YOU'RE ONLY ALLOWED TO HUG IF I'M IN IT!

FINN HUDSON WAS NOW NOT JUST IN CHARGE OF THE MUSICAL, BUT THE GLEE CLUB ITSELF. After Mr Schue had announced this to the glee club and a run-in with Sue Sylvester in the teachers lounge that had gone horribly wrong, he was beginning to feel his slump coming back a little bit.

Sat on top of the piano, Tessa was humming her lines under her breathe in preparation for the upcoming musical whilst Finn gathered any spare sheet music that he would need. Catching on to his mood as she heard a sigh escape his lips, Tessa threw her script down besides her and knitted her eyebrows together. Presuming it was about the reaction to him teaching the glee club, she tried to catch his eye and send him a reassuring smile, "Tina didn't mean it. She's a bit uh... emotional at the moment. You're gonna do a great job dude and we all know it deep down."

Giving Tessa a smile in return, Finn threw himself down on the spinny chair and ran his hands through his hair with a lighthearted chuckle, "thanks Tess. I'm glad you're happy to show off your faith in me."

"I'll always have your back." She grinned, shooting finger guns back his way, "you've done such a great job with Grease I don't see why you wouldn't be any good at this teaching glee. You've always been a leader of his club anyways."

"I've had a lot of help." Finn scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Practically ignoring this, Tessa waved his point off, "from people who will still be here to help. We're not just gonna abandon you then set Tina on you if you don't do something right."

Head snapping up, Finn's eyes widened in pure fear, "please don't set Tina on me."

Imagining the damage an emotional Tina could do, Tessa chuckled lightly at his response and shook her head in amusement, "I'll set Tina on you if you don't stop your pouting. I wish you could see for yourself what an awesome job you're doing and chill out about this. Grease is gonna be the coolest musical McKinley's ever seen I can guarantee. With you and Artie directing, Mercedes on vocals and Mike and I on the choreography, we're all ready to go. All we've gotta do is actually rehearse now."

Relieved to be in Tessa's laidback presence once again, Finn couldn't help but let a contented smile come to his lips, "I'm so glad you're here."

"I know... you keep telling me." Tessa giggled.

"Well it's true." Finn justified himself with a shrug of his shoulders, reaching up to place a poke to her arm, "I forgot how much I loved being your friend."

"Well I could never forget how much I love being yours." Tessa shot back, playfully sticking her tongue out in his direction before swiftly moving the subject back to the school musical when he threw a stack of 'Grease Lightning' sheet music down besides her, "how's rehearsals for this going?" She asked, pointing at the music, "Sam's been singing everywhere he goes. I promise you, this casting is the best you'll get anywhere... ever. He's born for this role." She gushed.

Running his hands through his hair, Finn scrunched up his face as he thought her question over. After watching the performance with Artie, he knew he just wanted a little more, especially from their Danny Zuko. "It's going good. The vocals are great... it's just getting them into character. Like teaching them what Grease is all about, you know?"

"What is Grease all about then, Finn Hudson?"

"It's about fixing cars and getting grease under your fingernails and about signing a blood oath with your brothers until the very end." He told her after thinking it over for a moment, as she listened along giving him her full attention as he did so.

Slapping her hands down onto her knees, Tessa jumped down off of the piano and thumped him enthusiastically on the back. Looking him straight in the eyes, she was in the hopes that the same idea had sparked in his head that had been sparked in hers. Wanting to nudge him onto the right path, she gave him a reassuring smile, "I think you know exactly what you need to do."

It clicking in his mind, Finn shot finger guns at her as his face lit up with excitement, "the tyre shop!" He yelled, springing up from his chair and throwing his arms around her to tackle her into a hug, "Tessa you're a genius!"

Shaking her head as she laughed into his shoulder, Tessa felt grateful in that moment to have Finn Hudson back in the choir room, even if he wasn't there as part of the glee club anymore.

Breaking apart the hug, Finn scrambled over to gather up the sheet music he needed before rushing out the choir room before his train of thought could be lost. Laughing after him, Tessa bent down and picked up each sheet of music that fell from his hands in his rush to leave the choir room, managing to follow him all the way to his car with her own stack of scattered sheet music piling up in her arms.

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IT HAD BEEN A TASK TO PERSUADE TINA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MUSICAL WHEN MIKE WAS AROUND BUT IT WAS EVENTUALLY A SUCCESSFUL ONE. With the choreography for the musical being left in their hands, Mike and Tessa had found themselves in the dance studio once again, going over the moves they'd already learnt themselves as an excuse to just hang out together.

