This chapter features the proposal and wedding. Tried my hardest to get this out before the episode airs, so if I overlooked something, apologies. Thanks to all my reviewers! I'm glad I can make Bram sound semi-believable, but now it's time for Sam to open his eyes! There's some Tina/Mercedes, an Artie appearance and some of the new kids. The appearance of Unique is dedicated to "all the principles of heroism"!

Chapter 4

That Monday morning, Sam waited next to Brittany's locker. The blonde greeted him with a hug.

"Hey, Brittany! Good job finding your way to your locker this early on a Monday."

"Oh, I thought it was your locker. So what are you doing here?"

"Well, I was thinking about our conversation on Saturday and I decided that even though we won't be able to do everything we wanted to do in life, I could help you make at least one of those dreams come true."

"I already said there isn't enough time to teach a dog how to talk. All the research says so."

"Umm... I meant..." Sam got down on one knee in the hallway, "Brittany, will you marry me?" He held out a Ring-Pop, which he put on her outstretched hand.

Sam stood back up. "I got you a Ring-Pop cuz I know you like candy. Plus, I'm still kinda poor."

"It's perfect! I'll plan everything!"

The bell rang.

"I've gotta get to class, Brittany, but I'll see you at lunch."

After Artie and Blaine had brought it to Finn's attention that prolonged amounts of time out in the cold was bad for their vocal chords, Finn decided that he would use lunch periods to take care of as much business as possible. That meant they all needed to sit together, despite Kitty's loud and unfruitful protests. For a recently reunited club, they still looked very disjointed. All the upperclassmen sat on one end of the table, trying to put as much space as possible between themselves and Marley. Finn sat next to the ostracized girl, reviewing logistical information about the holiday concert and taking set list recommendations. Brittany stood up, interrupting the meeting.

"I have an announcement to make. As you all know, Sam and I," she pulled Sam to stand next to her, "are now a couple."

Sam stood there awkwardly, ignoring Tina's glare that he could practically feel burning into his skin.

Brittany continued, "but this morning, we got engaged!" She held up the stump to her Ring-Pop. "It used to be a diamond, but I ate it."

"Another Glee wedding?" Artie commented, "once was more than enough."

Tina was fed up. "Sam! You've got to be kidding!"

"Tina, the world is ending on the 21st and we both want to get married before we die, so I proposed."

"Anyway, last time there were bridesmaids and everything but Quinn became half-robot so instead it will be a small wedding during our seventh period study hall. Mrs. Harris always falls asleep so we do whatever we want there. Everyone is invited."

The whole glee club had expressions of varying degrees of confusion and disbelief. Finn looked depressed.

Marley tried to bring some cheer to the table, "That's great Brittany! I will definitely be there!"

"That's nice," Brittany replied, coolly.

"Blaine, bro, I was hoping you could do that online certificate thing and do our wedding."

Blaine looked stunned. "Umm... You probably have to be eighteen for that. Not quite there yet, sorry."

"Oh. Well maybe you could sing?"

"Uhh... Maybe."

Sam turned to Artie, "Will you do the honors?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Artie!" Tina exclaimed.

"What, woman? You know I've always wanted to get my preacher on."

Tina stood and picked her tray up. "I've got to go." She walked briskly out of the cafeteria, dumping her food in the trash on her way out, and the tray along with it.

Tina didn't know what to do. She thought she was clear when she spoke to Sam last week. So how did, "please end this Brittany mess" get interpreted as "please get married to Brittany"? Tina's instincts were telling her to do everything she can to stop it; she even thought about calling Santana, Lord knows she wouldn't let this travesty continue. But Tina knew if she told Santana before she told Mercedes she would feel guilty forever and never hear the end of it.

Tina pulled out her cell phone and selected Mercedes from her contact list. I'm not tattling. She needs to know She'd want to know.

"Hey, T!"

"Hey, Mercedes! How's everything?"

"Great! I mean, besides the fact that it's 9am."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I keep forgetting about the time difference."

"No problem. But T, do you mind if I call you back? I'm on my way into the studio. They give the backup singers all the crappy hours because the artists get first pick— not complaining! It's basically impossible to complain, I mean people are recording me!"

This was the most animated Tina had heard Mercedes sound in a while. She was still new and didn't get called in to record as often as she wanted, so Tina didn't want to ruin the vibe of her day.

"Sounds great, girl! Call me whenever and you can catch me up on your glamorous LA life."

Mercedes laughed, "Okay, and you be sure to tell me all the Glee drama. There's always something going on. Bye!"

Tina ended the call. You have no idea.

Mrs. Harris's seventh period study hall was full of a motley crew. The regular students of the class were chatting, on their phones or actually studying, but generally seemed unfazed by the extra students in the room. Marley was there as promised, being vigorously ignored by Tina and Blaine who were leaning against the back wall bulletin board. Artie was up front with Brittany, rehearsing the vows. Jake and Ryder made their way into the classroom and perched on a couple empty desks and Kitty quickly took a seat near Ryder. Sam looked out into the crowd.

"Hi guys, first, I want to say how happy I am that most of the glee club could make it. It's really cool of you guys to use your free period or skip class for us."

