Glee, Actually
She comes back early for Christmas. She doesn't know why she does, it's not like she wasn't just in Lima, but she finished her classes and was beginning to get a little homesick when her roommate brought out her Christmas decorations so she gets out of bed on a Tuesday at 4am and drives ten hours in her pyjamas to Lima.
She doesn't tell anyone that she's back yet. Santana isn't coming home until next week and Rachel and Kurt are spending Christmas in New York, so she doesn't really have anyone else to see. She stays inside her house afraid if someone (Tina) finds out she's back they'll drag her out somewhere. She's not worried about them seeing her car, none of them even know she got a new one.
But eventually she needs to leave. She runs out of tampons and she doesn't really feel like writing them on the grocery list for her mother's new boyfriend to go buy. So she gets into her car at 10pm and drives to the drug store at the edge of town because she's hoping that way she won't run into anybody.
But of course, she does. She's never been to this drug store because she's never needed too, going to the one by the high school instead because it was so much closer to her house, so she has to go through each aisle because the signs overtop of them telling her their contents are a little faded.
She runs into Brittnay while she's walking through the condoms aisle. She turns around immediately hoping that Brittnay won't see her. But of course, Brittany notices her. "Quinn? Is that you?"
She turns around like this is the first time she's even noticed Brittnay is there. "Brittnay? Hi! How are you?" She asks her while going to hug her, Brittany's basket digging painfully in her side. It sounds so pathetically fake, but she's hoping Brittnay won't notice.
"I'm good. What are you doing back?" Brittany asks her confused and she has to blink at her a few times. Does she not see the holiday decorations everywhere?
"Oh you know, Christmas." She says awkwardly, wondering if Brittnay even knows what month it is. "Heard about you and Sam. I'm happy for you." She doesn't even know why she brings it up, it's not like she and Brittnay are as close as they once were, it's not like they need to be having this conversation.
"Thanks Quinn." Brittany says while smiling at her, completely oblivious to the fact that she doesn't really mean it. She knows it was bound to happen, Sam and Brittnay finding other people to date because their respective partners had broken up with them, she just didn't think that they would choose to date each other.
"So what are you shopping for?" She asks for, praying to anyone that's listening that she won't say condoms. She just thought that because she wasn't sleeping with anyone else, Sam wouldn't be either.
"I'm trying to find cigarettes for Lord Tubbington, I tried to get him to quit but he's blackmailing me again." She's too speechless to ask Brittnay what the hell she's talking about.
"Uhm okay. Well I'll let you get back to that." She tells Brittnay because what else is she even supposed to say to that?
She exits the drug store and it isn't until she's ten minutes away from her house she realizes that she forgot the tampons.
xxx
Of course Brittnay tells someone she's back in town. It's not that she didn't expect Brittnay too, it's not like it was some secret or anything, she just kind of hopes she wouldn't.
She's rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she goes to open the front door due to someone banging their fist on it until she wakes up. It's not like she can ask her mom to get it for her since she's at work, so she throws a robe over her body and drags her feet downstairs.
There stands Tina with her arms crossed and an unimpressed look on her face. "Why didn't you tell me you were back?" Tina asks her annoyed.
She looks away from Tina to check the clock on the wall inside the living room. 7:23am, Tina must have decided to come before school. "Good morning to you too, Tina." She yawns out, wrapping her robe tighter around her body because some of the cold air is starting to transfer inside. "Is there a reason why you have decided to come here so early and disrupt my sleep?"
"Come to the championship game tomorrow night." She rolls her eyes. Seriously? This is what Tina woke her up for. "Before you say anything, let me make my case first. This is the first time in years they have actually made it to the championship game, so you have to come support the school having grown up in Lima and all that bullshit about town patriarchy. Plus Finn needs someone to hang out with that isn't a student." Tina begs her.
"He'll have Burt." She tells Tina, unconvinced. Why would she go watch a high school football game where her ex is the quarterback? Yes sometimes she likes to self sabotage her happiness, tortue herself a little bit because she thinks she deserves it, but this is going a little too far.
"Come on Quinn, what are your other plans for tomorrow night? I can guarantee you don't have any." She glares at Tina and sighs.
"Fine. But don't think I don't know the reason why you came to my house this early is because you knew I would be too tired to say no." She tells her, pointing a figure at Tina jokingly. Tina squeals and hugs her, reaching into pocket and pulling out a ticket.