Dancing along to 'Born To Hand Jive', the two of them had the biggest grins on their faces. Coming out of one section of the dance, Tessa ran towards Mike with a nod of her head and let him flip her over his shoulders in one swift movement before they continued on in perfect sync.

Unable to stop themselves, Mike and Tessa were full of laughter as they danced, twirling one another underneath their arms and Tessa holding out her hands in a steady position to propel Mike into the air for an impressive backflip. Admittedly, she'd missed the many hours she'd spent in the dance studio with Mike throughout their years in high school together and was just grateful for any chance she got to dance alongside him nowadays.

Breathing heavily as the music came to an end, Tessa broke away from their eye contact through the mirrors and dug around in her backpack, pulling out a bottle of water then throwing one over the room to Mike. Pointing a finger his way, a wicked grin came to her lips, "bet you're not having that much fun with all your new dance partners."

Taking a swig of his water, Mike shook his head through a laugh, "I'm not. You'll always be my favourite, whoever else i dance with, you know that."

"It was cool of you to come back and help. I couldn't have done this on my own." Tessa smiled.

"Yeah you could've." Mike replied, casually, giving her a nudge in the arm at the sight of her raised eyebrows, "You wanna be a choreographer or something to do with cheerleading, right?" Seeing her nod, Mike felt his case was closed, "you could do it, easy. You're a talented choreographer and you definitely could've choreographed the whole thing yourself. I just wanted an excuse to come and see everyone. And being able to do this with you always helps."

Pouting in response, Tessa held her hand over her heart at his words, all the times that Mike had supported and encouraged her once again reminding her how much she valued his friendship, "thanks dude. For everything. I'm glad to know you're just as awesome as I remembered you being last year."

"I would've hoped to have gotten cooler since I've been going to a prestigious dance school but I guess 'just as awesome' is good enough." Mike teased, lightly, retreating back holding his hands up in dramatic surrender as Tessa gave him a whack to the arm, the two of them breaking into their same chaotic antics as if they'd never been apart.

On the hunt in preparation for guys night, Sam Evans charged into the dance studio with Blaine trailing after him, holding out his arms in a dramatic display of his appearance, "Mike! This is your formal invitation to guys night!" He exclaimed in his Darth Vader impression.

His entire expression lighting up at the thought, Mike couldn't contain his excitement at still being included, "I'm still invited to guys night?"

"Duh!" Sam scoffed, loudly, taking Blaine by the shoulders and giving them a reassuring squeeze, "we need to cheer this one up because he's sad and Tess's ditching us for a girls sleepover so we're having a guys night."

"She's ditching you guys? What a loser." Mike tried not to give away his frown, biting back a devious smile.

Raising an eyebrow, Tessa stood forward into the circle and waved her arms about, "I'm over here, you know."

"We know." Sam teased lightly, reaching forward and pulling Tessa into a tight hug, leaning his head against the top of hers. Though slightly surprised by the sudden gesture of affection, Tessa melted into the hug, wrapping her arms around him through a laugh, "I'm sorry I'm really sweaty." She mumbled.

"Doesn't bother me, darling." Sam replied, "just want some love before you become a loser and ditch us tonight."

Scrunching up his nose, Mike pushed himself in between the two of them as Blaine stood on the sidelines, looking as forlorn as ever, "gross." He grimaced, "you're both losers. And you're only allowed to hug if I'm in it."

Laughing out loud, Tessa pulled him into the hug and squashed him in between her and Sam. Reaching out, they knew Blaine needed some love just as much as the three of them did and grabbed his hand pulling him into the middle of the hug. Seeing him crack a smile, they felt as though their attempt at filling Blaine Anderson's life with love was beginning to work and he was starting to feel less upset about his recent break up with Kurt. Mike on the other hand was just delighted he was still thought about by his friends and that they still wanted to hang out with him even if he wasn't in Lima anymore.

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KITTY WILDE WAS HOSTING A SLEEPOVER. With Sam insisting on driving her himself on the way to pick up Blaine and Mike for guys night, Tessa had found herself in the uncomfortable situation of being early to Kitty's house and on her own for that matter. 

Following Kitty up the stairs, Tessa could've sworn she felt her heart beating out of her chest and was worried that the whole house could hear it. Nervous at the thought of any situation like the one she was in, she tried to stick to the plan she'd worked out in her head on the car journey and just sat herself down the edge of Kitty's bed, waiting for her to begin the conversation.

