Author's Note: Well, at first, I kinda got stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to figure out what would happen next. It took a while, and I even hit a few bumps along the way, but I made it there. Oh, and also, I'm seeing a lot of spoilers coming in for S5 episodes. I, for one, am not pleased with what we got so far, with the exception of Tina having an episode named after her and singing three songs, and Becca being in the studio (I also like the Demi Lovato spoiler, but I'm not one-hundred percent jazzed about it). Maybe something good will come along later on.

Okay, now that I have gotten that out of my system, it's time to move along with this fan fiction, which I am proud of. Happy reading to you all!

Featured Pairings: Samtina (Sam/Tina), Cohart (Tina/Joe)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Glee. All of the rights to the show go to Ryan Murphy and Co., and Twentieth Century Fox.


Many Colors
Chapter Seven


"I…I don't believe it…" Sam got out after the next few seconds of silence. He looked up at Tina, who was slowly pacing in her spot, with a long facial expression. "Tina, I don't think you should go towards that direction –"

"Well, no one seems to care about me, obviously," Tina explained. "Mr. Schue just favors some people over other people, Rachel acts as if she founded this school, Blaine's just being a goodie two-shoes and pretending that nothing is wrong when there is something wrong, and everyone else…well, they're just them."

Sam looked down slowly as Tina continued walking around a bit. The unfortunate part of it all was the fact that she never mentioned him at all. "Well, what about me? I care."

Tina stopped in front of the bench Sam had been sitting on, and looking down at his concerned facial features. "I guess you're right," the girl responded, and she smoothed down her clothes so she could take a seat beside him.

After a few seconds of silence and thinking, Sam sighed out loud, rubbing his hands together. "Honestly, though, Tina," he spoke, wondering the best way to get this out, "leaving the only friends that you have isn't the best option for you. After all, you said you wanted to stick out and do more, right?"

"Well, yes," Tina responded as she was combing through her dark brunette hair, which was a very dark black before she had gone through a change in her junior year. "I've always wanted to do more, as you said, but I can't stay in New Directions knowing that I won't get the chance. I've been waiting for years for this. I can't keep it up."

"You'll find your outlet, I'm sure," Sam encouraged, looking at her from his position, leaning on his hand and his elbow on his lap. "In order to do that, though, you've got to stick to the one thing you don't like doing to get to the one thing that you want to do. Do you know what I mean?"

Tina moaned, literally. "Sam, I know what you're saying, and – ugh, I've been trying that for two years, turning three in about a few months or so. It's not that I don't love New Directions, because we are a family that respects each other." Tina took a pause and sighed, rubbing her forehead a bit. "I just don't feel like an actual family, though, especially since I feel so neglected between the rest of the group."

Sam understood what she meant. Even when he reflected back on the moments he had with New Directions, from the moment he first made it into the group and forward, he had noticed that they barely even gave Tina a chance to sing, with the exceptions of Valentine's week in the choir room, and the Night of Neglect fundraiser in the auditorium, both of which turned out terribly.

Tina just felt hopeless. She didn't know what to do. Maybe Sam was right, and the whole quitting glee club thing was taking away her chance to do what she wants. However, being a part of something special was supposed to make Tina special, as Rachel stated sometime before Tina's freshman year had ended and New Directions were heading off to Regionals. She didn't feel as special as she wanted to be.

"Thank you, Sam, for trying to help me and all," the Asian girl spoke up, her melancholy eyes looking down at Sam's, "but I think I just need some time by myself." Tina grabbed her textbooks and backpack, taking them out to her car so she could leave.

Sam just sat there on the bench, looking down at the floor and biting his bottom lip at the same time. Maybe there wasn't much to do to help Tina after all, as much as Sam wanted to assist with her. Maybe she really did need her time alone, and it wasn't up to Sam to change anything about that.

Without any other options in his mind, the blonde just grabbed his things and started walking back to the auditorium to join the rest of the glee club members.


Since Tina had skipped the next glee club rehearsal, she decided that it was best that she'd get some studying going on. Her English class was going to have a quiz soon, and Miss Winchester had come back to school. No one in that class knew why since she had a major problems with eyesight, ear problems, and the whole therapeutic issue with seeing white birds everywhere around her. She was a pretty weird woman to Tina, honestly.

Anyways, now that Tina didn't go to glee club rehearsals, she had more time to work on more important things, like studying for tests and attempting to find her own outlet, which was going to be a tough rode to go down. It was better than being sidelined every day in the choir room, though.

Once Tina had everything she needed, she strode down the hallway to find her English classroom. It was a pretty long walk from where she stood at her locker, but she got around easier since she had gotten used to the school for three years.

