It was a month before graduation when Schue had this idea that they just had to do another tribute week. He told the glee kids that they'd all have the chance to audition their personal choices for who should get the special honors, and Brittany knew right away exactly who she wanted to choose. Sam took a little longer to decide before he finally settled on Lynyrd Skynyrd because they never do enough rock, let alone anything with Southern roots. She decided to keep hers a surprise and he barely saw her without a big, secretive smile plastered all over her face. It was only when it was her turn to finally take the stage that he got to see just how hard she had worked to put together her performance.
"I want to dedicate this song to the greatest performer of our generation," she said stoically, standing at the front of the room as seriously as Sam had ever seen her.
She took a deep breath and turned on her heel before dropping her robe. It fell to the floor, revealing that she seemed to be clad in nothing but a white terrycloth towel. "Every rose has its thorn. Just like every night has its dawn," she sang a cappella. "Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song. Every rose has its thorn."
Brittany then started to bounce up and down as she turned around to face the crowd, dropping her towel to reveal a strapless navy sundress with a wide yellow band going around her midsection. "Oh, every time I close my eyes, I see my name in shining lights," she belted, smiling widely as an unseen guitar player started to accompany her. "A different city every night, I swear the world better prepare, for when I'm a billionaire."
Completing a series of complex turns, Brittany made her way toward Tina so she could grab a purple hoodie from her friend and then swept her bangs across her forehead in a familiar style. Puck swaggered out then with a stupid brown wig sitting atop of his otherwise shaved ahead. "You know you love me, I know you care," she sang, stalking slowly toward Sam. Her eyes locked with his as she stopped short and rolled her hips. "Just should whenever and I'll be there. You are my love, you are my heart, and we will never ever ever be apart."
Everyone started to applaud as Puck stepped back into the shadows with his guitar, easily transitioning the song into a plucky acoustic melody that they all recognized. Brittany held out her hand as Quinn came through the door, the two of them singing perfectly in unison. The two blondes gazed at each other as they sang together. "They don't know how long it takes, waiting for a love like this. Every time we say goodbye, I wish we had one more kiss. I'll wait for you I promise you, I will," they wailed, Quinn punctuating the last sentence with a chaste kiss to Brittany's cheek. "I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again."
The acoustic guitar stopped and was quickly replaced with a jaunty country tune coming through the speakers. Brittany stepped over to the piano and pulled a pair of red plastic cups from a brown paper bag. "But I have to admit, the ladies get smitten, admiring how sharply my first name is written on you with a sharpie when I get to hittin' on them to help me get lucky," she sang, her tone with much more twang than usual. She handed Sam the other cup and tapped hers to his playfully. "Red Solo cup, I fill you up. Let's have a party, let's have a party! I love you, red Solo cup, I lift you up. Proceed to party, proceed to party."
Blaine then slipped behind the guitar and started to pound out a rocking beat. "I wish I could swim like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim. Though nothing, nothing will keep us together, we can beat them forever and ever," she sang before Blaine joined her. "Oh, we can beat them forever and ever. Then we could be heroes just for one day. We can be heroes, we can be heroes, just for one day."
He smiled at her, hipchecking her gently on his way back to her seat while she did a few graceful ballet steps to prance on the edge of a lone stool that was placed in the middle of the room. "She only knows how I feel. I only know what's she like. When she needs me, oh, how she needs me. Deep in the night, make no mistake, she's mine, she's mine, she's mine," she sang very softly, her eyes finding Sam's again in the classroom. There was no music, only her voice. "Oh, every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn. Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song. Every rose has its thorn."
The room was silent for a few moments after her voice faded away and then it erupted into thunderous applause. Brittany smiled brilliantly at her classmates, stopping momentarily to bow, before leaping into Sam's arms. "Did you like it?" she murmured as he kissed the top of her head messily. He could only nod and hold her tighter. "Good, I worked really hard on it."
Despite her best efforts, no one was surprised when Brittany loses. While her performance had been awesome, it would be ridiculous for the rest of the club to be expected to pay homage to her boyfriend. In fact, only Artie voted for her performance and that's mostly because he felt sorry for her. Tina's rendition "Daysleeper" made REM the week's big winner.
Afterward, Brittany and Sam sat alone in the choir room, just enjoying the silence and being together. "Do you really think I'm the performer of our generation?"
"Duh, Sammy, you're totally the most talented person I know," she grinned, shaking her head as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "I wouldn't be with you if I didn't think you had the star potential to keep up with me. We're totally going to take over the world after high school!"
"Speaking of which," Sam said, reaching down to pull an envelope out of his backpack. He handed it over to Brittany. "I heard from Tisch. I got in."
Her eyes lit up as she tore into the letter, which spelled out the guidelines for his full scholarship into their music program. She looked up at him with the proudest, most amazing gaze he had ever seen, and he just had to kiss her then. "Sam! I am so proud of you!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck excitedly. "That means you'll be in New York with Blaine and me!"
His best friend was going to NYADA and his best girl was headed off to Julliard. When it had come time to do his own auditions and applications, Sam had spent the past four months just praying that someone at Tisch would see something worthwhile in him so that he wouldn't have to spend the next year away from the two people outside his family that mattered most to him. He had wanted to tell his parents and Blaine about the scholarship, but it felt really important to tell Brittany first.
"We're going to take New York by storm, Brit."
"I don't care so much about that, Sammy," she mused softly, just resting her head on his shoulder as she imagined the two of them sharing an impossibly tiny apartment in New York with Lord Tubbington. "All I care about is going there with you."
A year later, Brittany and Sam travelled back to Lima just after finals and a couple weeks before McKinley's graduation. A few of the other old glee kids were there to watch yet another one of Schue's now famous tribute weeks. They are still together, still happy and in love in New York. After they had caught up with all their old friends, Sam led Brittany to their old chairs and watched as Ryder and Marley stepped to center stage.
"We would like to dedicate this performance to two of the best performers of our generation," they announced before slipping into an upbeat rendition of the song that had first put the two of them on the path that had led to where they were now. "And then I go and spoil it all by sayin' something stupid like I love you."
Dedicated to the one and only, youreshowingoffagain. Thank you for your continued support.
Song credits to "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison; "Billionaire" by Travis McCoy; "Baby" by Justin Bieber; "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait; "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Kieth; "Heroes" by The Wallflowers; "Make No Mistakes, She's Mine" by Kenny Rogers; and "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra.