Glee: The Day That Everything Changed (Shooting Star):
– Adapted by WildeAbrams
@ WildeAbrams on Twitter
Synopsis: When a gunshot is heard at McKinley, everyone is shaken to the core, and things will never be the same again for anyone, especially Kitty Wilde.
Author’s Notes: Like Passion is Wonder-ful, this story was originally written to become a chapter in my multi part story The Ballad of Kitty and Artie. However at the rate that story is going it will be months before I get to publishing this chapter. I’ve been sitting on it for months already because it’s one of the first chapters I wrote since it’s so vital to Kitty’s character development. I’ve referred to it multiple times in other stories, and shared early drafts with a few friends, but I consider it some of my best work. It feels like such a shame to not let the rest of you read it, so I am cleaning it up a little and publishing it as a one shot story. When I get to the episode Shooting Star, I will publish a version with some changes and additions to make it different enough to be interesting and integrate better with the rest of the story. Thanks again to Holly (MyGoldStar) for giving this the beta treatment!
# # # # #
The glee club was rehearsing in the auditorium when Mr. Schue held up an envelope. Kitty pulled up a chair next to Unique and Artie.

“I hold in my hand, ladies and gentlemen,” he told them, “our competition for Regionals.”
The group cheered and applauded.
“Drumroll please,” he said. They began to slap their thighs imitating a drumroll. “From… North Central High School in Indianapolis – The Hoosierdaddies.”
“That’s very clever,” Kitty said, sarcastically.
“And from Our Lady of Perpetual Loneliness in Battle Creek, Michigan – the Nun-Touchables.”
“Wait,” Blaine said, confused, ” is that a convent?”
“Now guys,” Mr. Schue told the group. “I like our chances against both of these squads, but we still got a lot of work to do-”
Out of nowhere Brittany’s face went blank and she rose to her feet and went to stand next to Mr. Schue.
“Mr. Schue, please stop talking. I have an announcement to make. I regret to inform you a deadly asteroid is headed our way.”
Everyone sat there and stared at her for a moment until Blaine broke the silence, “Wait. Didn’t we just go through this at Christmas? ”
“Yeah,” Tina added, “and is it true that you and Sam got married? Did that happen?”
“Shut up, Tina,” Brittany retorted. “I’m naming this comet Tubbington-Bopp, and it is heading straight for Lima.”
“Wait. So is it an asteroid or a comet?” Artie wanted to know.
“It’s both.”
“Wouldn’t NASA know something about this?” Marley asked.
“We can’t trust NASA,” Brittany warned them. “I mean last month a meteor exactly like Tubbington-Bopp hit Russia with no warning at all.”
“Oh, so now it’s a meteor?” Artie asked, confused. They were all used to this kind of eccentric behavior from Brittany, but they really didn’t have the time for it now.
“That’s right Artie. And when the meteorite hits, I will not be spending my time in this room preparing for Regionals. I will be spending my last hours making amends with somebody I need to get right with. Somebody who I love very much. ” Everyone in the room glanced at Sam, but Brittany said, “Lord Tubbington.”
“So go back to your homes and hide your wife. Hide your kids and hide your wife. McKinley High, I salute you.” And with that she walked out leaving everyone else confused.
# # # # #
Later that afternoon everyone was hanging out in the choir room.
“I’m surprised that Jesus Christ Superstar has chosen to end the world this way instead of the way he killed the dinosaurs – with a global yeast infection.” Brittany told Marley and Jake.
“So you think God will let me be a girl angel in Heaven?” Unique wanted to know.
“Wait,” Sam asked, “there are girl and boy angles? Does that mean they can have angel sex?”
Brittany took him by the shoulder and led him to a chair so rehearsal can start.
“Alright,” Mr. Schue said, entering the room.
He walked over and sat in a middle row chair right in front of Kitty “Who’s worried about Brittany’s meteor-asteroid-comet prediction?” Sam and Unique were the only ones who raised their hands.
“Okay,” he continued. “Well, here’s how I see it. There are two possible outcomes. First, the meteor misses us, and we go to regionals and kick butt, which will only happen if we prepare.
“Or… We only have a few days to live. And if that’s the case…we need to say everything we need to say to the people we love. I can tell you from those couple weeks where I couldn’t talk to Emma, that there is nothing worse than unfinished business with the one you love. And meteor or no meteor any moment you have with those people is precious and might be your last one.”
He slapped his thighs, rose to his feet and said, “Bruce Springsteen always says that he plays every show as if it’s his last. And that is the kind of urgency we need at regionals this year.” He walked over to the white board. “So this week we’re either gonna sing our last songs to each other, OR get in touch with what it feels to do that.”
He wrote “Last Chance” on the board.
The bell rang and he finished with, “Okay everyone, let’s make the most of it.”
# # # # #
On the way out Kitty heard Ryder tell Jake that he’d seen his online girlfriend Katie, and he convinced Brad & the band to help him serenade her with a sappy Elton John song, but it turned out that someone else had taken this girl’s pic and created a fake online profile to catfish him. He accused Jake and Marley, who both denied it. Kitty rolled her eyes.
# # # # #
Brittany wanted to get right with her cat Lord Tubbington, who she said did not believe her when she told him she loved him. So, at Sam’s suggestion and to give her peace of mind the glee club members agreed to sing the song “More Than Words.” The auditorium was dark except for the candles each glee club member held, lighting them from a main candle as they sang. Sam played guitar and sang while Brittany and the rest of the group harmonized and sang along. Kitty thought to herself that it was corny, but smiled nonetheless throughout the performance.
# # # # #
The following day Brittany determined that Tubbington-Bopp wasn’t a meteor at all but rather a dead ladybug at the end of her telescope, which wasn’t a telescope at all. It was a Pringles can. So, Mr. Schue invited Coach Beiste to glee club. Apparently something upsetting had happened between them.

As she entered the room he said, “We wanted you to join us for our first annual, ‘Thank God the World isn’t Ending’ glee practice.”
“It’s where I can throw Junior Mints at Marley,” Kitty said as she walked in, “without feeling bad about it again.”
“Sit down,” He told Kitty and she did next to Artie, and pulled Beiste over and convinced her to stay even though she really didn’t seem to want to. Kitty was about to ask him what was going on when Beiste reluctantly agreed to stay and Mr. Schue turned to face the group and said, “Let’s get started,” and clapped at the same time as a loud gunshot went off.
BANG!
Kitty saw Artie’s eyes bug out in surprise and they heard the sound of a girl scream and running footsteps.
Everyone froze for several moments until a second gunshot was heard.
BANG!

“Oh my God!” someone said.
Mr. Schue, Jake, and Beiste all burst into action.
“Everyone just spread out and hide. Spread out and hide,” Mr. Schue instructed.
Kitty saw Jake take Marley’s hand and lead her to a corner.
“Find a place to hide,” Schue instructed. “Kitty go over there.” She began to follow Artie, but he redirected her to a spot a few feet away, “No over there.” She was so shocked she didn’t even argue with him.
Schue closed and locked the door and Beiste turned off the lights and lowered the window shades. Blaine helped Artie out of his chair onto the floor and then moved the piano over by the door.
Everyone found places on the floor along the wall out of sight. Kitty saw Artie on the floor from her position a few feet away. She had never been so scared in her life, and she could see the fear in his eyes too. At least she could still see him.
Screaming students ran down the halls.
A door slammed.
On the choir room floor a metronome kept a steady beat as everyone sat quietly in fear.
“Are we even sure those are gun shots?” Blaine asked, breaking the silence.
“–Shh!”
The metronome kept steadily ticking on.
Kitty heard a sob and looked up to see Marley and Jake on either side of her.
“Everyone — Here.” Mr. Schue said. “Hey, guys. Guys, guys. Start texting, tweeting. Let everyone know what’s going on. But don’t tell them where we are. Shooters have smartphones too. We’re just gonna stay here until the police arrive, okay. We’ve got nowhere to be, and we don’t know what’s out there.”
She heard Beiste tell someone it was okay as she took out her phone and began texting her mom.
A door thudded.
Someone shushed.
She had never been so terrified in her life. She thought about whom else she should text, and could only think of Puck. As she began to think about the last few months and realized that her only real friends in the world are with her in this glee club, and they could all die today and not know how much they meant to her. She looked over at Artie’s frozen form.
Someone’s phone buzzed.
Someone shushed.

She heard Mr. Schue’s panting voice say, “I love you guys.”
Over her shoulder she heard Marley sob again.
Someone ran down the hallway and tried to get through the locked door.
Kitty held her breath for what seemed like an eternity until the person gave up and ran off to try another door.
Another door slammed and everyone jumped.
“It’s okay,” Coach Beiste reassured.
Marley began to sob louder.
“It’s okay,” Jake reassured her, placing a hand on she and Kitty’s shoulders for comfort.
Kitty felt panic built inside of her. One of these people who approached might be a shooter, and she wasn’t going to die letting her fellow glee club members think she didn’t care about them.
She was vaguely aware of Mr. Schue and Coach Bieste talking to, and struggling with Sam, moving him over next to Artie who put his hand on his friends arm in comfort. He was worried about Brittney. Blaine pointed out that Tina wasn’t there either.
So there was a chance that if they died they would all not die, Kitty though. She sniffled and began to take some comfort in that, and was about to text Tina and Brittany when she heard Marley whimper again.
“Who are you texting?” She asked.
Markey sniffled and answered, “It’s my mom. There’s no back way out when you’re in the kitchen.” She sobbed.
“It’s okay,” Jake continued reassuring her, “it’s okay.”
“Where is she?! I don’t know why she’s not answering!”
“No one’s going to hurt your mom,” Kitty faced her, reassured her. “She’ll be okay” Marley continued to sob. “Everyone likes her.”
She sat there for a few more moments and decided she needed to get some things off of her chest while she still could.
“Marley,” she began.
Marley looked up from her phone to face her.
“When we were doing “Grease”, I took in all of your costumes so that you’d think you were fat.”
Marley sniffled.
“I’m so sorry,” Kitty sobbed. They embraced. “I’m so, sorry” the two girls held each other close, comforting each other, sobbing.
The metronome kept on ticking.
After a few more moments, she told Marley, “I have to go.” There was someone else she needed to make peace with.
“Where are you going?” A still sobbing Marley asked.
“-I have to-”
“No, are you crazy?” Jake asked.
“Shh,” Mr Schue said.
“Kitty.”
“Stay down!” Jake told her.
“Kitty!”
“Yes!” Kitty answered.
“Kitty, Kitty, Kitty,” Jake called out as she crawled across the room.
She headed straight for the corner that Ryder and Unique were huddling in.

“Get down,” Ryder told her as he put his hand on her shoulder and eased her down to the floor where she immediately took Unique into her arms. He kneeled behind them protecting them.
“I’ve been such a witch to you,” she told Unique. “I’m so sorry!”
The metronome continued to tick.
Ryder began to move away. Kitty looked over her shoulder. She gasped.
“Later Wade,” Ryder said and turned away.
“Ryder, what are you doing?” Kitty asked.
“Get down!” Beiste told him.
“Ryder, what are you doing?” Jake wanted to know.
He crawled over to the other side of the room between Artie and Marley.
# # # # #
Artie had never been so scared in his entire life. It had all happened so fast. The gunshots. Blaine helping him out of his chair onto the floor. The struggle with and argument with Sam who ended up next to him. And what the heck was Kitty doing? He was so scared and didn’t know what else to do to distract himself, so he decided to do what he did best.
Artie pulled out his cell phone and began recording a video, because someone should know what happened there.
“Artie, what are you doing?” Sam wanted to know.
“If we don’t get out of here, people need to see this,” he told them. “Does anyone have anything they want to say?”
“Yeah, me,” Ryder said. Artie turned the camera to face him. “I love you dad. Thanks for, like, everything. And I know I don’t always let you know, but you’ve taught me a lot.” He sighed.
“Me next,” Marley sniffled, “there’s a fake bottom … to my desk drawer.” Sniffles “If you look under it, um… There’s a journal with a bunch of songs that I wrote. I’ve never told anyone, but I’m really proud of them.” Jake placed his hand on her back in comfort.
He signed and said, “Uh- mom, Puck, I love you guys.”
“You guys turn it off.” Beiste instructed. But Artie ignored her. He was determined to record what might be he and his friends’ last moments together and messages to their families.
He hadn’t noticed that Kitty and Unique had crawled across the floor to join the rest of them and take their turns.
“Mom, Dad, I love you guys, and there is a cat in my backpack in my locker. Please feed her for me,” Sam said into the camera.
“To anyone that ever watches this, never stop being yourself,” Unique said into the camera.
And then it was Kitty’s turn. “Hi, Mom and Dad. I just wanted you to know, “she sniffled, “that I love you. And that this has been the best year of my life. Even though maybe it didn’t seem like it.” Kitty said into the camera.
Finally Artie turned the phone camera to face himself. “I just wanted to say that… I’ve had the best experience of my life in this room…and that I love these people more than anything,” He said.
“Please turn it off.” Sam plead.

