WITH A LITTLE BIT OF HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS!

MR SCHUE HAD TAKEN INSPIRATION FROM THE GLEE CLUB'S LOVE OF WHITNEY HOUSTON THIS WEEK. Coming into the choir room, he first had to break up a heated debate between Rachel and Mercedes before getting to the point of his weekly assignment.

Writing 'Whitney' in large letters across the whiteboard, he allowed a moment for the glee club to let out their excitement so he could explain, "I've been doing some research to prepare for this weeks lesson."

Gasping, Mercedes clapped her hands together with a beaming smile, "oh my god, yes! It's about time we did a Whitney tribute!"

"Are we sure that's appropriate?" Sam asked with a frown on his face.

Whipping her head around to face him, Mercedes threw him the hardest death glare she could manage, "you did not just ask that."

"I just mean, didn't Whitney have a lot of problems?" Sam justified himself, growing scared from the amount of glares he was getting himself around the choir room.

"She had a hard life, Sam. And?" Mercedes shot back before directing a raised eyebrow at Tessa sat next to him, "control your man, Tess."

Unsure what to do, Tessa settled with giving him a hard poke in the side, her lips breaking onto a goofy smile as Sam held his hands up in defeat, "man controlled."

"Look, this week isn't about passing judgement on Whitney. It's about celebrating her legacy, honoring her memory, her achievements —"

"Which i will happily list for you —" Kurt offered, getting cut off immediately as Mr Schue continued to speak.

"But I also want you guys to use her songs to get underneath your own feelings. To express and explore what's really going on with you." He explained, passionately, earning himself frowns of confusion from around the room.

Casting her eyes around the room, Santana turned back to him with her face scrunched up in confusion, "I dont get it, Mr Schue, what's really going on with us?"

"Well, for most of you, these next few weeks will be your last at Mckinley." Mr Schue sighed, looking round cautiously as the students eyed each other with a mixture of sadness and confusion, "lots of changes coming up, lots of saying goodbye, to your friends, to your significant others, to the last four years of your lives. For a young person, all that transition can be overwhelming, so it's easier to focus on other things: like not being able to say goodbye to Whitney Houston."

"What are you talking about?" Santana scoffed.

"Santana, it's okay, I get it." Mr Schue tried to sympathise with her, making Tessa cringe to herself, "you're hanging on to Whitney because it's difficult to handle the upheaval in your own lives."

"We're hanging on to Whitney because she was incredible and we love her so don't put your baggage on us." Santana shot back, earning nods of agreement from some others in the room and causing others such as Tessa and Mike to stifle back a laugh at the frown on Mr Schue's face.

Holding out her hands for attention, Rachel was quick to divert the problem onto something else, "you guys, Mr Schue's attempt to understand us, though misguided, doesn't matter. What matters is that I begin rehearsing Whitney's verson of 'The Star Spangled Banner' immediately. It's the Mount Everest of anthems." And as soon as the bell rang, Rachel had shot out of her seat to begin rehearsing with the rest of the choir room following at a more leisurely pace.

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AFTER RACHEL AND SANTANA HAD SANG A DUET OF 'SO EMOTIONAL' TOGETHER, THE GIRLS WERE CHATTING IN THE BATHROOM. With relationships being the most interesting topic of conversation, there were two girls in particular that the others were eager to interrogate over any of the latest gossip.

Choosing who she wanted to question first, Mercedes turned to Quinn with a sparkle in her eyes, "Quinn, when you sang 'Saving All My Love For You' with Joe yesterday, it sure felt like you meant it."

Clearly just as excited, the beam on Rachel's face went unmatched, "you guys seem a lot more than just singing partners."

"I don't know. Joe's really pretty but I heard that she doesn't shave her armpits." Brittany remarked, turning to Quinn with a skeptical frown.

"Joe and I are just friends." Quinn said, bluntly, her disappointment evident in her tone of voice, causing the girls to turn away from the mirror to look at her with sad frowns, "nothing else is gonna happen."

"But you want it to, don't you?" Tina pointed out, with a smirk.

Not wanting to meet any of their eyes, Quinn just looked to the floor as she had to deny what she wanted to keep her guard up, "it doesn't matter what I want. Ive said goodbye to that part of my life." Quinn told them, "Joe took me to rehab the other day, we had a moment and before we kissed, he pulled away. Grossed out by me and my chair."

As everyone's excited faces fell, Rachel was first to speak up, still feeling guilty, "Quinn I'm so sorry."

