"Welcome to the Hot Cheeks Appreciation Society my friend!"

Sam looked quizzically across to Puck who was leaning across to him from the next desk. "What do you mean?" he whispered back.

"Dude, you were totally checking out Mercedes from her best angle! Your tongue's still rolled out on the floor like Jim Carey in The Mask!"

Sam narrowed his lips and breathed slowly through his nose so that he would calm down and not say anything he might regret, staring at the door as if it might give him some answers to the accusations laid down by his friend.

Mercedes had needed to excuse herself and leave the classroom and subconsciously his eyes must have followed her. If he was totally honest, his eyes stared at the back of her head a lot during their shared class now. And as for his eyes following her out of the room. Maybe it was a little less of the subconscious and a little more of the active checking out that he'd just been called out for. He flushed at the thought.

Thankfully Puck didn't notice his slight change in color because his eyes were distant. "There ain't nothing wrong with appreciating the female form. I still can't believe I let that particular piece of brown sugar get away."

Sam shot him a glare. Puck just laughed, stretched in his seat and ran his hands through his mohawk. "Seriously though, I have to admit, I never really had you down as an ass man, Evans!" Sam tried not to choke.

Puck ignored the reaction, leaned back over towards him and said in a hushed tone, "Word to the wise. When it comes to Mercedes Jones, the complement 'hot cheeks' ain't really referring to her face if you know what I mean!"

Sam felt the color rise to his own. It took all his willpower in that moment not to jump up and knock Puck off his chair for disrespecting Mercedes. The best he could do was maintain his dignified silence. But he thought it through, the more he realized that in his own crude way, Puck was actually paying her a complement. The guy just had a way with words that was different to the rest of humanity. But it didn't stop Sam from wishing that Puck would actually concentrate on the class for a little while rather than making water bombs out of paper from his notebook and making comments which were getting him get worked up.

Then he allowed himself a small smile. Admittedly he did like the way Mercedes moved. He loved that she had curves and that she knew how to dress to accentuate them. And he particularly liked her in dresses. She always rocked the performance outfits. That being said, her outfit with the leather when the girls did the Living On A Prayer/Start Me Up mashup…

But he couldn't allow his thoughts to drift now that he knew Puck was paying attention. And he still could not get to grips with the idea that she and Puck were once an item, however briefly. The more he got to know Mercedes, the more unlikely it seemed. She could do way better than that! She deserved way better than that! And yet despite himself, he still liked Puck. Like Brittany, he tended to have flashes of amazing insight, hidden within seemingly hours of frustrating and willful stupidity.

He cursed himself for having been caught staring at Mercedes. But in all honesty, he hadn't realized he'd been doing it, and definitely not so obviously. How long has this been going on? Since Avatar? The subconscious was a very frustrating thing. But he did have great memories from that day. Sitting so close to her that he could smell her scent. Not the vanilla cinnamon scent from prom, or her day to day perfume which was fruity but impossible to place. This time she had smelled of cocoa butter. Equally sweet and delicious.

Suddenly and unannounced the door opened and she came back in to the room, shooting him a smile as went back to her seat.

He wasn't the only one who noticed her acknowledgement. Puck's eyes narrowed as he looked back at his friend. "Since when did Miss Jones start showing you special favor? She normally just has her head down in class."

Sam shrugged in a way that he hoped merely looked like unconcerned indifference. "I've never noticed anything different about her." He desperately hoped that a dismissive response would cause Puck to quickly drop his line of questioning!

He was wrong. Puck wasn't going to play along and instead shot him an expression that said he remained unconvinced. "You know, you might be in luck Evans. If you played your cards right, you could probably get that!"

Sam's patience wore thin and he struggled not to show his annoyance at the reference to Mercedes as an inanimate object but Puck continued oblivious, "I'm sure she'd definitely be up for a bit of white chocolate. You could be her little piece of Hershey's Bliss!"

"PUCKERMAN! EVANS! Save the chat for the locker room!"

Sam was glad for the interruption from the teacher. He didn't much care for where the conversation was leading.

…

Sam felt a strong nudge as he stepped out of the classroom. "There goes Sexy Mama!" Puck indicated with his head towards Mercedes who was a couple of students ahead of them. Her ass was clad in a snug pair of red jeans and it seemed to be calling out to them.

Totally oblivious to their burning eyes, she walked on ahead of them, reading a message on her phone and smiling. Sam couldn't help wondering who the message was from. Who was making her smile and why? He hoped it wasn't one of the guys. He wasn't sure how he felt about that happening.

"So what was with you and Cedes then?" He finally asked Puck the question that had been burning him through class as they headed to practice. He knew Mercedes' side but he wanted to hear it from the man himself.

Puck shrugged. "It was just one of those things. She was a Cheerio and I needed to get popular." His expression turned thoughtful. "I guess I could have handled things a lot better at the time. I didn't realize I was on to such a good thing until it was over!" The hand went back through the Mohawk, "But I've ended up with a good friend out of it so can't really complain. Even though it only lasted a week and nothing actually happened between us, she did make me want to be a better person."

Wow! She went out with Puck but nothing actually happened! That had to be a first!

"She's still badass tho!" Puck hastily added, sensing that Sam was thinking through what he'd just said, "But don't tell Lauren I said that! She'll totally take me to the floor!" He paused for a moment, then shrugged and smiled "Or maybe do. Lauren taking me to the floor isn't necessarily a bad thing!"

Sam cringed at the thought then as he witnessed Puck's lewd grin, then changed his expression to a smile as Zizes suddenly came round the corner towards them. Theirs was a strange relationship. Puck hid it well but he could tell that despite the protestations, the boy had it bad for this most unexpected of bed partners!

And Sam respected him for going all out to get the girl he wanted even though it broke with convention. Puck had flipped the bird at his own reputation. And now he laughed as Lauren pointed her finger at his friend and beckoned him towards her. Puck pretended to be pulled by an invisible rope as he made his way over. When he reached her she pulled him into a headlock and he grinned at her with puppy eyes.

Whatever works for them...

All the way home he thought about what Puck said about him checking out Mercedes and came to the conclusion that his friend was right. Sam had always thought he had a type but maybe he was wrong. Hanging out with Mercedes had taught him that he was wrong about a lot of things when it came to girls and he wondered what it would be like to actually get it right!