SCHUESTER DOESN'T LIKE SCOOTERS!

AFTER THEIR PERFORMANCE OF 'HOLD IT AGAINST ME,' COACH SUE HAD CALLED THREE OF HER CHEERIOS TO HER OFFICE. Sitting either side of Brittany as she just smiled innocently, Tessa and Kitty exchanged a quick glance, unsure what they were both doing in the office besides her. Believing it was something to do with her choreography for the latest number, Tessa was nervously fidgeting in her chair whilst Kitty was sat right back in hers, just filing her nails simply hoping to watch some drama go down.

Finally arriving in her office, Coach Sylvester first addressed Brittany who was blissfully unaware to the news she was about to receive, "Brittany, I'm afraid it's time for a little tough love. I hold in my hand the most recent algebra test of one Becky Jackson. Our plucky little Ewok waddled her way to a respectable C plus. Now your performance in the very same exam unearthed the hitherto undiscovered grade F minus. You answered every single question with see other side where you composed an elaborate crayon-scape entitled 'Happy-Ville — the town where math was never invented.'"

"Oh to live there." Tessa sighed out, shaking her head as she remembered all the times she'd cried over a math test.

"You do!" Brittany perked up, proudly being sure to explain every element of her drawing as Coach Sylvester held it up for them all to see, "look! There's you and Sam with a heart because you're in love. And there's me and Santana and there's Kurt and Rachel in heaven." She told them as Tessa listened in carefully and Kitty just watched on, furrowing her eyebrows completely confused, "and look, that's you." She said pointing her finger over to a grumpy looking woman holding a baby which was supposed to represent Coach Sue and her newborn daughter Robyn. Turing to Kitty, Brittany gave her an apologetic look, "sorry Kitty, you're not in Happy-Ville yet."

"Fine by me." Kitty mumbled, holding her hands up in surrender.

Seen as the conversation was drifting away on a tangent, Coach Sue was eager to get straight to the point, locking eyes on Brittany once more, "Brittany, you're a terrible role model for the Cheerios. Last year i was lost in a haze of pregnancy hormones and I allowed your record breaking GPA to slide. The Cheerios grade point average has dropped three full points. My girls no longer see academic achievement as a worthy goal and yesterday I caught one of them trying to marry a squirrel."

"That's because I believe in marriage equality for all land mammals." Brittany defended the choice of the wedding.

"Brittany you're off the Cheerios. I'm afraid you're going to have to lose the high pony." Coach Sylvester decided, pointing towards the door for Brittany to get up and leave.

Seeing Brittany's face fall completely, Tessa sat forward in her seat to defend her, "come on Coach Sylvester, we'll help Brittany get back on her feet and get better grades." She persuaded her, "won't we Kitty?"

Finding herself zoning out of the conversation, Kitty blinked a few times to mentally bring herself back into the room giving Tessa a straight face but eventually giving in to her pleading eyes, "sure." She muttered in an unconvincing tone, "can I go now? I don't even know why I'm here."

"You're here because you're Tallulah here's new Co-Captain." Coach Sylvester announced, "now get the hell out of my office, all three of you."

Smiling growing, Kitty sat up taller in her seat, "better than nothing." She smirked.

First to get up, Brittany had swooped immediately out of the door before Tessa could even open her mouth to comfort her in any way. Standing up at the same time, Tessa and Kitty spun round to leave too and Tessa was surprised when Kitty looked her up and down before smiling brightly at her. Guessing she was simply pleased with moving up on the ranks of Cheerios, Tessa smiled back, giving her a friendly nod then escaping Sue's office without another word.

　　　　　　　　☆

THE GLEE CLUB WANTED TO HELP GET BRITTANY BACK HER CONFIDENCE WITH ANOTHER BRITNEY WEEK. It wasn't going great so far. After Joe, Sam and Tessa had sung a version of '3', Brittany had gotten up half way through to try and shave her head before storming out and beating up Jacob Ben Israel with an umbrella, proving that the attempt to get her back on her feet wasn't going as planned.

In the lunch line, Tessa was stood bang in the middle of Jake Puckerman and Marley Rose, paying all of her attention to Marley as she talked to her about her plans for a Britney song in glee club with a huge smile on her face whilst Jake snuck the occasional admiring glance at her over her shoulder. After hanging out with her the evening before, Jake had a new found interest for the new girl at Mckinley and for once didn't care that a girl wasn't all over him and was instead completely focused in deep conversation with the girl she'd probably name as her closest friend at Mckinley.

