The Wildebrams Season Three
Chapter 01: The End of Summer
By Wilde Abrams
Rating: T / Teen And Up Audiences
Main Characters: Artie, Quinn, Kitty, Finn, Mercedes
Ships: Wildebrams, Finchel, Quartie friendship, Brittana
Author’s Notes: So once again I’ve been distracted from writing one of my other stories, by a story idea that I just can’t get out of my head, and can’t concentrate on writing anything else until I do.
When I was writing the wedding chapters of The Wildebrams Season Six, I had a character making a comment to Kitty that it would’ve been great if she had been there when they had won nationals. At the time it was just an offhand comment, but the more I thought about it, the more interesting the idea it became. What if Kitty had been with them as a Freshman? Not only would Artie and Kitty have gotten to know each other a whole year earlier, and known each other for longer before he had to go away to college; But, we would’ve had a whole year where Quinn could have mentored Kitty. The writers establish the idea that Kitty was obsessed with Quinn, but never addressed it after that single episode, and it never really went anywhere. By introducing Kitty a whole year earlier, there’s a whole lot more time to play with.
With Kitty’s presence and making a handful of changes to the story arc of the season, it becomes different and radically more interesting in my opinion.
The story here will still follow the story presented in the episodes during the season, but some of the plot lines are going to be omitted or completely different, some because of Kitty‘s presence, and some just because I wanted to make some changes. There will be new plotlines, new and different songs, and song arrangements will be a little different because of the additional characters.
I hope you enjoy it.
[ Note: I consider the title The Wildebrams Season Three to be a placeholder until I come up with something better. Any suggestions? ]
===> The Lima Bean: Saturday Aug 27, 2011
Artie Abrams was sitting at the table drinking his coffee and reading something on his iPad when his friend Quinn Fabray, dressed in her Cheerios uniform with the Captain patch joined him and sat down.
“Sorry I’m late,” Quinn told her apologetically. “Coach Sylvester called a mandatory emergency meeting of the senior Cheerios this morning.”
“Not biggie,” he told her, and looked up smiling. “I haven’t been here that long.”
“Julia, one of our best fliers, broke her leg at our first fall practice yesterday,” Quinn explained. “She’s going to be on crutches for at least six weeks, and it could be months before she is recovered enough to cheer, let alone perform any actual stunts.”
Quinn sat her gym bag down next to the table and walked over to the counter. She ordered her drink, and once she had paid for and picked it up she joined her friend at the table.
“That means that for the first time that I have ever heard of, we are going to have to hold tryouts for a squad member AFTER we’ve already had Cheer Camp! Well, except the couple times Coach Sylvester went through the motions because Principal Figgins made her.”
“I bet that was a fun meeting,” Artie told her sarcastically. He knew how high stung coach Sylvester could be about her team, especially when things weren’t going the way she wanted.
“No kidding. She didn’t want to hold open tryouts, so we spent an hour going through the rejects from last spring deciding who we were going to invite to try out again,” Quinn told him, taking the first sip of her drink. “We settled on two decent fliers, and coach Sylvester wants to give a new freshman girl a try. Apparently she is a tiny little thing and has a pretty significant gymnastics background, and cheered at her old middle school, in Belleville.”
“She’s considering putting a freshman on the varsity squad?” Artie asked in disbelief. “She must be pretty amazing!”
Quinn shrugged. “Apparently. I’ll find out at tryouts on Saturday.”
“I’m going to miss our Saturday morning coffee ‘dates’,” Artie said sadly.
“Me too,” Quinn said, sadly. “Unfortunately Coach Sylvester insists on Saturday Morning Cheerios practice at least through the end of Football season. Maybe we can find another time that works for both of us?”
Then she took a deep breath and paused before continuing.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you this summer,” she said with a soft smile. “Finn breaking up with me last spring was so devastating, and my supposed best friends Santana and Brittany were so wrapped up in each other they barely had time for me — sorry….” She added at the last moment realizing what she had said and who she had said it to. Artie’s break up with Britney had also been quite painful. She hadn’t intended to rub it in his nose.
“It’s okay, Quinn,” Artie said sincerely, reaching across the table and placing his hand on her arm. “You’ve done the same for me. It was pretty devastating being broken up with by Brittany last year, even if it was partially my fault. It’s really forced me to reflect, and I’ve sadly had to come to terms with the fact that I may be destined to be alone after having both my relationships ended after being cheated on.”
“Don’t say that Artie,” she said sweetly. “There’s someone for everyone, and I just know that you’ll find the one that is right for you when the time is right!”
“I could say the same thing about you,” he told her earnestly. “Finn, Puck, and Sam just weren’t right for you, but I’m sure that you will find the right guy soon!”
