It's September now. The air smells of leaves. Our brand new school clothes are starting to show wear and tear. School is in full swing. William McKinley High School looks like any other high school in Northwest Ohio. Like any other, it has your stereotypical cliques. Like all the others, its cliques boil to one clear dichotomy: the popular, and the losers.
Look closer now. Past the students milling around campus before class. Past the parking lot packed with teens' shitty cars and the teacher's even shittier ones. On the McKinley Titan's football field is where you'll find me, hoisted to the top of the cheer pyramid. Beside me, my best friend since the age of eight, and my co-captain, Quinn Fabray, stands tall. In our red and white uniforms, we are the picture of perfection. All high ponytails and pearly white smiles. Perfection has been drilled into us from an early age. From Coach Sue, from our teachers, and in Quinn's case, her parents.
We are in the first one when it comes to the earlier discussed categories. And let me tell you, it feels great at the top.
"You think this is hard? Try being waterboarded, that's hard!" Sue shouts through her megaphone. busting away at making our routine perfect. I stare straight ahead at the empty bleachers and my aunt, barking orders and insults. A bead of sweat drips toward my eye, but I know better than to wipe it away.
Finally, Sue tells us to hit the showers, and we begin to disassemble our human pyramid. Quinn and I fall backward from the top, soaring toward the ground in perfect synchronization. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
Quinn and I walk together toward the locker rooms. As we pass the dumpsters, I can't help but look for him. He's there, as he is every day, preparing to toss some unfortunate loser in the bin behind them. He preferred this one, I knew, not only because it's the one that contained the moldy discards from the cafeteria, but also for its proximity to the Cheerios lockerroom where whatever chick he had his sights on would no doubt be from at any given time before or after school. I know because it used to be me.
Today his unwilling victim is a guy from my home ec class who was known for wearing expensive clothes that no straight male in this town would be caught dead in. Kirk or something like that, I think his name is.
I stare for too long, craning my neck as our distance gets farther. For one fleeting moment, his eyes catch mine and my heart soars, but he's quick to look away.
"You doing okay?" Quinn's voice pulls me away from Puck.
I nod slowly. "Yeah. Yeah. I'll be fine. It's just last time we broke up, we were back together by now. It's been almost a month." My hand comes up to find the heart pendant on my necklace. It had been a gift from Puck the last time we fought before the one that led to our latest break up. I couldn't take it off. I tried. It was back on in less than a day.
Quinn squeezed my hand twice before dropping it. She gave me a sad smile. I returned a larger one, to show her I was okay. Besides, perfect girls don't have time to be heartbroken.
"What're we talking about?" Santana Lopez asked as she and Brittany Pierce joined us just a few feet from the door. Santana and Brittany were Quinn and I's third and fourth. They completed our group. We called ourselves the Unholy Quartet. Bonded together by cheerleading and the secrets we held for and against each other.
"Puck," Quinn told her.
"Nothing," I answered at the same time.
Santana rolled her eyes, opening the door for us. "Again. I don't get how you're not over him. And I know it's not the sex, 'cause been there, done that, and it's not great."
"Ducky? Anything to add?" I asked Britt. In fifth grade, she broke her arm and insisted her cast be covered in little duck stickers, so I started calling her Duckie, and it stuck. Britt was the one I was least close to, but she was the sweetest of the group and I loved her just as much as the other two.
Britt bit her lip. After a moment she spoke up. "He wasn't very nice to you."
I smiled softly at Britt, setting my duffel back down in front of my locker. "Well, thank you for your opinion guys, but like I told Quinn, I'm fine." I grabbed a red towel and my spare uniform before walking away.
In the shower, I cry for twenty minutes.
"Oh! Maisie! Here's your essay back from last week. Phenomenal work. You really have a knack for this stuff," Mrs. Sawyer said, handing me my work as I was getting ready to leave her class later in the morning.
I smile at the red A+ on the paper. "Thanks, but it was pretty easy. I must have read Of Mice and Men a dozen times."
Mrs. Sawyer smiled. "You're a bright girl, Maisie. You should be proud of yourself." She pats my shoulder before I leave to get to my next class.
Truthfully, I was proud of myself. I was blessed with two wonderful parents who wouldn't be mad if I brought home a C, but I worked my ass off to make sure I never had anything less than an A. A B felt like a failure to me. B's were less than perfect and Maisie Sue Monteith was anything but less than perfect.
The one-minute bell ringing reminded me I had Geometry next and I needed to hightail it if I was going to make it in time.
I slid into my seat just before the final bell.
"Cutting it close," Mike Chang, who I shared a table with, teased.
"Yeah. Mrs. Sawyer gave me this," I explained, showing him the essay.
"Nice job, Maisie!" He praised, raising his hand for a high five.
