Welcome to the start of season 5! It's so crazy to me that this story is inching closer and closer to the end. I apologize for how long it took me to get this chapter out, for some reason I had no motivation to write it.
Love, Love, Love
He's kind of been sitting on the sidelines the past few assignments because he hasn't found much inspiration with all of his muses gone. But The Beatles? That could be something he could do.
There are tons of non-love songs that he could sing. He knows Blaine will probably want to sing a group performance with just the guys as an exercise to get them ready for nationals. Unlike him who has been taking the past few assignments off, Blaine has been trying to participate in as many songs as he can. Not that he minds, isn't that what Finn and Rachel did last year anyway?
Blaine also decides that they should all go to the carnival that's in town to celebrate that regionals win. At first he thinks it would be a good idea, a nice way for all of them to relax before the pressure of competition returns, harder than before.
But then he gets to the carnival, and all it does is remind him of Quinn. Now with Brittany gone, his feelings for her have hit him full force. He knows he's never stopped loving her, how does one fall out of love with Quinn Fabray? Just look at her, she's perfect.
And seeing her as a mentor, seeing her in awe watching Mr. Shue and Ms. Pillsbury's ceremony, it creates all these mushy swoony feelings in his chest that he can't get rid of.
Which makes it so much harder to figure out what to do after high school. Graduation is inching closer and closer and he knows the deadline to accept his scholarships are going to come sooner than later, but she hasn't said anything to him. He knows if he tells her he's thinking of going to school in Connecticut she's going to tell him not to go because she's going to think he's doing it for her, which he partially would be, but the other half of him knows they have a decent football team.
The other part of him, the more rational part, just tells him to go to New York. Because even after he graduates, the distractions will still be there, now more than ever. He's going to have football and school, and he's going to have to find a job, and she's going to have the millions of things she's doing in New Haven. But even if he goes to New York, they will still be a lot closer. And he knows from Kurt and Tina that she's in New York all the time. Tina tells him when she updates him on everything that's happening in New York (why, he has no idea) that Quinn's always there. Which makes sense, her and Santana have always been attached to the hip when they aren't at each other's throats. And he's come to learn that Quinn adores Adam, Kurt's boyfriend. He's not surprised, he's from England, and she's obsessed with everything English.
xxx
He braces himself for what Tina's new rant could possibly be about as she interrupts Mr. Shue before he starts his lesson. He loves Tina with all his heart, but she's been a little lost for most of the year. Ever since her breakup with Mike. He knows what it feels like, to find yourself in another person, and now that she's lost him she doesn't know how to be herself without him. He's been trying to keep her from going off the rails as much as he can, but sometimes she falters.
He knows Tina means well, which is why he's not surprised when she brings up Artie and Kitty's secret relationship. What he's more surprised about is the fact that no one knew. Giving each other stuffed animals at a carnival? Please, it's textbook relationship stuff. He knows it is, because he did it first.
Plus he saw them kissing in the astronomy room when he was going in there to study by himself during his free period, but that's not important. He definitely figured it out by himself before then.
xxx
Blaine tells him to meet him in the choir room for an emergency glee guy's meeting, minus Artie, at the start of lunch and he already has a feeling on what this is about. He's seen Tina spiral recently too. Contrary to belief, she's been better. She hasn't been as annoying or diva-ish, but recently she's been falling back to those old ways and he's a little scared. He's a guy, he doesn't know how to deal with all of this stuff.
He knows Tina has been feeling lonely as one of the only female seniors left. Brittany is off to M.I.T and Sugar is on vacation on some island with her dad. So he does feel for her in a way, he can't imagine what he would feel like if Artie and Blaine were gone, leaving him all alone as the only male senior.
He sits in the middle seat once he gets to the choir room and engages in small talk with Blaine until Jake and Ryder arrive. Blaine asks them if they know why he's called them here, and it looks like they all have the same idea because they all simultaneously say Tina.
He furrows his brows in confusion when Blaine tells them that she wasn't always bitter, but turned that way when Artie and Mike both dumped her, Artie for faking her stutter, and Mike for her not being Asian enough. One, how would Blaine even know if Tina turned bitter after her and Artie's breakup, he didn't even start going here until last year, and he and Tina only really became close because of Sam, who was always close to Tina because she was one of his girlfriend's best friends and Mike was his, so the four of them would always go on double dates, and two, Mike and Tina broke up because of long distance, not because she wasn't Asian enough.
Jake asks him if that's really true, referring to why Mike dumped Tina and he shakes his head when Blaine isn't looking.
