EVERYBODY GETS TO
KEEP THEIR COFFEES!

THE LAST STRAW FOR TESSA HAD BEEN WHEN HER WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA HAD BEEN PRIED AWAY FROM HER HANDS AND THROW IN THE TRASH BEFORE SHE COULD EVEN TAKE A SIP. Frowning to herself, she knew the way Mr Schue had been treating Finn wasn't right and as well as that she knew it wasn't going to get them a good outcome at Regionals.

And so taking matters into her own hands, Tessa had called an emergency glee club meeting and had thrown two chairs in front of the whiteboard for Mr Schue and Finn to sit in once they arrived. Peeping their heads through the doors, Mr Schue was first to show his confused frown as he saw the whole glee club stood surrounding the piano with firm looks on their faces, "Guys? What's this all about?"

"Just sit down, both of you." Tessa nodded toward the empty chairs.

With a glance towards each other, Mr Schue and Finn obliged, sitting down and waiting for the glee club to say their piece.

"Mr Schue, Finn, thank you for agreeing to this sit down." Artie began, "we've all noticed the tension between you two ever since Finn admitted to kissing Miss Pillsbury."

"And it's not surprise Finn has been acting like he's losing his mind." Tina continued, hands on her hips.

Mr Schue visibly tensed up further upon hearing this, sitting up straighter in his seat as he avoided any eye contact from Finn at all costs whilst Blaine reeled off examples of the tension to them. Thinking this proved her point, Tessa took the lid off of the whiteboard pen and spun round to write the word 'feuds' on the board, "you're feuding and it needs to stop."

"Seriously. It's like Hatfields and McCoys in here." Artie added on, "so epic musical feuds is our theme."

"And for the first time in glee club history, we are giving you, our fearless leaders, an assignment." Blaine told them, beginning to explain what they wanted them to do, "you two will explore and resolve your differences through performing a song together inspired by musical rivalry,"

Letting out a sigh, Mr Schue went to object but Tina stopped him, "Regionals are coming up, Mr Schue and if we have any chance of winning, we need both of you, on the same page, on the same team."

With a nod of agreement, Tessa folded her arms over her chest and shrugged her shoulders, "and until you can do that, you're not welcome in Glee club rehearsals."

Scoffing, Mr Schue was quick to shut her down, "Tessa, that's ridiculous. We'll do your assignment, but us not being there for rehearsals is counter-productive. Like Tina just said, Regionals are coming up fast."

"I'll tell you what's counter-productive, Mr Schue, spending fifteen minutes of rehearsal time analyzing the dry-cleaning of your vests and taking away my perfect coffee just because you didn't like the amount of mocha in yours." Tessa retorted, causing Mr Schue to quickly back down, "look, we get this is a difficult thing for you to deal with but the way it's being handled is childish and jeopardizing any chance we have at Regionals. So until you can act like adults, I'm gonna be running dance rehearsals so that maybe we could learn some new moves for me to put into any future choreography." Looking to the clock, she picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, "in fact, we've got an extra rehearsal right now. See you guys later."

"I'm excited." Tina grinned at her, linking her arm into Tessa's as they trailed out of the choir room, leaving Mr Schue and Finn with their thoughts, "it feels like we haven't had a proper set of dance rehearsals in forever."

"It's gonna be totally awesome I promise." Tessa beamed back at her, glad someone was enthusiastic about her rehearsals, "Sam's gone to get us all drinks, and everyone can keep their coffees this time."

"Perfect." Blaine clapped his hands together with the thought of his hot chocolate waiting for him in the dance studio.

       ☆

BLAINE ANDERSON CAME HUFFING DOWN THE HALLWAY AND JOINED TESSA AT HER LOCKER. Folding his arms over his chest, he raised his eyebrow, "I don't know how you can like her."

"I thought you loved Tina?" Tessa answered casually, with a slight frown.

"Not Tina. I do love Tina." Blaine replied with a similar frown before letting out another huff of air, "Coach Sue. She's blackmailing me to stay on the Cheerios."

"That's more time you get to spend with me." Tessa sang out through a bright smile, making jazz hands towards an unimpressed Blaine Anderson.