Tina had turned a corner, and continued walking up until she heard some sniffles coming from one of the classrooms surrounding her. Is…is somebody crying? Tina wondered as her eyes bounced off every spot in sight before her. She turned to her right, but didn't see anyone. The sniffling was louder on her left; so she followed the sound to her left.

In one of the open classroom doors, Tina peeked her head in and looked around. The only person in the room was a male student sporting some long, brunette hair, and Tina could easily identify who it was.

"Joe?" the Asian girl spoke up, which made the dreadlocked boy nearly jump out of his skin. He took a firm grip of his right arm with his left hand nervously, his head dropping a bit in embarrassment. Tina didn't mean to interrupt him, but he looked alone at the moment, and was probably in need of help.

Tina walked further in the room up to the group of desks Joe had been sitting on. She placed her belongings on the floor by one of the chairs, and sat on top of the desks beside Joe. "Why are you in here?" Joe didn't answer, but Tina noticed the boy's wet face and his puffy eyes as she leaned forwards and took a good glimpse of his facial features. "Had you been crying?"

Joe just sniffled and stared at his feet in the brown sandals he was wearing. He was too shy to look Tina into her eyes.

"You can talk to me, you know," Tina explained, placing a hand on Joe's shoulder. "I can help you, if you want." Still, nothing. Another sniffle came from Joe as he looked down at the floor with the same melancholy facial expression. Tina started to grow concerned. "You don't want to talk about it?"

Joe understood wholeheartedly that Tina was trying to ask if he needed help, and she was pretty much the only source of help he could turn to at this point. They say, tell an adult when you're facing some difficult problems at school; but Joe couldn't trust any of the teachers enough to tell them what's been going on in his life. He had only been in McKinley for a few days, after all.

The dreadlocked boy was torn. He had suffered through so much trouble within these past twenty-four hours, and he needed someone to be there for him. However, he wasn't sure if he could trust anyone here. They could tell someone else what he had said, for all he knew.

Joe nervously looked up at Tina's concerned eyes, and started biting his bottom lip. Tina was a friend, though, and a fellow New Directions member. Plus, she was very nice, from what he's heard about her since he met her the other day when Rachel almost had a fit about having him join the glee club in the first place. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to confide in her.

"I'm not sure if I like it here in McKinley…" Joe spoke, his voice trailing off as he folded his hands in front of him. "I mean, the teachers are nice, lunch is decent and everything, my classes are equipped with a lot of things to help me…" Tina watched as the dreadlocked teen shook his head slowly. "But I don't know if I really like it here…"

"I'm not sure why, though," Tina spoke up, scooting a bit closer to Joe, which had him a bit more nervous. His head started to fall, disappointed, and Tina felt more sympathy than he did before. "Tell me, Joe. What happened?"

Teen Jesus was almost reluctant to say it, but he had no other choice. "I had been bullied at school today." Tina's jaw dropped slightly at the news. Why would anyone want to bully Joe Hart? She wanted to know. "It's been that way since yesterday, and it hasn't stopped since." He took a five-second pause, having a bit of a realization on the cause of it all, and turned to Tina. "Is it because of my dreads?"

The Asian girl giggled under her breath at how cute he was being. "I'm sure it's not for that reason," she replied. "After all, there have been more outrageous hairdos than that, I'm sure." Joe was so relieved that Tina said that; he let out a less-stressful sigh. It left Tina to ponder over the starter's purpose. "But there should be no reason for anyone to bully you. You've only been here for a couple of days."

"Maybe…" Joe responded, a bit disappointed and gripping his hands together.

"And it's not like you could be part of the freshman hunt or anything since you're a sophomore." Tina added with a shrug.

Joe suddenly got nervous, for he didn't know what a freshman hunt even was. "Freshman hunt? Like, they release you in the woods or in the park to run away from murderers or something?"

Tina rolled her eyes playfully. "No, that's most likely a stupid myth made up by some unintelligent senior." Although he was glad to know that, Joe still looked forward with a worried facial expression. Tina tried to get the best peek at Joe's worried eyes so she could at least have a heart-to-heart with him. "Do you know any of the things people were saying to you?"

Joe's eyes fell down back to his feet again as he tried to regain memory of the hurtful words that have been said to him within the past few hours. There were so many, and he didn't really remember much. Why could there be, though? He doesn't do much outside of walking to class and attempting to bring people into the God Squad and educate them about their Lord, yet they still pick on him.

It all didn't make the slightest sense at all.

