A week after Valentine's Day Rachel was surprised to find herself becoming friends with Sam Evans. Of course she had been hopeful that her extension of amity would be reciprocated, but her now solid friendships with Mercedes and Kurt were built on rather rocky foundations. Nonetheless Rachel welcomed Sam's impersonations and rather odd fascination with James Cameron's Avatar, if only because seeing him bounce back told Rachel that she could to.

'I just want to help out a little bit, you know? It sucks that they don't think I could,' Sam mumbled, tossing a football in the air while sprawled out on her bed. Rachel had invited him wordlessly when Sam had shown up on her doorstep an hour ago, simply saying that he was bored and thought she wanted to hang out.

Sam Evans wants to hang out with me, Rachel Barbara Berry. This might sound petty but take that Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez!

'Well parents often don't feel like they should burden their children about money,' Rachel replied, spinning around in her cushioned high-back chair. 'Nonetheless I think what you want to do is admirable. What skills do you possess exactly?' She asked, reaching for a legal pad and pen.

'I can snap a football pretty hard?'

'How about taking a job at a fast food restaurant? Those establishments always look to employ teenagers?'

'I can't expose my body to trans fats Rach,' Sam told her seriously.

'Well I know Noah has his own pool cleaning business, and I'm assuming that it was somewhat profitable. Maybe self-employment?' Rachel studied Sam's face, eyes narrowing when she noticed his hair.

'Why are you smiling like that?' Sam asked nervously, taking in the smile on Rachel's face.

'Sam, I believe I have a solution,' Rachel beamed, grabbing a fine-toothed comb and reaching for his blonde mane.

Which was how Sam found himself involved in the 'One Man Justin Bieber Experience'. Rachel zeroed in on his target audience – young Jewish girls celebrating their Bat Mitvahs with parents eager to hire cheap entertainment.

'Are you sure about this?' Sam whispered to her, peering around the curtain at the knot of thirteen year old girls giggling and texting on their phones.

'Trust me. I've done extensive research and while I fail to see the artistic integrity in Justin Bieber, there is no discounting the stranglehold he has on the short attention spans of adolescent females.'

'I have…no idea what you just said,' Sam hissed back, gripping his guitar and tugging on his purple hoodie.

'You're an attractive, obviously well-built blonde who can sing. They'll eat you up,' Rachel rolled her eyes, bouncing on her hells as she gave him a pat on the shoulder. 'I assured Mr Adler that you were worth the three hundred dollars. Don't disappoint me.'

Rachel flounced away as Sam stared at her, open-mouthed. 'Did she just say three hundred dollars?'

Holding the money in his hands later that night, Sam didn't know how to thank Rachel. Peeling off a hundred, he forced it into her protesting hands.

'I couldn't have done this, literally, without you. Think of it like a commission,' Sam spoke over Rachel.

'Well, I have been thinking of making a comeback. Establish the opening act for the resurgence of Rachel Berry,' she mused almost to herself and Sam laughed lightly. 'Maybe I could pay Brittany to dress like me?'

'Why?'

Rachel looked out the window, a habit of hers Sam had fast picked up on whenever she was embarrassed or self-conscious of what she was about to say.

'One of the main points of ridicule people direct at me is about my clothes. If Brittany wore the same outfits, surely that means its socially acceptable,' Rachel told him, looking a little sad as she flashed her eyes towards him. Sam furrowed his brow at her.

'That's lame. I like the way you dress,' Sam told her plainly.

'You do?'

'Yeah,' this time Sam was the one who couldn't meet her gaze, rubbing the back of his neck. 'You have nice legs. Not that I was looking or anything. I mean I have to look but, you know, I wasn't purposely-'

'Thank you Sam,' Rachel interrupted him, giggling. 'Noah thinks the same thing too.'

'See? The two of us can't be wrong.'

'Good night Sam. I'll see you at school tomorrow,' Rachel deflected, hugging his arm quickly before opening the passenger door of his car.