"I don't want to hear that tone." She insisted, "Joe's not into me. I don't blame him, who would be?" Seeing them open their mouths to try and make her feel better, Quinn just shook her head and forced a weak smile onto her face, "I don't wanna talk about it. I wanna talk about what's happening with Tess and Sam."

Feeling bad about the thought of flaunting her relationship with Sam in front of Quinn after she'd just admitted her insecurities about dating Joe, Tessa shrugged her shoulders with a smile, "oh, you know, the usual. We watched The Notebook last night and we both cried."

Exchanging glances with one another as they caught on to the fact that Tessa wasn't going to reveal anything herself, Tina toon it upon herself to pry it out of her, "okay, that's nice and all but we want real gossip. Tell us what you wanted to say when you sang with Santana the other week."

"Yeah, because you can't really love disco." Rachel added on with an excited grin.

Staring at herself in the mirror, Tessa wanted to see how long she could ignore them glaring into the back of her head before she'd be forced to give in. Speaking up for her as she closed her tube of lipgloss, Santana raised an eyebrow Tessa's way with a proud smirk, "what Tessa here was going to say was that she loves Trouty Mouth for some strange reason."

Tessa's red face being all they needed as confirmation, the bathroom instantly erupted into squeals of excitement at the thought, with chants of "I knew it!" From Tina and even Quinn seeming to manage to distract herself from her own love life and become emerged in Tessa's. Reaching over to give her a light slap on the shoulder, Mercedes furrowed her eyebrows, "well why didn't you?"

"What if he didn't say it back?" Tessa said quietly, seeking advice from her friends, "Everyone was looking at me so expectantly and I realised that he might not say it back and I'd look like an idiot and Tina might've cried."

"Of course Sam would say it back, dumbass!" Santana exclaimed, "i swear I've never met two more hopeless people. He's clearly loved you since he came back from Kentucky."

"It's true." Quinn piped up, "you should've seen the way he looked at you over Christmas."

Turning around and leaning back against the sink, Tessa let out a long breathe, "I'm so sure that I love him. And I guess I'd be kinda bummed out if he didn't feel that way about me."

"So you're just gonna wait around now until he tells you?" Brittany asked, curiously.

Shrugging Tessa just didn't know, "well I kinda blew my chance at a song."

"Screw the song!" Santana exclaimed, "just say it, you love each other and that's all the crap you need to know."

"We'll still love you whether he says it back or not." Brittany added on sweetly, pulling Tessa in for a side hug, "which he totally will."

With all the girls nodding along to both statements, Tessa bit onto the inside of her cheek before looking up at them all with a grateful smile. She was glad for all of their advice and knew that she'd miss them all being together when most of them would be leaving in a few weeks time.

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BLAINE ANDERSON'S EMOTIONS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE. Fuelled by his anger, he stormed down the halls but the second he turned the corner and met Tessa's eyes as she shut her locker chatting along to Sam, he couldn't stop his own from filling up with tears.

Smiles dropping as soon as they saw his lip tremble, Tessa exchanged a worried glance with Sam and both of them rushed forward to meet him. Needing nothing more than comfort, Blaine sniffled his nose, "can I have a hug?"

Nodding, Tessa pulled Blaine into her arms and rubbed her hand over his back in a comforting way. Stood back, Sam decided to let them have their moment as Blaine tried to compose himself.

"What's going on?" Tessa asked, quietly.

"Kurt cheated on me." Blaine managed to tell them through sniffles.

Hearing his voice break slightly, Tessa felt her heart break for him, holding him tighter. Remembering how he'd felt the year before after Quinn had cheated on him, Sam stepped forward and wrapped his arms around both of them, leaning his head on top of Blaine's. Feeling better as his friends swayed him on the spot in comfort, Blaine managed to dry his eyes, wiggling out of their grip to tell them more.

"He's been texting this other guy that he met at Between The Sheets." He explained, sadly, "I'm really hurt about it."

Thumping him on the back, Sam gave him a sympathetic smile, "we get it, dude. We've both been cheated on. We're right here for you."

Agreeing with Sam, Tessa added to the soft smiles and took Blaine's hand in hers giving it a tight squeeze, "and however you're feeling is totally valid. Sad, mad, pissed off, whatever... we'll support you and get you through it."

"I didn't even know he was unhappy, you know? He said that he felt like I wasn't making him feel special, so he went to someone else. So I just kinda feel like crap."

Exchanging a glance, Sam and Tessa luckily had the same idea in their minds, scrapping their idea to go to Breadstix together as just the two of them, "well we love you. Come to Breadstix with us? We can take your mind off it all for a while at least?"