“Sam,” Artie whispered. Sam knocked the phone out of his hand.
# # # # #
Kitty was watching Artie finish filming the group testimonials when she heard a phone begin to ring in someone’s bag. People kept telling Ryder to hang up on whoever it was. Apparently in the commotion he had crawled across the room and retrieved his phone and was calling somebody.
Finally he did as they wanted, but reluctantly.
Moments later the door open and Mr. Schue followed by Brittney and several other students entered. With everything that was going on Kitty hadn’t even noticed he’d left. Several people hugged them.
A few minutes later they heard a SWAT team member’s voiced call all clear.
Someone turned the lights on and it was all over. Several sighs and more calls of all clear were heard.
Kitty and Unique rose to their feet. Kitty took Unique’s hand and they walked over to join the rest of the group. On the way she hugged Brittany. Everyone was hugging each other. With the lights on she could see that everyone had red tear stained faces.
Beiste helped Artie into his chair and several people including Brittney and Kitty lined up to hug him.
Marley was still crying. Kitty put her arms around both Marley and Unique.
Marley’s phone finally went off. It was her mom. She was okay.
“Come here everyone,” Mr. Schue called out.

“Come here,” Beiste called out.

Everyone was pulled into group hug and held it for several minutes.
“I love you all,” Mr Schue said. “I love you guys, every one of you. You guys are awesome.”
Finally he broke away and went to silence the metronome.
It was over.
# # # # #
Kitty left the choir room in a daze. Her face still puffy and red from the tears she had shed.
She saw all of the couples in the group (Sam and Brittany, Jake and Marley) holding each other and felt a wave of jealousy. Sometimes it sucked having a boyfriend who had already graduated. They weren’t particularly close, but still he was capable of giving her some of the comfort she needed right now.

She pulled out her phone and texted him:
Kitty: I need to see you tonight
Puck: sorry babe, already got plans!
Kitty: what do you mean you’ve got plans? Haven’t you been watching the news? I need to see my boyfriend tonight!
Puck: yeah, about that…. I don’t think this relationship is going to work for me anymore. I’m going to live at The University of Lima with Finn and don’t want anything holding me down.
Kitty: you’re breaking up with me?
Kitty: and you’re going to college?
Puck: no, college is for suckers! I’m just going to live there with Finn.
Puck: but yeah, I know the timing sucks, but I’m breaking up with you. I think we both know you’re not gonna put out for me, and this sex shark is tired of being caged!
Kitty: I can’t believe it!
Puck: Kitty, it’s not as if we are really dating. You only asked me out to have a distraction from Jake, so this shouldn’t be exactly that surprising.
Kitty: but I need my boyfriend… Please
Puck: well now you’re free to find one your own age. I’m not exactly the aid and comfort kind of guy anyway.
Puck: some chick is looking for the keg, got to go
Kitty: Puck!

But it was no use. He stopped responding.
She stopped, leaned her back against the lockers in the halls near the exit and closed her eyes. If she had any tears left she would be shedding them now. She had known all along that they weren’t compatible long term, but could not believe he was choosing this time to break up with her… And via text message nonetheless. She began to zone out and wasn’t sure how long it had been when she heard a voice.
“Kitty, are you okay?”
She opened her eyes and saw Artie looking up at her, concerned.
“Yeah, just needed to clear my head for a second.”
“Okay, but you were quiet for quite a while there.” He seemed genuinely concerned.
“Yeah,” she responded. “It’s just been an overwhelming day, you know.”
“Yeah for all of us. I think it’s gonna be a while before any of us feel quite right, again.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “Okay, I know you’re kind of a private person, but if you decide that you need someone to talk to, let me know.”
There was a time when she would have stopped and said something snarky. She wasn’t sure if it was because she could see the genuine concern in his eyes or the complete physical and mental fatigue, but she responded, “I will thanks.” She gave him a fake smile. “I’ve got to go.”
She turned and walked off down the hall, out of the building past the other students, some family members, and faculty as well as the media and the police. When she got to the parking lot she found her car, she got in and sat down. She caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror. She looked terrible. Normally, she would have taken the time to fix her makeup, but instead she sighed and started the engine.
Kitty drove home and when she got there both of her parents gave her a big hug. “We saw what happened on the news. We’re so glad you weren’t hurt. We love you sweetie,” her mom said.
“I love you too,” she told them. “More than you probably know.”
“Are you alright?” Her dad asked.
“No,” she told him. She hugged them closer. “I really don’t think that I am.”
They lead her inside to the couch and each sat down on either side of her, their arms around her shoulders. Her mom kissed her on the cheek.
Kitty faked a smile. She needed this.
They just sat there for over an hour, just holding her, and she felt so loved, a feeling she rarely experienced.
“I love you both so much. I’ve never felt so scared in my life,” she told them, breaking the silence. “When I sat, huddled in that choir room, all I could think about were the regrets that I had and the fact that I could die, and the people I loved might not know how much I loved them, or even that I cared. Some of my friends might not have not even have known how important they are to me.”
“We’ll the important part is that no one was hurt, and you’re all okay.” Her Dad said.
She looked at him with a look of shock on her face.
“Dad,” she told him. “No one may have been physically hurt, but we are not okay! Someone brought a gun to school, and we don’t know who or why. How can we ever feel safe there again?”
He removed his arm from her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, the authorities will get to the bottom of this. Whoever is responsible will be caught and punished-”
“-But what about next time?” She asked. “If it happened once, it could happen again!”
“I’m sure the authorities will take the necessary steps to keep that from happening-”
“-but you can’t know that!”
Her mom removed her arm as well, and turned to face her daughter. She took Kitty’s chin in her hand and tilted her face so they were looking eye to eye. “Honey, there are very few things in life that are certainties. But we have to trust-”
“Trust?” She asks in disbelief. “Trust is earned, and once lost is very hard to give back again.”

Kitty rose to her feet. She could not believe she was hearing this!
Just moments ago she had felt so close to them, so safe and loved, and now this. But, she thought she probably shouldn’t be so surprised. These were the same parents who had discouraged her from making and trusting real friends in the first place.
She turned and walked down the hallway to her room. She grabbed a change of clothing and headed for the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked terrible. She slowly began to strip out of her school clothing and tossed it in the hamper. She turned on the hot water and stepped into the shower.
She stood there and let the steam and water wash away the grime of her day. She closed her eyes and began thinking about her life the last year or so.
She had so many regrets about how she had treated people. She had tried to possess Jake, just berceuse she needed a hot trophy boyfriend. She barely even knew him, but his bad-ass attitude seemed to fit with her image. Marley had been unfortunate enough to remind her of her former, more idealistic self. Adding to that, Jake clearly liked her better, and it was enough to send her over the edge. She had bullied and manipulated the poor girl into developing an eating disorder, and she could have been seriously hurt. She was cruel and bullied Wade “Unique” Adams simply because she was different and something Kitty didn’t understand fully. She wasn’t even sure why she was so mean to Ryder and Tina; probably because of how they dared to call her on her crap. Ryder had once called her a bitch and she had to admit that he was right. For once she was ashamed of the title instead of proud of it.
While she was upset with Puck for dumping her, she had to admit that she deserved it. She had used him initially just to make Jake jealous (something that she wasn’t even sure had worked) and to help her image at school. Popular girls were expected to have boyfriends, and since her choice of one at school had publicly rejected her, the next best thing was a hot older guy. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him, but knew there was no long term potential there. She kept him on the hook with the promise of sex after prom (a promise she fully intended to find an excuse to not follow through on), and she really didn’t blame him for dumping her.
She hadn’t let the other people in her life who meant the most to her know how much they meant to her. Her parents, despite how clueless they could be sometimes were the most important people in her life. Finn and Mr. Schue had believed in her and allowed her to be in glee club even though it was an unpopular choice among many of the other glee club members. Artie was the first member of glee to befriend her, had never been anything but nice to her, and despite that she had pushed him away and made mean comments toward him. Much the same could be said to a lesser degree about most of the rest of the glee club members and some of the other members of the Cheerios.

For that she felt ashamed.
And she or any of them could have died today without knowing how grateful or sorry she was.
The formerly hot water was turning cool, and Kitty sighed and turned it off. She stepped out of the shower and began to towel herself off. After wrapping a bath towel around her body, she wiped the steam off the mirror and saw that she looked much better. She ran a comb through her hair and then slipped on a pair of panties, a bra, sweats, and a t-shirt after drying herself off.
Dinner that evening was fairly quiet with only routine mealtime conversation. After dinner she retired to her bedroom for the night.
She turned the TV on and saw news coverage of the shooting and saw that they still had no suspects and that no one had apparently been physically hurt…
After seeing that there was nothing else on that interested her, and could keep her mind off of things, she turned it off and was alone with her thoughts which returned to her regrets.
After a few minutes, she grabbed her phone and began texting people. She sent off messages to half a dozen friends, only some of whom responded. Most of the people who texted her back apologized and were spending time with their families or significant others.
Unique had responded fairly quickly and after a few messages, the two of them switched to talking on the phone. Kitty once again apologized for treating her as badly as she had and the two of them had a long talk. Kitty admitted that the reason she treated Unique the way she did was because she didn’t understand her, and Unique admitted that she did not understand it herself. She was living in a physically male body but didn’t identify herself that way. It was more than simply being attracted to guys. She felt female and was completely uncomfortable in places like the men’s locker and bathrooms, and in men’s clothing.

She intended to undergo a gender reassignment surgery after she turned 18 and could raise that money. In the meantime she was trying to convince her parents to get her birth control pills because they would help enhance her bust and help her blend in more with the other girls. Kitty told her that she could probably help her with that.
“You’re on birth control?”
“No,” she told her, “but I’m a high school cheerleader and have connections.”
By the time she got off the phone with Unique it was almost 2 am and she hadn’t heard back from Marley or Jake in hours or Artie at all, and she figured they were asleep, so she figured it would be a good idea to get some sleep herself. It had been on the news earlier that classes at McKinley were cancelled the next day while police investigated what had happened, but would resume on Thursday.

Unfortunately she didn’t have very much luck sleeping. Her mind was going a mile a minute and kept filling with thoughts. The one time she started to doze off around 6 am, she awoke only a few minutes later from a nightmare, and was never able to get back to sleep after that. By about 7 am she gave up and decided to get up.
Her parents were both up and getting ready for work.
“How did you sleep?” Her dad wanted to know as she was pouring herself a glass of juice.
“I didn’t,” she told him flatly. “I just couldn’t stand to lie in bed anymore.”
He couldn’t think of anything to say so he told her to have a good day and left for work.
“Are you going to be okay alone today sweetie?” Her mom told her. “If you need me to take a personal day I can.”
Kitty was surprised by this, but after thinking about it for a second she responded, “No, mom, that’s okay. There isn’t really anything you can do for me.” Only her friends who had shared the experience could, but what she said was, “I just need to clear my head.”
“Okay sweetie, take care of yourself.”
Kitty nodded and watched her mom leave.
She briefly thought about what to make for breakfast but decided that she didn’t have an appetite anymore.
After another hour she decided that she could not stand sitting around the house anymore. She got dressed, grabbed her purse and headed for her car. She opened the windows to let some fresh air in.
She turned the key, put the car in gear, and began to drive. She drove around for about a half an hour with no specific destination in mind. She was mildly surprised when she ended up in front of the Abrams house. She had given Artie a ride home from late Glee rehearsals a couple times so she knew where he lived.
She stopped and thought for a moment about whether she should knock on his door. He was single at the moment, as far as she knew, and his best friend Tina had been attached at the hip to Blaine for the last six months or so, and Sam was dating Brittany, so it was highly unlikely that he had any really close friends to talk to.
She took a deep breath and got out of the car. She walked up to his front door and seemed to get there faster than she expected. She hesitated for a moment before ringing the doorbell, her heart beating a mile a minute.
He still hadn’t responded to her texts from the previous night. What if he was busy? What if showing up on his doorstep like this was considered rude? What if?-
The door open and Artie sat there in his chair smiling at her.
“I’m sorry; I should have called first.” She stammered and started to turn away.
“Wait!” He said. She froze. “Please come in. I’m glad to see you.”
She slowly turned around and followed him into the house, and waited as he closed the door.
“I’m actually glad for the company,” he told her as he led her into the living room. “My mom wanted to take the day off to be with me today, but she wasn’t there so she really couldn’t understand, and I got as much ‘motherly comfort’ as I could stand last night.”
Kitty smiled at that. “Yeah, my mom wanted to do the same thing. But last night made it painfully apparent that she and dad could never understand.”
“Can I get you something to drink?” He offered.
She shook her head.
“How did you sleep?” He asked.

