A/N: Special thanks goes out to QuinnAbrams for writing a chunk of the middle!

Going first was either a good thing or a bad thing in show choir. They were going to be different than the rest, what with having a theme. And if the theme thing backfired, Artie was going to feel completely to blame. They had never lost at Sectionals. Except for the time they'd tied with the Warblers, which nobody wanted to see happen again. That didn't feel like a win.

For the start of their set, Blaine circled Artie in his chair and spoke a variation of his lines from the show. "Why this chair could be systematic, this chair could be hydromatic! Why this chair could be Greased Lightning!"

They danced around Artie, spun his wheels for effect, and even ended the number with the rest of the guys picking him up, chair and all. The judges would either love it or hate it, there was no in between. They went straight from this into 'Born to Hand Jive.' Normally, this was Mr. Schue's song but Artie sang lead on it while the rest did background vocals and swing dancing moves that featured mostly their best dancers, Jake, Kitty, and Brittany. Brittany paired up with Artie at one point to do a cartwheel holding onto his knees. Finally, they ended the set with the ballad 'Hopelessly Devoted.' Tina, Marley, and Kitty split the versus and harmonized on the chorus, as the entire choir sat on stools for this one (save for Artie at the end, in his chair). The crowd loved it. They could only hope the judges would share their enthusiasm.

By the time the Warblers went onstage last, after the Rosedale Mennonites, the New Directions had all made their way back to their seats in the auditorium. Their alumni had taken up the row right behind them, with Quinn taking the seat right behind the open space for Artie. She reached forward and gave his shoulders a quick squeeze as he backed into the space, and he grinned over his shoulder at her. There was no time to chat, though, because the Warblers were about to begin.

The new guy, Hunter Clarington, did indeed have the lead on Flo Rida's 'Whistle.' Artie was annoyed to see one of his go-to car songs get used up. By the time they got to 'Live While We're Young' by One Direction, Artie was beginning to worry. It was starting to feel like a huge mistake, wearing their leather jackets and poodle skirts and doing this campy, themed performance rather than just sticking with popular cover songs like everybody usually did. Sebastian had the lead on this one, proving why he wouldn't soon be dethroned as the Warbler's other frontman. He made eye contact with Artie during the last verse, smirking almost as if to say "ha-ha, gotcha now." Artie glared back at him. He had a feeling that, even if he knew Sebastian personally, he still wouldn't like him.

Tina, who was sitting next to Artie, looked murderous as the Warblers launched into their third and final song, which was 'Gangnam Style.' They had all underestimated how popular that song would be. It was just good that they hadn't picked it for Sectionals, which had been Tina's original idea. (Then again, if New Directions had gone first, the Warblers would have been the disadvantaged ones.) It was so weird to see a bunch of guys sing this song. At least they did have a Korean guy singing lead. Tina fanned herself as Artie laughed at her.

"I knew he'd be your type," Artie teased.

"That's racist," she shot back, smiling anyway.

But as they moved into the song's chorus, complete with wild dancing, a crazy thing happened. One of the Warblers, the heaviest one in the back, collapsed on stage. The music stopped. The performance stopped. The performers and the audience froze.

"He fainted!" Rachel exclaimed, from behind him where she sat next to Quinn. "No one's ever fainted in the middle of a competition before. That's grounds for disqualification!"

That seems harsh, Artie thought, as several of the Warblers ran to help their teammate, even the usually tough Sebastian. Hunter Clarington didn't seem the least bit concerned for the welfare of their fallen Warbler. He just looked mad about their ruined performance, as he stood off to the side while the others surrounded the fainter.

"That was Trent!" Blaine couldn't resist springing out of his seat and hopping up on the stage, too. He happened to have an unopened soda that he'd bought at the snack bar and saved for later. He worked his way through the huddle to give it to Trent.

After what seemed like an eternity, Trent got to his feet shakily. The whole audience began clapping for the Warblers. Soon after, the curtain dropped, effectively ending their show on that rather sour note.

"Are they really disqualified?" Sam addressed the same question Artie had to Blaine, as the former Warbler worked his way through the curtain and returned to his seat between Sam and Tina.

