"So it is true... The New Directions are so scared of losing to the Trouble Tones that they had to go all the way to Kentucky to bring back home the one and only Sam Evans."
At the sound of her voice, Sam smiled a bit, looking away from his locker where he had been stacking up his books to look at Piper, standing beside him by the lockers.
"Hello, Piper." He smirked a bit, pulling her into a hug and smiling when she giggled. "I've missed you a lot."
"I've missed you too." She said, hugging him back and stepping away from him a bit so their eyes were meeting again. "I can barely believe you're actually here."
"Yeah, Rachel and Finn went to pick me from Kentucky." Sam shrugged. "My mom and dad let me come back and finish school here. I'm bunking with Kurt and Finn at their house."
"Oh, then I'll be seeing you lots, with all the sleepovers I have with Kurt." Piper smiled as Sam chuckled.
"Can't wait." He said, as Piper laughed. "Now, I hear you're in another glee club, is that right? Did you really leave the New Directions?"
"Yeah." Piper nodded with a sad smile as Sam frowned a bit. "I went to the Trouble Tones with Santana, Brittany and Mercedes. I mean... I do miss the New Directions, sure. But the girls in the Trouble Tones are fun and Shelby is an amazing teacher."
"Well, good for you." Sam nodded at her. "Did you get a solo for the competition?"
"Santana, Cedes and I are singing lead for the song, yes." Piper said. "You?"
"A line or two." He said. "Quinn also got some."
"Oh, she told me." Piper smiled proudly as Sam shook his head fondly at her.
"Why isn't she in the same group as you?" Sam asked then. "I mean... You guys are dating still, right? She even told me she came out and stuff."
"Oh, yeah, we're dating still. It's just... It's a long story." Piper shrugged a bit. "She wanted to stay in the New Directions but she totally pushed me to go to the Trouble Tones, so I did. Besides, Mercedes would've probably killed me if I didn't go with her."
"Speaking of..." Sam smirked a bit as Piper raised an eyebrow at him. "How is Mercedes?"
At that, Piper gasped, widening her eyes a bit as she looked around and stepped closer to Sam so she could talk to him lowly without people listening in.
"Wait... Do you... Do you still like her?" She asked and when Sam sent her a bashful nod, Piper squealed quietly. "Oh, Sam... That... That is great. I... Oh, but we do have a problem, see? Because Mercedes... She got a new boyfriend. And... And he's actually pretty nice."
"She's got a new boyfriend already?" Sam frowned a bit as Piper sighed, noticing his disappointment. "Who? Do I know him?"
"Do you remember Shane from the football team?"
"Shane? Shane Tinsley? Linebacker?" Sam asked, widening his eyes when Piper nodded. "He's huge!"
"He is." The girl giggled a bit. "But he's really nice and he's really good to Mercedes, actually."
"Damn it..." Sam mumbled as Piper pouted a bit at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "So... No hope for me?"
"I don't know." Piper admitted honestly. "But I will tell you this... She was really upset for a long time when you left."
"So she missed me." Sam said, as Piper nodded.
"She did."
"Does she still miss me?"
"I guess you're gonna have to ask her that." Piper shrugged, clutching her books to her chest and patting Sam's shoulder as she walked away. "But be careful, Evans, because you hurt her, it's not about Shane you need to be worried about."
"Did you threaten Shane too?" Sam called out as Piper turned in her heels and walked backwards a bit to look at Sam when she spoke.
"Of course I did."
"Did you scare him?"
"Probably not, dude is four times my size." She said, as Sam laughed. "But I like to think I did."
"Well, you definitely scare me." Sam said, as Piper nodded with a laugh.
"Good to know."
***
"Hey." Quinn smiled a bit as she took a seat next to Piper at the bleachers.
"Hi." Piper smiled back at her, closing her sketchbook as she turned to look at her girlfriend properly. As soon as she did, though, she recognized the way her eyebrows furrowed together and, in a second, she knew something was wrong. "What happened?"
"Puck came to talk to me." Quinn said, and, as soon as the words left her mouth, Piper sighed. "He said... He said he finally did sleep with Shelby, but she regretted it and kicked him out. He's angry about it. And to make it worse, he offered to be my boyfriend again so we could try and get Beth back from Shelby and when I said no, he grew ten times more annoyed. He said we could make Shelby feel threatened if we were back together, being Beth's real parents or whatever."
