Sam spent days trying to come up with a plan to get Mercedes back only to come to the conclusion that the best plan was to have no plan at all. When they had first got together it had been without a plan. When he had tried to get them back together with a plan it had resulted in a clusterfuck of mammoth proportions. There had to be a lesson in there somewhere.

"Earth to Evans!"

"What?"

"Aaand he's back!" Mike grinned and lightly punched his friend in the arm. "I believe you were supposed to be replying to my question about what you're doing on Saturday?"

"Er, yeah. Sorry!" Sam quickly focused his attention back onto his friend.

"I'll give you a clue. The answer is not written across Mercedes' ass."

Sam blushed. "I wasn't-"

"You totally were!"

A small sigh. "Okay so maybe I was."

"So are you finally going to tell me what's going on with you guys?"

Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Dude. You can't lie to me. I know you've liked her since before you moved to Kentucky!"

"It's nothing."

"Not from where i'm standing it isn't! I don't know who you think you're trying to fool. You're constantly shooting her looks like she's a cool glass of water in the middle of the desert and she keeps sneaking glances back at you when she thinks you're not looking. That doesn't sound like a whole heap of nothing to me!"

"Okay so maybe it's a bit complicated."

"Enlighten me!"

A shrug this time. "I screwed up."

"Screwed what up?" Mike had been patient with his friend but that patience had worn thin.

Sam sighed. "Cedes and I had a secret thing. Last summer-"

Mike fist bumped the air. "I knew it!"

"But we broke up just before I left."

"Marcus' party? You were acting weird that night."

"Just before then. I told you shit was complicated. Anyway, i kinda came back, all guns blazing, screwed around with her head and screwed things up with Shane and made her hate me."

"I don't think she hates you man."

"You weren't there when she ripped me to pieces when I tried to ask her out. She was mad."

"Well all I can say is she doesn't seem mad at you now. Why don't you ask her out again?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know."

"But you still like her right?"

"I more than like her. It's just shitty that it took me not being with her anymore to realize it."

Mike nodded in agreement. "That is pretty crap. But now you know, you can do something about it."

Sam shook his head. "I think I may have missed the boat on this one."

"I have to disagree with you my friend. As long as she is here and you are here there is always hope."

"I wish that I could share your confidence."

"One of the best lessons my grandfather taught me is when you have a good woman you don't let her go! It's something that he lived up to in his lifetime and something that I hope will hold true for me today."

Sam let out an ironic chuckle. "I bed our granddads would have got on really well if they'd ever met."

"Probably." Mike looked at his watch and swore under his breath. "I'm late for practice. I'll catch you after school and we'll finish this conversation!"

"Sure. Whatever."

Mike grabbed his bag and ran while Sam went to his locker to retrieve his books for his afternoon classes, still lost in thought over what Mike had just said to him.

"That's one hell of a Chapstick collection!" Speak of the devil! He had no idea how long she had been there, but not only was Mercedes suddenly by his side, she was actually initiating conversation. There was no way on earth that he was going to turn down a golden opportunity like this!

He shot her one of his winning smiles and flipped straight into charm mode. "Yeah. Keeping this Trouty mouth soft and kissable takes a lot of maintenance! But I still don't know what flavor to go with today."

"Go with the cherry. I like cherry."

He grinned down at her, amuzed by her accidental foray into flirting. "Yeah? Wanna do a taste test?"

She blushed and stared at the ground before suddenly doing a double take.

He looked at her, taking in her sudden frown. Had he gone too far? "What's wro-"

"You have pictures of me in your locker?"

He blushed then recovered quickly. He saw her mentally counting three. She had no idea about the two others that she couldn't see or the dozens still on his phone. Following her gaze he smiled as he took in her overly staged yearbook photo next to a picture of a carefree Stevie and Stacy, he nodded and decided to just be honest. "Yeah I like to keep pictures of those I care about."

She looked as if she was going to say something but remained silent and they suddenly felt an unfamiliar tension between them.

"I was never completely happy with that picture." Her voice was quiet.

