The following is a “deleted scene” from my forthcoming chapter All Or Nothing in The Ballad of Kitty and Artie. This chapter takes place after the events in the episode Wonder-ful, where it has become very apparent to Kitty and Artie that there is something going on between the two of them, and an added subplot of this episode will feature the two of them exploring their feelings while at the same time preparing for Regionals.

*** Sunday Evening ***

Artie sat in front of his video editing computer reviewing some footage he’d recorded of glee club performances that year. He was just looking at the stuff from Diva Week. All of the girls and a Blaine had gotten all dressed up in formalwear and sang and danced to the song Diva. He’d seen this kind of thing many times in his 4 years in glee club between their competitions and other performances.

His first girlfriend Tina was always completely transformed from her usual plain looking fad fashion of the month self into something a lot more. Once upon a time he’d thought he loved her, but their relationship has ended over the summer between freshman and sophomore years when she cheated on him with Mike Chang at Asian Camp, and later dumped him. He’d tried his best to win her back, but she’d moved on emotionally from him, and eventually the two of them had found a way to continue being friends.

But before that has happened, he’d dated Brittany, who also underwent a similar but not quite as dramatic transformation for these kinds of things. He’d been so desperate to get over the hurt he was still feeling from Tina that he’d let Brittany ‘help’ him by taking his virginity.  But she’d broken his heart as well by cheating on him with Santana, apparently right under his nose for months. In her defense, she hadn’t seen it as cheating because Santana was a woman. In the end they had broken up too, and he’d done something that he’d regretted ever since. He’d called her stupid. She’d ran off in tears she told him that he’d been the only one to never call her that. Truth be told, while Brittany was a little …. challenged …. In the mental faculties, she wasn’t stupid.  Brittany was bisexual and still struggling to figure out what that meant to her, and Santana, who was very much in love with her, had emotionally manipulated her. Over time Brittany had forgiven him and they’d formed a real friendship.

But Artie still longed for the feelings he’d had when he dated Tina and Brittany. When he’d first met Sugar Motta, the first thing he’d noticed about her was that even with the spaghetti in her hair from the food fight in the cafeteria from when the glee club had sung We’ve Got The Beat, she was beautiful.  The second thing he’d noticed was her abrasive personality, followed shortly thereafter by the fact that she had the most horrible singing voice any of them had ever heard.  So bad, in fact, that for the first time in New Directions history, they’d said no to a prospective new member. She was literally tone deaf!

When the Treble Tones, the second glee club that Sugar’s dad had financed, was absorbed into New Directions following their defeat at sectionals, Artie took a second look at her. She was still as abrasive as before, but her singing voice had improved, thanks to Shelby Corcoran and Mercedes Jones; to the point that, while she still wasn’t that good, at least she wouldn’t drag them down if she sang quietly. On the plus side, she was actually a pretty good dancer.

Unfortunately she had a pretty shallow side to go along with her abrasive personality. He liked a challenge, and pursued her off and on for the better part of a year. He felt so desperate for love that he ignored or put up with the fact that she clearly looked down on him and only dated him out of pity, and only when a better opportunity didn’t present itself. In the roughly a year she’d dated him off and on, she never agreed to be his girlfriend. It was Kitty of all people who noticed this and told him to get some self respect and that she was obviously never going to be with him fully. He didn’t fully accept this until after Quinn had officially dumped Joe Hart and Sugar had started dating him.

Sugar was someone who always strove to look her best, but these types of things had her take it to the next level. But as beautiful as Sugar was, she didn’t hold a candle to Kitty Wilde.

Kitty. Out of all of the girls, hers was the most dramatic transformation. In her everyday look with her hair drawn into a high pony, modest use of makeup, and Cheerios uniform, she was quite attractive. But when she got all dressed up for performances she was more than beautiful, she was gorgeous. He’d first noticed this at sectionals, but hadn’t had much time to reflect on it with the aftermath of what had happened with their loss after Marley passed out. He was definitely attracted to her in the cat suit she wore during superhero duets week, but the green dress she wore during Diva week was an entirely different matter. She had gone all out, and was gorgeous enough to be a model!  He paused the video and focused on her for a moment.

There had been an attraction from the moment he first saw her the previous spring, but he’d been sort of dating Sugar at the time, when he was able to get her attention away from Irish foreign exchange student Rory Flanagan. He hadn’t put much thought into it at the time, but he did make a point of learning who she was.

He was ecstatic that fall when she’d introduced herself to him and invited the glee club to have lunch with she and her friends. It was when he got close enough to spend time with her, he realized that she wasn’t the nicest person personally. She was shallow, racist, and flat out mean to people who didn’t fit into her circle or view of what was good.

