Summer Menage III

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

*****PLEASE NOTE: If I am using an actor or musician as a face claim, they do not exist as their famous persona in this universe. IE: Darcy Lewis is a person so Kat Dennings doesn't exist. Or Hiram Berry is a person so Jeff Goldblum is not.*****

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Beat This Summer (Brad Paisley)
Sam PoV

The summer flew by. We had some time in New York, but between working, weddings, and financial planning, we were all over the map. After Lollapalooza, we stayed in Chicago for an extra day to interview interior designers because we had a fucking epic three bedroom two bathroom condo on the South Loop that we were paying the damn HOA fees for every month, but because it was still completely unfurnished and unfinished, we were still staying in hotel rooms whenever we were in Chicago. We were all way too cheap to let that continue indefinitely.

While we didn't get to start interviewing until August, the process started not long after Memorial Day when we were in the city for the EDC festival. We took the fifteen most award winning designers in the Chicago area and started going through their online portfolios. From those we interviewed six different firms, just the three of us and Hudson, we knocked one out damn near immediately she talked down to us like we couldn't possibly have good taste because we were so young. Another was honest and preferred more in person interaction than we would be able to provide. The third one we had to get rid of would be perfect for someone other than us. His and Sexy Mama's styles just didn't mesh well at all. To be honest both Puck and I had suspected that but we hadn't been sure until we met in person. That left us with Kendra Mann, Dianna Mondi and Thomas Kaufman and his partner Dave Segal.

Hudson had scheduled time with each of the six for us to walk through the space and determine if they were the right fit for us. They all knew that the morning interviews would determine if they actually did the walk through. The condo itself was just a little over sixteen hundred square feet and it had a 'separated floor plan' meaning that the master bedroom was separated from the other two bedrooms by the living room dining area and kitchen. The master bedroom was nice and large with its own private balcony. Its adjacent bathroom was spacious and had originally held a soaker tub, a standalone shower and dual sinks. There was only one closet in the master, but the room we were planning to use as an office/music room, had a walk in closet that would work for me and Puck. The third bedroom would act as a guest room. Nice and simple…nothing outrageous, but we did want the place to be fully reflective of the three of us. Our first walk through was with Kaufman and Segal. They were very much in line with what Kurt would have wanted to do with the place, but we really found them to be kind of bland and fuddy duddy leaning in their design ideas. So Mercy started trying to lead them more in our direction, "I found this great stormy, purplish, light gray that I would love to build the master bedroom around." She said very succinctly after her subtle attempts to get the duo away from a super neutral color palette.

"A bedroom should be a sanctuary, a respite from the world. I'm sure that we can find a color much more conducive to your refuge." Dave said airily. That was way the wrong thing to say. Because first of all who the hell was he to tell us what color we considered a refuge. Puck, Mercedes and me had all picked that color out because we liked it and thought it would be great to have around us on a lazy Sunday morning. Second of all, we were the clients, not him. He had to please us…not the other way around.

Then when he went into the kitchen, Thomas was just so sure that we were never going to be bothered with actually using it for the intended purpose. "Now then, since you are young and busy, we can have a very aesthetically pleasing kitchen without having to worry about functionality."

Mercy and I probably would have just let them finish the walk through and go, but Puck was done. "Look, we could passive aggressively let you finish and then just not call you because our ideas for what we want don't mesh with yours, and your style doesn't mesh with ours. So why don't we just say goodbye now rather than wasting your time and ours."

They looked a little offended and seemed ready to argue their case, Mercy chimed in. "In the future, I hope that you will take the time to get to know your clients wants and hopes for their space. All three of us prefer to eat at home as much as possible. We'd need a functional kitchen."

"And that stormy, evening sky gray that you couldn't even be bothered to look at, it took us five hours of looking to find a color that we all agreed was perfect for us. Thank you anyway, but Puck is right. I don't think that you are going to be a good fit for us." I finished.

After getting rid of those two, we had half an hour to just kind of walk around the space ourselves and get a better sense of what we wanted and didn't want. We decided that we wanted some sort of privacy screen on the bedroom balcony but not something that would block light, just something that would allow us to see out without others seeing in. We wanted the living room to be cozy and comfortable, not formal or stuffy. That kind of thing. When Kendra Mann arrived we were a lot better able to handle the walk through. Kendra Mann was kind of our preferred person mainly because she traveled anywhere to do her designs. She had done places in New York, LA, Miami and all over Illinois. We liked some of her ideas a lot, but she proved not to be right for what we wanted in that condo. We wanted a place to relax and decompress. Ultimately, it would be utilized when we were performing in the area or needed to escape for a while. She wanted to make it into a showplace. We talked with her about doing something like that in LA where we might conceivably have to host some industry people and she was very excited about that opportunity. It seemed like that was going to be a perfect fit and best of all, it meant we didn't have to go through all of this kind of rigmarole again out there.

Dianna Mondi, walked into the space and the first thing she said was "Tell me what you want to create in this condo that you aren't doing in your other homes?"

We all smiled. "This is going to be our refuge. Our place to come and maybe write, definitely make love, and just forget for a little while that we're not regular young adults." I told her honestly.

"Yes. The place needs to be comfortable, but at the same time fun and funky and chic." Mercy continued.

"But we should still be able to bone in every single room of the place, ya know?" Puck nodded. "I mean, we're building a place in Lima, but any of our parents or siblings could pop up there at any moment. In Harlem, we have roommates and in LA who knows what kinds of special lenses the paps have. So I guess I'm trying to say that this is gonna be our little love shack."

We all shared a laugh, but he wasn't lying. "Oh…and we need a real kitchen…one that is cool and looks great but is functional because we might go out if no one feels like cooking, but we don't want to have to go out because the kitchen is a pain to cook in."

She nodded as we were walking through, she pointed out a few things. "Would you be amenable to glassing in your small balcony with glass treated to let you see in and get in good light, but make sure that no one can see in. My partner and I have that on our balcony and it is a nice way to spend an evening."

"We were actually just talking about that before you got here." Mercy told her.

When we moved into the master bathroom she raised another good point, one we hadn't thought about. "I think that you three should all have your own sinks, and we could do a water closet for the toilet…and rather than bother with a tub at all in this bathroom we'd just have a huge steam shower. It would fit all three of you, but at the same time, I'd like to create a bench along the back wall."

"Is there any way to make that a heated bench?" Mercedes asked curiously. "Like make it tile or whatever, but use the heated padding like they do under bathroom floors?"

"Actually we can do the shower floor, the bathroom floor, the bench and the shower walls if you want." Dianna explained. "The added cost at the outset isn't insignificant, but it isn't too bad, but it will increase your energy bills overall somewhat."

"We can make that work." Puck said thoughtfully. We talked about storage solutions for the bathroom and then we moved back into the main living space. "I want a big ass TV with a good sound system, in fact, a whole tricked out entertainment system or something and a big, deep comfortable couch. So we can snuggle in and watch movies and shit."

She liked the color we wanted for the bedroom and wanted to look at bringing the some variation of the color into the living room too. "Maybe have the evening storm in your bedroom and a bluer, morning storm color in the living, dining and kitchen walls. And then in the office, perhaps a custom lavender cream blend." We talked some more and then called Hudson in with the paperwork. We had us an interior designer.

Then we were back in New York for Mills and Saul's wedding. I had to admit that I was a little bit jealous of them being able to have their wedding. I knew that we would need to be more settled and that we needed to wait a few more years, but that didn't mean I didn't want to get ourselves committed as we could in the eyes of man as soon as we could. We had a long meeting with Saul and Ms. Gwen and Dad and found out that we were making a lot more money than I had realized. The amounts we'd made just off the festival tour was enough for me to feel comfortable for a year. Once you added in the money from the rentals, some of which was still projected, but the projections were more than enough for me…plus the money from our residuals and songwriting money…I could finally let go of a lot of the tension I didn't realize I was still carrying around.

The wedding was beautiful. I'd never been to one on a yacht before. I'd never been on a yacht before at all. The food was great and we enjoyed Cassidy's mixing and danced, like, the whole time. As soon as we got home, we made love all night like it had been our wedding. Then we were back on the road heading to Iowa. We stopped and had a great time watching a couple of awesome movies while Van, Brock and Jacob got some rest. Then we made love until we got to Iowa. At the state fair we got Mercedes to perform in a sexy ass pair of brown and teal cowboy boots, and a sundress. The crowd seemed to love her even more. We managed to scope out a place that we could make love to our woman in between sets just like we had at every other venue. Santana jokingly asked if we would ever get to the point where we wouldn't have to get inside her every time we came off a stage. Puck and I exchanged looks and shrugged. "Probably not." He said giving her a wink.

"Besides, don't act like it's just them." Mercy laughed. "I give every bit as good as I get."

The crew 'bout died laughing and it was a great way to end the evening. Bradley had set us up with a concert in Chicago as soon as everything had been set up for the 'Carol of the Bells' video shoot. Just like our other surprise shows, the word went out on social media thanks to Darcy and on radio thanks to Bradley and Haja and Deborah's connections. The fifteen hundred available seats sold out in under an hour. We gave them the best show we could. I even made Puck break out the Zilla by doing my new tongue trick right before the show. He broke out the D'Angelo for the encore, so I hit them with some Luther and Mercedes went all luscious with some Janet Jackson. If half the ladies there ended up having kids nine months later, they would be totally justified in blaming us.

The next morning we checked in with Dianna to see her plans for the condo. She had it all worked out and we helped her pick things like flooring and fixtures for the bathroom and lighting and everything like that. Then we had to go shopping. Sarah's birthday party was the following Saturday, we had to get her something boss. I mean, yeah we were putting some good money into her college fund, but we each wanted to give her a great gift too. On top of all that, there was the fact that we were eleven days out from the VMAs and, while we had everything in place for the performance, we hadn't found a single thing to wear for the red carpet. Mercedes dragged us into more than five shops. Stores that just sold dresses, stores that just sold suits, stores that just sold shoes, stores that just sold lingerie.

After six hours of shopping, we'd found Mercy some really sexy lingerie, and Sarah a great platinum and diamond Star of David from Tiffany's that was going to come from her official big brother. I got her a pearl necklace and bracelet set that had silver scroll looking hearts in both. I'd found it in Tiffany's as well. I'd been hella proud of picking it out all by myself, until Mercy showed me up. Our girl got Sarah a platinum charm bracelet and then she got her several different charms including a diamond studded crown, a lock, a cameo of a little girl against a pink background and a cupcake with Tiffany blue enamel. But despite having done all that shopping we'd only accomplished one goal. Then she finally headed to Neiman Marcus, which was where she should have just gone in the first place.

In Neiman, Mercedes found two amazing…her words not mine…dresses. She literally couldn't decide between the two of them. The dress with the dude name was, according to the tag, a red ball gown in silk faille that boasted a strapless cat-ear bodice and had angled seaming to highlight the waist, dramatic pleating to form a voluminous skirt and a high-low hem that was shaped into a train at the back. When she came out of the dressing room in that dress, I almost fell to my knees to worship her. Fuck she looked amazing. The cat-ears of the neckline framed her titties more than they contained them and damn they looked so good, bout made me want to bury my face in between them and never come out. Then she tried on the dress named after the woman. That one was completely different…well they were both strapless but that was the only way that they were similar. The Herrera dress was a formal gown too but it was sleeker and less fun. The black silk skirt had a rose silk jacquard on it and there was vibrant pink at the neckline and then a slim band of yellow at the waist. If the Zac dress was sexy, the Carolina dress was beautiful.

Having seen her in both, neither me nor Noah could decide which one was the better of the two either. They were equally gorgeous on her…so after a few minutes of thought, Puck came up with a solution. "Get them both. There are more awards shows that we're going to have to go to."

Our beautiful wife looked at him like he had grown a second head. "The Zac Posen gown is ten grand by itself. That is not counting the accessories, shoes and everything. Then you add in the eleven thousand for the Carolina Herrera…Seriously. You still think I should get both?"

Puck smirked. "It is an event and you are a performer who is attending the event as part of your job. There is a tax loophole for that." He said sounding like the app commercial.

"Okay Mr. Smarty Arty…how do I make the decision as to which one to wear for the VMAs?" she said with her hand on her hip. Damn she was so freakin' beautiful like that.

Puck shrugged. "We get them both. Then you decide by finding shoes and accessories…which ever one you can put the complete look together for, including the suits for your arm candy," he gestured at me and himself, "that is the one you wear for the VMA's and you give yourself some time to find everything to go with the other."

So that was what we did. The first strike against the lady dress was that Mercy couldn't find any shoes she liked to go with it. However, it took no time at all before she found a pair of red bottomed, cagey, meshy, platform, high as hell heels that she decided were perfect for the dude guy dress. She found some cool earrings and a couple of bracelets for both dresses, but then when we went to the men's section to try and find Puck and my suits or whatever for 'the two looks'. We found nothing at all that would work. I mean we found some cool suits, but trying to find a particular shade of black to match the lady dress, did not work in any shape, form or fashion…But then we found a pair of suits in two slightly different shades of blue. Puck and I looked at each other and smiled. We'd walk the carpet in red white and blue…make a silent statement that we are the new America.

Checking out was an adventure. No seriously, it made me a little nauseous. The two dresses were twenty two grand, our suits were basically ten, the five pairs of earrings were another three, and the four bracelets were five. The shoes, Mercy made us get new ones too, that was five more grand. Then there were the new dress shirts and new tie for Puck, it was my turn not to spend the whole day getting strangled. When we finally got back and we sent Gwen copies of the receipts, I realized that we'd spent, including Sarah's birthday gifts, like fifty thousand dollars. It baffled my mind that we had that much to spend. Then I found myself starting to think about all the other things we could have spent it on. "Am I the only one who feels weird that we just spent fifty thousand dollars on clothes and stuff in eight hours?" I asked them quietly as we headed back to the hotel to meet everyone else for dinner.

Noah shrugged. "If you mean does it feel weird to us that we have the kind of money we have right now and we can spend that much money in that amount of time…then yes. I agree that it feels weird. If you mean do I feel guilty or whatever for spending it. Nope. Not even a little bit. We worked our asses off getting that album written, practiced and recorded. We worked even harder doing it while we were still going to classes and shit. I know that it isn't a job like what you probably thought you would have; where you work nine to five, but Sam…you have worked for this money. It is okay to spend it."

We arrived at the Langham Hotel where we, Haja, Hudson and our band were staying for the duration of our time in Chicago and stopped by the concierge to have the jewelry locked in the hotel safe before we took the rest of our purchases up to the Classic Suite we'd rented for the week. We had enough time to refresh ourselves and we were very glad that we had the powder room in addition to the master bath, because we all needed to go when we got back. Once we'd refreshed ourselves and hung up what needed to be hung up, we took a quick shower before getting dressed and heading down to meet up with our band and any of the New Directions who had gotten into town already before walking the short hop to Shaw's Crab House. We must have looked crazy. There were thirty eight New Directions from the Twenty-Twelve school year to the school year that had just ended who were participating in the 'choir'. There were thirty Warblers and then twelve others who didn't fit in either other category, meaning our band, Aidan, Vince and James. We were helping our classmates and Tessa and Jake…which therefore meant we were helping Aidan, James, Marley, Unique and Ryder with theirs too…with their trip by paying for their hotel rooms in our hotel…which helped us get a reduced rate, so we weren't really complaining at all. We were buying everyone one meal, usually dinner, but the Warblers were on their own for everything else. The Baby NDs, other than the fam ones, were in the Courtyard Chicago Downtown, just a block away. We were handling their rooms and had hired van that took everyone back and forth between the lot and the hotel and the hotel and whatever restaurant we were coordinating at for dinner.

Shaw's Crab House was a cool clubby place. Because we had a bunch of underage people in our party, we were there pretty early and eating all together in a private dining room. When we got there, several of the Warblers, including Sebastian, David and Wes were already there. We shot the shit with them for a while as more and more people started to arrive.

All of my New Directions, meaning the ones who I performed with for at least one year, were there as were Marley, Ryder, St. James and Rutherford. Marley, Ryder, Unique and Jake had car pooled and driven themselves since Ryder had a car. They had also decided that the four of them would be sharing a room. It wasn't a big deal to me, but Mercy had asked Haja very nicely to make sure their room was stocked with every type of contraceptive measure known to man. Poor Haja, the first time he got to go out on the road with us and he was being assigned to condom procurement…but then again, he started talking about contraceptives that I knew I had never heard of, so maybe he was the right person for the job. And most of the younger set wouldn't be there until quite a bit later. He and Hudson were going to take care of getting them all checked in and taken care of for us.

Dinner was so good. Shaw's was notably a seafood place, but they had sushi and sashimi and even some chicken and steak dishes for those who didn't or couldn't eat shellfish or whatever. Puck and Hudson had taken care of ordering appetizers for everyone to share. They had gotten several of the 'Grand Hot and Grand Cold Shellfish Platters' each of which supposedly served four to five people. Each cold platter offered an abundant selection of Maine lobster tails, oysters, shrimp cocktail, blue crab fingers, Alaskan red king crab bites, while the hot allowed you to choose from calamari, mini crab cakes, fried oysters, oysters Rockefeller, golden king crab legs, steamed lobster tails. I tried at least a little bit of everything. I found that while I loved fried oysters and even oysters Rockefeller, I couldn't stand cold, raw oysters. Mercy felt the same way, she hadn't touched them. Puck, on the other hand, loved them. Probably because of their rumored aphrodisiac properties. After our appetizer, the three waiters who'd been assigned to the room took our salad and entrée orders.

The restaurant offered four salads, a Caesar, a house or green, a double iceberg wedge, and an heirloom spinach and kale. Puck went for the Caesar, Mercy went with the heirloom and I chose the green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. We traded bites back and forth as always, which made Damien look around at our older friends, "so they have always been that?"

Mike looked up and nodded. "Oh yeah. Pretty much since they started dating after junior prom. They do it in restaurants all the time…they have pretty much infected the rest of us too. When it is only a few of us, we'll all get something different so everyone can try as many different things as possible."

Hearing him answer Dam, made me realize that I hadn't asked him about the duplex. "Mike…how are you and Tina liking your love nest?"

The smile that crossed his and Tina's faces was priceless. "Man, it is awesome. Did you guys see the finished product?" I made the universal kinda sort of hand gesture.

"Hold up, what are you talking about?" Finn asked confused.

Tina chuckled. "Cedes, Puck and Sam are our land lords." She explained. "And you guys should see the house. Each side of the duplex has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. There is a formal living room…though we have our living room set up as a study with four desks and thing so that we have a dedicated space for the four of us to do our homework. We share our apartment with our freshman year roommates, or we will when they get back after the summer. Anyway, once you go through the formal living and dining rooms, there is a kitchen with a center island breakfast bar thing that is also part of the family room. Then upstairs there are three bedrooms. Mike and I have the one with the attached bathroom and DJ and Nevel each have one of the jack and jill bedrooms. It is really great. It's in a nice area, only twenty minutes to each of our campuses and the rent is perfect. Our neighbors are cool too. They are a youngish couple that has been married for three years, and the husband, Mark, just got transferred out there for his job. They are renting until they learn enough about the area to decide where they want to buy a house."

"Well they have a year to get it all decided upon and everything." Puck said with a grin. "But Tee…how do you two like that shower in your bathroom? I told them to make sure it was nice and roomy." He teased.

"You're an asshole Puck, even the last few years with Cedes hasn't made you any less of an asshole…but, yeah, you did a good job on the whole shower thing." She shot back sassily.

Before my husband could open his mouth to retort, the waiters came to take away our salad bowls and we returned to kidding around until they brought out our entrees. Mercy had gone with the one and a half pound steamed whole Maine lobster served with drawn butter. She'd paired it with sautéed spinach and garlic. Puck went with the fourteen ounce New York strip served with bearnaise sauce and potatoes au gratin. It took me a minute to decide that I needed all the things. So I went with the Club Room Combination which was made up of a six ounce filet mignon, sea scallop, and garlic shrimp. I also got the lobster macaroni and cheese which gave me enough shellfish to kill someone who was allergic. By the time we finished the meal, I was stuffed, and so were the rest of the table…even Finn. The walk back to the Langham was definitely a good thing. I felt less gluttonous and bloated. Before we separated, Hudson got all our attention. "I've already arranged for all our rooms to have a five AM wakeup call. We're all due at the lot by six. Hair and makeup at six thirty. We're to start filming by eight."

One thing we had all quickly realized was that Hudson Friedman did not play. So we all headed up to bed and actually went to sleep. Probably only because we were all too full to make love. The next morning, when the wakeup call came in, I was buried inside my wife while our husband filled her mouth and used his on us where we were joined. Mercy had to wrench her head up and answer the phone since Hudson had apparently made sure that they would continue call until they spoke to a person. I guess Mercy's screaming out 'Oh fuck, I'm fucking up….mmming." counted for them.

We showered quickly and threw on some lounging clothes since we'd be changing once we got to the studio. The shuttle took us to the same lot where Mercedes had filmed the Chicago scenes of 'SongBird'. We were on a different sound stage. The one we were taken into that day was cold as hell. They had made it a winter day inside all the way down to snow. An hour and a half later, we were all fed, watered, primped and dressed in kind of similar outfits. The guys were all in sweaters and cargo pants. Most of the guys were in grey cashmere Henley like sweaters and thick black cargo jeans, but Kurt was in a heavy cable knit number with slim cut cargo pants almost the same shade of gray. The girls were in gray, knit sweater dresses with shallow V-necks that stopped right under their knees and brushed the tops of their shiny black knee high boots with modest two inch heels. Unique's dress was the same color, but rather than being a form fitting sheath, hers was fitted across her torso and waist but flared into a pleated skirt at her hips. Her boots were different too, they weren't shiny and they had a different look to their decorative ankle straps.

That was for all of them, the three of us were dressed different though the main difference was the color of our sweaters. Mercy's sweater dress was a sheath dress too, it had a rounded neckline and stopped a couple of inches higher than her knees. The cobalt blue made her chocolate skin glow and her beautiful brown eyes flash. She too was wearing boots, but hers were higher and grey and suede and had a cool woven looking pattern to them. She loved them. Before she had put them on, she'd kept petting them saying they were Italian. All of the girls had simple, natural looking makeup with pale pink lipstick on the white girls and the black and Hispanic girls were all in a deeper earthy pink. Noah and I were both wearing the same dark gray cargo pants, but while our sweaters were the same shade of blue as Mercy's dress, Puck's had grayish blue trim at the neck, wrists and hem.

We did the song standing in choir formation in the fake snow with Noah and me bracketing Mercedes at the center of the front line. Then we did the song with 'Warbler-like' choreography. Then we did the song again letting Britts and Mike and all the rest of the dancers have their fun. Who knew that you could waltz to 'Carol of the Bells'? We must have given them eight or nine different takes of the video, including one where we were all booed up and singing in groups and clusters that showed pretty much the whole range of human sexual relationships. It was pretty cool. When we headed back to the hotel we were tired but exhilarated. The family got together to watch movies in the living room of our suite. It was great having some time together. The summer had been awesome and cool and epic, but tiring as hell…and we still had two weeks to go.

Just Fine (Mary J. Blige)
Mercedes PoV

We decided to rent a car and make the drive from Chicago to Lima the Friday before Sarah's birthday. There was just so much stuff we had with us and to be honest I missed driving, being behind the wheel anyway. It was pretty rare for me to take my Tahoe anywhere in Manhattan, and usually when we did take it out, it was on a date night and one of the guys always drove. So when Hudson looked at the results of our shopping excursion and asked if we thought about renting a car, I jumped all over the chance. We made the four hour drive as part of a caravan of the NDs and Warblers who were returning to Ohio before heading back to their schools. Jake's crew was in the car ahead of us and Aidan's was in the car behind. Hudson had called shotgun so Puck and Sam had both been relegated to the back seat. Thankfully the Dodge Durango we'd rented had plenty of space in the back seat.

I looked over at Hudson and smiled. "Hudson, I really want to thank you. You've proven totally invaluable to us."

"Thank you. It has been a great experience. I'm not sure how other celebrities treat their PAs, but you three have been great. You don't exactly treat me like an employee…you treat me like one of your friends." Her words made me very happy.

I nodded. "We were glad to find you. We did our interviews the way we did so that we would find someone who could and did fit in with us…not just as an employee, but as someone who could get along with all of us…someone who could join our crazy ass family and become one of us."

"One of Us." Sam started to drone.

Noah took up the chorus. "One of us."

"Shut it Laurel and Hardy." I tossed over my shoulder. Hudson just laughed.

"I appreciate it, and I do feel like you guys are slowly making me as crazy as the rest of you." Her grin was infectious. "But as much as I am loving the mutual admiration society, we have some work to do. I need the three of you to think of names that we can use for hotels on the road."

I didn't get it. "Why? We haven't have any trouble at any of our hotels."

Hudson shook her head. "You didn't, but I reserved the block of rooms at the Courtyard in Puck's name…which is far more distinctive than M. Jones or Sam Evans. According to the desk clerk there were several attempts made to get up to the floor that we had the rooms on. He suggested that you all start using pseudonyms when booking your flights and hotels. The flights will be a lot more difficult, I'll have to research if that is even possible. But we can come up with a list of names for each of you. I did some research and you probably want at least five to seven."

Sam's grin was wicked and his laugh was almost chilling. "Okay…one of mine is Joe Kerr...get it…Joker…Joe Kerr." My poor silly Sammy just about died laughing.

Puck reached over and shoved him teasingly. "Man, it wasn't that damn funny." But his smile was almost as big as Sam's. "I want John Hendrix…after John Holmes and Jimmy Hendrix."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm half surprised that you didn't work Gene Simmons in there."

"What about you, Sexy Mama…what is one of your names gonna be?"

I thought for a long moment. "Wilhelmina Brockhurst." I could feel three sets of eyes boring into me. "What…who would ever think that someone would pick that for a pseudonym."

"True, and no one would ever look for a hot, sexy, curvy little black woman with a name like that either." Sam teased. "I should go for something completely out the box…what about Tyrone Davis?"

"Sure you're gonna set yourself up to get racially profiled over a fake name." I pointed out.

Puck smirked. "Yeah, but then when you get mad at me…you can always tell me that I'd 'betta call Tyrone'." He crooned.

We died laughing. It was hilarious. After that I think Hudson just started picking the halfway normal first names and matching them with somewhat decent last names until she was satisfied that we had enough. "Okay so Sam you can keep Joe Kerr…but no way are you getting Bane anything nor are you getting Steve Rogers. But you can have Clinton Stark and Steven Parker. Puck…John Hendrix is a go as is Gene Mitchell…but Richard Long…just no."

"But it's true." He defended.

"You can't say that to Hudson…you're gonna get hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit." Sam chided.

Hudson just laughed. "Puck is a sexual harassment lawsuit. I know he doesn't mean anything by it. He sees me the same way he sees Tessa and Sarah and Stacey…no, more like the way he sees the girls from the band. I might be nice to look at and fun to tease. That's all."

"Then maybe Puck should be Tony Stark…or something with one of those two names." Sam returned.

A part of me was soothed. I knew that Puck loved me, but sometimes, the knowledge that the women he flirted with knew it was harmless and not an attempt to lead to something more was comforting. "So…what does our schedule look like between now and the VMAs?" I asked almost dreading the answer.

Hudson must have heard the tension in my voice. "It's pretty packed. You guys are in Lima for the next three days. Tonight is the family dinner for Sarah's birthday, tomorrow is her party at Westgate Lanes. You told the parents that you three, Tessa, Aidan, Jake, and Marley would handle that party." I internally groaned. Fifteen kids and tweens, pizza, junk food, pop and more sugar than it is probably wise to give them let loose in a bowling alley and arcade. What on earth made me think it was a good idea to agree to chaperone that hot mess. "Don't worry…Finn, Lauren and Vince said they would come by before they headed back to OSU." Reinforcements would definitely be appreciated. "That is over at four…Sarah, Stacey and three of their friends are then Mrs. Altman's responsibility for a sleep over at her house and you guys are released from servitude. But you are expected at both temple Saturday and church Sunday. You fly out of Dayton on Monday morning. I have you three booked in an Executive Suite at the Ritz Carlton Marina Del Ray for the week. The band members, Haja, Brantley, Darcy and I are in deluxe guest rooms. There is some doubling up this time. Damien and Adam think it is nice that you get them separate rooms, but it is completely unnecessary. BaeBe and Jax want to room together and Darcy swears that if she doesn't room with me she will probably steal everything that isn't nailed down since it is all guaranteed to be swanky. I wasn't able to get us all on the same floor this time. But the band is together, the management team is all together and you three are just a few floors up. Monday afternoon, you are scheduled to meet with the set designers to create the stage for your VMA performance."

"We need a stage created? I thought we were a pre-show performance." Puck asked her quickly.

"You were…until Iggy Azalea had to rush back to Australia because of a family emergency and her performance had to be replaced. Lyor managed to talk them into shifting Rita Ora to the preshow since she doesn't have any new music out right now…and you three into that slot. Now you'll perform right before the Artist to Watch category winner is announced."

"Should we rethink doing 'Rescue Me', maybe we should do 'ColorBlind' instead?" I said thoughtfully. "The stage could be kept very simple for that."

"Yeah, but the reason we decided not to do it for the awards shows is still valid. It won't communicate as well on camera with them zooming in on us as it does live with the audience able to see the dancers and everything." Sam pointed out.

"Besides, we've already bought all the costumes and everything for the performance." Puck pointed out reasonably. "We've practiced our asses off. Rainbow came up with all new choreography and me and Sam actually learned it…we're doing 'Rescue Me'."

"Yeah, you are right." I whispered. "Just had a nervous moment, right there. Sorry. Hudson please go on."

"Umm. I emailed Mrs. Mayzer and Kurt…she said that they will handle making the alterations for your dress this weekend. She said she is bringing the appropriate underpinnings with her…I told her that as far as I knew, you hadn't gotten anything that I knew of that would work with the Zac Posen." Oops, I'd forgotten. "We already scheduled Mr. Westwood again for your event makeup. He has agreed to also be back stage to get you ready for the performance. He said that the makeup look will need to be vastly different to go with the period dress. In fact Tuesday, after you finish your tour of your LA house…Ms. Mann is scheduled to meet you there…you have a makeup rehearsal with Mr. Westwood in his salon."

"Think we can talk Kurt into going out there with us?" Sam suddenly asked. "He is great as last minute fixes and stuff and I know that I went out without underwear at the Movie Awards because the pants showed the lines. He so would have known how to fix things so I didn't have to go out there free ballin'."

Hudson shot off a quick email. Not two seconds later my cell rang. "Tell me that you are not kidding?" Kurt's voice rang through the speaker. His excitement was actually palpable.

"Not kidding at all. Apparently there was an undisclosed wardrobe malfunction at the Movie Awards and Sam is pretty sure that you could have saved his ass had you been there." I told him with a grin.

"I did wonder why he was sans underwear during the performance." Kurt whispered. "Puck wouldn't have surprised me, but Sam…not so much."

"Oh my god…you could tell?!" Sam freaked out.

Kurt laughed. "Sam…you are rather well endowed and it is a well known secret among those of us you consider friends what performing does to both you and Noah. The bulge was quite pronounced…of course we could tell."

"My mom was watching!" he moaned. "Oh my GOD! My MeMaw was watching."

"Considering that all your Puckett relatives were watching, I'm surprised that none of them said anything." I teased.

Puck laughed. "I'm surprised there hasn't been an Insider expose or twitter-pation over it."

Hudson raised a hand. "Ummm….they probably didn't have enough information. That was your first televised live performance of that scale. Not to mention that when you did the other television appearances you were either seated or you were in more forgiving slacks."

"Oh great…so now I need to make sure that we keep me in 'forgiving slacks' so people don't start commenting on my junk." Sam grumbled.

"I have no sympathy…or did you forget about that dude who posted my naked ass on the web." Puck shot back. "Aisha Tyler asked me about my junk to my face on national television. Now granted, I have nothing to be ashamed about…but still no sympathy at all from me.

I shook my head. "Me neither, or were you not paying attention to the twitter-pation that started about whether I had butt implants."

He and Noah exchanged a long look. "Sorry Babygirl, that was just funny. I mean, your ass is clearly real…and it is spectacular." Puck finally said setting off another round of laughter.

Hudson brought us back to the point. "Kurt, please check with Blaine and see if he is going to accompany you. Get back with me as soon as you can so I can make the necessary arrangements." We said quick goodbyes. Then she pulled out the 'business phone' and put that on speaker. "Go Haja."

"Hey guys, I just got off with Deborah…she was approached by one of the artists on one of Warner's subsidiary labels, Parlophone…"

"That's Iron Maiden's label." Puck chimed in. "I don't think I knew that was a Warner label too."

Haja laughed. Of course Noah would know which label a heavy metal band was on. "Yes, and it is Idris Elba's label too…he raps under the name Driis…he wants to get together and do a verse on a remix of 'Rescue Me'. His manager said that he saw the video and he loves cover and even more he loves the message of the video and has been looking for a good vehicle to break onto the US music scene."

"Wait…the black James Bond wants to come and do music with us?" Sam squeaked. "That is fucking awesome."

Noah wasn't as cool with the idea. "Hold up Sam. You want us to say sure; come on in to the one dude Cede has said she would literally fuck right in front of us?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, I didn't say a single word last night when you drooled over Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX for fifteen minutes after we saw the 'Fancy' music video, but you've got the nerve to be acting all jealous now?" I said caustically.

"What?" he shot back. "I didn't say anything when you said that you would and I'm quoting here 'have to break him off a little something-something if you ever got to meet him'. I just didn't think you'd ever meet him. It's not like I'm ever gonna meet Iggy Azalea or Charli XCX. Not to mention…neither of them is as sexy as you are."

"There are a hell of a lot of people who would disagree with you." I shot back. "In fact every damn day I get to hear from those people telling me that I'm not as hot as those two. Plus, you'll probably be meeting at least one of them next Sunday."

At least that made him understand my point a little bit. Or so I thought, "And you don't think Sam and I hear from all the dudes out there who do agree with us and who think that you would be better off with a black guy."

"Man, Noah…you're on your own this time. I know that there is no one, not Idris Elba, not Terrance Howard, not anyone that she would actually fuck in front of us…that she wants instead of us." Sam said calmly. "She was joking with her girls and we happened to be in the room. So we can't hold that against her."

"Maybe Noah is having trouble trusting that I was joking because he knows what his ass would do if he got time alone with Charlie XCX or Iggy." I shot back.

"What? Hell no. You're my girl…our girl. You know I'm not gonna fuck up what we have by fucking somebody else…not anybody else."

I sighed. "Then why the hell would you think that I would."

"Ah shit." He breathed. "Damn…Cede…I don't think you would. Fuck. I didn't mean…damn it. I just…I guess some times I still get fucking insecure."

"You think I don't." I growled. "You two don't pay any attention to the shit people say about me on social media…most of the time neither do I but when I do…it's not oh she's so beautiful. Oh she's so talented. Oh Sam and Puck are so lucky to have her. No. I get to hear 'they are both so fine, what the hell are they doing with her? 'They are too hot to be with a fatty like that.' I get to hear what a million skinny bitches would do to you if they get the chance. But you know what…I trust that you two wouldn't hurt me by following behind one of them."

"You're right. We see what they say too. But I didn't think that you cared or that it bothered you." Noah said gently.

"Of course it bothers me. I'm human. I'm a woman. But if I let them change me, if I let them harm us, then they get what they want and I'm the one shit out of luck." I told him allowing my eyes to meet his in the rearview mirror for a moment. "Now, if you are gonna let an offhand comment I made while shooting the shit with Tana and the girls that I meant so much I didn't even remember it until you just brought it up make you not trust in me…a comment made in jest about a guy who is literally old enough to be my father…then I have to ask myself if you ever trusted me to begin with."

Noah's sigh was long and loud. "Cede…Mercedes…I trust you, I do. But your insecurities are from what other people say. That shit is easier to get over. I've never felt worthy of you. You're a truly good person. Beautiful, inside and out. I'm a fuck up from a broken home who spent more time on his back than a two dollar hooker. I'm sorry that you think I don't have faith in you, but the truth is that when this shit creeps into my head, it's not you I doubt…its me."

I sighed. We'd worked through Sam and my own issues…but we'd always believed Noah when he'd thrown us his Puck arrogance. "Noah, is there anything else you are hiding behind Puck?" I asked knowing that he and Sam would both understand what I meant.

"Just the fact that sometimes I wake up and watch you sleeping so I can, like stockpile, the image for when you realize that you can do better." He said quietly.

"Hudson, can you book us a room for the weekend. We need to show Noah that he is ours and nothing and nobody is going to change that…not even him." Sam said authoritatively.

She did some quick work on her iPad and looked back up. "It is done and I emailed Mrs. Dr. Jones to let her know of the change of plans."

Haja alerted us to his continued presence on the phone. "You guys do realize that you just had a fight…at least I think that was a fight. It was the most civil fight I have ever heard before…still you fought, you talked through the true feelings behind the fight and you resolved the issue…or at least made arrangements to resolve them…all in twenty-seven minutes." His voice was fill of shock and awe.

I could feel my face flush. "That wasn't exactly a fight. But I am sorry that you and Hudson had to hear all of that."

"It's cool. I mean there are hiccups in every relationship. If you guys keep handling yours intelligently and honestly like that you should be cool." Our manager assured us. "So final verdict, should I let Mr. Elba's people know that we can move forward?"

Sam and I both deferred to Noah. "Yeah, Cede is right. I trust her completely so working with a dreamboat won't make any difference. Besides… that will probably be pretty epic for our sales."

"Alright. I'll set something up. Don't worry, I will make sure that they understand your scheduling constraints." Haja assured us.

"How is the office coming?" I asked him once we wrapped up that subject. "Are they still on schedule?"

"Yes, we should be able to have the furniture delivered on schedule the Thursday after Labor Day. The floor was large enough that we were able to create a real division between your administrative and management staff and the legal department. We're gonna have some empty offices that will give you room to grow and there is a semicircular area that is dedicated to reception and will be staffed by Brantley and my administrative assistant, as soon as we find one, until we need a more dedicated receptionist. After the furniture is all in place, Darcy will handle the technological purchases…I do not envy you that bill." He joked. "We are holding off on posting any job listings until we have the office space all set up."

"We can get someone in there on the days you are interviewing to pretend to be the receptionist." Sam laughed. "That way the prospective hires won't get the wrong idea. They have hard wood throughout, right…I know that most offices are like stone or tile or carpet…but I don't like the idea of any of those."

"Yes. We actually found a great medium tone, high gloss hardwood from Armstrong." Haja explained. "It is everywhere but the bathrooms and the break room. We did go with tile in those, a nice slate in a tone called Brazilian Green Slate from Menards for the men's room and an Indian multicolor one with hints of sunset, gray and copper in it for the ladies room."

"What did you and Kurt finally decide on for the breakroom, and is it bigger than six by ten?" I chuckled. Kurt had been livid about Haja's adamant claims that that was a big as the breakroom really needed to be.

I could almost hear Haja roll his eyes. "It's huge and yes, he got the banquette and table rather than the bar height tables and stools. As for the flooring, that we agreed on immediately. We found a Dalian grey riven slate tile that is just gorgeous."

We all laughed. Hudson owed me twenty bucks, we'd tried to explain to her that Kurt Hummel had reinvented the meaning of the word stubborn. But she hadn't believed us. We talked for a little while longer and made sure that everything was in place for him and Darcy to join us in LA. Our Social Marketing and Media guru was coming to make sure that our fans felt like they had the skinny on all the back stage and background happenings. Everything was a go and they were both ready. As we were finishing up the call, Brantley called so we said goodbye to Haja and flipped over to Brantley. "I just got off the phone with a cat I know in LA. He is in need of a musical group to do a song or two for the soundtrack of and a concert scene in the next Johnny Depp movie. He wanted to know if KAMA wanted the job. Apparently after TMZ asked Mr. Depp about you guys a few months ago, you've been on his radar and he likes what he sees."

Holy shit that was an epic thought. But... "When would they need the song and when is filming? We're a week out from going back to classes." I asked worriedly.

"No worries. They are still in casting. No way will they move into filming on this one before Christmas. It's a future period piece so they wanted someone fresh on the scene with a new sound. That sounds like KAMA to me."

"We'd love the chance," Sam said with a big grin. "But before we write a song for the movie, can we get a script summary. I mean, we don't want the song to be completely off topic." He pointed out. "It has been known to mess up the audience's enjoyment of the movie and mess up the career of the artists." His tone conveyed that he was thinking of a very particular movie…none of us were brave or crazy enough to start the rant that he would throw if we asked what he meant.

"I'll get up with Patrick and make it happen. I should definitely have it in hand when we get to LA if not before." Brantley told us.

We were pulling into Lima when we ended the call. Out of curiosity, we drove by what would be our Lima home and were shocked to see how much progress had already been made. The foundation and basement had both been cured and the rough framing, plumbing and electrical had had been completed. It was still really early in the day and the crew was onsite. Puck spotted George among them, so of course we had to stop. The way those two hugged, it was easy to forget that we'd just seen them like two weeks earlier. Then again, I know that Puck was a little worried about how George was going to react when he found out that we had kind of paid off the debt he'd incurred to move his business from Manhattan to Lima. It wasn't much, but men were proud creatures.

"Wow, George, this is amazing. It is so much further along than we thought it would be." I said as I gave him a hug of my own.

He smiled. "Well, there are these three mothers…you may know them…they are very interested in your house being finished by the time you three get out for Christmas."