"I was really hoping that you would say yes." Tina says to her, handing her the ticket. "All the details are on there! I need to head to school. See you tomorrow!"
Tina is gone before she can change her mind.
xxx
A high school football game on a Saturday night, she sure is living the college experience. She texted Finn the moment Tina coerced her into going so they had decided to meet each other at the concession stand before the game.
"Do you want anything?" He asks her while getting himself a popcorn.
"Maybe just a mocha." She tells him, thanking him once he adds it to his order.
"I don't know how you can drink coffee, I tried some in the teachers lounge and it was disgusting. Thanks for coming by the way, Mr. Batherson told me that I could come watch the game with him if I didn't have anybody else and I really feel like my life hasn't gotten to that level of pathetic yet." He tells her while they walk towards the bleachers and she laughs.
"How is teaching?" She asks him and he shrugs.
"It's different. The other day Jake and Ryder got into a fight and I just stood there having no clue what to do, but I like it." He tells her and she snickers, thinking back to way back when it was Finn and Puck exchanging punches over her on the choir room floor.
"I always knew you'd be a great teacher." She tells them as they look around for people they know. Tina waves at them from the middle of the bleachers with Blaine and Artie and they walk up to them. She squints to see if that truly is Artie, wondering how the hell they even got him up there.
"Really?" He asks her surprised and she nods.
"Either a teacher or running your own shop. You were always so good with kids. That's kind of why I lied about you being the father of Beth." She tells him embarrassed, but he just laughs.
"Thanks Quinn, it means a lot." He tells her and she smiles. Tina greets the both of them as she takes a seat next to Tina with Finn on the other side of her.
"Hey I'm sorry about how things turned out between you and Sam, I hope I didn't put the two of you on the spot making you sing that duet." He tells her.
She doesn't know what to tell him. Yes at the time it had irritated her so much, Finn forcing her to sing a duet with Sam in front of all those new kids, but she realized staying mad about it was stupid. Clearly Sam had no issue with it.
"I guess it doesn't really matter, he's with Brittnay now." She tells him because she doesn't know what else to say. He chuckles while throwing a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth.
"Yeah that was weird, seeing them arrive to glee practice one day holding hands. I wonder if that's how Mr. Schue felt seeing us with different people every other week." He tells her and she throws her head back and laughs.
xxx
He doesn't pay attention to who's in the bleachers when he gets onto the field, only wanting his mind to be focused on the game. He knows his family is there, sitting with Burt and Carole, adding to Tina, Blaine and Artie, with Brittnay cheering for him on the sidelines with the rest of the cheerios. That's all that matters.
But then he hears her laugh, and he just knows it's her. He knows that laugh, for a while it was his favourite sound, so he whips his head around while Coach Beiste is talking to them to check.
He was right, and he doesn't know if he's happy or pissed about it. She's sitting beside Tina, so he knows Tina must have had something to do with this. She isn't looking at him, instead laughing and talking with Finn. Though Tina is looking at him, giving him an apologetic smile and he rolls his eyes. He'll deal with her later.
Before he walks onto the field, Brittany runs up to him, placing a kiss on his lips as he's about to put his helmet on. "For good luck." She tells him while winking. He smiles at her back and puts on his helmet, subtly checking the bleachers for the reaction of the blonde he cares more about. At first glance she looks unbothered, but he knows her better than that. He can see the slight quiver in her smile, the smallest crack to her mask. She's not happy about his new relationship, not that he expected her to be.
xxx
It goes back and forth all game, but the Titans pull through within the last minute. She jumps up with Finn when Ryder scores the winning touchdown and takes everything out of her to keep herself from running down those bleachers and congratulate Sam who is being hoisted up onto the shoulders of his teammates.
Tina and Blaine run down, and she carries Artie's wheelchair as Finn helps him down the bleachers so he can go celebrate with his friends. His friends have now put him down and he makes eye contact with her while he's hugging Tina. She's about to walk up to him but Brittnay runs past her and jumps into his arms. It takes her back to two years ago when that was her, in a cheerios uniform and pom poms thrown on the floor as she ran up to him after every football game they won so he could spin her around. But he's clearly replaced her now, so she breaks eye contact and tells Finn she's going to head home without sticking around to hear her response, slipping away unnoticed.
xxx
He picks up Brittnay from her Biology class so they can head to glee rehearsal together when she asks him. "So when am I going to get one?" She asks him, swinging their hands as they walk down the hallway.
