Will couldn't believe it, even from 200 miles away his most difficult student was still causing problems. How did she manage it? As returning National champions they had an automatic invite to this year's competition in LA so they attended Sectionals as observers. In any case, nothing they saw there worried them very much. And Regionals was looking the same until this. The first few teams were good but nothing New Directions couldn't handle. But now this! This team competed from a community center, not a school like most of the others and what they were performing? Will couldn't believe it. Candyman! This group was mixed but the girls took the lead on this piece and the arrangement, the choreography, everything was the way he'd seen Mercedes do it. Maybe the black girl singing lead, Holly from last year's Spanish class he recognized with a pang, wasn't the singer Mercedes was but she hit that high note and held it long enough to win Regionals.

"Ladies and gentlemen, meet your completion!" Will pushed play.

Sweet sugar candy man
He's a one stop, gotcha hot, making all the panties drop
Sweet sugar candy man
He's a one stop, got me hot, making my uh pop
Sweet sugar candy man
He's a one stop, get it while it's hot, baby don't stop
Sweet sugar candy man

Well, by now I'm getting all bothered and hot
When he kissed my mouth it really hit the spot
He's got those lips like sugar cane
Good things come for boys who wait

He's a one stop shop, makes my cherry pop
He's a sweet-talkin', sugar coated candy man
A sweet-talkin', sugar coated candy man

Candyman – Christina Aguilera (2006)

Finn immediately recognized the arrangement. "Shelby's behind this!"

Artie recognized three of the girls. "Hey, they used to be TroubleTones! Is that legal?"

Blaine recognized the guys jitterbugging with the girls. "Some of those guys are Warblers! Is that legal?"

"That song is filthy!" Kitty chimed in. "Is that legal?"

"Shelby's not behind this, at least not directly and it's all legal. They're part of a local community center. I spoke to their lead singer and a former member of New Directions took it upon herself to coach Holly. You would think that Holly not being a member of New Directions would have made a difference to her but no, certain people want to make their own rules."

"Why isn't Holly a member?" Jacob asked, genuinely interested. He'd seen her around school but had no idea she was a singer. He'd once tried to make her panties drop only to be rewarded with a knee to the crotch. "Didn't all the members from last year get invited back?"

"Well, the TroubleTones weren't really members of New Directions." Will answered.

"There's your problem." Unique mumbled. "Did anybody even ask them to come back?"

"You can't get ahead by looking in the rear view mirror!" Will declared.

"Yup, just drive away from the wreckage! That always works." Unique said, making a note to talk to Holly first chance she got. Holly didn't sing much the last time she'd seen her in performance and suddenly she's hitting – and holding – notes like that? She ran through former New Directions members and mentally mapped TroubleTone members. Britt's sitting right there looking clueless, nothing new there. Santana wouldn't do shit to help a sister out, which just leaves... She sent a text to Mercedes.

Blaine kicked himself for not listening more closely as Sebastian rambled on at that party last week, acting like he was about to get a Nobel prize for being so generous to the less fortunate. Instead Blaine had been making out with Wes, something he didn't regret one bit. Evidently Blaine was just an item on Sam's bucket list but Wes was the real deal, except for the whole sleeping with the competition bit. Oh, and the bit about cheating on Kurt but Blaine choose to ignore those bits. Blaine sent Wes an email to get to the bottom of all this.

Later that night from LA

"You know what, girl? I'm in such a good mood nothing you say can bust my bubble." Mercedes said over the skype connection.

"Tell me all about it." Unique answered. "I just wanted to ask you that question about Holly and we can ignore Schuester's childish tantrum."

"Okay, here's the deal with Holly. I recruited her for the TroubleTones, thinking she'd make a good replacement when the seniors graduated. There's a couple other girls there who are decent singers. Anyway, all of them know all the routines Shelby made up, just in case she had a last minute substitution. Holly's a better singer than Britt so she definitely would have moved up in a fair world. So anyway Holly showed up at the first practice of New Directions last fall and Schuester told her she had to audition. Holly never liked Schuester anyway so she said to hell with that. So Holly not being in New Directions is totally Schuester's fault. She decided to volunteer as a dance teacher down at the community center and who walked in but Sebastian Smythe! He'd done some dumb-ass thing, if you knew him you wouldn't be at all surprised. The boy can't stop himself. Normally his dad pays off people to keep him out of trouble but this time the victim pressed charges and Sebastian got sentenced to community service. The two of them pulled together enough people to compete and the rest is history. And yes, Holly asked me about vocal work and I taught her some stuff I learned from Shelby cause I didn't learn a damn thing from Schuester. I've seen most of their routines so New Directions better bring its A game to Nationals."