Throwing herself across her own bed, Kitty made it clear that she wasn't half as nervous as Tessa and was eager to make conversation, "I'm glad you came early."

Surprised by her statement, Tessa swallowed a lump that came to her throat, "really?"

"Duh." Kitty looked at her as if it were obvious, "you're the coolest one from the glee club. You're still a bit of a nerd but I'll let it slide because you're my co-captain. And honestly, I'm glad it's you rather than that stone-cold Bree bitch, reckon Coach Sue would kick me off if I slapped her every time she opened her damn mouth to talk crap about us." Shaking her head, she pushed herself back on topic, "besides... if I'm doing this musical, I need to keep my rep up somehow."

"I think Britt's cooler than me." Tessa mumbled quietly, unsure how else to respond, though nodding in agreement to her confession made about Bree.

Getting straight up off her bed, Kitty strutted up to her dresser and pulled a lip gloss out of her makeup bag, applying it to her lips as Tessa sat back in silence, stifling a laugh as Kitty pulled some faces and poses into the mirror. Popping her lips loudly, she moved onto pulling her hair back, "next time we'll just do this the two of us. The two co-captains. The next Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez. We won't have to invite Little Miss Prim and Perfect or —"

"Hey!" Tessa cut her off immediately with her frown deepening, "don't talk about Marley like that. Or anyone else for that matter. If you really wanted to make friends out of this musical you'd at least make an effort to not be such a bitch to them."

Inhaling sharply, Kitty licked her lips before whipping her head back round to face Tessa, who had both of her eyebrows raised seriously, "if you say so." She hissed.

"I mean it Kitty, we'd all want to be your friend if you showed any interest in being ours." Tessa realized she may be treading in dangerous waters, eyes flickering over towards the clock in the hopes of it giving her the escape of someone else arriving.

Jumping down onto the bed, Kitty made herself comfortable lying besides her and pulled one of her pillows against herself, looking Tessa right in the eyes, "how's this for interested?" She asked, a devious smile playing on her lips, "let's play kiss, marry, kill. You go first."

Matching her smile, Tessa was up for a party game until the others arrived at least to keep them both occupied. Getting through a couple of rounds, she was surprised at how normal Kitty seemed to be acting, compared to how she'd seen her at school and in the presence of anyone who she'd clearly seen as a threat and was even more surprised to have found herself enjoying her company.

Kitty herself was equally surprised as to how quickly she'd found herself naturally letting her guard down and had a suspicion that she may struggle to build it back up with the girl laid laughing besides her.

When the rest of the girls had finally arrived, the food had come too. Snuggling herself up underneath her blanket in what Blaine called a 'blanket burrito', Tessa smiled contentedly as she watched Tina and Sugar argue over a cupcake as the girls helped themselves to the masses of food that had piled up on a desk in Kitty's room, unbeknownst to the fact that she and Marley had slipped away into the bathroom for a chat.

"You want anything Tess?" Unique offered the girl.

"Better not thanks." Tessa smiled gratefully, "I'm not feeling great. I've had a stomach ache all day. Besides, I'm comfy and don't wanna move right now." She added on quickly, beginning the room's laughter with her own.

Jumping down next to her, Brittany wrapped her arm around her and nestled her head against her shoulder, "poor Tessie." She pouted, sympathetically, "you don't have to stay here if Kitty's voice gives you a headache. We'll just say Lord Tubbington got arrested again and we have to go bail him out of jail."

Chuckling lightly, Tessa wrapped her arms around Brittany, "thanks Britt, I appreciate it."

Coming out of the bathroom without Marley, Kitty made a beeline for her closest and before anyone could say anything to stop her, she had a brown wig and a newsies cap on her head, twirling round the room to mock Marley.

"Kitty... come on." Tessa challenged, quietly, reaching out to try and snatch at least the cap from off her head, missing as Kitty slipped away to turn on a piece of music she knew none of the other girls could resist joining in with.

[SONG — LOOK AT ME, I'M SANDRA DEE, SANG BY KITTY WILDE]

Forgetting the idea for the sing along had come from Kitty's jab at Marley Rose, the girls had no problem bursting into the back up vocals for Kitty's performance. Swaying from her seat laying on the bed, Tessa had been almost crushed by Sugar jumping on top of her out of her own excitement at being included in a song but managed to sing along herself none the less.

