A/N: And we're into the back half of the season! Hooray! I'm so grateful for everyone that's still here and writing feedback, it really helps: both with my writing and pushing me to get out the story on time. So thanks again!

A/N/N: The musical is Mamma Mia!, with the featured song "Chiquitita".

Stassi was staring in her locker absently—she really had no excuse for not paying attention to what was going on around her. She just wasn't thinking. So when she finally heard the quick shuffling of Cheerio converses and the sudden intake of air that seemed to overcome the whole hallway, she knew before looking up that it would likely be too late.

Except, "Hey Richie Bitch." Both Cheerios turned to look at the leather-clad bad girl stepping toward them, her dark eyes honed in on one Jennifer Dalton. The junior glared at both of her intruders, though she internally took a moment to appreciate the strategically-placed rips in the tanned girl's shirt that showed off her tight, toned torso.

Hayley's eyes, meanwhile, didn't budge from her target, and the sophomore's expression morphed into apprehension as the rebel halted within a foot of her, hands clenched at her sides and scowling.

"What do you want Monte?" the blonde asked, failing to mask her fear as her voice cracked slightly at the hated nickname.

"You and me, Blondie—we got a problem," she replied, her eyes narrowing. "You see, I saw your Cheeri-ho antics earlier, and I don't like what I saw."

Jennifer's face paled as she gulped audibly. "Since when do you care about what goes on with the losers of this school?" she asked, trying to not be cowed by the dark-haired girl.

Hayley scoffed. "I don't, but then I thought I might have to worry about how that could affect me." She took a menacing step toward the Dalton girl, and the affluent Cheerio balked, dropping the slushie with a thud at her feet, and Stassi's nose crinkled imperceptibly as the purple dye splashed onto her white converses. "I don't appreciate having to consider how someone like you affects someone like me. So you better watch your step—got it?"

Jennifer scurried away, only stopping to turn and yell back, "Don't think this is over!" when she was a safe distance down the hall. And even then, as Hayley's eyes flashed toward her, she quickly turned and kept going.

Stassi watched her go, then turned back to the rough-edged girl. Hayley's eyes were sparkling with mischief, and the Cheerio huffed as she grabbed her arm and pulled her into a nearby empty classroom.

"What the hell was that?" she hissed, closing the door firmly.

"Johnson bothers me," came the flippant reply as the sophomore shrugged off her jacket.

"Oh yeah? And what exactly did she do earlier that bothered you so much?"

Hayley gave a noncommittal gesture. "Based on her reaction, I'm sure she did something."

Stassi stared for a moment, then shook her head in disbelief. "I was fine—I didn't need you to come save me," she admonished her.

"I wasn't saving you—I was scaring Blondie. The fact that you're not covered in grape ice; well, that's just lucky for you." Stassi rolled her eyes, and Hayley smirked, stepping forward to close the distance between them. "I can, however, think of a way to spend the time you would be spending in the bathroom cleaning up." She ran her fingers through the Armenian's high pony, curling them around at the tips.

A shiver ran up her spine as Stassi's lips involuntarily twitched upwards before she regained her composure and took a significant step backwards. "I've got to get to the Music Room, and so do you—Schue is announcing this year's musical, and it's common knowledge that it's a gleek-wide event."

"Yeah, not going," the sophomore shot down. "Some of us still have to maintain our reps."

The taller girl arched an eyebrow. "Was that a shot?"

"Well, which one of us was almost saturated in corn syrup, and which of us has Cheerios shaking in their spanks?" Hayley pointed out.

"Scaring Jennifer Johnson isn't that much of an accomplishment," Stassi retorted. "The girl traded backbone for an Amex in grade school."

"Then why did she almost get the drop on you?"

Stassi's eyes shot daggers at the sophomore. "One slip up does not give you the edge over me," she scoffed. "In case you've forgotten, you're one toe away from expulsion, whereas I've still yet to be even implicated in last year's Senior Prank switch-up."

"And yet only one of us is vying for a spot on what will probably be The Sound of Music." Hayley stepped forward and caught the junior's arm as she took a step toward the door. "Hey, I'm not saying it's weak for you to be on stage—in fact, I think it's kind of cute." Stassi blinked incredulously as the other girl flipped her hair as she shrugged her jacket back on and headed for the door, "Anyways, even if someone were to ask me to be part of this thing," a loud silence filled the room as Stassi felt the sophomore's eyes fixate on her for a long moment, before continuing, "I still probably wouldn't do it. You have fun though." And with a casual "See ya," she walked back out into the corridor.

The Cheerio, meanwhile, stood quietly at the frame, watching the boot-clad girl trek away with a stunned expression on her face. As Hayley turned a corner and disappeared out of sight, however, the brunette felt a mischievous spark creeping into her eyes, because she owed Hayley payback for thinking the junior couldn't handle herself, and the most enticing challenge had just been offered on a silver platter.

