Chapter 2: Betty:

Author’s Notes: thank you everyone for that feedback on chapter 1 and my other story: In My Arms Again (Somewhere, Somehow). I promise I am not going to make Artie and Kitty apart for 2 years. I already know how their next encounter is going to go. I just need to set some things up on that McKinley High front first. Besides, the longer they are apart, the more bittersweet their eventual reunion will be.

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Betty Pillsbury wasn’t happy as she rolled down the halls of McKinley high for the second time, the first day of her senior year.

The first time had been two days after the almost wedding of her dad’s sister Emma to one of the teachers who worked with her here at this God Forsaken school, where she was the guidance counselor. The wedding itself hadn’t happened because Emma, who suffered from OCD, had let her nerves get the best of her, and went all “runaway bride” on him. But since the wedding was all paid for by her eccentric ‘ginger supremacist’ grandparents, and lots of people had made the trip from out of town (and in some cases out of state), they all stayed and enjoyed the reception anyway, sans the happy couple, who eventually got back together and had a small private wedding.

At the wedding, she’d met a McKinley student named Artie whom her aunt had intended to set her up with. Their first encounter had been in the church sanctuary, but hadn’t gone very well.

“Hi Betty?”

“Yes? On, God.” This couldn’t be him could it? He’s in a freaking chair! She thought. But instead said, “What? Did I beat you to the last handicap spot? Sorry.”

“I’m Artie. Miss Pillsbury said I should look out for you?” Oh God!

“He’ll no.” This couldn’t be him.

“-uh-”

“No” it just couldn’t.

“-Uh-”

“No. Wheel away.” Her aunt wasn’t that clueless was she?. “Wheel… the hell …. Away. ”

He seemed confused, so she clued him in. “My aunt told me she was fixing me up with someone good-looking. So that was a lie.”

“Oh, I mean some people think I’m kind of nerdy hot so…” He said sheepishly.

“No No No….Andrew Garfield is nerdy hot. You … are Stephen Hawking’s younger brother.”

He finally seemed to be catching on. “Miss Pillsbury didn’t tell you I was in a wheelchair did she?”

“Um, obviously not, because I don’t date losers in chairs.”

“But You’re in a wheelchair. ” still clueless. When was he gonna get it?

“Yeah. I’m also blonde, Captain of the cheerleaders at my hIgh school, and I’ve got this going on.” She touched her massive breasts lifting them up.

She turned and wheels away leaving Artie dejected, hoping that would be the end of it, and began scouting for any other hot, single guys her age who were not in chairs. She’d discouraged his advances the same way she always kept people she didn’t like at arms length by being a total bitch to him, and it seemed to have worked.

But for some reason he was relentless and kept coming back for more verbal abuse. He seemed to feed on her bitchiness. Later at the reception he approached her again.

“Oh my God. Did you do not get it before.?”

“Yeah, I did. More than you know. You’re mean. You’re awful, because you’re angry because you’re in the chair. I understand.”

“Wow! Could you be more reductive and hamdi-centric? I’m fine with my chair. What I’m not fine with is suffering fools. If you think that makes me mean and awful -”

“I do.”

What? How dare he talk back to me?

“However, I find you oddly compelling, so …will you dance with me? I’m pretty legendary for my dance moves.” He moved his shoulders all around, arms and shoulders up and down. Tongue out.

She finally relented and agreed to dance with him. He was nothing if not persistent, and she would probably never be rid of him unless she gave him what he wanted. “Alright, fine, one dance.”

“That’s all I ask ” He raised his hands in surrender and lead her onto the dance floor.

As it turned out he was a good dancer, and once she let her guard down they really clicked, and spent the rest of the evening flirting together, where she learned that there was more to him than she’d thought. And on second thought, Stephen Hawking’s younger brother wasn’t so bad.

They had found out that they were not so different. They had both been paralyzed in a car crash as children. He at age 8, she at the much younger age of 2. Both had been confined to chairs ever since, but had not let that define who they were, even when others tried to. He could use his thigh muscles to a limited degree. But she was paralyzed from the mid chest down. They were both members of their schools respective show choirs. He sang Tenor while she sang Mezzo Soprano. While he had sometimes dreamed of walking again one day and dancing. She had no memories of walking so she had fully embraced the chair, and won a gold medal in the Special Olympics for wheelchair racing.

When the evening was over she’d invited him up to her room. As they approached the door, she handed him the key card with a smile. The two of them had hooked up that night, and it turned out that despite his disability he’d been the best lover she’d ever had, and with her social standing, she’d bedded several of the most popular and prominent guys at her school. Since he lacked the ability to use most of his legs, he’d managed to develop his other muscles and it really made a difference in bed. Since she was paralyzed from the chest down, she had an excuse to make him do most of the work.