It puzzled him how contradictory Rachel was. Maybe it was because when he had transferred over to McKinley, Rachel was still under the protective label of Finn Hudson's girlfriend. Sure he had heard people whisper about her, but Sam had just figured they were jealous that Rachel was dating the quarterback. Rachel had always smiled though, through everything, never missing a beat no matter how much people tried to drag her down.

Sam was ashamed he had been one of those that had never spoken up to defend her, something he noticed even Finn failed to do. Now that he had hung out with her, seen how eager she was to help him even when he hadn't asked, Sam couldn't help thinking Rachel Berry was seriously underappreciated. It was time someone showed her how much she meant to them.

When Mr Schue told them that they needed to search for an anthem for Regionals, Sam jumped at the opportunity. He had already ignored the confused glare Finn was sending his way, and the downright hostile vibe Quinn was giving off, to seat himself next to Rachel. The petite brunette had whispered that it was okay to sit with Puck or Mike if he wanted to, to which Sam had responded loudly that he could sit with her if he wanted to. The responding quirk of the lips from Rachel had been worth it.

'Mr Schue, I have something,' Sam spoke up, facing the rest of the club when the Spanish teacher waved him on. 'So I just started my own one man band, the Justin Bieber Experience, with Rachel's help. I guess anything Bieber does is kind of an anthem since he's so, like, legendary. And I want this song to go out to Rachel, because she deserves it.'

Rachel clapped her hands over her face during his rendition of Baby, laughing and allowing him to twirl her around at the end of the song. Sam glanced up to see the reactions of everyone else, saw Santana fanning herself and Mercedes pump her fists in the air. Puck, for some reason, was sending him a filthy look.

'Dude, what the hell was with you singing Berry that song?' Puck asked him later in the locker room. 'Is this your idea of a joke? Did Quinn put you up to this?'

'What? No,' Sam answered, backing away as Puck clenched his jaw. 'Rachel's cool okay? We've been hanging out and stuff.'

'And stuff?' Puck repeated, tone sarcastic.

'Why do you care anyway?' Sam retorted, folding his arms across his chest. 'You're with Zizes right?'

Puck seemed to hesitate before answering. 'Look Rachel's a fellow hot Jew alright? You mess with her and I have J-Money's blessing to kick your lame Bieber ass. Got it?'

'I won't do that to her. She's my friend.'

Puck snorted. 'Whatever. The only guy whose just friends with Berry is Hummel.'

'Aren't you guys friends?' Sam inquired curiously, remembering the bits and pieces Rachel had mentioned about Noah sometimes.

Before Puck could answer Artie and Mike came in, demanding to join his one-man band. Even Puck seemed to warm to the idea when he discovered Rachel would manage them, something which Sam filed away for future notice.

'How about you guys not do something by a lame twelve year old and try and come up with a proper anthem?' Finn chipped in and Sam felt his jaw lock, felt his fingernails dig into his palms when he caught sight of the smug smirk plastered over Finn's face.

'Maybe you can spare the time when you aren't scammin' on other peoples girlfriends?' Sam cracked sharply before walking out the door, exhaling a long breath when he spotted Rachel up ahead.

'There you are! I've just discovered there's an audition for Avatar on Ice and I thought you might be interested. How well can you skate? I think they might be willing to be lenient on that considering you've told me your fluent in the language those blue people speak.'

'Na'vi,' Sam corrected her absently.

'Sam? Are you okay?' Rachel asked, peering up at him in concern. Something inside him warmed at the sight and Sam slung an arm around her shoulder.

'Yeah I'm fine. By the way we got three extra members for the Justin Bieber experience. Artie, Mike and Puck-'

'I'm sorry did you just say Noah?'

'Dude seemed pretty into it when I dropped your name,' Sam stated innocently, raising an eyebrow when Rachel's cheeks tinged pink.

'Well we'll have to do something about his hair then,' Rachel told him firmly, brushing by Sam as he held open the front door for her. Catching sight of Puck, Sam nodded farewell to find Puck staring intently at Rachel instead.

Huh. This is new.