YOU KNOW — WITH EVERYTHING!

NATIONALS WAS FINALLY HERE. And with Jesse St James out of the way, the New Directions were more than ready to crush their competition, despite the fact they didn't have any of their original songs ready to sing.

No one could possibly be as excited as Rachel as they gazed around New York and whilst she was skipping around ecstatically, the rest of the New Directions sat on the staircase, reminiscing on their achievements over the last two years.

Leading the trip down memory lane, Kurt was almost bursting, his smile covering his face, "a year and a half ago, the New Directions were nothing but a group of six misfits stumbling their way through a horrendous rendition of 'Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat.' Now we're here at the top of the show choir heap — Nationals!"

"I wanna hit up Central Park, get my frolic on." Tina commented.

"I wanna throw stuff off Brooklyn Bridge!" Puck added with a mischievous grin, pointing towards Tessa as she nodded approvingly.

"Guys hold on, I mean, we still have two songs to write." Finn put forward, reaching down to pinch one of Tessa's fries as she was about to put it into her mouth, swiftly looking away as she pouted up at him.

Rolling his eyes playfully, Kurt had a better idea, "okay Mr Bossy Pants. But I think we have some time for a tune before we leave." Starting up a light hearted version of 'New York, New York', Kurt had the whole group singing along joyfully together, full of excitement for the competition ahead of them.

Interrupting the song, Rachel skipped forward, looking very pleased with herself as she grabbed their attention, "guys, I have news. To celebrate out impending win at Nationals, got us all fourteen tickets to Broadway's longest running show ever, Cats!"

Tutting loudly over Brittany's excited screaming, Quinn spoke up, snarkily, "you might want to check the dates on those tickets Rachel, because Cats closed eleven years ago."

Watching as Rachel turned to look at the tickets she'd bought, her face falling slightly with embarrassment, Tessa couldn't hold her laughter, letting out a snort before slapping her hand to her mouth as Finn gave her a sharp elbow. Looking up to greet him, she wiggled her eyebrows at him, fully aware that now he'd broken up with Quinn, Finn was eager to win Rachel back.

"He did seem crazy." She remarked, "he charged my credit card by swiping it through his butt crack."

Grimacing at her, the group were eager to move past Rachel's strange purchase and onto the hotel.

　　　　　　　    ☆

BRITTANY HAD WRITTEN A MASTERPIECE OR SO TESSA THOUGHT. Listening to her perform her original song 'My Cup' as a suggestion for their Nationals set list, Tessa seemed to have a different opinion on the song to the rest of the room as she danced about in her seat, hyping her friend up whereas the rest of the room just looked around at each other, full of confusion.

As Brittany's song came to an end and Tessa had honoured it with a standing ovation, Tina sat forward against the bed, scrunching up her face, "hold up, were you singing about a cup?"

"Were you even listening to the lyrics Tina?" Tessa teased, yanking the pillow from behind Finn and slapping her across the arm with it. Immediately coming in the defence of his girlfriend, Mike pointed a finger her way and grabbed the nearest pillow, diving towards Tessa to attack her with it.

By this point, the group had definitely lost trust in Mr Schue's methods if he'd seen it to be a good idea to put them on lockdown in the hotel room until they'd written a song, it was definitely not working. Fed up, Quinn walked over and grabbed her coat, slipping it over her shoulders, "we gotta get out of here."

"Wait, no, no, no, Mr Schue gave us explicit instructions." Rachel protested, flinging her arm over where Tessa and Mike were still whacking each other with their pillows in a feeble attempt to stop them from leaving.

"To write a song. And our problem is that our only inspirations are mattresses and bathroom cups." Quinn argued back, getting the whole glee club except Rachel and Finn on her side as they began to grab their coats and prepare to explore New York."

"Well, that is unless Tess can write us a song about how much she loves lockin' lips with guppy face over there." Santana said with a wicked grin, whipping the pillow right out of Tessa's hands as she held it above her head to hit Mike with again.

Blushing as she processed what Santana had said, Tessa looked round and met Sam's eyes, biting the inside of her lips slightly out of embarrassment as he smirked at her until she was whacked back to life by a pillow from Mike Chang.

　　　　　　　   ☆

AFTER EXPLORING NEW YORK, THE NEW DIRECTIONS HAD SPLIT INTO BOYS AND GIRLS TO GET SONGWRITING. Whilst the boys were laid around lazily in their room, rhyming dictionaries open but barely being used, Finn had more on his mind than just nationals.

With his idea for him and Rachel to sing a duet for Nationals out in the open, the rest of the room exchanged knowing glances that Finn was ready to use their musical chemistry to win Rachel back for good. First to speak up, Mike had managed to perfect the paper plane that him and Tessa had been working on and launched it at him, "I just wanna win, we all know that you two doing our duet is the best shot at that."

