"So what are you going to do about this?" Tina asked as she leaned back in her pool chair. She, Santana, and Mercedes were at Kurt's house discussing the night that shall not be named and Mercedes' newfound infatuation.

Mercedes sat upright in her chair, her book in her lap. "I'm going to do nothing about it. That's what. I'm going to keep my mouth shut, my head down, and hope that this all magically goes away."

"That's it? You're not even going to talk to him about it? Or how you feel?" Kurt asked from his spot on the pool float he shared with Santana.

Santana shared his concern. "I think like there should at least be some type of aftermath conversation."

"Are y'all insane? First of all, aftermath, Santana? It's been almost a month. If anything, we're in the aftermath of the aftermath of the aftermath. And the only reason Sam even moved here is because he doesn't want to have to go back to foster care and endure whatever the hell happened to him when he was in there, which I know nothing about. I'm not going to blow that up for him, I don't care how I feel or what I want."

"But I think you guys would be cute together." Tina shrugged. "You should at least establish that you have feelings for him."

"I have established it. Right here. And this is where it will stay. He's like, my foster brother. Didn't they have a show about that and didn't that not end up so well for either of them? I'm not telling him."

"They did. It was called The Fosters, it was actually pretty good. They ended up fine though." Kurt replied.

"Wait, I thought they ended up breaking up?" Tina asked.

"Oh yeah, no, they did. They tried to sneak around and ended up having to confess to their parents, it was a total hot mess. But it all worked out in the end and it made for GREAT tv. Also, technically Ms. Abby is his foster parent so that would make him your…" Kurt worked it out in his head, "foster uncle."

Mercedes smiled sarcastically. "Thank you, Kurt, for making it even weirder than any of us thought it could possibly get."

Santana was growing tired of the deflection. "For the last time, Cedes, what are you gonna do? And don't say 'nothing' because we all know that anytime you have a crush, it sticks and it sticks good."

"I don't know what else to tell you, Tana. I'm not doing anything. I'm not giving in to my feelings, I'm not entertaining them, and I'm certainly not telling Sam about them, or anyone else for that matter. The second Quinn walks through those backdoors, this never happened."

Kurt raised his hand. "Wait, why can't we tell Quinn?"

"Um, are you blind? Quinn's been into him since the very first day they met. And from what I know, they may or may not be actively pursuing a relationship right now."

Tina gasped. "Is this, dare I say, our crew's first love triangle?"

"No, it's not. Because there are only two people who have feelings for one another, and those people are Sam and Quinn."

"True, but we also haven't even gotten around to discussing the possibility that Sam has feelings for you."

"Oh, that's definitely much more than a possibility," said Santana. "Have you seen the way he looks at her?"

"Okay, you know what?" Mercedes took her earpods out of her bag beside her. "I'm not doing this anymore. Until Quinn gets here, y'all talk all you want about me and Sam and whatever relationship you think is budding between us, I don't care. I'm not listening. I'm not partaking in the conversation in any way. I'm listening to my music, I'm reading my book, and that is all."

"Okay, fine!" Kurt surrendered with his hands. "We don't have to talk about you and Sam anymore. But I do want to move on to the other man in your life. A certain brown-eyed runningback, maybe?"

Mercedes planted her face in her hands. "I need new friends."

"No, what you need is to give Noah a second chance." Santana chimed in. "I'd be willing to bet that what happened at the party was just a fluke."

"Tana."

"But Cedes, maybe she's right," Tina said. "I've known Noah for a long time now and since getting together with Mike, I've gotten to learn a little more about him. I've never taken him as anything but genuine. Maybe it really was just an honest mistake."

"So I should give him the chance to make another one?"

They talked for a little longer before Quinn appeared in Kurt's backyard. She immediately jumped into the conversation. "I think that you and Noah would make a good couple, Cedes. And let's not act like you just met him. You two have dated before."

"We didn't date, we went on a few dates. There's a difference. And those were barely dates."

"Look, all I know is that I know more about the players on the football team than anyone could ever hope to," Quinn hitched a ride on the float she'd dropped into the pool, "and Noah is the only player who's never been caught cheating on his girlfriend."

Tina scoffed.

"One of the only players. Sorry, Tina. Cedes, if you really like Noah, don't just let him slip through your grasp. Give him another chance."

Santana agreed. "And give him a decent shot at proving himself. Like, somewhere where we're not surrounded by loud music and alcohol. Somewhere he can actually pay attention to you."

Mercedes was hesitant about giving Noah another chance. She didn't have the energy to put up with being stood up again. But maybe, if what her friends were saying was true, it was worth giving him one last chance.