Sam looked at it with a critical eye. "Yeah. You do look like a glazed over zombie staring into the middle distance holding some random flowers. Where the hell did you get those anywa- OUCH!I" He grinned as Mercedes elbowed him sharply in the ribs. "No, seriously" he continued "It doesn't capture your inner joy. I guess it sums up the way things are between you and me right now. But at least this way I still get to say good morning and see your smiling face every day."

He saw the expression on her face and couldn't help but be affected. He hadn't meant to make her sad by saying that. He was just stating the truth. "I miss us."

She opened her mouth to give what looked like a protest, but all she ended up saying was "I miss us too" in a sad voice.

As he was thinking up something more to say to her, Kurt appeared around the corner and seeing her opportunity to escape the conversation which had now become unexpectedly heavy she fled towards him.

Yet again he didn't bother to pretend that he wasn't staring at her ass as she went.

Sam sat on the bleachers waiting impatiently for Mike who was most likely saying a long and lingering goodbye to Tina somewhere. His reflections were suddenly interrupted by a female voice.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He looked up to see Jordana heading over and she took a seat beside him.

"You know I think we're both in the same boat." She said, sighing heavily.

"What boat is that?"

"The boat where the guy that I want to take me to prom is probably going to take the girl that you want to go to prom with."

Sam sighed heavily. She was spot on. Time was running out for him to get a prom date. Sure he'd had lots of offers, but none of them were the one that he actually wanted.

Jordana looked as miserable as he felt. He knew that she got on with Shane but it had never occurred to him that she liked him like that. In all honesty he didn't know what she would have seen in him but the more he thought of it the more it did make sense. The guy was solid in more than just a physical sense. Sure he had threatened Sam, but it was only what he had deserved. Sam knew that if it was any other guy he would have received more than just a verbal warning. Shane was a popular, decent guy who nobody had any problems with. Apart from him. And he was the cause of those problems, not Shane.

As far as he was concerned, Shane's only fault right now was spending so much time with Mercedes. From what he had observed, Shane worshipped the ground that she walked on. But she saw him only as a friend. It was a shame because he had a totally hot girl who was really into him but his obsession with Mercedes was blinding him to it. Not only that, Sam could not forget the threat that Shane had made to him about leaving Mercedes alone.

The problem was, he couldn't leave Mercedes alone. He needed her. And if that meant eventually having to take Shane on then it would be worth it. Being in love with her didn't mean that he wasn't going to fight to get her back, it just meant that he was going to fight clean rather than dirty from now on.

He'd spent the last few days thinking about Shane's final words to him when he'd pulled him into the side room. He hadn't said to leave Mercedes alone, the exact words were 'If you can't love, her then leave her the hell alone."

He had tried to leave her alone but it just wasn't working. Because he did love her. He was pretty sure that he always would. And therefore he fit the single piece of criteria which allowed him to pursue Mercedes Jones without risk of physical injury.

"Shane doesn't like you, does he?"

Jordana was looking at him thoughtfully.

Sam shook his head. "Nope. But I deserve it."

"Because of Mercedes?"

"Because of Mercedes. I was out of order and I deserve his hatred. When I came back to McKinley I did everything in my power to break them up. And I succeeded. I was selfish and I- shit-" Sam suddenly felt overwhelmed with emotion and Jordana rubbed his back sympathetically. It's not like he was about to cry, more like he was simply lost for words and lost for a way to express himself.

"You know she still likes you" she said softly.

"Huh?"

"I mean, she stands next to Shane but her eyes are on you. Like all the time. It drives him mad. Besides, I know for a fact that she only hangs around with him in school. Besides church i'm pretty sure they don't see each others outside of school hours."

Sam pretended that his heart didn't race at that revelation as he distractedly scraped his sneaker along the ground. "Mercedes and I missed our chance." He said sadly.

"I'm not so sure."