“I didn’t,” she told him flatly.
“I didn’t do much better,” he told her.
“I was on the phone until about 2am and then tossed and turned the rest of the night.” She told him. “I finally nodded off, but was awoken by a nightmare. After that I gave up.”
She had no idea why she was so openly talking to him like this. Before yesterday that would have been out of character for her, but now she felt this compulsion to share things with her friends. And yes, she had to admit that she considered Artie to be her friend.
“I’m going on maybe 2 hours myself,” he told her.
He stopped in front of the couch and transferred himself from his wheelchair onto the nice puffy cushion and gestured for her to join him which she did, sitting closer to him than she normally would have.
To her surprise she felt him put his arm around her and drew her closer. “You look like you need a hug,” he told her.
She put hers around him as well and said, “You have no idea.” They both squeezed and patted each other’s shoulders and arms.
They both stayed in that position holding each other for several minutes of silence.
“Do you know what you’re gonna do with the video you shot?” She asked casually, breaking the silence.
“I have no idea,” he told her. “Sam broke the screen on my phone when he knocked it out of my hand, and I haven’t actually been able to get myself to watch it. I suppose I will do something with it eventually.”
That explained why he hadn’t responded to her texts the night before.
“You should,” she told him. “People should know what happened.”
After a few moments of silence, he asked hesitantly, “Did you mean what you said?”
“About it being the best year of my life? Yeah -in spite of my God awful part in Grease.”
They both chuckled, lightening the mood just a tad.
“Does that surprise you?”
“Yeah actually,” he responded.
“There are lots of things about my past that nobody knows about,” she told him. “But suffice it to say, I had a pretty traumatic childhood, and it’s been years since I’ve had real friends that I could trust.”
“Are we friends?” he asked, cautiously. “I’ve always been a little fuzzy on that.”
“Yeah we’re friends,” She admitted. What she was thinking, but didn’t say out loud was that he was probably the closest thing to a best friend she had. How sad was that?
“I was so scared, Artie,” she told him. “I thought some of us were gonna die and I would never have the opportunity to tell people how much they meant to me, or how sorry I am for how I treated them.” Tears began to flow again, and he used his finger to wipe them away.
“We were all scared Kitty. But I took comfort in the fact that if those were going to be my final minutes; I was spending them with the group of people who meant the most to me.
“That includes you. I’ve never been one to hold a grudge, and I always knew you had a sensitive side, once you got past that icy exterior.”
She sniffled and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Thank you.”
They sat there in silence, and ten minutes later she was asleep.
# # # # #
Artie sat there in silence considering the girl with her head on his shoulder as she slept. She was really exhausted. He smiled, turned to kiss her forehead, and decided to let her sleep.
She bore little resemblance to the girl he had met the previous fall. Initially he’d hoped that after they won nationals the previous spring and were popular that they could be friends, but before too long he began to see that there was a side of her that he didn’t like very much. One that was mean and cruel and prejudice, but he also suspected that there was a different side of her.
He began to see that he was right when she joined glee club. Over time he began to see hints of a nicer, softer side, but they were few and far between and disappeared as fast as they appeared. It never lasted that long and as soon as she sensed that someone seemed to notice she was quick to lash out and push them away.
But recently he had seen this happen less and less, and she had really seemed to embrace the joy of glee club just as long as other people didn’t make a point of noticing; or at times that it was just the two of them.
For whatever reason, she seemed intent on keeping the bad girl with an attitude image, at least around others. Glancing at her he wondered if this was a sign of change coming.
He sat there with her for several hours. He found the raising and lowering or her body against his as she slept soothing. She seemed more at peace than he had ever seen her.
Finally Kitty began to stir.
“Mmmm… I’m sorry I called you gimpy…” She said, half awake.
“Hmm?”
“Last fall when the glee club decided they weren’t gonna be in my crew anymore, I called you gimpy, just before Phil and Bobby slushied Marley and Unique… I’m sorry.”
It took a moment to recall that memory; it seemed like a lifetime ago.
“You’ve never been anything but good to me, and I’ve been rude and insulted you, and pushed you away.”
“It’s okay, Kitty, I forgive you.” He said.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he told her. What good did it do to hold a grudge? Besides, she had changed a lot since last fall.
He squeezed her shoulder to emphasize his point.
She smiled.
# # # # #

Kitty felt so comfortable and at peace in Artie’s arms as she awoke. She’d never felt that before with anyone besides her parents. Even Julie, with whom she had been very close, had never had that kind of relationship with her. She knew that she couldn’t stay here forever even though she might want to, but unfortunately the orange juice she she’d had that morning was catching up with her.
“Can I use your bathroom?” She asked.
“Of course,” he told her, “it’s right down the hall on the left.” He pointed in the right direction, but didn’t make a move to switch back to his chair. Hopefully that meant that he would still be on the couch and she’d be able to return to that comforting spot when she got back.
As she entered the bathroom she took a moment to look around. She had never seen a handicapped bathroom in a home before, and had only used the handicapped stalls at school a handful of times. She told herself that it was because she wanted to make sure that they were available to those who needed them, but truthfully it was because she’d been uncomfortable.
That wasn’t that case here. As she looked around it was obvious that this room was significantly modified specifically for his use. The room was bigger than normal to accommodate his wheelchair. The sink was lower to the floor so he could reach it while sitting. Shelves, towel racks, everything was lower. There were special railings several places on the wall to help him move around. There was one of those special tub/showers with a door on the side and a place to sit that she’d seen advertised on TV. The toilet had special arm braces on either side to help him transfer in and out of his wheelchair and raise and lowers himself.
She should have felt uncomfortable here, but she actually felt very comfortable as she sat there and relieved herself. Probably because it was something so personal of his. She finished her business, took a moment to snoop in the cabinets and medicine cabinet before washing her hands and re-joining him in the living room.

To her joy he was still sitting in his spot on the couch when she returned to the living room. She walked over and sat down next to him again. He once again put his arm around her shoulder and she felt that feeling of contentment again. She could get use to this.
“I hope that experience wasn’t too terrible for you,” he asked. “Next time you can use the one upstairs, if you want.”
“Hmm?”
“The bathroom,” he answered. “I know a handicapped bathrooms tend to make people uncomfortable.”
She was surprised to hear him say this out loud. “Really?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking. Pretty much every friend I’ve brought her has been uncomfortable at least the first time. Sugar especially.”
She felt a pain of jealousy at the mention of their fellow glee club member, and Artie’s sometime date. The girl just bugged Kitty.
“I really don’t get what you see in that girl,” Kitty told him. “She’s so shallow, and that’s saying something coming from me.”
“She’d gorgeous,” he answered, “and admittedly, she’s not the deepest person in the world, but fun to be around, and it’s not as if I have a lot of options. Most of the most attractive girls are on the Cheerios with you, and we both know none of you would ever date me. I’ve been lucky to get the dates I have. Very few can see past the chair and of those that do, not many would want to be limited by my special needs.”
She opened her mouth to correct him, but stopped because she had to admit he was right. Even if she or one of the other cheerleaders had wanted to date someone like him, the demands of their social standing would never allow it.
All she could say was, “I’m sorry. Sometimes being in high school sucks.” And then she added, “I just think you can do better.”
They squeezed each other’s shoulders.
“And I wasn’t uncomfortable in there,” she answered. “Your parents love you very much to go to so much effort to make things convenient for you.”
“Yeah,” he told her. “Ever since the accident, my mom has spent every spare moment taking care of me.”
“What about your dad?”
“He’s around, and he helps when he can; but I live with mom, and she’s the one who shoulders the responsibility.”
She nodded, and they sat there in silence, just being with each other.
# # # # #
Artie sat there, just enjoying his time with Kitty. The more time they spent together the more he began to like her. He really hoped that things would change with her from now on.
He was shocked that she was jealous of Sugar, but sad when she didn’t correct his statement about dating him. For a moment it looked like she might, but alas she silently affirmed it.

Hopefully they could at least be more openly friendly now.
Sugar had been attached at the hip to Joe Hart since the two recovered from an extended case of Asian Bird Flu a few weeks ago, and had missed more glee club rehearsals than they had attended. She’d always been one to go for the down and out, and Joe had been getting more and more depressed ever since Quinn formally broke up with him at Thanksgiving. So it was unlikely that Kitty would have anything else to be jealous about.
He looked at her and could tell she wanted to ask him something, but was reluctant to broach that subject.
“Go ahead,” he started. “I can tell you want to ask something. You can ask whatever you want.”
She took a deep breath and asked, “How did it happen?” Referring to his chair.
“Well, I think I told you once it was in a car accident.”
She nodded.
“When I was eight years old, mom and I were coming home from that grocery store when another driver ran a red light. The details are kind of fuzzy, but the other vehicle hit us on the passenger side where I was sitting and I took the bulk of that impact. My mom escaped with only minor injuries, but we were later told that with an impact like that, if we weren’t in a minivan, and I hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt, I probably would never have survived.”
She looked at him with a look of concern in her eyes. He searched for a sign of pity. That was the last thing he wanted. Seeing none, he continued.
“I spent eight weeks in the hospital, the first week or so in ICU. For a couple days it was touch and go. But the biggest concern was my legs and spine. The bones heeled up, but unfortunately there was an impact to a couple of my lower vertebrae which damaged my spinal cord and I lost the use of my legs. I can sort of move my hips, but nothing below that. I do, however retain some sensation. For a while we kept up my physical therapy to prevent muscle atrophy, but eventually gave up realizing that it was unlikely that it would do much good. That’s why my legs are so thin.

“For the first several months it was really hard on all of us. Mom was a mess. I think she felt guilty for some reason, but eventually I decided that I could manage my disability or I could let it control me. I chose to take control of my life. We moved me to the main floor of this house, hired a contractor to build that bathroom and some ramps here in the house, and I embraced the chair, making peace with the probability that I would be in it for the rest of my lift, and getting as good as possible at using it.
“I’ve done everything that I could to live my life the way I wanted. I joined Glee and the Jazz Ensemble, and later the football team for a while; I learned everything I could about directing and production, really everything I ever wanted that was in any way physically possible.”
Kitty smiled. “That’s so inspiring,” she told him, squeezing his shoulder. “I’m glad we’re friends.”
“I am too,” he told her.
Just then they heard the noise of that door opening.
Artie looked at the clock. 3:12 PM. Wow – they had spent almost the entire day together.
“That would be my mom,” he told her.
She made a move to get up, but he pulled her back down.
“Don’t worry; she’ll be happy to meet you.”
# # # # #
Kitty didn’t know why but she felt a slight panic at the thought of meeting Artie’s mom. She didn’t understand it. She’d met other friends’ parents before, but for some reason, this felt different.
As soon as she settled back into the couch, Artie removed his arm from her shoulder. She felt a pang of surprise, but she figured he didn’t want to give his mom that wrong idea.
She heard the sound of keys hitting the table, followed by a greeting, “Hi, Artie, I’m home.”
“Hey, mom,” Artie called out, “we’re in the living room.”
Moments later, Kitty saw Mrs. Abrams enter the room, with a big smile on her face.
“Well, hello there,” she greeted Kitty, extending her hand.
“Mom,” Artie said, “I’d like you to meet my friend Kitty Wilde. We’re in glee club together.”
“Nice to meet you Mrs Abrams,” Kitty said.
“Nice to meet you too, Kitty,” She told the younger woman. “Please call me Nancy – Mrs. Abrams sounds like an old hag.”
Kitty smiled. “Nice to meet you, Nancy. It’s an honor to meet the woman who raised my friend Artie here.”
“Why, thank you,” she responded, glancing at her son sending the ‘my is she polite’ message.
“His father and I did our best.”
Glancing back at Kitty, Nancy changed the subject. “You were in Grease too, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” Kitty responded. “I’m a bit surprised you remember me. It was such a small part.”
“It’s not the size of the part that matters,” Nancy told her, “it’s what you do with it.”
“That’s right,” Artie added, “and you did such an amazing job with it that it served as your audition for glee club. You should be proud. It’s not often that people are actually asked to join.”
“Mom,” he told his mother, “she’s the one I told you about.”
Kitty glanced at Artie, momentarily wondering what else Artie had told his mom, but lost her train of thought when Nancy addressed her.
“So, Kitty, are you staying for supper?”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Artie smile. He definitely wanted her to stay.
Kitty glanced at her watch. Almost 3:30. Her parents would be home soon, wondering where she was. She checked her phone. No new messages.
“I don’t know,” she answered. Part of her really wanted to stay. On one hand, Artie and Mrs. Abrams made her feel so welcome and comfortable. On the other hand, she didn’t want to overstay her welcome, and she figured her parents would be expecting her. “Let me call my mother first.”
“Of course dear,” Nancy said. “You can step in the other room if you need privacy.”
“Thank you.”
# # # # #
As Kitty stepped into the other room, Nancy addressed her son.
“She seems nice.”
Seeing where this was going, he quickly responded, “She’s just a friend, mom.”
Nancy gave her son a look that said ‘sure she is’ but didn’t press it.
# # # # #
Kitty stepped into what appeared to be a craft room and closed the door, before calling her mom.
She dialled the number, and her mom answered on the second ring.
“Where are you, Kitty?” She asked. “I came home early to make sure that you were okay, and found that you weren’t home.”
Great, she thought. I was afraid of that.
“I’m at a friend’s house,” she answered.
“What friend?” She pressed. “Is it one that I know?”
She briefly considered saying Marley or Brittany, but elected to tell the truth.
“I’m at Artie’s,” she answered. “He’s my friend from Glee Club, and you’ve never actually met him no.”
“Why him?”
“Because I wanted some company and he was available,” she answered truthfully.
“Oh,” she said. “When will you be home?”
“Actually, that’s why I was calling. His mother invited me to supper, if that’s okay.”
“Oh,” Kitty could hear the hesitation in her voice. Oh great. Kitty rarely visited her friends at home, let alone stayed for meals. She could tell that there would be questions when she got home, but she wasn’t ready for this visit to be over yet. “If you want to, dear. We can talk when you get home.” Yep. Definitely questions.
“Thanks, Mom,” she answered. “I love you.”
And with that the conversation was over. She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but decided to put it out of her mind. She took a deep breath and joined Artie and his mom back in the living room.
# # # # #
Artie smiled when Kitty returned to the living room and announced that she was being allowed to stay. Nancy was happy and headed off to the kitchen to begin making dinner.
Artie and Kitty passed the time by him giving her a tour of the rest of the house, including his bedroom where he showed her his video editing equipment. Kitty seemed genuinely impressed by his breadth of knowledge about the field. She knew that he liked to film their performances, dedicating a whole YouTube channel to them, but he was much more into it than she thought. He told her that his dream was to attend film school after college. What she thought was just a hobby for him turned out to be something that he wanted to do as a career. The subject of the footage taken at the school shooting came up again and Kitty suggested that he turn it into a mini documentary to go along with his film school applications.
Dinner was pleasant and they passed the time with casual chit chat. She learned that Nancy was a professional realtor and that she and Artie’s dad James had been divorced since he was young.
By the time it was 8:00 Kitty realized that she should be getting home soon and excused herself. Much to her surprise, Nancy gave her a hug goodbye and told her she was welcome back any time.
When Kitty got home she was subjected to a game of Twenty Questions, as expected, mostly from her dad, but excused herself to go to bed early after giving the most basic questions possible to the first handful of questions.
# # # # #
Artie also excused himself to go together bed early after a similar, though less intimidating, conversation with his mom.

