CHAPTER 16

"What's the lesson for today, Mr. Schue?" Rachel asked eagerly, as Mr. Schue approached the whiteboard. Mr. Schue smiled widely at the group and shook his head.

"Not a lesson, Rachel. A competition! I know how much you guys love competing against each other, and I know that we have some new members to the club, so I figured what better way to help them truly settle into the New Directions environment than throw them head first into our annual mashups competition!"

In an instant, the temperature of the room changed. It got a few degrees hotter as everybody shifted around in their seats, eager to get going. Well, except Marcus, who remained confused.

"I'm sorry… mashup competition?" He asked. Mr. Schue nodded.

"A mashup is when you take two completely random songs and mash them together into one." Mr. Schue explained. Marcus nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that." He responded. "But how is that a competition? Do we each make one and then you decide on the best one?"

"Better. It's boys vs. girls." Sam told him. "Each group writes one, and then we perform and then Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury vote on a winner."

"The boys won both sophomore and junior year, so we need to make a really good one so it becomes three in a row." Finn added. Rachel's head whipped around to face her boyfriend, an indignant look on her face.

"What are you talking about?! Sophomore year we both got disqualified, and then last year, we won!"

"Um… Rach, you might want to check your memory, because I seem to remember last year, we were miles better than you guys." Finn commented.

"Hold on, hold on. How'd you guys BOTH get disqualified in sophomore year?" Marcus asked. "Just so I know what I should avoid doing."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about avoiding. They all got high as fuck on meth right before they performed." Sam, who was sitting next to Marcus, told him. Marcus nearly choked on the sip of water he had just drank.

"I'm sorry… what?!" Marcus exclaimed. "Is that legal?!"

"Not at all. Hence the double disqualification." Mr. Schue responded. "So how about this? You guys can't decide who won in sophomore and junior year? Fine. Make this year a winner-takes-all. You both start at 0-0, and whoever wins this year's mashup competition gets all the bragging rights."

Once again, the atmosphere in the room amped up even further, as all 14 of them were chomping at the bit.

"Is there a theme for this year?" Mercedes asked. "And follow up question… can that theme be 'Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson can't solo'?"

Mr. Schue shook his head.

"Who solos is, as always, totally up to you guys." He told them. "But there is a theme though. And the theme is Love and Hate. Pretty simple: one of the songs in your mashup has to be about love and joy, and the other one about hate and anger. As Sam mentioned, Ms. Pillsbury was our guest judge in previous years and she has graciously agreed again to be our guest judge this year. Anyone have any questions?"

Nobody responded and Mr. Schuester smiled widely, clapping his hands together.

"Great! Let's get started!"

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"Alright guys… ideas time. Has anyone got any?" Finn asked. The boys sat in an empty classroom, sitting around a whiteboard that Blaine had just written "Mashup ideas" on and circled it. The girls had claimed the choir room, so the boys were forced to resort to the neighbouring classroom. Marcus was honestly shocked at how engaged the other guys suddenly were, as 90% of Glee club seemed to be Rachel talking and everyone else humouring her. Within minutes, they had song ideas of all genres - rock and roll, pop, rap, RnB, country, even some broadway ideas from Kurt - written on the board, split into two halves: love and hate. They were very confident to say the least. In previous years, the girls' vocals were a lot better than theirs and they had to rely on charisma, choreography and extra effects to gain an edge. But this year, with both Blaine and Marcus joining them as new recruits, the vocal playing field had definitely been levelled, and with the others also there, if anything the boys were the stronger team and were the favourites.

By the end of their brainstorming session, Marcus was the only one who hadn't yet spoken, and the reason for that was that he looked pretty preoccupied with something on his phone. It didn't take long for the other guys to notice that too, and before Marcus could react, Puck had snatched the phone out of Marcus' hands and began looking through it eagerly.

"What are you doing on your phone there, Marcus?" Puck asked gleefully.

"Could it be that you're actually texting one of those Cheerios you said were so shallow?" Sam remarked. Marcus glared at both of them and tried to snatch the phone from Puck, but the boy kept it just out of reach as he read through Marcus' messages. His eyes widened as he saw the name written at the top of the chat, and his grin did too.

"Oh, no. Sam, it's even better than that!" Puck exclaimed. "Congratulations, Hummel. By the time graduation comes around, you're going to be the only member of this entire Glee club that hasn't tried to get with Quinn!"

"Wait… you're trying to get with Quinn?" Sam asked, shocked.

"3 weeks into the year the drama begins." Kurt murmured, sotto voce, to Blaine. Marcus finally managed to grab the phone from them and shook his head.

"No. No drama! I'm not trying to 'get with' Quinn. We're just friends." Marcus stated. However, he quickly found his phone snatched away from him, and eagerly looked at by a curious Artie and Mike. As they read the messages themselves, their eyebrows all raised.

"Marcus, man, this definitely isn't just friends talking." Mike remarked, entertained.

"Exactly. We're friends, right? I haven't seen you send me any of these messages." Artie added. Marcus shrugged, getting more annoyed and embarrassing with each passing second.

"What can I say? Guess we aren't friends then." Marcus snapped at him. That was a lie. Other than Quinn, Artie was probably the closest friend he had made since arriving, and for a moment, Marcus felt a pang of guilt for the insult. Luckily, Artie didn't take it too personally though, and merely raised an eyebrow.

"Right. And that wasn't at all defensive." He remarked. Marcus sighed and spread his arms wide.

