Dear Artie, Count Me In Chapter 1: Mash-Up, a glee fanfic

Chapter 1: Mash-Up

"See, Beck? I told you we'd find a use for the RV one day!"

We ran over a pothole in the road as my dad finished speaking. I grabbed onto the table in front of me for support. Once we righted ourselves, I glanced up out the window then back down at my notebook. I had my headphones in, playing my Avril Lavigne playlist as I doodled in my notebook. I had combined Avril's three albums—her debut Let Go, her sophomore release Under My Skin, and her newest release The Best Damn Thing which had introduced the world to her hit single Girlfriend. Mom had gotten me the headphones somewhere in New Mexico, after she got sick of me listening to Nobody's Home on repeat at full volume.

I was trying to be happy about the move, though I'm not entirely sure how anyone could be. I had grown up in California, albeit in a city that, like Bakersfield, had been referred to as the "armpit" of California: Fresno. It wasn't a perfect place by any means, but I had spent my entire life there, so I had been having trouble adjusting to the news that we'd be moving to Lima, Ohio.

Dad had been talking about being transferred for a while, but I never thought it would actually happen, until one day when I came home and there was a giant "for sale" sign in the front yard. I was still adjusting to high school life as a freshman at Harriet Tubman High School, where I was struggling to fit in and find my niche, when Dad dropped the news. I knew deep down that it was a good thing. The transfer meant a raise, and the cost of living in Ohio was considerably less than it was in California, which combined with the increase in money looked like great news for us. But I think you'd be hard pressed to find a single teenager who is okay with moving 2,368 miles away from home—I counted.

"Melissa!"

I snatched an earphone out of my ear. How long had my mom been calling me?

"Are you listening to me?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, totally. I think I saw a rest stop sign a little while ago."

She sighed. "I was saying that we've made it to Ohio."

I looked out the window and saw signs for Dayton. We were getting close. Finally, after five days of being cooped up in the RV, we would finally be in our new house.

"Cool," I said, starting to reach for my headphones again. Mom continued to speak, so I stopped and listened.

"Well, first day of school on Monday. Are you excited?"

"Yeah, totally," I said, forcing myself to sound much more enthusiastic than I actually was. "I'm totally looking forward to, uh…being lost and having no one to sit with in the cafeteria."

"This might be the time to reinvent yourself," my dad said. "Maybe tone down the goth stuff and start dressing like a normal teenager?"

"John," my mom hissed.

"It's not goth, Dad, it's punk."

"Oh, punk. Even worse. Our daughter's a punk."

"John!"

I couldn't say that I didn't see where he was coming from. I didn't just love Avril Lavigne's music, I tried to emulate her style. That day I even had on a pair of black distressed skinny jeans and an All Time Low T-shirt, a band that my dad was not a huge fan of. I even had my nails painted black, which I knew he hated. I also knew my mom was probably going to come after me with acetone once we got settled.

"Look, all I'm trying to say is that we're in Ohio now," Dad continued. "People might have been accepting of you in California but we're a pretty blue state. I just don't want you to get into any trouble at school."

"I'm sure no matter how you dress, people will like you," my mom cut in, giving my dad a glare. I rolled my eyes. Here we go again. "I looked into this school, Missy. William McKinley High? That's where you're going. They have a ton of sports teams and clubs. Their cheerleading team has won national championships the last four years!"

"When have I ever expressed the desire to be a cheerleader?" I asked.

"It would be a nice change of pace from the punk thing," Dad said, clearly thinking I couldn't hear him. Mom hit the back of his arm.

"You don't have to be a cheerleader," Mom said as Dad rubbed his arm. "But I'm just saying, if they have such a great cheerleading program, their other organizations are probably pretty cool. Who knows? They might have something that will interest you."

"Like an Avril Lavigne fan club," Dad said.

Mom ignored him. "By the end of your first week, I want you to find a club and make some friends. Okay?"

"Okay," I said, plastering a smile on my face when she turned around to look at me. As soon as she turned back around, I rolled my eyes again. I put my headphones back in my ears and switched from my Avril playlist to All Time Low.

