𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 - 𝐬𝐚𝐦 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐬

POT O' GOLD

"You know what, girl Chang? If you cry every time someone gets a hangnail, it kind of starts to lose its effect." Santana complained in irritation while Tina sobbed over the loss of Mercedes.

Since her walkout at Booty Camp, everyone expected Mercedes to come back after a few days and rejoin the New Directions. But, alas, it seemed like she was gone for good and a weird atmosphere had taken over the Choir Room.

She'd even tried to persuade Alicia and Quinn to join her new group by promising an all girl powerhouse set-up, which so far only consisted of her and Sugar. But, with Quinn's mistrust of Shelby and Alicia's forsworn commitment to Booty Camp, the two politely declined and wished Mercedes luck with her recruitment mission.

"It's not a hangnail." Tina responded with a sniffle. "Mercedes was one of Glee's
original members. I feel naked in here without her."

"Yeah, well, get used to it. 'Cause without her singing for us, we're going to have to perform naked for the judges to vote for us at Sectionals." Puck fired back with a roll of his eyes.

Leaning in to Alicia, Quinn scrunched her nose up in playful disgust as she gestured towards Puck. "Been there, done that. Not sure how many votes that would get us."

Snapping them out of their giggles, Mr Schue shook his head firmly. "No. I will not let this setback crush our spirits. I mean, we have handled worse."

"Than losing one of our best singers?" Mike raised a doubtful eyebrow at Mr Schue.

"Kind of hard not to blame you, Mr Shue." Quinn said with a pointed look.

"Yeah. Think you were too hard on her at Booty Camp." Alicia nodded along, thinking back to Mr Schue's constant picking on Mercedes.

"I blame Artie. Why couldn't you have just given Maria to Mercedes?" Tina challenged him.

While all eyes fell on him, Artie crossed his arms defiantly over his chest. "Because that would have damaged my integrity as an artist."

"Sorry I am late." Rachel beamed as she walked into the Choir Room with a spring in her step. "I was putting up posters for my...for my campaign."

"Did you airbrush out your jowls?" Kurt fired, earning a few snickers.

"No-" Rachel began, rising out of her seat in anger but was interrupted by Finn who stood up and took authority.

"Look, let's stop it, everybody. So we lost a singer. So they canceled the musical."

"Wait, what? No, no, no, no, you can't cancel my musical." Rachel cried in horror.

"Sue cut the funding."

"The point is, right now, we shouldn't be turning on each other." Finn gestured around the room, which felt more divided than ever.

"I agree. I can only speak from my experience with the Warblers, but no show choir is just one person...it's a team. When we lost a Warbler, we just replaced him with another one." Blaine suggested.

"Which is easy when your waiting list has a waiting list." Finn shot back bitterly. "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 us not turning on each other?" Blaine muttered quietly, before sinking back into his chair in defeat.

Bringing the conversation back to herself, Rachel shook her head defiantly. "No, you can't cancel my musical, okay? I was considering changing my name to Maria."

"The musical is not canceled." Mr Schue insisted, but Rachel had already buried her head into Finns arm in panic. "As for Mercedes, yes, that is a huge loss for us, but we will deal with replacing her later. Right now, we need to focus on putting on this musical."