"Look, the point is, is that it's time for us to step in. She's falling apart. I walked by the too young to be bitter club meeting this morning, and she was the only one in there." Blaine tells them and he furrows his brows again, he didn't even know that was a club, or that Tina was in it. "THis is about us trying to help Tina."
"I'm in." He says immediately. Of course he's going to help Tina, she's like a sister to him. Jake and Ryder nod in agreement.
"Good, because I have an idea." Blaine tells them before filling them all in on their plan.
xxx
They get the rest of the glee club to help them out setting up the stage because even though they are four strong guys, it is hard to put an entire stage together with just the four of them. Blaine tells Tina to head to the auditorium while they're changing into their suits so they won't have to wait long for her, and quickly rush onto the stage once they're done just as the back door to the auditorium opens.
"What is happening?" She asks them as soon as she sees them all standing on the stage. "And why did you make me wear this? I had to break out one of the grease costumes." She tells them, which all of them ignore.
"Tina I'm Paul." Blaine tells him, referring to himself that then points to him, Ryder, and then Jake. "That's George, that's Ringo, and black John Lennon."
"Half black." Jake corrects.
"We love you, and this is for you." He tells Tina in a British accent that makes her smile.
They play I Saw Her Standing There and he looks at Tina the entire time, feeling better seeing her dancing and screaming and laughing.
"That was awesome!" Tina tells them. "But I don't understand what it was for."
"Well, we saw how lonely you've been lately." Blaine responds.
"And since we're the only single guys left in glee club." Ryder adds in.
"We just wanted to offer our services as dance partner, or corsage buyer, or just general arm candy for the big dance." Blaine informs her.
"Yeah, so you can pick one. And it's your choice. Obviously I'm excluded." Jake tells her and he smiles as Marley's face breaks out into a grin.
"Well it's hard to pick." Tina tells them, walking up onto the stage. "But even though Blaine is my boo, and Ryder you have big arms, I think I'm going to have to pick my best friend, Samuel." She says, stopping in front of him. "Thank you guys though."
xxx
He immediately jumps from the stage and wraps an arm around her, a little honoured he was chosen. But if he's being honest, he wasn't really expecting anything less. He kisses Tina on the side of her head and tells her that he's honored, and then let's her go so she can hug Blaine, Jake, and Ryder.
"I think I'm going to continue my tradition of wearing a black prom dress." Tina tells him as she sits next to him in the library while he's looking through university books. He hums, not really paying that much attention. He's done this enough times to know that Black matches every colour dress and he just needs to grab the corsage a day or two before the date and keep it in his fridge.
"Still haven't decided huh?" Tina asks him, referring to his still undecided choice on post secondary.
"I don't know what to do." He tells her honestly, hoping that she will give him some advice to make this decision easier.
"I thought about applying to a school in Chicago." She admits to him and he looks at her curiously. "I thought it would make things easier for me and Mike. But then I decided not to, because I realized that if we really were soulmates, I won't need to try that hard to make us get back together again, time or destiny or whoever will do it on it's own. So I decided that instead of doing what would be best to salvage my relationship with Mike, I should be doing what is best for me." She tells him, patting him on the back before leaving him alone, not before lecturing him on how after he's made his decision his focus better be on prom.
He ponders over what Tina had told him and then looks over the university booklets once more, and after about twenty minutes, he makes his decision. He'll be heading to Stony Brook University in New York in the fall.
Tina In The Sky With Diamonds
He tells his parents about his decision first. His mom cries, but he promises that he will visit whenever he can, and seeing how many times the alumni have come down to Lima over the year, he knows that will be a lot.
He tells Tina and Blaine that night as well. Blaine is super excited, and Tina didn't seem all that surprised, but congratulates him nonetheless. He informs both Coach Beiste and Ms. Pillsbury about his choice as well, Coach Beiste so she can inform the school so they can send over papers he has to sign to set his commitment into stone, and Ms. Pillsbury because she told him regardless of where he decides to go, she still wants to get him prepared on what post secondary is going to look like, and the extra support they have learning disorders, in his case dyslexia.
He refrains from telling anyone else (except for Artie since he'll be in New York as well) because he wants to wait until graduation, and he makes Blaine and Tina promise as well. He knows he doesn't have to worry about Blaine since he doesn't really talk to any alumni ever since he and Kurt broke up, but it's Tina he's more focused on. He knows she's just itching to share this gossip with someone, but she promises that she won't until he tells them himself, so he holds her to that.
xxx
He's sitting in glee rehearsal when Sue comes over the P.A. system to announce the nominees for prom king and queen. He's not surprised when he's announced as one of the nominees for prom king, he is the star quarterback now that Finn's gone. And Tina's announced as a nominee for prom queen, so at least they can campaign together. It's a bittersweet feeling knowing he'll be up against Artie and Blaine because if he's being honest, he really wants to win.