I've got your picture, I'm coming with you
Dear Maria, count me in
There's a story at the bottom of this bottle
And I'm the pen…

Once the RV pulled to a stop an hour later outside of our new house, I found it was much easier to fake being excited. Our house was beautiful and it was in a nice neighborhood. I could see that our across the street neighbor owned a Cadillac, and all of the houses were picture perfect.

Our own house had two stories, and Mom told me that my bedroom was at the top of the stairs and to the right. I found it right away and went in. It had walls that were a sort of ugly green color, like the color of a honeydew. Luckily, one of the first boxes I had brought in was my box of posters, so I immediately went to work to cover up the ugly walls.

Mom and Dad had gone downstairs to meet one of our new neighbors, so I took out my iPod and started playing my Avril playlist, singing along to it as I hung up posters.

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah
Alright, now let me hear you say hey, hey, ho

I hate it when a guy doesn't get the door
Even though I told him yesterday and the day before
I hate it when a guy doesn't get the tab
And I have to pull my money out and that looks bad

Where are the hopes? Where are the dreams?
My Cinderella story scene?
When do you think they'll finally see?

That you're not, not, not gonna get any better
You won't, won't, won't, you won't get rid of her never
Like it or not, even though she's a lot like me we're not the same
And yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a lot to handle
You don't know trouble, I'm a hell of a scandal
Me, I'm a scene, I'm a drama queen
I'm the best damn thing that your eyes have ever seen

I hate it when a guy doesn't understand
Why a certain time of month I don't wanna hold his hand
I hate it when they go out and we stay in
And they come home smelling like their ex-girlfriend

I found my hopes, I found my dreams
My Cinderella story scene
Now everybody's gonna see…

I looked up after I had put up several posters on the far wall. There, standing just inside the doorway, was a guy I hadn't noticed before. I immediately screamed.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked, ripping a headphone out of my ear.

"You have quite an exceptional singing voice," he said in a voice that was much higher pitched than I had been expecting. "Though you were a little pitchy at some parts, but I'll forgive that since you seemed a little preoccupied and it's nothing that can't be fixed."

I stared at him, mouth agape and eyes wide, my chest heaving as I breathed hard. My heartbeat was still returning to normal. "You can't just walk into my bedroom like that. What if I had been naked?"

"No offense, but you're not exactly my type."

I had no idea if this was supposed to be an insult, but I couldn't help but feel offended. "I'm sorry, who…"

"How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself." He extended a hand. "Kurt Hummel. I live in the house across the street. My dad and I came over to introduce ourselves to your folks and they said that they had a daughter about my age. So, here we are."

My thoughts were still kind of in a whirl. "How long have you been standing here?"

"Right before the chorus. I followed the sound of your voice upstairs. Figured it was sort of my breadcrumb trail. Also, I know I'm not really one to give a manners lesson, but I've been waiting for a handshake for a while, so…"

"Oh!" I finally came to my senses and shook his outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you, uh, Kurt?" He nodded. "I'm Melissa."

"And what was that, Paramore?"

"Avril Lavigne, actually. She's kind of my idol."

Kurt's eyes flashed over to the wall behind us, where I had hung up no less than five posters of Avril herself. "No kidding."

"So, uh, you're our neighbors?" I asked, taking the other earphone out of my ear at last and sitting down on the bay window. "You guys own the Cadillac?"

"Yes, it's mine. Well, it was mine before my dad took it away when he found my tiara collection." I took a second to try to process what he just told me, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it, because he asked, "You need a little help with the posters? I've always loved redecorating."

"Uh, yeah, that'd be great."

Over the next twenty minutes, Kurt and I talked and got to know one another. He was a sophomore at the school I was going to, William McKinley High. He knew all about the award winning cheerleading squad, which he said was called the Cheerios, and that I would avoid them if I knew what was good for me.

"No offense, but new students and glee kids are kind of at the bottom of the food chain," he said as he hung up my poster of blink-182.