The only thing that caused Marley to divert her attention away was the two footballers that had caused trouble at the glee lunch table on the first week of school cockily making their way to her mom's food station and immediately springing into their usual insults. Nudging Tessa in the side, Marley nodded her head towards them and had quickly moved over to defend her mom, "quit it. That's my mom."

"Woah! You came out of that?" One of the football guys taunted, widening his eyes in surprise as he obviously eyed both Marley and her mom.

"We're you an only child or do you have a twin who's still in there?" The other one added on jokingly, continuing to harass the pair.

Noticing Marley's mom's face fall, Tessa moved her tray across to stand by Marley in her fight, "who exactly was it that told you you're funny? Because I don't see anyone laughing."

Reaching across Marley, the football player closer to her gave Tessa's shoulder a hard shake, turning to his friend with a teasingly dramatic smile, "hey look, princess is back! Thought you didn't eat meals. Happy getting fat again are you?" He laughed, causing Tessa to stand down with a clenched jaw before he trailed off back onto the subject of bullying Marley's mom as they began to walk away, "dude, imagine the size of her dumps."

Clocking onto the hurt look on Marley's face, Jake had become annoyed at the way that they could so easily get away with saying anything they wanted about anyone. Joining the two girls, he decided to take their side, "enough." He said sternly, to catch their attention, "say you're sorry... to both of them." Before remembering their stab at Tessa and nodding his head towards her, "her too."

From the football players silence, Jake could tell that nobody was getting an apology out of them any time soon so he let out an annoyed breath of air, "you know what? Screw it." Before anyone knew it, he'd knocked their trays upwards to start a fight between the three of them.

When the two football players piled on top of Jake, Tessa frowned in a slightly proud fashion to how quickly he'd leapt into action to defend Marley. Handing her plate to Marley, Tessa began using her tray as a weapon, whacking the two football players in a bid to create a more fair fight.

Almost as quickly as the fight had began, Mr Schue rushed forward and pulled Jake out of the middle of the scrap and pushed Tessa to the side to prevent her from getting any more involved. Grabbing hold of Jake's arm, he'd started to lead him out of the lunch hall despite his protests, "this is garbage! Those guys suck and I'm the one getting dragged to see Figgins?"

At the sight of this, Tessa decided she ought to stand up for him the way he'd stood up for her, following after the pair, "yeah! That's not fair! Did you not hear the crap they're saying to Marley's mom? And Just-Jake wasn't the only one of us in that fight."

Seeing she wasn't going to back down, Mr Schue ran his hand across his face, "fine. Tessa, detention. Now go enjoy your lunch with Marley. Jake, you're still coming with me."

"I tried, Just-Jake!" Tessa called after him, grinning as Jake sent her back a thumbs up before Mr Schue dragged him around the corner. Turning back round, Tessa made her way back to join Marley with a smile, "are you and your mom okay?"

"We're used to this by now." Marley said quietly, fiddling with her bracelet as they sat down.

"You shouldn't have to be. You're both awesome."

Smiling into her lap, Marley was definitely beginning to feel as though she really belonged at Mckinley having someone by her side who hadn't failed to defend her since they'd known one another, "I'm sorry you got detention though."

"It's no bother." Tessa grinned back with a wiggle of her eyebrows, "I'm in there every other week for something or other. I met two of the best people I'll ever meet in detention: Mike Chang and Finn Hudson."

Nodding despite not having a clue who either of those people were yet, Marley still couldn't stop herself from smiling as Tessa broke her cookie in half once again and offered it to her, feeling as though she'd met one of the best people, even if she hadn't met her in detention.

　　　　　　　    ☆

JAKE PUCKERMAN HAD BEEN INTRIGUED BY THE GIRL WHO HAD STOOD BY HIM IN THE LUNCH LINE THE PREVIOUS DAY. Scooting up to her locker as Tessa was busy shoving her books inside, he leant up against it with his signature smirk and looked her up and down, "hey, how you doing?"

Hearing his flirtatious tone, Tessa slowly spun round to face him and recognized him as the guy who'd stood up for her and Marley's mom the previous day, the guy she believed was into Marley. Seeing her staring for the moment, Jake became more confident but his smirk quickly fell as she burst out into laughter.

