CEREAL SORTING WITH NEW FRIENDS!

ON HIS WAY TO GLEE CLUB, FINN COULDN'T HELP BUT OVERHEAR A WORRYING CONVERSATION BETWEEN SANTANA AND MERCEDES. With the knowledge that Mercedes had left the glee club to join Shelby Corcoran's new girl group, he was on high alert, not ready for the possibility that anyone would follow after her.

Also on her way to glee club, Tessa caught sight of Finn creeping up behind the girls, eyes squinted as he tried to hear everything their said without being caught. Scrunching up her face in confusion, she popped up besides him, "what are you doing you creep?" She hissed, making him jump out of his skin.

"Shh!" He shushed her, "I think Mercedes is trying to get Santana to leave glee club. And I'm pretty sure whatever she's saying is working."

Biting the inside of her lip, Tessa shrugged her shoulders slightly, knowing how much Santana would enjoy the spotlight of the new girl group, and how much of that spotlight she definitely deserved, "I don't blame her, Finn. Either of them. They really deserve their time in the sun."

Becoming panicked by her tone, he whipped around to face her, "no, you're not thinking of joining to are you?" Grabbing her by the shoulders Finn forced her to face him, "I can't lose you too."

Standing up onto her tiptoes, Tessa reached up to put her hands on top of his shoulders in response, "you're not losing me. Mercedes asked me and I thought about it. But I said no, I'd miss Mike too much."

Letting go of his sigh of relief, Finn had never been more grateful for the presence of Mike Chang, wrapping his arm around Tessa and pulling her into the choir room where Tina was already crying. Pouting sadly, Tessa reached across Mike and gave Tina a rub on the shoulder to try and console her. Taking the opposite approach, Santana was busy filing her nails, totally unimpressed, "you know what girl Chang? If you cry each time someone gets a hangnail, it kind of starts to lose the effect."

"It's not a hangnail." Tina sniffed, "Mercedes was one of glee's original members. I feel naked in here without her."

"Yeah well get used to it." Puck threw in harshly, "cause we'll have to perform naked for the judges to vote for us at sectionals."

Throwing Puck a glare, Tessa felt the need to defend Tina, "shut it Puckerman, you just want to see us all naked, you creep."

Interrupting before anyone else could bully Puck further, Mr Schue wanted everyone to stay positive, "no, i will not let this setback crush our spirits. I mean, we've handled worse."

"Than losing one of our best singers?" Mike asked, skeptically.

"Kind of hard not to blame you, Mr Schue." Quinn spoke up loudly, "think you were too hard on her at booty camp." She accused, getting a nod of full agreement from Tessa.

"I blame Artie." Tina pitched in, "why couldn't you have given Maria to Mercedes?"

Spinning round to face her, Artie was surprised that one of his closest friends would turn on him like this and held up his hands in surrender, "it would've damaged my integrity as an artist."

With Rachel marching in announcing something about her campaign that Kurt quickly made a witty remark about, the room had gone to conflict as quickly as Mercedes Jones had quit. Wanting to be in on the fun, Mike and Tessa exchanged a wicked grin and started a dramatic fight with one another, ending in Mike standing up and knocking his chair over.

Fed up of the fighting, Finn took a stand, "no, no, look, let's stop it everybody. So we lost a singer, so they cancelled the musical —"

Interrupting him, Rachel jumped up from her chair and began screaming, "what? No, no, no! You can't cancel my musical!"

"Sue cut the funding." Mike explained, bored.

"The point is that we shouldn't be turning on each other right now." Finn insisted.

Standing up to agree, Blaine was in an attempt to get into Finn's good books, "I agree. I can only speak from my experience with the Warblers but no show choir is just one person, but a team. When we lost a Warbler, we just replaced him with another one."

Annoyed that his attempt to pump up the team was interrupted, Finn licked his lips with frustration, "which is easy when your waiting list has a waiting list. Dude, I know you're a big deal at Dalton or whatever, but we don't wear blazers here. So have a seat, I'm trying to give a pep talk."

"Didn't you just say something about not turning on each other?" Blaine mumbled, sadly, slumping back into his seat.

Taking a stand on her chair, Tessa put a hand on Finn's shoulder to calm him down before he could continue, "Finn, you know I love you but shut up and leave Blaine alone. I'll give the pep talk."