"Get what?" He asks her, clearly confused.
"A promise ring, silly." She tells him it's the most obvious thing ever. "I am getting one, aren't I? Quinn got one."
He wants to tell her that, that was a one time thing. He got Quinn that promise ring because he thought he was going to marry her. He never gave one to Mercedes or Santana, and if he's being honest he wasn't planning on getting Brittnay one either, but he can't tell her that, so he agrees.
"Yeah, okay." He tells her hesitantly, but of course she doesn't notice, she just runs to Tina and takes a seat next to her, telling her about how Sam's getting her a ring. Tina looks at him like he's insane and he shrugs, unsure of what else to do.
xxx
Tina texts him concerned about Brittnay because she's apparently losing it over some Mayan apocalypse and cashing in all her savings to buy everyone huge gifts. He sighs, he hasn't had a job for a while so money is tight for him, so he's been stressing about what to buy his family for Christmas, and now he has to add this to the list of things he has to worry about.
Yes he has believed in the odd conspiracy theory, but the world ending because of some calendar? It's so unlikely. He meets Brittnay by her locker the next day so he can try and talk her out of believing that this apocalypse is going to happen.
"Brittnay? Can I ask you something?" He was planning to ask her how she even started believing in this Apocalypse.
"Yeah, but not if you're going to tell me that the Mayan Apocalypse isn't real. 'Cause the documentary I watched was on the History Channel, involving real actors portraying real events." He blinks a few times because he has no idea what to even say to that.
"Uh, I was just going to ask you to meet me in the library later." He tells her, panicking slightly because that's not what he was going to ask and now he has to figure out something to get her to give her there.
"Sure." She says, giving him a kiss on the cheek before leaving him in the hallway feeling more stressed than he was before.
xxx
He waits at a table in the library during his free period for Brittnay to meet him, but he's met with Tina and Artie instead. He furrows his brows confused. "What are you guys doing here?" He thought their group study session wasn't until later on in the week.
"You tell us, your girlfriend was the one to summon us here." They tell him and he sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Oh Brittnay, what are you planning?
Soon enough everyone from glee club arrives and Brittnay skips into the library shortly after they all do.
"You guys, welcome to the first meeting of the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Club." He groans from beside Brittnay.
"Brittany-" He starts but she cuts him off before he can continue.
"No, I know that tone. It's the voice people use when they're about to tell me that I'm wrong, but I'm not wrong about this Sam." She tells him sternly and he drops his head back frustrated.
"Wait, that's what this is?" Tina pipes up from on the couch the glee kids are sitting on. She looks at him confused and he shrugs, he doesn't know what's going on either.
"Don't worry it's also the last meeting." He tells them all and Jake smirks.
"Because we're all so close, Sam and I wanted to bring you here," he shakes his head, indicating to them all that this was solely Brittnay's idea. He has no clue what she has planned, so he does not want to be held responsible for it. "So we could finally tell you our true feelings about you."
His eyes widen. "Wait Brittnay hold on."
She shakes her head and holds up her hand to get him to stop talking. "Sam, it's okay. Tina, acting is a pipe dream for you, and your decision to pursue it as a career is both irresponsible and shocking" He flinches and gives Tina an apologetic look as her jaw drops. "Joe, you haven't really made much of an impression on me, and I don't really know what your deal is." He snickers a bit at that one.
"Wait a second." Tina says, stopping Brittnay.
"This is the worst club ever." Ryder chimes in.
"We're not gonna just sit here and let you insult us." Marley adds and he tries to get her to look at him so she can see he clearly has no part in this.
"I wasn't gonna insult you; all I wanted to tell you was that I think you're delightful." Brittany tells Marley sadly.
He places a supportive hand on Brittnay's back. "It's okay babe, let them go." He tells her as she watches them leave the library. He sits her down on the couch the glee kids were just sitting on. "The reason why I called you here, was because I wanted to give you your Christmas gift early."
He had convinced some of the cheerios he knows from when he was with Quinn and they were on her squad to dance backup for him while he sings Jingle Bell Rock for Brittnay to distract her from this Mayan Apocalypse she has obsessed her with.