"Well, I think I was heading to sixth period – that's what I can remember so far – " Tina nodded as Joe continued. "I was putting up flyers and stuff Mercedes gave me to help advertise for the God Squad, and these football jocks saw me, and – "

"Let me guess; they gave you crap?"

Joe nodded. "One of them called me homeless." Tina started biting her lip and picking at her smooth fingers. "I didn't see what was wrong with the way I looked. These were actually a couple of hand-me-downs I had gotten from my father," he continued, tugging at the green cardigan he had on. "And I like my hair, too." He rubbed his hand through a couple of dreadlocks that had been sitting in front of his face. "Each one of my dreads is named after a book in the Bible."

Tina approved of that statement. "You really are a really devoted person, aren't you?" She admired Joe for liking the more positive things, rather than getting sucked into the negativity going around in society.

The sophomore nearly blushed at Tina's comment. "Well, God made us who we are today," he explained. "Without him…well, what are we?"

"Most likely sparkles of dust airborne in the sky like it blew from the Sahara Desert." Tina replied with a shrug, making Joe giggle a bit, and she couldn't help but join in with the laughter. Once the laughing ceased itself, Joe went back to looking down at his feet and twisting one of his dreads, wiping away some drying tears and sniffling once in a while.

At that moment, Tina remembered something that she was meaning to get an answer to. "You haven't shown up to the glee club rehearsals yesterday."

Joe's semi-smile turned upside down a bit. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, Tina realized once she saw the look on the dreadlocked teen's face. "I was too scared to go."

"Why? Because of the bullying?" Tina wondered, furrowing her eyes at him.

"That, too, but…" Joe trailed off to think about his next few words. "Well, it's just as bad, but I don't feel safe discussing who –"

Tina placed her hand back on Joe's back, making him turn around towards her. "You shouldn't feel uncomfortable around anyone, Joe. I want to be here for you as a friend. What's there to worry about?"

Joe was a little taken back by surprise at Tina considering him as a friend. He barely even talked to her, other than that one time when he was in the choir room, and Rachel was trying to accept the fact that Joe was even joining New Directions. Now, Tina wanted to actually get to know him and help solve some of his problems, which seemed like a blessing in disguise. "You…want to be there for me?"

"Of course," Tina replied with a sweet smile. "That's what the glee club is all about. We're supposed to be there for others when we fall, and we lift them back up to the surface."

Lately, Joe felt as if that was what Tina had been doing all along, since he was feeling like he had gotten stuck into some quick sand.

"So…if I told you who I was concerned about…you wouldn't tell anyone, right?" Joe sounded so worried. He was rubbing his hands tightly and tensing his shoulders a bit. Tina didn't want to see him like that, and she wouldn't betray him like that, either.

"I won't tell a soul." Tina meant that with a passion, and Joe couldn't feel any more relieved.

"Okay, um…" Joe trailed off as he was thinking of the best way to confess everything. "It's…well, it's about Santana –"

Tina nodded with much understanding. "Oh, I get it. This is going back to that awkward conversation we had at lunch time the other day, right?"

Joe nodded again. "It's just…well, my faith means everything to me, and I can't give that up because it was what I was born with. Without it, I basically don't have anything." Tina continued to listen, feeling sympathy for the poor teen. "But I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, especially Santana's. Now that I feel like I did, I feel so ashamed of myself that I can't even face anyone else in New Directions that were there with us. So that's why I ditched rehearsals yesterday…and today, too, unfortunately."

Tina sighed a bit. New Directions were getting closer to Regionals, and they didn't have enough members for them to qualify, especially with Tina and Joe ditching rehearsals, and whatever the hell Sugar Motta was up to.

"Do you think you could tell Santana everything you said so she would understand?" Tina suggested, followed by Teen Jesus giving her a puzzled shrug. "Besides, she was the one that started up the trouble anyways. Nothing was your fault."

"Are you sure it wasn't?" Joe asked.

"I'm totally sure." Joe took a moment to breathe, and Tina placed a welcoming hand back on his shoulder. "She's usually a hard-to-get kind of person. I'm sure if you try seeing through her and giving her the reasons you just gave me, then I think you'll be good to go."

After a few head nods from Joe, as he was feeling a little bit better about his situation, it had gotten quiet in the room again, and the dreadlocked teen was deep in thought about something. "Tina, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"How come you aren't in glee club rehearsal? Everyone else seems to be, but you're not."

Tina had the feeling in her gut somewhere that Joe might ask that. It wasn't that hard to explain it; but knowing that she got in trouble by Mr. Schue because of it hurt her on the inside. Don't I get to have the right to rant about what I want, the way Rachel gets to rant about what she wants? Tina wondered in the back of her mind, making fists with her hands so she could contain herself. The Asian girl noticed Joe becoming a bit worried again once she saw her hands.

