Over a month and a half after his diagnosis, he was still rarely ever alone. Wanting to be alone was always seen as a possible sign that he would do something he shouldn't and the lack of privacy was slowly beginning to drive him insane, no matter how necessary he knew that it was. There were days where it felt like he would never be better. He knew that it would never fully go away, that there would always be scars left to remind and tempt him, but it was supposed to get better, easier. At least he hoped it was.

He'd had moments of wondering if his therapy was doing more harm then good as well. The week before he'd had a nightmare that had woken up the whole house and Ellie, Anna and Aiden were still looking worried. It seemed like the more progress he made on his eating disorder, the harder it became to deal with everything else. Ms. Savoren had informed him that it was because his anorexia had been a coping mechanism for him. He didn't think that he liked the sound of that. In his mind, fixing one thing wasn't supposed to make another worse.

He knew one thing, with the labels of anorexia and PTSD going in his file, there was no way he would ever be adopted. He would just have to make the best of what he had. He had made his own family in Lima, and someday he would have a real family. Hopefully he would even have that family with Quinn. He knew for sure that he would make sure his children never had to go through what he had gone through. His life had given him plenty of examples of how not to raise children, but he thought that the Turners were finally giving him an example of the right way to do it.

His friends still seemed to be on their 'baby-sitting' rotation, but he didn't really mind it quite as much anymore. He knew they only wanted to protect him and he knew he likely did still need the distraction. Plus, it allowed him to spend a little time alone with each of his friends. He thought that he probably knew more about about what was going on in the lives of everyone in the group then any of the others did. He knew that Puck was having some kind of issues with his mother and that Brittany had decided that she was the next big triple threat, he had a feeling Mercedes had a crush on Artie and considering that Santana and her boyfriend seemed to be attached at the hip - including when she spent her mornings with Sam - he knew more about Miles then most of the others combined.

As he headed into the school that morning, he spotted Finn standing just inside the doors. It was apparently his best friend's turn to stay with him that day. He had a feeling that both of them missed their morning conversations, so he always liked to see that Finn was the one waiting for him. As much as he liked spending time with the others, Finn was still the one who had been his first real friend in Lima and their friendship would always be special because of that. Sam always enjoyed the chance to talk to him.

"Hey, Finn!" he called as he headed towards his friend.

"Sam! Hey, dude! I need to ... um ... make sure you know the fourth song for Nationals well enough." Finn said.

Sam had to fight not to roll his eyes, "So we're going to the choir room, right?" he asked, "We've been singing that song for practice for months now and I know the new arraignment just as well as you guys." he added.

"I know, but we're supposed to practice." his friend replied.

"Alright." Sam conceded. Finn was one of the only ones who still insisted on trying to come up with something to distract him, most of the others had ended up just using the time to talk or study with him. Sam had a feeling that Rachel might be behind Finn's antics, as she was one of the others who always had to have something to do. The last time it had been Rachel's turn, she had a sudden need to learn Na'vi.

"So, what's been going on with you?" Sam asked as they made their way towards the choir room.

"I've been helping out at Burt's shop a lot. Kurt still won't let me do anything without someone else there though. It was only one time..." Finn replied.

"What was only one time?" the blond boy questioned.

"Nothing." his friend said much too quickly. Sam was torn between the sudden need to question Kurt about it as soon as he got the chance and the thought that he might not want to know what Finn had managed to do.

"Okay. So, what I am I supposed to need to practice exactly?" Sam asked his friend as they walked into the room.

"Uh... the dance!" Finn declared.

Sam just looked at his friend for a moment before it seemed to dawn on the other boy what he had said, "Oh. Maybe we should just run through the song a couple of times." he said.

"Yeah, I think that might work better." Sam replied with a laugh as he pulled out his guitar.


As he sat in in class once again waiting for the teacher to show up, he turned to Mike, "So your mom's going to chaperone the trip too right? Where's your brother going to stay?" he asked.

"Actually, Shawn managed to talk her into letting him come. He'll only miss two days of school, just like us." his friend replied.

"Really? Ellie's doing the same thing. She managed to convince Phil and Jessica that it would be educational - plus she really wants to join glee when she starts high school." Sam said.

"I'm getting the feeling they planned this together. That was Shawn's argument too." the other boy said with a quiet laugh.

"That's right, they do have a few classes together, don't they? I guess they make a pretty good team." he replied as he remembered Ellie talking about Shawn a few times.

"We might need to keep an eye on them." Mike added.

"I doubt Jessica will let Ellie out of her sight." Sam commented.

"True. My mom will probably be the same way with Shawn too. I guess we don't have much to worry about it - at least during the trip." the dark haired boy responded.

"It's kinda cool that they get along so well. You said Shawn wants to join Glee too, right? They'll be friends already." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, he does. They've still got another year though. I'm kinda glad he wants to be in Glee, that way I know you guys can watch out for him since I start college that year." Mike said.

"Of course we'll watch out for him. We'd watch out for him even if you weren't in college." the blond told his friend.

Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher finally walked into the room. Sam was glad she had finally decided to show up. She had set a record the week before by being a full thirty minutes late. He had a feeling that couldn't quite be legal, but their had always been bigger issues with the school, so he figured that it would be best to just let it slide.


Everyone had decided that it would be best not to comment when Santana walked into the choir room with Miles and he sat down next to her. Sam was trying to figure out if the other boy had simply decided to randomly skip class, or if he just wanted to see how things generally went in Glee. Miles had seemed serious about his plans to join New Directions the next school year and had already questioned Sam about how things usually went - apparently he had wanted multiple opinions. He decided not to ask, as he knew it would come up once Mr. Schue spotted Santana's boyfriend sitting with them.

"Okay, guys! We only have a little over a week, we really need to get these routines down." the teacher said shut the door behind him, "Miles? Don't you have a class you're supposed to be in?" he asked when he turned around and spotted sudden addition to the group.

"My teacher hasn't been here all day, she forgot to call a sub. I figured I would just sit in here and watch Santana practice with you guys, if that was ok with you." Miles responded.

Mr. Schue glanced around the room, Rachel looked as if she didn't quite trust him not be spying, but the others simply shrugged or nodded. They had all met Miles and got along fairly well with him. Santana rarely went anywhere without him anymore and the two seemed ridiculously in love. He had frequently come to hang out with the group, calling his mother once an hour to assure her that he was fine, but otherwise fitting in quite well. They all knew that his audition at the beginning of the next school year would mostly be a formality. Once Miles was informed that he could stay, they quickly began to run through the set list for Nationals as the excitement continued to build, knowing that they would be performing it soon.


Author's Note: I hope this one was okay, I wasn't too sure about it either. This was the last chapter before they're in New York though! There's just three chapters and an epilogue left! Thank you to everyone who's voted in the poll on my profile! I have some sort of storyline idea for everyone in the sequel, some are small storylines and some are very important, but the poll is helping me to figure out who's storylines I need to play up a bit. I also wanted to remind you all that I can not reply to your reviews if you have private messaging turned off!

BlackKeys96: Well, you'll find out in a couple chapters! I'm glad you liked it and thank you for reviewing!

Tessie: I'm so happy you liked the chapter! And I love it when people point out specific lines they liked, so thanks! And thank you for the review!