Chapter Text
Silver and Gold
Chapter 1
Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver and the other gold.
I OWN NOTHING RELATED TO GLEE!!!!
“Mom!”
“Would you stop whining already?”
“Girls, knock it off!”
The two girls, one seventeen the other ten, turned to look at their mother. Their father was bringing in boxes and ignoring them and their arguing.
“Now, Gale, what is it you need?” Emily asked her younger daughter.
“Why did we have to move to Ohio?” Gale whined. “Why Lima? Why not Cincinnati or Columbus? Someplace where stuff actually happens?”
“This again?” Danny muttered. “I’ll be in my room, decorating. Call me when you’re setting up the kitchen.” She turned on her heel and shot back up the stairs.
“Danny! Get back down here and help your dad bring in boxes!” Emily called after her. She turned back to her youngest. “Gale, we already explained this to you both several times. Dad’s company transferred him back to Lima because he’s worked here before. It was easier for him to come back then to send someone new. Dad knows these people. He’s worked with them before.”
Danny rolled her eyes in her room as she listened to her mom and sister ‘discuss’ the move again. Danny hadn’t minded in the least when told that they were all uprooting from their home in Indianapolis to return to Lima, Ohio. She’d been ecstatic, because this meant the chance to physically reconnect with her best friend.
Roughly seven and a half years ago, her parents had moved them to Indiana because her dad had been promoted. Danny had hated the move then, knowing that she wasn’t one to make friends easily and that by moving she was leaving her friend to face their tormentors alone. Gale loved living in a big city where at least one of her friends was always having a party or inviting her along on some kind of outing. As for helping her dad bring in boxes, he’d already sent her up here to her new room to finish it.
She was almost done, the walls a dark blue with the trim black (because her mom refused to let her do it the other way). Once the walls were dry, her multiple posters (sitting rolled together in several tubes), pictures, and the hooks for her hat collection could go up. She grinned, living for projects like this. Her best friend lived to be on Broadway, she lived to design things. Danny couldn’t wait to start school on Monday, even if it was February and right after Valentine’s Day. They’d be done moving in, everything would be set up and not all that different from her former room. Plus, she’d be able to reconnect with her friend (a surprise she’d been saving because the girl had seemed so sad recently, this was one thing that would certainly cheer her up). They hadn’t actually seen each other in person since they were ten and Danny moved away.
“Mom wants you downstairs.” Gale had opened her door. The white outside contrasted brightly with the dark interior of the room. “Jeeze, dungeon much? Why can’t you like anything girly?”
“Gale, go finish your own room,” Danny replied, “I finished painting it last week in case you forgot.” It had taken forever to find a way to get rid of the ugly pink track suite her mother had given her for Christmas, painting Gale’s room lavender and white had done it. If some of the ‘paint drops’ looked more like brush strokes…she wasn’t admitting anything.
“Mom should ground you for ruining that outfit. It was perfect for training.” Gale sneered at her.
“You like it, you take it out the trash,” Danny replied, annoyed. “And stay out of my room Shorty,” she ruffled Gale’s hair as she went past.
Chuckling at her little sister’s shrieking, she went downstairs to help her mom set up the kitchen and discuss the plan for Monday. Danny did not want to try out for the cheerleading squad, the track team, or any other school sports team. She would join any club dealing with martial arts, kendo, dancing, design, or technical theater. Emily wasn’t happy, but she had Gale to nurture into a mini-her. Danny just wanted to be herself and do what made her happy, thus why she was following in her Dad’s footsteps.
“Why your father wouldn’t let us move into the Carmel School District, I don’t understand. McKinley is hardly competition.” Emily started in. “It has far more in the way of academics and athletics. You could do so well there.”
“I want to go to McKinley,” Danny replied. “It’s smaller and less prestigious, and I don’t want to go to another big school.” They’d had this argument before. “Dad agrees with me, besides, that coach Gale is always gushing over works at McKinley. Remember, that’s the one thing she was happy about because she could attend her summer cheer camp to begin her way in the high school hierarchy.”
Emily sighed, going quiet for a few moments. “I assume you’re going to look up that friend of yours, what was her name again?”
“Rachel Berry,” Danny replied, rolling her eyes. “Mom, we had an agreement. You would stay out of my friendships and I would give up the bedroom.”
‘The bedroom’ meant that instead of taking the room George Grant had chosen for his eldest, she’d take the smaller one. Giving the larger room with its own bathroom and walk-in closet to Gale was not a big loss in Danny’s mind because she liked smaller spaces.
“I know, and you’ve done more then what that agreement called for,” Emily agreed, since the agreement had not included Danny painting the entire space however Gale demanded nor moving things in and making certain it was to the younger girl’s specifications.
“Then there’s nothing to talk about.” Danny replied, finishing her box. “Pantry’s done, I’m going to go and finish my room. Night Mom.” She returned upstairs and slammed her door.