Summer Menagé II
AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck
Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them.

THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review any or, in some cases, all of the stories in this series. Your encouragement helps more than you know. Take a moment and let me know what you enjoyed most about the update.

AN: This is the next story in the Learning French Universe. It will be from many different perspectives, and will take care of the summer between graduation and their collegiate freshman year. Again, it is planned as a series of connected one shots. I hope that you will read, enjoy and review.

Chapter 1
Back to Chicago (Styx)
Sam Point of View

Before we left, the moms sat us down and made sure that Puck and I had really amazing resumes that highlighted our strengths and victories. Looking at those, I would have hired us in a heartbeat. We'd also had head shots made, at Kurt's insistence, before school ended. The moms had them reproduced like seventy five times each. Dani and Mom had created us a list of modeling agencies, and talent agencies that they felt we should contact. "Why spend your time there working some minimum wage job or doing back-breaking labor…those agencies have offices in Chicago, LA, and New York. Ethan, Antwan and Bryant all agree that there is nothing in your recording contract that precludes you from looking for employment in any other entertainment or fashion venues as long as you are up front with both the agency hiring you and with Warner."

We thought about her advice. It was kind of on point. I mean Mercy was gonna be making twenty grand for a couple of months of work…Puck and I needed to see if we could step up our game. We couldn't make chump change all summer long. That just wouldn't be right. We called and set up appointments with BMG, Ford and a smaller but similarly long lasting modeling agency called Wilhelmina. Most of the other agencies seemed to cater to female models only. It wasn't exactly what we wanted to do with our lives, but it would be cool if we got to see one of our faces on a billboard or on the side of a bus.

It was after seven when we pulled out of Lima with the back of the Tahoe stacked high with three weeks' worth of clothes for all three of us. Okay, so we really only bought about ten days' worth of clothes each. We did bring laundry stuff to avail ourselves of the washer and dryer in our room. Since the room had a kitchenette that would let us cook rather than eating out all the time, we had dishes enough for the three of us and pots and pans. We had a couple of coolers full of enough groceries for about a week. Plus we had our hotel roller case, with three more sheet sets added to the original one. We also had our case of adult toys and Mercy had a case of lingerie that she didn't want her parents to see if they happened to go into our room for any reason, like when DaniMom had to go and get her pretty red bridesmaid's dress for Devon and Tonya's wedding. We were flying out from Chicago and meeting the family in Florida. Of course we had our laptops, tablets, guitars and anything else we thought we might need. The plan was to try to start writing songs for our first album too. I had found and brought the sheet music for 'Hell to the No' with us. I wanted to play around with it. It would make a great teen anthem.

Since we were a little behind, we let Puck drive. He had a lead foot and the uncanny ability to spot cops from pretty far off, thus totally avoiding most tickets. He also had an almost nauseating ability to talk and/or flirt his way out of the few times he did get stopped. With him driving, we made it to the hotel around eleven. Check in was fairly easy. I mean we had prepaid for the entire month, so they definitely had our room on the ready. It was a fairly nice room. Nowhere near as awe-inspiring as the room we'd stayed in for Mercy's audition, but it wasn't too far beneath the room we'd stayed in for Nationals. Despite the late hour and Mercy's early morning -she had to be at rehearsals at seven- we managed to get the kitchen disinfected and our foodstuffs unpacked before we made love and fell asleep.

The next morning we were all up at five. I made breakfast while Mercedes got dressed. Puck took the time to strip the bed and make the bed with our sheets and blankets. The hotel sheets would get washed and put up in the closet to go back on the bed before we left. Mercy got dressed in an absolutely sexy pair of black leggings, gladiator sandals and bold red sleeveless cowl neck tunic top. We drove her to the film studios on West Fifteenth Place and when we returned, rather than parking back at the hella expensive on-site parking lot, we moved the Tahoe to a covered lot that charged only around seventeen bucks a day when you paid by the month. Then Puck and I returned to the room and cleaned up. We sprayed the drawers with Lysol, then Puck went into the hall and returned with a whole boat load of towels from somewhere. We lined the drawers with the towels and unpacked our clothing. There were enough drawers for us each to have one for our under wear, but the bulk of our clothes had to be hung up in the closet. Puck and I didn't have anywhere to be until Mercedes texted us to come get her, so we decided to play around with our guitars. We didn't get anything really written, but playing around we rearranged LL Cool J's Big Ole Butt and rewrote it to say that to Mercy we'd be true.