"He thinks that being with you increases his chances of getting Beth back?" Piper asked as Quinn nodded.
"He doesn't have me, though, but he seemed pretty adamant on getting Beth back and now I'm worried he'll do something to get back at Shelby out of spite."
"Oh, dear God..." Piper groaned, annoyed as Quinn sent her a small, apologetic smile. "What is he gonna do? I mean, if he tells anyone about him and Shelby, she'll lose her job and then she'll probably leave McKinley. She'll probably leave Lima, actually."
"I don't know, angel..." Quinn shrugged. "I'm not sure what Puck wants and I don't know what he's planning, but he's planning something."
"Well, Shelby did seem a bit worried in rehearsals the other day." Piper admitted. "She told Mercedes she was just nervous about the competition this weekend, but maybe it had to do with Puck."
"I don't know, P... But we need to keep an eye open, okay?" Quinn asked, as Piper nodded.
"Yeah, keep an eye on Puck. I mean... Shelby needs to stick around at least until Sectionals, right?" She said, as Quinn nodded quietly. At that, Piper sighed, turning to look at Quinn with a half playful glare. "But you, missy, stay away from Puck."
"Wait..." Quinn smirked, reaching out to poke Piper slightly on her sides as she squealed quietly. "Is that Piper Snow jealous that I'm seeing right now?"
"Me? Jealous of Puck? Oh, please, Fabray..." Piper rolled her eyes with a smile, but Quinn could see the flash of insecurity behind her golden-ish brown eyes, so, leaning forward toward her, Quinn pecked her lips sweetly.
"I don't want Puckerman, angel." She said, as Piper blushed a bit, still a bit unused to having Quinn being so forward with her out in the open like that. "Why would I when I have you?"
"Good." Piper whispered then as Quinn giggled. "But just stay away from him, please?"
"I will, P." Quinn promised as Piper sighed in relief. "I will."
***
Sectionals were here and, as much as Quinn and Piper were very worried about the whole Puck and Shelby situation, nothing had blown up yet, so the two of them decided to just let it go for a while and enjoy their little friendly competition going on between the two of them, considering they were in opposing teams now.
"Hello, Will." Shelby greeted as she walked into the choir room where the New Directions were reunited with the rest of the Trouble Tones behind her.
"Looking good, ladies!" Mr. Schue said, as the girls all smiled, Piper taking a moment to look over Quinn and smirking a bit at her white little suit over the black skirt. When she winked at her after having admired her girlfriend in her silver dress, Piper blushed a bit.
"We just came to say, may the best glee club win." Shelby said, snapping Piper out of her thoughts and back to reality.
"Yes, and just in case that glee club is us, I have convinced Miss Corcoran to consider a contingency plan." Santana said, as Shelby nodded.
"Yes, in the event of a New Directions loss, Trouble Tones has voted to allow any of you to join us at Regionals."
"You're welcome." Santana smirked, as Finn and the rest of the New Directions frowned.
"Excuse me?" He said. "That's incredibly rude, Santana."
"We're being nice." Santana argued, as Piper looked down at the floor as she tried to hide her smile, finding the whole situation to be slightly funny. "It would be rude if I followed you around and every time you took a step, I played a note on a tuba."
"Thank you for the offer, Miss Corcoran, but right now, we're gonna concentrate on winning this thing." Mr. Schue said, as Puck smirked.
"And we will be winning, Shelby. We've got it in the bag." He said, walking over to Quinn and throwing an arm over her shoulders. Piper raised an eyebrow at that, but before anyone could even say anything, Quinn stepped away from Puck, sending Piper an apologetic smile. "Quinn here is going to come through for us. She's such a shining star, in every conceivable way. Don't you think?"
At that, everyone frowned, confused as to what was happening, but Shelby tensed for a second, before shaking her head a bit as she opened another smile.
"Good luck, everybody." She said. "See you on the ice."
And, with that, she was out of the room, the Trouble Tones following her closely. Deciding to just ignore that for a second, Piper rushed over to Quinn and she smiled when the blonde wrapped her arms around her waist.
"Good luck out there." Quinn smirked at her a bit, as Piper smiled. "You're gonna need it."
"Oh, getting cocky, are we?" Piper laughed as Quinn shrugged with a playful smile. "Well, good luck to you too then. May the best glee club win."
"And that is definitely us." Quinn giggled when Piper scoffed.