"You would not believe the crap she's done to me this week." He began to rant as Tessa about the lengths Coach Sylvester had gone through to blackmail him into staying a member of the Cheerios, including multiple counts of identity fraud and that sign. However above all of that, the last straw for Blaine had come when Becky had handed him a tub of what he was told to be expensive hair gel, "feel my hair, Tessa."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Tessa shook her head slightly as she recognized what he had said, "feel your hair? What do you mean feel your hair?" Taking Tessa's hand, Blaine touched it to the top of his neatly styled hair where she recoiled almost instantly one she felt it, gasping loudly before going in to knock on his head, "dude, what the hell? Is that what it normally feels like?"

"No it is not what my hair normally feels like!" Blaine fumed, "my hair is scrumptiously soft. This new hair gel Becky got me... it's cement."

Hands flying to cover her mouth, Tessa's eyes practically popped out of her skull, "cement? Holy crap, how are you gonna get that out?"

"I don't know." Blaine exclaimed, "come round tonight and help me?"

"Of course," Tessa agreed, immediately, "we'll stop by Walmart and get plenty of products. God, we're gonna need them. Worst comes to worst we'll just shave your head."

"I'm not shaving my head, Tessa." Blaine sighed out, hand running over the perfectly styled locks that may be cemented in place like that forever.

"Don't worry, I'd shave mine with you." Tessa shrugged him off, "I don't think we could convince Sam to shave his but if you asked Tina, one look into your puppy dog eyes and she'd shave her eyebrows off as well."

Finally finding a reason to laugh, Blaine shook his head, "thanks, Tess, but I think we can all keep our hair. I mean, even if we can't get the cement out, I'll never have to spend hours doing my hair again."

"You spend hours doing that?" Tessa frowned, gazing up at his hairdo.

"I have to get her back." Blaine thought aloud, bringing the conversation back to the issue at hand, "we're having Mariah versus Nicki sing-off for feud week."

"I'm guessing your Mariah?" Tessa squinted her eyes at him.

With a nod, Blaine crossed his arms over his chest, "due to her Trinidadian roots apparently?" He replied through a questioning tone.

Handing Blaine her folders to hold whilst she tightened her ponytail, Tessa shrugged her shoulders and offered him an apologetic smile, "honestly Blaine, you know how much I love you and think you're amazing but I don't think you're gonna win this one. Becky is Nicki Minaj's biggest fan and is definitely giving Coach Sylvester lessons in the wonderful world of Nicki Minaj as we speak and you're stood here chatting to me."

"Good thing that's just what I planned." Blaine told her with a knowing smirk appearing on his face, "I need you to help me with something."

                              ☆

NEXT THING SHE KNEW, TESSA WAS SAT IN THE CHOIR ROOM WITH A BRIGHT PINK WIG ON HER HEAD BEING BERATED BY TINA FOR BETRAYING BLAINE. Feeling a headache coming on, Tessa held the bridge of her nose and let out a long sigh, "I'm on the Cheerios, Tina, Coach Sylvester would kick me out if I didn't perform with her right now."

"Well I think if you were really Blaine's friend you'd leave to support him." Tina stuck her nose up at this reply, with arms folded firmly across her chest.

"Well I think if you were really Blaine's friend you would've shaved your head." Tessa couldn't help but retort.

Rolling her eyes, Tina tutted, "I didn't need to shave my head, Tess, we got the cement out."

"We?" Tessa scoffed, "you mean I scrubbed Blaine's scalp whilst you sobbed over the prospect of him loosing his hair. I told you not to do that Google search."

"Have you ever had this much hair, Tess?" Jake said from behind her, interrupting a potential argument, lifting up the end of the pink side of Tessa's hair and frowning at it.

Shaking her head slightly, Tessa spun round to reply, "nah. I don't think it's ever been longer than just below my shoulders. My and my brothers had the same haircut until I was twelve where she cut it to just below my ears. It was quite convenient to be honest. But my Dad made me grow it when one of his friend from work said how nice it must be to have three boys when he showed them a picture."

"I need to see that picture." Sam said through a slight laugh.

"You probably have. It's the one my Grandad keeps in his wallet." Tessa told him, leading Sam to nod in understanding, "I think he kept it out of spite."

As they continued their conversation, footsteps came towards the choir room and a group of Cheerios wearing wigs that matched Tessa's marched into the choir room and looked round with smirks on their faces. Leading the pack was Bree, who was quick to flash Tessa a fake smile, "so this is your little choir room?"

"Well done Bree, you finally know your way around school." Tessa said in a low voice, sinking into her chair as she felt all the glee club's eyes on her. Sensing her discomfort, Sam silently slipped his hand into hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Turning to one of her Cheerio friends, Bree spoke to her in a loud voice, "you know, I'd probably make myself throw up in the bathrooms too if I had to spend longer than ten minutes in this room too, look at all those tacky posters." She then directed her eye contact to Tessa and gave her a false apologetic expression, "oops... sorry Tessie."