# # # # #
Classes at McKinley resumed Thursday morning. However, almost half of the students failed to show up.
Things would never be the same again.
They were forever changed. First there new metal detectors at the entranced that everyone, both students and staff, had to go through. Security cameras we’re being installed in every hallway. Principal Figgins and a police officer were conducting a locker by locker search, and appointments we’re being made for each student to meet with police and administration to try to find out more about who the shooter may have been.
Grief and trauma counsellors were being made available, and a mandatory assembly was scheduled for that afternoon.
Everyone seemed to be in a daze. Even though no one was physically hurt, it had shaken the student body to the core. When Kitty saw Marley in the hall she walked up to her and embraced her for a full five minutes. They just stood there in the hallway holding each other. In the past there would have been comments made, but not today.
Something was taken from them when that gun went off. Their innocence, idealism, and feeling of safety were gone.
Kitty hadn’t been able to sleep the past two nights. The only real rest she’d had was in Artie’s arms the previous afternoon. She’d stayed up all night wrestling with her emotions and talking to her family, and to her friends Marley, Unique, and Artie on the phone that were having that same problem and only been able to sleep when she succumbed to complete exhaustion.
Going through this had brought an already close glee club even group closer. Their sense of family had grown stronger than ever before, with one notable exception.
Ryder was still obsessed with finding out who had cat fished him, and was now convinced that it was one of the members of the glee club. Between fourth and fifth period he cornered Kitty at her locked with Jake at his side and accused her of being the catfish.
She really didn’t want to deal with this. Not today.
She turned to faced him, looked him in the eye and said, “Read my lips, because we know you can’t read words. I didn’t catfish you. I’m not into guys who look like life-sized cartoon wieners. Now excuse me. Because just thinking about you and me dating makes me drier than the cast of Hot in Cleveland.” And with that she walked off, but she could tell from what he said to Jake as she left that he didn’t believe her.
# # # # #
By about 1 PM the gossip mill has gotten word that Coach Sue had confessed to accidentally firing the gun and because of the school districts zero tolerance policy, was being fired, but somehow it didn’t make anyone feel better.
# # # # #
That afternoon at 3:30 the glee club had a secret meeting in the backstage portion of that auditorium, instead of attending the assembly.
Tina and Blaine entered together and she put her hand on Artie’s shoulder as she walked past. Blaine sat across from Tina and Unique, and sang lead vocal in their song. Sam and Brittany sat together, as did Jake and Marley who held each other. Kitty entered, touching Unique’s leg for moral support, and sat down next to Artie. They put their arms around each other and she laid her head on his shoulder. He squeezed her shoulder and rubbed it for support.
Sam played his guitar along with the band and everyone sang Say, by John Mayer
Blaine:
Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so called problems
Better put ’em in quotations

Blaine with Marley:
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Ryder was conspicuously absent, but showed up after the first verses to be with his glee family. He fist bumped with the guys. Marley hugged him from behind. Kitty smiled and then reached out to Unique’s leg again.

Ryder joined in on the second verse.

Ryder (with Blaine):
(Walkin’ like a one man army)
(Fightin’ with the shadows in your head)
(Livin’ up the same old moment)
Knowin’ you’d be better off instead
If you could only

Blaine with Marley:
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Marley and Kitty:
Have no fear for givin’ in
Have no fear for giving over

Sam and Brittany:
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again

Blaine (with Ryder):
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
(Even as the eyes are closin’)
(Do it with a heart wide open)

Marley with Blaine:
Wide!

Marley with Blaine and New Directions:
Say what you need to say

Blaine:
Say what you need to say

Blaine with Marley (New Directions):
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say (Ryder: Say what you need to say)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to
Say what you need to

Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Oh say what)

Blaine with New Directions:
Say what you need to say

Things would never be the same again, but in time they would be okay.

# # # # #

Author’s Notes: Watch for the extended version of this as the Shooting Star Chapter of The Ballad of Kitty and Artie later this year when you will, among other things, be given more details about Kitty’s dinner with Artie and Nancy, and find out what her nightmare was about, and what Artie had previously told Nancy.

Glee Season 6: The Bitterness of Being Left Behind

By WildeAbrams
@WildeAbrams on Twitter

Authors Notes: The following story is a one-shot loosely based upon spoilers for the Season 6, Episode 2: Homecoming. I don’t normally do this but the story has been floating around in my head ever since I read the spoiler and I had to get it out, and figured I’d share it with my readers.

Like the rest of my stories it centers on the characters Kitty Wilde and Artie Abrams. However, It has absolutely nothing to do with any of my previous stories. This is based upon just a few short sentences of spoilers, and my own conjecture, and may or may not be accurate for the actual episode when we see it next winter. If you don’t want to be spoiled for Glee season six then I don’t suggest you read this.

As you might expect from the title, this story has emotional ups and downs so so be prepared for that.

Special thank yous go out to MyGoldStar who gave the the full beta treatment and gave feedback on the almost final draft, and Gleek_888 who gave me some suggestions on a plot point.

# # # # #

Kitty Wilde was the Head Bitch In Charge of the William McKinley High School cheerleading squad – the Cheerios. She was a senior this year and once again the captain of the squad as well as the right-hand person of the school’s principal, her former cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester.

Kitty made it her life’s ambition to be the hottest bitch in whatever joint she was in. If that role was challenged in any way she did whatever was necessary to defend that role; regardless of the consequences to her challenger. She was someone who knew what she wanted and did whatever was necessary to get It. She had once bullied a classmate into believing she was fat as revenge for stealing a guy from her.

Kitty did not believe in friendship or in love. She knew that friendship made you vulnerable to being hurt and that was not something she was willing to risk. She had learned this lesson in sixth grade when her best friend turned all of her other friends against her because she dared to tell the truth. Similarly she did not believe in love; she believed that what people believed to be a love was simply a form of infatuation. And if love really existed, the possibility of which was extremely remote, it was unlikely that two people would feel the same way for each other.

She had undergone a brief change of heart during her sophomore year at McKinley. At a point of weakness in her life, she had felt lonely. She had made friends, joined the glee club and even fallen in love, or she thought that she had.

That mistake had cost her most of her social standing and her popularity as well as her position as Captain of the Cheerios. For a while she didn’t care that much because she thought she was happy. But that had been a mistake. The happiness didn’t last. And it turned out that it had not been love after all.

She didn’t see her error until most of her friends and her boyfriend graduated, and walked out of her life. They had all moved on with their lives to different towns and different schools and different jobs and completely forgotten about she and everyone else who was left back at McKinley.

Part way through Kitty’s sophomore year, glee club had been canceled the first time, however alumni coach Finn Hudson had not given up along with several of her classmates who had since graduated had saved the club. But when those same classmates were on their ways out, they stopped caring.

They had fully known the Principal Sue was cancelling the glee club at the end of the year because of their nationals defeat. They even had some of the alumni return to say goodbye, but had barely put up a fight to save it when it was about to happen. They no longer cared because they were going onto their new lives, and Kitty and the others were left behind to cope with the loss of their club, which was the center of their lives at McKinley.

Finn had died and the others had graduated and moved on with their lives and no one cared about Kitty and the others they left behind. For a few weeks she and her ex-boyfriend went through the motions of keeping in contact with each other but that didn’t last very long.

After they had all gone, Principal Sue had wasted no time stripping all traces of music and art programs from McKinney and forced all of the other four former members of the glee club to transfer to other schools, leaving Kitty the only remaining member of the former Glee club left.

The former glee club classroom was now a computer lab and all of their instruments and equipment had been sold or given to other clubs, so there was nothing left.

But Kitty was also a Cheerio and Principal Sue had always liked her, so she and Coach Roz Washington had promoted her back back to her former position as captain, a position she had lost in part because of her close ties to the New Directions, when her latest successor had proven inadequate.

Mr. Schue, had stuck around for about a year teaching other classes, but even he had finally given up and gotten a new job as a glee club coach at the rival school Carmel High.

Kitty was very resentful of her former club mates and lover, and channelled that energy in to her new role.

# # # #

Kitty and her entourage of Cheerios strode into the gym, preparing to begin cheer practice when she saw a group of unexpected bodies along with the football players, cheerleaders, and P.E. students. As she got closer she saw a familiar looking wheelchair, its occupant and those who were with him.

She and the others increased their stride and approached the group.

The boy in the wheelchair turned to face them and smiled when he recognized her.

“Hi Kitty,” he greeted her with a smile.

That is until he saw the look on her face and the tone of her voice as she said, “What the hell are you doing here?”

It was him. The guy who had taken her heart, broken it, and then wheeled out of her life.

She felt all of the pent up emotions that she had buried deep inside begin to surface. She struggled to control her facial expressions as she began to re-suppress those feelings. She was Kitty Wilde, the meanest bitch in the school, and she had to remain strong in front of her squad and the others.

“Returning to the scene of the crime, Crippi Longstocking,” she asked. “Did you wash out of film school?”

He seemed genuinely taken aback by her words and attitude. Good. Let him experience a taste of what she’d gone through for the last year and a half.

“We’re here to help Rachel recruit members for a new glee club,” Brittany Pierce, one of the others in the group answered. She also recognized her former idol, Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez.

“And no, Kitty,” her former lover answered, “I’m actually on a break from the Brooklyn Film Academy.” Then he added, “Nice to see you too,” in a sarcastic tone, which she ignored.

“Principal Sylvester will never allow that,” Kitty told the older woman, ignoring her former lovers response.

“She doesn’t have a choice,” Quinn chimed in. “Rachel went over her head to the Lima School Superintendent, and agreed to pay for it out of her own pocket.”

Kitty took this in stride, and didn’t hesitate to lash back. “I don’t know what you were all told, but the superintendent can not give you permission to waste my cheer practice time, and that’s what you are doing right now.”

To the squad she said, “Get into formation or you get laps,” and every member of the Cheerleading squad dashed off to their positions. The other jocks suddenly found that they also had other things they needed to do and scattered.

Good. Fear was a powerful motivator.

So Rachel thought she could form a new glee club. There was no way that was happening if there was anything she could do about it. She would not let any of her classmates get suckered into that mess the way she had been.

# # # #

Artie just sat there mystified when Kitty turned back to her squad and the alumni began talking amongst themselves. Yeah, they had broken up when he graduated, but it had been mutual. He didn’t understand why she was so upset.

But one thing was for sure. She still had the same fire that he remembered and fell in love with. Seeing her now, the old feelings began coming back.

“That went well,” Brittany said.

“Didn’t you used to date her?” Quinn asked Artie.

“Yes,” Artie answered. “Until graduation.”

“Always knew she was a stone cold bitch,” Santana chimed in.

“Actually, I want her back,” he told them.

Santana gave him the, ‘are you crazy’ look.

“Let’s go find Sam,” Brittany suggested. “Maybe he can help us with recruitment,” and lead them out of the gym.

# # # #

Sure enough Assistant Football Coach Sam Evans and Head Coach Shannon Beiste were more accommodating when it came to allowing them to recruit from amongst the jocks. They were invited to talk to the group at the beginning of football practice and to observe and talk to whomever they wanted.

Artie really tried to get into it because he promised Rachel, but he was distracted and his heart wasn’t in it. He’d forgotten how much he missed Kitty until she was standing right there five feet away from her. It had been a year and a half since he’d seen her. She still had her fire and trademark snark, which had its bite back, but she was the same old a Kitty whom he’d fallen in love with. He couldn’t get her out of his mind and knew he had to talk to her alone if he was going to get through to her and find out what was going on.

# # # #

When Kitty met with Principal Sylvester, she confirmed what Quinn had said, that Rachel was allowed to reboot the glee club as long as she paid any expenses herself and the club did not interfere with classes and the other programs at the school. Further, Sue was forbidden from interfering with the club. However, she hinted, she could not be held responsible for what the other students did. Kitty nodded, getting the implication.

# # # #

The next day Artie approached Kitty at the same locker she’d occupied when he’d attended school there, which while only a year and a half ago, seemed like weeks.

“What the hell do you want now?” She asked, not even trying to mask the irritation in her voice.

“I thought we should talk,” he told her.

“I’m not letting you recruit from my squad.”

“I meant about us…”

“There hasn’t been an ‘us’ since you rolled out of my life, Artie,” she told him, her eyes focussed on the contents of her locker.

“There will always be an us,” he told her in that calm soothing voice of his, looking at her until she involuntarily met his gaze.

