"WE'RE BOTH JUST DORKS — IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE!"

NOAH PUCKERMAN WAS IN JUVIE AND THE GROUP SAT OPEN MOUTHED AS THEY HEARD THE NEWS. Already knowing everything there was to know about this, Tessa sat back in her chair, shaking her head.

Immediately as the group started joking about it, Quinn spoke up, "what did he do?" She questioned, astonished.

"He drove his mom's Volvo through the front of a convenience store and drove off with the atm." Tessa informed them, before Mr Schue had a chance to, rolling her eyes exaggeratively.

Looking between her and Mr Schue, Rachel seemed the most concerned about the situation, "and when's he getting out?"

"Unknown." Mr Schue stated, eyeing her suspiciously.

"He might just be the stupidest person on the planet, and that's coming from me." Brittany piped up, through a laugh.

"You're not stupid, Brittany." Tessa whispered, leaning her chin down against Brittany's shoulder as she smiled, appreciatively.

As the glee club began to talk over one another, laughing over Puck's entry to juvie, Mr Schue frowned deeply, "guys, let's have some sympathy."

"For a guy who puts his needs before the team's?" Finn scoffed, disapprovingly, "we need his voice and his bad boy stage presence!"

"We can't look at this as a crisis!" Mr Schue insisted, loudly, obviously desperate for the group not to lose hope more than they already had, "it's an opportunity."

Taking the opposite approach, Quinn sat forward in her chair, "for what? Further humiliation and embarrassment?"

A large grin appearing on his face, Mr Schue directed all of their eyes to the door where a blonde boy came running through, "for welcoming our newest member, Sam Evans!"

"Hey everybody! I'm Sam." Sam introduced himself with a wave, "Sam I am, and I don't like green eggs and ham."

"Yay Sam I Am!" Tessa cheered, quietly above the cringing silence, flashing him an impressed smile, which he gratefully returned.

"Oh wow, he has no game." Santana mumbled, mockingly. Not knowing how to respond, Sam's smile faltered for a second, becoming more awkward.

Jumping up from his seat, Finn was quick to reassure him, sticking his hand out for Sam to shake, "okay! This is gonna be great! You're not gonna regret joining, Sam."

Taking his seat between Finn and Tessa, Sam immediately turned his head to her as Mr Schue began talking about duets. Opening his arms out, he shook his head to the side lightly, an expectant smile growing on his face. Laughing lightly, Tessa copied his actions, "so you joined, Sam I Am!"

"Yes I did...Tess I Am?" He trailed off in a questioning tone, before shaking his head, "Nope. That doesn't work."

"No." Tessa laughed out loud, earning herself a glare from Mr Schue, to which she held her hands up in surrender. Rolling her eyes as he turned away, she went straight back to her conversation with Sam, "I'm lucky I was talking to you. He wouldn't want to scare away the new kid by going all Crazy Schue."

Changing the subject slightly, Sam gave her a sympathetic smile, "I'm sorry about your boyfriend."

"It was bound to happen eventually." She shrugged in return.

They were interrupted by Mr Schue loudly explaining the assignment, "so this week I want you to pair up and sing a duet. And since you guys all seemed to love our little 'Defying Gravity' diva-off, I'm making this a competition. The winners will get dinner for two, on me, at breadstix!"

This easily won over the group, causing them to cheer, Tessa too, until she realised her duet partner was in juvie. Taking a second to feel sorry for her boyfriend, she shrugged her shoulders and began to party with her friends once again, grabbing onto Sam's shoulders and shaking them excitedly.

　　　　　　　  ☆

SEEING THAT EVERYBODY ELSE HAD DUET PARTNERS, TESSA HAD BEEN UNSURE ON WHAT TO DO. But after watching Kurt's duet on his own, she'd been instilled with a bit of confidence and decided to stand in front of the glee club anyway.

Mr Schue already had his head in his hands as he looked at the girl stood on her own, sighing in exasperation as she began to explain herself.

"Um- I didn't have a partner. So I took inspiration from the amazing Kurt Hummel and yeah." Tessa began, rubbing the back of her neck, awkwardly, "I just wanted to sing, you know? I know my costume isn't as good as Kurt's and I don't have the Cheerios and all that but I'm trying."

Everyone took a second to look at her clearly homemade costume, one side being half a Hawaiian shirt, messily down to a swimsuit like thing with a pair of shorts on the other. Her hair was let down on one side, with the other being up in a bun. They didn't know whether to be sympathetic or to laugh as she gave a nod to the band, starting up the music for 'Lay All Your Love On Me.'

Jumping from side to side to portray both Sophie and Sky's parts, Tessa was trying to enjoy herself without thinking about the embarrassment of how she must look up there in front of her friends.

Shaking her head affectionately, Santana chuckled into her hand, giving Sam's chair in front of her a kick as she saw his smile just get bigger, the more he watched. Eventually thinking it'd gone one too long for Tessa to be up there alone, she jumped up from her seat, singing one of the parts for her friend, and beckoning for everyone else to follow her.

Tessa's face lit up almost immediately as she took Santana into her arms as they sang together and with everyone up there joining them, she was having so much fun.

As they finished, laughing and cheering together with their arms wrapped around each other, joyfully, Mr Schue clapped his hands together, "that was so great you guys, but I'm sorry Tessa, you can't be entered into the competition. That wasn't a duet."

Beaming from where she had her arms wrapped around both Santana and Tina's shoulders, Tessa gave Santana a pat on the back as she saw her and the rest of the room quickly go to protest, "That's okay." She smiled, "I had loads of fun, anyways. I can go to breadstix any other time."

