Welcome one and all to...(insert drumroll here)...Avenue Queer chapter one! This story takes place about a year after the events of the musical; and Kate and Princeton are still going strong, Christmas Eve and Brian have moved (but will pay a visit in later chapters!). Rod, Nicky, and Ricky are living together, also. The story is centered around three best friends who move to the Avenue...and are a bit weirded-out by all the singing and whatnot.

Okay, so now that we're all caught up, let's begin the story! Enjoy!

"Good morning, Kate Monster!" shouted Gary as Kate strolled out of her apartment. It was about nine A.M., and the sun was beating down of Avenue Q. Kate waved at the superintendent cheerfully and walked down the steps as Princeton, who had recently moved in with Kate, stepped out behind her.

"Morning, Gary!" Princeton called as he caught up with his girlfriend. She linked her arm around him and they walked in unison towards the superintendent. Gary rolled his eyes.

"There should really be a law here about PDA, sheesh," Gary joked as he crossed his arms. Kate and Princeton chuckled slightly. "And where are you two headed this fine morning?"

"We're going to Kate's class' graduation," began Princeton, kissing Kate lightly on the forehead, "she gets to lead the graduates in the symbolic 'You Are My Sunshine' singing; don't you, sweetie?"

Kate smiled brightly. "Yeah, I do, honey." Gary sighed. Ever since the two of them had gotten together, Kate and Princeton had been inseparable in the most disgustingly beautiful way. Every day it was the same: 'I love you, snookie-bear', 'I love you more, honey-bunch', and their list of pet names for each other seemed to be infinite. Lovey-duddle, snoochie-poo, anything silly name you could think of; they had used it.

"So what are you up to this morning, Gary?" asked Princeton.

"Oh, I'm just getting ready for the newbies to move in. I'm working on my opening song; I was thinking something along the lines of a Glee-type mashup of 'It Sucks to be Me' and 'Purpose'. What to you think?"

"I love Glee!" piped Kate, her voice giddy with excitement. Gary couldn't blame her – she devoted her entire year to helping the kindergarten class she assisted with whenever they needed help spelling things like 'dog' or 'algorithm' or some other word they needed to work into their term papers.

"It was alright." added Princeton, patting Kate on the shoulder. She giggled quietly. "Wait," Princeton continued, "what newbies?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Gary, slapping his knee, "I forgot to tell you all, didn't I? We've got some new kids moving in. Fresh out of college, I think."

"Sounds cool," Princeton shrugged, and Kate nodded along with him, "we'll be sure to say 'hi' later, won't we pookie-pie?"

"Yes we will, pumpkin!" And with that, the two strode away hand in hand. Gary fake-gagged.

Astrid breathed deeply as she took in the stench that was Avenue Q. Beside her, Brent and Leila crinkled their noses, obviously equally as disgusted. "This is it?" inquired Leila, her voice tinged with disappointment.

"Yeah." sighed Astrid, gripping her suitcase tightly. Brent chuckled heavily.

"Kind of a step down from Yale, eh, Astrid?" he said, teasing her. It was true, of course, but Astrid knew it was only temporary. Once she made it big, she would be done with Avenue-whatever-letter-of-the-alphabet. She didn't care if it was Avenue Z, this was only temporary. After all, a business major like her was bound to be successful.

They approached the apartments, searching for 2B. When they finally spotted it, they began to walk towards it, only to be jumped in front of by a short black man wearing suspenders and a baseball hat which he wore backwards on his head. "Hello!" he shouted jubilantly, his arms stretched out wide, "Welcome to Avenue Q!" He then did something that took the three friends by surprise...he began singing.

Now, Astrid had seen all the musical movies there were to see (she had wasted no time doing school work in her dorm, there was procrastinating to do), so she thought she would be a little more prepared if someone broke into song in front of her, but she really wasn't. And then there was this feeling that Astrid had in the back of her head that told her that she had seen this man before. Still, she didn't think too much about it. Finally, Brent cut into the man's song, "Um...we're supposed to be moving in? Can you tell us where the superintendent is?"