Their eyes locks on each other for what seemed like an eternity until she forcibly broke his gaze and began walking down the hall and he followed.

No. She wasn’t going to have this conversation with him.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting, Kitty,” he told her. “But this isn’t you.”

“How the hell do you know who I am!?” She instinctively blurted out.

Okay, maybe she was.

“I know you better than probably anyone else in this world,” he told her. “We spent all those hours together practicing for glee, that time after the school shooting, and countless hours when we were dating.”

“Things change,” she responded with venom in her voice, “and so do people. That was a very long time ago!”

“Not in the ways that matter,” he told her in that same calm voice. Did he know how it affected her?

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t change yourself!” She accused him. “When we started dating, you’d invested so much energy into winning my heart that I thought you wanted me forever.”

“I did…I do!” he continued, in that same, calm soothing voice. Oh God! Did he know how much it affected her? No! She had to remain strong.

“Then why did we break up?” she asked simply.

“I thought you were okay with the breakup?” He told her, mystified, and then added quieter, “You know I would have done long distance.”

“I was okay with it,” she told him. “but that doesn’t mean it’s what I wanted.”

“I’m confused,” he said.

“But we both knew that it would never have worked. We saw plenty of evidence of that from seeing what happened with the other glee alumni.”

“They already had their issues, that were just made worse by the distance. You and I didn’t seem to have any issues. I love you and I thought you loved me-”

No. She wasn’t going to be drawn back into the past.

“I was perfectly fine with the breakup,” she reiterated forcibly, “What I was not okay with was you and all of the rest of my so called friends walking out of my life completely. Now if you’ll excuse me…?”

She ducked into the girls locker room.

He exhaled in frustration.

Quinn, and Brittany approached from where they had witnessing most of the conversation. Quinn hugged him and said, “I’m sorry Artie.”

But Artie was more determined than ever.

# # # #

A little while later, When Kitty strode out of the locked room into the gym, Artie was waiting for her. He was determined to make her listen.

“Kitty, I don’t understand why you are so determined to give up on what we had,” he told her.

She turned to face her former lover, looked him in the eye and with a straight face said, “Dating you and joining glee club was the WORST mistake of my life. I thought I loved you, but I was wrong. It cost me everything that mattered. We had nothing. You need to let this go.”

He sat there stunned. He didn’t know what to say.

She took advantage of his shock to move past him to where her squad was waiting.

Artie sat there in shock for several more minutes. He couldn’t believe she felt that way. He thought that if he were persistent enough that he would get through to her. She’d always been a bit snarky, but she’d never been that mean to him before. He felt the tears well in his eyes but fought them back. Maybe he really was wrong about her?

# # # #

Santana overheard the conversation between Kitty and Artie from where she was talking to two sophomore twin Cheerios off to the side of the gym.

She had never liked Kitty, but for some reason that she didn’t understand, Artie loved her. That bitch needed to shut up and listen to him.

# # # #

Artie rolled around the school in a daze, trying to help with recruitment but having trouble concentrating. When he and that others went to lunch he barely touched his food, claiming that he wasn’t hungry. Several times he lost track of the conversation. This wasn’t something that escaped his friends’ attention, and they decided to take matters into their own hands.

# # # #

Later that day, Quinn, Brittany, and Santana caught up with Kitty in the gym. They had donned Cheerios Alumni uniforms.

“If you think you’re going to get me to allow you to recruit my cheerleaders by appealing to me because you’re a former captain and I used to idolize you, think again. That was a long time ago, and I’ve grown up.” Kitty told her former mentor.

“You’re half right,” Quinn told her. “It has been a long time, but you haven’t grown up one bit.”

Kitty gave her an evil glare. “Says the woman who is dating the same guy who knocked her up in high school.”

Quinn ignored the jab and continued.

“We’re not here to talk about recruitment. The superintendent has given us his support to start glee again, and we will recruit whom we see fit. But we will respect you enough to not do it on your time.” Quinn told her.

“We actually came to talk to you about Artie,” Brittany told her.

“He still loves you, you know?” Quinn added.

Kitty rolled her eyes. Why were they getting involved in a private matter?

“What’s your angle, Kitty?” Santana demanded, losing patience.

“Excuse me?” Kitty asked with a sassy, ‘what’s your problem’ attitude.

“You like to play the big evil bitch, but I’m better at it than you, so cut the crap. The whole Bitch Cheerleader is so 2012. We had that market cornered back then. I’m the queen of mean, and even I didn’t treat sweet guys like Artie the way you have been since we got back. He’s obviously still loves you! Although, for the life of me I don’t know why!”

“I highly doubt that!” she shot back. “And why do you even care?”

“Because he’s my friend. And because of that I have love for him, even if I don’t often show it. ”

“There is no way he loved me the way you said. If he really ever loved me to begin with he would never have abandoned me when he went to college.”

“Yes he did,” Sam Evans, who happened to be talking to one of his football players nearby, chimed in. “Look, Kitty, I know we were never really that close when we were in Glee together, but I saw what you guys had, and saw what he went through after the breakup, and I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve never seen him so happy as he was with you, or as devastated as he was after you broke up and he moved to New York.”

“Whatever, ” Kitty retorted, rolling her eyes.

“Look,” Quinn told her, “he still loves you, and even if your feelings have changed, you should hear him out.”

“I have nothing more to say to him, I already told him-”

“-You’re mad because he moved on with his life after you broke up?”

“I’m mad because he completely abandoned and ignored me after we broke up!”

“Seriously, Kitty,” Sam said. “When the bunch of us moved in to Rachel and Kurt’s apartment in New York, we were in very tight space, and our bedroom walls were sheets. I’m not kidding. It was very hard to keep secrets from each other. The guy was despondent without you for over a month. And now seeing you again he’s beginning to show all the same signs. Trust me, he loves you.”

“Please think about it,” Quinn appealed to her, and the three of them walked off.

Kitty exhaled deeply.

# # # # #

That evening Kitty lay awake trying to forget the long buried feelings his presence was digging up. Was it possible they were right? No. His actions spoke volumes. If he really felt that way, he would not have agreed to the breakup, or would have come rolling back long before this.

On an impulse she’d dug out a photo album from her sophomore year that she kept buried in the back of a drawer, hoping to find rationalization for her anger, and justification for the belief that it had all been a mistake, but all it did was remind her of the good times.

The songs they had sung, the dances they had danced, the countless hours of rehearsal, competitions, and the time they had just been together.

She tried to remain bitter, but the more she thought about it the less bitter her feelings become and the stronger her feelings of sadness over lost love became. Damn him!

She stopped at the picture of the two of them taken at prom before she had given her dress to Tina because hers had been ruined by the plot of her nemesis Bree.

She had never felt so loved and accepted as she had that night, the night that they had made love for the first time. She’d loved him so much, and it had been the best night of her life.

The day that they had broken up, a few months later, had been the worst.

And today she had been meaner to him than she’d ever been before! Even when she’d been at her meanest during sophomore year she’d always taken it easy on him. She couldn’t believe what she’d done!

Her face flushed, the tears flowed, and she began to ball her eyes our. Her entire body shook in anguish for over an hour. The walls that she had spent so long building finally collapsed. By the time she had stopped crying and was physically and emotionally exhausted enough to sleep, she knew that she had to talk to him.

# # # #

The next morning, Kitty sent Artie a simple text.

You know where to meet me. 4:00 PM – alone.

She knew that Artie would know exactly where she wanted him to meet her. The astronomy classroom was the place that they had gone when they wanted to be alone when they had been dating. It had been there meeting place when they had started their secret relationship, and they’d continued to use it for makeout sessions after they went public. It was where they’d shared their first real kiss. It had the benefit of being out of the way on the top level of the school, and only being used a couple periods a day. Glee Club had used it for rehearsal space when they broke up into smaller groups for that same reason.

She arrived about fifteen minutes early, and took her usual spot on top of the table in the back row, leaving the lights off. She still didn’t know what she was going to say to him. But no matter how much she tried to suppress and deny it, she still had feelings for him. She didn’t know if it would ever be possible to completely forgive him, but they needed to talk alone without the prying eyes and pressures of their respective social classes getting in the way.

She sat there in the dark and quiet classroom, alone with her thoughts until she saw the silhouette of his chair wheel through the door. As usual he locked the door behind him and left the lights out. He wheeled over next to where she was sitting, but unlike usual she didn’t slide off of the table into his lap.

“Hey,” he greeted her tentatively

“Hey,” she answered back, also tentatively.

Their eyes didn’t meet.

“I’ve been going through my head trying to figure out all of the things that I wanted to tell you, and now that I’m here, I am drawing a blank as to where to begin.”

She nodded. “I’m not sure what to say either.”

“I think I’m going to start with, I love you.”

“As much as I’ve tried to tell myself otherwise, I still love you too,” she sniffled. “I think that’s why this is so hard. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to take you back or forgive you.”

“I never stopped loving you, Kitty. I’m not really sure why you think I did. I didn’t really want to break up in the first place. I only did it because I thought you wanted it.”

“Why would you think that?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, for one thing,” he began. “You said from the beginning that our relationship was probably as doomed as all the others that started in Glee.”

“That’s not necessarily the case though,” she venture. “Look at Kurt and Blaine.”

“Kurt dumped Blaine several months ago, because he thought they were too young to be engaged,” he informed her.

“Oh,” was all she could say. She was truly taken aback by this news. Why didn’t they just stay together not engaged, rather than break up?

“Then there was the fact that the closer we got to graduation and summer, the more distant you seemed to become.”

She nodded, “It was killing me that the time was coming when I wouldn’t see you every day. I think maybe I was trying to cushion the impact of that. I’m sorry if that hurt you.”

“I think it confused me more than anything,” he responded. “I thought we had something really special, and I know I’ve said it before, but I would not have gotten into the Brooklyn Film Academy without you, and it just doesn’t seem fair that the consequence of going off and pursuing my dream is losing the woman I love.”

“We did, and it didn’t have to.”

“Then why did you let me think it’s what you wanted?”

“Because, Artie,” she told him, tears welling in her eyes, “You were supposed to fight for me!”

“What? ”

“You know about my past. You know more than anyone about my insecurities. There was hardly a day that deep down inside, I didn’t question my worthiness to be with you. Did you know that?”

He didn’t. He thought it was the other way around. He shook his head no.

“But,” she continued, “you perused getting close to me for months before I let you in. When I finally decided to be with you openly, it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done because it gave you the power to hurt me, something I’ve been scared to death to do ever since I was betrayed by my best friend Julie.

“When we talked about breaking up, I expected you to fight for me – you were supposed to fight for me! That’s why I’m so upset! You didn’t fight for me, and it made me feel like you didn’t care!”

“Of course I cared!”

“It didn’t feel like it! None of you fought for Glee Club because you were leaving, and you didn’t fight for me!”

“Kitty, I cared. I love you!” He plead.

“Well you didn’t act like it at the time, and it made me feel like crap,” she told him.

Her gaze finally met his and their eyes met. Then she paused for a moment, unsure of whether or not she should continue, before she hesitantly added, “The worst part is, Artie, as much as I’ve tried to deny it, tried to convince myself otherwise, its been tearing me up inside for a year and a half, I never stopped loving you and I always will!” Her face flushed, and tears filled her eyes.

He rolled closed and reached out, inviting her into his lap, which she slid off the table into.

He put his arms around her and held her close, laying her head on his shoulder. She had forgotten how comforting his arms were.

“I cared then, and I care now,” he told her.

She cried on his shoulder for several minutes as he put his arms around her and rubbed her back and shoulder to try to comfort her until she stopped crying.

“What happened to you Kitty?” He asked her in his soothing tone of voice. “I thought you had outgrown the whole bitch cheerleader routine.”

She sniffed and he wiped away her tears.

“McKinley High is a very different place now, Artie. After Principal Sue canceled Glee she wasted no time in removing the last remaining parts of the club. Two weeks after you left, Marley’s mom got a letter informing her that her services in the cafeteria we’re no longer needed.

“Sue fired Millie?” Artie asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Kitty answered. “She came up with some bullshit excuse, but we all knew it was really a thinly veiled way to hurt Marley, who had to transfer to another school when her mom got a different job outside the district.”

“That’s terrible!” Artie said.

Kitty noded and continued for story. “By fall, she had completely emptied the choir room, sold all the instruments, fired Brad, and turned the whole thing into a computer lab, just as she said she would.

“At one of the first couple football practices of the year, there was some kind of accident. I don’t know the specifics because I wasn’t there, but apparently a football that Ryder kicked did some significant damage to Principal Sue’s LeCar. She was so furious! In addition to making his family pay to get it fixed, she used it as an excuse to expel him.

“Then she caught Bree and Jake having sex under the bleachers one afternoon and expelled them on the spot as well.”

“She expelled Bree?” Artie asked in disbelief. “I thought she liked Bree?”

“So did I,” Kitty said. “And so did Bree. But she really wasn’t a very good Cheerleading captain, and didn’t do as well as she hoped at torturing us in the glee club.

“Some of the football players and cheerleaders continued to make it their life’s ambition to torture Unique and Sue refused to do anything about it. She also took away her key to the unisex faculty bathroom and forced her to go back to using the boy’s restroom, which still made her uncomfortable. There was no glee club to be her support system and I was preoccupied with my own pain, so by the end of September last year, Unique decided it wasn’t worth it and transferred out as well. I have a feeling that was Sue’s plan all along.