"I'm only here because this is my study hall too," Kitty interjected. "I literally have nowhere else to be."

"Well thanks anyway. We're going to get started."

Sam and Brittany stood at the front of class on either side of Artie. He cleared his throat dramatically.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness these two, Brittany Susan Pierce and Samuel I-don't-know-your-middle-name Evans in holy matrimony."

It was at this moment that Unique tried to slip in unnoticed. She was coming from the far side of campus and went to great lengths to avoid being caught cutting class. As a result she was a little frazzled, a state of being she did not enjoy, but there was no way in hell that she was missing this hot mess. Brittany, however, was distracted by the open door and interrupted her own ceremony with, "Mercedes! You made it!"

Unique had had it. She threw her purse down on the nearest desk and turned to Sam. "You need to get your girl, cuz this is ending today."

All eyes in the room fixed on Sam. Even Mrs. Harris, who apparently had woken up some time ago, was curious what would happen next. Sam stood silent.

"Sam. What is she talking about?" Brittany asked.

Sam avoided Brittany's gaze and still refused to speak. He wished he knew some way to say it, but the words wouldn't come.

"What I'm talking about is the fact that I am Unique and I AM NOT MERCEDES! Yes, we are both curvy Black women with amazing singing voices, but we are not the same person! What everyone seems to be forgetting is that I don't really know you that well. Only a few months ago I was competition lead for Vocal Adrenaline at Nationals, not doo-wopping in the back like y'all have me doing now. So while I love the spirit of acceptance in Glee, there is a difference between acceptance and denial and ignoring the stupid things that come out this girl's mouth is not helping her. It's just making her look stupid. And racist."

A stunned silence filled the room. Brittany looked wide-eyed from Unique to Sam, who was looking down at the floor. She turned and ran out the room, tears falling down her cheeks.

Sam looked over at Unique who responded with a shrug and crossed her arms. Sam stalked out the room to look for Brittany.

It didn't take long for Sam to find her. Noisy sobs could be heard from the girl's restroom across the hall. Sam stood outside the door and took a few slow, deep breaths. You've got to fix this, Sam. He pushed open the door to see Brittany leaning against one of the sinks. Sam took in the overflowing trashcan and the floor littered with toilet paper. Wow, it's not nearly as clean in here as I thought it would be. Sam leaned on the sink next to Brittany. She moved to a sink further away. He had no idea what to say, so he decided to wait until she spoke. It didn't take long.

"I broke up with Artie because he called me stupid. But you, you're worse because you heard her call me stupid and you just stood there." Brittany spoke softly, keeping her eyes trained on the floor.

"It happened so fast. I didn't know what to say."

"Was she right?"

"What? No! You're not stupid, Britt."

"I meant, is she really not Mercedes?"

"No she's not. She's Unique. A transfer student from Carmel High."

"Then why didn't you say something?! You let me keep embarrassing myself and I probably hurt her feelings."

Sam was sheepish. "I really didn't know how to say it. I mean, at first I thought you were joking and when I realized you were serious it was just awkward. I knew you didn't mean any harm so I kinda just... let it go."

"You should have found a way. Santana would have found a way."

"Well, I'm not Santana!" Sam shouted, flailing his arms in frustration.

"And I'm not Mercedes!" Brittany shouted back. "And apparently, neither is Unique."

Sam tried to muffle a chuckle, but instead it came out as a snort. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Brittany flashed him a soft smile. "This isn't working. Clearly we aren't over Santana and Mercedes. People think she's mean but she's really not, and she knows how to take care of me so things like this don't happen. You need someone like Mercedes. She can take care of herself but she needed you to bring out her softness, her heart. And her smiles were the best when you were around."

Sam smiled sadly, thinking about the portrait he subconsciously drew that past Saturday.

Brittany continued, "She brought out the best in you, too. When she was around you were in control. Like a real adult. But look at us now," Brittany pulled Sam's arm so he would face the mirror with her. "We're just to heartbroken blonds."

Sam quirked a half-smile at Brittany through the mirror. "You're a great friend, you know that?"

"Yeah, I do. And that's all I really need to be right now." Brittany slid the stump of the Ring-Pop off her finger, grabbed Sam's hand and put it in his palm. "We had fun while it lasted. I'd give you the whole ring back, but... you know."

As Brittany walked out the restroom, Sam kept his gaze on the chewed up Ring-Pop base. With a sigh he tossed it in the trash, but it rolled off the mountain of paper towels and landed on the floor. Sam ignored it, wiped his palm on his jeans and exited the restroom. Evans, we have some thinking to do. And this time we're actually going to think.

Hope you guys liked it! I hope Unique didn't come off as too harsh. In my experience as a minority at a mostly white school, being called by the wrong name, however innocent the mistake, always felt personal. And from what I've learned from my transgendered friends, being called by the wrong pronoun or outside one's chosen name is a daily hurt. I feel like when those two are added together plus life in general, something like this would occur. (It doesn't help that they felt that a transgendered character needs to act like a drag queen, but whatever.)

Anyway... I'll start working on the next chapter soon because I'll definitely need it to recover from tonight's episode!