She stands up and cheers and he wipes his sweaty hands on his jeans, nervous to be doing this for a second time. "And here's another rock. Brittany, will you accept this promise ring?" He asks her while getting down on one knee.
She jumps up and down and says yes about a hundred times while he takes the ring out of the box and places it on her finger. It brings back memories, painful bittersweet memories of two years ago. He didn't prepare a speech for Brittnay, he knows he probably should have since he did for the first person he did this for, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
It's a small ring, smaller than the one he gave Quinn because he had to buy it last minute, but Brittnay doesn't seem to care as she inspects it on her finger. He gives her a tight smile and takes a deep breath to make sure he's still breathing.
xxx
Brittany calls him the next morning, completely panicked. "Sam, do you know what day it is?" She asks him, frantic.
"Uh, Wednesday?" He asks her, confused as to what this is about.
"No! It's December 22nd, the world didn't end!" She's still on this? He thought she would have forgotten about it since he gave her that shiny new ring to play with.
"Well that's a good thing isn't it?" He asks her while dragging himself out of bed so he can start getting ready for school.
"I guess, but I was sure the Mayan's were right about this." He hums because he doesn't want to tell him that no one else but her felt that way. "I'll see you at school." She tells him, any sadness about the Apocalypse gone as giddiness takes its place.
"Yeah, see ya." He tells her, still half asleep.
xxx
She gets a call at five in the morning on the night of Christmas. She doesn't wake up until the third call, so she jumps out of bed half asleep to answer because if someone is calling her three times at five in the morning it has to be an emergency.
"Hello?" She asks, her voice full of sleep as she turns on her bedside lamp.
"Quinn." Kurt sobs and her heart clenches in her chest. He never calls her in the middle of the night, not even for a fashion emergency, so it has to be serious.
"Kurt? What's wrong?" She asks him, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible even though she's panicking a little bit.
"I know it's like 4am, but it's my dad Quinn." She sits up against her headboard and rubs the sleep out of her eyes.
"It's okay, you can tell me Kurt, I'm here for you." She tells her, trying to be as supportive as she can be despite their eleven hour distance. He had decided to stay in New York for Christmas, much to her dismay.
"My dad has cancer." Her heart sinks. Burt has played a father figure role to so many of them, he doesn't deserve this.
"Do you want me to fly out there? I know Rachel isn't there. And I know it's Christmas, but I'm sure I could get a last minute flight. Or I could drive, I just got a new car and-" She cuts herself off when Kurt lets out a breathy laugh.
"It's okay, I'm okay, my dad and Blaine are both here. I think I just wanted to say it out loud you know, be able to talk about it because neither of them want to." She nods her head even though he can't see her.
"I'm so sorry this is happening Kurt." She tells him while getting out of bed to make herself a cup of coffee, no point in going to sleep now since she has to be up at 6:30 anyway, her mother loves to start celebrating Christmas as early as she possibly can.
"It just feels so surreal you know? Like it's a dream, but I know it's not." She hums along to his heartbreaking rant as she rummages through drawers trying to find the coffee mix, cursing at her mother because she is constantly moving things around.
"Burt is so strong, I just know he'll fight this." She doesn't really know what else to say, her and her own father are not close so she can't really empathize with Kurt, but Burt has treated all of them like his own at times. So she thinks about that. "Remember when I was in my hospital because of my accident? My mom was so terrified that I would wake up while she was at work, she didn't want me to wake up and have no one there, so Burt took off an entire week of work just to stay with me while my mom wasn't there." She tells Kurt, smiling fondly at the memory.
Kurt chuckles. "He always did have a soft spot for you, knowing about your relationship with your father."
She smiles, unsure of what to say to that. "So Blaine huh? Has he caught you under any mistletoe yet?" She teases him a bit while sitting down on the couch so she can drink her coffee.
Kurt snorts. "No, it's not like that. He's just here to help me with my dad I guess. We're just friends."
She frowns, how can you be friends with an ex that fast. "Friends?" She echos, confused.
"Yes Quinn, friends. It's not like he cheated on me or anything, we ended on good terms. I just needed a little space so I could see how that would look like, and now I have. So were friends." She hums back because she still doesn't quite get it. "Well I need to go, I think my dad is waking up, but I'll update you. Merry Christmas Quinn."