"Do you have a reason to be here?" Tina spoke up in Tessa's defence.

"Actually, yes, Tina Cohen-Barf." Bree turned to give Tessa an exaggerated pout, "Tessie-bear, why didn't you tell your little glee club friends about your favourite Cheerios helping Coach Sylvester win the contest against Gay Clark Kent?"

"You're not my favorite Cheerios, Kitty is." Tessa told them in a bland tone, as Kitty nodded enthusiastically.

Tutting, Bree rolled her eyes, "we're here to make sure everything's ready for Coach Sylvester before she gets here. Tessie, where's the stuff?"

"It's all ready. I did it myself." Tessa said, "you were meant to be here fifteen minutes ago. Not that I wanted you here, anyway."

Fake pouting, Bree folded her arms over her chest, "well that's not very nice is it? Everybody always goes on and on about how glee club is meant to be a safe space and you're not making it very safe right now."

"Just sit down, Bree." Kitty called out to her as Tessa let out an exasperated sigh, feeling embarrassed that Bree had come into the choir room and treated her like she did at Cheerios practice in front of the entire glee club.

"Fine." Bree huffed, locking eyes with Sam for a brief moment, smirking as she gave him a wink, "oh hey Sammy, cute jacket."

Tessa whipped her head round, feeling herself close to seeing red. The only reason she didn't jump out of her seat and tackle her to the ground was Sam tightening his grip on her hand and Jake putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her back.

"Tess got it for me, you know, my girlfriend." He replied coldly, not even looking at her as he pulled his chair in closer to Tessa's.

Any chance of a fight between Tessa and Bree was cut short by Coach Sylvester and Mr Schue's entrance to the choir room, which cued Blaine to stand up at the front of the room and begin to sing 'I Still Believe' by Mariah Carey.

Half way through the song, Sue and the Cheerios stood up and took over singing 'Superbass.' They brought out a stage, feathers, UV lights and even a little motorcycle that Tessa had spent her free period painting with UV paint with Becky. Everything was going according to Blaine's plan, with him looking bewildered as he sat back and watched them completely outshine him.

As they were dancing, Tessa felt a harsh shove against her shoulder and looked round slightly to notice Bree there, giving her a glare. Choosing to ignore it as accidents like that happens all the time on when dancing with lots of people. Then, she felt a tug on her wig, nearly pulling it out of place and when Bree was there again, Tessa felt a boiling in the bottom of her stomach but kept dancing.

Right as they were coming to the end of the performance, Tessa felt a shove that felt a lot more deliberate than some of the others. Feeling frustrated, she gave Bree a light shove as if to tell her to stop whilst they were performing, which only led Bree to push her harder so Tessa lost her balance and fell right into the collection of music stands at the side of the room, right as Coach Sylvester pushed Blaine off the stage to finish her performance.

"What the hell, Bree?" Tessa hissed at her.

"Why are you yelling at me, that was clearly an accident?" Bree scoffed in response, pouting as she folded her arms over her chest.

"That was so not an accident." Marley spoke up.

"Shut up, Bulimic." Bree shot back at her, leading Tessa to jump forward to shove her again before Coach Sylvester intervened, holding Tessa's shoulder.

"Tallulah, go to my office, I'll meet you there once they've announced my inevitable win." Coach Sylvester instructed, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

Throwing her hands up, Tessa looked towards Mr Schue for help but he had his head down, clearly not wanting to interfere, "fine." She muttered, storming out of the choir room, knocking over a music stand on her way out as she noticed Bree giggling and giving her a sarcastic wave as she walked out.

☆

TESSA WAS SLUMPED ON THE CHAIR OPPOSITE COACH SYLVESTER'S DESK. She was fed up, humiliated and exhausted.Tessa had felt she had managed to keep her issues with the Cheerios relatively separate to Glee Club and she liked it that way. One thing Tessa hated was people feeling sorry for her and she felt the gazed of sympathy echoing across the choir room as Bree humiliated her in front of everyone. She had closed her eyes with the intention of falling asleep when Coach Sylvester opened the door and came round to her seat on the other side of the desk.

"Did you win?" Tessa asked quietly.

Rolling her eyes, Sue nodded, "of course I won. Young Bert Reynolds will be tossing you above his head in no time."