He can tell Tina is just as pumped as he is. As soon as Mr. Shue dismisses them, she grabs his arm and starts talking to him about campaign ideas and how she'll have posters ready for them to put up together within the next few days. It takes him back to last years, when he was watching Quinn obsess over all of this. Oh well, he guesses he can't dwell over the past anymore. At least he gets to be a part of it this time.
When he finally gets a minute to himself to breathe, he goes to the choir room to go over possible song ideas for this week's assignment. Between Tina obsessing over prom and Blaine obsessing over New York he feels like he hasn't had a moment alone to just think. Not that he has much to think about other than prom and New York.
But that moment is cut short when Mr. Shue walks in and asks him how the song selection is going. Before he can answer, principal Sylvester comes in and tells them both how she is implementing mandatory vaccines, and he starts to internally panic. He can't get a vaccine, needles terrify him.
And he tells principal Sylvester that, but she doesn't care. She just tells him that if he doesn't get his vaccine Mr. Shue will be fired, and well he can't exactly have that.
xxx
He decides to go get his vaccine the next day. Better to just rip off the bandaid, right? Wrong. As soon as he sees the needle he tries to backpedal out of the nurses office, but ends up crashing into a table.
And then he realizes he's screwed and there's no turning back now because the nurse has clearly seen him. "Are you here for your polio/meningitis cocktail?" She asks him and he notices how she looks a little like Quinn. She has to be at least a few years older than the both of them, but they're around the same height, and her hair is a few shades too dark, but there's something about her that reminds him of Quinn.
"I wasn't sure if I should call it polingitus or meningiolio." She tells him, pulling him out of his thoughts and reminding him what's really happening, causing him to panic all over again.
"I like the second one; it sounds like Italian food." He jokes. "I'm going to give him a shot he can't refuse." He does a Marlon Brando impression because he always does an impression when he's nervous. But then she laughs and it makes him feel better. And it makes him realize she also has a really nice laugh. "Anyways, yes, I am here for my shot. To be honest, I'm kind of freaked out by needles, and even if I wasn't, I'd kind of be freaked out by you with a needle." He tells her and she looks at you confused. "I saw you kill that sausage." He explains.
"Oh, yeah." The nurse says, causing him to start to worry. "Yeah, that, I know. I had, kind of, an extended panic attack during the two weeks we studied injections last semester."
Wait. Semester. Last semester. Does that mean she's still in school? "Wait, are you not a real nurse?" He asks her, his worry growing by the minute.
"I'm a sophomore in college." He tells her and he's about ready to pass out now. "This is kind of an internship to help me get into nursing school." He blinks at her. An internship? He's never heard of an internship where nurses come to inject students to learn, because he's one hundred percent sure they don't exist, and for good reason. "Okay. Ready for our shot?" She asks him and he remembers she hasn't even switched needles yet.
"Is that the same needle you put into that sausage?" He asks and she looks back at the needle.
"Good eye." She tells him, going to grab another one. He begins to pray, Lord help him now, but then decides to just come back tomorrow. Maybe there will be a different nurse, one with much more experience.
"You know what? I'm just gonna-I'm just gonna come back later, okay? It was cool meeting you..?" He trails off because he realizes he doesn't even know her name.
"Penny Owen." She informs him with a chuckle.
"Sam Evans." He says before running out of the room.
xxx
He flinches when he sees Kitty's prom posters taped onto like every wall in the school. He can already hear Tina's rants when she sees them. He jumps when he turns down the next hallway and sees Tina standing in the middle of it, staring at the posters. But there isn't any smoke coming out of her ears, she doesn't even look angry, she just looks kind of, sad?
"Tina?" He asks cautiously, bracing himself for anything because with Tina you never know what you're going to get. But when she turns to look at him, there is no furious expression on her face. Instead, her eyes are red, as if she's been trying to keep herself from crying (or she's smoked a little, but he knows it probably is the former), which is confirmed when he hears her sniffle a bit. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asks her, putting a comforting hand on her arm.