After our musical interlude, we got our shit together and went to Bockwinkles, a grocery market a couple of blocks away. We grabbed a few things that made meals worth eating like seasoning packets and spices. The place was pretty higher end, but the produce and fresh meats were amazing. I readied everything to make us a simple, but healthy dinner of lean cut flank steak fajitas and a big salad. By the time Mercy texted us, I'd marinated the steaks, made the salsa, diced all the veggies and put together the salad, and Puck and I had managed to get everything ready for our appointment at BMG the next day. I put the food into the fridge until we got back and we went to get our girl. She was waiting on us at the gate. "Here," she handed us a pass. "Now you guys can come all the way onto the lot. Which is really important because on Saturday we're going to start filming the club scenes…and you two are going to do some extra work all weekend. Actually the clubs scenes are location work, so I guess that it isn't all that important that you can come onto the lot this weekend after all, but still. Isn't it cool?"

"How on earth did that happen?" I asked quietly.

Mercy smirked at us. "I may have taken copies of your head shots and resumes to the director. He decided that you two would be perfect for the club interior shots. He says that extras are paid a hundred fifty a day, and he can use you two whenever the shots are, quote, culturally diverse."

"That's cool." Puck laughed. "Three hundred buck for a weekend's work, I can get behind that. Between the extra work and the modeling agencies…we should be able to pay our own way."

She sighed. "I really want to thank you guys for coming with me. But you don't have to pay your own way…if you want to sit around the room or go sightseeing or hit the museums every day, that's fine too."

I laughed. "Mercy, you know us better than that. We're here to take care of you and to be with you…but we'd go stir crazy if we didn't have something to do every day. Besides, if we make a lot of money, or a little bit…every bit helps us build towards our future."

Puck smiled. "Yeah, besides, I've got to put money away for Sarah and Beth to go to college. It's kind of my thing. Plus me and Sam…we're saving up for a little something something." He smirked. He wasn't lying. Puck and I had a plan; we figured that if we worked hard during that summer, and made enough over the course of the year, by the time our first album dropped, we should be able to present Mercedes with our 'engagement' rings.

When we got back to the room, Mercy shooed me out of the kitchen and took over prepping the flank steaks. "Sammy, thank you so much for getting dinner together." She said with a kiss. "This is awesome. But I can't make you do all the work."

"You didn't make me do anything Darlin'. Besides, it wasn't completely altruistic. Puck and I figured that the sooner we fed you, the sooner we'd be able to feast upon you." I growled wrapping her into my embrace.

I was a little surprised when she started to laugh so hard I had to take over for her sautéing the beef. "Sorry. Sorry." She muttered when she got her breath back. "It's just that last summer when Artie was asking me about his feelings for Tana, I asked him if she was fattening him for a slaughter or prepping him as a sacrifice…and he didn't know. Then you said that and it just stuck me as funny."

There was nothing I could do but shake my head. "Well…apparently Santana's been enjoying her Artie based diet every day for the last year or so…and something tells me she won't be missing a meal anytime soon."

Puck died laughing. "Artie isn't missing eating Santana or Brittany anytime soon either." Dinner was incredible. I'm not sure how, but I swear Mercy made the flank steak even better. Since I did the bulk of the cooking Mercy and Puck cleaned the kitchenette. Then we all showered and relaxed around the living room watching the first season of True Blood on demand and playing with each other. The show was good, but it couldn't hold my and Puck's attention very well. Mercedes was looking completely fucking sexy even though she was chilling in a pair of jogging shorts and a tank top. We carried her into the bedroom and made love to her for hours.