“I was the only former glee club member left.

“You know how sensitive I am to being judged. Glee club was like a sanctuary for me. It was the one place in this God forsaken school that I didn’t have to worry about that, as long as I was myself. With that gone I felt as if everyone was judging me.

“Sue made sure to take every opportunity to remind everyone that Glee club were losers and disbanded in disgrace. With everybody else from Glee gone, I didn’t even have my friends to help support me, so I put up my old defenses and withdrew into myself.

“So the following Monday I was summoned to the principal’s office. Sue pretended to be concerned about how withdrawn I was, but really just wanted me to take my old position as Captain of the Cheerios back, but told me I would need to stop being mopey and become strong again. By that time I was so emotionally numb I agreed to what she wanted, and after a few days it became second nature to me. I’ve been this way ever since.

“Mr. Schue stuck it out through the rest of the school year, teaching a history class that he hated. Sue made him keep the old office to rub it in his face every day they she had won and cancelled glee. But when his son was born he snapped out of the daze and finally took the job at Carmel High that they’d been after him to take. Mrs. Pillsbury went with him, of course.”

“I’m sorry it’s been so hard on you,” Artie said, squeezing her toward him and kissing her forehead.

“Why did you stop calling and messaging me?” She asks.

“Well, when I heard about you and Ryder-” he began.

“-What about me and Ryder?” She demanded.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “I know the two of you dated.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard you and he went out after I left,” he told her.

“Who told you that?” She demanded.

“I don’t remember,” he lied. It had been Marley, but he didn’t want to cause conflict between the two friends if they ever saw each other again.

“What is it with people thinking I liked Ryder?” She asked exasperated. “First getting the wrong idea after I took him to dinner after he told us all about the incident with his babysitter, and now this?

“Look,” she continued. “Ryder and I are just friends. I took him to dinner after what he told us because I wanted him to know that there was someone who actually understood what he went through, without exposing my own experience to the whole club.

“Yes, a couple weeks after you left, he and I did go out to dinner – AS FRIENDS – because he was having a hard time accepting that Marley needed her space after the whole Jake betrayal. We spent the entire time talking about how hard it was for him to see her hurting and not being able to get close to her. He really did love her. And the rest of the time he listened to me pine over how much I already missed you!

“I could never feel for him- or for that matter anyone – how I feel for you,” she reassured him.

“Wow,” he responded. “I thought that you had moved on, and hadn’t been honest and told me about it…. I couldn’t bring myself to ask you about it …. The thought of the two of you together made me depressed and sick to my stomach for days …. I moped around for weeks after that…”

“I know,” she said. “Sam told me yesterday. I really had no idea. I thought that it was just a case of out of sight, out of mind, and you’d moved on… ”

He shook his head, and squeezed her closer. “I eventually tried to, but was never successful because no one compared to you….”

They just sat there holding each other for another 20 minutes or so, letting the things that were said sink in.

“So where does this leave us?” she asked him, finally breaking the silence.

“I don’t know,” he told her. “But I do know that I want you back, and will do whatever it takes to regain your trust and keep it. I’m never letting you go again.” He wrapped his arms around her waist to prove his point.

“I’ll stay here in Lima with you until you graduated if that’s what it will take to get you back,” he continued.

“You’d actually do that?”

“I would have done that a year and a half ago if I thought that’s what you wanted. ”

“You would really have given up your dream for me?” she asked, mystified. “Even after I went to all of that trouble to get you to accept your admission in the first place?”

“Well hopefully it would just have been postponed,” he answered, “but yes if necessary.

“You still don’t get it. No matter what else happens in our lives, no matter wherever life takes us, you and I are endgame. We complete each other and are meant to be together. You know it and I know it. We both need to never forget that.”

Their eyes locked.

“I love you so much, Artie Abrams!” She told him.

“I love you too, Kitty Wilde,” he told her.

Their heads moved closer to eachother and they shared a passionate kiss.

# * # * #

End Notes:

By now, you may be wondering what parts of the story are mine and what are legitimate spoilers. The following are the spoilers that were known when the story was written that I refer to in the story:

Rachel’s TV show bombs and is quickly cancelled. The fallout renders her Hollywood career dead in the water. Having already burned her bridges on Broadway, she has nowhere to go. She ends up moving back home. Still dismayed that Principal Sue disbanded the Glee Club, she goes above her head to the superintendent of Lima Public Schools. She convinces him to revive the McKinley Glee Club by offering to fund it with her remaining TV money.

The Klaine breskup is real, though it may or may not be permanent

Kitty Wilde makes her first appearance in episode 2: Homecoming (when this story is set). She’s the head bitch in command and very bitter about how she was treated by the Glee grads and by Artie when he left for college. We don’t know how big a part she plays in season 6, but she’s apparently recurring. We know she also has at least a couple scenes in episode 5 The Hurt Locker, pt 2 between she and Rachel, and most likely other scenes.

Sue forced the rest of the Glee club newbies to transfer out of McKinley, after she disbanded the club. This is real, but the ressons are mine.

Rachel recruited her old clubmates and friends to help her recruit new Glee Club members. Artie, Brittany, Quinn, and Santana recruit the cheerleaders. Mercedes, Puck, Quinn, Sam, and Tina attempt to recruit amongst McKinley’s Christian tea party

Regarding the Kitty/Artie breakup, this story assumes some different things than my other stuff, so let me remind you once again that THIS STORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OTHER STORIES regardless of how some things may remind you of parts of them. I didn’t write their breakup scene, but for the purpose of this story, I imagine it went something similar to the one in this story. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9630908/45/Glee-The-New-York-Story on the surface very agreeable, but you know there is more going on inside their heads and hearts.

I hope you enjoyed the story, and as always favorite (if so inclined) and review.

Glee: Passion is Wonder-ful

By Wilde Abrams

Author’s Notes: The 21st episode of season 4 (“Wonder-ful”) is one of the most important pieces in for canonical WildeAbrams story arc on Glee. The following was originally written to be included as a chapter in my story The Ballad of Kitty And Artie, which, while outlined, is not being written in sequence. One of the perils of writing something like this piecemeal like this is that sometimes you need to make changes to later chapters to make them fit with the overall story arc. Normally I am okay with this, but in this case, I am really proud of how this version came out. So rather than scrap it, I made a couple small modifications and decided to release it as a standalone story. Consider this a sneak preview of what is to come… Enjoy!

###

Wonderful

On the day that Mr Schue announced that Rachel Berry had gotten a call back for Funny Girl, and that they would be doing a Stevie Wonder tribute week, Kitty could not help notice that Artie wasn’t himself and she decided that she needed to find out why.

The bell rang, and he was one of the first people out of the room. Kitty followed him out.

“Hey Cripi Longstocking, wait up?”

He stopped, turned around, and retorted “You know what? That’s offensive!”

Yeah, something was definitely bothering him. He wasn’t usually so defensive.

“Aw, boo-hoo! I have a disability too. My disability is I can’t tell when something’s offensive…. and for you to point that out is bullying. Care to share what you’re so depressed about?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about!”

“Nice try, liar!” she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. “You’re depressed and I know why. When the girls were performing during Guilty Pleasures week, you used those googly, thyroid-conditioned eyeballs of yours and oggled me like I was Taiwanese streetwalker…. Well I regret to inform you that you will never be climbing all up on THIS.” she gestured seductively to her body.

That got his attention. “Actually that’s not what I was upset about…. but thank you for giving me something else to make me depressed–”

That confirmed it. He WAS attracted to her as she’d always suspected.

“Aha!” She exclaimed, “I knew you were depressed about something!”

Finally he took a deep breath and relented, “Yesterday when I got home there was an envelope waiting for me; and inside was the news that I got accepted into the Brooklyn Film Academy.”

“Wait, are you serious?” she replied, smiling, serious for a moment.

“Yes I actually am.. But you know what? I’m not going”

“Why?”she asked in disbelief.

“Believe it or not I DON’T want to talk about it, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.”

She watched him roll away, curiosity piqued. She turned away smiling as the bell rang. She was going to get to the bottom of this.

*/*/*

Later that day she Googled the Brooklyn Film Academy. She spent her entire free hour combing over their website along with online reviews and students testimonials. She didn’t find anything that would make someone not want to go there. By all accounts it was an excellent school. There was more to this than met the eye, and she was going to find out what it was.

As she headed of lunch, she saw Jake and Ryder chatting by Jake’s locked, and approached them.

“Hey, I had an idea for our Glee Club assignment and was wondering if the two of you were free after school to help me out?”

They both stared at her in disbelief, as she had never been the one to initiate something like this with the two of them before, at least not so directly. Jake looked at Ryder and Ryder looked at Jake. Finally Ryder broke the silence and answered, “sure.”

“Good,” she told them with a smile. “Meet me in the choir room at 3:30… And keep this under your hats. I want it to be a surprise, it will make sense why when we perform it.”

“Okay,” Jake said, still a little confused. Kitty had been acting differently, surprising them ever since that school shooting. Hopefully the trend would continue.

*/*/*

That afternoon Kitty ordered pizza and the three of them rehearsed the routine she wanted, though she still didn’t explain what it was about too much, only that it was a surprise for one of their group members, and that they should follow her lead.

This was a case where her years of dance and gymnastics came in very handy. Between that and Jake’s skills they had a complicated routine ready in about four hours.

*/*/*

The next day, Kitty had the surprise ready for everyone. She stood waiting next to the door, communicating with the band as Kurt, Mercedes, and Mike who were visiting entered. As they entered the choir room with smiles on their faces, to a round of applause from the group, Kitty jumped in front of Artie and shouted, “OH, HEY!” And began to dance as the music began to play.

He wheeled past her and entered the classroom, taking his usual spot in the front row. As Artie wheeled in she followed after him with Ryder and Jake in towe. She began to sing “Signed, Sealed and Delivered (I’m Yours)” solo.

The three of them danced around in complicated dance moves to entertain them. Initially she danced in front of the whole group but within a few moments she began to focus on Artie specifically.

But as the song progressed, it became increasingly obvious that this performance was specifically for him although everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. She was dancing and singing to him specifically, as she kept looking at him and did most of her dancing in front of him.

He sat there plain faced and confused. Apparently he was still depressed.

Kitty:
Ohh hey, ohh, yeah baby
Like a fool I went and stayed too long
Now I’m wondering if your love’s still strong

Kitty with New Directions:
Ooo, baby, here I am
Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours!

Kitty:
Mmm, then that time I went and said goodbye
Now I’m back and not ashamed to cry

Kitty with New Directions:
Ooo, baby, here I am
Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours!
(Kitty: Oooh!), Here I am baby (Kitty: Oh)

New Directions (Kitty):
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (You got my future in your hands)
Baby (Haa…)

Kitty with New Directions:
Here I am baby

New Directions (Kitty):
(Haa…) Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (You got my future in your hands)
Baby (Yeah)

Kitty with New Directions vocalizing:
I’ve done a lot of foolish things
That I really didn’t mean,
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, didn’t I? Oh, baby
Seen a lot of things in this old world
When I touch them, they mean nothing, girl

Kitty with New Directions:
Ooo, baby, here I am
Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours!

Kitty:
Oh! I’m yours
Oowee baby, set my soul on fire
That’s why I know you’re my heart’s only desire

Kitty with New Directions:
Ooo, baby, here I am
Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours! (Kitty: Oh!)
Here I am baby (Kitty: Oh…)

New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (Kitty: You got my future in your hands, baby, woah!)
Baby

Kitty with New Directions:
Here I am baby (Kitty: Haa…)

New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (Kitty: You got my future in your hands, baby, yeah)
Baby

Kitty with New Directions vocalizing:
I’ve done a lot of foolish things
That I really didn’t mean
I could be a broken man, oh yeah, ho
What’s your future (New Directions: Here I am, baby)
Got your future baby, ah

New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours, (Kitty: Here I am baby, oh)
Yeah, yeah, baby

Kitty with New Directions:
Here I am baby

Kitty with New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (Kitty: oh, oh, oh, oh)

New Directions:
Baby
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours, baby (Kitty: Here I am baby)

Kitty with New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours, baby (Kitty: oh, oh, yeah, oh, oh)

New Directions:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, (Kitty: Here I am)

Kitty with New Directions vocalizing:
That I really didn’t mean
I could be a broken man, oh

Kitty (with New Directions):
I’m (yours)

Her attention was on him almost the entire song, she danced seductively in front of him at one point almost crawling up onto his lap and the guys lifted her up by the legs and carried her over Aetie’s head. His eyes bugged out as he was treated to an unexpected panty shot, and everyone in the room reacted with surprise. Artie got a front row view under her skirt before the guys set her down on a chair behind him. Artie turned around and wheeled backwards. They guys carried Kitty (chair and all) across the room and sat her down in front of Artie when he was stopped by the piano as she finished the song.

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered!” She rose to her feet with a grin on her face (Ryder returning the chair to it’s previous location), “Seems like the perfect Stevie song to celebrate Artie getting his acceptance letter into film school.”

Applause erupted from the room.

“All Right!,” Mr Schu cheered.

Mercedes, who had been sitting in the back of the room, a disapproving look on her face, chose that moment to kill the celebratory mood. “Well you know, that may have been the perfect song…. but that performance was just one package that I’m not signing for.

