A Summer's Disregard,

Written by WickedSong.

Disclaimer/Note : I do not own Glee, FOX does. I also do not own Man In The Mirror, ABC or Control. I took some creative liberties and switched up the song order for reasons that I hope are clear and some dialogue is taken from Hold On To Sixteen.

Straightening down her dress, Mercedes looked to either of her sides to see an excited Sugar bounding up and down at her left, full of her usual energy as they waited for the New Directions performance to begin. On her other side, Santana was the complete opposite of the brunette girl, her eyes down as she looked more interested in her nails than the stage.

Mercedes nudged the latina with her elbow. Looking up Santana asked what was wrong by shrugging her shoulders. "They're our friends, Santana. We should support them."

Giving another small shrug, Santana nodded, sitting up in her seat. "I guess. I mean we did kick ass and take names, huh?"

Mercedes smiled brightly, fully confident in the group's chances of winning the competition. "Exactly." She and Santana shared matching smiles as they settled into their seats, the lights dimming.

"And now, the William McKinley High, New Directions."

"But you should hold onto your seat for this one, Wheezy."

With a knowing grin Santana sat back and relaxed. Mercedes wanted to turn in her seat and ask her friend what she meant but her chance was cut short by the beginning bars of Michael Jackson's 'Man In The Mirror'. They were doing M.J, she thought disappointingly, wishing that she had had the opportunity to join in but quickly dismissing it. She knew that no matter what the New Directions did it couldn't beat another mash up of the Troubletones.

Mercedes had been watching intently, a smile on her face as she willed her friends to do their best when she heard Santana whisper to Brittany, as well as she could over the music, "Here it comes."

Mercedes had been about to ask what the hell she was talking about but it was all answered in one simple line of the song.

"A summer's disregard, a broken bottle top and a one man's soul."

She would know that voice anywhere. Her attention now diverted to the stage she saw him. Standing under one of the five spotlights, at the very left side, his hair shorter and darker, his whole demeanor making him seem as if he had more confidence, was Sam Evans.

Sam Evans.

Sam.

Sam I Am.

I do not like green eggs and ham.

Whichever way you spun it, it didn't change the fact that Sam was back. Cute, sweet, adorable, dorky Sam, her Sam, was back.

Woah, slow down Mercedes, she scolded herself, you are not to call him any of that anymore. He's Sam, your friend who so happens to be your ex who so happens to be standing on stage right now. He is nothing more.

But saying he was nothing more didn't seem to stop the fact that her heart skipped a beat when she had heard his voice.

Because of her distraction by Sam's sudden appearance she had missed the rest of the first number but was fully jolted back to reality when Quinn began to speak, the opening lines to 'Control.'

Good, thought Mercedes, as she noticed that she couldn't see Sam. If he stayed concealed behind the rest of the New Directions for the remainder of their set list then maybe she could get out of here with some semblance of a focused mind. Right now it was everywhere.

Why was he back?

Wasn't he meant to be in Kentucky?

Did he know about 'so June?'

When did he come back?

Had he thought about her?

Why hadn't he talked to her?

Why hadn't anyone told her?

Her heart rate began to increase again so she took a few calming breaths. From the corner of her eye she could see Santana give a knowing smirk.

"You knew about this?" Mercedes mouthed to the girl, punctuating every word so that even if Santana couldn't hear her, she could hear her.

Santana gave a devilish smile and mouthed back. "What are you talking about?" She then turned back to the performance of the New Directions second song and it was at this point that Mercedes realised she had missed most of that too.

She sighed as Tina stepped forward to finish the New Direction portion of the competition with a song that Mercedes recognised as 'ABC.' Sugar jumped up and clapped along and while Mercedes' mind was still reeling from the fact that Sam was back (Sam Evans, back in Lima, when she thought he was in Kentucky), the younger girl grabbed her by the hand. She gave Sugar a small smile and danced in her seat, to show she was enjoying it. Sugar didn't look as if she wanted to take no for an answer but instead of pushing her luck and forcing Mercedes up when she clearly didn't want to she resumed to dancing around.

Santana, Brittany and the rest of the girls were also up on their feet, Santana clearly enjoying herself despite her protests that she wouldn't.

Mercedes thought she was scot free and her mind had almost processed that Sam was back (not in Kentucky, not four hours away) when he stepped forward, doing that body roll she had taught him over the summer. She put her hand to her forehead but couldn't stop the smile that crossed her face, nor the fact that she said, 'Sam,' under her breath, in that, 'you're such a dork but I love you anyway,' way she had become accustomed to over the-

Wait.

Love you anyway?

She shook her head. These were the kind of thoughts she should have been working hard to get rid of, not encourage just because he had come back to Lima (but it's Lima, there's no barrier of time or distance, anymore).

But there was a barrier. She had a boyfriend.

Shane.

And like that she remembered him. The one person who had been there for her. Where Sam couldn't be - not through any fault of his own, of course - Shane was. Her mind still wasn't processing this development too well for her to think so much but her thoughts continued to overtake her.