After they’d done the deed and were basking in the afterglow, he asked her, “Was it good for you?”

She’d been uncomfortable admitting if at the time so she answered, “I don’t know, you?”

“No ides.”

Both laughed, and then they did it again.

The following morning they’d said their goodbyes without much fanfare, and she thought that was it, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew she had to tell him how much she’d enjoyed their time together, even if they ended up not seeing each other again.

That Monday, before heading home with the rest of her family, she’d made a visit to McKinley to tell him, and to apologize for being such a bitch at first. No one had ever put that much effort into getting to know her and it made her nervous.

She rolled down the halls, spotting him at his locker changing out his books, and rolled up to him.

“Surprised to see me?” She asked.

“No, I saw you two minutes ago,” he told her, without turning his head. “You took forever wheeling up here.”

Man, he could be bitchy too, when he wanted to be!

But she got serious. “Before I went home, I wanted to apologize for being so bitchy at the wedding. When I get nervous I get kind of mean.”

“Kind of mean? You were like Idi Amin mean.”

“I know I’m working on that. … ” she told him defensively. Then, “Anyway thanks for putting up with me…. And thanks for….”

They both grinned nervously.

“You’re like, the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot.”

That seemed to take him aback for a moment, but he recovered quickly. “Oh, me too, I mean my sexual prowess is legendary throughout the Great Lakes States.”

They both laughed.

He pulled out his phone, handed it to her. “Give me your digits woman.”

“Why?” She wanted to know. Wasn’t this just a hookup? You weren’t supposed to actually date guys you met at weddings. That just wasn’t how it was done.

“‘Cause this Saturday I’m taking you out.”

“–like on a date?” She asked in disbelief. But She put her numbers in his phone anyway.

“Yes,” he answered. “Definitely a date. We’ll grab some dinner, maybe see a movie.”

She returned his phone and responded, “Or… we could just skip dinner, and movie and –”

“Charter a private jet, fly to Paris…dance under the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Élysées Yo when you’re rolling with Artie Abrams, anything can happen. ”

But, of course they both knew what she was getting at.

She smiled as he rolled away.

That Saturday, they went out on one date, which was decidedly more ordinary. They had dinner at a place called BreadstiX and watched the new X-Men movie, which she didn’t really enjoy because of his constant monologue describing how each scene was shot or probably shot, and in some cases, what a better way might have been.

She found that they had little in common, other than great sex (which they couldn’t resist indulging in again that night) and a bitchy banter. They lived in two different cities which would have made regular dating difficult. He wanted to try it, but she didn’t and dumped him the next day via text message.

That had been almost seven months ago, and things had radically changed. Her mom had been offered a better job with a significantly better salary and benefits. The only downside was that it would require a move back to Lima, Ohio, which neither of her parents had seen as a negative since they had family there.

So her parents had, without much consideration for how it would affect her, moved the family and transferred her to McKinley. She’d been forced to give up her position as head cheerleader at Carmel High, and featured soloist in Vocal Adrenaline, and move to a new school where she knew almost no one.

She’d been nervous that it might be awkward seeing Artie again, but when she’d asked, her aunt Emma told her that he’d graduated and was living in New York, so she would not have to deal with that drama.

It was her senior year and she needed to find some comparable extracurriculars if she wanted to have any kind of social life. Unfortunately the school glee club had been disbanded even after winning the number two in the National Show Choir Competition (whose bright idea was that anyway?); and the Cheerleading coach Roz Washington was reluctant to put her on the squad, because of her chair, But once Emma and her uncle Will informed her that would be discrimination, and showed video of what she’d done on the Carmel High squad, she’d reluctantly admitted her as a junior member. So she’d get to wear the red and white Cheerios uniform, but likely wouldn’t get to do much, even though it was her senior year. Her first meeting with Cheerios captain Bree, at their first practice that afternoon pretty much confirmed her hunch.

This was turning out to crappy year. Hopefully there was some other club she could join that would value her talents.

****

Kitty was walking down that hall when she’d seen an semi-familiar girl in a wheelchair. She knew she had seen her somewhere before, but couldn’t place where. She was wearing a Cheerios uniform and attended practice that afternoon.

When she was asked about it, Mrs. Pillsbury-Schuster had told her that this was her niece Betty, whom Kitty had barely missed meeting at her almost wedding, but hadn’t due to a week long case of that Asian Bird Flu.

After thinking about it she remembered that this was the girl with disturbingly massive boobs who visited McKinley after meeting Artie at their teachers almost wedding, then dumped him after one date. He’d been really hurting after that. According to puck who hadn’t gotten that Asian Bird Flu and made it to the wedding, Artie and the girl had hooked up that night. The thought of it made Kitty really jealous.

What the hell was she doing here?

She resolved to find out more about the girl so she could destroy her.