EXPLODING PIANOS ARE VALID TO BE AFRAID OF!

AFTER A SUMMER OF BEGGING, SANTANA LOPEZ HAD MANAGED WHAT WAS THOUGHT TO BE THE IMPOSSIBLE. Standing by the sinks in the bathrooms, she waited patiently for Tessa Swann to come out from the stalls.

Finally coming out, Tessa stood anxiously in front of the door with a nervous smile on her face. Quick to ease her nerves, Santana clapped her hands together slowly, showering her best friend in compliments, "honey, you look so hot."

Glancing down at her new Cheerios uniform, Tessa looked back up to meet her eyes, "seriously? Are you sure? It's really tight."

Taking her by the shoulders, Santana directed her towards the mirrors and leant her chin onto her shoulder as they both looked at her through the mirror, "trust me. You know I'd tell you if you looked like crap and you don't. You're gonna be the third hottest out there."

"After you and Britt I'm assuming?" Tessa laughed, taking in a long breathe of air as she finally managed to look into a mirror and see someone she kind of liked looking straight back at her.

Gazing proudly at her friend as she turned around to look at herself in the mirror, Santana could see her self growth and couldn't be more proud to witness that in person. Chuckling to herself, she took a step forward and helped Tessa fix her ponytail, which at that moment definitely wouldn't have passed in the eyes of Sue Sylvester or the old Quinn Fabray, "you're gonna have to learn how to do your own high pony, Tess. It's my senior year, I'm getting out of here."

"And leaving me all on my own with Tina and Artie." Tessa pouted, taking Santana in her arms and holding her very closely, "I'm gonna miss you."

Leaning into her, Santana let out a laugh before breaking away and holding her at arms length, "oh don't get all sappy with me yet. We get enough of that from Schuester." She laughed, holding an arm out for Tessa to link hers with, "now come on, we have a school to run."

Dragging her out of the bathrooms, Santana held her head up high, not meeting eyes with anyone as she walked down the halls meanwhile Tessa glanced round everywhere, full of her own nerves as she saw people gaping at her and whispering behind her back as they eyed her up and down.

As soon as he'd taken sight of Santana Lopez and her best friend wearing Cheerios uniform, Jacob Ben Israel had practically tripped over his own feet as he scrambled to shove his microphone right onto their faces. Taking the lead, Santana oozed confidence as she spoke, "senior year is about being the Cheerios top hoe and getting my girl here a hot piece of ass to replace the Sam Evans shaped hole in her heart."

Smirking with joy as the topic was conveniently moved onto the blonde boy who'd disappeared over the summer, Jacob passed his microphone over to Tessa after getting a good look at her new uniform, "speaking of Hobo McBieber, my viewers want to hear everything that happened between you two over the summer. And I mean everything."

With a nervous glance towards Santana, Tessa raised her eyebrow at him, "no comment. We dated and broke up, but we're still good friends. That's all you need to know."

Not impressed but growing scared under Santana's glare to insist he didn't ask anymore questions, Jacob moved back to staring at her uniform, "Suit yourself. But I think Trouty Mouth would be very happy if he saw you looking like that. How long have I been trying to tell you that you could be semi-hot of you actually tried? Hubba bubba!"

Pushing his camera away, Santana had had enough as she saw Tessa get more uncomfortable by the second, "you can leave us alone now, thanks." Flashing him a fake smile, she was already barging straight past him and strutting down the hallway, "don't listen to him, you look totally hot all the time."

"Well, that went well." Tessa muttered, quietly, her shoulders slumping slightly and her confidence slipping away slowly.

Noticing this, Santana nudged her shoulder slightly as they kept walking along and was eager to change the subject, "I mean it, we're gonna find you someone to take your mind off Lady Lips."

"Do you think he'll mind?" She asked, tentatively furrowing her eyebrows.

"Sam would be happy for you. You guys are still good friends right?" Tessa nodded in reply, "if he's really your friend he'd be happy for you, I promise."

A smile coming to her lips, Tessa swished around her high pony and glanced towards Santana, until a hockey player strutted past them and threw a slushy right into her face. Gasping at the cold impact, Tessa flinched backwards keeping a hold of Santana's arm as she began to shout down the hallway after him for slushying her best friend. Wiping her eyes, she gave her a quick smile to which she gave her a pat on the arm, turning right around and leading her back to the bathroom.

"I thought you said Cheerios don't get slushied." Tessa laughed lightly, grateful for the ice covering her blush.