Annie shifted in her seat in exultation. Was that the word she was looking for? Maybe exhilaration? Oh who cares? She was sitting in her seat and she was ready for Mr. Schue to walk in and announce this year's musical. Last year she'd been pushed to the sidelines by Rachel Berry and her ilk, but not this time. This year she was a sophomore and a New Direction—both of which seemed to be working in her favor for the lead, whatever it was. Although she knew that Schuester had shown favoritism to Rachel for the better part of the last three years, and that her director was now partial to Caroline and Roxie, she still hoped she had a decent chance of showing her stuff, since she desperately wanted to make a career as an actress, and this was the best first stop she could think of.

"Hey everyone! I'm so excited most of you are here!" the curly-haired teacher greeted the room. "I don't want to keep you in suspense any longer, so it's my pleasure to announce this year's school production of…" he scribbled messily on the white board "Mamma Mia!"

Annie grinned and pumped her fist while Michelle audibly danced in the seat behind her.

Their teacher continued, "I'm hoping that all of you will consider, if not auditioning, at least helping out with the stage tech. I know we're still looking for a primary choreographer, since Nina is interested in pursuing a stage role."

Annie had tuned out a lot of Schue's speech, instead going through her internal index of songs that she could potentially use for her audition—she may not be a great dancer, but she had the chops for this musical, no doubt in her mind.

The sophomore was so busy with her inner dialogue that she almost missed the teacher's big announcement. "Now, since Mrs. Pillsbury-Schuester and I have been so busy with Cory," he told them. "I have respectfully decided to step down as acting director of the show."

Liam looked up in surprise. "Wait—you're not running the show?" he repeated. "Then who is?"

Not Coach, not Coach, not Coach, Annie thought desperately to herself. Coach Sylvester always had a way of showing up in places that she was intent on ruining, and Annie really wanted this year to be a good one for her.

"Well, I've recruited Coach Beiste again as a Staff Advisor," Will told them, a barely-contained grin building up on his face, "And Teddy is taking his brother's place as student director." The teacher didn't notice the stunned looks on Liam and Andrew's faces as they whipped around to face their now red-faced friend. "And, as a special guest mentor, I've invited someone with great personal experience to sit in on the production."

Will gestured with his hand toward the door, and Annie all but squealed in delight as she watched her big brother Finn walk through it.

"Finn!" she exclaimed, jumping from her chair and dashing into the gangly boy's arms. Her brother embraced her tightly and she grinned with every muscle in her face.

"As you all know, Finn Hudson is a recent graduate of McKinley, as well as a National's winning member of our very own New Directions," Will told them happily. "He is now attending The Actors' Studio in New York and has graciously agreed to help us out in our production in my absence."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue, and, uh, hey everybody," the graduate said to them as his sister released him and sat down. "I just want to say that, um, I'm really excited about working with you guys and I know this is going to be a great show. Just don't be afraid to really give it your all. And, uh, see you at auditions."

Teddy had stayed late after the meeting to talk shop with Mr. Schue and Finn, and the minute he'd stepped out of the door he'd made a beeline for his classroom. But no such luck—

"Hey, hey, hey!" a voice called out, and the junior turned to face his friends who ran to catch up with him. Liam in particular looked offended, while Andrew simply appeared hurt. "When were you going to tell us about the show?" the taller boy asked.

"Well—" Teddy stammered.

"I mean, did you even think about how this might affect our team if you did this? Or did you just jump at the first opportunity to go solo?" the sophomore accused.

"Hey," the fluffy-haired boy countered. "An Abrams has always directed the school musical—it's the only credibility that Mr. Schuester has. And I've had this on my agenda since the year started, so it's not something that just popped up."

"So you just didn't think to tell us?" Andrew rejoined.

"Well…um, no, I guess I kind of forgot." Teddy could feel his face flushing, and ducked his head down remorsefully.

Liam was still staring angrily, but his tone had softened a touch to reflect his despair. "So, I mean, are you just giving up on the film festival?" he said to their friend.

"What?! No! Of course not!" The older boy fumbled with his glasses as he tried to push them higher up the bridge of his nose. "This is just a side thing—I'm still totally with you guys on the project." The three boys looked at each other warily, and Teddy felt the need to say it again, "I'm really sorry I didn't tell you guys about this, but I swear, if I couldn't do both, I would have. This is just something that's always been important to my family—we're Abrams', you know?"
Andrew looked to his friend, and the lanky boy sighed. "Fine," he harrumphed. "Drew and I've got a couple other things on the table that can occupy our time while you get this done."

"You guys should come sit in," Teddy suggested. "I mean, at least for auditions. Especially with Finn as the mentor, we could probably use all the notes we can get."

The sophomores glanced at each other. "We'll think about it," Liam replied, and the two turned the opposite direction down the hall, leaving their friend staring after them.

"So if you take the root word cambi-, and use the suffix –amos, your sentence becomes-?" Ashwin asked, looking up from the textbook to the blonde girl sitting next to him.