I froze, stopping dead in my tracks and turning to look at him. "Glee kids?"

"Oh, yeah. We have a glee club. We're pretty new so we only have twelve members. Although Rachel's always sort of leaving and coming back, and there was that whole thing with April…"

I had no idea who Rachel or April were, but I didn't care. I had been a part of the glee club at my old school. I had only auditioned because my friend Gigi wanted to go out for it, but there was something undeniably fun about singing and dancing along to show tunes. I had enjoyed it, right up until the incident happened and I found out about Dad's transfer. The glee club could be just the thing I needed to get me through this new change, and besides, Mom had told me that I needed to join a club.

"How do I join?"

"Wait, what?" Kurt asked, who had been mid sentence when I spoke.

"The glee club. I want to try out…if it's not too late."

"Are you sure? Because you were just telling me how you were ostracized at your old school. I don't think glee club is going to change your social standing."

"Maybe you're right," I said, looking down and playing with some loose blonde strands of my ponytail.

"However, sectionals are coming up and we could use the members…" Kurt took his phone out and started typing. "You're going to need to talk to Mr. Schuester. He's a Spanish teacher and our director. He'll give you all the information you need. Give me your number, I'm sending you some details."

I took his phone and typed in my number, then handed it back to him. Almost immediately, mine was buzzing as his text came through.

"Well, Melissa, I hope to see you in glee club this week," he said. "And please, call me if you ever need fashion advice. When you need fashion advice," he said as he looked me up and down. "You know where to find me. Hope you have a good first week."

And with that, he walked down the stairs and left me alone in my room. I watched him go out the bay window. He walked into the house across the street, disappearing out of sight. As he went, I turned back to my room. It felt a little bit cozier with my posters for bands like Blondie, Green Day, and Joy Division, and the green was a lot less noticeable with all of the black, purple, and red. Once we got all of the furniture set up, it might look like an actual bedroom.

And I knew I was going to sleep well that night, since it seemed like I had made my first friend.

As luck would have it, Mr. Schuester was my Spanish teacher third period. I managed to find his classroom on Monday and walked up to him shyly. I was a little surprised at my nervousness, since I wasn't usually the shy type, but then, I had also never been the new kid before.

"Mr. Schuester?" I asked. He looked up at me, the surprise registering on his face when he saw me. "I'm Melissa Widman. I'm a new student."

"Ah, bienvenida." He took my schedule and signed it. I was supposed to get signatures from all of the teachers, I suppose as a sort of sign that I had attended all of my classes, then scanned the room for a seat. "Looks like we've only got one empty seat… Do you mind sitting in the front?"

"Not at all," I said, starting to walk away, then turned around to face him. "I'd really appreciate it if you didn't do the whole 'new student introduces herself' thing," I said quietly.

He put a hand on my shoulder and nodded. "Not a problem."

I found my seat and sat down. I had been afraid of people staring at me, but no one seemed to notice my presence. Not once did Mr. Schuester ever even allude to my existence. I wondered if the last minute change of style had helped. Taking some of Dad's advice, I had decided to tone down my usual style and wore a plaid dress to school, which was the most "normal" outfit I could find. Kurt offered to take me to the mall to find more clothes that weekend if I wanted. I told him I'd have to take a raincheck. I still wasn't sure how I felt about reinventing myself.

In fact, most of the week I played it safe. I didn't know anyone other than Kurt, and I didn't want to cause trouble by calling attention to myself through my clothes…not until I was sure I belonged.

After the first few days of school, I finally worked up the nerve to talk to Mr. Schuester about the glee club. I had arrived almost late to class, so I decided to ask him after the bell rang. I had even prepared a song to sing to audition with, and was working up the confidence to be okay if he told me no.

When the bell finally rang, I walked up to his desk timidly, holding my binder against my chest for protection. "Um, Mr. Schuester?" I asked as soon as the last student filed out of the room.

He looked up at me. "Hey, Melissa. How's your first week going?"