"They don't." Santana said, shrugging her shoulders apologetically, "Sue's gonna be pissed when we tell her. She'll probably find a way to ban the hockey team for slushying her top bitch's number one girl."

Letting herself laugh slightly, Tessa looked down at her now stained Cheerios uniform and cringed. If a Cheerios uniform wasn't enough to save the glee club then nothing was.

　　　　　　　　 ☆

TWELFTH PLACE AT NATIONALS HAD MADE MR SCHUE DO A LOT OF THINKING. Setting up all their trophies in the middle of the choir room floor, he hadn't thought of the tripping hazard until two of his students — namely Finn and Tessa — had come in one after the other and fallen right across them.

Taking a seat next to each other, Finn and Tessa tried to ignore the fact they'd both not noticed the massive and rather small trophies in the middle of the room and began listening to Rachel chat on about something.

Looking down at the trophies, Brittany pouted with a shake of her head, "I was sure they'd grow over the summer."

"I want this image burnt into your mind." Mr Schue told them, pointing down at the trophies, "this is what the difference between first and twelfth place looks like. It's also what it feels like."

Groaning loudly, Puck was already fed up, "do you plan on bumming us out all year?"

"No, I'm planning on pushing you harder than you've ever been pushed. We made it to Nationals last year and this year I'm not gonna let anything or anyone stop us from winning it all. I let you down year. I lost focus. I let a Broadway pipe dream get in the way."

"And we're really sorry that the guy who replaced you in April Rhodes' musical won the Tony." Rachel shouted out, obviously not reading the room as Tessa slammed her head down on Finn's shoulder to hide the awkwardness, "I can only imagine your regret."

"Yeah, and you know what I regret? Being the laughing stock of the show choir world." Mercedes shot back, glaring daggers straight into the back of Rachel's head as she instantly buried her head in her lap, "that's saying something."

Nodding along his head, Kurt was quick to back her up, "Mercedes has a point. Finn and Rachel's 'the kiss that missed' already has twenty thousand views on YouTube and the comments section is filled with pithy banter like 'why's that T-Rex eating the Jew?'"

Ignoring Tessa giggling away besides him, Finn wrapped a proud arm around Rachel with a small smile, "how many times do we have to apologize?"

"The school hates us even more now." Mike pointed out, moving the conversation away from Finn and Rachel. Pointing to him in agreement, Mr Schue nodded along, "which is why we have to work even harder this year to recruit new members. We're three men down."

"Yeah only because Puckerman couldn't convince Zizes to stay." Santana accused, giving his chair a harsh kick.

Letting out a long sigh, Puck shrugged his shoulders with a sad smile, "she's the one who got away, really, really slowly." He reminisced. Quickly shaking this off, he turned around to take the blame off of himself, "but surely if we're blaming me for Zizes leaving we should blame Tess for not holding on to Sam."

"You think I wanted him to leave?" She mumbled quietly, sinking in her chair and leaving the room in an awkward silence which was broken by Tina, "where's Quinn?"

"M.I.A." Artie answered sadly, "no ones heard from her. It's sad, I miss her."

As the group started to put forward their views of lost hope, Mr Schue of course wanted to motivate them to look forward, "people will join. All they need is a little inspiration and I happen to have some, courtesy of Al Motta of Motta's Pianos." Holding his board marker towards the door, Mr Schue gave a ready nod and three bright purple pianos were wheeled in.

Explaining how the assignment would work, Mr Schue was delighted to watch Kurt jump up from his seat, taking Brittany and Tessa's hands in his as they bounced up to explore the new pianos they'd use to attract new members for the New Directions. By the time he'd gotten to the end of his speech, Tessa and Kurt had lost concentration and were singing along to ABBA songs together as she played them on the piano.

　　　　　　　   ☆

THE PURPLE PIANO PROJECT WASN'T EXACTLY GOING TO PLAN. After Mike and Tina's piano had been attacked by Sue Sylvester in the middle of the school halls, it was no wonder that the entire glee club was sat at their lunch table, trying to ignore the bright purple piano sitting in the corner.

Quietly helping herself to her cookie, Tessa zoned out as Tina and Santana sat besides her, scanning them lunch hall for potential boyfriends for their friend. Watching Tina point out the fourth blonde of the day, Santana scoffed loudly in disagreement, "Tess doesn't just like blondes, Tina! Think about it, she's gone from a quiet Matt Rutherford, to that." She exclaimed, pointing over to where Puck had persuaded Artie to an eating competition, "to Bieber-licious McTrouty Mouth."