Who was seemingly paying as little attention as physically possible. "Umm…"

"As in 'Nosotros cambiamos su nota en Español'?" The dark-skinned boy was practically straining to get the junior to the answer. "What are we doing to your grade in Spanish?" he hinted. Level 1 Spanish?, he lamented inwardly.

"Umm—moving it?" she answered with a doubtful inflection.

Ashwin tried not to groan—they'd been going at this for almost an hour. "Close," he told her with the thread of patience he didn't know he still had. "Caminar is to move, Cambiar is—"

"Like, 'I like to move it, move it'?" she asked with a grin, scooting her chair closer to him. "We like to move it, move it?" She ran her fingers through his hair, tugging the bits at the nape of his neck. "You like to…move it?" Rhi leaned in a began to kiss him, and after resisting for another moment, Ashwin gave up and kissed her back.

This was how their relationship had been going for the most part, really. Ashwin had tried to help her, motivate her to care about the numerous classes she was either barely passing or outright failing, and she would flippantly disregard his concern in favor of making out. Which they did—a lot. And while the brown-skinned boy saw a lot of perks in having a girl like Rhi Gauthier on his arm, he was also finding himself bored with a girl that had very little interest in anything.

In fact, he realized they'd spent the entire study period sucking face and he didn't remember any of it.

"So," he said, pulling out of their lip-lock and packing up his books. "Are you auditioning for the school play?"

"I haven't really thought about it," she answered, leaning back as she pulled out a compact mirror to check her face for smudges.

"I'm just asking since Schue is usually pretty involved," Ashwin continued. "I mean, he's not running it, but he'll probably be around, and maybe if you showed an interest, he'd be more open to giving you some make-up credit options for Spanish." He looked at the blonde critically. "Seriously, Rhi—you can't graduate without passing a foreign language, and you've already failed the easiest teacher twice. I'd suggest you try something new if you want to move past this."

He topped her head with a kiss and slung his bag over his shoulder before heading to his next class, leaving his ditzy blonde behind him.

Dalton walked slowly next to Roxie—she'd been more subdued than usual, and ever since her meeting with Figgins this morning, she's seemed to have a lot on her mind that she didn't want to talk about. He couldn't figure out a way to distract her.

He opened the door to the cafeteria and they quietly sat down at their normal table. "So," he said slowly. "Mamma Mia!—pretty cool, huh?" He looked at her hopefully, but the tiny girl just shrugged. "They're probably still looking for costume designers," he added. The brunette poked her fork in her Tupperware, and he sighed as he ducked his head closer to her. "You're not going to make me beg to find an opportunity to spend more time with you, are you?"

Her lips pulled upwards, and his own expression brightened at finally getting a smile. "Look, Dalton," she replied, taking a deep breath as she turned toward him. "There's something I have to tell you—"

"Mamma Mia!" Coby shouted as he crashed into the table, Walt strolling smoothly behind him. "Totally a chick flick, but still—an excellent start to my first steps into the world of theater!" He towered over Roxie and pulled her in close for a hug. "And there's our champ! Which is going to be, Rox—Sophie or Donna?"

"Lay off guys," Dalton said to them. "Roxie's not going to audition."

"So she said last time," Walt observed with a sly smile.

"And she probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been for D, so let's leave her alone," Ashwin countered, coming up behind them and sitting between the two athletes.

"Dude, where's Rhi?" Coby asked, to which Ashwin shrugged. "Tired of your new girl already?"

"She's not a shirt, Coby—you don't toss her out when you're done with her," the sophomore chided.

"And yet you're avoiding her," Walt commented.

"So Roxie, what are your plans then?" the other sophomore said, avoiding the brunette boy's look.

The tiny girl shrugged, and Coby frowned. "Are you okay, Lovely? You seem a little out of sorts."

Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong, he sang, leaning toward her and taking her hand, I have never seen such sorrow

Walt grinned and harmonized with him, In your eyes, and the wedding is tomorrow

How I hate to see you like this, Ashwin couldn't seem to help adding

Walt continued, There is no way you can deny it

I can see, Coby sang, kissing her hand, that you're oh so sad, so quiet

The three boys stood, Coby lifting Roxie and carrying her out the door while Walt and Ash pushed Dalton into following them.

Chiquitita, tell me the truth, the three sang

I'm a shoulder you can cry on

Your best friend

I'm the one you must rely on

They made their way down the hall and into the auditorium, where the large junior sat the freshman in the front row. You were always sure of yourself

Now I see you've broken a feather

I hope we can patch it up together

The other two boys, meanwhile, pulled Dalton up on stage to join where all of them continued to sing, Chiquitita you and I cry
But the sun is still in the sky
And shining above you
Let me hear you sing once more
Like you did before
Sing a new song
Chiquitita

Later, in front of Teddy, Coach Beiste, and Finn, Dalton stepped away from his friends as he concluded the song alone, Try once more like you did before

Sing a new song Chiquitita