She sat in the school's courtyard a few days later working on her homework during her back-to-back free periods. Or, at least, she was trying to work on her homework. She couldn't stop thinking about Sam. And Noah. Things had been weird since she realized her feelings for Sam. She had been trying to keep her distance while not letting him know that something was going on, but she wasn't sure she was doing such a great job of that.

Sam didn't seem phased, though, when he found her about halfway through her free time. "Hey. Mind if I sit?"

She looked up from her notebook and nodded.

He sat down. "What is that, trig? I didn't even know they taught that here."

"Technically, they don't. This is for my dual enrollment class with the community college."

"What?" He gave her a shocked smile. "Community college? How did I not know you were this smart?"

She pressed her lips together and shrugged before going back to her work.

"I'm still on algebra II and you're working on your degree already, that's crazy. So how's your day been?"

"Do you not have any football manager duties to attend to or something? I thought that was usually what you did in your free period." She wasn't trying to be mean, but he and his green-eyed innocence wasn't exactly helping to distract her from the matter at hand.

"Not today. Coach Beiste is at a conference, so he's letting me run practice. Just to make sure everything went smoothly, I did all the prep I could yesterday and I'm being excused a few minutes early from my last class of the day to finish setting up. Nothing to do at the moment. Pretzels?" He offered her his bag.

"No, thanks," she said just as she saw Noah walking into the courtyard with some of his friends.

Following her line of sight, Sam leaned over a little toward her. "I thought we said screw him?"

She looked at him before scooting away from him a bit. "We did and I'm still there for the most part. But…"

"But?"

"Kurt and the girls think that I should give him another chance."

"Why would they tell you that?" Sam's voice sounded a lot less irritated than he was. There was no way he'd ever try to convince Mercedes to try it again with him.

"They say he's a pretty stand-up guy." She defended him. "They also mentioned that he's a different guy than the one I went out with a couple years ago. Hey, you're the manager of the football team; you work more closely with him than any of them do. What do you think about him?"

"Screw him is what I think," he murmured.

"I'm serious, Sam."

"Why? He doesn't deserve another minute of your time, Cedes. He doesn't care about you or anyone or anything but himself. He's about as far from 'stand-up' as they come."

Then who does deserve my time. You? "Is that your professional opinion as his manager?"

"That's my professional opinion as a person." There was no way he was going to let her think positively of him like that.

Mercedes didn't say anything else and went back to her assignment.

"So, homecoming is next week," said Sam after a period of silence. "Are you going?"

"To the game? No. To the dance? Yes. I didn't go last year and Kurt's not taking no for an answer this time."

"What color is your dress?"

Mercedes fought the urge to roll her eyes. She was thoroughly enjoying her alone time before he showed up and didn't favor small talk. "Blue."

"Cool. So should I get a blue corsage?"

Her head snapped up from her homework. "What?"

"We're going together, right?"

She shook her head, trying to understand where he got that from. "No. No, we're not. I mean, we'll be carpooling along with whoever else needs a ride, but we're not going as a couple or anything."

"Oh." Sam was slightly embarrassed. "I just thought because neither of us had anyone and you know, we live together. But yeah, I guess not."

What does he mean 'neither of us'? "I thought you and Quinn had a thing or something."

Sam wasn't sure if he heard the brief change in her tone or if he hallucinated it. "We do. Sort of. Actually, it's kind of unclear, but I just thought that after our talk at the lake, maybe you didn't want to have to be the ninth wheel again, you know? Let someone else be the odd one out for a change."

"Oh, god. Please, no talking about the lake ever again." She chuckled a little. "I can't believe I ever even overshared with you like that in the first place." Why did I say that? I'm supposed to be distant, not a bitch.

Oh. "Ha, yeah." Sam tried not to let on how weirdly sad it made him feel for her to say that. He shared just as much as she did and he hadn't felt bad about it at all until she said that. He thought that they connected that night. If I'm being honest, that was the best night since I had come here and one of the best in a long time. He packed up the few things he had taken out since sitting down. "You know, I think I actually do have some things I have to get done. Practice things. I'll see you later." He got up without waiting for a response for her.

She looked after him, feeling ashamed of herself. She knew she shouldn't have said that. It wasn't even true; she hadn't felt bad about the night at the lake at all. It was one of the best nights she'd had in a long time. It certainly beat sitting in her room with headphones on, which was saying something.

As if on cue with Sam walking away, Noah jogged over to Mercedes. "Hey. How's it going?"

She didn't look up. "Hi."

