"So how does it work with gay marriage?" Sam asked, as he laid down across the piano with Blaine sitting by it, nearby. "You take his last name or does he take yours, or...?"
"Right now, I'm honestly just excited that Kurt said yes." Blaine admitted. "Hey, are you looking forward to prom? I fell asleep last night while Tina was texting me about her prom dress. It's really nice that you're going with her, by the way."
"Yeah, I guess so." Sam shrugged a little. "I don't know, I just... You know, it's my senior prom, so I kind of wish I was going with somebody I really care about."
"Somebody like Winnie?" Blaine asked, the two of them taking a second to look across the room as she talked with Marley. "Why didn't you ask her? I mean, you two are in one of your good phases, aren't you?"
"I was going to." Sam admitted. "But then you had your idea to help Tina and then she chose me and I couldn't really tell her no, could I?"
"Oh, well, I'm sorry, man." Blaine mumbled. "But I'm sure you'll be able to at least get a dance in with her, right?"
"I guess so." Sam shrugged. "Damn, I have seriously been unlucky in love."
"Come on, guys, we're back with the Beatles!" Mr. Schue said, as he walked into the room, making all the kids move around to take their seats. "We're leaving the mop-tops behind and moving into their experimental years. Now, the Rubber Soul album marked a turning point for the group, where they literally and figuratively let their hair down. Now, the Beatles were the biggest musical act in the world. They could have remained in their comfort zones, but instead, they risked everything to explore new musical worlds. They had something important to say, and they weren't going to let something as silly as the fear of failure get in their way."
"Good afternoon, McKinley High." Coach Sue's - well, now Principal Sylvester, apparently - voice sounded through the speaker, causing Mr. Schue to interrupt his class so they could all listen to what the Principal had to say this time. "This year, the proms are being fused into one giant Brundleprom."
"What's a Brundleprom?" Marley frowned, confused.
"I don't get that reference." Jake said.
"That's from The Fly." Ryder said.
"And now for the moment that will crush 99% of your misguided views about your own popularity." Principal Sylvester continued. "Here are your nominees for Prom King and Queen. First, here are your nominees for Prom King: Blaine Anderson, Mohamed Omar, Artie Abrams, Stoner Brett Bukowski."
"Wait, I-I really didn't get nominated for king?" Sam asked, almost offended, causing Winnie to reach over to him and tap him gently on the shoulder.
"And now onto the Queen." Principal Sylvester said. "Winnie Archer... Aimee Ryan, Jordan Stern. And, inexplicably, Tina Cohen-Chang."
"Yes! Yes!" Tina cheered, standing up from her seat all excited as everyone clapped for all of their glee club nominees. "Yes! Yes! Oh, my God, yes!
"Tina. Wow!" Sam smiled, all excited. "Even though I'm not nominated, it's such an honor to be going to prom with a potential queen."
"Oh..." Tina gasped, causing Winnie to frown at her reaction. "Sorry, Sam. It was so nice of you to offer to go with me, but I'm going to have to decline your invitation."
"What?" Winnie asked, almost offended for Sam. "But you already accepted."
"Yeah, Tina, this is very uncool." Blaine nodded.
"Losing is uncool." Tina argued, causing Winnie to roll her eyes. "I need to maximize my odds of taking the crown, so I think I'm going to go with a group of single gals to corner the dejected wallflower vote. And I am going for it. This is my chance to be bigger than Jesus. So can I count on all your votes?"
At her question, everyone grew silent, considering there were two prom queen nominees in the room who, they knew, really wanted the crown. Tina glared at Winnie then, as if to intimidate her somehow and, as much as Winnie had felt a little bad for winning over her during Diva week - after all, Tina's performance for that assignment, though a bit misguided had been amazing -, this was prom royalty they were talking about, Winnie's last chance at it, so she wasn't about to let it go that easily.
"Awkward..." Unique mumbled, as Winnie crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"You know what?" She said, standing up as well to look at Tina straight in the eyes as she talked. "No. I've been wanting this crown for the last three years and I've lost those three years, but now... Now this is my last real chance and I'm going for it, as much as you. So if you want it, come and get it."
***
"Sam." Winnie called, walking into the choir room as she noticed the boy sitting by himself on the piano with a guitar in hands. "I've been looking for you."
"Oh, you were?" Sam asked, kind of surprised.
"Yes." Winnie chuckled.
"Oh, yeah..." He mumbled, watching as Winnie walked up to him quietly. "You know, a lot of people say the Beatles were the, like, the best band ever, right?"
"That's right." Winnie nodded, curious as to where that conversation was headed.
"Well, what if I told you that the Beatles wrote exactly zero songs about what it feels like when you tell a girl that you don't think is hot you'll go to prom with her because you feel bad, and then you think you're gonna get nominated for Prom King and then you don't, and the not-hot girl says, I don't want to go to prom with you anymore." Sam said, causing Winnie to bite back a smile. "Would you still say they were the greatest band ever?"
