Set before Skins series 6, after series 5, as for Glee, it starts around season 3 episode 8, when the New Directions are in a desperate need for more members... In this fic, Franky can sing a little (but she's obviously no Rachel Berry/Mercedes). I own nothing and mentions of Dean (Franky's friend in Oxford) were inspired by Tobiko's story I had a mate, a best mate.

"They give you any shit and you call us immediately alright Franky?"

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all Jeff? Why don't we just se..."

Franky put her headphones on and tuned out Jeff and Geoff's voices as her two fathers continued fretting over her. She stared blankly out the car window, thinking of Grace, Alo, Rich, Mini, Nick, and even Matty and Liv – of the life she'd left behind, to start anew. For the second time. How did things get like this? She knew there was something wrong with her; she knew her mind was messed up from the beginning. Why else would her parents have left her? Which other 6 year old would have found 9/11 beautiful? And yet she thought she was getting better; she thought she was becoming normal. Her friends were helping her after all, or at least, they tried to help her.

Her train of thought was disrupted when the car pulled over in front of a rather old looking red bricked building. In truth, the building probably wasn't that old, but the dirt and dust that had accumulated on and greyed the previously blue windowsills and darkened the cream coloured and red bricked walls, which were already marred due to vandalism, told a different story. Maybe her messed up head was just exaggerating things, making her see flaws that weren't there to begin with. Maybe she was just being too picky, after all, not many schools could compare to Roundview, in terms of the quality of the facilities it provided. But then again that was just her biased opinion. Oh how she missed her old life!

"Franky!"

"Huh, what?" Franky replied as she removed her headphones.

"Are you alright?" Geoff asked, his eyes full of concern.

Up till then, Franky hadn't realised that her breathing was getting heavier.

"I'm fine. Jet lag s'all" Franky blurted out, not even bothering to think through her response and come up with a half decent lie.

"We flew here last week Franky," Jeff stared at Franky intently, his forehead scrunched up in a frown.

Before, the girl could respond, Geoff cut in, giving her the usual advice, "Don't agonise yourself too much, just try to blend in and don't take any crap from anyone alright?"

Franky gave a nod to acknowledge what her dads' had said before getting off the car, and Jeff and Geoff gave her one last reassuring smile before driving off, remembering the ruckus she had caused the last time they had let her walk to school on her own on her first day.

"Are you sure moving here was the right decision? Despite the crap she got, Franky did have some pretty close mates back in Bristol," Geoff said, his eyes fixed on the rear view mirror, unable to stop himself from worrying about his adopted daughter in spite of the advice he himself had given her.

"And she had Dean back in Oxford, and she still had a shit time in the school there..." Jeff sighed as memories came flooding in – memories of Franky limping home, in nothing but a wife beater and boxer shorts, covered with eggs and flour, of videos and pictures of her being beaten up, the look on her face with the word 'FREAK' scrawled on her forehead with a permanent marker, and of course that damned social networking group. He then thought of Bristol. Franky seemed to have been doing a lot better there, she had more friends, hell, she even had a boyfriend! But of course the bloody bastard had to go and break her heart. "If she really is unable to adjust, then maybe we'll go back to Bristol. We'll see how it goes..." he trailed of, turning his attention back on the road.


It was after her dads drove off that Franky noticed the muffled sounds of protest. Turning towards the direction of the school, she saw a group of burly looking boys clad in similar jackets trooping out of the main doors, a smaller figure slung over their shoulders.

Just try to blend in.

Standing up to school bullies on your first day probably wouldn't be considered as the best way to "blend in". Franky tried to avert her eyes as she walked towards the side of the building, both hoping that there was a side door and that the boys were too busy tormenting the poor bloke to notice a possible new victim.

They were swinging him now. Ready to toss him. Into the dumpster.

Two other boys had joined the group. Just like the others they wore similar jackets, only instead of carrying a boy, each was holding a long metal bench.

After closing the dumpster lid, the group heaved the benches on top of the dumpster before going off, howling with laughter as they left.

A part of Franky wanted to pretend that she saw nothing, and leave the poor boy trapped in the dumpster. But another part, a fairly larger part, couldn't help but empathise with him. After all, Franky would know firsthand about bullying, being the constant victim of it.

She then walked over to the dumpster and pushed the benches off of the lid, wincing as each bench crashed to the ground, drawing the attention of the students milling about outside.

Well, there goes my low profile.

"You alright there?" Franky asked, offering a hand.


Blaine was positive it would take at minimum 15 minutes before he would be freed (and even the chances of that were fairly slim). Most of his friends never came to school as early as he did (and even when they do come, they may not necessarily notice he was trapped in the dumpster), and the teachers, at least those that cared, would have already been inside the school and be unable to hear him banging the inside of the dumpster. So imagine his surprise when he heard a scraping sound above him, barely a minute after he was tossed inside.

"You alright there?" a girl asked, offering him a hand.

"I guess... at least, I don't think I broke anything." Blaine replied, taking her hand, and taking notice of her accent and distinctive dressing.

"Thank you," he said after climbing out.

The girl nodded and was about to leave when he continued, "You're not from around here are you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"For one thing, you actually helped a glee club member. And of course there's your accent... So let me guess, foreign exchange?"

"No, I transferred here from Bristol." The girl replied.

"Alright," said Blaine, nodding, "Tell you what; if you want I can show you around the school. Take it as a thank you for freeing me from the dumpster."

She seemed rather hesitant to accept his offer, Blaine thought he even saw a hint of suspicion in her eyes but then laughed to himself silently. He was being silly. Why on earth would she find his offer strange? She did help him after all.

"I transferred here not too long ago too. Granted, Westerville is definitely not as far as Bristol but I understand what you're feeling. Starting over in a new school isn't exactly easy but it does help having a couple of friends." He said, smiling as he thought of his boyfriend.


Franky had no idea how to respond to the guy. She wasn't very used to people treating her nicely. Even her friends back in Bristol had given her a pretty rough start. Still speechless and unsure, she slowly nodded.

"Alright then, I'm Blaine by the way."

"Franky."

"Welcome to McKinley Franky." Blaine said – rather cheerfully for a guy just thrown into a dumpster, Franky noted – as he lead Franky to the doors of McKinley High.