"Well, either way, it'll count again then, since they couldn't finish their song," he said. "Jeff just told me Hunter's been making them all work out like crazy and diet ever since he joined and took over. Jeff said Hunter's been especially hard on Trent, because Trent's always been the only bigger guy in the Warblers."

"We'd take good care of him here at McKinley," Lauren commented, receiving some strange looks from the rest of them. "What? We would. I should go find him after the show and let him know he's always welcome to drop out of that pretty-boy prep school and come be a part of our rag-tag crew of misfits. And find out if he's single."

"I'd go with you," said Unique, eagerly. Lauren countered with a menacing glare.

"Do you realize what this means?" Tina said, suddenly. "We're probably going to win!"

"I wish it were under better circumstances," Marley said, shaking her head. "Can you imagine how that guy feels? Well, I can... I almost did the exact same thing..."

She caught Kitty's eye then and didn't say another word. Having put that incident behind them, both girls just wanted to move on. Still, Artie caught Kitty's eye next and offered up a sympathetic smile in her direction, reminding her they'd forgiven her for that.

The judges only took about fifteen minutes to deliberate and call all of the teams on stage. It seemed the Warblers weren't completely out of the running when the Mennonites were announced for third. As the third-place team left the stage and the two remaining groups moved to the center, both groups locked eyes. Artie caught the eye of that waspy Sebastian before they both looked away.

"And the winner is... the New Directions!"

Cue the balloons. Cue all the alumni and their two alternates running onstage. The trophy made its way to Artie, who held it up for the cheering audience.

"That was..." Quinn couldn't finish her thought, as they all headed out into the lobby. Very quickly, though, the lobby was becoming too loud and crowded to even hold a conversation. As if reading his mind, she exchanged a quick glance with Artie and followed him, while he still had enough room to work himself out of the crowd.

"Honey, that was amazing!" His parents had also spotted his chair, too, and had followed him out of the theatre, into the freezing air. His mother, father, and sister took turns hugging him. "You had no reason to worry about being featured at all," his mother concluded.

"That poor guy from the Warblers though," Amy said. "No offense, but there might have been a different outcome if they'd finished their set."

"Did you find another ride home or should we wait on you?" his father asked.

"Ride? You didn't ride with the school?" Quinn tilted her head curiously. "Don't tell me you had bus drama again."

"Kind of," Artie explained. "See, the lift's broken. And when I heard about it, well, I considered the fact that my half-naked picture now pays for this stupid bus every time. I decided to just save the money this time and ride with my family. I also thought about all of you guys, the alumni, who probably want to come with us for dinner afterwards, right?" He shot Quinn his most hopeful and earnest grin. "So, will you give a guy a ride?"

Quinn wouldn't turn him down, he knew, which was why he didn't feel all that bad about waiting until the last possible minute to spring this little surprise request on her.

"I suppose that can be arranged," she replied after pretending to think about it for a minute.

After saying their goodbyes to his parents and Amy, Artie and Quinn hung outside the auditorium for a minute longer, waiting on the rest of their friends, as the crowd of competitors and fans shuffled out of the building.

"Alumni, we're going to stop at Goodfellas Pizzeria for a bite to eat before we hit the road," Mr. Schue said once he had all of his current and former students gathered around him on the sidewalk. "If you're in no rush to head back to Lima, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we would love to have you all join us. I know I'd love to spend a little bit more time catching up with all of you and hear what you've been up to before you all go back to school until Christmas."

Of course, everyone was on board with this idea. Like Mr. Schue, Artie didn't expect any of the graduates to turn down the invitation to join the team. Plus, their meals would probably be paid for, using what was left of the calendar earnings to fund the team meal (Artie thought it would be wiser to just put the excess into savings for the next time their team needed transportation or new costumes, but that was never the case).

The New Directions boarded the bus and all of the alumni who'd driven themselves returned to their own cars as Artie remained parked on the sidewalk, sticking his hands under his thighs to retain his warmth. Quinn, who hadn't originally been expecting to give Artie a ride, had parked in a regular spot further away. Since she wasn't sure if there was still a car parked beside her on the passenger side or not, potentially complicating Artie's ability to safely transfer, she offered to pull her car into one of the accessible spots so he could be sure he had enough space. As he waited on her, Artie was fighting an uphill battle trying to keep warm, for he knew that once he began to shiver, it would take him a while to stop.