Seeing he was still being iced out, he cut right to the chase. "I just wanted to let you know that I'll be a little late coming in today. My little cousin has an appointment and I have to take him after practice."

"Okay." Mercedes felt bad once again as she started to hear him walk away. She looked up from her work, finally accepting that she wouldn't be getting anything else done. "You've got some strong supporters."

He turned around, his face showing her that he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Kurt, Santana and the rest of my girlfriends have spent the past month putting in a good word for you."

He put his hands up in defense. "I didn't ask them to do that."

"I know. "

"But uh," he sat down across from her, "what did they say, though?"

She smiled. "They basically said that you deserve a second chance and that the odds weren't exactly in your favor the first time."

"What do you think about that?"

"I think that they think that they're right," she said as her smile faded. "But Noah, I also think that none of them knew how it felt to hear and see you from across the room enjoying yourself without a care in the world. I want to give you a second chance, I won't lie about that. But I'm not someone who does good with being hung out to dry. I sincerely did not appreciate that."

"No, I know. And Cedes, I promise you it won't happen again. I promise."

After making him sweat for a bit, she decided that she was willing to take the risk. "One last chance, Noah. That's it."

He smiled wide. "Have you bought your homecoming tickets yet?"

"What makes you think I'm even going to homecoming?"

He gave her a knowing look. "Like Kurt is gonna let you miss another year."

She chuckled. "You've got a point there. I'm getting it tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it. It's on me."

"Noah, I may be giving you a second chance, but we're not going to homecoming together."

"I know." He winked as he rose from his seat and started walking away.

She stammered, "We- that's- um- I don't what that wink was for but we're not going to homecoming together, Noah. I'm serious!"

A few days later, Sam was cleaning off a table in the bakery when he felt someone pull him by the tail of his shirt. He turned to see Kurt. "Hey, Kurt. What can I do for you?"

"We need to talk. Second office down the hall in 2 and a half minutes." He sped off.

Sam frowned. Cedes' friends were an animated group of people, but now it was getting downright cryptic. He tried to wait for the right amount of time and made his way over to the office. He knocked on the door.

Kurt opened it. "What are you doing? You're a minute and a half early, Sam. I just left you."

"Kurt, just bring him in," Tina said from behind him.

As he surveyed the room he was pulled into, Sam started to feel like this was a setup. What for? He had no clue. "Isn't this room supposed to be for people to conduct business or something?"

"Believe me, this is a matter of business. And it's urgent." Kurt pointed to the chair beside him. "Sit down."

"Mercedes told us about the night you guys had at the lake after B4 a few weeks ago." Tina went over to the door to make sure it was locked.

Kurt nodded. "She also got into the nitty-gritty of your conversations."

Sam's stomach dropped. "That was supposed to be private."

"Don't worry, she didn't tell us exactly what was said, but she did tell us that you two talked about some pretty personal stuff. So listen up, you need to take Mercedes to homecoming. And Santana's not here yet but once she gets here, she'll tell you the exact same thing we are right now."

"Kurt's right, Sam. There's something going on between you two and if you don't act on it now, you may not get the chance to again."

"What?" Sam asked. Then, there was a knock at the door. He jumped.

Kurt opened the door once again. "Thank god you got here when you did. He was early."

"Have you guys told him the plan yet?" Santana strolled into the room.

"No, but we were getting there," said Kurt. "Mercedes is slipping out of your grasp as we speak, Sam. Are you aware of this?"

"I am aware that I have no idea what any of you are talking about."

"Let us break this down for you, Nashville." Santana took the chair beside him. "You and Mercedes ditched a party and went to her favorite restaurant, got her favorite food, then snuck into one of her favorite spots in the entire world where she openly talked to you about things that we, her best friends, have to literally pry out of her."

"And while we love Mercedes," said Kurt, "she's just as clueless as a pirate with two eye patches. You two had a moment. We know it, you know it, and now, you need to let Mercedes know it."

"A moment?"

Tina offered an explanation. "We know you like her."

Sam sat there, pretending to be dumbfounded. "I don't like Mercedes."

Santana's hand went straight to the sides of her head. "Oh, my god. I can't do this again. Kurt, Tina, handle this while I go and calm down." She got up and left the room.

"Sam," Kurt replaced Santana in her seat. "You don't have to pretend with us. We can tell. Plus, it just makes it harder for everyone involved when we're not being truthful. You like Mercedes. And you're in luck, because she likes you, too."

Sam felt himself smile a little at hearing this.

"But you're not in as much luck as you think because she's convinced that you two won't work. She thinks you're embarking on some sort of relationship with Quinn?"

