MORE LIKE A ROCKY HORROR SHIT SHOW!

WATCHING HER SCOWL AT ALL THE COUPLES AROUND HER, TESSA TOOK HER PLACE NEXT TO SANTANA LOPEZ. With Puck still in juvie, rather than sitting with him, she decided sitting with her best friend was the best option.

Noticing her eyes flickering towards Sam and Quinn, Santana raised an eyebrow, "are you missing Puckerman or are you just pining over Trouty Mouth?"

"Missing Puckerman." She confirmed, in a tone that Santana couldn't believe.

"I bet he's not missing you." Santana mumbled under her breathe, holding up her hands in defeat as Tessa crossed her arms over her chest, "just telling it like it is, Tess. You know I don't want him to hurt you."

"He hurts me, you hurt him — I know." Tessa laughed, lightly, "what would I do without you?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Santana licked her lips, "you'd probably be even more weird than you already are." Watching as Mr Schue came in, she gave him a subtle look of disgust at his excitement, "yet I'm sat here with you, listening to him, how weird does that make me?"

Tessa had to hold her hand over her nose to stop herself from bursting into laughter in front of Mr Schue, who'd already started talking, "good news guys! I've had a little inspiration! This week's musical lesson isn't really a lesson, it's a musical."

"Please be Footloose." Tessa whispered hopefully, looking over to Santana, who had her eyebrow raised, "what? I've watched that with Mike about a thousand times."

"Rocky Horror!" Mr Schue announced, excitedly.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Rachel stuck her hand up to speak, immediately, "Mr Schue? While I admire your choice of the groundbreaking seventies musical, don't you think the adult themes might be a point of controversy?" She said, getting agreeing nods from the rest of the group, even those who had never seen the show before.

"Isn't that what the arts is all about?" Mr Schue tried to encourage them, "pushing boundaries, doing things people say you can't do just for the sake of self expression?"

Leaning in towards Santana, Tessa narrowed her eyes as she listened to Mr Schue explain how he'd organized the musical, "is this the same Mr Schue that wouldn't let us sing Britney Spears?"

Before anyone else could get the chance, Rachel had her hand straight up in the air, "Finn and I will play Brad and Janet!" She announced.

That was obviously exactly what Mr Schue thought as well because he grinned at them, moving on to the next people. "I'll be playing the guy in the wheelchair, right?" Artie confirmed, to which Mr Schue nodded, "that's what I was thinking. And Kurt could play the role of Frankenfurter."

Widening his eyes, Kurt shook his head in rapid protest, "no! There's no way I'm playing a transvestite in high heels and fishnets."

"Why? Because that look was last season?" Santana teased, earning herself a warning slap on the arm from Tessa.

Before Kurt could protest, Mike had already put his name forward to play Frankenfurter instead and Mr Schue had moved onto Sam, "Sam, I'd like you to play the role of creature."

"From the black lagoon?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Rocky. He's like the Frankenstein character, but blonde." Quinn told him, with a flirty glance, "you'll kill the part, he's cute, just like you."

"Better start working on those abs!" Santana sang out across the room, giving Tessa a side eyed smile.

Turning round to face her, Sam quickly showed off his confidence, "are you kidding me? You could cut glass with these babies!" He exclaimed, "I have no problem showing off my body."

"Okay! Looks like we've got ourselves a show!" Mr Schue declared, clapping his hands together to begin the room off cheering.

　　　　　　　　☆

TESSA HAD FINALLY BEEN CONVINCED TO SIT DOWN AFTER GOOFING OFF WITH MIKE. Pulling the last bit of tape from her arm, she put her remaining energy into helping him tape down the imaginary stage for Finn and Rachel to rehearse on.

Sitting down next to her on the piano, Sam gave her a playful nudge to the side, "whatcha doin'?" He asked, leaning his head onto her shoulder.

Leaning her head on top of his, she smiled, "just sittin' here. Waiting to blow you all away with my fabulous backing dancer skills."

"Cool, cool." Sam chuckled, lightly.

"I'm just sad I don't get a cool wig like Quinn, Kurt and Santana." Tessa pouted, sitting up from their position and reaching behind her, "I have a hat."