“I mean, honestly, it was good… But you have to be GREAT for Regionals.”

Kitty didn’t miss a beat before she retorted back, “Yeah, clearly we should be taking our advice from someone who came crawling back to Ohio, after apparently having her L.A. dreams shattered. Did you learn your new lyrics yet? (Singing in a sassy run) “Do you want friiiiieeeeeessss with that?”

“Well maybe,” Mercedes sassed back, “if you put some of that sass into your performance, your teacher wouldn’t have begged me to come here and be your new vocal coach!”

Kitty was taken aback by this news and struggled to control her facial expression. Who was she to be giving her performance tips?

“Mercedes,” Mr Schu added, “is one of the strongest vocalists in McKinley Glee Club history!”

That’s who.

Kitty felt her face begin to twitch as she struggled to control her expression. She would not let herself show how she was really feeling.

“So get on point, Kitty,” Kurt added his voice to the little bash Kitty parade, “Your little theory about Mercedes’s shattered dreams, like most of the garbage that comes out of your mouth, is wrong. Mercedes is back because she has an album coming out, all about home. and she’s back to film a video for it.”

*/*/*

Artie sat there uncomfortably, and glanced in Kitty’s direction and couldn’t help notice that as she just stood and took this in, the movement of her facial muscles made it very clear that she was trying to not to show how upset she was. Was she about to cry?

Why was Mercedes doing that to her?

“Wow, Mercedes, that’s awesome!” Sam cheered.

“And,” Mike chang injected, “Mr Schue asked me to help choreograph for Regionals.”

This last bit didn’t sit well with Tina.

“I love you Mike,” Tina chimed in. “I Love all of my exes, but this is not “Wonder-ful” news! It’s shocking news! Now we need some guy to help is dance? Hashtag GleeHatsGirls.

“And what are you here to lecture us on, Kurt? Our terrible taste in clothes?”

“My dad has cancer.”

Whole the room was silent.

“Thanks Tina!” Blaine attacked.

Mercedes saved Tina from further attack by calling them back to the matter at hand, Kitty was once again banished to the back of the room and Marley called up to take lead vocal.

Life just wasn’t fair.

*/*/*

After the bell rang, Artie rolled out of the room and once again Kitty darted after him.

“Artie-”

“I told you not to say anything!”

“Come on,” she defended, “I just gave you a big shout out in the choir room because you have a LOT to be proud of!”

“I’m not going,” he retorted, “so I have nothing to be proud of Kitty. Thank you for the effort though!”

“Isn’t a big film school, like, your dream or something?”

She put her hand on his shoulder. “Tap the breaks buddy!”

He finally stopped and turned to face her, a concerned look in his eyes.

“My mom is freaking out. She’s taken care of me my whole life, and it’s scary for her to think of me in the big city all alone. New York isn’t exactly wheel friendly unless you’re a bike messenger.

“And why are you being so nice? Why do you even care?”

“Duh,” she responded, “I’m trying to be wonderful. I like to switch it up. Sometimes I am sweet. Sometimes I’m sour. Keeps it interesting.”

The truth was, Kitty wasn’t completely sure herself. She just felt compelled to help him for some reason.

“Besides,” she continued, softening, “I know how important you are to your mom, but you’d be amazing in film school.

“Just think about it.”

The bell rang and she walked off.

*/*/*

Kitty went to her locker and switched out her books. On her way to her next class she stopped by the bathroom. After she did her business, she just sat there thinking about her day and for some reason that she didn’t understand, she felt her tears begin to flow.

What the hell was wrong with her! She was Kitty Wilde, the strongest, meanest bitch in the school. Nothing was supposed to get to her.

She must have let out some audible sobs because she heard a voice from the other side of the stall door. “Kitty is that you?”

It was Marley. Oh great!

“What do you want?” She asked. Her voice shaking.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?” She asked, bitterly

“About Mercedes being a total birch it you in there,” Marley answered. “I for one think you did an amazing job with that song.”

Kitty stood up and open the stall door and asked, “You really think so?”

She could see from the mirror across the room that her face was red. She stepped out of stall and moved over to the sink and splashed some water on her face. Dam it was redder than she thought. She would need to use some cover up. At least it wasn’t puffy yet.

“For what it’s worth,” Marley continued, “so does pretty everyone else. She’s entitled to her opinion I guess, but she didn’t have to call you out in front of everyone like that.”

“Yeah,” Kitty told her friend, “I’m not even sure why I let it bother me.”

“It’s pretty obvious that you put a lot of work into it.”

She hugged Kitty’s shoulder.

Kitty smiled. “Thanks.”

“Do you know what else is obvious?” She asked playfully.

“What?”

“How much you like Artie,” she grinned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kitty said with a straight face.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

Marley grinned and left Kitty alone with her thoughts.

*/*/*

The next day in glee they were the rehearsing in the auditorium. The three graduates we’re back again, and Sam introduced everything by saying, “Alright everybody, let’s give it up for Island Beach recording artist extraordinaire… Mercedes Jones.”

The group cheered and applauded. Mercedes smiled with a broad grin. Then she took a little bow.

“Alright, alright, I know that Kurt is going through a lot this week, but in spite of that we are all very happy to be here. As you may remember, we saw you guys at sectionals. And there’s a reason you guys lost. Fear.

“For instance, Marley. You have got killer vocals, homegirl… So why is it that I’ve never heard you do a Mercedes Jones style vocal run?”

“I don’t know,” she answered. “I-I guess I’ve just been too scared to try -”

“-Yeah, exactly. You’ve got to belt it out! And you’re probably afraid that when you do, I’m gonna test your breath control by hitting in the solar plexus with this maraca.” she told her picking up a maraca, and shaking it in the air for emphasis.

“Alright,” she told the band. “Give this girl a note to do a little runnin’ with.”

They played a chord and Marley belted out, “Ooohhhh!”

But when Mercedes followed through on her threat, she totally lost her breath, grunted, and she along with everyone else laughed.

Mercedes put her hand on Marley’s shoulder for moral support as she continued to hold her hand over her mouth to try to stifle the laughter.

“See? If you had better breath control, you could probably hold that note every time.

“Alright, floppy-headed bass player, why don’t you give us a little bit of that spooky, Stevie Wonder bass line to get us moving?”

The music began to play, and she addressed the whole group. “And all of y’all need to shake out your nerves and stop being so scared – and that includes you, Kurt. I know what you’re going through, and this ones for you, baby. And Marley, I want to hear those high notes, and don’t be stingy with those runs.”

The music began to play the Stevie Wonder song Superstition.

Mercedes:
Very superstitious, writings on the wall
Very superstitious!
Ladders ’bout to fall

Mercedes with Kurt, Mike, and New Directions harmonizing:
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass, yeah
Seven years of bad luck, yeah, the good things in your past
Oh
When you believe in things that you don’t understand (Marley: Don’t understand!)
Then you suffer
Superstition ain’t the way

Marley:
Hey, yeah!

Blaine:
Ooo, very superstitious, wash your face and hand
Rid me of the problems, do all that you can

Blaine with Kurt, Mike, and New Directions harmonizing (with Mercedes):
Keep me in a daydream
Keep me goin’ strong
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song
When you believe in things (Mercedes: that you) (don’t understand)
Then you suffer (Mercedes: Then you suffer)
Superstition ain’t the way, yeah, yeah, hey, hey

Marley:
Oooooh!

Mercedes:
Hey, yea!

Marley:
Oh Yeah…

Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say
Very superstitious!
The devil’s on his way

Marley with Kurt, Mike, and New Directions harmonizing:
Thirteen month old baby! Mmm,
Broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past
Oh, whoa!

When you believe in things you don’t understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain’t the way!

Mercedes with Kurt, Mike, and New Directions harmonizing:
No, no, no, no, no!
When you believe in things that you don’t understand
Then you suffer!

Blaine, Marley, and Mercedes:
Superstition ain’t the way!

The group began to clap, and Mercedes lead them through the song with Miley singing background runs. Mercedes gestured for Jake and Kitty to get out in front of everyone, and began to dance. Mercedes encouraged Artie to get into it by twirling him in his chair. Blaine took over lead vocal for the second verse. Halfway through the verse he also got into the act with Artie. Next Marley took over lead vocals and Mercedes took over doing the runs. Finally the two ladies finished off the song and gave each other a hug.

Everyone applauded. Even Kitty, who had been slow to warm up because she was still upset with Mercedes, was all smiles by the end of the song.

*/*/*

Kurt’s dad got his test results back and found out his cancer was in remission. The next day Kurt was so relieved that he asked his dad to come to glee practice. The last time he’d sung a song in glee and dedicated it to him, he was in the hospital after a heart attack. While Kurt sang You Are The Sunshine of my life, Kitty, Marley, and Tina danced around him. They danced around Burt and drug him up to dance with them during the last verse. Kitty didn’t really feel like doing Kurt any favors after the way he had mouthed off to him earlier in the week, but she told herself it wasn’t for Kurt, it was for his dad, Burt, and Kurt had been upset about his dad at the time.

She glanced over at Artie, who wasn’t as depressed as before, but still didn’t seem like himself.

*/*/*

Mike Chang got up in front of the glee club and said, “Since this week is about wonder-ful things, I wasn’t to celebrate a wonderful talent. He’s new to glee club this year, but I think if we all help him with his confidence, he can lead us all the way to nationals.”

Funk music began to play and Sam cautiously rose to his feet and everyone laughed.

“Stop being so modest and get yourself up here, Jake.”

Jake rose to his feet and joined Mike up front for a dance routine. They danced around the room and sang the Stevie song “I Wish.”

Everyone got excited, including Artie. Kitty glanced in the corner and saw how impressed Mr. Schue was. Kitty suppressed another wave of jealousy as another glee club members was featured instead of her.

They danced around the room and when they finished everyone applauded enthusiastically.

“This is gonna work,” Mike told Kurt in the corner. “I just wish Mercedes was here to see it. Where is she?”

Kitty overheard their conversation and thought that she didn’t care where she was. They were finally paying attention to someone besides Marley.

*/*/*

Kitty had Study Hall the last period of her day, so as soon as the last period bell rang, she put her books away in her locker, gathered what she needed to take home and headed for her car. Mr Schue never locked the Glee Club members’ contact card box he had in the choir room, so it was a simple matter to look up Artie’s address. He only lived a few miles away from the school so it only took about 10 minutes to get to the Abrams home.

After parking her car, Kitty took a deep breath, got out and headed toward the door. She rang the bell and a few moments later Nancy Abrams was standing in front of her.

“Hi Mrs. Abrams, my name is Kitty Wilde, I’m a friend of your son’s.”

“Yes, you were in his production of Grease, right?”

“Yes,” Kitty told her. “I am also in Glee Club with him. I’d like to talk to you about something if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” she said. “Won’t you come in?”

Mrs Abrams lead her into the house through the foray into the living room. She gestured to the couch, “Won’t you sit down? Can I offer you something to drink?”

“That’s okay, Mrs Abrams, I’m good,” KItty responded all proper as she sat down.

Nancy Abrams took a seat on the couch next to Kitty, placed her hands on her lap, exhaled, and asked, ”Okay Kitty, what did you want to talk about? I assume it has something to do with Artie?”

“Did you see the envelope that Artie got in the mail the other day?”

“No,” she replied.”But Artie is usually the one to get the mail when he comes home. Why? Was it something important?”

“You could say that.” She answered, mischievous smile on her face. “It was an acceptance letter from the Brooklyn Film Academy.”

“Why that’s wonderful!”

“I agree,” Kitty told her. “So he didn’t tell you?”

“No. The name sounds familiar. It was probably on the list of schools Artie picked off that list Mrs Pillsbury sent home with him last spring.”

“I did some research. It’s one of the best film schools in the country.”

“And it’s in New York so he can be close to his friends Rachel and Kurt…. I don’t understand why he didn’t tell me?” She wondered. “Why did he tell you?”

“I have a way of getting people to tell me things that they don’t intend to,” Kitty said with a mischievous grin. “He didn’t want me to tell anyone else either, and when I pressed him on it he told me that you were upset about it; that you were scared of him being all alone in the big city.”

“Why that’s ridiculous, Artie is all grown up now! He’s handled everything that life has thrown at him, frankly better than I have most of the time. I assume you know about the car accident?” Kitty noded. “He’s been in that chair since he was 8 years old but overall he’s never let it get him down or prevent him from perusing his dreams and interests.”

“I know,” Kitty told her. “He’d probably be embarrassed if he heard me say this, but he’s really an inspiration to all of us in glee club.”

“Any hurdle he tackles, and has since he was a little kid,” Nancy Abrams continued. “It was his idea, to make that ramp over there and to move his bedroom downstairs into what used to be the den, and a lot of other things. He was instrumental in getting handicapped ramps at the high school too. When he started there they only had one.”

Kitty nodded.

“Well I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I thought you should know.” Kitty told her. “Artie is a very talented guy, and it would be a shame for him to ignore his God Given talent. He and Finn co-directed the musical, but it was mostly Artie’s vision that we were playing.”

Just then they heard the door open and Artie toss his keys on the table.

“Mom, I’m home!,” They heard him call out.

“Hi Artie!” Mrs Abrams called out back

Moments later, he rolled down a ramp into the living room with the days mail in his hand.

“Yeah, Hi Artie!”

When he saw Kitty he stopped abruptly, he turned his head slightly, clearly surprised and taken aback by her presence.

