Picture Perfect - Book 3 - Q.F.

The Spanish teacher

"Be my guest."

"Okay." David relented then as pretty much every girl in the room smiled. "Well, I'm-I'm not a professional like you guys, but I'll give it a go."

"All right." Mr. Schue whispered to some of the kids as David talked to the band. "Now, guys, hum... Remember, Mr. Martinez is here as our guest, okay? Let's create a safe and supportive environment."

Piper nodded at that, but, as soon as the first notes of Sexy and I know it started to play and Mr. Martinez pulled out his jacket to dance properly, she knew they wouldn't really be having to worry with that.

"Uno, dos, tres, cuatro!"

***

"Hey! I didn't see you in glee club today." Piper smiled as she walked up to Mercedes who was standing alone by her locker later that day. "You totally missed out. Mr. Schue brought a super hot Latin friend in, and I mean, if even I thought he was hot..."

Piper trailed off, half-expecting Mercedes to laugh. When the girl just sent her a small smile, she frowned, though.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you." Mercedes whispered, closing her locker as she turned to look at Piper with a frown on her face. "In private. You have a free period now, right?"

"Yeah. I have like 45 minutes until my arts class." She said. "Do you want to go to my car?"

And when Mercedes nodded, Piper smiled a bit, grabbing Mercedes' hand in hers and walking with her to the parking lot. Guiding her best friend to her car, the two of them climbed into the backseat and, as soon as they were alone, Mercedes fell into Piper's arms, crying and sobbing as Piper gasped a bit in surprise.

"Oh, my God, Cedes... What's wrong?" Piper cooed gently, wrapping her best friend in an embrace as she rocked the two of them gently. "Talk to me, Cedes... What's bothering you?"

"I... I... Oh, P..."

"It's okay, take your time." Piper said. "Do you want some water or something?"

"No, it's fine, thanks." Mercedes sniffled, breathing in and out a few times to try and stop sobbing so much. When she finally did, she leaned back further into Piper. "P, I... Oh, I cheated on Shane."

At that, Piper widened her eyes, expecting pretty much anything to come out of Mercedes' mouth, except for this.

"W-Wait, what?" She frowned, as Mercedes nodded, clearly embarrassed. "When? How? Wait... With who?"

"Sam, P... Who else?" Mercedes admitted and that was all it took for Piper to finally understand the situation. "We kissed. I mean, it was just a little kiss but... Oh, he invited me over to the auditorium last week and we sang together and... I tried not to sing with him, but it was... It was stronger than me. And he was just there looking... Looking fine as hell and his voice... I just... I couldn't help it. When I finally came to my senses, we were standing in front of each other and we just... We just kissed."

"Oh, Mercedes..."

"That's not me, though. You know that's not me, P, you know it!" Mercedes said, pulling away from Piper so the two of them could stare at each other in the eye as they sat side by side in the backseat of Piper's car. "I don't sleep around, I don't... I don't do that, I... I never thought I would do something like that, I... We went to talk to Ms. Pillsbury, you know? Sam and I."

"Yeah?" Piper asked, as Mercedes nodded. "And?"

"She said we should stop talking to each other for a week so we could listen to ourselves instead."