"Fine! I like her! Is that what you guys want to hear? I like her!" Marcus shouted. "What's not to like? She's kind to me, she's badass, and in case you haven't noticed, she's like the hottest person in this school!"

"Um, at risk of sounding stupid… well, stupider than I normally sound…" Finn said. "Normally when someone likes someone else, they ask them out."

Marcus shook his head.

"Well that's not going to happen." He said, firmness in his voice. Puck nodded.

"Ahhhh I see what this is." Puck commented. "You heard I've already slept with her and you're afraid of having to follow me."

"Afraid of the STDs I'm going to get from it maybe." Marcus was quick to shoot back. "But honestly… yeah, you're kind of right in a way. I know a lot of you already dated Quinn. Wouldn't me then trying to ask her out be like Glee incest or something?"

This elicited a laugh from most of the group.

"Marcus, open yours eyes, man! Pretty much everyone in the club has dated each other at one point or another." Finn remarked. "Rachel dated Puck, me, Blaine and went to prom with Sam. Quinn dated me, Puck and Sam."

"Santana has dated Brittany, Sam, Puck and for a night, Finn." Artie added.

"Tina dated me and Artie." Mike chimed in.

"Mercedes dated me and Puck." Sam added.

"Kurt and I." Blaine pointed out.

"Yeah, point is 'Glee incest' is almost exclusively what we do around here." Puck said. "If you like her, you should stop being such a pussy, man up and ask her out."

"Are you sure?" Marcus asked, now unsure. "I mean I know you, Sam and Finn are all her exes, and you all have a pretty toxic history with her. If any of you are even remotely uncomfortable with me dating her, I won't. I'm not going to ruin my friendships with any of you."

"We aren't. We swear." Both Puck and Finn said, Sam remaining weirdly silent.

"Quinn's a great girl, and you guys clearly have chemistry." Finn said.

"They have a lot more than chemistry based on some of these texts. Good God." Artie said, still looking at Marcus' chat with Quinn.

"Man up and go for it." Puck repeated.

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"Girl… what's up with you and Marcus?"

Quinn's head shot up in the choir room, and she turned to face Mercedes, who had asked the question, extremely interested to hear the answer. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know. What's up with me and Marcus?" She asked. Mercedes laughed.

"Come on! You can't expect us to not notice it! You were the one who convinced him to join Glee in the first place. You did that whole introduction project together, and have been eye-banging each other left and right ever since."

"And what was that all about earlier with you getting insanely upset about him even joking about dating other girls?" Tina added.

"Yeah, spill, Quinn. What happened between you guys during the last assignment?" Rachel asked. Quinn sighed.

"Well not much happened to be honest. If you're expecting some drama or some romance, you're going to be disappointed. We didn't kiss or anything. He literally just came over, he did the assignment, and he left."

"That's it? So there's really nothing going on between these guys? You don't have a crush on him?" Mercedes asked, confused.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you guys. He's really nice. And he was really easy to talk to. We had a great time doing the assignment together." Quinn admitted.

"You didn't answer Mercedes' question." Santana remarked, already knowing the answer though. "Quinn Fabray, do you have a crush on Marcus?"

Quinn was silent for a long time and didn't answer, but that told the other girls everything they needed to know.

"Oh, my God! You do! You do like him!" Tina exclaimed.

"Yeah, fine, I do. Sue me! He's nice. Attractive. Fun. Just a great guy. But I don't think he feels that way about me back." Quinn admitted quietly.

"Girl, you're crazy! Why wouldn't he like you?" Mercedes asked. Quinn took out her phone and passed it to the rest of the group.

"Look at these texts I've sent him. I've been pretty obvious that I like him. But he hasn't shown any sign that he likes me back." Quinn told them. They all read through the messages, before looking back up at Quinn, a little bit of sympathy in their eyes.

"Okay, no, that doesn't mean anything. He could just be unaware of you dropping these hints." Rachel commented.

"Yeah, mini Barbara's right. After all, your last two boyfriends were Frankenteen and Trouty, both of whom are unaware of their own shadows." Santana commented. "Maybe you just need to be a bit more direct with Marcus."

"How do I do that?" Quinn asked them. The other girls shrugged.

"Easy. Just ask him out." Tina told her. Quinn raised an eyebrow nervously at them.

"I ask him out? How?" Quinn asked. The other girls looked at her, confused.

"What do you mean, how?" Rachel asked. Realization then dawned on them. "Wait… you've never asked anyone out before, have you?"

"Why? You have?" Quinn asked, shocked.

"All of us have!" Mercedes exclaimed.

"Put it this way, Quinn. Men are… simple creatures. Even if they know what they want, they often can't find the ability to get it. Sometimes they need a bit of an extra push." Rachel stated. Quinn slowly nodded. Never in a million years did she ever expect to be getting guy advice from Rachel Berry of all people, but honestly right now she needed it. Because she truly cared about Marcus. She cared about him in a deeper way than she had cared about Finn, Sam, Puck, pretty much anyone she had ever met. It was completely involuntary, a feeling within her soul, one that no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to turn off. She knew that the only way to quell the longing and heartache would be if she asked him out. But that was easier said than done, because making the first move was something Quinn had never done before. Maybe it was time. If this thing with Marcus had even a chance of being as special as she made it out to be in her head, she knew that she needed to take the first step if he wasn't going to.

"So what do I do?" Quinn eventually asked her. Santana handed the phone back to Quinn.

"Well, you're going to text him right now, asking if he wants to go out with you tonight. Simple as that…"