"I know that I've been kind of a bitch all year, but I just really wanted this." She tells him sadly and his heart aches for her. He knows how it feels to want something so bad, feel like you finally have it, and then have it ripped away from you, leaving you completely blindsided. And the worst part of it all, is it happening from someone you considered a close friend. Hello sophomore year and the infamous love triangle between him, Quinn, and Finn (square if you include Rachel).
So he pulls her into an empty classroom and lets her cry softly into his chest. Tina reminds him a lot of Quinn, which is probably why the two of them get along so well. So he knows that if she wants to talk more about it, she will bring it up herself. He shouldn't push her.
"I just wanted to win something for once." She tells him in a raw voice and he rubs her back soothingly.
"You won Diva Week." He points out, but she just scoffs.
"That just means you guys think I'm a bitch." She says, which partially comes back muffled because her face is kind of mushed into his chest, causing him to chuckle before kissing the crown of her head.
"Tina, you are loved by so many people okay? Just talk to Kitty. I'm sure there's been some sort of misunderstanding." She nods into his chest, but he can feel more tears on his shirt so he holds her for just a little longer.
xxx
He thinks about her all the time, and he has no idea why. She's the school nurse, well not really, but still. Yet he can't help it, he just feels drawn to her and he can't quite explain why. But he refuses to get his vaccine, so he ends up just biting his arm. Not the smartest decision he's ever made, but still, it gets him in to see Nurse Penny.
He knows someone was bound to catch on eventually, and he's thankful it's Blaine and Artie before it is Tina, thinking about how that conversation would go makes him flinch. They stop him in the hallway as he's about to go to the nurse's office for the bite and tell him that it's time to pick up tux rentals for prom.
Oh crap. He totally forgot that was today. "Uh, could you grab mine for me? I need to go to the nurse's office. Animal bite." He says, referring to his arm, cringing because he knows what it looks like. An animal bite? Really? He should have just said Stoner Brett bit him.
"That looks like a human bite. Did you bite yourself?" Blaine asks him surprised and he finds himself at a loss for words again.
"Why would I do that?" He asks, scoffing, even though he knows he's been caught.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe for the same exact reason why you left math to get a band-aid for a hangnail?" Artie asks sarcastically and he glares at him.
"She's going to be at the prom chaperoning. You can always just take it slow and ask her for a dance." Blaine suggests.
"She'll stop liking me, okay? The key for me is to only spend a few minutes with a girl and then get away. My personality is like a radioactive asteroid. Spend too much time with it and it could kill you." He tells them, thinking about the first time he spent time alone with Quinn and he made a complete fool out of himself by talking to her in Navi. And then he made it worse by trying to kiss her the second time.
"That's insane." Blaine says to him. "You have an amazing personality."
He ponders the idea for a few minutes, but then decides his idea is better. "Yeah, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm going to stick with my strategy." He tells them before leaving.
But when he gets there, she's packing up her things and his heart sinks. "Why are you packing up your things?" He asks her, even though he has a good idea on what the answer is.
"Sue fired me for incompetence. I was giving one of her Cheerios a urine test and another one a vaccination, and I got my vials all mixed up, and, well..you can guess what happened." She tells him and he cringes. Yeah, he can see why she was fired, but that doesn't mean he wants to see her go.
"Well, you can't leave." He tells her.
She looks at him puzzled. "Why?"
"Because we only hung out once so far. And-and it wasn't for long, but, you know, I had a great time with you. And you're, like, almost totally normal and cool." He tells her, sounding like a nervous schoolboy, but he hopes she will at least find it cute.
"Really?" She asks him and he nods.
"I want you to give me my shot. If you can get me to take this shot, Sue will have to see how great of a nurse you are and keep you." He says, jumping up on the bench and rolling up his sleeve.
"One of these days, I'm going to get this right. Might as well be today." She says, shoving the needle into his arm causing him to gasp out in pain. "All right, all done." She says a few seconds later before taking the needle out and replacing it with a band-aid.
"I'm going to go talk to Sue." He says, feeling anxious as the two of them stare at each other. He gives her one last smile before running to the office.
"You can't fire her." He gasps out, once gets inside and stands in front of Sue.
"Who?" She asks, confused.
"Nurse Penny. You can't get rid of her. I mean, I've been terrified of needles my entire life. And she just used her impressive nursing skills to give me a meningitis shot."
"Fine. You've convinced me. Nurse Bumble will remain at McKinley High." Sue tells him and he sighs out in relief before exiting her office.
xxx
He can't be bothered to do anything with his hair since it's grown far too long and he's been too lazy to get it cut, so he throws on his rental tux and jumps in his truck so he can go pick up Tina. He had told her if she wanted to go in a limo or something with someone else he wouldn't mind, but she had insisted his truck would be fine.
