want to change out of your uniform?" he asked her. "We could drop by your place on the way and you could change, if you want. It's kind of chilly and those skirts don't look very, um..."
Kitty smirked as he trailed off. "You read my mind," she said. "I hate wearing this thing. Can't believe we wear them to school all the time."
"Yeah, I've never understood it either," Artie said, as she fell into step by him while they set off to the parking lot. Luckily, he hadn't carpooled with anyone today, being that he'd just stayed up at the school the entire afternoon painting sets with the guys and had simply moved his car closer to the stadium when it was time for the game to start. "Well, I'm just right here. Super-choice parking."
He didn't know why Santana was in his head right now, but she was. Maybe because he knew she'd be at the restaurant and he wondered what she'd say when he showed up with Kitty. He wondered what Puck was going to say, too, when Artie arrived with his brother's girlfriend. Apparently, despite Jake's initial resistance, the two had been spending some time together. That was partly why Puck had shown up to help paint sets.
As she got in the car with him, naturally she was curious about the hand controls and how that all worked. Artie gave her a brief rundown of his unique driving skills, and then she gave him directions to her house. She lived close to Artie and the school, and she didn't live in the more ritzy part of town, like most of the Cheerios, including people like her friend, Bree. Artie didn't comment on that, of course, and Kitty quickly darted inside to change.
When she came back, she was wearing jeans and a pink sweater with her hair in a bun. Artie could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen Kitty out of uniform (most of which were at pool parties, which he wasn't sure counted), and he found her to be a lot less intimidating without the pleated skirt and tight ponytail. It was almost as if all of the confidence she exuded while prowling the hallways of the school came from that form-fitting shell. She noticed him gawking at her.
"What is it?" she asked.
"N-nothing," Artie stammered. "It's just nice to see you in regular clothes."
"Well, it's nice to see you in khaki pants that aren't pleated," she said, quick with the return as Artie's jaw dropped. He was wearing one of the outfits Quinn had picked for him at Target that was supposed to be "future film student sheik."
"I guess that's fair," he said, putting the car in reverse and backing out of the driveway. "I commented on your clothes, so you commented on mine."
He decided to treat her to his John Mayer playlist on the way to the restaurant, to limit the amount of awkward small talk they had to make as two very mismatched individuals sitting in the same vehicle. He remembered he'd moved her to tears with his first karaoke night performance of John Mayer's cover of 'Free Falling.' Unfortunately, the first song up was 'Your Body is a Wonderland.' Kitty snickered as Artie promptly skipped that one, leading straight into 'My Stupid Mouth.'
"The song that John Mayer wrote about your life," Kitty commented, as Artie ignored her and loudly sang along.
"My stupid mouth has got me in trouble, I said too much again, to a date over dinner yesterday..." Artie singing did cause Kitty to stop with her snarky retorts long enough to listen to the whole song. When he finished, what came out of her mouth next was a compliment rather than a dig.
"That was perfect," she said. "You sound like him, but not. You put your own spin on it. Don't get a big head when I say this, Artie, but it's really too bad you're not singing in your own show. You'd be amazing onstage."
"Thanks for saying so," Artie said, as he pulled into the first accessible parking space at Breadstix. "I really appreciate it. The truth is, I really do like being backstage. Calling the shots. Maybe it's a bit power crazy of me, but I like having creative control and watching that come to life."
"You don't have me fully convinced, but sure," was her retort, as she unbuckled her seatbelt. She had an interesting way of calling his bluff.
Their extra-large party meant that they weren't sitting at one of the signature semi-circular booths their group was known to take up whenever a lot of them headed to The 'Stix. This time, the waiters had needed to push three tables together in the middle of the restaurant to accommodate them. Artie parked his chair at the head of their table, eliminating the need to remove a chair and set it off to the side somewhere that it didn't belong.
Seated there already were Mercedes, Finn, Rachel, Puck, Santana, Kurt, and Blaine. Blaine had opted to join the group going out to dinner instead of the dance, mostly on account of Kurt not wishing to attend a high school dance. Everyone looked curious about the girl who accompanied him in. If Puck knew she was the girl who was supposed to be his brother's date that night, he didn't let on.
"I think Rachel and Mercedes are the only ones who haven't met Kitty, right?" Artie asked as soon as they'd taken their places at the table, with Kitty occupying the chair to his left and giving a shy wave to the group of older kids.
"I've heard a lot about you both," said Kitty, suddenly sounding uncharacteristically meek.
"Kitty transferred to McKinley this year as a sophomore," Artie explained. "She's playing Sandy in the musical."
"A sophomore for the lead?" Mercedes noted, her eyebrows raising with surprise at that. "You get bolder everyday, Artie. How did Tina feel about that?"
"She… was a bit upset at first, but she came around," Artie replied, undoing his place setting and setting his napkin on his lap. "Rizzo is equally as important of a role. Once she realized that, she was fine."