"Fine. It's fine."

"Glad to hear it." He folded his hands on the desk, waiting for me to continue.

I took a deep breath. "I heard that you're the teacher for glee club and I was wondering if it was too late to join."

"Oh. Uh, no. We're meeting tomorrow at 3:30 in the choir room. Just make sure you're not late." He got up and started erasing the board as he waited for his next class.

"Wait," I said, and he stopped and looked at me. "That—that's it? You're not even going to ask me to sing or anything?"

"No, because the New Directions welcomes everyone with open arms. Auditions are not mandatory."

"Oh, uh…okay. Well, thanks, Mr. Schuester." I turned to leave.

"Melissa?"

I stopped, turning back to Mr. Schuester. Maybe he was already having second thoughts about me joining the glee club. I tried to ignore the way that my knees were shaking.

"I appreciate the formality, but it's alright. You can call me Mr. Schue."

"Oh, uh, okay, Mr. Schue. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hasta mañana."

"Bye," I said awkwardly.

My parents could hardly believe it when I told them the news. I first told them that I wouldn't need a ride home from school the next day after all, because I had my first official glee club meeting. Mom immediately leapt out of her seat to hug me. I grimaced when she wasn't looking.

"Missy, that's wonderful!" she said. I tried to ignore the timbre of her voice, the gentle quiver that meant she was about to cry. She pulled away, looking at me with her concerned mom face. "Oh, but are you sure you want to join the glee club after what happened at your last school? I know that was pretty embarrassing for you…"

I cut my mom off before she could continue. Of course she wanted to remind me of my embarrassing past. "I'm sure. Besides, Kurt is a member. I'll at least have him."

In fact, it was Kurt who showed me to the choir room the next day. I was more than a little confused when we arrived as everyone started to watch the clock and the door like hawks. Most people didn't even seem to notice that I was in the room at all, which was starting to become a reoccurring theme for me that week.

"What's going on?" I asked Kurt.

He leaned into me and whispered, "Our football coach scheduled practice for the same time as our glee club meeting, so we're waiting to see if the football players choose the team or the club. Without them, we won't have enough members to compete at sectionals."

I didn't quite understand watching the clock and waiting for people I had never even met, but I found myself watching the minutes tick by as well. At long last, the hands on the clock showed that it was 3:30. I looked around the room, waiting for something to happen.

Mr. Schue sighed. "I guess they're not coming," he said. He looked down at the floor sadly. "I'm really sorry, guys."

"I can't believe this," an African American girl said. "I thought they were our friends. How can they just abandon us?"

But then, we heard footsteps in the hallway. Two boys walked through the door — who I assumed were the football players in glee. Everyone who had been watching the door started smiling, except Mr. Schue, who was looking on in disbelief. Finally, he smiled, and two girls in cheerleading uniforms ran to be the first to hug the guys. One girl, though, kept her eyes on the door as though waiting for someone else. At long last, a third boy walked in and everyone gasped.

I could instantly tell that he was the bad boy type just by his general demeanor. The girl, who had long brown hair and was dressed sort of like my grandmother, walked to the door to greet him. "Are you sure about this, Noah?" she asked. "I mean, choosing us over the team means you might get a Slushie in your face every day."

I turned to Kurt with a furrowed brow. "Wait, what?"

"You get used to it," he whispered.

Horrified, I continued to watch the scene unfolding before me. A Slushie to the face?

"Bring it," the boy called Noah said. The room giggled and the two finally embraced.

It was a boy in a wheelchair who spoke up next. "Where's Finn?" he asked.

For a few moments, a heavy silence fell over the room. Then, Mr. Schue walked up to me and said, "I know it's sad that Finn isn't here, but don't worry." The kids in the choir room went to take their seats, though Mr. Schue stopped me before I could get too far. "We still have enough members to compete." He gave me a friendly smile.

"Wow, Quinn, I didn't know you had a twin sister," a blonde girl in a cheerleading uniform said. I gave Mr. Schue a confused look at this, though he ignored the outburst, as did most of the room.

