LOVE (AND MONO) IS IN THE AIR!

IT WAS VALENTINES DAY AND THERE WERE HEARTS EVERYWHERE. With no one to give a Valentine to, Tessa was sat in the middle of the choir room, passing out love heart candies and sticking love heart shaped sticky notes on everyone's clothes.

With the Valentine's Day assignment giving everyone something to think about, Finn jumped up to the front of the choir room for an announcement he hoped would catch the attention of Quinn Fabray, "I just wanted to point out that an entire week has gone by without anyone getting slushied." Waiting for the room to stop applauding, he continued on, "and I think the fact i led the football team to a conference championship might have something to do with it. Fact is, I'm the closest thing this glee club has to a celebrity right now. And just like a aloud athlete, I want to give to a charity — you guys."

"Hold up, did he just call us a charity?" Tessa breathed out, through her laughter, shaking her head in amusement at Finn's confidence.

Ignoring her and the eye rolls around him, Finn continued with pride, "so I'm setting up a kissing booth. For a dollar a smooch and donating the proceeds to glee club to help us —"

"Don't even pretend like you're trying to help this glee club out." Mercedes cut him off, pursing her lips, "you just wanna kiss a bunch of girls."

Before Finn could retaliate, Santana had her hand up in the air to speak, "ive kissed Finn and can I say? Not worth a buck. But I would pay a hundred dollars to jiggle one of his man boobs."

"Don't you ever get tired of tearing other people down?" Finn turned to her, with a sigh of annoyance as he watched her laugh at his expense.

"No, not really." Santana replied simply, shrugging her shoulders.

"Cause you always just seem to be meddling in everyone else's business." Finn added on, spitefully.

Scoffing, Santana leant back in her chair with a confident smirk, "oh please, you guys love me. I'm hilarious and I keep it real."

"Actually you're just a bitch." Lauren spoke up, dangerously, getting a few shocked gasps from around the room.

Whipping round to face her, Santana felt a fight coming along as she confronted her, "oh, I'm sorry, you just have eyes for my man."

"First of all, I'm not your man." Puck mumbled, averting his eyes from Santana's, making Tessa chuckle. He was scared of Santana.

"And Finn is right, all you ever do is insult us." Quinn agreed, licking her lips, ready to dish out to Santana what she'd been giving them for the past years, "three weeks ago, you said you were disappointed that I didn't have a lizard baby."

"Five minutes ago, you said Mr Schue belonged in a twelve-step programme." Tina piped up, finally catching Mr Schue's attention, to which Santana shrugged, casually, "you're addicted to vests."

Next to get in on the drama, Rachel leaned right forward in her chair and as usual, said too much, "truth is Santana, you can dish it out but you can't take it. Okay, maybe you're right, maybe I am destined to play the title role in a Broadway musical adaptation of Willow, but the only job you'll ever have is working on a pole!"

Hushed murmurs echoed around as Rachel sat back in her seat, realising what she'd said. Nodding her head so not to break her tough exterior in front of everybody, Santana rose from her chair and strutted out the room, upset.

"Too much, Rachel." Tessa whispered, blowing out a long breathe of air as Brittany ran after her best friend. This was bound to be a long week.

　　　　　　　　☆

SAM FELT AS THOUGH HE WAS LOSING QUINN. After seeing her at the booth with Finn he knew deep down that something was wrong and he wanted to get to the bottom of it, so he'd turned to the person he felt like he could always talk to.

Trailing around the library with Tessa as she skimmed through the books on the shelves, Sam had tried to explain his whole theory to her, "something's going on, Tess. Finn's trying to kiss Quinn!"

"It's a kissing booth, he's trying to kiss everyone." Tessa laughed with a shake of her head, "besides, who wouldn't want to kiss Quinn? I'd more than happily kiss her."

Realising what she'd said, Tessa blushed deeply and before she could take it back, Sam had given her a reassuring smile and continued on, "yeah, a kissing booth designed to lure in a certain girl and get her to kiss him!"

"That doesn't mean it's Quinn, it could be Rachel." Tessa suggested, in a bid to help Sam feel more sure of himself, "or anyone for that matter. I mean, I don't know anyone who isn't planning on kissing him at the booth."

