love like fools ➙ glee

one ; part of your world.

Alicia was in a good mood today.

The sign-up sheet for the rehabilitated glee club was hanging on the wall before her. There were already a few signatures on it, names she didn't recognize (Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, Artie Abrams, Tina C., Rachel Berry), the pen dangling beside it. She had always wanted to join glee club, but her gut warned her against their previous director, Sandy Ryerson.

She always saw the good in people. But whew. Bad vibes.

This was her opportunity to finally be seen. Everywhere she went, people tended to look right through her. Often, she saw girls and boys just as unpopular as her being greeted with slushies to the face or tossed into dumpsters. Neither of those things had ever happened to her. For one reason.

No one noticed her. It was as if she wasn't there at all.

Her pale fingers curled around the pen, and there, in her usual messy scrawl, she signed her name: Alicia M. Hastings. 

She stepped back to admire her handiwork. Her name had never been on a wall like that before. She hadn't joined any other clubs, never getting praise like the school's geniuses. Often, she was too caught up in her own world, occasionally causing her grades to slip. She wasn't one of the popular girls, or one of the brilliant students. She was only a daydreamer.

And now, she was a part of something special. She could feel it.

As the bell rang shrilly, she spun around.

Just for a cherry slushie to get splashed all over her face.

Alicia gasped, book bag dropping to the floor as she instinctively used the sleeves of her yellow sweater to wipe her eyes. Through blurry vision, she recognized the culprit as Noah Puckerman, laughing and high-fiving David Karofsky as they slipped into their next class. The plastic cup was tossed into the trashcan only a few feet away from her. Drips of blue liquid splattered onto the drab off-white flooring.

First, she blinked. The slushie was stinging her eyes and making her feel cold in places she most definitely did not need to feel cold. She was shivering already. Her thinly knit sweater hadn't done much to deflect the blow. Mostly, she was humiliated. Almost all students passed her without a second or even first glance, but several laughed with their friends.

Her first time getting noticed, and it would probably scar her forever.

Yay, McKinley.

Alicia swallowed hard, not surprised when she tasted slushie. Of course it had gotten into her mouth, with a gasp that dramatic.

She sank down to the floor, struggling to gather up her four discarded notebooks as kids passed, remorselessly kicking them further away with each step. Two boys almost stepped on her. It wasn't until one nearly stomped her journal that she spoke up. "Hey, can you please watch where you're going?"

Her voice usually didn't sound so snappish. During those rare occasions when she did speak, it was never out of bitterness. But now, her heart was beating too fast, anxiety over the slushie incident making her second guess her decision to sign up for glee club. Wouldn't that happen again and again now?

The boy, quite tall and clad in a striped sweater, glanced down in surprise. "Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there."

"I assumed."

He had seemed in a rush to get to class before, but now, he faltered as he took in her situation. He glanced around, as if on the lookout for something (or, possibly, someone), before dropping down. It didn't take him long at all to gather up her notebooks, as he was a little more visible to people.