“I guess I beat you here,” Kitty told him smiling, “and I guess I beat you to telling your mom about your good news.”

“Honey,’ Mrs Abrams glanced away for a moment, and then met his gaze before asking him. “Why would you hide something like that from me?”

“So much for your lies,” Kitty said, softly. “Your mom is completely onboard with you going to the Brooklyn Film Academy, by the way. I thought you were a lot of things, but I didn’t peg you for a wus.”

She rose to her feet with a ‘my job is done’ look on her face, “I guess you to have a lot to talk about.”

And with that she walked out of the room, out the front door got into her car and drove home.

*/*/*

The next morning Mercedes, Kurt, and Mike walked into the choir room. Mercedes had a determined look on her face.

“Alright, everyone,” Mercedes said.

“-Ah, alright. Come on. Sit down,” Mr. Schue added.

Mercedes put a box down on the piano and turned to face the group.

“So, today’s lesson- well I was gonna say ‘truth.’ But it’s about this crazy-ass business that a lot of us want to get into.”

“If you’re gonna tell us not to even try ’cause it’s too hard-” Tina said.

“No, no, I’m just saying be ready. You know when I graduated, a producer said he wanted to do a CD of my music which, oh,my God, that’s been my dream since before I even sat in this room.

“Turns out he only wanted to do that on his terms. So I had a choice to make. I could do it his way and get there a lot faster, or I could do it my way, and maybe never – never even make it.

“So I talked to my parents and friends, and I made a decision. So, I don’t have a record deal anymore.” Mike and Kurt began handing out CDs. “But I do have a record, which I’ll be giving to all of you, and selling at a table in front of my church and out of my car, and on Amazon, so, whatever happens, at least I was true to myself.”

“And you will have gotten there by taking – and you know it’s coming -” Mr. Schue added. “-the higher ground. Hit it!”

The band began to play and Mercedes began to sing the Stevie song, “The Higher Ground.” Everyone began clapping and moving along with the song.

Mercedes:
People keep on learnin’
Soldiers keep on warrin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long, no, no, ah, yeah

Powers keep on lyin’
While your people keep on dyin’, alright
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long, oh no, noo

I’m so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach the highest ground, oh, woah, yeah, ho!

Teachers keep on teachin’
Preachers keep on preachin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long
Oh no, alright

Lovers keep on lovin’
Believers keep on believin’, yeah
Sleepers just stop sleepin’
Cause it won’t be too long, ho!
Oh no, yeah

I’m so glad that he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach my highest ground…yeah, oh!
Till I reach my highest ground oh, yeah, no, no
No one’s gonna bring me down
No, no, no, noo!
Till I reach my highest ground, ho! mhm, mhm
Don’t you let nobody bring you down (they’ll sho ’nuff try, ha)
God is gonna show you higher ground

Kitty sat in the back and smiled.

At the end everyone applauded and Mike gave Mercedes a hug.

“Oh she’s back! She’s back! ” Artie exclaimed.

*/*/*

The next morning before Glee practices, Mercedes tapped Kitty on the shoulder. “Can I see you for a moment… In private?”

Naturally Kitty was curious. She had calmed down a lot, but after their encounter a couple days before, she had her guard up, ready to do vocal battle as they exited into one of the wings in the auditorium.

When they were alone, Kitty went on the attack, “More critical judgement of my performing?” She asks all snarky.

She was completely taken aback by what she got in return

“Actually,” Mercedes, told her, “I owe you an apology. While I stand by the point of what I said, I was overly critical, and I should not have singled you out. I’m sorry,”

Kitty stood there stunned for a moment.

“I don’t get it,” Kitty said. “What made you change your mind?”

“Well, part of it was just me thinking about it after the fact, and remembering my own days in Glee; how I felt when Mr. Schue and other well meaning people were critical of me. But mostly it was Artie. He really came you your defense afterword.”

“I don’t get it. I thought he was mad at me.”

“Oh I think he is, and truth be told I think the song itself made him a bit uncomfortable, but I also know that regardless of what you may think, he does think pretty highly of you. Both he and Mr. Schue told me that you’ve grown a lot as a person this year and I have to admit that I was still looking at you as the person who sabotaged Marley in Grease and sectionals.

“That wasn’t fair of me, and the way I approached my criticism, you couldn’t help react the way you did. You’re actually very talented, and probably aren’t getting the recognition you deserve.”

Kitty smiled.

“A bit of womanly advice, though. You don’t need to come on so strong.” Mercedes put her hand on Kitty’s shoulder. “If he’s gonna like you, its gonna be because of you as a person not because of a performance.”

“What is it with people thinking I like him lately? ” Kitty asked all annoyed.

“It’s pretty obvious, Kitty,” she told her. “And for what its worth, you couldn’t do much better than Artie Abrams. I’ve been friends with him for a lot of years, and he’s one of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, guys I know, and one of my very best friends.”

Kitty just stood there and absorbed this as Mercedes went back to the rest of the group.

*/*/*

Later in rehearsal Mercedes belted out a big long run, ” Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeaaaaaaaaah!” To thunderous applause.

“Yes!”

When the applause died down, she addressed everyone. “Alright, let’s review. What are y’all gonna do at regionals?”

“Riff, run, and grunt!” Unique answered.

“Emote!” Marley added.

“Commit!” Ryder added.

“Step up to the plate and embrace our talent,” Jake answered.
“And just like my boo, Miss Mercedes Jones,” Artie finished, wheeling up to the front of the room next to her, “we’re gonna treat every note we sing, and every breath we take with a little something we in the business of show simply call ‘passion’.” He made eye contact with Kitty. “And passion can be a scary thing, but we shouldn’t run or hide from it because passion is — it’s wonderful, yo!”

Kitty smiled back at him.

To the group he said, “Auditorium, 4:00 pm sharp. I got a little jam I’m gonna sing foe y’alls! And you best believe it’s gonna be sung with — say what?”

“Passion!” They all added, most raising to their feet.

Kitty sat in the back, applauding loudest of all and and with the biggest grin anyone has seen on her.

Mission accomplished! She thought.

Artie mouthed “thank you” to her.

“Yes.”

***

That afternoon in the auditorium, Artie and the New Directions were dressed in bright 1970s style yellow, orange, and green outfits. The music began to play and Artie began to sing the Stevie Wonder song “For Once In My Life”. Artie lead the performance with Mercedes, Mike, Kurt, and Will watching.

He kept looking at Kitty, and she at him, leaving no doubt they he was singing the song to and for her, and that she to him. They continued to exchange looks, suggesting a new, stronger relationship between the two.

Artie (New Directions):
For once in my life I have someone who needs me
Someone I’ve needed so long
For once, unafraid, I can go where life leads me
Somehow I know I’ll be strong

For once I can touch what my heart used to dream of
Long before I knew
Whoa, someone warm like you
Would make my dreams come true
Yeah, yeah, yeah
(For once in my life)

For once in my life I won’t let sorrow hurt me
Not like it’s hurt me before (Not like it’s hurt before)
For once, I have something I know won’t desert me
I’m not alone anymore (I’m not alone anymore)

For once, I can say, (Oooh)
This is mine, you can’t take it (Oooh)
As long as I know I have love, I can make it (Oooh)
For once in my life, I have someone who needs me

New Directions:
Someone who needs me!

Artie:
Ha, ha, ha
Hey, yeah

New Directions:
Someone who needs me!

Artie:
Oh baby, love baby

New Directions:
For once in my life…

Someone who needs me

Artie (New Directions):
For once in my life I won’t let sorrow hurt me (For once in my life)
Not like it’s hurt me before (Not like it’s hurt before)
For once, I have something I know won’t desert me (Oooh)
I’m not alone anymore (I’m not alone anymore)

For once, I can say, (Oooh)
This is mine, you can’t take it (Oooh)
As long as I know I have love, I can make it (Oooh)
For once in my life, I have someone who needs me (Someone who needs me!)

Ho, for once in my life

New Directions:
Someone who needs me!
Yeah!

Artie:
Yeah
Somebody that needs me

New Directions:
Someone who needs me
Yeah!

Artie:
Ooh baby,
For once in my life

New Directions (with Artie):
Someone who needs me (Oh baby)
Yeah!

Artie:
For once in my life!

Toward the end of the song, the four in the audience jump on the stage and join the group number.

As the song finished, Kitty dropped into Artie’s lap and they shared a gaze. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Was she that exhausted by the performance or was there more to it she wondered.

Artie gazed right back at her. In all of the times they had sung and danced together, he had never seen or felt her breath so heavily. He’d been telling himself he didn’t have a prayer with her, but Maybe there was a chance afterall.

####

Okay folks, you know the drill. Please review. As of right now I’ve gotten absolutely no feedback on chapter 3 of The Ballad of Kitty and Artie. More than a little disappointed at that. It’s been up several weeks. Kinda losing motivation to continue the story. Make it up to me on this one okay?

In My Arms Again (Somewhere, Somehow)
By WildeAbrams
Author’s notes: The farewell for Kitty and Artie that the producers were too lazy to write and film. If it gets good feedback it will continue and other stories that I have in mind will be written and published. As you can tell from my pen name I am a real fan of this relationship.
###
When Artie graduated he and Kittie were left with a decision as for what to do. She was returning to McKinney in the fall and had two more years before graduation and he was moving to New York to attend the Brooklyn Film Academy. They were still very much in love and didn’t want to break up, but at the same time they feared that they would grow apart and temptation would set in and one would end up cheating on the other. They had seen it happen to Kurt and Blaine and had seen Santana and Brittany grow apart and feel trapped when trying to maintain long distance relationships.
After talking it over for a long time they decided that they would put their relationship on hold. This would not be an actual breakup. They would each be free to see other people if they chose but would not actively seek out other relationships; however, they would be honest with each other about seeing others and agreed that if something substantial developed with someone else they would tell each other before it got serious; and in two years if neither of them were in another serious relationships, they would pick things up again. They also agreed to make sure to spend some time together every time Artie came home and if possible Kitty would come see him in New York a few times to keep each other grounded. It wasn’t the best situation but they figured it was the best they could do under the circumstances.
***
Artie and Kitty were together at the airport. His bags were all packed and she was there to see him off. He’d already said goodbye to his mom, but Kitty insisted on staying with him until the last possible minute before he had to board the plane. She sat in his lap and they just held each other as they waited for the final call for his flight.
The McKinley Glee Club Jazz Ensemble band was visible off in the background and music began to play Somewhere, Somehow..
Artie (singing): Standing in our silence…. I hear my heart beating … and if only I could choose I’d stay here with you, but hold me ‘till the plane is leaving
Kitty (singing): Somewhere down the line…. after you’re gone from sight…. our love will be the same, and whispering your name, I’ll cling to you with all my might…. let me dream
Artie: But it’s true
Kitty: of you
Artie: Love will be there / Kitty: and wake me up
Together: when this is over…. and somewhere … far beyond today … I will find a way to find you … and somehow…. through the lonely nights…. I will leave a light in the dark..
Artie: Let it lead you to my heart!
Artie: There’s a love inside us / Kitty: Deep down inside
Artie: That goes without saying / Kitty: Don’t say a word
Artie: But I’ll tell you just the same
Kitty: and that flame will warm the heart
Together: That’s waiting
Kitty: You are mine
Artie: You are mine
Kitty: and I’ll wait
Artie: It may take / Kitty: For you
Artie: Some time / Kitty: my love
Artie: Tell me you’ll wait / Kitty: Even if it takes a lifetime
Together: And somewhere…. far beyond today…I will find a way to find you… and somehow…. through the lonely nights… I will leave a light in the dark…
Kitty: And somewhere..
Artie: alone / Kitty: Somewhere alone
Kitty: I will be praying
Artie: praying me home / Kitty: you home
Kitty: I know that
Artie: I know that somehow our love / Kitty: Somehow … our love
Together: Our love will lead… me… to… your… arms
Together: And somewhere…. far beyond today…. I will find a way to find you
Together: And somehow…. through the lonely nights… I will leave a light in the dark
Artie: Let it lead you to my heart
Kitty: Let it lead you to my heart
Together: Let it lead you to my heart……!
The music faded.
Their eyes met for several minutes.
The final call for Artie’s flight was called over the intercom
“Well I guess that’s my call,” he said.
“Yeah,” she replied, no pleasure in her voice.
He looked her deeply in her eye and said, “I love you, Kitty.”
“I love you too, Artie,” she told him, holding back the dears.
They exchanged a deep and passionate kiss, and when they were finished she slowly rose to her feet.
Then he slowly began to wheel up the ramp. She held his hand until the last possible moment as his fingers began to slip out of her hand. Their arms outstretched until he went through the door. The door sealed and his was gone.
Kitty remained in that spot for several minutes until she finally lowered her arm and slowly moved back to the row of departure chairs to sit down.
Kitty could feel the tears in her eyes that she had tried desperately to keep from flowing. She had to be strong. She couldn’t show this level of emotion, even to him. Her vision was fuzzy and the tension grew in her face and body which began to turn red.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. It took a moment for her to realize it was Marley.
Without a word, Marley sat down next to Kitty, who turned to face her and buried her face in her one time rival’s chest and let the tears flow. Her entire body shook as she sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until she couldn’t cry anymore.
–30–
That’s all for now, please review weather you liked it or not but if you don’t like it for some reason take a few moments to give constructive feedback –W.A.