The next morning we were up and at 'em with the sun. Since we had a better idea of how long it would take us to get to the studio, the three of us spent time in the hotel gym. Then we all showered and got dressed. Mercedes put some chicken breasts in a marinade and left it in the fridge for that evening's dinner. She approved our outfits and made sure that we had several copies of our resumes and our headshot portfolio. We had Mercy take her Tahoe since we didn't know how long we would be or if we could leave when she texted us. Puck and I took the CTA blue line train to the BMG office and got there in plenty of time. When we got there we were shown into the waiting room of their Male Commercial bureau. After giving over our resume and headshots, they had us strip down to our boxers and took a whole series of shots with us mostly naked, then in a couple of different outfits. We were shot together, we were shot separately, we were shot with other guys and stickly female models. When we met with one of the agents, a very interesting woman named Stephanie Wimmer who congratulated me on being one of only two male models there that day not to spring wood when being petted by the female models. I wanted to tell her that considering the real woman we had at home, those skinny women just didn't do it for us. But I kept it to myself. I explained to her that we'd be moving to LA then on to Manhattan and hoped to maintain our relationship with BMG even with all the moves. I did explain that since I would be beginning school in the fall, I wanted to stick with print ads and catalogue work. The moms had explained that we'd be able to manage our schedule best by sticking with those two genres.

She seemed a little surprised that I wasn't trying to make the whole modeling thing my future. She swore that I could end up as a famous runway model. I told her that that wasn't where my interests lay. Puck and I didn't get to leave until after six. We both had to be back the next day at nine for a shoot for the Sears fall catalogue. When we got back to the room, Mercy had already fixed dinner, and showered. She made a great chicken and penne pasta dish with sautéed veggies and pesto. As soon as we came in, we were hella excited. "We've already got a job."

"That's so awesome." She said happily giving each of us a huge, slow, wet, deep kiss. "You can tell me all about it as we eat."

So that is exactly what we did. "She said the job paid a hundred and fifty bucks an hour and we'd be there from nine to nine…so we should make around eighteen hundred bucks each before taxes." I said happily. "Oh wait, we have to subtract the agency's ten percent…I think, or maybe they take their ten percent and then we make one fifty an hour."

"The way the contract is written they take their fee, which is actually closer to fifteen rather than ten percent when you do the math, then we get the hundred fifty. So as far as the advertiser is concerned they are paying about one eighty an hour…but we need to remember that we'll be getting a 1099, rather than a W2, so we'll need to put some away to pay our taxes in January." Puck reminded us. "The same goes for you, Cedes, we don't need to end up in trouble with the IRS."

"Hell to the no. I'm not trying to end up like Peabo Bryson or Wesley Snipes." Mercy laughed. "This diva does not look good in orange." We googled some information and talked about how much to save for our taxes and decided to open a separate joint account just to be ready when April rolled back around.

After we got all that settled, Puck and I cleaned the kitchenette and showered. Then the night was a replay of the night before. With all of us having such early mornings, we didn't even try to find out if there were any teen clubs nearby. Instead usually we had a nice dinner, we cleaned up, we watched TV, and we went to bed. Granted, once in bed, we made love for hours. When our alarms went off, we headed down to the gym. Puck and I acted as Mercy's and each other's personal trainers and Mercy showed us more of her yoga. Then we went upstairs and showered and dressed and headed to our jobs. Modeling wasn't as easy as it looked. They didn't mind Puck's Mohawk like I thought they would, but they did make us wear makeup, all over when we did the boxers shoot. They barely fed us, because apparently models don't eat. We were on our feet pretty much the whole day. Of course we were type casted. Puck got to model the jeans and motorcycle boots and leather jackets, I was stuck in suits and ties and khakis and such. But the photographer was happy with our pose-ability and our ease of doing pretty much whatever he commanded us to do; he told Ms. Wimmer to get us back for the shoot Monday as well. It was pretty awesome. Mercedes made us dinner again. Our beautiful girlfriend had made us a great shrimp and scallop stir fry with jasmine rice and yum yum sauce. While at Bockwinkles, she had gotten the things she needed for dinner plus a whole boat load of fruits and juices, and a blender. She had also grabbed some ice cream for dessert.

