It didn't take long for their time in the auditorium to turn into a New Directions jam session. After a few songs Sam slipped back into the gym to get more of their friends to join them. The first person through the door was a smug looking Puck followed by Lauren who was wearing the Prom Queen crown and carrying the princess stick thing with the ball on the end. He could never remember the word for that. Finn was a little surprised, Lauren was pretty awesome even if she was a little mean sometimes, but prom queen always went to the popular girls like Quinn. Mike and Tina followed them in pushing Artie's chair up the new ramp. After a few group songs Puck came up and tugged Finn to the side of the stage behind the curtain, "Hey, you're singing."

"Yeah, well it's just us right now. I had something I wanted to say to Mercedes, and you know how it goes. So Lauren won?" Finn asked.

Puck sighed, "Yeah, and so did Karofsky. Sylvester did the announcement, but she was up to something."

"She rigged the prom queen results? Doesn't she have bigger evil plans to hatch?" Finn said shaking his head.

"She did. At first I thought it was so none of the girls who quit the Cheerios would win. Lauren didn't want to win that way, so we cornered her," Puck said.

"You what? And you got out alive? What happened?" Finn asked.

"Well she threatened to rip us to pieces for a few minutes, and then she confessed. She showed us the card from the envelope. Karofsky did win, but so did Kurt," Puck said, and Finn could tell he was getting pissed again.

"Huh? How can they both win Prom King? I don't get it." Finn said, he knew things had been a bit easier for Kurt lately, but he wasn't exactly popular.

"Hummel didn't win king, Finn. Those assholes voted him queen," Puck said, punching a fist into his palm.

"WHAT? If we find out who was behind this we're going to kill them right? Kurt can't know, now that we're away from the crowd they are having such a good time, " he looked around the curtain where Mike was attempting to teach Kurt and Sam some kind of dance move, "Blaine doesn't even have that nervous look he had the whole time we were in there."

"Damn right we're going to take care of this, and we're the only ones who know, thanks to Coach Sylvester of all people," Puck said.

"It hurts my head when she's not evil, like with Becky and stuff. It's a good thing Kurt is on her good side," Finn said.

"Let's get back to our dates, I don't trust Lauren for very long with a big pointy stick."

Finn waited for the rest, he'd been friends with Puck since the third grade and he knew what to expect by now.

"There's only one big stick I want her handling tonight, if you know what I mean," Puck said with a leer.

Finn punched him in the arm, "Dude, not your best material. You'd better not let her hear you talking like that."

"No kidding," Puck said and swaggered back over the the group throwing his arms around Lauren and Brittany.

Finally they heard the music in the gym winding down. Finn knew that Coach Bieste expected them to clear out at the same time so they made sure that everything was in it's place and headed out to the parking lot as a group. While Finn's parents had extended his and Kurt's curfew to midnight they were expected to be in on time. His mom had explained that if they behaved responsibly tonight they might have more freedom for their senior prom. Finn figured that was pretty fair, and he knew his mom was still worried about him. Luckily nobody bothered them on the way to their cars and he climbed in the backseat with Mercedes, letting Blaine take shotgun next to Kurt. It seemed a little unfair since Blaine was such a little dude, but this way he could put his arm around Mercedes so he wasn't going to complain.

When they reached Mercedes' house he jumped out and ran around to open her door, earning him a smile from Mercedes and a thumbs up from Kurt. He rolled his eyes at his stepbrother, he wasn't that clueless. He grabbed Mercedes' hand on the way to the door and smiled when she squeezed his hand. When they reached her porch he kissed her again, and now that he wasn't so nervous and they didn't have an audience he wanted to make this one count. He felt her arms go around his waist and he rested his on her shoulders. After a few minutes they both needed some air but they didn't step away. Mercedes rested her head on his shoulder like she had when they were dancing, "Damn, Finn. I think we're getting good at this. I think we better call it a night before before we aren't taking our time anymore."

"I think you're right. I wanted to give you a perfect night. I know it wasn't, but it was pretty good anyway. At, least I think it was. Thanks to Coach Bieste and Sue Sylvester," he said.

"Finn, it's okay. I had a great night and it was thanks to other stuff that happened wasn't your fault and we should forget all about it. Are we still on for tomorrow?"