Raising an eyebrow at her casual tone, Sam quickly forced himself to push away the pit that had fallen into his stomach and cleared his throat, "um-have you uh- kissed him then?"

"Not yet, but I will when I can be bothered." She laughed, luckily too engrossed in a text book to see Sam's small sigh of almost relief, "it's not that big of a deal, it's not like if you kissed me right now, you'd fall in love with me."

Pausing for a moment, Sam's breathe hitched and he bit down on his lip slightly, deciding just to grab her by the hand and drag her over to where Quinn was on the other side of the library, "I saw it." He questioned her immediately as they approached her, "your guys's faces were right up close to each other. Kissing distance."

"I definitely would remember if I was in kissing distance with Tessa." Quinn laughed, flashing Tessa quick smile before turning back to Sam, "seriously though, you're the only guy I'm ever within kissing distance of."

Unconvinced, Sam continued to try to pry answers from his girlfriend, "okay, so answer me this then, why haven't you kissed Finn yet, at his booth? Everyone else has!"

"Wait, everyone?" Quinn quizzed, turning immediately to Tessa and pointing at her accusingly, "you've kissed Finn?"

"Well not yet, I'm not that eager." Tessa joked, holding her hands in surrender, both worried and confused by Quinn's sudden panic at the thought of her kissing Finn.

Seemingly reassured for the moment, Quinn licked her lips in annoyance as she focused back on Sam, "first you're all up in my business for kissing Finn, and now you're pissed at me for not kissing him. This is insane."

"No, something's fishy! I mean everyone thinks I'm dumb —"

"You're not dumb, Sam." Tessa interjected, softly.

Smiling back at her quickly, he continued on, "everyone thinks I'm dumb, but I'm not. At least about you. You play it cool, but you're ambitious, you like being the Queen Bee, and you think that being with the star quarterback, Finn is gonna put you up there whether you're wearing a Cheerios uniform or not. I'm pretty but I ain't dumb."

Slamming the record back into the shelf, Quinn had had enough, whipping her head round, ready to leave, "fine. After glee rehearsals, I'm kissing Finn." Sue announced, storming out, leaving Sam open mouthed.

Patting him on the shoulder, Tessa gave him a sympathetic smile and muttered a few words of encouragement before leaving Sam to his thoughts.

　　　　　　　    ☆

FINN HAD MANAGED TO GET THE GIRL HE WANTED AT THE KISSING BOOTH. Watching Quinn walk away, he punched the air, victoriously and found a smirk coming onto his lips as she took a moment from listening to Sam to look over her shoulder straight back at him.

Distracted by Quinn, he hadn't notice Tessa slam a dollar down on his booth. Meeting each other's eyes, they couldn't help the fit of laughter that came to their lips and giggled together for a while before they were even able to begin talking to each other.

Clearing his throat, Finn composed himself, "sure you can cope with kissing a stud like me?" He joked, bursting out into laughter once again, "might do a Quinn and forget all about Sam Evans and fall in love with me instead."

"I'm more worried about you falling in love with me." Tessa laughed back, a mockingly serious tone entering her voice, "when you've got angel eyes like mine, one kiss and your hypnotised."

"Stop quoting ABBA and just get this over with. Kiss me, you loser." Finn chuckled, dramatically.

After a few attempts of leaning in and breaking out into fits of giggles, Tessa let out one last deep breathe before grabbing onto the back of Finn's neck and pressing her lips against his. Quickly pulling away, they stepped back from each other, blinking for a short while before Tessa slowly brought her sleeve to her mouth, wiping her lips.

Gasping, Finn shook his head and pointed at her accusingly, "you just wiped away my kiss!"

"It was a good kiss!" Tessa argued back, holding her hands up in surrender at his horror, "no need to be offended."

"If Sam kisses you and you wipe it away he'll think you're not in love with him." Finn tutted, eyebrows raised, "which you totally are."

"Shut up." She whispered, licking her lips and gluing her eyes to the floor as Finn jumped up and down like an excited toddler, "you do like him! I knew it!"

Looking round, she shushed him loudly, checking to ensure there were no prying eyes from glee club, especially Sam's or Quinn's, "keep it down, will you? Nobody can know, Sam and Quinn are together and I've just gotta respect that."