Naturally, with the delay in their departure, Quinn and Artie were the last to arrive at the pizza place. An impressively long table had been put together and drinks had already been ordered by the time they'd walked in.

"Yo, Artie! I've got you over here next to me!" Sam called, waving him over.

A seat had been saved for Quinn by Mercedes on the other side of the table. It looked like they'd inexplicably split the table down the middle, with the alumni on one end and the current New Directions students on the other. The only exception to this was Brittany and Santana, who huddled together on the alumni side. Artie'd heard that Santana had already broken up with her girlfriend Elaine– the one that she'd spent so much time bragging about just last month when she'd come back for homecoming– in preparation for Brittany's arrival to campus next semester. By all accounts, it seemed like Brittana was back on.

"I went ahead and ordered you a water, same as me, because I know that's what you usually get," Sam told Artie as he motioned to the empty space that he had saved for Artie. Sam had always been intuitive about that, one of his many charms.

"Thanks, dude," Artie said, pulling into the space.

Kitty had chosen the seat directly across from the place that had been designated for him, and Artie caught himself wondering if she'd done that on purpose. Typically, he wouldn't have spared that a second thought– he wasn't one of those people who thought that the world revolved around him in that kind of way. But the way that things had been going with Kitty over the last few weeks… she had definitely given him a reason to think that she was prioritizing his company.

"He made it!" Lauren jumped up when she spotted none other than Trent Warbler with his family. Without waiting for permission, Lauren Zizes took it upon herself to grab her menu and water and join them. Trent looked pleased to have her company.

It was Unique who proudly shared the details with those sitting close by. "She ambushed him," Unique explained. "Got his phone number. And told him where we were going after the show. I think the poor guy was scared not to come."

Mr. Schue ordered a couple of large pizzas to be shared among the table, which was the most cost-effective choice for feeding himself, Ms. Pillsbury, and close to twenty teenagers. There was more than enough for everyone. Lauren popped over to get a couple of pieces before re-joining her newfound beau.

"You gonna have any more than that?" Artie asked Sam, nodding to his plate that had stayed pretty empty, aside from a single slice of plain cheese pizza and a side salad without dressing.

Most of the kids had been ravenous after the competition since Tina had been watching them like a hawk all day long to make sure that nobody ate anything that could get any sort of stain on their competition costumes. Keeping that in mind, the way that Sam was only picking at his small slice didn't go unnoticed by Artie. Plus the fact that Sam had never necessarily been known for eating like a bird.

"I've gotta watch what I eat," Sam confessed, crossing his arms over his stomach. "All of this calendar prep has reminded me that swim season's coming up. I've gotta stay in the best shape possible 'til then since basically all I'll be wearing is a tight-fitting swimsuit. And, you know, I didn't get to fit in a workout today, so…"

"Wait, have you eaten anything today?" Kitty wondered, her voice raising a little bit in alarm before bringing her volume back down again as other heads turned in their direction. Artie knew that she was probably still a little on-edge after what had happened between her and Marley back during the dress rehearsal for Grease. And naturally, the incident with Trent had brought back those memories. Sam's stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, answering Kitty's inquiry for him.

"Sam… that's not good, you have to eat," Artie told him gently, not wanting his friend to feel like he was getting ganged up on, but still wanting to treat this moment as seriously as it was. "You saw what happened to Trent tonight! For what it's worth, I'd kill to look like you. But you're not just some body-obsessed muscle head."

"Yeah, well, it's exhausting" Sam replied, sighing, as Artie could see on his face that there were a lot of emotions that he was trying to fend off. "Watching what I eat all the time, doing my two-a-day workouts… Sometimes I wish I could just stop, but then I remember that the Guppies are counting on me. Synchronized swimming is harder than it looks. I have to be in top shape. And that means keeping my appearances up and my weight down."

"Take it from me, okay? I never pictured myself putting my body on display as much as I have over the last few weeks," Artie reminded him. "But I've got some pretty incredible friends that have done their best to assure me that my body's fine just the way it is."