"I'm gonna tell Tina you said you don't think she's hot." Winnie teased, causing Sam to widen his eyes.
"Please don't." He said, causing Winnie to laugh.
"You know, if they are the best band ever, I don't know." Winnie shrugged, reaching into her bag and pulling out two sheets of music from it as she walked up to stand in front of Sam, playing with the papers in her hands quietly. "Maybe. Cause, you know, maybe they haven't written a song for your situation, but they write one that fits mine."
"What situation?" Sam frowned.
"You know... The situation of the very hot girl that was kind of expecting a boy to ask her to the go to prom with her but then he didn't and kind of got invited by her friend instead and then he got dumped her friend and the very hot girl kind of wanted to invite him to the prom now that he was dateless again but she was kind of scared because she still thinks she has been kind of jerk to him for a while and doesn't really deserve all the attention he has been giving her."
"I... I'm kind of confused." Sam admitted, causing Winnie to roll her eyes before reaching for the guitar in Sam's hand and nod her head at him.
"Move." She said, taking a seat next to Sam once he did what she asked before taking a deep breath as she started to play. "I hope this clarifies things a little."
Winnie
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me
Understand
'Cause I've been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just
Holding hands
If I give my heart
To you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you
Would love me more than her
If I trust in you
Oh please
Don't run and hide
If I love you too
Oh please
Don't hurt my pride like her
'Cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I
Would be sad
If our new love was in vain
So I hope you see
That I
Would love to love you
And that she
Will cry
When she learns we are two
'Cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I
Would be sad
If our new love was in vain
So I hope you see
That I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you...
Putting the guitar down, Winnie tried to ignore the blush in her cheeks as she turned to look at Sam with a little smile on her lips.
"So... Did that help?" Winnie asked. "Or am I gonna have to ask you if you'd like to go to prom with me with all the letters?"
Chuckling to himself, half in glee and half in surprise before nodding, all excited as he suddenly forgot all about being stood up by Tina and not being nominated for King. At the moment, with Winnie actually singing to him and asking him to be her date for prom, Sam didn't really need anything else.
"I'd love to go to prom with you."
***
"Here are the latest prom poll numbers." Dottie mumbled, struggling to keep up with Tina's fast pace as she walked around the school. "And your 3:00 coffee."
"I said no caffeine until prom." Tina mumbled, annoyed, throwing the coffee away as she turned to glare at her assistant, before snatching from her her spreadsheets, only to gasp once she saw the graphs there. "I can't afford to look tired like some sad, anemic dishrag. Oh, my God! What is with these numbers? There's been a sudden spike in Winnie's popularity."
"Winnie?" Tina asked, almost offended, marching up to her friend as the girl stood at the end of the hallway, pinning up a poster of herself on the wall. "This is unbelievable!"
"Oh, I know!" Winnie smiled, taking a step back from her poster as she took a second to look it over. "Unbelievable, right? I didn't actually think that dress would look that good on me, but I guess it did, huh?"
"That... That's not what I mean." Tina protested, just as Artie and Sam walked up to the two of them, stopping for a second to look over at Winnie's poster.
"What are you two doing?" Sam asked, carefully, fully aware that, at any moment, a fight could start between the two girls who hadn't really been seeing eye to eye since the prom queen nominees has been announced.
"She's cheating!" Tina complained.
"No, I'm not." Winnie frowned.
"That's not even you in there!"
"Of course it is!"
"You can't keep putting up these posters around school."
"Yes, I can!"
"No, you can't." Tina protested, as Sam as Artie just watched the two girl quietly, unsure on how to react anymore.
"Yes, I can!" Winnie rolled her eyes. "And I will. Because you know what? I want that crown as much as you, so get a grip, Tina Cohen-Chang because I am coming for your throat."
Groaning loudly, Tina waved her hands in the air before turning around to leave. For a moment, none of the remaining kids said anything until Artie decided to take another look at Winnie's poster with a frown.
"Is that really you, though?" He asked, causing Winnie to groan and walk away as well, in the opposite direction Tina had gone.
"Oh, my God..."
"Dude..." Sam shook his head, as Artie just shrugged.
"I was just curious, I'm sorry."
***
Prom had actually been fun. Winnie and Sam had argued the whole way over from her house and toward the school about Winnie wearing or not the corsage, but, of course, after Sam begging her again and again to wear for his own benefit, she had given in and decided to wear the damned thing, finding it rather sweet the fact that he gotten the flowers and the lace to actually match her baby pink dress.
During the party, Winnie had danced and laughed with everyone from glee club - well, everyone except for Tina, of course, who was still trying her very best to get the last votes in for herself. After yet another performance from the glee club, it was finally time to announce prom royalty, so, practically kicking out Marley, Jake, Ryder and Unique from the stage, Principal Sylvester moved to stand behind the microphone herself.
