Here's the next chapter. It's a lot lighter than the last one but it has some important conversations. Enjoy!

I own nothing.

The ride to the mall had found her squished in between Noah who was driving and Brittany who was playing with her hands.

"I don't know why anyone ever called you Manhands. You have really soft, girly hands." Brittany said as she turned them over in her own.

Rachel smiled over as Noah snorted in response.

"And your hair is really soft and shiny," Brittany said as her hands left Rachel's and started threading their way through her hair instead. "Could you tell me which shampoo you use so I can buy some for Lord Tubbington?"

Rachel noticed Noah looking over at Brittany in fondness instead of laughing.

"I could bring some to school tomorrow for him to try." She responded kindly as Brittany hummed in agreement.

Puck pulled into the parking lot of the local mall with a grin on his face. All he needed was Satan to complete the Trifecta of his favourite girls. He slipped out of the truck and waited for Rachel and Brittany. He nodded as he saw the rest of the Gleeks approaching. He briefly wondered what security would think about a mob of a dozen teenagers converging on the mall. The group quickly split up into groups so he figured it would be ok. Santana, Brittany, Quinn and Kurt went to find new clothes. Mike, Tina, Rory and Artie headed to the music store to find some new music for their assignment. Blaine, Puck, Sam and Rachel decided to head to the food court. Puck and Blaine stood in line to grab their food while Sam and Rachel went to find a table.

"Are you alright Sam?" Rachel asked when she realised he hadn't really spoken since the performance.

He looked at her for a moment as he tried to choose his words.

"I'm sorry she was so mean to you." He replied.

"Who? Mercedes? Sam you don't need to apologize for her." She answered quickly, hoping that the boys wouldn't be along too quickly. She wasn't sure he'd talk with anyone else there.

He sat there quietly as he considered her words. She studied him and realised how upset he really looked.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's going on between the two of you? I know that you said you'd fight for her when you came back To McKinley. Are you still planning on doing that?"

"She isn't who I thought she was," He began softly. "I seem to have a really bad habit of picking girls like that."

She watched him for a moment as she thought about his dating history. It was true that he'd had some bad luck when it came to the girls her dated. Quinn had cheated on him and Mercedes seemed intent on keeping him as a backup.

"Mercedes has always been..." she began as she fumbled around for the right words. "I don't know how to describe her politely."

He laughed in surprise and her eyes widened.

"I don't mean that she isn't lovely. She's just, very stubborn. Some might even call her pigheaded, which is something I can relate to. But she's always been a very self-conscious girl. Shane, although I disagree with his methods has made her feel good about herself. He forced her to feel good about herself actually."

He frowned at the implication that being with him hadn't been enough to make her feel good. Seeing the look on his face she continued quickly.

"She was happy with you Sam. I think you made her feel beautiful. But Mercedes is...greedy in some ways. Once she had felt good with you, she wanted more than just to feel good. She became quite power hungry while you were gone. She yelled about not getting enough solos but was too lazy to ask for them. She refused to share the stage with me as Maria and quit Glee just so that she could shine all alone."

"I don't even recognize her anymore."

"She isn't really herself anymore. She went from being self-conscious to incredibly arrogant. She threw away all of her friendships because she craved the spotlight. Something I can relate to once again. The difference between the two of us is that I always wanted friends; I just struggled with making them. I yelled about becoming a star because I had nothing else. She wants the spotlight and doesn't care about the people she hurts along the way."

"Why did she come back to Glee then?" He wondered aloud.

"The Troubletones were finished. Also, Quinn promised that they would be able to perform one of their songs at each of our competitions. There was no way Mercedes was going to give up the spotlight that was available to her Sam."

"I don't want to be with her. She keeps flirting with me and then flaunting Shane in my face." He muttered glaring at the table.

"She's keeping you as a backup. Just like Finn did with Quinn and I." Rachel said angrily. "You deserve so much more than that Sam."

He nodded at her and she was relieved to see that Sam agreed with her. He was such a kind boy and he deserved better than the way he'd been treated. He deserved better than to feel how Finn had made her and Quinn feel.

"As for Quinn," She began lightly as he looked at her with interest. "She's not the person she was when you dated last year either."

"What do you mean?"

"She was a broken little girl last year. A little girl who had been forced to grow up in all the wrong ways when her world came crashing down at 15. She had a child growing inside of her for 9 months before she handed her away to a total stranger selflessly. She and Noah handled the pain of that decision differently. He drove his truck into an ATM and spent months in juvenile detention." She lost her concentration for a moment as she pictured poor Noah in a jail cell.

"And Quinn?"

"Quinn pretended that there had never been a child. She blackmailed her way back onto the Cheerios. She became hard and cold again. She let you in though. She let you see the girl she really was in some ways. I doubt she talked about Beth, but she was real with you sometimes." She said with confidence.

"Then why did she cheat on me with Finn?" He asked her with some irritation.

"Finn represented everything that she was forced to give up when she became a mother. And no matter where Beth is, Quinn will always be a mother. She'll just be a mother without her child and that's incredibly heartbreaking. When Finn showed interest in being with her again she deluded herself into thinking she could go back to how she used to be. She desperately needed to not feel like a mother. She convinced herself that Finn was the future she would have had if Beth didn't exist. What she did was horribly selfish and cowardly. She pushed her very real feelings for you aside and projected them onto Finn. She hurt you and you didn't deserve any of it. You were such a kind and thoughtful boyfriend Sam. But I understand why she did what she did. She wasn't ready to deal with everything that happened in sophomore year until recently. She made a bad decision, but people who are as broken as she was make bad decisions. Just take a look at some of the things she's done this year." She finished her speech and pretended not to notice when Sam wiped his eyes.

"Yeah that tattoo is pretty horrible." He said with a chuckle as Puck and Blaine joined them.

Sam saw Puck looking between the two trying to figure out what was wrong. Dude was incredibly perceptive for someone who plays so dumb. He smiled at Puck and shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, Noah! You remembered to buy only vegan food for me!" She exclaimed staring at him in awe.

"Rach, you've been a vegan since we were kids. How could I forget something that important?" He replied as he took a huge bite out of his burger.

Taking a bite out of his own, Sam noticed that Rachel's eyes flashed with some unknown emotion before she shot Puck the biggest real smile he'd even seen from her. He had heard about the night when Finn had fed her meat. Finn was such a freaking idiot. Puck had been ready to beat the hell out of him after spending the night holding Rachel's hair as she threw up and cried. He had said that Jesse throwing eggs at her had been horrible, but feeding her meat should be cause for decapitation. Sam was drawn from his memories when the girls and Kurt joined them with shopping bags. They sat down before digging into the fries that Puck had bought for the group.

Rachel watched as Quinn sat next to Sam. She fought a grin when she saw the smile he gave her as she stole one of his French fries. Blaine kicked her under the table and she noticed that he was fighting a grin as well. Apparently subtly still wasn't one of her strong points.

I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think. Thanks!