"What? What's so funny?" He frowned, offended.

Stopping herself for a second, Tessa caught sight of Sam down the hall, struggling to catch her laughter as she waved him over, "babe come over here."

Watching her boyfriend come towards them, Jake felt a rush of nervousness flow through his body sensing he was about to be part of another fight for flirting with his girl. Standing up taller to give him an image of a lack of fear, Jake gave him a small nod as Sam took his place besides Tessa and wrapped an arm loosely around her waist.

"Do it again." Tessa asked through her laughter with an encouraging nod.

"Are you-are you sure?" Jake stammered, rubbing the back of his neck as he became more and more worried as to their motives when the two just kept grinning at him. Once he'd repeated what he'd said earlier, he was even more surprised when Sam laughed alongside her, "why are you laughing?"

"Because you're definitely Puck's brother." Tessa replied, "he actually wasn't making it up."

Scrunching up his face, Jake looked down at them in confusion, "has Schuester told you all already?"

Shaking his head, Sam rummaged round in his pocket and brought out his phone, showing Jake his latest messages, "me and your brother are practically best friends so as soon as he found out he texted me to tell me everything. Is it weird that I know him better than you?... Anyways he also asked if I was still with Tess because she looked hot today but I just ignored that text."

Nodding in slow understanding, a small smile pulled at the corners of his lips, "he and I are similar, huh? Tell me something I haven't been told before. You're almost as creepy as Schuester."

Frowning, Tessa folded her arms over her chest, "okay that's just offensive."

Fiddling with the handle bars of his scooter, Jake felt surrounded by Sam and Tessa as they stood in front of him with smiles on their faces. Wanting to scoot down the halls in another direction, he began to back up, "what is this? An interview?"

"A friendship interview." Sam confirmed.

"I don't need friends."

Holding her hands up in surrender, Tessa exchanged a quick glance with Sam before shrugging, "if you say so dude. But after you stood up for Marley I thought you were pretty cool so we'd be good friends."

Seeing the seriousness on her face, Jake couldn't believe that he was even considering making friends as it was something he'd ruled out when he'd joined Mckinley high school. Running his hand across his face, he pointed the other straight at Tessa with a warning glare, "Schuester or my brother haven't put you up to this?"

"Nope." Tessa replied, popping the 'p.'

"You guys just wanna be friends?"

"Yep." Sam and Tessa replied in unison.

Letting out a deep sigh, Jake chuckled and shook his head, "you two are completely insane and totally weird."

Shrugging her shoulders proudly, Tessa was glad she was making some progress with the guy stood leant against the lockers in front of them, feeling as though something had clicked when they'd stood besides each other in the lunch hall the previous day, "someone's gotta make your time at Mckinley interesting."

"I guess we did make a pretty good team." He thought aloud, trailing off as he continued to consider the options, "and you're right, you're both pretty weird so... yeah."

"Yeah as in we're friends now?" Sam questioned through a grin.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Jake pointed a warning finger in their direction, "if anyone asks me I'll deny it. I don't need friends, I still stand by that."

Bouncing up and down, Tessa clapped her hands together as the grin came to her lips, "great! Does this mean I can ride on your scooter now?"

"It's my scooter." Jake pouted, rolling the scooter behind himself protectively, "get your own, loser."

"Mr Schue confiscated hers last year." Sam explained, shaking his head, "then when she used mine she got it confiscated as well. Our Tess is pretty unlucky when it comes to scooting."

"Especially around Schuester." Tessa pitched in with a deep frown.

Matching her frown with his own, Jake was starting to wonder why his brother had spoken so highly of their glee club teacher when he was discovering that he was in a feud with Tessa's scooters, "you're making me regret joining the glee club." He whispered worriedly, "if Schuester hates scooters I don't know if I wanna join."

Furrowing his eyebrows together at his concern, "you say we're weird but your best friend's clearly your scooter." Sam mumbled, widening his eyes as he tried to clear his head.

"Don't you dare back out of joining!" Tessa warned him in a threatening manner, "Marley's so excited and if you break her heart I'll break you."

"She will. Trust me." Sam leant in closer towards Jake, whispering in his ear.

Laughing awkwardly, he rubbed the back of his neck, scrunching his face up in embarrassment, "about that... I'm kind of dating Kitty."