I chuckled, but Sam was looking confused. "It's…it's big." He finally said quietly. I thought we went with a simple four bedroom, four bath house design…it was only like forty six hundred square feet."

George smirked. "Well, since your dad and I suddenly had no more debt…" we gave him sheepish smiles. Maybe we should have asked before we did that…but they had done so much for us and supported us so well, how could we not especially since neither of them would let us buy them houses or anything. "Sander, he decided that all things considered, he'd come up with some new floor plans. It's a little over eight thousand square feet. Six bedrooms, six full baths, a couple of half baths and a fully finished attic and basement. There is space for a pool, pool house and a guest house if you want them later."

"Wow." I breathed. "What are we gonna do with all that house?"

George checked around as if looking for someone. "Don't tell them I told you, but your mothers are hoping that you will host Christmas in your house and maybe let the out of town relatives stay with you. Gabby said that between the four houses, no one should have to get a hotel room this year."

"I love it…the moms are pimping out our house and it isn't even finished yet." Puck roared with laughter. "Hell yeah, we'll do it. We're like really, real grown-ups all committed and married and hosting our first Christmas. It is going to be so fucking awesome."

Puck has never been one to be excited all by his self. Within minutes he had Sam and me completely on board with how epically cool it was destined to be. I was working with Hudson to try and figure out how many people could sit at the typical formal dinner table and if we'd need to get something custom made. We started talking about how to manage to fit all of our multitude of family members into the four houses. George sent us on our way and we were still planning everything. But we had to shut that talk down when we pulled into the drive at my parent's house. Despite it being a work day, Mom, Becah and Bubbie Ruth were there waiting for us with Shelby and Beth.

There were more hugs…lots of checking us over to see if we were too thin or had somehow losta luimb in the last couple of weeks. Then next thing I knew, Bubbie was issuing orders. "My boychicks, I want the two of you to carry all of the things you bought for the VMAs up to Mercedes' room. I've taken it over for my stay. We have six hours before we need to get dressed for dinner. That is more than enough time for me to get everything pinned and tucked….while we work on Cede, you two can go get checked in."

"Our stuff too?" Sam asked.

Bubbie nodded. "Have you never seen Fashion Police…they will crucify you if your suits aren't tailored, much as they would Mercedes for not wearing a ridiculously expensive, designer dress." She advised. "I want to see everything so that we can make sure that you get all the best press. Oh and get my little protégé over here. I swear he hurts my heart with all that NYADA stuff. He is going to be the single best stylist and designer the world has ever seen."

I got out my phone and texted Kurt. He and Ruth Mayzer had been arguing about his true calling for months. My boys and I along with Blaine stayed far out of it. Santana liked instigating battles in the war. Then I helped Sam and Puck take things up to my old room. This was a great chance to have the moms help me decide on which of the different jewelry pieces to wear. "Alright, we'll be back in I guess an hour." Puck said after kissing everyone and asking Shelby if he could take Beth with them. She went down to help them move the extra car seat to the rental car.

After they were gone, Bubbie pulled out the underpinnings she'd gotten me, based solely off Hudson's description of the dress and her own gifts at fashion. "I started to go with a corset, but I was worried that you wouldn't be able to dance in it for your performance and I didn't want you to have to strip down to your skin to change, so instead I went with a Spanx, strapless body suit." She handed me a Neiman Marcus bag and inside was the black shape wear and something else. "If you wear that black strapless Wacoal bra with it, your ladies should sit up perfectly behind that dress."

I went into the bathroom and noticed that Mom had changed out the shower curtain, liner and the towels. I quickly changed from the cute little sundress I'd worn in the car, and put on the bra and spanx before returning to the bedroom. With Bubbie's help, I put on the red dress and then I pulled on the Louboutins that would give me added height and looked awesome with the dress. Or so I thought.

"Why did you go with those?" Mom suddenly asked looking at the Christian Louboutin Altarakna peep-toe, mesh-caged, red sole booties I'd fallen in love with. She must have seen the look on my face. "Sorry…they are definitely cute, but why didn't you go with a pair of evening pumps…something more formal?"

"I love them." Becah smiled. "They are adorable and unexpected. I mean, they are formal and yet and still they are playful."

"So are those cute laser cut ones that just hit stores in the spring." Bubbie mentioned. She quickly added. "I actually like them and they look good with the dress, but I love those new laser cut, peep toe, sandals with the criss cross straps over the vamp."

"Those are cute. But they didn't have those in my size. Plus, I love these. They make me feel sexy and confident." I told them honestly.

"Well then, that is all that matters." Mom said reasonably. "But, Hudson, if you will give me the name of the hotel, I'll have a pair of the sandals she likes there by Wednesday or Thursday."

I laughed. Mom must really not like my shoes. Hudson realized the same thing. She gave Mom the requested information and smiled. "Mercedes, would you like me to lay out the accessories so that your moms can help you decide between them?"

"That's a great idea." I said happy for the subject change. Letting them choose between things I hadn't had such a visceral reaction to was definitely the lesser of two evils. Hudson laid out the Dannijo Carrie crystal drop earrings, the pointed end, elliptical silver and garnet earrings, the eighteen carat white gold detachable garnet and diamond chandelier earrings, and the luxury garnet stone earrings chandelier dangle earrings which were also eighteen carat white gold on the mirrored dresser in the room. As she was doing so, my regular cell phone rang. Hudson answered it and put it on speaker. "Mercedes, are the guys there?" Gwen Abrams calm voice rang out.

"No, they went to get us checked into the Wyndham." I told her with a chuckle, "but you can go ahead and tell me whatever it is…they should be back soon."

"We got the property in Georgia, the apartment complex for under three million. And we can get the renovations started in forty-five days." Her voice was very clearly smiling.

"What is the plan for the current occupants?" I asked cautiously.

"We are giving them the option to relocate and we are giving them fifteen hundred dollars per household to facilitate that relocation. Most of them wouldn't be able to afford the new rates that the new apartments will draw. Most of them would have moved long ago if they had the ability." Artie's mother answered. "The old management company had been raising rents without really maintaining their units. They welcome the change."

I nodded. "Okay, I just don't want to displace them from their homes and not make sure that they have somewhere to go."

"They won't be." Gwen assured me. "Also we over paid first quarter, so do you want me to pay the usual amount and you get a refund next year, or do you want me to lower the payment for this quarter and allow the adjustment to even out."

"Let's over pay and get a refund." Sam suggested as he entered the room. "That way if we're wrong about the over payment or something, we'll still be okay."

Mrs. Abrams agreed and we moved on to the next subject. "I have already hired Brasfield and Gorrie, LLC to handle the construction. As usual, they don't know your names beyond the name of your corporation, nor does the company that used to own the apartment complex."

"Okay, great." Puck began, "the last thing we need is people talking about how KAMA kicked people out of their homes."