Taking that hat from her and placing it on his own head, Sam let out a laugh, "if I pretend to be you, you could just steal one of their cool wigs." He said, pointing over to where Kurt was busy talking to Mercedes, "look! Kurt's is unoccupied!"

"So I'm Riff Raff now?"

"Sure!" He replied, shaking her shoulders encouragingly, "don't dream it be it!" He exclaimed, taking a short pause, "or at least i think that's what it said. It's a lot to take in in a short time for me."

"I'm always free to help if you need it." Tessa smiled in return.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Sam said, grabbing Tessa's full attention, "do you maybe wanna come over tonight to help me run lines? We could do that duet I promised you!"

Nodding enthusiastically, her lips grew into a smile, "I'd love to. As long as we don't have to sing Toucha-Toucha." She reasoned, lowering her voice, "not exactly fair on Quinn."

Eyes widened, Sam was quick to agree, "oh, yeah, of course. I would've asked her but she's busy at the moment with Cheerios and stuff and I figured you're one of my best friends, and I owe you a duet."

"Great." Tessa grinned, as Sam jumped off the piano next to her, giving her a beaming smile before running over to Quinn.

Sam's seat was quickly occupied by Santana, who'd watched the whole interaction from across the choir room. Sending her a proud smile, she slapped a hand down on Tessa's knee, "yes Tess! You have gotten so good at flirting!"

Growing red instantly, Tessa quickly denied her claims, "I wasn't flirting. I gave him a hat."

Remembering that part of the conversation, Santana screwed up her face, "okay, maybe you're not great at flirting, but ill get you there."

"I don't want to flirt with him."

"Nonsense." Santana blurted out, waving her hand in the air dismissively, "I'll risk skipping Cheerios practice to give you the Santana Lopez crash course in flirting." Just as she was beginning to give Tessa as many tips as she could, ignoring every time she brought up Puck, Mr Schue walked in. Groaning loudly, Santana was clearly annoyed, "why does he always have to come in and ruin our conversations?"

"Right, places everyone! I want to start with Dammit Janet." Mr Schue announced, stopping all chatting around him and getting everyone into their places.

"Oh i can't wait until Finn takes his top off and we can all see the hot mess that's underneath." Santana called out, with a sly smirk. Noticing Finn tensing up against her, Rachel quickly put her hand in his to give him a bit of comfort.

"What are you talking about?" Finn managed to get out without his voice becoming nervous.

"You can't have sloppy joes for lunch everyday and think you can get away with it." Brittany remarked, shrugging her shoulders with the harsh truth.

Quickly wanting to stand up for her boyfriend, Rachel pulled him even closer to her, "um, that's incredibly rude."

"Is it?" Quinn argued, "guys whisper behind our backs about how we girls look everyday. They objectify us all the time."

"Yeah, earlier today, Artie asked me if he could make a massive omelet with the ostrich eggs that in hiding in my bra." Santana chipped in, causing the whole room to turn to Artie, shaking their heads.

"Guys." Tessa spoke up loudly, grabbing everyone's full attention before lowering her voice to keep the stern tone, "we shouldn't be judging each other's body image, girls or boys."

When Tessa spoke about body image they all listened. Tessa had been diagnosed with bulimia the year before. It had put a dampen on her freshman year at high school but she'd kept going and with her friends in glee club there to keep her spirits up, she was getting better every day. She still had hard days, and she knew she'd have hard days for a long while but in glee club, she didn't feel alone like she did at first. Her bulimia had completely changed her relationship with food and with the way her body looked. It was important to her to try and prevent others from going through what she'd gone through, starting with making sure Finn's obvious body image issues weren't being pushed to the side.

"I'm super looking forward to seeing Sam in his gold bikini." Brittany changed the subject away from Tessa, a smile growing on her lips.

"It's gonna be ab-ulous." Sam said, confidently pointing towards his abs.

Still feeling insecure, Finn quickly tried to move on, with a pleading look towards Mr Schue in the hopes of him saying something, "can we get on with rehearsals now?"

