⤷ the one in which the quiet girl and the dorky new guy fall for each other and sing more than a few times along the way.
♫ [s2-s6] [sam evans] ♫
published: 09.18.2020
completed: 05.21.2023
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Regionals was that Saturday, and the New Directions had yet to come up with a setlist. The pressure was already enormous because this would be the competition that decided whether they went to Nationals in New York, but it only seemed to intensify when the members remembered how they had lost Regionals the previous year.
Everyone in Glee, minus Rachel and Quinn, were sitting in the choir room, trying to write songs that would win them the competition. Santana, Puck, and Mercedes had all written songs that they wanted to perform at Regionals, but Mr. Shue had turned them all down, claiming that none of them had that "kick ass, competition-winning feel" to them.
Admittedly, Keilani had spent the week writing a song that she thought might be good enough for the competition. She kept thinking back to all the times she – and so many of her friends – had been tormented not just by their fellow students but Coach Sue as well. Keilani thought about every single slushie thrown her way, every insult, and even the literal sticks Coach Sue threw at her, Mercedes, and Tina.
When writing the song though, Keilani realized she didn't want it to be a unhappy one. She kept thinking back to Kurt, and how he always proclaimed that he made it through every day because he knew that one day, he would be successful and happy in his life. And Keilani wanted to channel that hope into the song.
But after seeing Mercedes and Puck get their fun songs so easily rejected – and Santana, who had chosen to spend the entire song humiliating Sam's mouth – it made Keilani nervous to showcase her song. So she tried to keep her song hidden, and decided that she would only put it forward if it was the day before the competition and the New Directions still had nothing to sing.
Sam, of course, wasn't going to let that happen. He had noticed Keilani scribbling in her notebook all week, and he figured out when she would continually hum an unrecognizable tune that it was song lyrics. Every time Sam tried to sneak a peek at the lyrics, Keilani would tug the notebook at him and laugh at the pout on his face.
So when the room had gone quiet as everyone tried to write and Keilani paused to take a sip of water, Sam stole her notebook from her lap, which was thankfully open to the song in question.
"Give that back!"
Sam held the notebook far out of Keilani's reach and ran to the other side of the room. Keilani followed close behind, attempting to steal the notebook back from Sam. "Not until I read it!" Sam responded, keeping his back turned to Keilani. "I want to see what you wrote!"
"No you don't!"
"Yes I do!"
After a minute of reading and fighting Keilani who was still trying to steal it back, Sam turned towards all the teenagers sitting on the risers and held the notebook victoriously in the air. "Keilani's written a song that'll going to win us Regionals."
