Sam was up before his alarm even went off. Between his racing mind and the nightmares he'd had when he finally managed to dose off, he didn't think he had gotten more then an hour's worth of sleep. He quickly made his bed and went to get ready for the day before he set about doing the first load of laundry. Once he had straightened up around the house he headed into the kitchen, determined to have it sparkling by the time he was done. If he had time once the kitchen was done, he would move onto the living room before he made breakfast and then he would be the one to help Aiden get ready and make sure Ellie had everything together so Jessica only had to help Anna. He had everything planned out. He was going to impress them so much that they would never think of sending him away or he would die trying.

By the time that his foster mother came in the kitchen looked like new, the living room had been dusted, breakfast was ready and Sam already had a cup of coffee ready for her. She gave him a bit of a strange look before she once again reminded him that he didn't have to do all this. Sam gave his usual response that he didn't mind and tried not to think too much about why she always said that, it just didn't make sense. He headed off to wake the children up for Jessica before heading straight back into the kitchen to make the kid's plates. He didn't eat anything.

Sam was determined not to let anything distract him from working out that morning. He was good at multitasking, he would just have to hope that Finn didn't take offense at not having his full attention.

"Burt insisted on being involved in what the school decided this weekend, so we know what's gonna happen now," his best friend said by way of greeting.

"What are they going to do?" Sam asked.

"Well, he said Coach Sylvester was pretty much wanting to turn the school into some kind of military school and Principal Figgin's didn't really want to do anything," Finn began.

"That was pretty much what we had figured."

"Coach Sylvester ... kinda had a fit. Then they found out how many parents had threatened to sue the school - apparently Rachel's parents were responsible for that - and they actually had to be do something."

"And?"

"No more slushies, 'verbal bullying' gets a detention if they're caught and any 'physical bullying' gets a weeks detention the first time and a suspension the second time. It's pretty much exactly what we were hoping for!" Finn said excitedly.

"So everyone's safe now?" Sam asked, hoping against hope that this was at least one problem he could cross of the list.

"Looks like it." his friend replied with a grin.

Sure enough, an emergency assembly was called in the middle of first period. The entire school was crowded into the gym to be told about the new anti-bullying policy and the changes that were happening. If looks could kill, Sam was fairly certain that the entire glee club would be dead, but they had gotten enough grateful looks from the other students who had been bullied to balance it out. None of them thought that this would be a magic fix that would suddenly turn the school into the most wonderful place in the world. They knew there would still be plenty of people who didn't like them and quite a few who would be more then willing to risk letting them know that with words, but they would be safe now.

Sam tried to relax a little bit, but with what he had overheard the night before, he couldn't. His friend's would be safe now, the only real danger in the school should be if someone made Coach Sylvester a little bit too mad, but if he didn't fix things he didn't know how long he would have to enjoy it with them. At least they had Kurt back now, if he had to leave it wouldn't keep his friends from being able to go to New York. It might be selfish, but that wasn't very much comfort, he wanted to go with them. He wanted to stay here where he was safe, he had foster siblings he really cared about and he had friends - he had the dysfunctional, chaotic version of a family that was New Directions. He didn't want to lose that family, it was the only one he had. If they were considering sending him away, he couldn't really count the Turners.

"Hey, are you ok?" his girlfriend asked as soon as he sat next to her.

"I'm fine," he lied with a shrug as he pushed back the guilt.

Quinn gave him a look that clearly indicated she could see right through him, "How is everyone doing?"

"Ok. Everyone has been a little quiet and sad. We miss him, but he did call Saturday, so hopefully we'll be able to keep hearing from him."

"I'm sure you will. It'll all be ok, Sam."

"Thanks. How was your weekend?"

"It was good, I spent some time with my mom and my sister called. She's been doing really well. I was worried about you though."

"You don't have to worry about me." Sam said, embarrassed.

"You're my boyfriend, I love you. It's in the job description." she replied back with a smile.

"Well, I'm glad you had a good weekend. And I'm glad things should get better around here now." he commented.

"Me too." she replied, "Sam, are you sure you're ok. You look tired." she added after a moment.

"I just didn't sleep too well, I'll be fine." he insisted.

The couple kept up small talk through the rest of their lunch period. They debated back and forth over who would want to do a duet and who would want a solo at the concert. Once they ran out of combinations, they tried to brainstorm ideas for getting people to actually come to the concert. They both agreed that the attention brought to their choir from what they had done at the assembly could only help them. It would be a lot easier to get people to come if they already knew who they were and especially as people were inclined to feel bad for them. Finn and Kurt had been rather embarrassed and more then a little bit baffled at the amount of sympathy they had gotten after Sue played up what had happened to them on her news show. They decided that they would deal with a bit of pity if it helped them get to Nationals. Sam hoped that he'd kept the conversation going enough that she hadn't noticed the fact that he didn't eat.

He made a point to spend time with the kids as soon as he got back. He let Aiden drag him over to help with an art project that Anna ended up helping with as well and he waited until they finished before heading off to do his own homework. He managed to get almost all of it done before it was time for him to practice for Glee and he decided to invite his foster siblings to come out and join him while he practiced. After nearly an hour, he corralled them all inside and started to help them with their homework. He switched back and forth between all three of them, helping them with anything they didn't understand and they were all nearly half done when it was time for supper.

He ate enough to satisfy his foster parents before he called Quinn and ended up talking to her until it was almost time to put Aiden into bed. He made sure that his youngest foster sibling got into his pajama's and brushed his teeth before going through the usual routine of letting the little boy pick out a book for Sam to read to him. Once he finished the book, he quickly headed off to finish his own homework and spend a little over half an hour studying. By the time he was done he felt like he was already about to collapse, but he pushed himself to work out for three hours before taking a shower and nearly falling asleep standing up. It was one in the morning by the time he got into bed. His alarm would go off at four forty-five.

Author's Note: So, here we have the beginning of Sam starting to fall apart. I hope you guys liked this chapter! This is a little bit earlier then I've been updating but you guys gave me eleven reviews for that last chapter and I figured since you had me about ready to start happy dancing around my room, since I had the next chapter written, I should go ahead and post it for you!

BlackKeys96: Overdrive is certainly one way to put it! I'm very glad you liked the chapter, thank you for the review!

Tessie: You just may be right about that. Thank you!

Kerri: Oh, I'm so happy that you like this story! I hope you continue to like it! Thank you for the review!

Emma: Oh, wow! This makes me so happy! Sam's my favorite character too, which is why this little universe is continuing when this story is over - that way, in my head, Sam never left. I should probably let you know that DO use spell check quite a bit though, I'm not naturally a perfect speller. Thank you for the review!