At this, Artie playfully nudged Sam and glanced across the table at Kitty, who'd even blushed a little bit as she smiled back at him. Quinn noticed and caught Artie's eye, with a raised eyebrow. It was high-time he caught her up. She didn't know anything past that first kiss.

"So eat up," Artie told him, shoving what was left on his own plate in Sam's direction, knowing that his blonde friend had rarely shied away from eating anyone else's leftovers. "You can spend an extra half hour at the gym or in the pool tomorrow if you'd like to. But limiting your food intake isn't the solution, okay?"

"Got it, boss," Sam said, reviving the nickname he'd used with Artie during the show as he accepted another slice of pizza.

The visiting alumni all reported that they regretted not having enough time to do things like visit McKinley and pop into the choir room over the Thanksgiving holidays. Most of them, like Artie, had spent the break visiting multiple sides of the family. Quick visits had to be for family and not much else. Artie didn't blame them for not spending all of their time at their high school. As Kurt had so accurately pointed out, that was embarrassing.

During his Thanksgiving breaks, Artie's family traditionally had two dinners. One was with his grandparents, aunt, and girl cousin on his mother's side, and it usually happened at the lake house. The second was with his father's side of the family. His dad's side was the large side, which included his father's four siblings and a million cousins, all of whom had a child with some variation of "Arthur" in their name. That dinner always took place in his father's home town of Fort Wayne, Indiana. This year, they'd worked it out perfectly by seeing his mom's side on Thanksgiving day, having their dinner in Indiana on the Friday before competition, and then leaving straight from there. But all of those Thanksgivings certainly didn't help a guy keep the weight off. Still, Artie had eaten all the sides and dessert he wanted at both Thanksgivings and would eat the damn pizza, thank you very much. But having Sam take his third slice had been a good idea.

Before they finished and headed out, Brittany (urged by Santana) proudly stood up and shared the news about "Cheerio college" (yes, she called it that again) with the alumni who hadn't heard about her December graduation. The group immediately made plans to celebrate Brittany with a graduation-slash-New Year's Eve party in Rachel's basement. And, of course, many of them planned to come to Ms. Pillsbury and Mr. Schue's wedding, so there would be more opportunities to see them all again. It made parting a little easier, with the knowledge of these upcoming visits.

Once they paid, the rest of the New Directions headed out to board the bus. The alumni got in their cars. Several had carpooled, with Mike having driven Santana and Mercedes. Another carload contained Puck, Finn, Rachel, and Kurt. Only Quinn had come alone, which worked out perfectly, because Artie wanted to be alone with Quinn to catch her up about Kitty.

And speaking of Kitty, she cast one long look at him over her shoulder, as he followed Quinn out to the car. He still couldn't read her, but was she possibly jealous? Did she think there was more going on than friendship between he and Quinn?

He wasn't the only one who had noticed Kitty looking his way, because as soon as they'd both gotten settled into Quinn's car for the trip back to Lima, Quinn demanded a full explanation.

"Okay, Artie, you obviously don't see it but I sure did," Quinn said, as she pulled out of the parking lot. "Kitty is always staring at you, always working it out so she can be sitting close to you–"

"I know," Artie interjected, probably taking Quinn by surprise by not denying it. "She even worked it out to be the one to take my pictures. At least, I'm... pretty sure of it now. Because..."

"Because?" Quinn looked at him, excitedly urging him to go on, as he'd trailed off for dramatic effect and then smirked.

"Because we may or may not be spending every free period we have making out in the Astronomy classroom," he proudly informed her. "Didn't you and Sam used to make out there?"

"Forget about me and Sam, Artie," Quinn exclaimed, her eyes bugging out as she looked at him and then back at the road. "Oh. My. Gosh. Why didn't you tell me until now?"

"You're the first person who even knows," Artie confessed. "So, please don't say anything, it's kind of a... a secret." He caught a sharp look from Quinn. "Look, I don't want anyone to think I picked her for Sandy because I was into her. That's not it. I wasn't even into her back then."