“I don’t think so, Artie,” she told him. “After the past two years I’ve had, I think I’m going to focus on the other things in my life: my friends, Cheerios, and Glee Club.”
“Speaking of glee club,” he said, changing the subject. “I need a favor. There’s something I need you to help me with.”
“Oh?” Quinn asked, her curiosity piqued.
“You’re a senior now,” he began, “and I’m a junior. Glee club is very important to both of us. We all worked so hard last year to get ourselves to nationals, only to have it thrown away by Finn and Rachel’s selfishness!”
Quinn nodded, frowning. “I’ve been trying not to think too much about that,“ she told him. ”It still pisses me off every time I hear about the video for ’the kiss that missed’.”
“No kidding!” Artie told her. “It’s not quite as viral as it was before, but it’s still continuing to get hundreds of hits a week.”
“Quinn,” Artie said, after taking a moment to choose his words, “You probably didn’t know this, but back before any of you guys joined glue club, I was supposed to be the male male lead singer.”
Quinn smiled. She knew that Artie was one of their best singers.
“Rachel was jealous that I got the first solo instead of her, and wasn’t satisfied with me as a duet partner,” Artie continued. “So she threatened to quit, and badgered Mr. Schue into recruiting Finn to be her duet partner.”
“Really?” Quinn asked, surprised. “That’s horrible! I wish I could say I was surprised, though, but it really does sound like something that she would do. After all, she had just gotten her way and got that creepy Mr Ryerson fired… even though he definitely deserved it.”
Suddenly Finn’s out of nowhere interest in glee club started to make sense, if he was actively recruited by the persuasive glee club director who reminded everyone of an older Justin Timberlake.
“I think that Rachel is someone who has always been used to getting what she wanted, and she liked the feeling of it so well that she continued to push things to the limit, no matter who it hurt,” Artie continued.
Quinn saw the sad look appearing on his face, and reached across the table and put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s OK, Artie,“ she said. “That was a really shitty thing for her to do, but you are a much more versatile singer than Finn will ever be.”
Artie gave her a half smile, and said, “I know. I just wish that Mr. Schue saw that. But this brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about today. You have one more year of glee club, and I only have two left until we graduate. And I really want us to win nationals this year. I don’t think that we can trust something that is important to Finn and Rachel.”
She shook her head agreeing with him.
“They definitely helped us get as far as we did last year,” he continued, “but I’m not so sure that they weren’t just as much of a hindrance as a benefit. And ultimately, when the chips were down, they let us down. I’m not willing to risk something so important on them!”
“Absolutely!” Quinn said, nodding her head in agreement.
“So with that in mind,” Artie continued, “it’s my intention to challenge Finn and Rachel for the club leadership when rehearsals begin for the fall!”
“Sounds good to me!” Quinn said. “You’ve got my support!”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Artie said, “because I’m going to need a duet partner and co Captain.”
“Who are you going to ask?” She asked him, leaning in towards him. “Mercedes or Tina?”
He gave her a confused look. “Mercedes is a great singer, but her strength is park and bark, and things are better between Tina and I than a year ago, but she’s still attached at the hip to Mike, and I’m not sure she would be the best choice anyway. I need someone who can dance out front, and is universally respected by the club-“
“-Then who?” She asked him.
In response he just smiled and pointed his finger at her.
“Me?” She responded. “Oh, Artie, I don’t know-“
“Quinn, you’re a better singer than you think you are. I need someone who can keep up with me vocally. We sounded great when we did our duet two years ago during ballad week. You’re also versatile enough to do both Motown and Funk. Besides, I need someone who can get the support of the jock contingent of the club, and neither Mercedes nor Tina fit the bill. We need to get everybody working together as a team sooner rather than later, because we’re going to have to recruit new blood with the loss of Sam, and the possible loss of Finn and/or Rachel if they decide not to get on board.“
“I don’t know …” Quinn.
“Please, Quinn,” he pleaded. “I need you! Glee club needs you!”
After a few moments, Quinn smiled and said, “Yeah. Sure … let’s do it!”
“Great! You won’t be sorry!” He beamed.
She beamed back. “You know? I think it is going to be really fun to take them down a few pegs!”
“Definitely,” Artie said. “I took the liberty of looking at some songs that suited our voices,” he told her, showing her his iPad.
# # # # #
Katherine Rebecca Wilde sat at a table across the room of the local Lima Bean coffee shop watching the blonde senior cheerleader chatting with the geek – complete with glasses – with a curious expression on her face.
Katherine was going to be new to McKinley, and trying to figure her new school out.
She was the only child of Andrea and William Wilde, an evangelical Christian couple. William was a powerful attorney, and Andrea was a successful real estate agent. Andrea was a former Miss Ohio, so appearance was something that was always stressed to Katherine as a child. Her parents had taught her that popularity, power, and money were necessary to succeed and prosper in life. Wherever she was, she did whatever she had to do to gain popularity, because with it came power, and in time that would lead to wealth and success.
