Chapter 3

The Unanticipated Rally

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There had been rumblings along the New Direction's social network, murmurs really, of something (specifics weren't given) and Sam wouldn't have even noticed those if Artie hadn't shown him that video of Tina going ballistic on Puckerman's throat. Okay, so they weren't really murmurs at all, they were more like misdirected, incomprehensible shouts pouring themselves into a cavern, loud and blaring and echoing off so many surfaces that it was impossible to understand what was being said. The meaning however, was not lost. At least, not to Sam.

Something big was going down, probably instigated by Puck, and odds were none of them were going to be able to escape being dragged into another struggle of whatever he felt like being stupid about. That didn't mean that Sam was going to willingly stick his neck into what by all means was probably nothing. No sir, he had learned. He knew if he just waited, it would come to him. It was an inescapable, undeniable fact.

Sooner or later the mess would find its way to his doorstep and then, and only then, would Sam begin to bother himself with it.

There were many possible ways for this to go down; the most obvious (from what he had seen) would be for Puck to call him and request his backup to do something completely off-the-wall but just awesome enough that Sam had to participate. This wouldn't be the first time, and it most definitely wouldn't be the last.

What can he say; he was a thrill seeker at heart.

The second hook for the blond's involvement could come via Mercedes, assuming that she and Tina gossiped as much as he thought they did, the Goth would tell her, and then she would tell him, and somehow, someway, he would end up on team Tina. No offense to Puck, but unlike Sam's past two girlfriends his relationship with Mercedes might actually lead to somewhere that might resemble happiness and not to soul-crushing, unjustified despair brought on by betrayal. He was not going to mess up his chances just because he was supposed to follow the bro code.

Not this time.

The third option, which Sam highly doubted but still kept on the table because he liked to pretend he was a good boy scout, was that Finn would call him in to bring an end to this madness (being that the self-proclaimed leader of the Glee club had filmed what was slowly becoming one of YouTube's many one-shot wonders, he had to have some kind of inside knowledge).

Sam was doubtful this would happen though, because:

A) Finn still kinda owed Sam from the Bella Note thing, and the blond was willing to cash that in so he could avoid being involved with this.

B) Why would Finn turn to him when Sam could bond over this with his newly-reclaimed girlfriend?

C) Sam was homeless, so it could easily be said that he had "bigger problems" to deal with.

These were the three ways Sam had foreseen him getting sucked in.

What he had not foreseen, not even in the back of his mind as an amusing possibility, was that Mike, of all people, would be the one to pull him under.

In the long run, Sam wasn't sure how he felt about this fact, though he did bring a fraction of this upon himself.

It had been a surprise, finding Mike pacing frantically back and forth in the motel parking lot (which should have been a big indicator that something was drastically wrong because most people avoided being alone at night in a not-so-good part of town) clearly arguing with himself over…something. Later Sam would realize that Mike had actually attempted to be considerate and really hadn't wanted to bother him with any problems, but with just one look at the dancer Sam could tell that some form of unloading needed to be done before the timer on Mike's coping abilities timed out and there was an explosion the dancer wouldn't recover from.

The blond approached his friend cautiously, slowly edging into his line of vision so he wouldn't startle him, though he might as well not have bothered because Mike jumped anyway, hands posed for a karate chop (not that the teen was educated in martial arts, he just liked to take advantage of stereotypes). Surprise turned to confusion, which turned to…depression, maybe?

Or anger, or frustration, or…

Uh, Sam had just come outside for some fresh air, that was all he had wanted. Apparently, that was just too much to ask for.

Whatever hesitations Mike might have entertained vanished as soon as it became obvious that Sam wasn't going to turn tail and run, and while it would have been nice to be given a short play-by-play of what the hell was going on Sam supposed he would just have to deal with being thrown in head first without any details.

"Zizes," Mike exclaimed, grabbing a hold of the front of Sam's shirt as though he was holding on for dear life, desperation mixed with a new sort of agitated frustration that Sam had never seen on the dancing Asian before. Were he any less of a man he would have slightly feared for his life.

While his mind was busy evaluating the situation, Mike had continued talking, voice wavering. "We have to interrogate Zizes."

Sam ran through a few precious seconds blinking at the other teen stupidly before he fully comprehended what he had said.