Putting her head in her hands, Tessa let out a heavy sigh before looking up once more with eyebrows knitted together, "kind of? You playing her too?"

Shaking his head slowly, Jake was as unsure what to say as he was about his feelings towards Marley, "I like the way Kitty makes me feel I guess."

"You know what? That's totally fair." Tessa said, holding her hands up in surrender, "obviously I think Marley's a better choice but I'm very biased because I love her to pieces already. And I don't really know Kitty yet... even though she's my Co-Captain now."

Grinning back at her, Jake had to admit to himself that he was secretly glad he hadn't lost the two friends he'd made so far at Mckinley, pushing his scooter forward, "seen as you guys are still stood here, you can have one lap of the school on my scooter." He told them, Tessa immediately bouncing up and down victoriously, "but if you're not back here with it and Schuester's confiscated mine as well I'm taking back my friendship."

"Deal." Tessa agreed enthusiastically, jumping on the scooter and looking over her shoulders to see Jake with his arms folded over his chest stood besides Sam who was beaming at her and giving her two thumbs up of support, "if I don't come back I'll give your your scooter when we're in detention together."

Beaming with delight, she set off zooming down the hall as the two boys watched through their fingers as Tessa almost instantly crashed into another new kid at the school with a dodgy Justin Bieber haircut. Shaking his head in amazement, Jake was shocked at what he'd managed to get himself into, "she's insane."

"She's awesome." Sam whispered back, full of love and appreciation for his girl as she turned the corner and sped through the school on Jake Puckerman's scooter.

　　　　　　　　☆

BRITTANY S. PIERCE HAD BELIEVED THAT EVERYONE IN GLEE CLUB WAS MAD AT HER. After the incident where she'd persuaded them to lip sync 'Gimme More' for the assembly and ended up getting them yelled at by Mr Schue, it seemed as though she was in even more of a slump than ever.

Finding a map in her locker, she'd followed it to the auditorium, where Tessa was sat waiting for her with a bright smile on her face and a wave, patting down on the seat next to her for Brittany to make her way over and sit besides her, "I got your note. Thanks for drawing the map."

"I thought it might be helpful." Tessa smiled softly, "it was either that or some cereal, I know you sometimes forget to eat breakfast so I thought you might be up for a snack." Holding up a pot of Brittany's favorite cereal, Tessa passed it over to her as she grinned, "look, I know what you're up to — The lip syncing, beating up JBI — you're intentionally hitting rock bottom."

Nodding, Brittany adjusted her position so she could lay her head against Tessa's shoulder, "so I can make a glorious comeback, just like Britney. I mean look at her: she got paid fourteen million dollars to be on X-factor, she looks great, she has an amazing perfume you can smell from miles away. No matter what happened to her, she just came back stronger."

Tessa couldn't help but smile at as Brittany explained her plan to her but was keen to bring her out of her slump and help her with her comeback so she could return to the happy Brittany they all knew and loved, "agreed on that one, Britt. But let's consider us sitting here together the final stop on the Train-Wreck-Express."

"I'm so ready to come back." Brittany agreed, but her smile faltered, "I'm just so sad that everyone's so mad at me."

"They just didn't understand what you were up to. They don't all have genius minds like you and I."

"Santana would've understood." Brittany said through a sad sigh, "and she would've used mean words against anyone who got down on me. I just miss the little things you know? Like her laugh and the smell of her armpits. Yeah we had interesting lady sex, but she was also my best friend. And she was yours too."

Nodding in reply, Tessa looked down to give Brittany an equally sad smile as they thought back to the friends that had left them in Mckinley, "i miss her too. A hell of a lot. And Finn and Mike and Kurt and everyone." She admitted, "but we have each other and Sam and Blaine and Artie and kind of Tina. I think Mike might've kidnapped the real Tina because this girl is an imposter. All we have to do now is find a way to get you back on the Cheerios because I've missed you so much in the short time you've been off. It's been crappy without you."

Reaching out for her hand, Brittany gave it a squeeze, "don't you worry Tessa. It's all part of the comeback, I have a plan."

"You always do... genius." Tessa grinned, leaning her head on top of Brittany's and smiling at the thought of getting her back on form, knowing that Santana had been completely right that even if she wasn't there to kick ass for them both, they would still have each other for a warm hug and a bowl of cereal at the end of the day.