"Okay, but do you think this is going anywhere?" Quinn wanted to know. "Not to put a damper on things, but if you want to seriously pursue this girl, you need to hurry. Just wait until spring semester gets here and see how quickly time starts to fly by."

"Quinn, she's only fifteen," Artie said, coming up with another reason why it wasn't going to work. He still wanted to make out with her, but this whole not talking about and not defining the relationship thing had its advantages. "And she doesn't even know that I'm a whole year older than my grade."

Quinn fell silent for a moment. "Well, I'll admit, that's an issue," she said. "At her age, anyway, it's potentially... problematic. It wouldn't be later."

"Later?" Artie echoed. "Well, that's just it, there isn't much time left, and I don't see anything happening between us later."

He sighed deeply. Maybe, he thought, I should just forget it. Tell her thanks, but no thanks. He could always hope that his wedding date with Ms. Pillsbury's niece, the one Kitty had given him her blessing to go on, would turn out to be a smashing success...

"Well, take it from someone who isn't actually much older than you but has a little too much experience with getting into relationships just for fun and not planning for anything long-term..." Quinn trailed off, pausing as he got the full meaning of her words. "You should think seriously about any relationships from this point forward. You should be looking for a life partner and not just a little fun."

Artie arched a brow. "Quinn, I'm not even sure where I want to live after high school," he said. "I'm hardly ready to look for a life partner."

"Look, I'm not lecturing you," Quinn quickly told him. "As always, my judgment when it comes to guys kind of sucks. I almost had to use the pepper spray my dad got me the other night."

Artie sat up a little straighter and looked at her. He'd been staring out the window when they were talking about his search for a "life partner," but now he gave her his full attention. "What happened?"

"Well, you remember Biff."

"The guy me and my sister stayed with?" Artie's eyes widened. "The guy who took my sister to a party? Yeah, of course I remember him. What happened? What did he do?"

"Nothing, because I didn't let him," she said. "I got the creeps when he kissed me on our first date. I should have said 'no' to a second, because by that point, he already wanted more. When I told him to stop and he didn't immediately stop trying to shove his tongue down my throat, I grabbed the pepper spray and held it right in front of his eyes."

"Quinn!" Artie couldn't believe what he was hearing. Looked like he wasn't the only one keeping secrets. Quinn actually looked ashamed, telling him the story. "You didn't do anything wrong, Q, I hope you know that."

"Thanks," she said, softly. "Well... can we talk about something else? Like my college a capella group? That's going really well..."

Artie let her dive into a conversation about a capella and all the social gatherings she'd attended, in between devoting the rest of her time to studying and the little part-time job she'd picked up working as a receptionist in the Disability Services office. (Her goal was to learn more about what they did, in order to better advise Artie and even others like Sam.)

They were nearly out of Dayton, where Quinn was getting ready to merge onto Northbound Interstate Highway 75. Just then, someone slammed on their breaks right in front of them. Quinn's reaction was timed perfectly. She swerved out of their lane to avoid hitting the car in front, narrowly missing side-swiping the car on the passenger side. Artie's heart jumped into his throat and he felt like he was going to throw up. Quinn,recovering from the shock, actually laughed nervously. And then cried so hard she had to exit the highway.

"It's okay, I'm okay, you're okay..." Artie reassured her, reaching over to rub her shoulder comfortingly. As he did so, he finally realized something he hadn't had the time to think about all day.

"Today was ten years..." Artie said, still processing the fact that he had actually managed to forget until that moment. "We all forgot. My family didn't even remember to mope around all day, thanks to the chaos of getting me to Sectionals.

"And we almost just got in an accident on the ten year anniversary," Quinn said, incredulously.

"Right outside Dayton, where the first one happened." Artie shook his head. He loosened the seatbelt that had cut cleanly into his chest. It felt like he might have some bruising tomorrow. All in all, they'd been lucky.

"Can we not say anything about this to your family?" Quinn begged. "Your mom has enough PTSD to deal with as it is."

"Right there with you," Artie agreed.

As they continue to head north to Lima, Artie sat in silence, reflecting on the passing of another year since the day that forever changed his life. Ten years of living a life he hadn't planned on. And now he was supposed to somehow figure out what came next.