Mercedes POV

When I woke up the next morning I was ready to take the world on. And by taking the world on I meant tackling Santana's issues, calling my father and talking to Sam for the first time in years. I got up, took my hair out of its bun and turned on a straightener. I wasn't going to put more thought than what I figured was necessary into my appearance because I didn't want to look like I stepped off the cover of Seventeen magazine. I wasn't a diva yet, but with time, anything was possible.

While my straightener heated up I dialed my Dad's cell phone number nervously. No one ever calls that number unless it's an emergency because he has told all of my siblings and I on numerous occasions that time was money and he was too frugal to let money go to waste. Once the phone started ringing, I felt my heart rate pick up. The phone rang twice.

"Hello?" It felt like decades had passed since I heard the baritone voice in my ear. The smile it caused stretched my face out.

"Daddy?"

"Mercedes, hey! Why are you calling, is something wrong?" He sounded worried, of course.

"No I…" I shook my head frustrated. "I… can you talk?"

"Not really honey, I'm gonna try and close a deal with one of my clients soon." Dad sounded like he was on edge, almost like his patience was running out. Time was money after all.

"Oh, okay. I'm sorry." I couldn't help the disappointment that leaked into my tone.

"Don't be Cedes, it isn't your fault. I'll try and give you and your mother a call later..." He was dismissing me like I was his secretary. My eyes watered at the thought.

"… Love you."

"Love you too." I hung up before he got a chance to say anything else. I wasn't surprised that I didn't get to talk to my Dad. I was only surprised that in spite of everything, I still cried.

After mildly straightening my hair and French braiding my bangs, I heard Santana's horn beeping wildly from the driveway. Sighing deeply, I grabbed my bag, and walked to her car with confidence.

"Nice outfit, Wheezy."

I looked down at myself, taking in the preppy attire. Rock Revival capris, Forever 21 shirt, and Sperry's. Personally I thought I looked expensive, but if that could be considered a style, then I'd take it.

"Thanks." I almost forgot, "So what was going on last night?"

Santana's face paled as I jogged my own memory.

"… You said you'd tell me in the morning?"

"Yeah, I did. It's um, it's really personal. I don't know if I can tell you what I was ready to say last night."

My hand automatically reached out to squeeze her bicep comfortingly. I knew whatever it was she needed to tell me, it couldn't be worse than when Quinn revealed her pregnancy to me two years ago. "I'm your best friend; whatever you're gonna say to me I'll do the best I can to help."

"You can't help this, Mercedes. I'm not sure if I can even help myself." Her fists grasped the steering wheel tighter and I could feel the car accelerating.

"I don't know what's going on with you right now, but if it's something that I can help, I'll help. You just have to let me know what's wrong."

When we got to McKinley, I figured that Santana was never going to tell me what was going on with her and I accepted that. That's how she was sometimes, she'd let me in or she wouldn't. I grabbed the door handle, about to leave her alone to sulk in peace when she stopped me.

"Cedes."

"Yes?"

Santana ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"I have no one to tell your secrets to, Santana."

"You have Kurt." She pointed out.

I shrugged. "I suppose, but he's our friend plus I won't tell him anything you don't want me too."

"Good, because I'm don't want him to know." She cast her eyes downward before mumbling something way too soft for me to hear.

"What?"

"I'm lesbian."

Sam's POV (A week later)

Mom patted my shoulder as she walked past me in the kitchen, fixing plates of a hot breakfast for the three of us. I tugged on the collar of my polo shirt and sighed heavily. It was just a little bit after six in the morning and I was starting my second week at McKinley High School. My mom and dad chose to talk to me alone, without bothering to wake up Stevie or Stacie. Meaning that whatever they were going to say was only meant for me to hear. It was after I had started on my waffles that they'd decided to speak up.

"Sam, your father and I are very grateful to have gotten back on our feet and make an honest living. We moved away from the old and are trying to start a new life. I think we made the right decision moving all the way to Ohio permanently, don't you?" Mom asked as she sat down at the table, spearing a piece of sausage on her plate.

I looked at her and dad confused, but nodding anyway. "Yeah."

"Are you doing good in school, son? Any problems or anything?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine in school and I don't have any problems."

"So would you say that you're happy at this new school, Sam?" Mom asked.

"I haven't been at this school long enough to be happy with it, mom." I stopped eating and narrowed my eyes. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

At this point dad set down his fork and focused on me. "We just wanted to say that, well, while we understood why you did it, you did a bunch of bad stuff back in Kentucky. And along with everything that was going on, your attitude wasn't helping."

I blinked as my face got hot and my bad temper was about to make an appearance. I opened up my mouth to reply before mom cut me off.

"What your father and I mean to say is that we don't want you to go down the same path you did in Kentucky. God has given us the chance to have a fresh start here and you should take advantage of that. You can choose to be whoever you want to be, and you should choose wisely."