We were up fairly early Saturday morning. I made us a healthy smoothie then we went down and worked out. We came back and showered. Then we did the laundry and cleaned our 'apartment'. Then we did a little sightseeing. When we got back to the room, we made love -partially to calm Mercy's nerves, and partially because we knew that we'd probably be too tired when we made it home to have our usual night cap. Mercedes had us assemble a couple of club outfits to choose from and we made our way to Hearts. The club had been rented out for the shoot. There were trailers and everything. Ms. Scott came over and greeted us before whisking Mercy to Makeup. One of the costume people came over to us and looked us over. They had us show them the other clothes we'd brought with us, then just made us trade shirts. Puck was wearing a soft blue button down over a dark blue statement tee that said 'I'm Here…What Are Your Other Three Wishes'. I'd gone for a plain silvery gray pull over. Apparently neither of us were modest, we switched right there in front of the dude. Then he had us go to a different makeup area and they made us movie ready. It was unreal how the whole process worked. They shot crowd shots where we were in the club dancing and jumping and everything. It seemed weird not to have Mercy between us. Then they got down to the nitty gritty. They filmed a scene in the back so we all had to be quiet. The filming took a long while, so Puck and I texted back and forth with Mom, Dad, George and Becah. Suddenly Mercy burst through a side entrance looking like she was crying and angry and my heart yearned to go over to her, but I knew we couldn't. The director yelled cut, and then we all had to dance around and act the fool while they filmed her busting through that same door into the loud crazy club. We took like five different versions of that scene. Then we had to fake a concert by Ms. Scott, who came out in a figure hugging, cleavage bearing black dress that was so hot I couldn't help but wish that it had been what she was wearing the day she and Mercy hugged in New York.

We filmed until seven in the morning. Puck and I used every out fit in our bags because they wanted the crowd to look like it was different nights at the same club over the years. Sometimes I'd have to sit out, sometimes Puck would. Mercedes came through in a few different outfits and one time I even got to dance with her in one little piece of a scene. We slept in Sunday since we had to be back at the club at six. It was cool. We were able to make some cash and spend some time with Mercy when she wasn't filming and when one, or both, of us weren't in a crowd shot too. The next morning, Ms. Scott allowed me and Puck to shower in her trailer so that we could make it to our Sears shoot on time. Mercedes actually was still filming when we left the set.

That was pretty much how our time in the Windy City went. Puck and I managed to keep steady work doing ads and catalogue work. We were there for eighteen days and we had shoots for fifteen of them. We only got to be extras on the movie three more times, once in a street scene walking along Michigan Avenue. It was a day dream sequence where Ms. Scott's character was dreaming of shopping the Magnificent Mile with her daughter…being rich and famous and coming home as the toast of her hometown. The other two times were less impressive locations, both times we were on the sound stage at the film studio. Mercy had to work every single day. If she wasn't actually filming she was in rehearsals or doing soundtrack work. She actually managed to finagle us some work as studio musicians, which got us even more bank. It was hard on her but she understood that both of the directors were trying to keep to the schedule that would have her free in time for our move to New York. She was tired but swore she was happy. It was a strange, weird life we were living, but I couldn't help but love it. It seemed to be an almost perfect fit for us.

Grindstone (Uncle Tupelo)
Santana Point of View

Artie's cousin Howard and his wife ended up staying until the end of the week after graduation. They were going to some big comic-tard convention in Denver on their way home. Bernadette laughed when I asked her how the hell Howard had bribed her to go to that thing. "Honey, some of the finest actors in Hollywood are doing comic book movies nowadays. I mean Chris Evans, the Hemsworth guy. Comics are hot now." She reasoned. "Besides, the sex afterwards is always amazing." She confided after making sure that no one could hear us.

