Picture Perfect - Book 3 - Q.F.

Nationals

"What's going on?" Mr. Schue said as he rushed into the room where all the girls were reunited. "How bad is it?"

"Her temperature's 101 degrees." Coach Sylvester said, as Piper sat by Mercedes, placing a wet cloth over her forehead as she looked down at her best friend in worry. "Given the fact that Weezy's complaining about an upset stomach, it's either Amazonian dengue fever or the H1N1 super virus."

"Or I have food poisoning." Mercedes groaned quietly.

"We all wanted burritos for lunch, so we went to Chipotle, but Mercedes tried some dive called Señora Salsation." Santana said.

"Will, word, please." Coach Sylvester called.

And as the two adults stepped aside to talk, Piper looked down at Mercedes.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, gently, as Mercedes groaned.

"Like I'm dying." She croaked out as Piper smiled a bit, grabbing a small bottle of water and offering it to her best friend.

"Here." She said, helping her take a sip. "That should make you feel a bit better, okay?"

"So here's what's gonna happen..." Mr. Schue said, after his conversation with Sue, causing all the girls to turn to him. "Mercedes, you're on bed rest, Quinn, you're stepping in."

"No, no, no, I can't dance that number." Quinn protested before anyone could even say anything else. "I can't sing it, either, not like..."

"The Trouble Tones need you." Mr. Schue interrupted her as Piper smiled a bit when Quinn sighed.

"And you're better than you think you are." Tina said.

"Tina, you, too." Mr. Schue continued as Tina widened her eyes a bit. "You're in the Trouble Tones."

"Mr. Shue, this is my last competition." Mercedes groaned a bit. "I don't want to miss it."

"Amen, to that, sister." Coach Sylvester spoke up. "That's why I'm putting you on a vitamin B-12 drip. We're flushing your system with Pedialyte, and I'm gonna fill that bathtub with ice and see if we can't get your ambient body temperature back down to normal. Worked in Jacob's Ladder."

"All right, we all have our marching orders." Mr. Schue clapped once to grab everyone's attention. "Let's do it."

***

The New Directions had been rehearsing for hours and, as much as everyone was tired already, everything had been going fine. That was, until the boys started to get a bit aggressive with each other.

"Hey, calm down!" Mr. Schue said as he walked into the room, pushing Sam and Puck away from each other as the two boys went at each other. "Hey, hey, calm down! Calm down! Hey, cool out!"

"He's studying for geography while we're trying to rehearse!" Sam accused, angrily as Puck rolled his eyes. "It's bogus!"

"Cause I already know the dance!" Puck retorted. "You dance like you got your feet caught in bear traps. You're trying to gnaw them off."

"Mr. Shue, are you aware that while we're arguing about jazz squares, Unique is being handed the key to the city by Rahm Emanuel?" Kurt asked, as Sam and Puck still glared each other down.

"Really?"

"And plus my pillow and my blanket fell into the pool." Brittany added. "Disaster."

"Look, I think everybody is just a little tired." Artie said. "We've been rehearsing for three straight hours."

"Yeah, and we'll rehearse all night if we have to." Finn said. "We can rest after we've won!"

"Just because we've lost Mercedes doesn't mean we can be anything less than perfect." Rachel added. "Perfect!"