"Congratulations, New Directions, on accomplishing the impossible: you've made me hate The Beatles." She said, causing Winnie to shake her head with a small smile as she moved to stand next to the stage to wait for her name to be called. "Your nominations for Prom King are: Stoner Brett, Blaine Anderson, Artie Abrams, and that Radical Cleric kid. And now your nominees for Prom Queen: Neck-brace Cheerio, Asian number one, Winnie Archer, and... Some other chick. And now here's the moment you've all been waiting for because your lives are so devoid of meaning something like this seems very important... Oh, well, as expected... Your Prom King and Prom Queen are... Stoner Brett and Winnie Archer."
Winnie smiled, rather proud of herself as she took a few steps forward to stand beside Stoner Brett, soaking in the applause as someone put a crown in her head and gave her a bouquet of flowers for her to hold. So focused on the feeling of finally getting her crown, Winnie missed all the commotion around her.
She missed the way Bree nodded at one of her Cheerios friends who was standing backstage.
She missed the way said Cheerio friend tugged at a little string attached to a bucket on the ceiling.
She missed the way Tina gasped, being the first to realize what was about to happen.
She missed it all, but she definitely didn't miss the way Tina yelled out her name, just time for Winnie to look up and flinch when the icy slushy fell all over her, causing half of the gym to start laughing and pointing at her, as she stood there, covered head to toe in red slushy for a second, before throwing her flowers to the side as she rushed out of the gym.
Tina tried to stop Winnie, but before she could reach for her friend, Winnie had already slipped out of the gym. Wasting no time, as soon as he noticed Winnie running away, Sam pushed past everyone in the room to rush after her and, of course, he found her angrily picking up pieces of slushy from her hair and dress.
"Winnie?" Sam called gently, causing the girl to sigh as she continued to clean herself off.
"Kind of brings me back, you know?" Winnie mumbled, her voice shaking a little as if she was trying not to cry. "Last time I had a crown in my head, I was publicly humiliated too."
For a second, Sam frowned, trying to figure out what she was saying, but then, it came to him. The story of her last Miss Ohio fiasco, the way she had been publicly made fun for one of her biggest insecurities, the way she tried every day of her life to hide that from everyone who ever asked, including switching schools.
"Oh, Winnie..." Sam whispered, moving to step closer to the girl as he placed a hand on her cheek to get her to look at him, as the girl pouted at him. "I'm so sorry. You really didn't deserve this. Especially not for a stupid joke from a girl we barely know."
"I don't... I don't care, I just... I just want to go home." She frowned.
"Winnie, it's okay to be upset, you know?" Sam whispered, helping Winnie clean herself off a little.
"I'm not."
"Winnie..."
"I'm not, okay? It's just a stupid joke." She spat, pushing Sam away from her as bit her lip to stop herself from crying. "I've dealt with this before, I can deal with this again."
"You don't have to be so strong all the time, Winnie." Sam sighed.
"I don't care." She spat angrily at him. "I just want to go home."
Sam opened his mouth to answer then, but before he could say anything else, the rest of the glee club rushed into the choir room, the first, of course, being Marley Rose herself, all worried for her best friend.
"We need to get you out of those wet clothes and into something dry." She said, all worried, as Winnie just rolled her eyes.
"Just leave me like this..." Winnie mumbled as everyone frowned at her. "I just... I just wanted the damned crown and now I have it and another traumatic experience caused by a mean girl to take with me for the rest of my life. I bet you're very relieved now that you didn't win, huh, Tina?"
"Winnie..." Tina whispered. "You didn't deserve this. You... You know I had nothing to do with this, right?"
"I know." Winnie shrugged. "I just... I want to go home."
"What do you mean go home?" Ryder asked, causing Winnie to scoff.
"I want to leave! I don't want to be here. I just... God, I just want to go home!"
"Okay." Sam spoke up, noticing how Winnie was starting to get a little upset now. "Look, you have two choices, and whichever one you pick, we will be supportive. But we can either drive you home, or we can clean you up, and you can go back out there and own that prom. This is your prom, Winnie. You finally got your crown."
"I can't go back in there." Winnie mumbled, sitting back in a chair as she huffed, defeated. "I don't even have a dress to wear."
"You can have mine." Marley offered quickly.
"Or mine." Kitty said.
"Or mine." Unique said. "Although it would be a crime to break this look."
"No." Tina shook her head, walking over to Winnie and grabbing her by the hand as she smiled a little, feeling guilty for having been fighting with Winnie all week for that crown that now, she didn't even anymore. "You're gonna have mine. Now, come on, Winnie. We're all with you. You won your crown. Now you need to go back out there and be a queen. What do you say?"
For a second, Winnie hesitated, but after taking a look at everyone around the room, Winnie smiled because, yes, she had gone through that before, being publicly humiliated like that, but back then, she had been alone and this time... This time she wasn't alone anymore.
So, nodding her head, Winnie grabbed Tina's hand in her and let the girl pull her up to her feet.
"Fine." She decided, causing everyone to cheer for her. "Let's do this."