"I'd like to introduce you all to our newest member."

The girl who dressed like my grandmother was on her feet, briskly walking up to the front of the room. "I'm sorry. Mr. Schuester, do you really think that she can be prepared for sectionals in such a short amount of time?"

"Yes, Rachel, I do," he said. Of course this is Rachel, I thought as she returned to her seat. "Especially since without her and without Finn, we only have eleven members. We need twelve in order to qualify for sectionals. Now, I'd like to introduce you all to our new student here at McKinley and our newest member."

Oh, no. He had promised he wouldn't do this to me.

"This is Melissa Widman," he said.

"Wait," Rachel said again from her chair. "Widman. Are you Jewish?"

I furrowed my brow, confused by the question. "No," I said.

"She's just joined us from…Colorado?" Mr. Schue asked, looking at me.

I smiled politely at him. "California. And, uh, I'm really happy to be here," I said to the rest of the room as I took them all in. There was Kurt, obviously, and Rachel, who I didn't think I liked…then there was the black girl…the three football players…three girls in cheerleading uniforms…an Asian girl who seemed to dress in a similar way as I did…and the kid in the wheelchair, who was the only one other than Kurt who was smiling back at me. I looked back at Mr. Schue for guidance, but Rachel unfortunately spoke up again.

"That's great that you found us someone to replace Finn on such short notice, Mr. Schuester, but can she even sing?"

"Actually, Rachel, Melissa found me," Mr. Schue said. "She came up to me personally and asked me if she could join the glee club."

"And I can sing," I said. "I was in the glee club at my old school. We weren't super good, but I've been told I have a nice voice…for a freshman. I actually had a song prepared," I said, looking back at Mr. Schue again, "if that's alright with you."

"Of course it is," Mr. Schue said, crossing the room to have a seat. Rachel sat as well.

"Please, not another Avril song," Kurt said under his breath.

"Actually, Kurt, this is from Blondie," I said. "I think you all might have heard of it."

I started to sing the song I had originally prepared for my audition with Mr. Schue. I didn't know if I was just imagining it, but the band behind me seemed to know exactly what it was that I was going to sing and started playing along with me.

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that
Oh, no

It's not the things you do that tease me and hurt me bad
But it's the way you do the things you do to me
I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that
Oh, no

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
Number one, number one

A few of the girls had started singing back up to me, and even the guys were exchanging impressed looks. I thought I could hear the kid in the wheelchair yell, "Ow!" with a large grin on his face, which made me start smiling too. Only Rachel was not responding in a positive way as she sat in the back of the room with her arms crossed over her chest.

Every girl wants you to be her man
But I'll wait right here till it's my turn
I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that
Oh, no

Every time that I get the feeling
You give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know the way that I want it to be
But you know that I'm gonna take my chance now
I'm gonna make it happen somehow
And you know I can take the pressure
A moment's pain for a lifetime pleasure

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one

As I sang the last verse, the rest of the glee club (minus Rachel and Mr. Schue) joined in to finish the song with me. I figured I was right with the assumption that they had heard the song before and was able to get into the song even more as we finished it off.

As I finished singing, the glee club started applauding me. Mr. Schue himself stood up and clapped as he walked up to me, then put his arm around me. "How about a round of applause for Melissa Widman!" The applause got louder, then Mr. Schue looked down at me with a look full of pride. "Looks like we've got ourselves a new member!" he said, and I smiled at him. A single thought ran through my head.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

AN: Hi guys! I published but never finished this story on my old account, Hatter of Madness, which I think I am slowly going to be moving away from. I plan on finishing up my Fearless stories on that account but am now going to be migrating to this one. I have outlined this story very far in advance and have made a lot of changes to the plot from the last time, so I hope you all enjoy it! Also, if you head over to my profile, I have a link to a YouTube playlist with all of the songs that will be in this story in it. I wanted this to be like the TV show so I have decided to include a lot more music in this story, and have decided that each chapter is going to be based off of an episode of the show. I hope you all like it!