She smiles. "Merry Christmas Kurt."
xxx
He doesn't escape his family for five minutes of free time until about 6pm. He picks up the small wrapped present shoved in the back of his closet so Stacey's sneaky hands wouldn't find it.
He throws on a vest over his button up shirt and hops into his truck, trying to get there as safely, but quickly as he can since he hadn't told his parents he was going out. It's snowing out which makes him smile as he hums along to the Chritstmas tunes playing on the radio.
He quickly runs up the driveway and places the present outside the front door once he arrives, panicking a bit when the porch lights turn on. He jogs back to his truck and sits inside, watching.
He's grateful she's the one who opens the door as he sits and watches her bend down to pick up the present. He watches as she inspects it and laughs quietly to himself because she's not going to figure out who it's from, he made sure to not sign his name.
She looks around, trying to see if she can find any clues to who it's from, but she won't. He's parked in a spot that he knows she won't see. She unwraps the box and pulls the lid off, revealing a vintage camera inside. He watches as her face lights up and he can practically hear her gasp from inside his car.
He waits for her to head inside, and then starts to drive home. He lost a huge chunk of money this Christmas, which probably means he'll need to find a job since the football season is now over, but he doesn't mind, seeing the look on her face made it all worth it.
Sadie Hawkins
He doesn't really know how it started, but all he knows is that he had a dream about the Warblers sectionals performance and ever since then something just hasn't felt right.
He's an athlete, he knows these kinds of things, so he begins to spiral a little bit, researching and investigating because if he is right, this could be huge. He doesn't tell anyone about it at first because he knows what they're going to say. This is crazy Sam, we lost, just let it go. But he knows that there is some truth to this, he just needs to find some truth to it.
So he goes to Blaine because if anyone is going to help him out with this it's going to be Blaine. He knows he needs to tread carefully because Blaine was once a Warbler, and he knows how much honor means to all of them.
"Blaine, I need to talk to you about something important." He tells him while Blaine is at his locker. Blaine raises an eyebrow at him, but urges for him to tell him with a nod of his head. "I think the Warblers cheated or something at sectionals, with like performance enhancer drugs."
Blaine looks at him blankly for a few seconds before shaking his head and closing his locker. "Sam, that's ridiculous." He says to him as he walks down the hallway so they can head to student council for this week's meeting.
"I'm telling you, it's been keeping me up at night. Something weird's going on with the Warblers. They're doing all those weird flips and superhuman jumps at sectionals." He says, following Blaine. He's not going to give up on this, eventually someone is going to see what he is.
"Exactly, that's why they won." Blaine tells him, still not understanding him.
"And where was round faced Warbler?" He asks Blaine, hoping he knows who he is talking about because he still doesn't know any of their names after all these years. "You said he was there when you went back to Dalton, but come sectionals, poof, he's gone."
"So what are you saying?" Blaine asks him, still unconvinced.
"I think they cheated at sectionals."
"Sam, you can't make accusations like that without any kind of evidence." He internally groans, he was hoping Blaine would be the one who would help him find the evidence, but he doesn't seem to be buying what Sam is trying to sell him.
"Well, then, I'll find some evidence." He tells Blaine. "Do you have any lip balm I can use?" He asks him, trying to see if Blaine is mad at him for accusing his friends from his old school of using steroids.
"What?" Blaine asks him, clearly confused.
"Conspiracy theories make my lips get all chapped." He jokes, hoping to get a laugh out of Blaine, but Blaine just looks at him oddly. "Come out dude, it's not weird. We're like brothers." He tells Blaine, starting to get a tad bit uncomfortable himself now.
"Yeah, uhm, sure." Blaine tells him, grabbing chapstick out of his bag and handing it to him. "Here you go."
"Thank you." He tells Blaine as he applies it on his lips.
"Guys! You're late." Tina tells them as she and Sugar pop their heads out the door. He rolls his eyes and bites his tongue from telling Tina that the meeting doesn't even start for another thirty seconds.
He takes his usual spot between Blaine and Tina where he pretends like he knows what's going on for like forty minutes when in reality he's thinking about what he's going to eat for lunch later on in the day.
"This meeting of the McKinley High Student Council is now in session. First order of business: Secretary Cohen-Chang, will you please read the minutes from last meeting?"
"Sam did a Daniel Craig impression for forty-five minutes." Tina says while looking at him annoyed.