Looking back up at the stage, Mercedes found the New Directions finishing, their heads bowed as they waited for the rapturous applause that came from the audience only a second later. Mercedes found both Sugar and Santana pulling her up and she joined in the standing ovation that her Troubletone sisters and the rest of the audience were giving the group, her mind elsewhere.

All the way back to junior prom.

To when he asked her out in that nervous way during the New York trip and she felt as if nothing would ever match this moment.

And incognito hand holding in line at The Lima Bean (why had they thought that was a good idea? It was the one place you were guaranteed to find Kurt and Blaine).

Then there was sitting in the motel, watching over his siblings.

Picnics in the park, while the two rascals themselves tore around the great outdoors.

Sitting by the lake, talking about anything and everything.

That tilt-a-whirl.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," replied Mercedes to Sugar's question as she became aware of the fact that the girls were required on stage to wait for the victor of the compeition to be announced.

And all that more closer to one Sam Evans.

Mercedes scrutinised the third place trophy with Santana, Brittany and Sugar once they had come off stage. "I guess that it's then. Our high school show choir careers are officially over," said Santana with a look of longing to where the New Directions stood with Mr. Schue and Miss Pillsbury, fawning over their first place prize.

Shrugging her shoulders, Brittany took Santana's hand. "It's the taking part that counts."

"Not when the taking part means losing," countered Sugar, obviously missing Brittany's point. She sighed, as she walked away, wondering aloud if there was anything her father could do to change the outcome.

Mercedes shook her head as she watched her go. "That girl is something else completely." As she turned to look at the New Directions the first person she could see was Sam, not standing in with the celebrations and instead more on the outside looking in. Turning to Santana and Brittany, Mercedes handed the trophy off to one of the other girls with instructions to get it to Ms. Corcoran or at least her office

"Uh oh, I think we'd better-"

But before Brittany could finish her sentence Mercedes had folded her arms. "You knew. You knew Sam was back and you didn't tell me. You're my friends and you didn't tell me."

"Thought he was 'so June?'" Santana replied slyly. "Are you telling us it was more than that?"

Mercedes shook her head. "No, I mean, yes, I-I-I'm just saying it would have been nice to have a heads up."

"Uh, that's sort of my fault."

She did not want to have to deal with this right now but Mercedes turned to see Sam standing there, that sort of sheepish smile on his face.

"I guess this is our cue to leave," Santana commented, in a stage-whisper to Brittany before linking arms with her girlfriend as the two walked away.

Sam and Mercedes just looked at each other, regarding the other, waiting for someone to say something.

"I thought you guys should have won. You were amazing up there. The epitome of a leader," Sam told her and while something seemed different, like he had more confidence than before, he was still Sam. And there was still that hint of adorable and dorky and worrying whether he'd say the wrong thing or not which made him so endearing.

"I'm sure you're happy though," replied Mercedes, gesturing to where the New Directions celebrated.

Sam shrugged. "I would've been fine regardless. I think they all needed the win more than I did."

"So you came back to beat my butt at Sectionals?" asked Mercedes. "Thanks a lot for that." With mock hurt she clutched her heart and Sam laughed, looking down.

Already some of the tension between them was ebbing away.

"Well for Sectionals-"

"Why didn't you tell me you were back?" Just like that the tension stopped disappearing and again built back up.

Sam held his hands up like he had been caught in a crime. "I told everyone to keep it quiet. I didn't want you to think that I was brought back to distract you from Sectionals and I didn't want to distract you anyway."

"Why would you have distracted me?"

Sam straightened up and looked her straight in the eye, knowing exactly where she was coming from. "Yeah, I heard about your boyfriend. Shane."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah." She wanted to add something but didn't know what so she just continued nodding her head, slightly surprised that he did know about Shane after all.

"It's not over between us."

"What? Yes it is," she insisted, pertrubed by the frank nature of Sam's words, the way he said them so surely as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, that grin on his face. "We said our goodbyes, our romantic goodbyes, in July, Sam. We were a summer fling."

Looking like he was resisting the urge to smile, Sam only replied, "It was so much more than that and you know that. I'm not just, 'so June.'"

So he knows about that too, thought Mercedes.

"I don't know why you think that," started Mercedes and she was aware she was starting on a slippery slope. She had watched for almost three years as people denied their feelings, danced around one another, making things so much harder than they had to be. Now she understood completely, "but while you'll always have a special place in my heart, I've moved on and you need to do the same."

Thinking that was all she had to say she turned to walk away from him. She didn't count on him calling back to her, she didn't count on him saying what he said but most of all she didn't account for the smile that would cross her face.

"I don't care how big or bad your boyfriend is, I'm gonna fight to get you back."

I missed you, was her only thought in that moment as she walked faster out of the nearly-empty auditorium telling herself to stop smiling, I really, really, missed you.

Every single time I listen to Man In The Mirror and I hear Sam's line that little voice in my head is begging me to write this. Seriously it tells me off everytime I tell it to shut up and go to sleep because I can't with it's demands. Again, my crazy is showing.

Anyway, this was just so much fun to write. It just flowed really well and generally I had no problems with what to write next. It was so good to just sit down and not have to wrack my brain for hours thinking how I was gonna do this.

I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I did writing,

WickedSong x