Seeing the sad smile on her face, Finn let his grow into a sly grin, pulling her away from the booth and away from earshot. Holding her by the shoulders, he was highly excited by what he was about to tell her, "how about if they weren't together? What if there was somebody else?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Tessa hoped she just hadn't heard him correctly, "what do you mean?"

"I mean I just kissed Quinn at the booth and I'm planning to meet her at the auditorium. How great is that?" He boasted, expecting her to be as excited as him.

Confused, Tessa lowered her voice, "no, that's not great. She'd be cheating on Sam."

"So you could date him!" Finn exclaimed, holding out jazz hands, "just tell me I'm a genius. Correction — a love genius."

Scrunching up her face, Tessa shook her head at him. She couldn't believe the excited look on Finn's face at the thought of pulling Quinn away from Sam, "you're not a genius. Why would you do that to Sam? You were devastated when Quinn cheated on you, then you broke up with Rachel over her cheating on you. I just would've thought you'd have some sympathy for him. You know how much it hurts."

Letting out a deep sigh, Finn fidgeted slightly in his place, knowing she had a good point but Quinn very quickly rushed back into his mind and his opinion seemed to change, "I felt fireworks when I kissed her, Tess." He whispered, enthusiastically, "Fireworks! Whizz, bang, boom."

"Finn, you can't do this to him. Fireworks or not."

"But then he'll be open to date you!" Finn reiterated.

"I get that, and as much as I like Sam, I'm his friend first, I'd hate to see him get hurt, as much as it could benefit me." She sighed out, running her hands through her hair, "I really don't want to argue with you over this."

"Me neither." Finn said, a soft smile coming to his lips.

Turning on her heels, Tessa gave him a soft smile back, "just do the right thing, man."

Seeing her walk away, Finn was given a lot to think about, with Tessa's words echoing over his excitement of kissing Quinn Fabray. Shaking them off, he remembered the fireworks and knew exactly what he wanted to do.

　　　　　　　　☆

IT HAD BEEN AN EVENTFUL WEEK AT MCKINLEY AND SANTANA'S PLAN WAS JUST COMING INTO ACTION. After giving Finn and Quinn mono in an attempt to expose them for cheating, she'd sat herself down at Breadstix and let out a satisfied sigh.

Waving over to Tessa, she patted the table in front of her, indicating for her to sit opposite. Once she'd finally sat down, she leant forward and Tessa could tell that she was up to something just from the victorious smirk that etched across Santana's face, "what did you do?"

"Auntie Snixx has worked her magic this week." Santana grinned, coming in closer to explain to Tessa how she'd somehow managed to save her Valentines Day, "despite his poor girlfriend being at home, sick, I've managed to persuade Sam Evans to come to Breadstix today...alone."

Hearing the sarcasm in her voice, Tessa moved her head to one side, "you gave Finn and Quinn mono didn't you?"

"Technically, I gave Finn mono and he gave it to Quinn." Santana shrugged, clearly unbothered.

"Better not have given it to me." She whispered to herself, a large frown appearing on her face.

"Oh don't worry, I gave him mono after you kissed him. I made sure of it." Santana assured her, quickly waving off the topic and skipping straight to the part of her plan she was most interested in, "back to Sammy Evans. He's gonna walk in here and he's gonna spend Valentine's Day with you."

"But I'm spending Valentine's with you." Tessa pouted as Santana saw Sam walk through the door, patting her best friend on the back and walking off to a nearby table where she could watch them closely, "not for long. Good luck."

Locking eyes with Sam, Tessa gave him a shy wave and let her smile grew as he eagerly made his way over to her table. Pointing at the chair that'd previously been occupied by Santana Lopes, he looked up to her with a grin, "this seat taken?"

"Nope." She smiled, mentally thanking Santana for setting this whole thing up, "how's Quinn?"

"Sick." He replied, simply, "but it's okay, I'm here with you now, aren't i?"

"Yeah." Tessa breathed out, battling with the butterflies in her stomach as Sam grinned at her, throwing around his best Valentine's Day themed impressions and making sure the two of them made the most if their weird Valentine's Day together.