Stood nervously by the door of the bathroom, Marley's whole face had fallen as she caught sight of the wig on Kitty's head, "are you making fun of me Kitty?"

Quickly realizing that they'd basically joined in with Kitty's teasing, the glee club girls instantly felt a pang of guilt as they saw the hurt in Marley's eyes. Pulling the wig off her hair and brushing it through with her hand, Kitty widened her eyes for a moment as she threw it back into the depths of her closet, "some people are so touchy."

Catching on to how hurt Marley had gotten in such a short space of time, Tessa opened up her blanket and beckoned for Marley to fall into her arms. Wrapping her blanket around the two of them, she gave Marley an encouraging squeeze to try and put a small smile on her face before hoping to ease the tension in the room, "how about we all play a game?" She suggested, calmly.

With suggestions being shouted left right and centre, Tessa had used the extreme volume of Sugar's insistence on truth or dare to ask Marley if she was alright and if she wanted them to use Lord Tubbington to bail them out of the sleepover. Giving her a small smile and a shake of her head in return, Marley leant her head back against Tessa's shoulder as they snuggled in the blanket until the rest of the girls could decide on a game to play.

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THE OPENING NIGHT OF GREASE WAS FINALLY HERE AND SAM WAS GETTING READY FOR HIS BIG MOMENT. Sat at his dressing table, he was styling his hair in the mirror and practicing his best Kenickie impression before he could get out on stage and show it off to everyone else.

Already dressed the part as Rizzo, Tessa made her way over with something she hoped would be special partially hidden behind her back. Smiling at him into the mirror, she leant down and placed a kiss to his temple, "don't you look hot!" She complimented with a cheeky smile.

"I could say the same about you." Sam replied, wiggling his eyebrows before pointing up at his hair, "I'm channeling my inner Blaine Anderson with all this gel."

"Speaking of Blaine Anderson..." Tessa started, before looking round and lowering her voice to a whisper, "Kurt's here. So we might need another guys night tonight and I'm free this time! I'm not being a loser. You can both come to mine if you want."

Mouth forming an oh shape, Sam nodded in understanding, "sounds awesome and I'm glad you're not a loser anymore." His train of thought deepening, a small frown came to his expression, "We might have to bring out Just Dance if we want to cheer him up this time."

Unable to stop herself smiling at Sam's concern for his best friend and his wellbeing, Tessa nodded in agreement, "great idea. I love Just Dance." She grinned before growing slightly red in the cheeks as she fiddled with what she was holding behind her back, "I've got something for you." She began, smiling as she watched Sam's face light up, "well last time we had a school musical, you were in Kentucky and you sent me some flowers and they kinda made my entire year so I got some for you."

Immediately taking the flowers, Sam's face lit up with excitement as he admired them for a moment, carefully reading the label which read, Good Luck! Love Tess on it, just the same way as he had done for her.

Beaming up at her, he reached out and squeezed her hand in his, "you're adorable, thank you."

Biting her lip in the hopes that her cheeks wouldn't get any redder and fuel the smirk creeping onto Sam's lips, Tessa looked round at the sound of Mercedes calling them all into show circle before the opening night. Widening her eyes in excitement, she looked up at Sam with a nervous breath of air as he stood from his seat to follow her, "you ready to kill it out there? Fulfill your destiny?"

"Totally. I was born for this role." Sam assured her, puffing out his chest proudly, "how about you?"

"I think so. I got some tips from the one, the only, Santana Lopez so I think I'll be okay." Tessa giggled lightly, with another slightly shaky breathe as she took her place in between Sam and Blaine in the show circle, winking across the circle at Marley, who looked more terrified than Tessa had ever seen her then pulling a face at Jake as she caught him sulking at the sight of Ryder practically drooling over Marley besides him. Looking to her left, Tessa saw how tense Blaine had become at the presence of his ex boyfriend. Nudging his side lightly, she sent him a concerned smile, "you okay?"

With an unconvincing smile, Blaine nodded, "I'll be okay. I think." He admitted, "just... yeah."

"I get you." Tessa whispered, so he wouldn't upset himself further before he had to go on stage, "well we love you."

"I love you too." Blaine whispered back, taking her hand as she offered it out to him and smiling softly as she gave it a squeeze before turning back round to listen to whatever Mr Schuester, Artie or Finn wanted to say to them before they went out on stage for the opening night of their senior musical.