"It really isn't." She said, leaning forward a bit to press her lips to Quinn's in a quick kiss as the two of them minded their lipsticks.
Before anyone could say anything, however, Mercedes appeared by the door with a smile.
"Come on, P. Quit making out with your girlfriend. Shelby is calling for us." She said, as Piper sighed, pulling away from Quinn with a smile.
"I'm on my way!" She called, turning back to Quinn with one last smile and a wink. "Break a leg."
"You too."
And so, sending Kurt a playful warning glare, Piper spun around in her heels as she walked over to Mercedes. Before she could reach her best friend, however, they all heard Sam calling from the back of the room:
"Break a leg, Mercedes!" He yelled as Piper laughed when Mercedes blushed, looking away from him and unable to respond.
"You too, Sam!" Piper called back instead as the blonde just smiled, watching as Piper grabbed Mercedes by the arm and walked away with her, giggling and whispering with her at the way Mercedes had seemed all so flustered because of Sam Evans.
***
The performances had been done and now, it was time for the results. Piper stood with the Trouble Tones, hand in hand with Brittany, very nervous about what the outcome of this was going to be.
"As an award-winning clown, I'd like to say that it's nice, for once, to be working with kids that are just sick with talent." One of the judges — a clown, supposedly — joked and Piper winced a bit at the way no one really reacted to it. Deciding to push through it, the man pulled open an envelope and revealed the third place. "Third place...The Unitards!"
At that, the Unitards cheered, going to retrieve their trophy and Brittany squeezed Piper's hand in excitement as Mercedes and Santana exchanged smug looks. After sending Brittany a smile, Piper turned to look at the New Directions and she smiled when she found Quinn's eyes. Quinn smiled back at her, but, just by the look on her face, she could tell there was something wrong. So she frowned, but, before she could even do anything else, the clown was already announcing the next winner.
"In second place..." He said, pulling Piper's attention back to him as she bit her lip in anticipation. "We have the Trouble Tones! In first place is New Directions!"
And, just like that, Piper felt a wave of disappointment rushing through her and, as she watched her friends celebrating their victory, she couldn't help but be upset that her season had ended so quickly this time around.
And as she looked at the rest of the girls in front of her, as Brittany and Santana hugged and she placed a comforting hand on Mercedes' shoulders, she could tell they were all just as upset as she was.
***
"Hey, there." Quinn smiled as she approached Piper at her locker. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, why?" Piper frowned a bit.
"Oh, just... Cause... You know..."
"Cause the Trouble Tones lost?" Piper giggled quietly at the way Quinn shrugged, bashfully. "I'm fine, bub. Really. You deserved that win. You were good up on the stage. That intro to Control was really hot, not gonna lie."
"Well, you were great too." Quinn smiled at her girlfriend as she just chuckled. "I just feel kind of bad because I was the one who convinced you to go."
"I was the one who wanted to go." Piper said. "Don't worry, bub, I'm not mad. I mean... Sure, Shelby is leaving for whatever reason so I won't have glee club at all anymore, but..."
"I know why she's leaving." Quinn whispered, leaning against the lockers as she looked over at Piper with a sad smile. And that was all it took for her to understand.
"Puck?" She asked, as Quinn nodded.
"Just before your performance I caught him slipping away from the auditorium. He was going to tell Figgins about him and Shelby but I stopped him." Quinn said. "I think he understood now that what he was doing was not gonna end up being good for anyone. Not for him, not for Shelby, not for Beth. But Shelby cornered me the other day. She said it was a mistake to come and it was wrong what she did with Puck, so she decided to go."
"Oh, bub, I'm sorry..."
"It's fine. Shelby said I could come and visit Beth every once in awhile if I wanted. Or call or whatever." She shrugged. "But I don't know. We'll see how it goes."
"Yeah." Piper nodded then, unsure of what to say. "We'll see."
"But anyway... I didn't come here to talk to you about that." Quinn smiled as she grabbed one of Piper's hand in hers. "I came to offer you your spot back in the New Directions."
"Quinn..." Piper smiled a bit. "I can't. I mean, I'd love to, but would Mr. Schue even take us back? I mean, we pretty much abandoned the group."
"He will." Quinn nodded confidently as Piper raised an eyebrow at her. "Trust me."
"Look, even if he does take us back, Santana and Mercedes won't go back to be shoved in the back for Rachel again and if they don't go, it's not fair for me to go."