Those two were okay for nerds. I mean Bernie wasn't too nerdy, even if she did dress too much like she was the Hobbit and Queen Quinn's even shorter love child. But there was no denying her intelligence. Personally, I think she was single handedly, the smartest person I'd ever met. Howard though…That guy was as bad as Puck, just in a nerdier body. I know that I say some shit, but I mean to say every word that comes out of my mouth. I don't think Howard can help himself. The filter between his mouth and his brain is either broken or it never existed. Thankfully he isn't handsy…just hella creepy. But Cousin Howie isn't so bad in my book. He rented Artie, Brittany and me a hotel room for the weekend after they left. After we checked to make sure that Howard hadn't gone in and installed hidden video cameras, we almost broke the bed in that joint. It had been two long weeks since we'd gotten to really get it in. We took all kinds of advantage of that shit. Artie and I also took real advantage of Brittany; the two of us worked her over so good with his dick and my brand new strap on, she could barely walk when we left there Sunday morning. I suppose I should have mentioned that after a rather intense session of my own sandwiched between Artie and Brittany wearing her own strap on, I wasn't walking all that well myself when we returned to our homes. We'd really needed that time together. The next week wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was definitely tedious.

The job market for people with only a high school diploma in Lima, Ohio was non-fucking-existent. Which, of course, meant that we all ended up working at the mall. Monday afternoon after looking through Craigslist, the newspaper and , we printed out our resumes forced Tessa and Aidan to come with us and headed to the mall. George didn't really tell Tessa she had to work, but she wanted a car and since Becah and the Jones had, with George's, implied consent, promised to get her a Focus if she paid for the insurance, maintenance and gas, she decided to get a summer job. Artie rolled into the Apple Store and came out as a Genius…with a job that gave him a fifteen percent discount on all their products and paid West Coast minimum wage -which meant he got almost eleven bucks an hour. Tessa had strolled into Books A Million, gotten pissed off at some schmuck who was putting Poe in the same section with Stephen King and got hired without actually applying. It took Aidan, Brittany and I a little more work to find our jobs. I put in applications at Macy's, FYE, Victoria's Secret and every jewelry and makeup store in the mall. I got call backs from Sephora, Macy's, Kay, and FYE. FYE started off at eight an hour which wasn't too bad, but they only gave a five percent discount for sales associates. That just didn't work for me. Sephora paid ten and gave fifteen percent off. Kay Jewelers called just as I had wrapped up the phone interview with Sephora. They offered me an extra quarter an hour over Sephora and ten percent off all regular jewelry and fifteen off the really, really good shit. I hopped on that one.

Annoyances aside, by the following Monday we were all gainfully employed. Brittany had found a good job at Body Central that only paid eight an hour but the manager was pretty much paying her to just walk around in the clothes and make people feel like they could look like her if they shopped there, so she was good. Aidan had gotten a job at the MC Sports which sold anything you could even nominally link to sports of any variety. We were the low folk on the totem pole, so we had the shittiest hours. Thankfully the mall closed at nine on most nights and six on Sundays so we were still able to have a social life. In fact that Friday night, Artie and I were scheduled to provide live entertainment at Club Exxcess. We each made a hundred fifty a night for five hours work. Best of all that was total, we broke it down to an hour of duets, in between alternating hour long solo sets. We got stage time together and separately and did any kind of music we felt like in that moment. The DJ was great about keeping up with our last minute set changes.

It was pretty nice change and great exposure…I pretty much considered it paying our dues. At the end of every week, I was kind of pissed, after taxes and FICA…who the Fuck is FICA in the first damn place and why do they want so much of my hard earned money…I was barely clearing two hundred bucks at my day job. Per my parent's decree I had to save half of everything I made that summer. Per my own decree, I thought I could survive on a third…but that wasn't happening, not when a third was only about a hundred bucks when you included what I made on Friday nights at Excess. Or so I thought. My parents were on some 'teach her the value of a dollar kick, but Mom still paid when we took our bi-weekly trip to Jewels. Then when we went shopping, she was still buying me shit. I have never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I kept my trap shut and buried my confusion. I deposited all my earnings keeping just enough back to buy myself lunch or dinner when I had to work.