The glee club left the room chatting to one another, excitedly. Santana wrapped her other arm right around Tessa and pulled herself up to plant a kiss on her forehead, "you so should win this thing. I mean I wanna win, but look at you! How could you not win?" She grumbled, "stupid Mr Schue. No me gusta."

"It's all good." Tessa chuckled.

Coming up behind them, Mike wrapped his arms around both of them at once, "well you know you're the winner in our eyes."

Laughing, the group left the choir room with a little more happiness than they came in with after singing and having fun with a friend.

　　　　　　　   ☆

AFTER THE SUCCESS OF HER DUET, TESSA CAME OUT OF THE BATHROOM COSTUME-LESS. Smiling to herself, she pulled her hair back up into a messy bun and began to walk towards the library.

Rushing to catch up with her, Sam closed his locker door and sped down the hall until he was walking alongside her with a large grin on his face, "you not coming to lunch today?" He questioned, furrowing his eyebrows slightly with worry.

"I had a large breakfast." She told him in reply, smiling sincerely at his raised eyebrows, "seriously."

Grabbing onto her hand, Sam had already spun on his heels, pulling her the other way, "come on." He begged, giving her his best puppy dog eyes, "for me?"

Giving in with a smile, Tessa tried to stop the smile poke through her lips as he swung their hands back and forth all the way to the canteen.

As they sat on a table to themselves, Sam slid a cookie across the table and nudged it onto her plate, "its an I'm sorry cookie."

"What are you sorry for?" Tessa laughed, picking up the cookie, glancing at it for a second before taking a bite.

"For not asking you to be my duet partner." He shrugged, "you shouldn't have had to be on your own,"

"It worked out pretty great in the end, didn't it? Thanks though." She grinned, looking up and meeting Sam's eyes, "you're still singing with Quinn I presume?"

"I think so." He nodded, "she's been a bit weird since I tried to kiss her, but I get it."

Spluttering on her water, Tessa tried to ignore the pit that had fallen into her stomach at his words and focused on the more important issues at hand, "you tried to kiss her?" She exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief, "dude!"

"I know! I know!" Sam breathed out, squeezing his eyes shut, "stupid right? But she's forgiven me...I think."

"It's the eyes, right?" Tessa whispered, slightly sadly.

Frowning, Sam tilted his head onto one side, "hey — lor manari!"

"I have pretty eyes?" She said, quietly, furiously hoping that her blush wasn't as obvious as it felt.

Sam nodded, "yeah. Well at least i think so."

Dave Karofsky had watched this interaction from a distance, and with a sly glance towards some of his football friends and a slushy in his hand, he made his way confidently towards the table to dump his slushy directly on top of Tessa's head.

"What the hell man?" Sam shouted, instantly getting up from his seat to defend his friend as she gasped at the chilling impact of a slushy facial that she was used to.

Slamming a hand down on Sam's shoulder, Dave gave him a shrug, "you wanna stay popular, lady lips? Ditch little miss tough guy, over there and the glee club and go back to Quinn Fabray."

Shoving his hand straight off, Sam scowled at him, taking Tessa's bag off the floor for her and leading her out of the canteen and to the bathroom.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Tessa cursed quietly as she saw her reflection looking back at her, covered in blueberry slushy, "damn. I'm gonna look like an avatar."

"I watched avatar like six times!" Sam marvelled, excitedly,

"Ugh! I watched it five," Tessa groaned, "I'm gonna have to go home and watch it now to level up to you."

Laughing, Sam threw her a hoodie as she finished cleaning herself up, "how cool are you? First you know Na'vi and you've watched avatar five times! You're probably the coolest person I've ever met."

"I think we're both just dorks — in the best way possible." She beamed, pulling her hair up as she got herself comfortable in his hoodie, "thanks for helping me clean up. It's easier with friends."

"Karofsky's an ass." Sam remarked, helping her wipe the last bit of blue stain off her forehead and flashing her a smile as he finished, "guess he just likes wasting slushies on the glee club."

Sighing deeply, Tessa shrugged, "sorry, you're gonna have to deal with them quite a bit now."

"I don't care, really. I think you guys are cool, so, that's one less footballer for you to be slushied by."

"That is true."

Before she could leave, Sam held her at arms length, "we should do a duet sometimes, you know, after the competition."

Her lips melting into a smile, Tessa agreed with a nod of her head, "totally, I'm down if you are."

"Awesome." He breathed out, giving her shoulders one last squeeze before they left the bathrooms together, discussing all things avatar.

　　　　　　　   ☆

RACHEL AND FINN HAD PERFORMED AN OFFENSIVE SONG AS AN ACT OF SABOTAGE, and Sam and Quinn were up next for the duets competition.

Putting his guitar across his shoulder, Sam gave Quinn a giddy smile before addressing the group, "i just wanted to say that i couldn't have asked for a better partner."

For some reason, Tessa felt her heart ache slightly as they gave each other the most adoring looks. She quickly just pitted this on missing Puck but deep down, she wished it was her stood up there singing with Sam Evans instead.

Sitting back to watch them perform 'Lucky,' Tessa fiddled with her fingers as they fell into her lap and forced herself to look upwards with a weak smile across her face, for the fear of seeming unsupportive to her newest friend.

Noticing her sad smile, Mike offered her the shoulder that wasn't being occupied by Tina and rubbed his hand across her shoulder. Gladly accepting, Tessa sighed out a breathe of air, her mind still conflicted over whether she wanted back what Sam and Quinn had, or just Sam.