"Well, angel, don't worry about it because I have a plan." Quinn smirked as Piper laughed quietly, not in the slightest surprised by that fact. "Now, do you know where the other girls are? I wanted to talk to all of you."
"Yes, I know where they are." Piper nodded, closing her locker as she grabbed Quinn's hand in hers and started to walk down the hallway with her. "Come on, I'll take you there."
And so, the two of them made their way to the bathroom Piper knew Santana, Brittany and Mercedes were in considering she was supposed to met them there about five minutes before.
"It was that damn Trouty Mouth." Quinn and Piper could hear Santana saying as they approached the bathroom. "Even I felt a little something in my lady loins when he did that magic sex dance."
"All right, ladies..." Quinn said, as she walked into the bathroom, pulling Piper along with her, causing the other girls to stop what they were doing and turn to look at the couple instead. "Girl talk."
"No. Uh-uh." Santana shook her head sassily then. "Don't you dare try and give us a pep talk, Quinn."
"Or ask us to come back to New Directions..." Mercedes said. "Not interested."
"Wait, is it even possible?" Brittany frowned, clearly up to the proposition. "Do you think they would really take us back?"
"Of course they would take us back." Mercedes said. "But I'm telling you, I'm not going."
"Do you know what growing up is about?" Quinn asked then, ignoring the stubborn comments from her friends as she started to talk about what she had really come to talk to them about. "Losing things. In six months, we'll all be gone, scattered."
"We'll keep in touch." Mercedes shrugged, sending Piper a look as the girl smiled quietly at her best friend from her place beside her girlfriend.
"Yeah, but it won't be the same." Quinn argued. "When we see each other, it'll be a special occasion. It'll be different. I don't want to grow up yet. I'm not ready to lose you girls."
"What are we supposed to do?" Santana asked then. "Come back to Glee Club and sing background for Blaine and Berry until we graduate?"
"I'm not doing that again." Mercedes added. "We know what it feels like to be out front now."
At that, Piper nodded in agreement, turning to look at Quinn as the blonde sent Piper a nod to let her know she had it covered before turning to the other three girls.
"What if Mr. Shue agreed to let the Trouble Tones sing at least one number per competition?" Quinn asked, as Piper raised an eyebrow, surprised by the proposition but now understanding what Quinn had meant when she said she had a plan.
"Well, even if Mr. Shue did agree to that, Rachel never would." Mercedes said, as Quinn smirked a bit.
"What if I told you that they both already did?"
At that, Mercedes let her guard down a bit, crossing her arms over her chest as she nodded.
"I'm listening." She said, as Quinn smiled, reaching back to grab Piper's hand in hers as she started talking again.
"Look, I'm 17... I have the rest of my life in front of me." She said, as Piper smiled a bit at Quinn, squeezing her hand in hers to let her know she had her back. "I love Glee Club. I love you girls. And when we're 27, or 87, I want us to be able to look back on these next couple months and talk about how it was the best times of our lives. Can't do that if we're not all together."
At that, the four girls softened a bit. Mercedes sent Piper a smile as Santana and Brittany held hands, all very touched by Quinn's words. Noticing her job there had been done, Quinn let go of Piper's hand as she walked around her and out of the bathroom.
"We're doing a big number in the auditorium to celebrate our victory and to prepare for Regionals. We could use a couple more girl voices." Quinn smirked, sending Piper a wink and smiling at the rest of the girls. "Let me know if you hear about anybody who might want to join."
And, with that, she was out, leaving the four of them behind as they exchanged glances. When Piper raised an eyebrow at them, Santana scoffed.
"Well, of course you'd side with your girlfriend." She teased with a small smile. "You were practically undressing her with your eyes as she talked."
"She was right, though." Piper shrugged. "And if Mr. Schue really lets us have one number per competition, I feel like that would be better than having no competition at all."
At that, Mercedes sighed, walking over to Piper and throwing an arm around her shoulders with a nod of her head.
"I agree." She said, looking over at Brittany and Santana who seemed to still be a bit on the fence. "What do you say? Should we join the rest of them in the auditorium and show them how a real performance is done?"
Santana laughed a bit then, turning to look at Brittany and relenting when she noticed the pleading eyes her girlfriend was sending her. She rolled her eyes then.
"Fine." She said, as Piper squealed a bit in excitement. "Fine, let's go before I change my mind then."