Letting out another sigh, Tina turned to Joe and placed her hand on his right leg. Joe didn't pay attention much since he was listening to her speak. "Well, I have a lot of work to do for another class, so I couldn't stay much anyway." Joe nodded, almost understanding – that is, until Tina continued. "And…I don't see my point in attending anyway since I quit the glee club."

Joe's eyebrows furrowed together in shock. "Tina, why did you quit? Aren't the other members worried about you?"

"Not as much, really." Tina responded with a shrug. "They have Rachel and Blaine anyways. They're the two star pupils to bring New Directions to their victory. I'm just a stage prop."

Joe suddenly gave her a look of confusion. "Wait, you're like a coat stand or something?"

Tina giggled again at Joe's reaction. "Kind of." Teen Jesus still looked a bit perplexed as to what Tina was talking about. "Let me explain," Tina continued. "In the theater, they have these people who are in the background for people with main or supporting roles. That's called an ensemble."

"Okay."

"In this case, I've been basically a background person for the past three years already, and I feel that they barely accept the fact that others in the group can do just as much as what Blaine and Rachel do," Tina continued. "I tried standing up for myself multiple times in the glee club, which turned into some outbursts between me, Rachel, and Mr. Schue –"

"Don't you feel ashamed for yelling at your teacher?" Joe asked, worrisome.

"To tell you the truth, I actually do," Tina answered, "but at the same time, I felt like I had to do it because no one really considers me to take a big role in something. I hate it just as much as you and everyone else does, but I couldn't take it anymore. I was sick of sitting; I needed to take a stand."

Joe nodded, understanding everything. He would never do something like that to his teachers or even his own parents, for that matter; but he was proud of Tina for trying to get what she deserved. He didn't understand much about glee clubs and competitions, though; but he knew they were important.

"So what did you do afterwards?" Joe asked, trying to get back to the topic of the conversation.

Tina pressed her lips together sheepishly. "Well, I kind of slapped Rachel in the face –"

"Ouch." Joe replied while making a scrunched-up face.

"Not really. I mean, I honestly don't know what she got so dramatic about." That made Joe smirk, with a snicker come from his mouth. "Rachel and I had to suffer through detention today, though, which was not a part of my schedule, I might add –"

"But you hit another girl."

"Yeah, yeah," Tina replied, reluctantly, "and I have to suffer the consequences. Don't be my mom, dude, alright?"

"I'm just saying." Joe responded with a shrug and a smirk on his face.

Tina smiled at the now cheered-up Teen Jesus. It didn't take much time at all to cheer him up, really. He seemed like a happy-go-lucky teen who was willing to accept or experience anything, and Tina couldn't be more blessed to learn that about Joe.

"Tina," Joe suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, Joe?" the Asian girl spoke up, willing to listen again.

"I know you quit glee club because everyone was being unfair to you and everything," Joe explained, "but what will you have without it? Don't you have any other clubs you could be a part of?"

Tina shrugged with much uncertainty. "I honestly don't know," she replied, unfortunate. "I mean, I could sign up for any club I wanted, but I wouldn't click with the people that accepted me as a family. The truth of the matter is, I love to sing. Singing is the one thing I feel like I'm made for. I mean, choir could be an option for me, but they don't sing much songs from the top 40s charts, or have any other type of repertoires in handy."

"McKinley doesn't have two glee clubs?" Joe asked, rubbing his left arm with his right hand.

"Nope. Just New Directions." Joe nodded and then glanced down at his almost-bare feet again, and Tina suddenly had an idea growing in her mind somewhere.

The New Directions were supposed to be a group where everyone gets a chance to solo something and help win McKinley to victory. However, people like Tina, Joe, Artie, and even Sugar and Rory were so neglected that they barely got their shot. Maybe New Directions won't give them a try, but there just might be another group that could…

Once the idea had made itself prominent, Tina started growing a smile on her face with the realization that it might be able to play out without much fail – well, there may be a few flaws, but what much could really happen?

"Joe, you just gave me an idea." Teen Jesus' brow inched up on his forehead, optimistic of what Tina was thinking about.

"Really?" Joe asked, interested.

"Yes, and it's one of the best ones all day." Joe couldn't help but reveal a smile on his face that was too hard to hold in. He watched as Tina gathered her backpack and placed it on her back, while carrying a couple of books she had planned to take to tutoring today. "And I need you to help me, if that's okay."