She had been very active in her church from a young age. She had started to take dance lessons at age 4, and started gymnastics at 6. She had dabbled in singing and dancing, and also taken up horseback riding in elementary school. But as she got older she began to focus on her gymnastics, and then in middle school she started cheerleading which took up most of her time and energy.
She was one of the most popular girls in her elementary school class, despite her tendency to keep her “friends” at arm’s length; careful not to trust anyone enough to give them enough information to hurt her. She had been taught to develop and project this air of superiority to make sure to keep everyone else below her. Her parents told her that this was necessary to maintain power in her relationships and prevent anyone from hurting her.
Because of this, she had no close relationships. The few she did have were more acquaintances than friends. None of them really knew her, and those that thought they did really didn’t. She spent time with her classmates, but she didn’t have any she really considered friends. She needed to maintain the upper hand in every relationship. None of them could be her equal, so that she would win any conflict.
People needed to want to be friends with her, she did not need to be real friends with anybody else. If she felt that things were crossing a line she would lash out and push them away by whatever means necessary.
It was the same way with guys, so as a result she had never had a real boyfriend before, just friends and guys to manipulate and have a little fun with.
As a result, Katherine lived a fairly lonely existence.
He father had moved the family from Belleville to the nearby town of Lima in order to expand his career opportunities. For some this might have been a stet-back, but she used this opportunity to start fresh. No one would know her or anything about her that wasn’t in her records, or she didn’t tell them. She would be able to craft a totally new persona if she wanted and decided to do just that.
Cheerleaders tended to talk at Cheer Camp, and she utilized her stint there with the Bellville squad, before officially transferring, to do some research in preparation for her freshman year at a new school.
The most popular group at William McKinley High School were the Cheerios. The Cheerios were as close to school royalty as McKinley High had. Their coach was a multi-year, nationally ranked coach, and was legendary, and Kitty had persuaded her Belleville coach to put in a good word for her when she finally told her she was transferring.
The most popular and legendary Cheerio was Quinn Fabray. She made it her mission to learn everything she could about her, and to idolize her. She even had special posters made for her locker and bedroom wall that said “What Would Quinn Fabray Do?”
But, the more she paid attention to her, the more of a mystery Quinn became. She was the on-again-off-again head Cheerio. She made Captain as a freshman. She’d been pregnant as a sophomore by a guy who wasn’t her boyfriend. She’d dated multiple football players, as one would expect in a head cheerleader.
But, she’d also been a member of the school glee club, also called New Directions, and dated several of its members, which should have been social suicide, because glee club members were, by definition, geeks, and most of them were gay.
This should have sunk her popularity and cool factor, but didn’t. Despite everything she maintained her popularity. Even when it slipped a bit she always bounced back. This made no sense to Katherine.
More recently the local jock community had been rocked by the revelation that Quinn hadn’t always been Quinn. Apparently she used to be fat, zit faced, and unpopular, but between middle school and high school, Quinn had undergone a metamorphosis and completely transformed from chubby Lucy Q Fabray, to the gorgeous, and popular, Quinn Fabray, through the sheer force of her will.
It was incredibly inspiring!
More than ever, Katherine decided that she needed to become a member of the Cheerios, and more importantly she needed to be like Quinn. She began going by Kitty, and visited McKinley and introduced herself to Coach Sylvester one day a few days after they had moved.
Unfortunately they had already had cheerleading tryouts the previous year, but a few days later Kitty had gotten a call inviting her to a special closed tryout on Saturday. Apparently one of their fliers had an accident at practice, and would be out for most of the year. She was one of only a few girls, and the only freshman, being given this opportunity, and she intended to take full advantage of it to impress both Coach Sylvester, and Quinn Fabray.
She was much more experienced than anyone else trying out for the spot. At her old school she had been on the gymnastics team, and she had started taking dance lessons as a little girl, on top of her years as a cheerleader, so she knew that it would be a relatively simple thing to impress Coach Sylvester, and Captain Quinn Fabray to win the open spot.
She’d been watching from afar when Coach Sylvester had her emergency meeting in the gym, and discreetly followed the girl she learned was Quinn the few blocks from the school to the Lima Bean, where she met up with her friend. He had dark hair and glasses, and was already seated when she arrived. Kitty ordered a drink and took a seat at a table far enough away that she could discreetly watch them, and eavesdrop on their conversation.
The two of them were acting very familiar with each other. She wondered if he was Quinn’s boyfriend. She’d heard she had been broken up with by the quarterback the previous spring, but she didn’t show any signs of being sad, and someone like her wouldn’t stay single for long. She must have moved on by now. They smiled and laughed and touched each other several times.