"Yeah I'd like that." Blaine said, managing a smile and letting out a long breathe as he started to feel calmer. Wiggling his way in the middle of the two, Sam wrapped his arms round both Blaine and Tessa's shoulders, already taking up the mission of distracting Blaine with some of his favourite newest impressions in the hopes of putting the smile back on his face.

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SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN OFTEN WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN THE BOYS LOCKER ROOMS. Reaching into his locker, Puck pulled out a bunch of goodie bags, calling the attention of Mike, Blaine and Sam who were in the middle of tossing a basketball between them and gathering them around the benches as he passed out his gifts.

"Okay bros, here you go. I was inspired by the goodie bags they give away at the end of birthday parties, thought I'd try it. A little something from the Puckster to all of you." He explained as they opened up their gifts, full of curiosity. Turning to Finn he gave him an apologetic smile, "sorry dude, I tried to get your balls back from Rachel but she's got those on lockdown."

Rummaging through the wrapping, they had all began the mission of working out what Puck's gifts were. First to his, Sam had beamed at the shot glass and pulled the necklace attached over his neck before the others started to find theirs, "a guitar pick. Sweet." Finn grinned, holding it up to the air.

"And a shot glass that says dinosaurs on ice." Mike added on, glancing round at everyone else's random shot glasses.

"Why does mine say drink 'til she's cute?" Blaine questioned, confused.

"Had the picks inscribed with The Dudes of Glee 2012." Puck explained, "the shot glasses all say different things 'cause i jacked them from different houses i clean pools at."

Surprised by the random gifts from Puck of all people, Blaine looked up at him with a grin, "thanks man, what's this for?"

"The clock's ticking, the times coming when we're all gonna have to say adios. Some of us forever. I want to make sure you guys remember all the broments that we had together and the great things we accomplished, forever. I know I haven't always been the perfect friend or teammate but you've stuck by me, forgiven me for sleeping with your women. Not everyone in my life has done that, one cougar's husband even chased me around with a gun. Anyways... I'm only gonna say this once, but I'm gonna miss all of you, I love you guys."

Going back to his locker, Puck held out his own shot glass for them to all clink together. Smiling at a way of saying goodbye that was very much fitting for the style of Noah Puckerman, the guys all put their shot glasses together, knowing that they couldn't forget the times they spent together even if they wanted to.

Beginning to toss the basketball around again, Sam threw it Blaine's way as he sought advice from the guys, "seen as we're all in the mood for broments and all that, I need to talk to you his about something." Seeing their nods of attention to go ahead, Sam furrowed his eyebrows, "you know when Tess sang that song with Santana the other week, do you think she was gonna tell me that she uh loved me?"

Throwing the basketball back at him with full force, Mike let out an exasperated laugh at Sam's nervousness, "oh totally."

"She just chickened out." Finn added on with a laugh.

Widening his eyes in warning, Puck leapt forward and snatched the ball out of the air as it came back Sam's way once again, "be careful with the 'L' word, dude. It's like a chick magnet. It gets serious then."

"I want things to be serious with Tess. I really do love her." Sam admitted, going slightly red in the cheeks as he had to fight off the kissy faces coming at him from all directions, "just help me okay? Why'd you think she didn't say it? Do you think she had second thoughts?"

"It's not that." Finn assured him, thumping him on the back, feeling proud of himself that he wasn't the most clueless in a conversation for once, "I'm pretty sure she feels the same way. She's probably just worried that you won't say it back. That's the thing about Tess, she kinda protective of her feelings nowadays."

Deep in thought, Sam almost missed as Mike chucked the ball right his way as he made his way to sit besides Blaine on the bench, "you think I should say it first?"

Nodding, Blaine was eager to put a contribution into the debate, "it might help, telling her how you feel is your best bet. Or you'll both be going around in circles waiting for each other to make the first move forever."

"Should I sing her a song? Harry Styles or Billy Joel or something? She likes them. I've already done the Jo Bros."

"Go Bieber." Mike teased, with a high five of agreement from Finn which caused Sam to give them a sarcastic laugh as he chucked the basketball at them.

Rolling his eyes, Puck felt the need to step forward and put his ideas out there, "dude, you've just gotta go for it. If you're both lame enough dig all this lovey-dovey crap then at least find the balls to say it out loud."

"That's strangely not the worst advice in the world." Finn whispered in surprise at Puck's contribution as he simply shrugged his shoulders with a cocky smirk and left the locker room before he could ruin his streak.

With ideas whirling round in his mind, Sam bit his lip nervously, unsure why he was so nervous to admit that he loved Tessa when he was so sure of his feelings for her. Having Blaine assure him that his nerves show that he cared, all that was left for Sam Evans to do was to work out exactly what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.