The man stopped singing. "That would be me! I'm Gary; and you are...?"

Astrid spoke up, "I'm Astrid. This is Brent, and Leila." she said, gesturing towards each of her best friends. Brent nodded and Leila waved kindly at Gary.

"Astrid...what kind of name is that? Like, Norwegian or something?"

"Scandinavian, actually." she replied quietly. She already hated this neighborhood. Not just because the superintendent didn't know what nationality her name came from, more because that same superintendent had broken into song right in front of her, and it still smelled bad.

"Well alright," Gary said, jokingly offended, "here's your keys, and there's your apartment." he pointed to 2B, which they had already identified. He asked if they needed anything else and they said 'no', so he finally left them alone.

Leila turned to Astrid. "Why are you so aggravated? You've been angry ever since we got here."

"Well, it's not exactly as if it was my idea to lower our standards to something like...this. I mean, what is this? 'Graduate School Musical'?"

Brent interrupted her. "It's really not that bad, when you think about it."

"I'm just wondering," Astrid continued, "why we couldn't have found something better."

"We can't afford anything better! Not without finding another roommate, and I thought we agreed that none of us want that." Leila added.

Astrid sighed. "You're right. And we'll be out of here in no time, right?" Brent and Leila smiled and nodded, and so did Astrid. That's what she loved about her friends; they always knew how to calm her down when she went into one of her 'stubborn business-woman phases'. They always had the right words, all set and prepared to repeat to her in order to make her feel better. She could get by living on Avenue Queer if she had them with her.

The three started to unpack, taking in their new surroundings. The apartment wasn't big, but it wasn't overly cramped, either. Astrid could live with it. For now, anyway, she thought. Leila seemed happy enough staring out the window, though Astrid had no idea what she could possibly be looking at. Brent danced around as he unpacked his various socks, belting out show-tunes he knew by heart. He had just begun singing 'Annie' when she cut him off. "No. More. Singing." she snapped, pointing her index finger at him. He threw his hands up and began to hum, using one of his socks as some obscure prop in the musical that was his life. Oh the joys of adulthood, thought Astrid.

But seriously, what was it with all that singing earlier? Was it some kind of joke or a prank? Astrid couldn't be sure. She was still pondering this when she heard a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" shouted Leila, running towards the door. She opened it up and there were three men standing before them. Two of them had to be identical twins.

"Hi, I'm Rod. This is Ricky, and this is Nicky. We're your new neighbors!" shouted one of the men, the one that didn't look exactly like the other two. Ricky and Nicky nodded beside him, each smiling politely. Leila waved and introduced herself as well as Astrid and Brent.

"Astrid...that's Scandinavian, right?" asked Nicky, shoving his hands in his pockets. Astrid raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah...it is..." she shook her head, "so we'll see you guys later?" The three men nodded and waved before stepping out of the apartment and closing the door behind themselves.

"O-M-G, you like him!" squealed Leila from behind Astrid.

"I do not-" began Astrid defensively, but Leila interrupted her.

"I was talking to Brent! You were totally checking Rod out!" she continued, patting Brent on the back. He nodded silently, grinning from ear to ear. Astrid smiled at him.

"You two would be so cute together! Me and Leila should set you guys up!" said Astrid, and Leila nodded in agreement. The three friends stood together in the apartment, half of their things unpacked and a whole future ahead of them. They were ready to take Avenue Queer by storm.

Okay; so I'm thinking for later chapters, the pairings will be Kate/Princeton (yeah, they won't be all-fluff-all-the-time forever!), Astrid/Nicky, Brent/Rod, and maybe some others if you leave your suggestions in a review! Speaking of reviews, I really enjoy hearing feedback from readers and suggestions for later chapters, and it would also be great if you guys could tell me your favorite quote from each chapter. Thanks, and the next chapter'll be up soon! :D