"I think you mean she came around after realizing that she got to make out with Sam for half of the show," Blaine chimed in.
"That too," Artie acknowledged. "That's where those two are tonight– they're each other's date to the dance." Stealing a glance at Mike just then, Artie noticed the slightly surprised expression he was wearing.
"How come you guys aren't there?" Santana pried curiously.
Kitty shrugged, opting to keep her answer simple. "Not my scene."
"Mine either," Artie agreed. Santana raised an eyebrow at him, and Artie knew that everyone at the table knew what a boldfaced lie that was. Artie had historically been the first one in the middle of the dance circle or up on stage performing at all of their various school dances. He chose to amend his statement before anyone could cut him off and correct him. "I mean, not this year, it's not. I've been busy, you know, with 'Grease' and glee club. We're trying to get ready for Sectionals, and the show's a lot of work with a cast this big. We actually have an ensemble of football players and Cheerios who agreed to be in the dance scene."
Artie collected understanding nods from his friends, and he hoped that he was being convincing. Not that he was actually lying, per se. Just that he'd left out a big reason of why he'd opted out of the dance, since no one there seemed to understand how truly heartbroken he'd been over losing Mack.
"I get it," Rachel acknowledged, to his surprise. "You've got a lot on your plate." He thought back to the conversation they'd had over the phone after the first day of school, and he knew that she was remembering that too. "It's hard work, being the leader. I would know."
"Thanks," Artie said, directing a small smile her way. That meant a lot to hear, from someone who had once overlooked his abilities as an artist and leading guy based on first glance. "And speaking of leadership, I'm really glad that Rachel here has already stepped up and agreed to be an understudy for the Pink Ladies. What about the rest of you? I'm still waiting for answers from everyone except Kurt and Finn. Or are you too busy?"
"Okay, I'll understudy Rizzo for you," Mercedes finally said. "Now that I know it's Tina and she never gets sick, I think I'm good."
At one point– just a few months ago– they'd been an inseparable group of friends who were so close that everyone knew everything about everyone else– even the things they wished the others didn't know, they knew. They'd even dated incestuously amongst one another like bunnies. They were tight. But now, since everyone had gone their separate ways post-grad, it had been a while since they'd all been in the same place at the same time. It was nice to be reunited with everyone.
Well, almost everyone. It was hard for Artie, hanging out with the New Directions alumni like this, without thinking of the one who was missing. Quinn.
They ended up just going around the table and sharing what they'd been up to, which was a sufficient way for everyone to get up to speed on one another's lives.
Mike went first, telling everyone else about what he had told Artie the night before– his role as the lead's understudy in Joffrey Ballet's upcoming production of 'Coppélia'.
Kurt, Finn, and Puck were still in Lima. Kurt and Finn explained how they were helping Artie to co-direct the musical in between working and helping Carole take care of Burt, who was recently in remission. Thanks to Burt's good progress, Kurt felt like he had enough time to start taking classes at Allen County Community College. Puck had spent his summer cleaning local pools. Now that most of Ohio's pools were closed for the winter, he had a ton of odd jobs keeping him busy. As far as the coming months would go, Burt had offered him a job working alongside Finn at the shop.
Mercedes had been mostly focusing on her extension classes at UCLA, but she was making time to sing here and there, too.
"I've been going to some open call auditions on the side here and there," she told them. "Whenever I hear of someone who's recording an album or going on tour and looking for backup singers. Other than that, I've just been getting used to California. It's a lot different from small-town Ohio."
Santana was enjoying her time at the University of Louisville, specifically because of her new "out and proud, lipstick-loving, AfterEllen-reading" girlfriend Elaine. They were on the cheer team together, and once Santana described what the college football games were like down south, Finn, Puck, and Mike were eager to come for a visit. Her college experience seemed to be a lot more rowdy and exciting than the arts schools everyone else stranded.
Rachel eagerly blabbed on about her experiences at NYADA thus far, taking up twice as much time as the others had in order to fill them in on every detail. Artie noticed the way that things had seemingly turned around since the last time they'd talked, when she'd wound up crying over her intense dance teacher who referred to her as Little Miss David Schwimmer, her sex-crazed roommate, midnight showers, and homesickness. Either that, or things were still as bad and she just didn't want the others to know it. In that case, Artie kept his mouth shut. She'd confided in him that evening, and (even though he thought that was odd) he wasn't going to betray her trust like that.
They'd just finished putting in their orders when Artie felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Hey, is this seat taken?"
"Quinn!" Artie exclaimed as her turned around, greeting her with his usual enthusiasm. He unlocked his wheels and rolled back a pace so that he could give her a long-awaited hug. "What… what are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming home until the opening night of Grease."