Throwing her hands up in the air, Tina sulked back into her chair, "she's difficult."

"I guess I liked their personalities." Tessa interjected, wiggling her eyebrows at them.

Overhearing, Puck slammed his muffin down in shock, "you liked my personality?"

"I was surprised too." Tessa shrugged, laughing as he held his fist across the table for her to bump.

Marching her way across the lunch hall, Rachel had her hands firmly planted on her hips to interrupt any conversation that was going on, "why are you guys ignoring Mr Schuester's assignment?" She demanded.

Acting oblivious to his girlfriend's claims, Finn rubbed the back if his neck as he began to lie, "wait there's a piano in here?"

"What even is a piano am i right?" Tessa added on, very unconvincingly, instantly sighing as putting her head down into her lap.

"Okay, we have to do a number." Rachel said adamantly, furrowing her brows insistently.

Shaking his head, Artie spoke over the groans from the table and tried to talk some sense into her, "we have to survive lunch." He told her, "it wasn't fair of Mr Schue to out the piano in here. It's too much pressure."

Instantly nodding along, Kurt was quick to try and convince her further by backing Artie up, "I agree. That's like wearing a red dress to a bullfight."

Huffing loudly, Rachel stayed stubborn, "the point of the assignment was to find students who can't help but join, okay? The more people we sing in front of, the more chance we have of getting one."

Biting his lip, Finn had given in and glanced up to meet the eyes of his friends then up to Rachel, giving her a small smile and a nod of support, "hold on, she's right. How's anyone supposed to believe we can go to Nationals if we can't even believe in ourselves?"

Beaming at her boyfriends support, Rachel bounced off to the band to make them aware of her plan as the glee club reluctantly got up from their chairs and ready to perform. Letting Puck pull her up from her seat, Tessa shook her head with a laugh, "I'm gonna use you as a human shield if they try to kill us."

"Dammit i was gonna use you as mine." He laughed back, ruffling her hair up before she had to climb onto a table after Santana and Brittany to sing 'We Got the Beat.'

Enthusiastically dancing around on tables and singing together loudly, the New Directions certainly had the attention of the entire lunch hall, who stared at them concerned. Giving a wave over to Quinn and her new skank friends, Tessa quickly realised this was a bad idea and tried to disguise it by running her hand through her ponytail, awkwardly.

Finishing in front of the piano together, the New Directions waited for the applause that didn't come. Smiles starting to fade, they blinked through the silence until Becky Jackson came forward, armed with a container of peas, unapologetically throwing them in Rachel's face.

Alarmed, Puck slid behind Tessa as he promised, "oh god no." He whispered, already seeing what was coming.

When Jacob Ben Israel announced a food fight, all hell broke loose. Food was almost instantly being thrown in every direction and everyone was quick to try and hide. Watching Mercedes grab Tina and dive behind the piano, Tessa knew they wouldn't let her take cover there and seeing Kurt collecting as many trays as possible to shield himself, she decided to take the same approach to Mike and Puck and began throwing food right back at those aiming at her.

Snatching up a lunch tray, she used that in one hand as a shield whilst the other hand was scooping food from the floor and screaming as she chucked it around. Using Tessa as cover, Rachel squeezed her eyes shut in horror as she clasped onto Tessa's shoulders for protection, ducking every time a slice of pizza was thrown at her head.

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THE ONLY PERSON TO BE INSPIRED BY THEIR PURPLE PIANO DISASTER COULDN'T SING. After Sugar Motta had auditioned with what she'd thought had been an incredible rendition of 'Big Spender', the New Directions realised that they still don't have many fans in school.

Knowing they still needed three new members, it came as a blessing when Blaine Anderson made his way into Mckinley High School without what used to be a massive part of his life, and outfit choices. Breaking the news of his transfer to Kurt had been more than successful and now he was out to find his second favourite Mckinley friend.

Leaning against the side of her locker just the same way he'd done at Kurt's, Blaine had a beaming smile on his face and his arms outstretched in expectation. Turning round to see him, Tessa beamed back until she caught sight of a certain new bow tie and the frown came pulling at her lips, "you're not in your uniform?" She questioned.

Delighted she'd noticed, Blaine shrugged his shoulders, "nope. You noticed quicker than Kurt."

"I did get you that bow tie, I'm gonna look out for when you wear it." Tessa giggled, giving him a soft poke on the chest.