One of his lowest moments in recent memory was when he sucomed to peer pressure, and with a look from her, and joined in with her friends making fun or Marley’s mom, Millie, the overweight lunch lady.

He also found out how fleeting her friendship could be when she called him “crippy” and informed them that Unique and Marley were not welcome to be in her crew. When Blaine informed her that the were not in her crew anymore, her two friends threw slushies at Marley and Unique, and Kitty approved of the slushying.

Artie thought that would be the end of their short friendship, but even after that the two of them managed to maintain a private friendship of sorts. She was friendly to him when no one else was watching, and later when she joined glee club she gradually allowed the other glee members to see it as well. They often sat next to each other on days when she moved out of the back row, and were frequent singing and dance partners. They spent a lot of time together and on several occasions she gave him a ride to or home from early or late rehearsals.

He knew that she liked him personally at the very least, but the events of the previous week made it apparent that she liked him a whole lot more than he ever expected, and he had to admit that he was really starting to feel things for her as well. She’d sang Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) to him in front of the entire glee club, along with performing some seductive dance moves.

She’d kept after him to pursue his dream of going to film school, even going so far as to go talk to his mom. That was so out of character for her, clearly she cared more for him than she ever let on. She generally came off as rather self-centered, so this was very out of character. She she also really got into his performance of For Once In My Life, continually looking at him and making eye contact with him as they sang. He definitely got the message that she liked him. The question was how did he feel about her.

He continued to stare at her image on the screen as he un-paused the video and began to sing the Michael Jackson song The Way You Make Me Feel while she danced. He wheeled back from the computer desk and began to ‘dance’ himself.

[ Artie ]

Hee! – hee!

Ooh!

Go on girl!

Aaow!

Hey pretty baby with the high heels on

You give me fever

Like I’ve never, ever known

You’re just a product of loveliness

I like the groove of your walk,

Your talk, your dress

I feel your fever

From miles around

I’ll pick you up in my car

And we’ll paint the town

Just kiss me baby

And tell me twice

That you’re the one for me

The way you make me feel

(The way you make me feel)

You really turn me on

(You really turn me on)

You knock me off of my feet

(You knock me off of my feet)

My lonely days are gone

(My lonely days are gone)

I like the feelin’ you’re givin’ me

Just hold me baby and I’m in ecstasy

Oh I’ll be workin’ from nine to five

To buy you things to keep you by my side

I never felt so in love before

Just promise baby, you’ll love me forevermore

I swear I’m keepin’ you satisfied

‘Cause you’re the one for me

The way you make me feel

(The way you make me feel)

You really turn me on

(You really turn me on)

You knock me off of my feet

now baby – hee!

(You knock me off of my feet)

My lonely days are gone –

a – acha – acha

(My lonely days are gone)

Acha – ooh!

Go on girl!

Go on! Hee! Hee! Aaow!

Go on girl!

I never felt so in love before

Promise baby, you’ll love me forevermore

I swear I’m keepin’ you satisfied

‘Cause you’re the one for me…

The way you make me feel

(The way you make me feel)

You really turn me on

(You really turn me on)

You knock me off of my feet

now baby – hee!

(You knock me off of my feet)

My lonely days are gone

(My lonely days are gone)

The way you make me feel

(The way you make me feel)

You really turn me on

(You really turn me on)

You knock me off of my feet

now baby – hee!

(You knock me off of my feet)

My lonely days are gone

(My lonely days are gone)

Ain’t nobody’s business,

ain’t nobody’s business

(The way you make me fell)

Ain’t nobody’s business,

Ain’t nobody’s business but

mine and my baby

(You really turn me on)

Hee hee!

(You knock me off of my feet)

Hee hee! Ooh!

(My lonely days are gone)

Give it to me – give me some time

(The way you make me feel)

Come on be my girl – I wanna

be with mine

(You really turn me on)

Ain’t nobody’s business

(You knock me off of my feet)

Ain’t nobody’s business but

mine and my baby’s

Go on girl! Aaow!

(My lonely days are gone)

Hee hee! Aaow!

Chika – chika

Chika – chika – chika

Go on girl! – Hee hee!

(The way you make me feel)

Hee hee hee!

(You really turn me on)

(You knock me off of my feet)

(My lonely days are gone)

(The way you make me feel)

(You really turn me on)

(You knock me off of my feet)

(My lonely days are gone)

There was definitely attraction there. The question was how deep did it go beyond the superficial. He knew he had to find out.