Taking a closer look at him she saw his dark brown hair and blue eyes. He would be cute if it weren’t for the glasses. He had his letterman jacket hanging on his chair and she was a junior (class of 2013) and had patches for football, jazz band… and Glee Club.
Kitty sighed and took a sip of her coffee, rolling her eyes. What did the most popular girl in school see in members of that stupid club. She vowed to herself that she would find out.
She wasn’t close enough to to follow the conversation completely but they seemed to be talking about glee club. She shook her head and waited until they were done before she got up to leave herself.
Quinn rose to her feet and bent over giving her friend an affectionate hug before she headed towards the door … and he released the brake on his wheelchair and wheeled out after her giving Kitty a shocked expression.
===> The Hudson Hummel House – Sunday, August 28, 2011
Finn Hudson was sitting in his bedroom playing Madden 12 on his Xbox when he heard the front door close and a few minutes later his adopted brother Kurt was standing in the doorway.
“How did your coffee date with Blaine go?” He asked as he continued to play the game.
“No as well as I was hoping,” Kurt said, taking this as permission to enter, and walked over, and sat on the edge or the bed. “I’ve been worried about us all summer. He keeps telling me he will think about it, but I’m still not sure if he will actually transfer to McKinley, and school starts in a few days.”
Finn knew that Kurt had been lobbying his boyfriend Blaine to transfer from his private school the Dalton Academy to McKinly pretty hard for most of the summer. While he knew they needed at least one new recruit to replace Sam, who had been forced to transfer out of state because his dad had finally gotten a job, he wasn’t sure Blaine would be a good fit for their group. The two of them had discussed this at length several times and no matter what argument Finn came up with, Kurt countered it and wouldn’t even accept that Finn might be right. He thought Blaine would be perfect a perfect fit and would fit right in. He’d finally given up.
“What did he say this time?” Finn asked, trying to be supportive of his brother.
“He just sat there in his Warbler blazer and told me that the Warblers were his brothers and he couldn’t just bail on them-“ Kirt answered in disgust, completely dismissing Blaine’s point of view.
“He has a point,” Finn told him as his player made a touchdown. “Those guys are pretty close, and transferring this close to the fall would leave them in the lurch-“
“-he’s had all summer to decide to transfer and give them notice that he was leaving, like Sam did,” Kirt argued. He was really starting to get desperate.
“This is a pretty big decision for him,” Funn told him. “And didn’t you say he was at Dalton because he was bullied out of his public school? He might be reluctant to give up Dalton’s zero tolerance no bullying policy.”
“We talked about that,” Kurt told him. “But he’s agreed that as long as we had each other and the New Directions to shield us, we’d be fine.”
Finn wasn’t so sure; and suspected his brother was seeing and hearing what he wanted to. He paused the game and looked his brother in the eye.
“Are you sure you aren’t just afraid to have him as competition again?” Finn asked.
“Of course I am!” Kurt responded, desperately.
“Because they might beat us?” Finn asked.
“Or we might beat them!” Kurt retorted. “Either way I’m just not sure that our budding love can survive that.”
“You guys have a strong relationship,” Finn assured him. “If you’re meant to be together, you’ll get through any conflicts, just like me and Rachel.”
Kurt sighed. “Look, I mean, honestly, I just, I just wanna see him more. I want my senior year to be magic, and the only way that’s gonna happen is if I get to spend every minute of every day with him.”
Finn gave him a sympathetic look. “I wish I knew what to tell you. Ultimately Blaine has to decide for himself, and if you really care about him, you need to respect his decision, even if it isn’t what you wanted.”
Kurt reluctantly nodded.
= = =
Author’s Endnote: so what does everyone think? Are you interested in me continuing with this? Please favorite, subscribe, and review to show your support.
—-
AO3 Summary:
When I was writing the wedding chapters of The Wildebrams Season Six, I had a character making a comment to Kitty that it would’ve been great if she had been there when they had won nationals. At the time it was just an offhand comment, but the more I thought about it, the more interesting the idea it became. What if Kitty had been with them as a Freshman? Not only would Artie and Kitty have gotten to know each other a whole year earlier, and known each other for longer before he had to go away to college; But, we would’ve had a whole year where Quinn could have mentored Kitty. The writers establish the idea that Kitty was obsessed with Quinn, but never addressed it after that single episode, and it never really went anywhere.
With her presence and making a handful of changes to the story arc of the season, it becomes different and radically more interesting. It will still follow the story presented in the episodes, but some of the plot lines are going to be omitted or completely different, some because of Kitty‘s presence, and some just because I wanted to make some changes. There will be new plotlines, new and different songs, and song arrangements will be a little different because of the additional characters.