Hey, y'all! So, I originally intended for all of the next two chapters to be one big one, but I changed my mind last minute. But we will find out who the secret admirer is next time! Hope you enjoy!

Walking to her locker with Quinn and Santana, Mercedes wondered what her secret admirer would leave for her on the last day of the week, the day of homecoming. Whoever they were had been leaving her little gifts throughout the week. Monday was the homecoming ticket, Tuesday was a personalized homecoming playlist with some of her favorite artists, Wednesday was a necklace with her name on it, and Thursday was a box of chocolates. Each of them came with a note that made a punchline out of the gift with the person who penned it telling her they hoped to see her at the dance.

"My money is on that guy who sits beside you in English," Quinn said. "He's always eyeing you, you know? Trying to secretly look your way."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Please. That's to cheat off of her, not to ogle at her. Trust me, we have history together and he's dumb as a box of rocks. I'd be willing to bet it's the bozo who's always watching us in the courtyard."

"You know, Santana, we could both be wrong. It could be Noah."

Mercedes rubbed her lips together to keep herself from smiling. "Look, I don't know who it is. Noah definitely makes the most sense. Also, he did tell me not to get a homecoming ticket and a few days later, I found one in my locker. But what I can't figure out is why keep it a secret? Why won't he just give me the gifts in public?"

Quinn shrugged. "Maybe he thinks it's more romantic that way. To keep you waiting just to find out it was him all along? Actually sounds kind of sweet."

"It could be someone we're not expecting at all, though." Santana pointed out, secretly alluding to Sam. "Someone that you know that you think you need to lay off of but who doesn't want to let you go."

Both Mercedes and Quinn eyed her. "Tana, is there something you wanna tell us? Something you know that we don't?" Mercedes asked.

She feigned innocence. "No. Just saying that it's a possibility."

"Anywho," Quinn's look lingered, "possibility or not, whoever this is is really serious about you."

As they made the final steps toward her locker, Mercedes felt a tinge of excitement. Normally, she hated surprises, but she actually didn't mind being kept on her toes like this. It was fun. "Here we go." She opened her locker and a note fell out, but nothing else. She read it. "Dear Mercedes, Have fun during your free period in the courtyard today. I know that that's your favorite spot. While you're there, don't forget to take a second and smell the roses. See you tonight, you secret admirer."

The three girls shared a look of confusion.

Santana broke the silence. "That's it?"

Mercedes nodded.

"Let me see that." She gently took the note from her hand and read over it.

"What are you doing?"

Santana scrunched up her face without looking up from the piece of paper, signaling that she didn't think highly of Mercedes' question. "I'm looking for subliminal messages, duh."

"What?"

"No, she's got a point," Quinn said. "Maybe there's some code or something in the note. What's the first letter of each word?" She joined Santana in inspecting it.

"Okay, that's enough of that." Mercedes yanked her letter back.

Santana gasped. "Excuse you, we were decoding that."

"No, you weren't because there's nothing to decode. Look, maybe the romancing is over for the week. The grand finale will probably just be me seeing him at homecoming."

"But there's nothing in there that even tells you how you'll know who he is tonight."

"I mean, Noah knows that my favorite spot in the school is the courtyard. He sees me there almost every day during my free period. Plus, it's where we used to hang out when we dated for that brief period of time."

"What if it's not even a 'he'?" Quinn turned to Santana. "What if it's a 'she"?"

"No," Santana shook her head. "If there were a girl here going after Cedes, I'd definitely know about it."

"Okay, I'm leaving now." Mercedes closed her locker and started on her way to class.

"Wait!" Quinn and Santana ran after her.

Quinn took the letter again. "I'm joining you during your free period today. I mean, if it's mentioned here, surely the courtyard's a clue to something."

"Maybe 'stop and smell the roses' means he'll be there holding a rose in his hands?" Santana asked.

"I guess we will see, won't we? Now let's just go to class, please." Mercedes tried to hide the mix of disappointment and hope she felt. She had come to look forward to opening her locker every day and seeing nothing there wasn't the best feeling. But maybe her friends were right and there was still one surprise left.

As the bell that started her free periods rang, Mercedes exited the classroom to find all of her girlfriends and Kurt already awaiting her. "Don't tell me, they told you and now you think something incredibly epic is supposed to happen when I go out to the courtyard?"

"Why else would we be risking detention for you?" Kurt asked.

"Kurt, you're the only one risking detention," Tina said. "You only get it after being tardy 5 times."

"Well, every time I've been late, you've been late!"

"That's not true. At all."