To Tessa's surprise, Coach Sylvester opened up her mini freezer and slid a tub of cookie dough ice cream across the desk with a spoon balanced across the top of the lid and offered her a smile, "are you gonna tell me what's going on?"

"This is my favourite." Tessa told her quietly with a smile, taking the ice cream and opening the lid, having a spoonful.

Scoffing, Coach Sylvester pulled out her own tub of ice cream, "you don't think I know that? You're my Cheerios captain I know everything about you. And I mean everything. Thats why I know you're not okay... and that you need a new toaster."

"I do need a new toaster." Tessa said under her breath with a small frown on her face, "it literally doesn't toast."

"I literally don't care." Sue replied with a shrug.

"I am okay, I'm just having a rough day." Tessa sighed, cringing slightly, "but Bree pushed me first. Three times before I reacted. I don't get why I'm here."

"I don't care about that." Sue shook her head, "I push people all the time, I pushed the director of Aural Intensity down the stairs once, I think it should be normalized, really. I'm more interested in why it happened."

"She's been out to get me since Middle School, Coach Sylvester, Middle School!"Tessa let out an exasperated breath of air, throwing her hands up above her head before taking another spoonful of ice cream which was when she decided to tell Coach Sylvester everything until she got to that day, "and I was fine with the taunting. I'm used to it by now, but then she tried to flirt with Sam, my Sam and I imagined slamming her head into a brick wall."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Coach Sylvester took a spoonful of ice cream, "Samgelina Jolie? Really?"

"I know, right? My Samgelina Jolie." Tessa huffed loudly before growing quiet, "he's my rock. I can't lose him because of her. This is between me and her, it always has been. I don't want him to be involved. I don't even want to be involved. It was always her that started everything."

"You're not gonna lose him, you're the captain of my Cheerios. My team of winners. That means we don't lose. And that includes ex-stripper boyfriends." Coach Sylvester insisted.

"Can't you just kick her off the team?" Tessa begged her lightly, throwing her head back, "she causes more problems than she does anything else."

To Tessa's disappointment, Sue shook her head, "no can do, kiddo." She shrugged, "she's a good cheerleader and I can't just kick her out because you don't like her. Besides, who am I to judge someone for being a bad person?"

"I know." Tessa whispered, slumping down in her seat slightly, "I know that I'm not gonna like everyone in life."

"Exactly." Coach Sylvester gave her an apologetic smile, "I barely like anyone in life. You're just lucky you're one of the few people I do like."

Tessa smiled at her, putting the lid on the top of her ice cream, "thanks Coach."

"Don't smile too much you'll give yourself smile lines," Sue responded, nodding her towards the door, "now get out of here, i have to take this makeup off and so do you, we look like clowns." As she said this, Tessa remembered the wig and fake freckles on her face and laughed, getting up off her seat and headed for the door, where Coach Sue stopped her, holding the ice cream up before putting it in her mini freezer, "and remember, this is always here if you need it."

"Thanks, Coach, I'll remember that." Tessa grinned before leaving Coach Sylvester's office feeling a lot more positive about things than she had going in.

As she turned round the corner, she found Sam waiting for her with a concerned look on his face, holding his backpack on one shoulder and hers on the other. Handing her her backpack, he opened his arms to pull her into a hug, "you okay? What happened in there? Are you still a Cheerio?"

"Yes I'm still a Cheerio." Tessa giggled lightly, closing her eyes as she leant into Sam's chest, feeling him press a kiss to the top of her head, "it was actually sound. She gave me ice cream."

Mouth dropping open as he let her out of the hug, Sam looked towards Coach Sylvester's office, "no way, can I go next? What flavour was it?"

"Cookie dough." Tessa told him in reply as she wrapped an arm around his waist as they began walking towards the bathrooms.

"Your favorite." Sam hummed softly with a smile on his face.

"My favourite." Tessa nodded before opening up, "I told her everything about Bree. She can't kick her off the Cheerios because she's too good of a cheerleader or whatever and Sue can't be a moral hypocrite but she's gonna keep an eye on everything, more than she already does. She's kinda like big brother."

"Yeah she's so scary." Sam widened his eyes, shuddering slightly as they approached the bathrooms, "well as long as you're okay. I was sorta worried she'd try to pull out your teeth or something."

With a laugh, Tessa tilted her head to the side, "why would she do that?"

"Artie told me she tried to pull out some of his once and I've been scared of her doing it to me ever since." Sam admitted through a frown.