"Okay can we just talk about the Jewish elephant in the room?" Puck brought up, through a frustrated huff, "ask her out dude."

"Who? Rachel? But she's totally into Jesse right now." Finn sighed with a shake of his head as he subconsciously fiddled with the paper plane Mike had thrown over to him.

"You're in New York — the city of love!" Puck tried to persuade him but was interrupted by Sam with a mouthful of chips, "I thought that was Paris." Ignoring him as Mike seemed to agree, Puck continued on, eager to play matchmaker, "anything's possible here. You need to ask her out tonight, take her on one of those big, awful dates you see in those unwatchable romantic comedies that you grow a vagina if you watch all the way through."

With a nod of his head, Sam was next to speak up, "this is your shot dude. If I was in love with a girl and I wasn't homeless, I'd totally go for it."

Aiming his paper plane at Sam next, Mike scoffed loudly as he threw it straight at his head, "if I was in love with a girl." He mocked, "you say that like you weren't giving Tess the heart eyes earlier."

"Not just earlier, all the damn time." Puck added on, making kissy faces at him as Sam hid his face with his rhyming dictionary, "am I really gonna have to lecture you like I just did Finn? I mean come on, in what kind of world am I giving you two love advice?"

"I can't afford to take her on one of those big romantic comedy dates." Sam reminded them quietly.

"Then take her on a small Sam and Tessa date." Mike suggested casually. Noticing he was still unsure, he jumped up from where he was lying on the floor and landed on the bed next to him, "some of the best dates I've been on with Tina have been the simple ones where we've just had a picnic together or gone bowling and that, trust me."

"I'll do it if you do it, dude." Finn offered, holding up his phone with Rachel's contact open, ready to organize the date he'd been hoping to go on.

Persuaded, Sam bit his lip to stop himself from smiling more than he already was, typing the message into his phone and throwing it back onto the bed, "it's done." He breathed out, nervously, instantly getting tackled by Mike and Puck, who were high fiving each other victoriously.

With Finn throwing his phone onto the bed besides Sam's, all that was left to do was for them to stare at them until an answer came through and start to get nervous about taking their girls on a date in New York.

　　　　　　       ☆

TESSA HAD FELT HER HEART RACING WHEN SHE READ THE MESSAGE FROM SAM. Escaping from the massive pillow fight all the girls except Rachel had gotten themselves into, she put on a little bit of lipgloss, staring at herself in the mirror for a moment before getting ready to slip out of the hotel room.

Watching her do this, Rachel gathered the opinion that she wasn't the only one going on a New York date that evening as she came out of the bathroom all dressed up ready. Tapping her on the shoulder, she caught Tessa's attention quite easily, "wow Rachel, you look lovely." She complimented gently as Rachel gave her a nervous smile of thanks, "I'm guessing Finn's taking you on a big New York date then."

Nodding in reply, Rachel just beamed excitedly for her, "And I'm guessing Sam's finally asked you out for real."

Beaming straight back at her, Tessa was unable to keep her usual cool and didn't hide how truly excited she was. Grabbing her coat off the hook, she nodded towards the door, ready to leave, "wanna go down there together?"

Frowning slightly, Rachel tilted her head to the side, a little confused as she noticed the difference between their outfits, "you're not dressing up?"

Shrugging, Tessa shook her head, "it's only Sam."

Taking a different approach, Rachel glanced down at the time before braving the pillow fight to tap Santana on the back. Turning round with a huff filled with irritation, she wasn't happy to see Rachel stood wanting her attention, "what do you want hobbit? I'm trying to win." Listening in reluctantly as Rachel pointed over to Tessa, she gathered the situation and with one last whack to Lauren's head, she jumped off the bed, grabbed something from her suitcase and dragged her into the bathroom.

Coming out a few minutes later, Tessa looked down at the outfit Santana had chosen for her. Grateful that she'd let her wear jeans, she only really had one concern, "I'm gonna be freezing." She complained.

Pointing back at her, Santana gave her a wicked grin, "so Sam'll offer you his jacket and you'll take it. It's sheer Genius."

Letting out a loud laugh, Tessa scooped up her bag again before anyone could persuade her to put on more make up, flashing an excited smile towards Santana before slipping out of the door to meet Sam, the knots in her stomach getting a little tighter as she went.

　　　　　　　    ☆

PIZZA IN CENTRAL PARK WAS TESSA'S IDEA OF A PERFECT DATE. Sitting on a bench together as they ate, watching the sun slowly go down and letting their knees brush against one another's, with Sam's letterman jacket draped over her shoulders, she couldn't be happier.