"Will y'all shut up?" Santana looked back at them. "This is Mercedes' moment. Let's not ruin it for her."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "This isn't my 'moment'. We're going to make it to the courtyard and all of you are going to see that you're wasting your time."

They reached the double doors, all of Mercedes' friends following closely behind as she opened them.

"See?" She surveyed the area. "Nothing. You all can go now—"

"I wouldn't say that is nothing," Quinn said as pointed to a big circular box with a bow wrapped around it sitting at an empty table.

"It's definitely not," Kurt said before he nudged Mercedes forward a little. "Go on."

She made her way over to the box, reading the words on the front. "Southern Blooms Flower Company."

Tina gasped, "Oh, my god. It's roses."

Mercedes turned her head to look at her. "Can I open the box first?"

"Sorry."

If it was any consolation for Tina, she was right. In the box was a full bouquet of red roses. Seriously red. With a note in the middle of them. Mercedes picked up the note and, like all the ones before it, read it aloud.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, let's hope that homecoming brings something new. Violets are blue, roses are red, in order to find me at the dance, just look ahead."

Quinn found the silver lining. "Well, the roses were sweet—"

"But the note was wholly underwhelming." Sanatan finished her sentence. "'Just look ahead'? What does that even mean?"

"And the rhythm for that last line was atrocious." Kurt added his opinion.

"Wait, there's something on the back." Mercedes read it. "P.S. I really can't wait to see you tonight. Blue really is your color."

"Okay, now we're onto something. Who knows your dress is blue?"

Mercedes shrugged. "Outside of you guys I only told one person what color my dress was."

"Who was it?" Quinn asked.

Mercedes looked at her and took longer than expected with her response. "My brother." She gave a fake chuckle to laugh it off. "And no one here knows him, so maybe this person just had a lucky guess."

"So, you're still thinking it's Noah?"

She was saved by the bell as she went to answer. "You guys don't want to be late for class! We'll talk later. Santana, can you stay so we can talk about…" she searched for a lie, "carpooling stuff?"

Santana gave her a knowing look. "Okay."

As their other friends left, Mercedes sat down. 'This isn't about carpooling stuff."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I figured that much out. You're a horrible liar. What's going on?"

"I did tell someone else about my dress, but it wasn't my brother."

"So who was it?"

"It was Sam."

Mercedes couldn't tell what Santana was thinking as her jaw dropped slightly. "Really?" Wait until Kurt and Tina hear about this.

"Yes. I said it was JJ in front of everyone because I didn't Quinn to hear, but— What are you doing with your mouth?"

Santana failed to realize that she had been awkwardly slacking her jaw while also giving the slightest of smiles. She wiped it off of her face. "Nothing. So do you think that Sam is your secret admirer?"

"I don't know. No? He asked me to homecoming last week in almost this exact spot and I completely shot him down. I even think I hurt his feelings a little bit, so I don't see why he would do that again. I also don't see why he would waste money on all these gifts all week."

"Hmm."

"And plus, Sam isn't my admirer. He doesn't like me like that."

"That's what you think," Santana mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She looked at her watch and pretended to be shocked at the time. "Yikes! I've got to get to class, but I'm loving this whole train of thought we've got going here— trying to figure out which guy that you're extremely into has been sending you romantic notes and gifts all week— it's really great. Keep at it. If I don't see you again before the game, I'll be at your house around 7 to finish getting ready, k?"

Mercedes frowned. Since when is she in such a rush to get to class? "Okay. Actually, I'm going to run home with the roses so that they don't wilt or anything. I was going to see if you wanted to come."

She winced. "You know what? I'd love to, but this class, I've gotta go. Buh-bye now!" She waved and paced off.

Unsure of how to feel about their interaction, Mercedes decided to pack up her gift and go ahead and take it home. Arriving back on campus, Mercedes couldn't wrap her head around the flowers. Or more specifically, the note that came with them. This entire time she had been sure it was Noah, but maybe it wasn't? She truly couldn't think of it being anyone but Sam now that the admirer mentioned her dress.

Sam practically ran up to her out of nowhere, despite being told to slow down a few too many times by their teachers. "Cedes!"

She jumped a little at his wired energy. "Hey."

"I've been looking for you all period. Where were you?"

"I had to run home for something. Is everything okay?"

"Okay? Everything's better than okay. I have news." He smiled at her before revealing it. "I'm going to be on the football field tonight!"