Before she even had chance to open her mouth, Rachel was frantically tearing up over the musical, quick to be reassured by Mr Schue. Still standing on her chair ready to speak, Tessa pouted sadly, "my pep talk." She whispered, quietly.

Happy to ignore Mr Schue, Quinn turned all her attention to her, "I'm listening Tess." She announced, patting her arm as Tessa climbed down her chair, slumping into it the same way Blaine Anderson had done as his pep talk was shut down.

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PEEPING INTO THE NEAREST EMPTY CLASSROOM, FINN AND TESSA WERE ABOUT TO MEET A NEW FRIEND. Recognising him to be the foreign exchange student living with Brittany, Tessa led them in with a smile, sitting opposite him, beckoning Finn to join her.

Almost as soon as she'd sat down, the new kid had jumped out of his seat at the sight of Finn Hudson, "Finn Hudson." He gasped, making Tessa smile to herself.

"You know who I am?" Finn questioned, nervously.

"Ive seen you on YouTube losing glee club Nationals after tongue-kissing your girlfriend for ten minutes." He said, eyes widening, "I'm a big fan."

Laughing to herself, Tessa was already finding herself amused by this new kid and patted for him to sit back down whilst she noticed the large amount of cereal in front of her and felt the need to help out with the cereal sorting, "so, tell us about yourself, dude."

"My names Rory Flanagan. I'm a foreign exchange student from Ireland and I love everything about America especially NASCAR, your half black president and Victoria Secret catalogues." He told them, enthusiastically, "I'm staying at the home of Brittany S. Pierce and she thinks im a leprechaun."

"Yeah, she's kind of like Rain Man with boobs." Finn said, confusing himself a little bit.

"She says that if I grant her three wishes, I can get into her pot of gold. So I'm pretending to be a leprechaun. Her first wish was for an all marshmallows box of Lucky Charms. I really wanna snog her." Rory explained, a look of wonder in his eyes.

"Who doesn't?" Tessa chuckled, wiggling her eyebrows as she popped a marshmallow into her mouth rather than the box.

Sitting forward, Finn was now the only one not in on the cereal sorting, "so, have you made any friends yet?"

Shaking his head, Rory gave him a sad smile, "not really, except Brittany. I'm really lonely you know?" He whispered, making Tessa frown a little bit, "I thought America was all about different unique people coming together and accepting each other. I could really use some more friends."

Taking it upon herself to be Rory Flanagan's friend, Tessa sat up straighter in her seat and reached out to give him a pat on his shoulder, "well I'll be your friend. I'm Tessa Swann."

Beaming back at her, Rory seemed delighted, "I know, Brittany told me."

Still confused as to how everyone seemed to know her, Tessa just smiled in return, spinning round to face Finn, nodding her head towards Rory, signaling for him to do the same as her. Narrowing his eyes at her, Finn was struggling to pick up on the signals she was trying to send him, but Rory was still eager for friends, "will you be my friend Finn Hudson?"

Scrunching up his face, Finn considered his offer for a moment, trying to find a way to answer without hurting his feelings, "I'm America, dudes don't ask dudes to be their friends. Except on Facebook, when it can still take years —"

Tutting loudly, Tessa gave him a slight glare, "that's stupid, don't listen to him. Sam used to ask people to be his friend all the time, in fact I bet he's doing that right now." Thinking of Sam made her chuckle slightly, shaking it off, she reached forward and rested a hand on both of theirs, "you're friends. Right Finn?"

Being persuaded by Sam Evans, Finn grinned across the table, "yeah, I'll be your friend. But first you've gotta help me. One of the best singers in glee club quit recently and there's talk of more deflections. You're staying at Britt's house right? If you hear anything, let me know."

Nodding along, that was a good enough deal for Rory, "I will."

Pleased to have an insider on the job, Finn stood up from his seat with a firm nod his way, snatching his backpack up from the floor and made his way towards the door. Calling after him, Rory gave him a questioning look, "Finn Hudson, that's Irish, right?"

"Nah, my mom's from Toledo." Finn chuckled, waiting for a moment as Tessa popped a last marshmallow into the box for him with a smile, "see you around, Rory." She grinned, giving him a wave before her and Finn left Rory to his cereal sorting.