He makes another impression because he knows how much they irritate Tina. Can you blame him for wanting to lighten up the mood in these meetings? Everything is so serious all the time. All the other girls in the meeting didn't seem to mind, although he's not really sure what their roles are.
"Treasurer Motta, if we could go through the budget appropriations we were talking about last- yes Tina?" He sighs, this is usually where he begins to zone out, and if Tina's going to go on one of her long rants about how this year's student council must make a difference to McKinley in a way the others hadn't he's seriously going to fall asleep.
"It is now officially 142 days until Prom, where all the hot girls get immediately snatched up by all the hot guys, then the sort of hot girls get asked out by the sort of hot guys, and then all the rest of us have to sit around and wait for all the nerds and the freaks and the burn-outs and the losers to work up some courage and ask us out," he looks over at Blaine because he does not understand how this has anything to do with student council, but Blaine just looks as confused as he feels. And why is Tina complaining? She's never been in that situation, she went to Prom with Mike every year. "To the most awkward night of heavy petting we're likely to get till we wake up in a nursing home getting groped by an orderly." He knows that Tina had been taking her breakup with Mike hard, but he hadn't realized things were this bad.
"Okay, well, for the record I think you're totally sorta hot. Like, if I was, like, in a bunker with you, I would totally hit that." He tells Tina, hoping it will make her feel better. From the look on her face, it clearly doesn't.
"Tina, what are you suggesting?" Blaine asks her and he lets out a sigh of relief because he was not prepared to hear Tina's response to what he just said.
"I propose the First Annual McKinley High Sadie Hawkins Dance." He looks over at Blaine confused because he has no idea who Sadie Hawkins is or what she has to do with school dances. "It's what you call a dance where the girls ask the guys." Tina explains to him.
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Blaine tells her and he looks over at Blaine confused once again. Sure the idea of being asked out by any girl terrifies him, but he's dating Brittnay so hopefully the rest of the female population will back off. But isn't this the same thing as every other dance, just backwards?
"Why not?" Tina asks Blaine. "It was the topic of discussion at the last meeting of the 'Too Young to Be Bitter Club.'" Tina tells them and he chokes on his water. Too young to be bitter? Tina is spiralling worse than he thought. He'll have to talk to Mike later to see what's going on between the two of them.
"All in favour of a dance where the girls ask the guys?" Tina asks and he watches as every girl in the room raises her hand, so he thinks to himself what the hell, if it's to support Tina and raises his own hand as well.
"W-wait, wait, wait a second. Hold on just one-" Blaine tries while looking at him like what the hell? So he just keeps his head down.
"It's official. Get ready for the first annual McKinley High Sadie Hawkins Dance." He smiles at how excited Tina looks and apologizes to Blaine hoping he'll understand why he raised his hand.
xxx
He thinks it's funny how on edge the guys are about this Sadie Hawkins thing. Isn't that the point? They're supposed to feel how the girls always feel? But he's not really worried, he's dating Brittnay. But he does feel a bit for the other guys.
"Hey." Brittany tells him as he stops by his locker to grab his textbook for his next class. He winks at her.
"Asking me to the Sadie Hawkins dance?" He asks her, hoping they can just get it over with so he doesn't have to reject any other girl without an actual reason.
"Not yet silly." She tells him, smacking his arm playfully. "It needs to be special, like how you asked Quinn to Prom last year."
He drops his textbook on the floor in surprise. Why would Brittnay bring up how he asked his ex-girlfriend to prom? He laughs nervously because he doesn't know what else to say to that, but of course she doesn't notice. She just pecks him quickly before skipping down the hall to her next class.
Finn tells them that their next glee meeting will be in the astrology room and he gulps, not prepared for all the memories that room is going to bring him. There's really no other place that they can rehearse?
He hops onto a desk and waits patiently for Finn to disclose this week's assignment. And of course this week's assignment is an opportunity for the girls to publicly sing a proposal to them. Oh well, at least he has Brittnay.
xxx
He heads into the locker room for glee practice the next day as Tina prepares for her song. He asks Artie who he thinks Tina is going to ask and Artie makes a hint that he thinks Tina is going to ask him.
"Unique?" He asks as a joke, knowing Artie is talking about himself. Artie just glares at him.
But it isn't Artie, from the looks of it she's singing to Blaine. "Oh god." He whispers under his breath as she looks lovingly at Blaine. He watches painfully as Blaine awkwardly rejects Tina.