"For sure, we'll be outside for a while and you should probably wear sneakers. Okay?" Finn asked. He had spent an hour using google to find a date idea that he hadn't done with Rachel or Quinn.

"You got it, but do I seem like an outdoorsy kind of girl to you?" she replied.

"Don't worry, it's not like we're going hiking or something. You can always wear my jacket if you get too cold," he said.

She smiled, "It's adorable that you think your jacket will fit me. Okay, outside clothing it is."

That was when he heard Kurt tap the horn, it was getting close to curfew and they didn't want to be late. He kissed her again quickly and jogged back to the Navigator making sure that she got inside the house first.

Finn and Kurt made it in to the house with three minutes to spare on their curfew, Finn was not surprised at all to find that Burt had been waiting up for them. Finn had been thinking about stuff since he'd talked to Puck a few days ago, especially now that he knew that Mercedes and Puck didn't do much of anything. And then that kiss. If he thought he saw fireworks with Quinn that was nothing compared to kissing Mercedes. Tonight it had felt like his entire body was on fire. He thought she must have felt it too, she kind of hinted at that much. She said it was good anyway. That was something.

It wasn't so much that what had happened with Schue made him worry about getting somewhere with Mercedes. Not in a panic attack way, anyhow. It was just that he'd already figured out that something was missing with Santana and his only other experience was forced on him.

He didn't know if anything would happen with Mercedes, but if it did he wanted it to mean something. He went into the kitchen where Burt was finishing off the last of the low sodium rice puffs Kurt let him eat as a snack. "Dad? Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, kid. Did everything go alright tonight? Are you okay?" Burt said, pulling a chair up across the table from where Finn had sat down.

"Well, one of the guys gave me shit over dating Mercedes. He was saying these horrible things about her being black and stuff and it didn't even make any sense!" Finn was ready to get angry all over again.

Burt sighed, "It doesn't make any sense to you because you use your brain and follow your heart. People like that don't have much of either."

"Yeah, well. We both know I've said some pretty shitty stuff too," Finn said, looking down at his shoes. He wasn't proud of freaking out on Kurt last year.

"Hey, you are the only one who hasn't forgiven you for that. You understand now and that's what matters. Some of the people in this town never will. Is that what has you worried tonight?" Burt asked.

Finn shook his head, "I'm glad we talked about it, but I was really thinking about something else. Sex mostly, but not like what goes where and stuff like that or even about what happened because that doesn't have anything to do with it. It's just, the feelings stuff. I had sex with Santana last year, but something was missing I think. I guess what I'm wondering is how do you even know if you should do that with somebody?"

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry that I can't give a definite answer, but I can tell you that being with someone like that isn't just about the physical. The physical stuff just lasts for that little bit of time, but there's lots of mental and emotional stuff that goes along with it and that lasts a lot longer, " he said.

Finn nodded, "Yeah, that's the stuff I mean. I don't really want to do the physical stuff if it doesn't mean something. I wish I hadn't let Santana talk me into it before."

"Finn, I think you already understand all this stuff better than you think and I'm proud of you for not just wanting the easy thing. You matter more than that and so does she. The best thing I can tell you is to talk to the other person. If you can't talk about anything and everything with that person then maybe you aren't close enough to get physically close either," Burt said.

That made a lot of sense. Oh, crap. His dad probably thought he was planning on having sex with Mercedes soon and this totally wasn't about that. Not exactly anyway. Okay, so he occasionally thought about it, but he thought that actually meant he was pretty okay with stuff. "She's not like that. Mercedes, I mean. I don't want to push her. That's not what all this is about. I think it would be pushing myself too. That would just be kind of dumb. I'm just asking, you know. Trying to figure stuff out."

"It's okay Finn. I'm glad you are thinking about this feelings stuff. It's important. And yes, it would be dumb to rush into things with a girl you really care about. Especially a girl with an older brother who is stronger than you and a best friend who knows where you sleep and how to mess with your car," Burt teased, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Just be honest with each other, you'll be okay."

They'd been pretty good about laying out the truth so far. They could keep it up. "Thanks, Dad. I feel better. I'm going to get some sleep, I've got a date tomorrow."

"Goodnight, kiddo."