I smacked his hand with a smile. Mike was a sweet guy. Tall and athletic, he was on the football, basketball, and baseball teams with Puck. He was part of my friend group along with the girls, Puck, Finn Hudson, and Mike's best friend Matt Rutherford. Unfortunately, I hadn't talked to him much in a while because Puck didn't particularly like me talking to other guys while we were dating.
Class starts and I am already getting lost. I was trying my hardest to keep up but it felt impossible. I can bust out an A+ essay on nearly any book in less than four hours, I can bake, I can cook, I can sing, I can dance decently enough, I was the lead of multiple plays at the local theater throughout the years, some of the photographs I had taken won awards, I can recite the Gettysburg Address, I've memorized most of the periodic table, hell, I fluently speak three languages, but ask me to find the missing side of a triangle and I couldn't do it.
Asking for help made me feel weak, but damn if I was going to let one class ruin my GPA. When class ended, I caught up to Mike. Once I was sure there was nobody in earshot, I sprung it on him.
"How much will it cost for you to tutor me in Geometry?"
Mike seemed pleasantly surprised. "Well, I was sorta enjoying having no real competition academically," he said with a cocky grin.
I rolled my eyes but I wasn't actually mad. When Mike was cocky it was funny, not like when Puck sometimes acted like he was God's gift to women. "Oh please, you're just scared that once I get this grade up, I'll beat you." Mike and I had been locked into a friendly competition for valedictorian since Freshman year. If I ended up with an A or more, there was a real chance I could win it by the time we graduate in three years.
"Oh, I'm so not scared."
I smile but my voice drops. "Seriously. I really need to get my grade up."
"Relax, Mais. I'll help you. Free of charge. All you have to do is bring me dessert. I'm gonna need a snack while we study. Maybe those blueberry muffins?"
"You're the greatest. Thank you so much." I stretch up to hug him. Over his shoulder, I saw Puck at us.
"How's tonight sound? I've got football practice, but we could do afterward?"
I was distracted now, trying to get a look at Puck without seeming obvious. "Y-Yeah. Sounds great. I've gotta go but I'll see you tonight."
As expected it wasn't long before Puck caught up with me. His smell, the glorious mixture of leather, Axe, and the tiniest hint of weed reached me before he did. I couldn't stop my heart from going crazy.
He slung his arm over my shoulder and I didn't try to shrug it off. "So you and Chang, huh? Y'know I never thought you'd go for one of my friends."
I set my jaw. Trying hard to stay strong. He was just so frustrating. But oh so hot. "We were just talking. I'm not you, Noah."
It was a double jab and he knew it. It was widely known that not only had he slept with Santana but Brittany too while we were on one of our many breaks. Also, he hated me calling him Noah.
We reach our class and I grab a seat in the front row. I'd finished my work for the week yesterday, so I brought out my book and began to read. Or pretended to at least. Puck slinked into the seat beside me.
"We can get back together whenever you want, just so you know."
"I'm reading, Puck. Do your work." I'm starting to crack and he knows it. A smile is beginning to form on my face so I pull my book closer and slip down farther in my seat to hide it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Puck smirk. "Just saying, balls in your court, Cinderella."
Damn him and damn that stupid nickname.
A few days later, Sue, Quinn, and I are heading to her office to discuss stunts for Friday's football game when we hear music drifting through the halls. The music leads us to the auditorium where we watch the Glee Club rehearse from the upper deck. It was a small group consisting of mostly nerds. I recognize most of them, like Tina, Mike's cousin who was a Freshman, Rachel Berry, the Cheerios archenemy with who I shared more similarities than I'd like to admit, and the boy who Puck had thrown in the dumpster a few days ago. Others, like the boy in the wheelchair, or the other girl, and the tall guy with the earring in his ear, I can't place. But the one that surprised me the most was Finn Hudson, my best guy friend, and Quinn's boyfriend. Looking over at Quinn, I see that she looks pissed with a capital P.
I stood there watching them for a while and I was shocked. They sounded good. Not great, but good enough. I envied them for that in a way, they weren't perfect but they didn't seem to care.
Sue nodded her head at us in a way that said "Let's Go. Now." Quinn and I turn on heel prepared to follow her in perfect unity. I spare the Glee Club one last look and that's when I notice Puck standing on the other balcony.
"I need to use the restroom. I'll meet you guys in there."
I wait until they're out of sight then run to find Puck. I found him right outside the auditorium. He'd been waiting for me.
I can't help myself and I surge forward and kiss him. "My house tonight. No one will be home."
The next morning, Puck finds me in the hallway, slipping his arm around my shoulder and handing me a slushie. He kisses my temple when he sees Mike at his locker and I know without looking that he was telling him with his eyes to stay away from his girl. That day in geometry I got an A- on my homework. Mike doesn't say anything.
And so just like that, my life is back to perfect. But to quote one of my favorite books, "Nothing gold can stay."
