Sam, wearing the purple hooded jacket he'd bought when visiting his Justin Bieber phase with the hood up, walked quickly into the supermarket in the middle of town. The automatic doors let him slide in smoothly without having to attract too much attention to himself.
As he stepped into the large store however he realised, as he did each time, that his hooded disguise would never work inside as they frowned on hooded lads, clarifying them as thieves. Sam removed the hood from his head reluctantly, letting his unnaturally blonde hair flow around his shoulders.
He walked hurriedly to the DVD aisle, thinking this would be the obvious place where a sixteen year old boy would be seen. Picking up a few DVD's absently, he took this time to glance around. The only other people on this aisle was a mother with a whiny toddler and a group of geeks looking over the latest box set of some series. Sam put down the DVD case he was currently holding (Dolly Parton: Live in Concert!) and walked around the edge of the media aisles before making his way to the food section. He saw nobody he knew and so proceeded to the fruit and veg aisle, making a beeline for the citrus fruits.
A staff member was busy unloading fresh fruit and as Sam approached the man wheeled the empty cart away to dispose of it in the storeroom. Sam didn't waste any time and keeping his head down he went to grab a few of the fresh lemons from the several crates in front of him.
Suddenly, on his fourth round, his hand clashed with another. His head snapped up and he came face to face with another fresh faced teenager, looking shocked. Simultaneously, both teenagers dropped the lemons they were holding and as they fell to the ground with soft thuds Sam swooped down to retrieve them.
"Dude." he said, collecting the lemons from the musty floor of the supermarket.
"God, I'm sorry." said the other boy.
As Sam handed him back the citrus fruit he surveyed the teen. An outsider would have claimed them to be from the same family although Sam would have brushed this away. Both boys had the same stature although the boy who wasn't Sam was shorter and his hair stood out, even lighter and blonder than Sam's, although having the same unnatural effect as the McKinley student.
"It's fine." replied Sam before doing a double take. "Wow, how many lemons does one guy need?"
The shorter boy's basket was filled on one side with lemons.
"I could say the same about you!" he replied, glancing at the armful of fruit Sam was holding.
As Sam blushed and stuttered, speechless and struggling to find a sensible answer or at least a 'whatever' remark, the other boy piped up.
"Hair?" he asked, an eyebrow raised playfully.
Sam couldn't deny it.
"Hair." he agreed, his shoulders slumping with the thought that his efforts to conceal his hair dyeing secrets over the past few months had now smoothly disappeared down the drain.
"Jeff." replied the smallest of the two, grinning and holding his hand out to the tallest.
"Sam."
Both boys shook hands.
"So…where have I seen you before?" asked Jeff as the two teens sat down in the supermarket's coffee shop, two bags of lemons placed at the foot of the table.
"You go to Dalton Academy right? I go to McKinley. I'm in the Glee Club." explained Sam, sipping his coffee, trying to avoid making too much eye contact with Jeff after his humiliating discovery.
Only Quinn had ever known about how he coloured his hair. He denied the fact that his hair was coloured to the others at school although Kurt, being the fashion diva he was, had come close several times.
"Oh yeah! Kurt's school right?" said Jeff with realisation.
Sam chuckled from the memory of Kurt interrogating him about his hair.
"What?" Jeff asked, placing his coffee cup on the table.
"Nothing…so you're in the Warblers?"
"Yeah, but maybe we should take care of the more pressing matter here? Our hair?"
"I'm not gay." Sam blurted out quickly and loudly, attracting more unwanted attention from some elderly drinkers in the cafe. Sam held his head low as Jeff laughed.
"Neither am I! But looking at your reaction earlier I seem to think that nobody knows of your, erm…odd hair colouring theory." Jeff chuckled.
"Well, what about yours?" Sam snapped, not wanting to be made fun of by an almost complete stranger.
"I'm not denying it, it's severely odd. Although, I think it's kinda funny. The whole situation I mean."
Sam glanced up from his steaming cup into the eyes of the Warbler. He seemed to be sincere and pretty laid back about it. Sam decided to trust him.
"Listen…yes, I colour my hair with lemon juice and it works, mostly…but nobody at school knows, so don't go telling anyone. Especially not that Blaine guy…or Kurt if you see him!" Sam said hurriedly, a pleading look in his eyes.
"I won't." said Jeff reassuringly. "Nobody knows at Dalton either, but I'm not necessarily trying to hide it."
"You sure about that?" asked Sam, teasing him, thankful that they'd finally found some common ground and realising, for first time, that he himself had as much beef on Jeff as the Warbler had on him.
"Ok, Ok…maybe I wouldn't be too happy if all the guys found out, but c'mon, what they don't know won't hurt them right?" said Jeff expectantly.
"Definitely." replied Sam, beaming.