"That's great," Mercedes said. "That's more than great. But how, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A few minutes ago, Coach called me into his office. Turns out Finn sprained his ankle just before lunch—"

"Oh, my god. Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine, but he'll be out on recovery for the rest of the season. And the backup quarterback hasn't met the GPA requirements since he failed his chem test Wednesday. So Beiste didn't have a quarterback for tonight's game. That is until he thought of me." He beamed. "He said with the work I've been doing with the guys since I've gotten here, I've earned my stripes and he wants to give me a shot. I'll be starting tonight and if all goes well, I might have a spot as QB for the rest of the season!"

She smiled seeing how excited he was. "That's really wonderful, Sam. It's what you wanted, right?"

"Where are you going to be sitting? I want to know so I can see you guys there."

She frowned, confused. "What? 'You guys'?"

"Yeah, you and your family. I already called Ms. Abby and she said she and Maiya will be there, I must've gotten to her just after you left. I figured you'd be there too."

"Sam, I don't go to football games," she said as if it was obvious. "I told you that last week."

"True, but I wasn't playing last week. I was just the manager."

"Look, I'm sure you're going to do great tonight. You don't need me there for that, okay? We'll talk later."

"Ok…" He watched as she walked away. "But Cedes," he called out to her. He took her gently by her wrist and snuck them into an empty classroom.

"I'm sorry, did you just kidnap me for an impromptu chemistry lesson?" She looked at the lab stations behind him.

"I need you to come to this game. I know I haven't exactly been your favorite person lately and that everything about the lake creeped you out, but this is really important to me."

She felt a pang of guilt hearing him talk about how awful she had been to him.

"Football games aren't your scene and I get that. I'm not asking you to come to every one, just this one. It's my first game of junior year and I want my family in the stands for that. I mean, I know I don't exactly have a real family, but you, your sister, and your grandmother are the closest I've got to the real thing and I want all of you to be there. Please, Cedes. I'm begging you."

She looked up at him and knew resistance was futile. "Okay, I'll be there."

He all but screamed as he lunged and threw his arms around her. "Yes! Woo!"

"Oh, we're hugging now," she said, caught off guard.

He stepped back, his cheeks red. "Sorry. I just got really excited."

"No, it's okay. I don't mind. You-" she took a deep breath, more flustered than she realized. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I understand."

"No, I shouldn't have done that. My bad, seriously. I'll see you tonight." He started on his way to the door.

"Sam, could you wait?" Mercedes called him back. "I'm the one who needs to apologize. I've been so nasty to you and I shouldn't have been. You didn't deserve it."

Sam let her say her piece. A part of him had been secretly hoping for this.

"It's so out of character for me to say the things I've said to you." Even now, she couldn't believe that she'd said them. "I don't ever want you to think that I would regret that night at the lake. It was amazing." She smiled just a little. "Granted, I don't usually open up to people like that. I don't think I ever have with someone I've known for such little time. Either way, I can't have you running around thinking that I hate you or that I'm creeped out by our conversations. I don't have any justification for it. All I can say is that I was wrestling with something," I still am, "and I took out on you, but I shouldn't have. So I'm genuinely sorry."

"Thanks. That feels good to hear."

"And hey, if everything goes great tonight, maybe we can go back again tomorrow? After homecoming week is finally over?" She offered.

His grin peeked out. "I'd really like that."

"Cool. Well, if I don't see you again before the game tonight, good luck. You're gonna do amazing and make all the field goals or touchdowns or whatever it is that quarterbacks do." She joked.

He laughed at her. "Thank you. But, I'm going to have to teach you something about the game because that's not gonna fly. At all."

They both laughed aloud.

"Look, I told you, I don't do sports! I don't know what you expected from me." She looked down. "Hey, is this your wallet?" She picked up the wallet and something fell out of it, a business card. From Southern Blooms Flower Company.

"Yeah, thanks." He took the wallet and card from her.

"You went to Southern Blooms?" She asked, feeling her heart race.

"Yeah, a couple of days ago."

"What for?"

"A corsage for Quinn tonight." He looked at the card. "But honestly, it was probably a waste of money."

"Why? She hasn't found anyone else to go, has she?"

He shook his head. "No, that's not it." He kneaded his lip. "I think I have eyes for someone else," he said without looking up. "I don't wanna lead Quinn on when there could be someone that I like more than her."

"Someone else? Like who?"

Now, his heart was racing. He looked at her. "Like y-"

He was cut off by the school bell.

Mercedes, who didn't catch anything after 'like', was feeling more feelings than she could comprehend. While she was happy that they were on good terms, she couldn't help but feel like whoever he was about to mention wasn't going to be her, effectively crushing her newest secret admirer suspicions. But knowing he went to the same flower shop that her roses came from, he knew what color her dress was, AND he said that he likes someone other than Quinn? It almost felt too good to be true. "I've got to get to class. Good luck again tonight."