"I had a free weekend," she replied. "Once I heard how many of you guys were coming back and I realized I was going to be the only one not here… I knew that I had to make the drive. When I saw in our group chat that you were all coming to Breadstix for dinner, I figured I'd come surprise you. I didn't make it for the game and almost didn't make it here for this! I'm glad I did though. Do you have room at the table for one more?"
They did, since Artie had taken the head of the table, leaving an empty chair between himself and Mercedes.
"We were just going around the table and sharing how college has been treating us so far," Mercedes filled her in after giving Quinn her own big hug. "How's it been for you?"
"You're not going to believe this, guys," she said, as they leaned in with interest and Kitty just looked starstruck. "But I'm basically in glee club again. So Yale actually has a bunch of a capella groups on campus. It's been this huge process of auditioning and going to different events, like these rush meals and a singing dessert night, all leading up callbacks and what they call Tap Night where they make their final selections. Anyway, I didn't want to say anything because I wanted to surprise you all if I got in. And I did, I got in! I'm in Mixed Company of Yale, which was my top choice."
"That sounds really fun," Artie commented, and he couldn't believe that as many times as they'd talked, this hadn't come up. But then, they usually talked about what was going on with Artie and goings on at McKinley. He knew Quinn was planning to dive head first into her studies and focus on that, but he was glad she'd found herself a creative outlet, especially something that no doubt reminded her of home. "You'll have to let us know when you perform."
"See," Blaine said, turning to Kurt. "I always said we should do a capella in New Directions. It's more like what all the college groups are doing."
As Blaine and Kurt then led a spirited debate at the table about a capella versus instrumental music, Quinn leaned over to Artie to say something privately.
"I arranged to stay here until Monday to see my orthopedic surgeon during this visit," she said, quietly. "Maybe I've just been pushing myself too hard and doing a lot more walking than I'm used to, but I'm having sharp pain down my spine like I haven't experienced... in awhile."
"You did the right thing, making that appointment," Artie said, reaching out and touching her shoulder. "Hey, listen, don't be afraid to ask people for help. You know, with those chilly Ivy League winters coming, you can't ever be too careful about taking care of yourself. You should reach out to the Disability Services at Yale. I know you're hoping it'll fix itself on its own, believe me, but it will be nice to have a plan in place in case you need it. Trust me on this, okay?"
After saying this to Quinn, Artie then noticed that Kitty's curious gaze was focused in their direction. He realized that this probably wasn't exactly the time and place to have this conversation with Quinn, in front of everyone else, but he knew how stubborn she could be when it came to taking care of herself post-injury. He'd gotten to play big brother a little bit last year, so he couldn't help but pass down all of his lived wisdom to someone he cared so much about.
Sure enough, Kitty was curious enough to ask about it later, when they got back in the car to drive home. She'd been going on about how what she'd ordered had been pretty disappointing. She said that if Artie ever wanted to try it real Italian food, he needed to visit Chicago, where she'd grown up, specifically Taylor Street, Chicago's "Little Italy." He'd been listening patiently to her descriptions of Chicago, which she obviously still missed, and was thrown by the sudden subject change as they approached her neighborhood.
"What was Quinn talking to you about earlier?" Kitty wanted to know. "About - seeing her surgeon while she was here? And you telling her to visit Disability Services?"
"Quinn was in a car accident last year," Artie explained. "She had a badly compressed spinal cord. At first, we all thought she might be in a wheelchair permanently, like me. I was all ready to show her what I'd learned after nine years of it. But thankfully, her injury wasn't permanent and she's made a complete recovery."
Kitty swallowed hard and fell absolutely silent at this news. Artie wasn't sure exactly what part of that had shaken her up. But he was glad they'd left this until the end when they were about to part ways. He couldn't not talk about Mackenzie when this topic came up. To do so was a dishonor to her memory, or so he felt.
"We both lost a really good friend in that accident," he went on, as he pulled into her driveway. "Her name was Mackenzie. That's... that's actually the real reason I couldn't bring myself to go to the dance. Last year, I went with Sugar but she dumped me for this exchange student in the middle of it. I was hurt and was about to just leave when, out of nowhere, Mack shows up and just starts making out with me."
He couldn't believe he was sharing the entire memory, as he put the car into park. "We kind of started dating, I guess," Artie went on. "We hadn't made it official or anything yet. We never got to get that far, though, because a month later, she died on the way to see our musical."
"Artie, stop!" Kitty said, suddenly. She wasn't talking about the car, because he'd already stopped. He looked at her in alarm, and saw now that tears had filled her eyes. When their eyes met, all of her tears spilled over. She jumped out of the car, like she'd been stung by something.
"I-I'm sorry," she said, as she glimpsed his shocked expression. "About Quinn and your friend... that's awful. I have to go, Artie. I'll see you tomorrow at your pool party thing."
She shut the car door and ran back into her house before Artie could figure out what to say. His mouth still gaping open, he wondered what it was Kitty hadn't told them.