Apparently I have to write Artie with everyone. I felt bad for Rory in the last episode, especially with everything he had to deal with. He obviously had some things in common with Artie so a little friendship is formed.

Artie's not sure how Finn does it; he seems to have some magical power when it comes to getting people to join things. He's gotten half the Glee club on the football team at one time or another and seems to constantly be finding people to join the club. Artie had honestly no idea who Rory was before Finn introduced him to them, but he seemed like a nice guy and had a pretty good voice.

He and Finn ended up talking before class one day and Finn told him about how Rory was staying at Brittany's house, and somehow got on the topic of him having issues with her and Santana. He also started rambling about something along the lines of a pot of gold and leprechauns which Artie surmised had something to do with Brittany's beliefs. This was confirmed when Finn mentioned it being similar to the Santa Clause incident from the year before.

This is partly the reason why Artie seeks out the new boy. Normally, he isn't the type to just go up to people that he doesn't really know and start a conversation. But now that he knows who Rory is, he's been noticing him in the halls and he's also noticed how lonely the other boy looks. The jocks have upped their bullying ever since the Bully Whips disbanded and being new, not very physically threatening, and foreign isn't helping Rory at all.

He's on his way to lunch one day when he hears cruel laughter that usually accompanies bullying. Sure enough, when he turns the corner, a couple of members from the hockey team have knocked all of Rory's stuff out of his hands. Books and papers are scattered across the hall and most people either walk past or kick some of the stuff further down the hallway. Rory is on his hands and knees trying to gather everything, without much success.

Artie starts to pick stuff up that is closest to him and gradually makes his way up to Rory. The other boy has gotten most of his possessions back by now, although many are damaged at this point.

"Here you go," Artie says, handing the stack to him. Rory looks up at him in surprise.

"Oh. Um, thank you," he stammers. He stuffs everything into his backpack, rather haphazardly and clambers to his feet.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced before," Artie said. "I'm Artie Abrams."

Rory takes his outreaching hand and shakes it. "Nice to meet you Artie. And uh, thanks for helping me out."

"Oh it's no problem," Artie said. "Trust me; we've all been there before. Have you gotten slushied yet?"

"Slushied?" Rory repeated in confusion.

"I'll take that as a no," Artie said. "You'd know if you were. If you ever see a jock heading towards you holding a cup, just duck."

"All right," Rory replied, still looking slightly confused.

"So are you heading towards lunch?" Artie inquired.

"Yeah," Rory replied. "Do you have it this period too?"

"Yup," Artie said cheerfully. "Have you been caught up on the latest Glee club gossip yet?"

"I don't think so," Rory said slowly.

Artie gestured in the direction of the cafeteria. "Well let me be the first to give you the dirt."

The two boys settled themselves at a table and Artie spent a couple of minutes describing each of the Glee club members and what they were like. He also attempted to list all the different couplings that had occurred over the past years but Rory begged him to stop because his head started to hurt.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rory said after a couple of minutes of conversation about the club.

"Fire away," Artie said.

"Well, you mentioned that you dated Brittany. I guess…well you know I'm living with her. And she thought I was a leprechaun. And I was really desperate to make friends so I went along with it. But then everything kind of went wrong and I don't think she's too happy with me anymore. And I don't know why, but Santana seems to hate me."

Artie pondered what he said for a moment. "Wait; was there a question in there?"

Rory sighed in frustration. "I guess I'm just wondering what I did wrong. What happened? And honestly, Brittany confuses me a little bit."

"Well," Artie said. "As far as Brittany goes, she just looks at the world differently than the rest of us."

"She believed I was a leprechaun," Rory stated. "And Finn said something about her believing in Santa Clause."

"Oh yeah. What did you have to do as a 'leprechaun'?" Artie asked.

"Make her a box of Lucky Charms full of marshmallows only and make it look like her cat pooped candy bars," Rory replied.

"She asked Santa to make me able to walk again," Artie stated flatly.

"What?" Rory half laughed. "How did you pull that off?"

"A Christmas miracle. Literally." Artie said.

"Wow, I guess I got lucky," Rory mused. "No pun intended."

"What was your other question?" Artie asked. "I kind of lost track."

"What's the deal with Santana?" Rory replied. "She just seems to hate me for no reason."

"Don't worry, she hates almost everybody," Artie said with a wave of his hand. "Although it's probably because you were getting close to Brittany."

"Are they…you know…together?" Rory asked slowly.

Artie sighed and looked around to see who was nearby. "Rory, I can trust you right? You're not going to repeat what I'm about to tell you to anyone?"

"Of course not," Rory said earnestly. "My lips are sealed. Besides, who would I tell?"

Artie leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Okay. I'm only telling you this because I don't want you to feel like you did something wrong and you don't deserve it. You basically just got caught in the middle of something that you have nothing to do with."

"Brittany and I dated for a majority of last year. Our relationship wasn't perfect obviously, but it was really great for the most part. However, later in the year, all these rumors were flying around and although I tried to ignore it at first, I noticed that there was something going on between her and Santana. I confronted her about it and she basically admitted that she and Santana had been hooking up behind my back for at least a couple of months. But she kept saying that it didn't count as cheating because they were both girls. I disagreed and we started fighting about it. And then I ended up calling her stupid and she got upset and we broke up."

"But if she was doing stuff with Santana, that is cheating," Rory said. "So if she didn't get that, then I hate to say it, but she was either pretending that she didn't believe it or she really was stupid enough to believe it. It was her fault."

Artie sighed. "I don't know what to think about that situation anymore. I've decided to move on. I always end up doing or saying something dumb anyways and mess it up."

"But what about Santana?" Rory pressed.

"She's really protective of Brittany and trust me; I've gone up against her before. She'll pretty much say the worst possible things to make you feel terrible about yourself."

"She told me it would be best if I just disappeared," Rory said softly. Artie frowned at that.

"Well she's wrong," Artie said firmly. "Don't listen to what she says. She decided to ditch the club and this is hardly the first time she's screwed us over. You're one of us now, and we stick together."

Rory allowed a small grin to creep up on his face. "Really?"

"Of course," Artie said. "You're a bit of an outcast here, aren't you? I'm actually kind of surprised that you didn't find us sooner."

Rory chuckled a bit at that. "Thanks. It does feel nice to have somewhere to belong. I just wish I hadn't messed things up with Brittany."

"Honestly, Brittany would have probably been your friend even if you didn't do the whole leprechaun thing," Artie said. "She's very friendly and nice to everybody."

"Yeah, I could've had a friend," Rory said slightly bitterly. "And then I went and screwed it up. So much for my Irish luck."

"But you have a bunch of other friends now," Artie smiled at him. "Starting with me."

Rory looked at him in slight surprise and then a bright smile crossed his face. "Really?"

"Of course," Artie said. "Looks like your luck is changing."

Reviews are much appreciated as usual.