She looks beautiful, of course she does. She's wearing a black dress, and he expected nothing less. He can tell she's nervous, so he grabs her hand and squeezes it without saying anything, hoping it will bring her some comfort.
"What's with that?" She asks a few minutes later and he looks over at her confused when they reach a red light.
"With what?" He asks, having no idea what she's talking about.
"The hand squeezing thing, Quinn does it all the time too." She tells him and he blushes, he hadn't realized she had caught on.
He doesn't feel like telling her that they started doing it because of their eating problems, but he decides he can tell her most of the truth.
"I was never good at the whole inspirational speech thing, the way she always was. And actions speak louder than words, so I guess it just stuck." She coos at how adorable it all is and he rolls his eyes as he pulls into the student parking lot.
xxx
They take a few pictures together once they get inside and then go their separate ways for a bit so she can go talk to different people to try and sway their votes and he goes to talk to Nurse Penny.
He finds her at the punch table, pouring punch for the students. He discreetly slides over to the tabe so she won't see him walking towards her, and then says something after a few minutes of silence.
"Oh, hey, didn't see you there." He says, turning his body towards her.
"It seems like someone convinced Sue to un-fire me." She says, and he doesn't know why she doesn't just say it was him when they both know it was. He did tell her he was going to talk to Sue for her.
"That person must really like you." He says, flirting with her a bit.
"Hey, were you faking being sick all week?" He blushes and decides to just fess up now since she already has a hunch it was him.
"I even bit myself once." He tells her embarrassed and she giggles. It reminds him of someone, and he can't quite put his finger on who.
"You know you don't have to just stand here, right?" He asks her, after a few more minutes of comfortable silence as she comes from behind the table to stand beside him.
"Oh, I know. But as a minor-league nurse, I figured I should be on standby for any dancing-related injuries." She says.
"I'm the one who's most likely to go out there and hurt myself on the dance floor, so as a minor-league nurse, it is kind of your responsibility to dance with me." He says, internally patting himself on the back because damn that was smooth.
"God, I don't know." She tells him, chuckling.
"I bust moves, literally." He tells her, trying to convince her. She just smiles at him, but he can see it in her eyes that she wants to dance with him, so he takes their cups of punch and puts them on the table behind them before grabbing her hands and pulling her onto the dance floor.
He takes them to a back corner of the dance floor where they aren't really seen because he isn't sure how Sue would feel with the school nurse dancing with a student, and he's sure Tina won't like it either since he is kind of her date.
They stop dancing when Sue calls up all the prom nominees to the front. He stands there nervously, not because he wants to win, but because he wants Tina to win so much more. She deserves this, way more than those other girls.
He wins, not that he's that surprised. Just look at him, and his impressions? Pure gold. But he's way more happier about the fact that Tina wins along with him. They move to the front so they can both be crowned, and he gestures to the mic for her to make a speech on the behalf of both of them. He expects something long, but instead she just smiles and tearfully says thank you.
They make their way to the dance floor to have the prom queen and king dance. "So? Does it feel the way you thought it would?" He asks and she nods.
"It feels better. It's the validation I didn't realize I needed." She tells him, and he refrains from telling her that she doesn't need validation because he knows how important this was to her.
"Can I make a suggestion?" She asks him after a few moments of silence. Everyone else has started slow dancing around them. He cocks an eyebrow at her. "Stop trying to replace her."
He opens his mouth to ask Tina what the hell she's talking about, but she just shakes her head. "Let me finish. I know you miss her, and what the two of you had was special, so stop trying to replace it Sam. Going after girls like Brittany or Nurse Penny because they remind you of her is not going to fix your broken heart."
He wants to tell Tina that she's wrong, or that she has no idea what she's talking about, but he knows she's right. Yeah he liked Brittany, and the company was nice, but he knew he was never going to be able to fall in love with her. And Nurse Penny is cute, and a little cooky the way he is, but she's no Quinn. Deep down he knows that.
Sam finally chose a school! So I have no idea if that entire process of signing papers is one-hundred percent correct, I am just going off of what I have seen from the football students when I was in high school, So I apologize if some of that is not accurate.
And finally the changes I made. So in the original episode, Sam is not a prom king nominee. But I can't see how that's possible so of course I made him prom king. Also, I cut the infamous slushie scene because my baby Tina deserved so much better than what she got. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and review! They mean the world to me!