Meaning that now my parents had good jobs again I needed to act the part and be a golden boy. Being a golden boy again meant acting like the problems of the world didn't affect me and being sprung out over some random girl with a cute face and a frame to match. It was much easier said than done. I'd love to go back to that lifestyle, but now that I've seen the other side I can't just pretend that I've never been there.

Yet despite the way I felt inside, I went along with what they wished, because my family's wants always come first before my own. "Okay, I'll try."

Mom smiled, and she reached out to squeeze my hand. "That's all we wanted to hear."

Surprisingly I had already made a friend at McKinley. His name was Kurt and he was a certified genius, as well as my tutor. Mom probably set it up, but he helped me with my reading. It's hard to explain without getting defensive that I'm dyslexic, because for the longest time I didn't know how to read and that's embarrassing to admit. By the time I learned, I was way behind my class. Kurt must have known this information before he started tutoring me and didn't mention it, or he just didn't care about my background information since we got to work the moment we met in the library after school. He was flamboyant, and he had the tendency to look at me with an unreadable expression, but otherwise he was the best tutor I ever had.

"Hey, thanks for helping me with this. I appreciate it, really." I said on that Friday, the last session with him for the week.

"You're welcome." He had made a move to get up and leave before I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"It's a Friday night, how about we um…. go do something fun?" At the time, it seemed like a great idea. He helped me out, and now I could repay him.

"Like what?" He didn't appear nearly as elated as he should have.

"Uh, I dunno." I shrugged. I couldn't think of anything fun to do other than play COD or watch Avatar.

"You wanna watch my limited edition Avatar DVD with me?" It sounded colossally lame, I knew, but it was all I could think of.

"Are you serious?" I nodded.

"You want me to go with you, and watch Avatar?" Kurt asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well…yeah."

"Why?"

I was not expecting him to question my motives. "Because why not? You helped me out."

Kurt's eyebrow arched even higher. "And by spending time together, you would be helping me out?"

I bit my lip. "Well when you put it like that it doesn't sound as good anymore."

"It doesn't. But from what I've gathered these past few tutoring sessions you're not that good with words, so I'll let it slide." Kurt smirked at my befuddled expression before he reached for his bag again.

"Lead the way."

Kurt spent that whole evening in my closet criticizing my wardrobe instead of actually watching the movie, which insulted the greatness that Avatar was, but I got over it.

"Why don't you wear anything that will make you look good? It's not like you don't have a physique to work with. For example, if you wore just a simple long sleeve tee with these-" Kurt held up a pair of dark wash jeans I hadn't worn in months, "You would have even more admirers than you do now."

I looked at him incredulously. "You've been snooping in there for the last thirty minutes; surely you saw all the long sleeve shirts I have."

Kurt shook his head. "Yes but, those shirts are bigger than your real size. With your biceps, you need to be wearing a size smaller not bigger."

He's been observing my arms this whole time? "I thought you came with me to watch Avatar, not analyze my clothes."

"Alright, have it your way." Kurt left the space, closing the door behind him. "But we'll talk about this again soon."

Kurt didn't know about my past, he didn't know that I was deliberately wearing things that didn't bring attention to me. I wasn't looking for women to ogle me like I was an object to play with, I knew to the worst extent what that was like and I hated it. Besides, I'm not looking for a girlfriend.

"So have you actually tried to make friends here yet? Enough people are talking about you as it is." Kurt said after he walked up to my locker as I was getting my supplies ready for class. I came to school with a bad mood, and talking about making friends was sure to annoy me even futher.

"I don't want friends." I told him, grimacing.

"That's a terrible lie. You wanted to hang out with me, did you not? Are you saying we're not friends?"

"No. I just…" Sometimes I regretted my friendship with Kurt. We'd only hung out twice in the past two weeks and he was way too insightful for his own good. "Haven't found anyone worth talking to."

Kurt nodded. "Fair enough. Broke any hearts yet?"

"Nope, and I don't plan to."

"Why not?"

I thought of the girl I had seen all those years ago, singing in a beat up corvette with her hair in a bun on top of her head and her face clear of blemishes. It was silly of me to still be thinking about her after all this time; I didn't even know her name. But she had a pretty voice and face, I did know that. "I'm just not interested, that's all."

He raised an eyebrow. He did that a lot, I was starting to notice. "I know that look. You already like someone."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No, I don't."

Kurt smirked knowingly. "Yes, you do."

This argument went on until finally I slammed my locker door in frustration. "Okay, fine! I do like someone but so what? It's not like anything's going to happen." I took off for my first hour in a huff. Of course Kurt followed.

"You already know what I'm about to ask." He said.

"Look." I stopped at a set of lockers right next to the classroom I was headed to. "She's wonderful. She's pretty and her voice is amazing and I would have loved to get to know her better. But I'll never get the chance, because that was years ago and I don't even know her name."

I turned and walked away, leaving Kurt standing there with a frown on his face.

Before you ask, Samcedes hasn't met. And no, Mercedes had no clue Santana was lesbian, she suspected it, but that's all. Why? Well, those questions will be answered in the next chapter. Or maybe you can firgure it out? What do you think? Please review!