"And I love this bow tie." He replied, poking her back, "it was the perfect bow tie for my debut day at Mckinley." Excitedly expecting her to get what he was hinting at, Blaine did a little jump and held out his jazz hands in celebration. Taking a minute, Tessa let his words replay in her mind until she got it, clapping excitedly and throwing herself into his arms, "McKinley's fun, i promise!"

"Anywhere's fun with Tessa Swann!" Blaine laughed, squeezing her tightly before letting go and holding her at arms length, "and how long did it take Santana to persuade you to put this on?"

"The entire summer." She told him through a chuckle, twirling her skirt around, "I'm not even too sure why I agreed, but it's actually more fun than I expected."

Linking his arm in hers as she shut her locker and began to move away, Blaine was glad to have a friend to walk the halls of Mckinley with him just as much as Tessa was, "this was exactly what I needed right now." She sighed, giving his arm a pat, "I miss having Sam here a lot, but having you here now makes things a whole lot better."

Giving her a sympathetic smile in return, Blaine knew that she was hurting even if she wouldn't say so, but allowed her to keep her feelings private and just reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, "well I'm glad you're glad I'm here. But I also have a plan to help ease me into the New Directions, and I'm hoping that my favourite Cheerio will be available to help me out."

"Of course she will!" Tessa agreed to his pleading grin, leaning in closer to listen to what he had to say, "what's the plan Blaine Warbler?"

"Three words: 'It's Not Unusual.'" He explained, excitedly, wiggling his eyebrows and filling her in on his hopes for a huge dance number with him and the Cheerios to go along with the Purple Piano Project.

Clapping her hands together, Tessa immediately agreed, "I'm in, dude." And with that, Blaine grabbed hold of her hand and began speeding down the halls towards the courtyard, before realizing he didn't exactly know where he was going and slowing down to let Tessa take the lead.

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DESPITE THE PIANO BLOWING UP DUE TO A SUE SYLVESTER PLAN AND A CIGARETTE FROM QUINN, BLAINE ANDERSON WAS BEING HAPPILY LEAD IN AS THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE NEW DIRECTIONS. Standing himself up at the front of the choir room, Blaine listened to the whooping coming from Tessa and Kurt sat besides each other and a large smile came across his face, "thank you so much everyone! I'm so thrilled to be here, it's gonna be a great year, I can feel it! We're gonna go to Nationals!"

Knowing Blaine's expertise in the show choir world, some of the group were quickly jealous and nervous of how him being in the New Directions would favour for them. An example being Finn, who'd almost immediately slumped back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest.

Seeing the room hadn't had the same enthusiasm for the brand new member as he'd hoped, Mr Schue frowned, "is there a problem guys?"

"I just want Blaine to know that we're not the Warblers. You know, we're not into the bells and whistles or the ball hogging, you know?" Finn spoke up, harshly, earning himself a kick on the back of his chair and a pout from Tessa.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" Blaine asked with a nervous innocence, growing scared that Mckinley wouldn't be the accepting place he'd thought it would be.

Spinning round in his seat, Finn scowled at him as if it were obvious, "Well yeah, you set a bonfire in our courtyard."

"Actually doorknob, that was an act of political protest." Santana stated with a smirk.

Hearing this excuse for how the Cheerios had obviously used Blaine's performance to derail the purple piano project, Mr Schue let out a long, slightly reluctant sigh as he had to break the news to the group that he wanted to let someone go, "which leads me onto my next order of business — Santana, you need to leave. It was you and the Cheerios that set fire to our piano, how could you do that?"

Trying to defend herself as the glee club turned to face her, full of shock, "Mr Schue, Sue made me."

"Brittany and Tessa didn't do it." He said sternly.

"Well I was going to help." Brittany admitted with a small shrug, "but I'm a water sign so..."

"I didn't know about it." Tessa said quietly, not knowing whether to feel upset or glad that she'd been left out of the Cheerios loop that time.

Turning round to tease her, Finn gave her a poke on the knee, "obviously, you looked to scared to have known that was going to happen."

"I wasn't scared." Tessa insisted, pouting as she folded her arms over her chest, "and even if I was — which I wasn't — exploding pianos are a valid thing to be afraid of."

Taking the focus back to Santana, Mr Schue didn't want to hear any excuses, "you're banned from glee. Don't come back until you're ready to be as loyal to this club as the rest of the people in here."

Standing up from her seat, Santana held her head high, "you know, I could use a break." She said before leaving the choir room without looking back.