"Well she might if you tell anyone about the ice cream." Tessa chuckled, slipping the wig off the top of her head and handing it to Sam to hold, "she doesn't want to be seen like the softie she really is."

"Noted." Sam nodded with a smile.

"I'll be five minutes." Tessa told him, giggling softly to herself as she turned the corner into the bathrooms to take off her UV makeup.

☆

FEUD WEEK HADN'T GONE AS THE GLEE CLUB HAD WANTED AND FINN WAS NOW LEAVING MCKINLEY FOR GOOD. Stood in the glee club office, Finn was packing up his belongings and reminiscing on his time in glee club. After Marley Rose had come to thank him, he was looking fondly at the card she had made him before putting it on the top of his cardboard box.

Coming round the corner, Tessa knocked on the door and popped her head into the office, "hey Finn."

Finn had expected that everyone else at McKinley had left and so the friendly face of Tessa Swann had come as a pleasant surprise, "oh hey, Tess, what are you doing here so late."

"Choreographing." Tessa said with a light shrug.

Raising his eyebrows, Finn looked at his watch, "At this time?"

"Regionals isn't gonna choreograph itself." She nodded with a laugh, folding her arms over her chest, "and I don't know what I'm even choreographing for, which doesn't help. But the more ideas I have the better."

"You're gonna be fine." Finn told her confidently, "your choreography is amazing and you teach it even better. I mean, you even taught me and that was borderline impossible. Have you ever thought about being a teacher?"

"A dance teacher? Maybe. Cheerleading coach? Maybe." Tessa replied before directing the conversation back onto Finn, "the question is have you ever thought about being a teacher?"

A small smile came to Finn's lips, "funny enough that's what Marley said to me." He said before furrowing his eyebrows, "she told me I need to grow a pair."

"She's right." Tessa agreed, only making Finn furrow his eyebrows further, "you'd be an amazing teacher. You're passionate about it and you've loved being here these past few months. And even though you don't realize it, you've made a huge difference."

"I would love to be a teacher. I don't even mind the thought of having to wear a tie every day." Finn told her, looking down at his outfit. He sighed, thinking through the logistics, "I just need something called a teachers degree."

"It doesn't have to be Yale," she shrugged, "I know sometimes it feels like you have to go to some big college in some big city to be successful but you don't. Go to Community College and get it done and you'll come out the best teacher in Ohio."

"Thank you for always believing in me, Tess." Finn said softly, sitting down on his desk, sending her a small smile, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

Giving his hand a squeeze in return, Tessa couldn't help but joke, "you're not gonna kiss me, are you?"

Rolling his eyes, Finn threw her hand back towards her, "I take everything back, you're a lousy friend with lousy choreography."

Practically red in the face from laughing so much, Tessa bent over to stop her stomach hurting as she watched him struggle to keep up the pouty act, "sorry dude, I couldn't help it." Once she'd stopped herself laughing, Tessa gave him a more genuine smile, "seriously though I should be thanking you. You proved to Mr Schue that he should take my choreography seriously and it's like all of a sudden he has realised that I can actually dance."

"You deserve to be taken seriously." Finn said, "you've really been holding this glee club together."

"I learnt from the best." Tessa shrugged, giving him a playful wink before checking her watch, "I better get going, I told Sam I'd pick him up in twenty minutes."

Letting out a long sigh, Finn looked at her seriously, "please drive safely, Tessa."

Rolling her eyes, Tessa groaned, "I always do, I'm a really good driver." With his unsure reaction, she turned to leave the office. Before leaving completely, Tessa gave him a beaming smile, "Finn? Everything's gonna be fine. It'll all work itself out in the end."

Letting his anxiety show, Finn scrunched up his face slightly, "and what if it doesn't?"

"Then it's not the end." She shrugged, "you're only nineteen. You've got plenty of time to work things out and I'll be right behind you when you do, okay?"

"Thanks, Tess." Finn smiled at her.

"Don't be a stranger, okay? I need to know what college life is like before I actually have to do it myself," Tessa laughed before turning right out of the door and heading for the parking lot:

Left to his own thoughts, Finn stared at the card Marley had made him. She was right, he thought, he had made a difference and again, they were right, maybe teaching was the path for him. Looking to the left of the card was the photo of the glee club that had been taken for the yearbook all the way back when the glee club had just restarted. With one last sigh, he left the office with his cardboard box of belongings in his arms, feeling more excited about his ideas of the future than he did earlier.