"I agree, let's stay focused guys." Mr Schue nodded, pointing towards the costumed members of the group, "Riff Raff, Columbia, Magenta, take your places."

With one last squeeze of Tessa's shoulders, Finn made his way to where he and Rachel were to perform 'Dammit Janet.'

[SONG — DAMMIT JANET, SANG BY FINN, RACHEL, QUINN, KURT AND TESSA]

Mr Schue had left halfway through the performance and with the rehearsals cut short, Santana was quick to whip Tessa to the back of the choir room, dating knowledge pouring out of her mouth. Despite genuinely wanting to help her friend, she couldn't help but glance Brittany's way, making sure that she was watching her give her kick ass friend material to someone else.

　　　　　　　    ☆

SAM HAD FINALLY MANAGED TO DRAG TESSA AWAY FROM STACEY WHEN SHE ARRIVED AT HIS HOUSE THAT NIGHT. Smiling affectionately as he watched her wave goodbye to his sister, he took her hand and lead her to his bedroom.

"Sorry about her." He said, rubbing the back of his neck as they both took a seat on his bed, "she's probably excited that someone in the house took an interest in her dolls. I didn't know you were into those sorta girly things."

Flushing red, Tessa shrugged her shoulders, "I'm not — usually. I have two brothers too, so I know how she feels."

"I tried playing with her Barbies with her once until she threw a shoe at me for calling one Rosie." Sam laughed, "she's crazy."

"I would've thrown a shoe at you too. How dare you disrespect Raquelle like that?" She teased, her serious face quickly cracking into a goofy smile as he smiled back at her, grabbing his script from his bag.

"Haha very funny." He replied, sarcastically, giving her a playful shove, before slapping his hands down on his knees, "now, what song we singing?"

Shrugging her shoulders up and down slowly, she looked around, taking in his bedroom, "I don't mind, what were you thinking?"

Jumping up, Sam began digging in a drawer full of sheet music, muttering to himself. Just this made Tessa smile as she saw the concentration on his face, but she quickly shook her head away from the thoughts before they could grow. Finally, Sam held up a couple of sheets victoriously throwing them Tessa's way, "Something Stupid? You know this song?"

"Correction — i love this song." She beamed as he budged up right next to her, reading the music over her shoulder, an excited smile on his face, "we'll go through lines after, okay?"

"Sounds great to me." Sam grinned, "thanks for doing this, Tess. It means a lot that you understand."

Tessa's smile softened, "don't thank me. I love hanging out with you."

"Me too." He nodded, grabbing his phone and swiftly turning on the music so they could begin to sing.

Singing together, Tessa realised how much she loved how she felt when she was with Sam, but she hated the fact she knew she didn't feel that way with Puck. She let her mind wander slightly, imagining what could've happened between them if she wasn't with Puck, and Sam didn't like Quinn.

There were some moments where she wondered if Sam felt the same as her, but she quickly dismissed this, reminding herself that it was impossible. And even if it was, it wasn't right, with Puck in juvie and all. But when she danced around with Sam, sang with him and was just being around him, Tessa felt happier than she'd felt in a while and that really got her thinking.

　　　　　　　   ☆

CARL HOWELL WAS BACK TO HELP THE GLEE CLUB, MUCH TO MR SCHUE'S DISLIKING. With Mike having to back out as Frankenfurter, he'd come to fill in, so the show wouldn't be cancelled.

Irritated by Miss Pillsbury's thrilled expression at her boyfriend's contribution, Mr Schue furrowed his eyebrows in a way that the New Directions were quick to laugh at, "he's totally jealous." Tessa whispered to Kurt.

"He looks like he could explode any second." Kurt agreed, "this is pure gold."

"I don't understand." Mr Schue breathed out his frustration.

Shrugging his shoulders, Carl placed his hands on his hips, "well, you guys have a hole to fill and I'm just tryna help fill it."

"Wanky." Santana called out, smirking to herself.

"Well I can't just give you a role. You have to try out." Mr Schue spat directly at Carl, in any desperate attempt to get rid of him before he could ruin his whole plan to win Emma over once again.