Apparently that was my parent's plan all along. Sometimes parents baffle me. Brittany was putting all of her money away too. Artie, however, we had to sit down and talk with him. He had lost his mind. Every time we took him home he had some new tech. I couldn't let him keep that up all summer. "Robo nerd, you can't keep spending so much on your tech. I get it…you like computers, but how many does one man need?" I asked quietly.

He laughed hard. "Damn Devil Doll, with as much shit as I've bought since I started this job, we could have built a super computer capable of taking over the world. But my name ain't Miles Dyson. Naw…I got me a little side hustle. You know how I get a fifteen percent discount…well for a hundred fifty bucks, two hundred for the desktops…my discount is your discount. For the most part, old dude is still saving some money, and I'm making cheddar like my last name was Kraft."

I rolled my eyes. "You know that they can and will fire you for that?" I scolded.

"Nope. They said I could use the discount for family members…nowhere does it say immediate or biological…therefore they cannot tell me who is or isn't my fam." He said with a grin.

Brittany piped up with a giggle. "Tana, you're rubbing off Artie."

"You mean I'm rubbing off on Artie."

"Yeah…that too." She threw us a cheeky grin. Her eyes locked on my hand where I was actively running my finger over his damn zipper. "I think someone is wanting some Artie Lovin'."

There is a reason I never call Britts stupid…she may have her head in the clouds, but her mind is still as sharp as a tack where it matters. We drove out to the lake and Britts and I took turns riding Artie until we were all mostly satisfied. That seemed to set the tone for the first half of our summer. We spent as much time together as we could. We hung out with Manhattan Pippy and her boo Closet Nerd Boy. We chilled with Baby Puckerman…I swear that kid spent more time with Puck, Trouty and Retha's mothers than he did with his own. Granted I didn't really blame him. That woman made me uncomfortable every time I had to be around her. She gave off crazy vibes. Less so than the Hobbit…but still way crazy. Other than chilling with our friends and working our relationship shit out, we worked.

I never thought I would be a jobber. But I found something very true about myself that summer. I have a very, very strict work ethic…for people paying me to be there. I was seriously tardy all the time in school, but neither of my employers that summer ever saw me arrive even a minute late. By the end of my second week at the jewelry store I was given a big ass bonus to celebrate two straight weeks of having the highest upsale ratio. Apparently all that time learning to manipulate people from Sue really helped me on the sales floor.

I also found that I was going to truly miss my parents. I had been positive that getting the hell out of Lima would be easy as changing my panties; I wouldn't care enough to even look back. But, while I wouldn't miss most shit about that place, there were people I would definitely miss. I mean, Shelby and David let Artie, Britts and I baby sit Beth for a whole afternoon. I would miss seeing all the Puck and Quinn and surprisingly enough, Mercedes, that kept popping out in her personality. I would miss my parents, even if I was pretty sure that they were planning on using my absence to start swinging at home rather than having to drive all the way down to Columbus. It really wasn't anything I wanted to think about. Of course, Artie found it hilarious that my parents were into all that they were. "Well, sorry Devil Doll…it's just that…it's not exactly unexpected…I mean you had to get your appetites from somewhere." He'd said before dissolving into laughter. I swear if I didn't love him so much I'd have pushed his wheelchair into oncoming traffic.

That thought reminded me. The third week of July brought with it Britts, Artie and my first anniversary. I know Mercedes and her guys had done it real quiet, just went out just the three of them…didn't breathe a word about their shit to nobody. It wasn't hard to do, we were all so wrapped up in Nationals prep that I don't think Girl Asian even noticed and she pays attention to that kind of stuff for everybody. I needed to think about how to show my loves that they were a lot more important to me than I really liked to let on. I was going to do this for them, and I just knew it was going to be fucking epic.

Commune and their friends are back.

12 weeks of summer/12 chapters of story...if you want faster updates, you can bribe me with reviews.

TTFN,

Anni