"You know us, slap it together at the last minute and hope for the best." Unique laughed at how different things were from Vocal Adrenaline. She'd decided long ago to stop crying over it. "So what's making Ms. Jones so happy?"

"Last month I went to Chicago? I don't remember if I told you about it or not but Drew and I went to a, well it's called a writers camp. They pull together a bunch of writers to write songs for an album. Drew was supposed to go with Faith, this other songwriter but her baby decided to come a little early so I went instead. Between the three of us Drew and I in Chicago and Faith back here for emergency backup we got three songs placed on the album. That's a lot, getting three placements on an album. One of them was for a song I'd been working on, off and on, for a couple of years and Faith emailed me the perfect hook literally 10 minutes before I presented it. She was dead tired, staring at her crying baby boy when the tune popped in her head. She just started humming it and the baby stopped crying. That's the song, it's called Swirl, the record company wants to release as the first single because they think it's the best song on the album! And they're going to go ahead and film a video to support it because they think it's that strong. You wouldn't believe how big this is!"

"Congratulations! I'm going to mention that in practice tomorrow just to rub it in Schuester's face. And you're dating Drew, right?"

"Yes, but to be honest this video is bigger than that. I know that sounds terrible but I can't let my happiness depend on whether or not I have a man. I wasted most of high school crying over boys I didn't have and then crying over ones I thought I had and ones I couldn't get rid of. I like how things stand with Drew right now. He's teaching me you can date a person without smothering them. But I guess you're thinking that's easy for me to say, I used to think the same thing when I heard it back in high school."

"No, actually I have a man." Unique said with a sly grin.

"Oh my god! Who? Anybody I know?"

"No, it's a boy Blaine introduced me to. A guy named Trent from Dalton? He's so sweet. We talked a lot before we met because he'd never met a transgirl and wasn't sure what to think. He's a little on the heavy side so he understands how people constantly judge by appearance. Kids used to call him tent, as in big as a tent, but Dalton's not like that and he doesn't waste time on foolishness anymore. But he still didn't know what to think, was afraid of saying the wrong thing. He asked me lots of questions about it how I see myself, more than anybody here ever has, and after a couple of weeks of talking decided he really wanted to meet me. He said my personality was more important than my genitalia." Her smile lit the computer screen. "Okay, it sounds crude but it was a really sweet thing to say because that's a deal breaker for most guys. Mercy, It was my first date! We went on a double-date with Blaine and his new boyfriend and Trent held my hand and kissed me goodnight! He said he'd never seen a girl who was trans, that he knows of, but now he'd recognize one right away cause they'd be the most beautiful girl in the room."

"Awww, I'm so happy for you! Wait a minute - Blaine and his new boyfriend?"

"Yes, a guy named Wes he knows from when he went to Dalton. Kurt and Blaine broke up you know."

"They did?" If so, why is Kurt still guilt tripping over being friends with Adam? She'd have to check into that.

"A little while ago. So anyway, Trent's a family name. As in that's his mom's maiden name. He told me I was lucky, most people are stuck with the name their parents picked but I got to pick my name and how did I choose Unique? That got me to thinking, I picked Unique after watching way too many episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race but is that who I am, a drag queen? I'm thinking of changing my name. Not for Trent 'cause he doesn't really care." She added quickly. "Just for me. A regular girl's name."

"You know, I never thought of that. If I wasn't Mercedes who would I be? If they had named me Maxine way back when would I be a different person? Or Mildred? That would have been awful."

"Exactly. So you know how I don't have a Facebook, how I said I was too busy to mess with all that?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's not the real reason. People say so much shit to me to my face and loudly behind my back I couldn't bear to read what they'd say hidden behind a keyboard. But I decided to take the plunge." She switched to a little girl voice. "Will you be my friend?"

Mercedes looked at the friend request that had just popped up on the edge of the screen. "Christine?"

"Yeah. My middle name is Christian so it's kinda the name my parents picked for me. They hated the name Unique, called it a stripper name, but they don't mind calling me Chris. Maybe they're still hoping this is a phase but look, they had a party for me."

Mercedes looked at the girl holding a birthday cake. "Happy Name Day, Chris!" Wade had always looked like a boy and Unique, to be honest, looked like an overly-made up church lady. Chris looked like a beautiful 17 year old girl, her short fro accented with a feather hairpin, matching dangling earrings and tasteful makeup.

"It was the day I choose my name, obviously. There's a LGBT support group down at the community center and they came with me and brought this cake."

"Awww. Happy Name Day, Boo." Mercedes knew just the earrings that would look perfect on Chris, and just the man to pick up a pair in New York.