Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Triumphantly, Tina pumped her fist in the air and put down her reading glasses. Finally, she was done writing her brand-new novel her fans had been waiting for so long. As soon as she overcame her writer's block, she got kissed by the muse.

The perfect story for her novel was closer than she thought. She just needed to add her own spice.

"Are you sure you want to publish this?", Quinn who suddenly sat next to her, asked, cocking her eyebrows and looking at Tina's display with a frown.

"I don't see the problem", Tina answered with a shrug.

"The problem is", Quinn said stressing the word problem "that this is about the ten of us. You were writing down a biography of all of us."

"That's not true!", the author answered her back stubbornly.

"Page 89." Quinn scrolled up the Word Document, cleared her throat and started reading.

"Caitlynn paranoidly looked around to check whether nobody was following her. And yelped when she was suddenly dragged to a side street. A duo of scrawny men was looking at her, one of them had a gun in his hands. 'Well, look at that, whom do we have here?', guy number one said sneeringly, and Caitlynn's eyes widened in shock when she spotted the gun."

With narrowed eyes, Quinn turned to the author. "Caitlynn? Are you serious, Tina? Sounds way too obvious, doesn't it? You wrote about how Puck helped me out back then!"

"Pure coincidence", Tina said insistently, crossing her arms.

"Page 34." Quinn scrolled up. "'I am Tim, by the way', Tim introduced himself as he didn't know what else to say. 'I am Raquelle', the woman answered. 'Dance instructor at Tisch.'"

"I ran out of names?", Tina justified nervously.

"You changed Sensates to Animates", Quinn pointed out. "You mentioned the Council of Elders. And the Asian woman in the story who happens to be an author is called Tia. Way too many coincidences if you ask me. Stop lying to me, okay? I'm an attorney, I know immediately who lies and who doesn't."

Tina sighed deeply. "Okay, okay, you caught me. But you need to understand", she explained. "All these things that happen to us, that's a goldmine for an author like me. We need to share that story with the world."

"No!", Quinn said sternly. "We can't! It's too dangerous, don't you see? What if people find out that this story is not as fictional as they thought? We are all going to be in serious trouble because we are special. I have seen enough movies to know that secrets like these should better stay secret."

"But…"

"Besides, you cannot just publish that story where the ten of us have leading roles without our consent. That's not only careless, that's illegal as well."

"But…"

"Tina, you won't publish that book, end of the story", Quinn barked in an authoritarian tone.

The author bowed her head. "Gosh, you are worse than my mom. I won't publish it, calm down."

"Good", the blonde nodded before she broke off their connection.

With another deep sigh, Tina got up and walked to the living room where Mike was sitting on the sofa, zapping through her channels.

"Hey, babe", her boyfriend said to her with a grin. "I didn't want to disturb you in your creative process, so I just waited here."

"You heard how…"

"…you talked to yourself?" Mike laughed. "Yes, yes, I did. But hey, I don't judge you, a lot of artists do that while trying to be creative, you know. Did you already send your finalized work to the publisher?"

Tina shook her head, rubbing her neck. "You know what? I won't publish it after all. I don't have a good feeling about this."

Mike looked up from the TV and cocked his eyebrows. "Why not? You were working on that book for half an eternity, I witnessed every single step. You put your heart and soul into that book and we both know it. I understand you are nervous, but babe, you…"

"-I just don't want it anymore, okay?", Tina cut him off harshly and Mike flinched. "I'm sorry, it's just…I don't know whether publishing this is a good idea.", she apologized afterwards.

"I've read it, and so did your editor", Mike commented. "We both loved it. I'm sure the world will, too."

"My mind is already made up", Tina said tiredly. "We won't pusblish this book, end of the story." Ruffling her dark hair, she sighed: "I need some fresh coffee. Do you want one as well?"

Mike wanted to get up. "I can come with you", he offered, but Tina just shook her head. "No, it's okay. I need some time for myself. I will just bring you a hazelnut latte, okay?"

With that, she grabbed her keys and her wallet and left her apartment.

Mike confusedly scratched his head when he heard her run down the stairs.

Women.

He would never figure them out.

After a while, he got up to go to the bathroom, going past Tina's office on his way. The door was slightly ajar, her laptop was still open, so was the document with her finalized novel.

Cocking his head to the side, he entered the room.

Rachel rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms when she woke up. That hangover was killing her. She didn't remember having drunk anything.

"Good morning, beautiful."

Oh no.

She knew that voice. Praying that she hadn't heard the voice she thought having heard, the brunette slowly turned around in her bed.

Her prayers hadn't been answered.

Firstly, this wasn't her bedroom, or apartment.

Secondly, she was not alone.

Thirdly, the man who had just talked to her was Brody Weston, her ex. Her ex that practically cheated on her because he didn't care telling her he worked as a gigolo.

Why the hell did she end up in bed with that douchebag?

As if stung by an adder, Rachel jumped up with the blanket, covering herself. "What happened yesterday?", she asked while she gathered her things.

Brody shrugged nonchalantly. "You turned up on my porch, devastated. You were pretty drunk, but sober enough to demand a round of sex and didn't want to talk, and I respected it. You're welcome."

At that, she threw him a killing glance. "I don't know yet what happened, but I know for sure that this was a big mistake. A mistake that won't happen ever again." With one hand, she tried putting on her skirt. After she had put on her blouse as well, she grabbed her high heeled ankle boots, quickly pushed her bra and her socks into her purse and stumbled out of the door, still feeling dizzy.