Wasted seconds, as all he could think of to say in response was, "Wha-"

But that was enough to get the crazed teen started again, pacing back and forth once more with renewed vigor. "Puck interrogated Tina."

An interrogation that obviously went south if the video was any indication.

Mike paused and gave the blond a serious look, pointing at him in a matter-of-fact manner. "Finn's words, not mine."

Once Sam nodded in response Mike was off again, explaining what the blond was beginning to think was completely unexplainable.

"And now Tina's mad at him," which wasn't too terribly surprising. "But she's also mad at me," which was incredibly surprising. "And now she won't talk to me at all," there was a hint of sadness there and Sam began to understand the angry/depression cocktail of emotions that was going on here. "And I can only assume that Puck has not only said something remarkably stupid," Mike ranted, waving his arms to enthusiastically emphasize this point. "But also something that is entirely untrue, but Tina won't talk to me so I can't fix it."

There was a semblance of order that was starting to manifest itself here, Sam just knew it, he was only missing a few key pieces. His biggest question was what any of this had to do with Zizes, but Sam chose to be more subtle and ask question that would have seemed perfectly reasonable to normal Mike, just to test the waters to see how badly Puck had messed things up here.

The blond cleared his throat casually, attempting to look as though this was just another normal conversation that did not have the possibility of sending Mike off into a rage of fury.

"Why don't you just ask Finn?"

That earned him a glare, and the other running champion for best abs gave Sam what could only be described as the "evil eye", opening his mouth slightly before immediately shutting it, giving Sam the feeling that whatever Mike's beef was, it probably involved the quarterback as well.

"Look," Mike ground out after spending several seconds trying to reach his happy place. "Puck's nuts," he explained, running a hand across his face as though the very mention of the other's name would rain doom upon them all. "I don't know why he went after Tina, or what he said," he lowered his voice slightly, reaching an eerie kind of calm that did nothing to settle Sam's nerves. "I only know that this, is war."

The dancer closed his eyes, taking in another steady breath and Sam almost turned and ran right there. He probably would have made it back to the room and gotten the door locked before Mike could reach him…but that wasn't something he really wanted to take a chance on.

The other jock wasn't done though, not by any means, and he reached out and grabbed a hold of Sam's shoulder, leveling with him, mano y mano.

"I've put a lot of thought into this," he explained, and Sam could tell by the small tremors that quaked through his hand that the statement wasn't a lie. "And the only way to deal with Puck's…" Mike trailed off, searching for just the right word. "Stupid-craziness," he settled on. "Is to throw it right back at him."

Mike sighed again, giving off the air of a truly desperate man. "Then, maybe that will confuse him enough so that he'll stop and maybe, as an added bonus, I'll figure out how to put him in the doghouse with Zizes."

The lanky teen stared at Sam, eyes wide and completely serious, making the blond depressingly aware that no one was outside the reach of New Directions tendency for crazed overreactions.

One day, Sam thought, nodding blankly at Mike in an attempt to show support for what he did not completely understand, One day this will be me.

"To Zizes!" Mike yelled, pointing off into the distance, and he tightened his hold on Sam's arm, hauling him off on a quest that was assuredly doomed to fail.

"To Zizes," Sam murmured, throwing a wishful glance over his shoulder back to his family's motel room as he sped off into the night. Sure, it was a little cramped, but it was still a nice safe haven from things like this.

Then again, Sam thought, picking up his speed so that Mike wasn't quite pulling his arm out of its socket, you've got to appreciate the little things.

One day this would be him. And when that day came it would be nice to remind Mike how easily Sam had come along.

He smiled at the thought, imagining how frustrated Mike would be.

It was the little things.

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The cell phone hadn't moved from where Finn had tossed it carelessly earlier. It just rested on his bed without a care in the world, silent, except for the occasional text message, and all in all was generally unbothered by the trials and tribulations that came from leading a group of individuals that had the strangest need to try and kill one another.

Finn couldn't help but envy the device as he stared at it with great anticipation, weighing his options and all the results that could come from them. He really wanted to help, like, a lot, but so far he had done a wonderful job of doing exactly everything that wasn't that.

He had thought going along with Kurt's plan would help, but that only made things worse, and then he thought that if he kept an eye on Puck he could help, except he got distracted and confused (which was one of his bigger weaknesses, he could admit) and then he opened his mouth and now Tina was mad, and her mom was mad, and Mike was probably mad at him now too, and somehow things were just bad.