He chases after Tina as she storms out of the locker room. "Tina, wait!" He calls after her, but she keeps running. "Hey, come on." He says softly as soon as he catches her arm.
She turns around and he flinches at the tears streaming down her face. "Leave me alone Sam." She sniffles, trying to tug her arm out of his grasp.
"Come on." He tells her, dragging her into the first empty classroom he sees.
"God, that was so embarrassing!" She cries as soon as he closes the door. He stands a few feet away from her because you never really know how Tina's going to react. She furiously wipes away at her tears and he leans against one of the chalkboards waiting for her to calm down.
"Okay, maybe, but what did you expect to happen T? I don't really know if you've noticed or not, but Blaine is gay." She glares at him and he raises his hands up in surrender as he begins to walk towards her. "What about Mike? I thought you guys were going to try and figure things out?" She laughs bitterly as a few more tears fall from her eyes.
"He's too busy. It's easy to think that you'll make things work with someone whenever they're still here, but distance is too hard. I don't know what I was thinking with this whole Blaine thing, I feel like such an idiot." He wraps Tina in his arms as she cries softly into his chest.
"It's okay, Blaine will understand. Sometimes we convince ourselves that we like other people to distract ourselves from the fact that we can't have the people we truly want." He tells her, and when he releases her she gives him a look that tells him she knows this conversation isn't about her, Mike, and Blaine anymore.
xxx
He hopes onto one of the tables in Ms. Pavelski's History class and prepares himself for the girls performance today. Well, it's not like it can be as bad as yesterday's performance he tells himself. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sees that it's a duet between Brittnay and Marley. And although he's not entirely sure who Marley is going to ask, he has a good idea about Brittnay.
"Sam, will go to Sadie Hawkins with me?" Brittany asks him and he does a Yoda impression so he doesn't think too hard about the last time he went to a dance with someone.
He runs into the library during Blaine's free period because he knows that's where Blaine will be and throws his binder off of the table.
"Dude, look at this." He tells Blaine while he places Finn's iPad that he kind of borrowed without permission in front of him. "This is Hunter Clarington two years ago. Look at how skinny his head is. And this is him now." He tells Blaine, waiting for the photos to switch. "Look at how much thicker his head is!"
"So maybe he started working out?" Blaine suggests and he rolls his eyes.
"What, doing skull-widening exercises? Dude, human growth hormone! HGH! Same thing happened to Mark McGwire and Kirstie Alley and Drew Carey and Star Jones and Aretha Franklin, Cedric the Entertainer, but that's not the point. The point is that we need to find someone who can confirm this theory!" He tells Blaine who looks like he has zoned out. "Blaine!"
"Huh? What?" Blaine asks him as he jumps a little.
"Dude were you even listening?" He asks him, a little annoyed because this is a huge discovery.
"Yeah, HGH and all that. I'll talk to Trent and see what I can find out." He smiles at Blaine.
"Okay dude, that's awesome! I need to go return this iPad before Finn notices it's missing." he tells Blaine, feeling really good about the New Direction's chances of heading to regionals.
xxx
He tries his best to straighten out his tie in his mirror and placing the few finishing touches on his hair so he can head out and get Brittnay before heading to the dance.
"Still haven't managed to figure out how to tie a tie yet? How did you get through all the other dances and show choir competitions without me?" His mom tells him while smirking, leaning against the door.
"Quinn." He tells her honestly as his mom walks towards him so she can fix his tie.
"Ah, I see. How is she?" His mom asks her as she places her hands on his shoulders.
"She's fine." He tells his mom, tone evident that he doesn't want to talk about her. "Well I need to go get Brittnay, I'll text you when I'm on my way home."
"Brittnay? Isn't that Quinn's old friend?" His mom asks him, following him out of his room. "Just be careful Sam." She tells him, giving him a kiss on the cheek before he leaves.
He smiles at her, unsure of what to say because he doesn't know if what she means is what he's thinking about.
xxx
He grabs Blaine while he's dancing with Tina as soon as he finds out that Hunter is not the only one who has been taking HGH. "Did Trent ever get back to you?" He asks Blaine as they run to find Finn.
"Yeah, I invited him here so he could tell Finn about everything." His eyes widen and he stops running, confused as to why Blaine didn't tell him anything.