"You want me to help?" the dreadlocked boy asked with a bit of enthusiasm in him somewhere.

"Yes," Tina encouraged, "and maybe by the time this works out, we won't have to deal with Santana's hurtful slams much longer." She winked back at him, showing a bit more positivity in her; however, Joe started to get a bit nervous about Santana again. "Don't worry, you'll see."


It didn't take much time for the duo to make it there, but Tina and Joe had arrived at the school library just in time. Once they were in the facility, Tina led the way towards some show choir books that had been sitting in the back of one of the rows. Joe had no idea what was going on, but followed and looked around with her.

"Do you know what we're looking for?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, and I'll explain a bit more when I find it." Tina kept dancing her fingers over the edges of some books she found on the second shelf from the top, keeping an eye out for some book titles so she would know the one book she needed. At that moment, her eyes fell upon a gray and black book with the title, Show Choir Rule Book on the side. She pulled it down from its shelf, and made her way towards an empty table, where Joe followed alongside her.

"Show Choir Rule Book?" Joe interrogated as he read the cover of the book. Once she got her backpack off, Tina finally sat down beside Joe and flipped through the book to find what she needed. "There's a rule book involved in glee clubs, too?"

"Well, yeah. It's basically like playing sports, except we're not throwing or kicking anything, and no one gets injured," Tina replied. Joe sighed inwardly, thankful that he won't have to witness much violence (or, at least he hoped he won't).

Once Tina arrived at the page she was looking for, she nearly sighed in relief, and started reading aloud to Joe. "Write-in show choirs can be formed and allowed to compete under the signed permission of an elected official, an official sponsor, or school administrator."

Joe furrowed his eyebrows again in confusion. "So…you're saying that we need to ask Mr. Schue's permission?"

Tina's eyes bugged out of her head, and she immediately grabbed Joe's arm, concerned. "Joe, no! We can't tell Mr. Schuester anything about this."

"But don't we need to ask someone?" Joe asked. "And we don't have enough people for a glee club."

"That's the whole point." Tina explained. "This is supposed to be a surprise from members of New Directions. We'll ask the principal for our permission, but we can gather up more people ourselves."

Joe felt a little disheartened by Tina's plan. As much as he wanted to help, he didn't like keeping secrets from people. His mother had told him something about it being sneaky, and in a way, it was wrong. He felt Tina soften the tension in her hand, and started comforting Joe in a friendly manner. "I'm sure, Joe, that things will make sense once it actually happens. Trust me."

However, Joe still was a bit worried and unsure. "You sure we won't be caught or anything?"

"I'm one-hundred percent sure."

It took Joe a few seconds to think about it, but he made up his mind. "Okay, I'm in."

As Tina and Joe shared a hand shake and a friendly hug, Sam had observed the whole scene behind a set of shelves in front of them. He didn't know why this had happened or what was going to happen next, but he knew he had to find out soon.


The following day, somewhere around breakfast time, Tina had arrive to school a bit early, already full with a waffle, some fresh fruit, and a hash brown in her system. She had to get the letter to Principal Figgins written so she and Joe could carry out their plan for their write-in show choir. So far, she only wrote a couple of sentences, but she wasn't complete yet.

She was interrupted by a familiar face showing up at her locker. "Tina, hey," Sam spoke once he got close enough to her.

"Oh, hey Sam," Tina spoke, putting her notebook away and gazing up at the blonde football player. "What's up?"

"Listen…" Sam trailed off. He seemed a bit nervous to actually admit what he overheard the other day, but he had to bring it up. "I found about you and Joe, and your –"

Tina nearly panicked on the inside. "Did Joe tell you our plan?" she asked, shocked.

"No, no!" Sam tried to calm Tina down. "I overheard it when I was trying to find a book to study with for class." Tina sighed a bit. After all, Joe wouldn't tell on other people behind Tina's back. Even when the two discussed the not telling Mr. Schuester thing, he didn't appreciate what he had to go through. "I just wanted to talk with you about it," Sam continued.

The blonde watched as Tina cocked an eyebrow in his direction, which made him think a couple of minutes before he even said anything. This would cause conflict between us and New Directions, but it's worth a shot, he thought. "I want in." And it definitely was worth a shot, because Tina couldn't help but grow a surprised smile on her face.


Author's Note: Well, this took a bit longer like the last one did. I kinda had a cold while typing this, but it was worth it. I got some good ideas from this, and I was so happy that this fan fiction is escalating to something more. I almost couldn't believe it. Okay, next time I'll have another chapter for you, and I hope you all appreciate it! Hugs and kisses!