"I hope we won't see again, Brody. Have a nice life. No scratch that. Have a horrible life. And go to hell. We are so done", she hissed irritatedly when she left.

Brody just looked after her, bewildered.

Outside of his apartment, she hailed a cab and quickly got in. And suddenly, the memories about what happened the night before came back to her like an avalanche of emotions.

-Fifteen hours earlier-

Good tempered, Rachel was about to walk over to Finn who was done with his last shift. She was grinning with anticipation. Today would be the day where she would admit that she liked him.

A lot.

Yes, Finn was sometimes somewhat…featherbrained, but he had a great heart. He was kind and generous. She could always talk to him; he was a great listener. He seemed to understand her. And he was good looking.

Without a doubt, they were soulmates.

Rachel smiled, looking at her flight ticket to Seattle. As nice talking in their heads was, she wanted to meet him in person. She would surprise him with the ticket now. And with a love declaration.

Exactly at that moment, she saw how Finn left the coffeeshop…with Harmony. Rachel's smile faltered.

Yes, she knew that Finn was dating women every now and then, but that thing with Harmony was going on for a while now. According to their smiles, they looked very happy.

"What's your favorite band?", Finn just asked Harmony while Rachel watched them walk to that park nearby with linked arms.

Rachel was unable to listen to their conversation. She was shocked. Shocked about how close they seemed to be.

And when they kissed, something inside Rachel shattered into pieces. A single tear was running down her face, and then, a second.

If she wasn't connected emotionally to Finn, she could have lied to herself and brush it off, telling herself that it didn't mean anything. But the worst part was that she could feel Finn's affection.

Affection to another woman.

And it hurt so much more than she could imagine. Devastated, Rachel turned away and ripped apart the ticket, forcing herself to break off the connection to Finn. Without thinking, she left her apartment and walked down to the bar that was right next to her apartment complex.

A couple of hours and a lot of drinks later, she hailed a cab and told the guy the address of her ex.

Alcohol didn't help as much as she hoped it would. She needed to numb the pain with painkillers. And the only painkiller that came to her mind right now could be found in the arms of another certain guy, no feelings involved.

…

Rachel paled and banged her head against the glass pane of the taxi's door. What was she thinking? Running right back to her douche ex just because of an unrequited crush? How could she ever go so low? Now that she thought about it, she felt ashamed. More ashamed than ever before in her life.

She was a respectable independent woman, goddammit. She didn't need a man in her life to feel complete.

If only she could convince her heart as well.

Mercedes was about to feed some of the ducks at the pond nearby when Sam walked over to her, hands in his pockets.

"How are you?", he asked casually.

"Fine?" Mercedes looked up from the ducks and looked him directly in the eyes. "Sam, you were never good in small talk. Just tell me why you are here now."

Sam sighed. "I'm sorry. About what you needed to witness. Penny and I, we are just friends, nothing more."

"I know", Mercedes answered quietly. "And I'm sorry I flipped out. I don't know myself what has gotten into me back then."

"It's okay. We are both over it, so let's just forget it.", Sam suggested.

For a while, the both of them were just staring at how Mercedes fed the ducks with grains, nobody dared to break the silence.

"And what if I don't want to?", Mercedes suddenly spoke up.

Sam frowned at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to forget it", she explained without looking at him.

"Okay, I don't get it", he admitted. "And why not?"

Again, silence.

"I…" Mercedes didn't dare to end that sentence.

Sam nudged her amicably. "Come on, Cedes, enlighten me", he encouraged her with a smile. "You are aware I can read your mind whenever I want to? Which I would never do without your consent", he added quickly when he noticed her somewhat indignant glance.

"I…I…" Mercedes needed to clear her throat. "The truth is that I like you, Sam. A lot."

The Hawaiian just stared at her, at a loss of words.

"You are the nicest, funniest and dorkiest guy I know", she went on. "And I can't imagine my life without you anymore even though I only know you for a couple of months now. You quickly became an important part of me, and that's what I find scary."

Sam just kept on staring at her.

"Please, say something, Sam", she pleaded. "I told you how I feel because I want to get things straight concerning our feelings for each other. If you don't requite these feelings, it's o-"

She couldn't end her sentence as Sam pulled her closer to himself and kissed her. Mercedes made a surprised noise, but soon, she requited his kiss with all she had.

Sam pulled away eventually. "I like you too", he said breathlessly. "I liked you since the moment I saw you sing at that bar back then. I'm hopefully devoted to you, Mercedes Delilah Jones."

Mercedes laughed quietly. "Did you just quote 'Grease'?"

"Yes, yes, I did", Sam confirmed with a goofy grin.

"Cute", she whispered when she came closer to kiss him.

This time, they didn't stop for a while. Even when they stumbled into Mercedes' apartment. The make out session got wilder and wilder, both of them wanted more and more. Mercedes didn't want to know how they must look to uninvolved people.

When they arrived at Mercedes' bed, she softly pulled away. "Sam…", she muttered. "I…" She bit back her moan after he had started sucking and nibbling on her neck. "There's … there's something I need to tell you…"

Sam looked up from her neck, still feeling aroused. "Yes?", he answered hoarsely.

Mercedes started blushing and looked down sheepishly. "To be honest, I…I'm still a virgin."

The blond surfer smiled seductively. "So? A lot of my exes were, that's nothing to feel ashamed about."

"And ... I intend to not have sex before I married, whether it is physically or only in my head", she dropped the next bomb.

When she said that sentence, Sam stared at her, speechless.