"Dude!" He yells at Blaine, punching his arm.
"I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure he would talk to us about it!" Blaine tells him, rubbing his arm.
"Finn, we need to talk to you." He tells Finn as soon as they find him by the food table helping students.
"Okay." He says, looking at the two of them weirdly.
"No, not here. Let's go to the locker room." He tells Finn as Blaine drags him behind them. They show Finn the pictures of all the Warblers and share with him all the other information they have gathered over the past few weeks from investigating in the library as soon as Finn sits down.
"It's not just Hunter who takes HGH either. Half the Warblers have gained ten pounds of muscle since they joined the team."
"I already looked into this." Finn tells them. "This is a weight training regimen that they stole from Vocal Adrenaline." He rolls his eyes.
"You can't just go from being a twig to Jean-Claude Van Damme in a few months. Tell him Sam." He looks at Blaine a little confused because he has no idea who Jean-Claude Van Damme is.
"Look, the average male gains up to two pounds of muscle per month - fact!" He tells Finn, a little proud of all his research.
"And that's without cheating. We looked it up online." Blaine adds.
"Plus, uh, look at this cellphone video that Artie and Joe Hart took down at the Lima Bean the other day." He tells Finn, playing the video for him. "Now that is roid rage and you know it!" He tells Finn, urging him to remember as an athlete what roid rage looks like from other players they know that have taken it.
"Look, chapter seven, subsection sixteen, rule four, line nine. 'Any team using performance-enhancing drugs, including amphetamines, anabolic steroid, human growth hormone, or Four Loko will be automatically disqualified from competition. The rule is retroactive, so if we can prove that they used at Sectionals, they'll have to forfeit and we'll win." Blaine tells Finn and he gives Blaine a high five proud of their discovery.
"Guys, what you are asking me to do here is beyond serious. The Warblers are like, one of the most respected glee clubs in the country. To accuse them of this when all we have for proof is photos of some dudes' heads and a cell phone video? Look, I want glee club back just as much as you guys, but this isn't enough. We need more real proof." Finn tells them and he looks over at Blaine hoping he has a Plan B.
"We have some." Blaine tells Finn and they both snap, which indicates to Trent it's time for him to come out of his hiding spot.
"Me." Trent tells Finn causing him to turn around a look at Trent.
"I knew when Trent didn't perform with the Warblers at sectionals that something was up." Blaine tells Finn.
"Blaine and I joined the Warblers together. It was a band of brothers, a group joined by harmony and honor. And then Blaine left and Sebastian came, then Hunter. They just chipped away at everything that was good and special about us. Winning was everything. I mean, you took the shots or you didn't perform. Singing with the Warblers is my life, but I couldn't do it. My hormones can't handle heroic doses of testosterone. The Warblers mean everything to me, and it's killing me to betray them like this."
"You're not betraying them." Blaine tells Trent, trying to lift his spirits about spilling his guts to the three of them. "Hunter betrayed the Warblers, you're saving them."
"Yeah that's what they said about Brutus. And Cassius. Look, if I go public with this, then the Warblers' reputation - it's ruined forever. Years of honourable melodies and harmonies, all forgotten."
He feels for Trent, or at least he tries too, but he doesn't get it. Trent talks about honor, but this is the thing that he chooses to honor? Honor is not keeping their secret that they cheated.
"Look, the Warblers' reputation was ruined the second they decided to cheat to win." He tells Trent, hoping it will get him to help them out.
"So what do you say?" Finn asks him. "Will you do this? Will you testify against the Warblers?" They all wait in anticipation for Trent's answer.
"Okay." He sighs and Sam pumps a fist in the air.
"Thank you Trent." Blaine tells him. Trent just smiles sadly at them and tells Finn to get in touch with him when they want to go before the show choir board.
He races back into the gym because he doesn't want Brittnay to think that he ditched her. "Hey, want to dance?" He asks her, pulling her away from her conversation with Sugar as Ryder begins his solo.
"Where did you even go?" Brittany asks him as she wraps her arms around his neck and he places his hands on her waist.
"Had to go do something with Blaine." He tells her, not wanting to elaborate and jinx anything.
"So which dance do you like better? Sadie Hawkins or last year's Prom?" Brittany asks him, causing him to freeze for a moment.
"I'm having a really great time with you tonight." He tells her because he can't tell her the real answer to that question.