"I mean, I kind of am."

"Are you taking her to homecoming?" Tina asked.

"Well, no, but—"

"Then by Quinn's standards, you two have nothing." Kurt shrugged his shoulders. "We've been trying to convince her to give Noah a second chance, but she's resistant to it. We think it's because her heart is telling her one thing and her mind is telling her another. She's not the best at listening to her heart, though, so she needs a little help. Here's the plan: you need to take her to homecoming."

"Guys," Sam stopped him, "I appreciate what you're trying to do here, even if it is a little weird, but Cedes has no interest in going to homecoming with me. I brought up the idea of going as friends as she shut me down without so much as a second thought. And, you know, as for our night at the lake, she said she regretted the most important part of it. So if I'm being honest, I don't think that we would work either. Let he be with Noah if that's what she wants." As much as he hated Noah, he couldn't do anything more to stop them from being together.

"But Sam, we don't think that's what she wants. She really likes you," Tina said. "It may not seem like it, but she does. And if you ask me, she's way overthinking things between you guys. She may be pushing you away right now, but only because she doesn't want things to end in disaster."

"Tina, as much as I want to believe that, I can't just believe it coming from y'all, no offense. And if that's the case, maybe she's right to do that. Who knows? In the meantime," he got from his chair, "I've got tables to bus."

He passed Santana in the hallway on the way out, who came into the room. "So?"

Both Kurt and Tina shook their heads.

"What does that mean?"

Tina answered. "He thinks that Mercedes regrets their night at the lake and she already turned him down for homecoming, so he doesn't have any interest."

"So, what are we going to do now?"

Monday morning, at the top of homecoming week, Mercedes was on the way to her locker with Kur. He had insisted that since they were one another's twin for the first day of spirit week, they had to be seen together at all times.

"I'm going along with this, but I hope you know that I'm ditching you the moment one of us has to go to the bathroom," she said.

"Cedes do you honestly think I won't follow you into the girls' bathroom? Let's be real here."

She laughed at him. "Whatever."

When they arrived at her locker and she put in her combo, she jumped at what slid out when she opened it. It fell to the floor.

Kurt gasped. "What is it?"

Mercedes picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside was a homecoming ticket and a note, "Stop overthinking and go with your heart for a change. See you at homecoming. Your secret admirer." She handed the note to Kurt with a look of confusion.

"Oh, my god," he said as he read it with a smile on his face. "You have a secret admirer?"

Mercedes saw Noah with his back to her standing up against his own locker with a couple of his football buddies out of the corner of her eye. She smiled slightly. "I guess I do." When she turned back around, Kurt was gone. "So much for us being twins," she said to herself.

Down the hall, Kurt had called Santana and Tina. "I mean, it says 'your secret admirer', but we know who it's from, right?"

"Do we though?" Tina asked. "Anyone could've put that in her locker."

"Yeah, Kurt. I don't really know how you're connecting the dots here," Santana said on the other end.

"Are you guys kidding me? Just last week, I told Sam that Mercedes doesn't know how to listen to her heart. And Tina, just a few seconds after that, you said that she was overthinking their relationship. It's like he parroted our words into this note. And, he included a homecoming ticket. He asked her to homecoming!"

Tina hung up the phone as she and Santana found Kurt at the same time. "But we both heard him say that he wasn't going to do that. He doesn't think he and Mercedes are a good fit."

"Maybe he changed his mind."

Sanatana wanted to hear it from Sam himself. "Well, the only way to know is to ask him, right? So, let's go right now. We have time before class starts."

Kurt grabbed her as she took the note and started walking away. "Are you crazy? Sam's a guy. If we let him know that we're onto him, he could get scared and ruin the whole thing. We just have to wait and see how the rest of the week plays out. Sam will reveal himself eventually. Wait a minute," He looked between the two girls. "Why aren't you two dressed alike? It was supposed to be you two and me and Cedes. This is not twin day attire."

"We didn't really feel like it." Tina shrugged.

"Are you two serious?" He screamed as loud as possible to not be noticed in the hallways.

"Whoa, whoa, will you stop having a hissy fit over every single thing?" Santana hit him on the shoulder.

"How are we supposed to make it into the candids of the yearbook if you two aren't even following the rules of spirit week? Get it together and let's do better tomorrow. I have to get to class. And don't tell Sam or Mercedes that we know who sent this note." He jetted off to class.

"Who we think sent the note," Tina yelled after him.

"Same thing!"

Ooh, a secret admirer! Who is y'all's money on? Be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think of this chapter and story. I always love reading them!