Title: Be Kind And Don't Lose Your Mind
Fandom: Glee
Pairing/Characters: Mercedes/Rachel friendship, mentions of canon couples as of the end of Season 2.
Summary: Mercedes knew people would find out about her and Sam. She just didn't expect it to be yelled out in the middle of Chemistry and she definitely didn't expect to have Rachel Berry being the one to protect her from her douche classmates.
Rating: K+ (a touch of swearing)
A/N: Loosely based on something that happened to a friend of mine this week. It was so whack but gave me much inspiration for this. Basically, it's a couple of weeks into Senior year.
"And then Mr. Schuester suggested that perhaps neither Finn nor I should get a performance at Sectionals this year as a punishment for our little transgression at Nationals! Could you imagine? We have consistently had the most solos at all of the club's competitions! The loyal fans know us! They respond to our familiarity!"
Rachel had been ranting since they'd made the descent from Mercedes' locker to Chemistry class. While Mercedes loved Glee club, she preferred not to talk about it at that particular moment; especially since she kind of agreed with Mr. Schue. Also, she was pretty sure that there was no such thing as a loyal fan of show choir competitions. At least not for the New Directions. The girls walked into the loud classroom. Chemistry always started at least ten minutes later than scheduled.
"I just feel that while Artie's idea of Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John is noble-"
"Hey, Berry." A guy around Finn's height slammed his books on the desk next to Mercedes' and grinned at Rachel.
"Jaleel! How delightful it is that we share a subject together!" Rachel clapped her hands together. "Why, I don't believe we've had a proper conversation since I had to leave the Black Student Union for personal reasons."
"You mean since they kicked you out for trying to run the whole damn thing?" Jaleel smirked and sat down at the aforementioned desk next to Mercedes and two seats down from Rachel.
Rachel looked down at her closed book bag and shuffled her BeDazzled pencil case around. "Well, however you choose to describe it."
Mercedes nudged Rachel's arm. "How do you know that guy?" She asked as quietly and amicably as she could. Jaleel Pearson was a family friend and while the boy had his moments of niceness and humor, she usually spent their respective families' get-togethers plotting how to "accidentally" push him down the stairs.
"Well, my soul-sister," Rachel attempted to playfully shove Mercedes' arm, "as you might've heard, I was previously a member of the Black Student Union along with Jaleel."
Mercedes didn't even try to control the way her voice shook with laughter. "Oh, right… I forgot you were on there."
Rachel glanced sternly at Mercedes. "Mercedes, I belonged in that club as much as any other. You know full well one of my fathers' is an African-American!"
"Black." Mercedes corrected her. "Your dad is black." Mercedes was always correcting people when they called her, or others, African-American. The way she saw it, Charlize Theron in all her white lady-ness was still more African-American than a black person born in America calling themselves African-American. But of course no one ever thought of it that way.
Rachel nodded. "Yes, well." It wasn't the first time Rachel bore the brunt of Mercedes' corrections but she still didn't know how to respond to them. She had always preferred being politically correct. "I'm still just as proud of our heritage as you are."
Mercedes chuckled and stared down at her notes.
A thirty seconds later, after Rachel had finally settled down, Mercedes was brought out of her distracted daze by Jaleel. "Pssst! Hey Sadie!" He was using the nickname he used to call her by when they were kids.
She looked back up at him expectantly.
"I heard from a reliable source that you're dating Sam Evans."
Mercedes could see how Rachel's head snapped to attention at the words 'dating Sam Evans'. She and Sam still hadn't told anyone about their relationship. At first they'd kept quiet to avoid drama from everyone else but they'd become so used to their secret relationship, that it didn't really cross their minds to tell people anymore.
"WHAT?" Mercedes hadn't realized that Jaleel's best and equally annoying friend Trevor, had been occupying the desk on Jaleel's other side. "Sam? Seriously?"
Trevor had his Judging Eyes on. Mercedes wanted to scream and cry and slap all at the same time. She wanted to shout every word her mother had ever told her as a child about not ridiculing or judging people for being different. That sometimes love looks different to what you're used to but it's still love all the same and those who aren't involved in that love should keep their noses out of it and have some respect. But then she remembered that she wasn't fully in love with Sam yet and Trevor, who she mostly only tolerated, didn't deserve the breath she would waste on screaming.
"Uhm…" She gulped. What was the fastest way to get out of this?
"Oh my God, you are!" Jaleel stage whispered.
Mercedes nodded as fast and possible. She heard Rachel's surprised intake of breath but didn't look at her.
Trevor started hitting Jaleel's shoulder. "Did she say yes? Is she? What she say?"
Jaleel pushed Trevor hand away and said simply "Yeah, she said yes." He could see Mercedes didn't want to talk about it.
"Oh SHIT! Oh my God! No!" Trevor was laughing disbelievingly. "Oh shit!"
It was almost as if Trevor had lost control of the words he was saying when he yelled out to the rest of the chattering class, "YOU GUYS! MERCEDES IS DATING SAM!"
In an almost synchronized motion, the entire class shut their collective mouths and whipped their heads to round stare at Mercedes. She was absolutely speechless and stared straight back at them.
Had that just happened? Had that stupid fucker really achieved everything she was trying to prevent within one second? Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Jaleel had clapped one hand over Trevor's mouth while the other hand was slapping the back of the offending boy's head. Trevor wasn't even doing anything to fight back.
Mercedes knew only a few seconds had clicked by on the clock but everything seemed to be going in slow motion.
Suddenly, the entire class erupted in questions. Is it true? For how long? Or just general cries of Oh my God! No way! One guy even managed to get out a mocking, Oh yeah girl! Get yo' swirl on!
It was then that Rachel jumped out of her seat and into action. She told Mercedes to put her head on the desk and started rubbing the embarrassed girl's back.
Rachel was barking at everyone to look away. She turned her attention to Trevor. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" If Mercedes' brain had been capable of thought at the time, she would've applauded Rachel for breaking her cussing virgin. "Don't you possess a goddamn filter?"
Trevor was just staring back at her like he himself couldn't believe what he'd said. Jaleel had removed his hands from Trevor's face and just looked apologetic now. He placed a hand of his own on Mercedes shoulder and whispered, "Sorry, Sadie."
The class had turned around and begun discussing the news in their private cliques. The teacher, Mr. Mitchells, was yelling at everyone to shut up and calm down. He'd actually been yelling at everyone since the 'swirl' comment and was giving detention to anyone who even bothered asking Mercedes a question or looking at her. Mercedes was suddenly grateful for her good relationship with the teacher despite her average grades in his class.
Rachel sat back at her desk, Mercedes lifted her head up and class began.
A/N: Okay, this is going to have two parts. I wanted to finish everything up today but it's nearly 11pm and I gots to sleep. This is mainly Jonesberry friendship. I'm not sure if I'll add Sam's reaction in. Mainly because this is based off real life and I'm not sure how my friend's boyfriend reacted and I don't have enough brain energy to actually use my imagination instead of plagiarize my friend's life.