During the comfortable silence between the two of them, Sam couldn't stop his mind from wandering to where Finn and Rachel were having a fancy, expensive restaurant date, whilst they were sat outside eating pizza, "I'm sorry we're not at Sardis or whatever." He mumbled, embarrassed.

"Sam, this is more than perfect." She replied, placing a hand on his knee as a playful smile crept onto her lips, "what even is Sardis anyway?"

"I don't even know." Sam laughed, light heartedly, feeling himself relax more as Tessa smiled right at him to show him how happy she was just to be sat there next to him.

"Seriously though, right now, I couldn't think of a place I'd rather have a first date." Tessa grinned without thinking, slowly going red, "unless you don't want this to be a date."

Widening his eyes, Sam was quick to nod his head, "I do want this to be a date." He confirmed, chuckling nervously as they finally looked up and met each other's eyes. On a streak of confidence, Sam sat up straighter and decided to take the advice of his friends for once, "I meant what I said at prom. I really do like you, Tess. More than friends."

"I really like you too, Sam." Tessa whispered softly, biting her lip, growing nervous.

"But I really care about you, and I need you to know that my parents are looking for houses in Kentucky. I'm moving after the summer." He told her, his voice cracking slightly as he avoided her eyes out of fear of her reaction.

Taken aback slightly, Tessa managed to swallow the lump in her throat as she struggled to find the words she wanted to say, "well that's great for your family, right?"

Nodding sadly, Sam gave her a thin lipped smile, "yeah. But it's not so great for me — for us. I'd just really like to be able to call you my girlfriend."

"Then call me your girlfriend." She answered, simply, reaching over to take his hand in hers, "we have a whole summer to decide what we want to do when you have to go."

Delighted with this idea, Sam turned to look at her straight in the eye, a his smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, "you really wanna be my girlfriend? You know — with everything?"

"I could ask you the same question." Tessa laughed nervously.

Letting his shoulders relax, Sam scooted closer to her and after just smiling at each other for a moment, he gently cupped her face in his hands and planted a kiss to her lips. Pulling apart and beaming at each other, Tessa rested her head on top of his shoulder sighing happily. Full of his own excitement as he gazed down at his new girlfriend, Sam resisted the urge to jump up and tell the whole of New York and settled for resting his head on top of hers.

　　　　　　　    ☆

NATIONALS HAD ENDED IN A LOSS FOR THE NEW DIRECTIONS. Rachel and Finn had kissed after their duet and apparently the judges hadn't appreciated it. Well that's what Jesse St James had told them — many times. But despite this and having to hold Santana back from blowing up on Rachel, Tessa couldn't be happier about her New York experience.

Walking into the Bean hand in hand, Sam and Tessa caught Blaine and Kurt at a key moment in their relationship. Looking up from each other, the couple gave them the biggest smile calling them over to the table next to them. After picking up their drinks, they made their way over, throwing themselves on the chairs opposite them.

Still ecstatic, Blaine was first to speak up through an excited grin, "I see we're both on very romantic coffee dates." He chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows at Tessa.

Bursting with happiness as Tessa interlaced her hand in Sam's with a nod, Kurt let an excited squeal and clapped his hands together, "I'm so happy you two are finally together! I've been trying to make this happen all year!"

"And we still didn't mess up Nationals by making out on stage." Tessa joked, with a playful roll of her eyes, "but hey, we're together now and so are Finn and Rachel so this trip was a win for the relationships."

"It sure was." Sam agreed, squeezing her hand lightly.

Moving past the topic of New York, Tessa gave Blaine a supportive smile, "anyway, big day tomorrow Blaine Warbler."

Looking over to Sam to explain, Blaine smiled nervously, "I have an audition for the summer show at six flags."

"And you can bet we'll all be there cheering you on." Kurt beamed, reaching across the table to take Blaine's hand in his as he began worrying over his song choice, "you'll do great, you always do. Meanwhile other than my musical on Pippa Middleton, Pip Pip Hooray, I'll be working on persuading Blaine to join Mckinley."

Eyes widening, Tessa whipped her head around to face Blaine, her smile growing immediately on her lips, "you're thinking of coming to Mckinley? Dude!"

Shrugging his shoulders, Blaine rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle, "I don't know, possibly."

Clapping his hands together as he saw how pleased his friends became at the idea of his boyfriend coming to their school, Kurt let out a contented sigh, "I'm so looking forward to more double dates like this."

"We'll have to do as many as possible this summer." Sam agreed, a sad smile appearing as he realised how much he'd truly miss Lima and everyone in it when he leaves.

With that, the conversation went straight back to New York when Blaine insisted they tell him every single detail of their New York date and Nationals. Full of chatter, they were ready to see what the next year would have in store for them, hoping that it would have a more winning end than this one.