We Were Merely Freshmen
They agreed to meet for dinner after their first day of classes. Just "the freshmen" as Santana had taken to calling them. As much as they loved their friends at the loft, Tina, Sam, Blaine and Artie really wanted to maintain their own separate friendships away from the “Loft Dwellers”, which is what Tina called Santana, Kurt and Rachel, even though Blaine himself also lived there now. Tina tries to ignore the fact that Blaine chose to move into the loft, because it left her with no choice but to room with Sam since she didn’t want to take a chance at student housing.
They decided they’d meet at the diner where Santana and Rachel work. They ordered french fries and milkshakes and prepared to share their stories.
"Okay, Artie, you first. How was it?"
"Not bad, I am definitely happy with my decision to come here. Just one thing. I really should have listened to my Mom and signed up for a campus tour," he explains, adjusting his glasses.
"Did you get lost?" Blaine asks.
"Not exactly..."
Artie looks down at his schedule in his lap and back up at the building in front of him. Through the door, he can see room 178-C, in front of him is a short staircase. He turns his chair and looks to see the ramp down on the other end.
Artie waits for the elevator and when the doors open, he rolls in. On the next floor when the doors open, a group of people crowd in, pushing everyone back, one person trips and lands in Artie’s lap.
As Artie rolls through the busy hallways, he’s constantly ducking his head to avoid being hit by swinging backpacks and arms, he winds up getting smacked a couple of times.
"You know, at McKinley, after awhile, people knew to look for me, so I stopped getting hit as often, I forgot how much it sucked. It was like that in every building. I'm going to have to figure that into my days, I have to go to all my classes from the opposite end of the hallways. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear I was being punked."
"That's no so bad. Not as bad as my morning," Tina says as she reaches for her shake, "I don't think New York likes me very much, which I should have expected."
"What happened, Tay Tay?"
"What didn't happen, Blaine? First, the train was late, then I got off at the wrong stop."
Tina walks up and down a busy city street looking at the directions on her phone. She looks up at a street sign, them back at the subway stop before deflating and turning around to run back to the subway."
Then, when I finally did make it to class, turns out that I bought the wrong text book. $300 and it was the wrong book. The right one is $350, and the line for the bookstore stretched across campus. I'm going to have to wake up before the sun tomorrow."
Sam winces and Blaine wraps an arm around Tina and she shrugs it off.
"Oh whatever Blaine. You got to wake up next to your fiancé, you probably had little cartoon birds bring you your clothes."
"Funny, Tina. Not quite."
Blaine lies on his back in bed, cuddled with Kurt.
"Are you going to wake me up like this every morning? Because I think I can get used to this," Blaine says, running his fingers through Kurt's messy hair.
"No, that was just because today is special. It's your first day at NYADA. I wanted to commemorate it."
"With a blow job? I wanna start college every day."
"Ha ha. That's enough basking, we gotta get going. What time is your first class?"
"It's at 9. Yours?"
"8:30, so we better get moving, come on."
"Okay, now you're just gloating. None of is got to wake up to sex."
"Speak for yourself," Sam says over a mouthful of fries.
"You hand doesn't count, Sam."
"Uh, it totally does. Don't be mad that you didn't think of it."
"Anyway, this story better go somewhere, Blaine or I'm throwing my shake at you."
"Fine."
"Okay, Sweetie, this is my building, are you going to be alright on your own?"
"Yep. I've got my map, my schedule. Rachel is around here somewhere and Tina is in the dance building somewhere."
"Okay. You are well prepared. I should have known. I'll see you at 1:30 for lunch. I love you. I'm so happy you're here now!"
"I love you too!" Blaine kisses Kurt quickly on the lips before leaving him to run into the building.
Blaine's walking around, looking at his map, before he stops and turns around and goes in the opposite direction. He passes the building where he left Kurt, looks at his map again and turns back around. He keeps wandering around, eventually stopping to look at his map again and get his bearings. He starts to grab his phone, but thinks better of it before leaving again.
"I was completely lost. And then I started to panic because I thought I was late. Turns out, I just passed the building I needed."
"Dude, were you late?"
"Not quite."
Blaine pulls out his schedule and looks down and sees "Dance 101, 11am-12:45". He looks at his watch and it's 8:47.
He sighs and sits on the floor outside the class and pulls out a book.
"Early is better than late, you still had it better than Tina and I."
"I'm not done."
Blaine is in line with the other students in his class following the steps as Cassandra July circles them. She stops him.
"Hey eyebrows, what's your name?"
"Blaine Anderson."
"Where you from, Anderson?"
"Lima, Ohio," Blaine answers nervously.
"Another Ohio transplant like Schwimmer. Blaine Anderson from Ohio. You have a brother, don't you, Anderson. A hot shot brother who thinks Theater is dead, sneaks out in the middle of the night and doesn't call the next day."
Blaine gulps, "Yes, I do."