Finn wasn't sure what to do anymore. So far stepping in just moved everything to an even greater level of unpleasantness, and he was getting the sinking feeling that this disease/counseling/guy fight was going to slowly spread throughout the entire glee club, and then they would have to spend another year working through this drama when they should be focusing on maybe winning something so they wouldn't have to deal with getting slushie facials every morning.

Kurt had already scolded him (with Blaine frowning in a disappointed way just over his shoulder) after Finn had explained what had gone down at Tina's, and Kurt had immediately forbidden Finn from talking to Puck or either of the Asian's, saying that he "lacked the finesse" to fix everything. So now Kurt was mad at him too, and Puck was mad at him for not pulling Tina off, and Mike was going to be mad at him, and Tina's mom hadn't looked to happy, and all this like, negative energy was giving Finn a big headache that couldn't do anything about.

And then he got the idea.

Because while he might "lack the finesse" to do this, he had a girlfriend who handled controversy and anger as easily as she could handle a microphone. If anyone could get to the bottom of things it was Rachel, and she was just stubborn enough and determined enough that she wouldn't stop until Mike and Puck were singing love songs to each other or something.

…if she got them to do that, he totally needed to get it on tape.

"Lady Goth Freak Out" was looking awful lonely on his YouTube channel.

Besides, there was something that Mike had said was really starting to bother Finn, so even Rachel didn't fix them, maybe she could work it out for Finn so it could all start to make sense.

Mind made up, Finn snatched up his cell phone, hitting speed dial three while he flopped back onto his bed. As expected, Rachel picked up after two rings (she always seemed to have her phone nearby, even though he was pretty sure not too many people called her).

"Finn?"

"Yeah," he breathed, smile spreading across his face. He must have caught her at a good time because she didn't sound grumpy like she did if he interrupted her singing or filming or exercising, and he didn't bother fighting the mushy feeling he had on the inside whenever he heard her say his name.

He had finally gotten her back; he wasn't going to waste his time pretending to be cool.

"Finn?" Rachel's voice echoed again, and he realized he must have dazed off and he shook his head, getting back into leader-mode.

Now was not the time.

"Listen Rach, I think we might have a problem," he began. "New Directions, I mean," he clarified, because he didn't want to worry her. "Not us."

He listened vaguely as she starting listing off possible problems, and he nodded along, silently thinking about the best way to put this. He started with what was bothering him the most.

"Hey," he interrupted as soon as he found a lull. "Mike uh…Mike doesn't think he has a soul," he started, wincing at how weird it sounded. "Do you…that's a problem right?"

The next ten minutes were spent verifying that yes, this was a problem, and then Rachel started planning on how to tackle that, running through their options and jotting down notes on the other end of the line. The way Finn figured it, Kurt was already trying to tackle the whole Mike vs Puck issue, so he and Rachel would just combine their powers to take on the Mike vs himself aspect of the situation. It was easy to overlook the other Asian of their group, he was cool and mostly went with the flow and didn't talk too much (with the exception of the other day, which was probably the most talking/shouting Finn has ever heard the dancer do at once).

Well, now Finn was going to put an end to that.

No more overlooking, no more letting Mike slip into the shadows. They were going to give the dancer the attention he deserved and fix this problem, and then, as long as nothing else happened, they were going to smack down the competition next year.

Finn's smile widened as he reclined against his bed, thinking of how nice it would be to make Mr. Goolsby cry.

Yeah, next year was going to be awesome.

But only if they could make it through this summer in one piece.

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Endnotes:

I live!

I was cruisin' the seas this past week, so that meant no internet, no computer, and unfortunately, no updates. However, now I'm back, rested and a little sunburned, with this little chapter I wrote during my downtime on the ship. That's right…I used pencil and paper (which is a real shocker for me, and it might explain why I'm a little off my game).

There will be more next chapter; I just thought you guys would appreciate a little something in the meantime.

As always, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. That would be, SouthernHemmy, finlee, Gabwr, Mathias, and Rogue Ranger. So…slash it is! Which means this story might be a little longer then I had anticipated.

Update: Sorry, sorry, sorry, I left off Ms. Perception and MysteriousUnknownStranger, they also reviewed and made my day!

Until next time.