Sam perked up. This was the second time in the same day that he was hearing this. Was it worth taking notice of after all? Every time he got the idea into his head that he was going to go for it, something would always cause him to back out. In all honesty he was scared. Not of Shane because he would willingly take a beating if he had to for Mercedes' sake, but for the fact that it could all explode in his face. He might read the situation wrongly. It had been a couple of months and now Mercedes might well be over him. Or moved on and back into Shane's arms despite what Jordana had just said. Or worse still, she could decide that as she was going to graduate while he stayed, it would not be worth persuing any type of a relationship.

Worse than being rejected was the idea of being rejected with the thought that they had been a mistake in the first place. Because it wasn't. Maybe it was some freak accident of friendship that brought them together, but when he thought of himself with Mercedes, he knew that if he played his cards right he could have what his mom and dad have, what his uncle Ned has and what his grandpa and grandma had.

But maybe it was already too late. Just three weeks left to senior prom and history being made.

"I don't think I'm going to go."

Sam focused his thought back onto the girl sitting next to him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean prom. I don't think I can go. I'll only sit there alone and dateless getting mad watching the guy I like spending the night with another girl."

"Hey you can sit with me. I'll be doing the same thing."

She smiled. "We can sit on either side of the room and side-eye them from opposite directions."

He laughed. "Yeah. That would be funny. I wonder if they would feel the intensity of our glares!"

"Nah. They'll be too busy enjoying themselves."

"But seriously Dana, you can't miss out on prom. I know you're new but you have to at least get the McKinley prom experience. Otherwise you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Besides, you're gorgeous! I bet you've had loads of asks."

She shook her head sadly. "Not really. Don't forget, I'm the new girl, so lots of people don't know me yet. Plus I'm taller than a large percentage of the guys in the school and it intimidates them. They're not attracted to girls who make even tall guys look short. They want somebody cute that they can tuck under their arm. Besides, it's prom. And I want to wear my heels!"

"So wear them. If your dates a good guy he wouldn't care. If I was taking you to prom it would be because I knew that I would be having fun. Height or size or anything like that shouldn't matter!"

"It does to a lot of people."

"Yeah. Well it doesn't to me. My grandpa once said to me 'the only size that matters is the size of a girl's heart.' And it was one of the wisest things he ever said."

Jordana stared at him hard for a moment before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. Sam nearly jumped out of his skin. "What was that for?"

She shrugged. "It just felt right. Mercedes doesn't know what she's missing."

"I was a douche. She's probably thanking herself for her lucky escape."

"And I already told you that she isn't. Maybe you were a douche. I don't know because I didn't know you then. All I know is that right now you're a guy who's crazy about a girl and shouldn't give up on her just yet."

"So what do I do?"

"Make her see what she's missing! Make her jealous! Give her a chance to see that you- Oh my god Sam! I've just had the most amazing idea!" She grabbed his arm excitedly and almost scared the living daylights out of him yet again.

"What idea?"

"Seriously! Why the hell didn't I come up with this before?" She was shaking her head disbelievingly.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about prom! Shane and Mercedes are going as friends. Maybe the two of us can go together as friends too. Then we can make them jealous! Mercedes will finally realize that she's crazy for you and Shane will see me all dressed up and finally notice that I'm more than just one of the boys."

Sam thought about it but had his doubts. "I'm not sure about this…"

"Come on Sam. It makes perfect sense. I see you every day fending off those Cheerios who keep pestering you about who you're taking to prom. As far as they're concerned you're free for the taking and whoever gets you can flash you about like a trophy. It would be a shame for one of them to finally wear you down. If we go together, we can both focus on getting what we want without involving anyone else. After all, we do both want the same thing."

When she put it that way it did start to make perfect sense.

The sound of her cellphone ringing filled the air and she quickly checked the caller id. "Okay Sam I have to go. This is my ride calling. But think about what I said. We could be good for each other. You don't have to decide right now. Think on it tonight and we'll chat tomorrow."

She quickly answered her cell before the call rang off and waved at him as she headed towards the parking lot.

Sam stayed seated in stunned silence. The thought of going to prom with somebody else had not really crossed his mind. It was too late to as Mercedes with any hope of her saying yes despite the thaw in the treatment towards him. And Jordana was a pretty girl and a great person.

Surely he had nothing to lose by going along with the crazy plan?