"Are you like your brother? Do you sleep with," she stops and looks Blaine up and down before continuing, "boys and not call them back?"
"I, um, I'm engaged, Miss July."
"Engaged? How old are you, 18? Whatever. Your posture sucks, Anderson. Suck in that gut and straighten your back. Maybe do some crunches every second of the day that you’re not smiling earnestly at someone. You’re already short, you’re going to need double core strength to lift girls that are likely to be twice your height.”
Blaine drops his head into his hands, as Tina, Sam and Artie laugh.
“You realize I’m dead right? Of all the women for Cooper to screw over, he chooses Crazy July. I can’t believe him, 3000 miles away and he still finds a way to ruin my life,” Blaine says, voice muffled by his arms.
“Okay, maybe you did have it bad, but I’m still deducting points because you woke up to a blow job,” Artie informs him.
“Come on, Artie, the scariest teacher at NYADA, the one who made Rachel’s life hell last year had a one night stand with my brother. That has to count for something.”
“I’ll consider it, let’s hear from Sam first. Alright, spill it Evans, first day horror stories, go.” Sam swallows his mouthful of friends and shrugs.
“Sorry dude, my day went pretty great.”
“You’re lying,” Tina accuses, Sam just shakes his head.
“Nope, today was pretty sweet.”
Sam walks around his campus, with his guitar case in hand and finds an empty place to sit. Around him students are listening to music through their headphones, some are already sketching. Other’s are typing furiously on their laptops. Sam sits down, but before he starts to play, a tall, muscled, sandy haired guy runs over to him.
“Hey, we’re about to play some hacky sack, you in?”
Sam puts his guitar in the case and runs over to join them.
Later, after the game, the guys he was playing with sit around and listen as Sam and the sandy-haired guy from before play their guitars. The group of people watching them grows. Several girls push to the front of the group to watch.
“Seriously? That sounds like something out of a Van Wilder movie or something. Next you’re going to tell me you had a quickie on campus. Did you even have a class today?” Tina says with a roll of her eyes.
“Yes, I went to class today. And no I didn’t have a quickie on campus. I did get some numbers, though. And I have a date Friday night with a girl who won’t tell me her real name, she prefers for people to call her Moon.”
“Of course. Art school. I’m not even surprised. You’re homework is probably to go experience nature or gaze at the stars or something,” Tina mumbles, “I have to go stand in line for a $350 textbook that’s not even as thick as the biggest Harry Potter book, then i have to read two chapters of said book, sorry I don’t feel sorry for you, you lose.”
“Hey now, not fair, I totally have homework. My art history textbook is super big,” Sam says, frowning defensively at Tina.
“I bet it’s a picture book. Come to me when you have a real problem.”
“Come on Tina, be fair, art school’s not going to be all arts and crafts, Sam’s classes are going to be as difficult as ours,”
“Oh my God, could you stop trying to play mediator all the time Blaine? Sam’s out. He should just pay for all of us.”
“As much as I’m a little annoyed that Sam’s living the dream at Art School, the deal was that the person who had the worst day gets their meal paid for by the rest of us. Clearly we didn’t think this through, because we need an impartial judge to help us decide, obvious, between you, Blaine and myself, we all think our day was the worst,” Artie states, reaching for his milkshake.
“I’m putting my money on Blaine. That teacher’s totally going to have it out with him because Cooper hit it and quit it. He’s gonna have to deal with that all year, maybe all four years. Blaine should win,” Sam says, taking out his wallet and handing Blaine a $10 bill.
“Ugh, I need another milkshake,” Tina grumbles, waving her hand for their waitress. She groans when Santana approaches their table.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t The Freshmen. Sorry, Dani’s on a break, so I’ll be your server for the time being. What can I help you losers with?”
“Another vanilla milkshake.”
“Aw, are the babies drowning their sorrows?”
“You’re only a year older than us, Santana.”
“Not even a full year older than me.”
“Oh shut it eyebrows, New York ages you. Kurt’s nearly 30 now.”
“Actually, Santana, now that you’re here, maybe you can settle something for us.”
“Nope, don’t have time. I have all these customers that will probably tip me more than any of you.”
“Trust us, Santana, you’ll enjoy this,” Artie tells her before launching into their stories.
*****************************
Later that day, Sam, Artie, Tina and Blaine are sitting around the loft with Kurt and Rachel.
“Come on, why is everyone so quiet, how was your first day?” Kurt asks excitedly.
“Oh my God, Blaine you had Cassie today, did she love you? I’m sure she loved you,” Rachel says. Blaine groans and shakes his head, Sam, Artie and Tina laugh.
“Oh God, do I even want to know?”
“I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough,” Blaine says.
"Let's just say that even Santana agreed that Blaine had the worst first day out of all of us and leave it at that," Tina laughs. Rachel and Kurt exchange a worried look and Blaine hides his face in horror.