Nodding sharply, Carl seemed to consider this fair, waltzing over and taking Emma by the hand, "fair enough. But I'm gonna need a lady to sing to, Ems?"

Taking his hands with a blush and a playful smile, they began to dance as the band struck up, leaving Mr Schuester slumped back in his seat, the biggest pout on his face as he watched his crush and his glee club all having fun with the guy he found himself seeing as his nemesis.

[SONG- HOT PATOOTIE, SANG BY CARL]

Dancing around with everyone was so much fun and Tessa was lucky enough to find herself dancing with Kurt, giggling as he twirled her around and they attempted to dip each other.

Clapping excitedly as the song came to an end, the group seemed clear that they wanted him in the musical, even if Mr Schue didn't like it, "can you stay forever?" Tessa gushed.

As everyone else cheered, Sue was already stopping them, "no, no, no! This will not do!" She announced, catching everyone's attention, "that was an Eddie song. We need a Frankenfurter, not an Eddie. He was eliminated in my re-writes."

Instantly, Mr Schue was delighted to have been given a reason to get Carl away from his musical, "yeah. If you wanna play in our sandbox, sing a Frankenfurter number."

"Well I'm sorry bro. While I think it's fine to wear the Frankenfurter bustier in the privacy of your own home — I'm freaky like that." He quickly shot a wink towards Emma, "but don't you think it's a little inappropriate for a school musical? At least if I play Eddie I won't have to grind up against the students. Eddie's an important role, if I did it I'd be showing my support to the arts."

Mr Schue had already taken a threatening step forward, "are you telling me how to direct my show?"

Before this could get any worse or Carl could retort, Mercedes stood from her chair, lifting her hand tentatively, "Mr Schue? I'd like to play Frankenfurter. I was rereading the script yesterday and it said don't dream it, be it, and it's my dream to play a lead role, so I figured, why not me?" Her explanation already had all of her friend's support as they nodded along encouragingly, "I mean, I'd look all kinds of sexy in that outfit and I can reinterpret the number a little bit — make it more modern. I'd really like the chance."

Tessa was ready to attack Mr Schue if he said no, but Sue already had a smile on her face, "congratulations Will, you've killed two birds with one stone. You've gotten yourself a Frankenfurter and an Eddie!"

Luckily for Mr Schue, the group were too busy celebrating with Mercedes to notice the frustration in his smile as he watched Carl be so eagerly accepting into the celebration, his jealousy growing by the second.

　　　　　　　 ☆

AFTER A STERN WORD FROM CARL AND A TALK WITH EMMA, MR SCHUE HAD FINALLY COME TO TERMS WITH WHAT HE WAS DOING WRONG. Sitting on a stool in front of the glee club, he was ready to do one of the hardest things that a person can do — apologise, "I want to apologize for putting you guys through this. Especially Finn and Sam."

"It's cool Mr Schue." Finn said through a soft chuckle, "I'm sure the teasing will die down by the time the tenth reunion rolls round."

"And I got asked to be June in the men of Mckinley calendar." Sam chipped in, giving Mr Schue a forgiving smile as he patted his abs, comically.

A wave of relief washed over the teacher as he saw his students weren't too upset with him and he began to smile a little bit as he saw them all laughing and smiling together, "I'm happy for you. But we still can't do the musical. Look, I was wrong. Rocky Horror isn't about pushing boundaries or making an audience accept a certain rebellious point of view. Those were my reasons for doing it, and they aren't worth risking what we have here for. And when I was younger, and they started midnight shows of Rocky Horror, it wasn't for envelope pushers — It was for outcasts, people on the fringes who had no place left to go, but were searching for someplace — anyplace — where they felt like they belonged. Sound familiar?" He looked around at the glee club and took in a breathe of air, "The truth is, with that perspective, Rocky Horror is the perfect show for this club."

"Then why aren't we putting it on?" Santana questioned.

"We're still gonna do Rocky Horror." Mr Schue told them, getting a round of applause from the group, "just not for an audience. We're doing it for ourselves."

The glee club were perfectly satisfied with this, grinning at Mr Schue, who they knew was still clearly upset about losing Miss Pillsbury for good and chatting to each other excitedly about their next performance together.