We silently agreed. Gwen said that she would bring over the purchase documents that needed our signatures in the next hour. By the time she had arrived, Bubbie had finished with me, I'd changed back into real clothes and Ruth and Kurt had completed pinning in Sam and were working on Puck. There were a butt load of places that needed our signatures but by the time we finally finished the signing, we were the proud new owners of more real estate. And Mom, Becah, Shelby and Gabby, once she got home from work, had finally reached an agreement on which earrings I should wear. Though the question of my shoes was apparently back on the table.

Sam Puck, Hudson and I escaped the madness and retreated to our hotel rooms. We, unfortunately, barely had time for a quickie in the shower before we had to get dressed, gather Sarah's birthday gifts and make our way to the Old Prime Steakhouse. It was a lot more than what one would expect the typical thirteen year old to ask to have their birthday party, but she got to pick the place and that was where she picked. I kind of wished that we'd been able to do more for her Bat Mitzvah the year before, but we weren't balling at that point, not for real, and we'd barely been able to make it the first place. We had just moved to New York for school and barely had time to breathe. We flown in a few hours before the party and flown back not long after it ended. Besides, Sarah hadn't wanted a huge to do…or that was what she claimed. So instead we were doing her thirteenth birthday up huge.

We rented the 'Upper Lounge' for the night. The dinner was just for family…mostly. Each of Triple S had been allowed to invite one friend. Steven had brought Ethan, which was perfect since Aidan came with Tessa. Stacey had brought the little redhead girl, Tiffany, and Sarah had brought a girl she'd been friends with for most of her life, but they had mainly been 'at school' friends until middle school when they both got cell phones and were better able to keep contact after school and on weekends. Mia Hinkle was a cutie with long chestnut brown hair and wide, innocent brown eyes. She made me smile every time someone mentioned math at all…the faces she made were hilarious. Other than those four, and Marley, everyone present was a member of our big crazy family. Saul and Mills had come in, as had Neil and Francesca. I'd met Neil's mother at Becah and George's wedding. She had been so grateful that Neil was actually living his life and settling down with a 'nice Jewish girl' she was pretty much hugging everyone that had anything at all to do with the change. Francesca was sporting a large heart shaped diamond in a diamond and platinum band. She was so very happy…she'd put on fifteen pounds and looked absolutely incredible. The little bit of extra weight softened her body and made her boobs look almost real. Probably she would never let herself get any bigger, but she looked healthy.

Both Grandma Mae and MeMaw had come in for the weekend. They had adopted all the rest of 'the babies' as surely as Ruth had. Gabby was hoping that she could possibly talk her mom into moving up to Lima too, but she loved her home, the one she had shared with her husband and in which she had raised her kids. Couldn't blame her, those feelings were called roots for a reason. Kevon, Trice, Tonya and Devon had all made the drive too. After a great dinner, Sarah opened her gifts. She got tons of clothes, the jewelry from us, some tech and a car. Okay so the car was a picture of the sixty-nine Chevy Nova that she and George were going to rebuild in their spare time in the hopes that they would be finished with it by the time she was ready to get her license. All in all it was a damn good haul.

Once she had all her gifts opened and, in many cases, on, the cake was brought out. Becah had gotten her a pretty fuchsia cake with silver and black scrolls over it and it was made to look like a present itself. After cake and ice cream Puck and Sam helped George, Sander and Benton take Sarah's haul to the car and then we headed back to the hotel room.

Once we were locked away for the night, I looked over at Noah. "It has been a crazy day, and an even crazier week, but don't think that Sam or I have forgotten about the conversation in the car." I told him gently as I carefully started to separate him from his clothes. My hands made short work of his clothing, and I let my lips and kisses try to heal the emotional wounds that he'd kept hidden from us for so long. Sam joined us and we spent the next seven hours making sure that he understood that he was worthy…that he was worth everything.

The next morning we awoke to a knock at the door. Thankfully it was just room service, but it gave us time get up and get dressed for the day before Grandma Mae and MeMaw all stopped by. They dragged us to the mall. They said that it was to get us presents for our good grades, which was a tradition in my family, but I think they really did it just to watch us get swarmed by fans and then point and laugh at us before they finally helped security manage the crowd and get us the hell out of there. Thankfully we still made it to George's in time to grab Triple S and Tessa and make it to Westgate Lanes in time for the party. Fifteen middle schoolers and a few fourth and fifth graders were just as loud and borderline obnoxious as I'd anticipated. At least we had Tessa, Aidan, Jake and Marley for help…plus Finn, Lauren and Vince stopped by for a while and not too long after they left Unique and Riley showed up too.

There was another cake, this one from a grocery store rather than a real bakery, but it was still cake so it was still good. I was going to have to work out so much before the VMAs. The bulk of the parents showed up and took the wildebeests they called tween home, after everybody and their grandmothers asked us for autographs…which was epically weird by the way. Around the time we were saying good bye to the last of them, Becah and George arrived to get the girls they were taking for the slumber party and Aidan and Tessa took Stevie and Ethan with them. We had just enough time to make love again before we had to get dressed for Temple. It was nice to see Hiram and Antwan. They introduced us to their surrogate…she seemed like a really nice lady and she was showing a lot considering that she was only twenty-five weeks along. I sent Hudson a text to have her start keeping an eye out for registries for the two dads and they tried to apologize again for the bad behavior of their eldest child. She wasn't present. Despite the fact that they had asked her if she wanted to visit for at least part of the summer, she had staunchly remained in New York. The prevailing theory was that while Rachel had been able to handle the concept of a single sibling but then when they told her that they were having multiples, she hadn't taken it very well.

That night we had a quiet dinner together with our friends almost all of whom were either going back to their schools the next morning or we heading to LA with us the morning after that. When we made it back to our hotel room, we were asleep before the condoms cooled in the trashcan. The next morning dawned bright and early and saw us getting all dolled up to go to my home church. Since we'd been gone so long, I took the time to say hello to as many people as I could. When the pastor asked me if I would honor them with a song, the three of us, I wasn't about to get up there without Sam and Puck, gave them 'Oh Happy Day' before I fulfilled the original request by singing Yolanda Adams' famous 'Order My Steps'. We had a ball after church, so many people were trying to get our autographs without looking like they were begging for our autograph.

The rest of our stay in Lima was spent mostly with the family. We were all on our flight at nine the next morning and got checked in to our rooms the Ritz Carlton, all twenty-five of us. The summer had been a wild and crazy roller coaster and it wasn't even over yet.


Alright, now I put some serious work into this Chapter and so did my Betas. We three could all use a little love and I could use a lotta inspiration. Chapter 4 came so easy that Chapter 5 is trying to make me her B*tch. In other words. Review Pretty Please with Caramel sauce on top!

Let me know what you loved...what you hated. What you want to see more of and what you never want to see again.

TTFN,
Anni


And just for a great review who has lost track of time.

French Lesson Series Timeline
April 2012-Junior Prom (Learning French)
May 2012-First Nationals Title (Learning French)
June – August 2012 Summer after Junior year(Summer Menagé)
August 2012-May 2013 Senior Year (Grandissions Together)
June –August 2013 Summer before College (Summer Menagé II)
September 2013-May 2014 Freshman Year of College (Les Ames Soeurs, Si Cela Est Noel)
May-September 2014 Summer before Sophomore year (Summer Menagé III)