Personality

Mercedes's P.O.V.

The sight could almost bring tears to my eyes. And I wasn't the only one who noticed. As soon as she'd walked in Kurt had gasped and grabbed at my hand to get my attention.

Tina looked just awful. She wore no makeup. She had on a pair of worn jeans a horrific, baggy gray sweatshirt that in my opinion couldn't look good on anyone no matter how hard they tried.

Tina had never been overly beautiful or flashy, but today she just looked so plain. And depressed. No one could possibly not notice the difference in her attitude today from every other day.

When Tina told us what had happened I was furious. How dare that man? How could he make such a big deal out of something so stupid when he could be doing something useful like keeping those bullies off my boy's back? Or giving Sue Sylvester less power? That would help us all out!

I was as excited about Mr. Shue's assignment as everyone else, but I just couldn't let this go! I told Kurt not to wait up for me and approached Tina as we were leaving.

"Hey."

She looked up. "Hi."

"Hope you're not doing anything tonight, 'cause I'm coming over."

She looked at me blankly for a moment.

She glanced down at her outfit for a moment as I continued, "You need some serious help and I'm just the one for the job."

Since Tina had no objections we were soon in her bedroom. She sat on her bed while I went through her closet. Her wardrobe was very dark, but I'd expected nothing less. I'd gone through absolutely everything before I'd decided what to do.

"These are nice." I commented as I looked at what lay atop her dresser. She had a pair of indigo earrings. There were three of the hanging jewels on each one.

Tina gave me a small smile. "You can have them."

I held them up to her ears. They lit up her face, but they really did not suit her.

"Okay." I said as I set them back down. "Time to get to work."

She looked at me expectantly. "It's all about personality." I stopped, thinking for a minute. "That's one of the reasons I quit the Cheerios." I said softly.

Tina nodded.

"Yeah. I liked it and all, but I needed to be me, you know?"

Tina nodded once more. "You want to know what kind of ironic?"

"What?" It was nice to see Tina without a trace of her stutter. She was much more self confident when it was just us.

"Quinn was upset because she thinks no one notices her now that she isn't one of the Cheerios. But I think Quinn's a lot prettier now that she's out of her uniform and has let her hair down."

We looked at each other and in unison broke into song:

"Girl, put your records on

Tell me your favorite song

You go ahead let your hair down.

Sapphire and faded jeans

I hope you get your dreams

Just go ahead let your hair down!"

Personally, I agreed with Tina. Although being thrown off her high horse and having a painful attitude adjustment helped the image in my mind.

After our dramatic finish we heard clapping and turned to see Tina's mom standing in the doorway.

Tina's mother was smiling in at us. "You girls sounded great! Was that something for your Glee Club?"

"No." Tina said.

"It's just a little something extra."

"Are you staying for dinner?"

"Uh..."

"You should." Tina put in emphatically.

I smiled. "Okay. I'll call my mom."

Mrs. Cohen-Chang beamed at me. "Sounds like a plan." She said, then went back to the kitchen to finish dinner. I wasn't really sure what it was she was making, but it smelled delicious.

Tina must've seen the blissful look on my face because she smiled and said, "We probably have another twenty minutes or so before it's done."

I shook my head a bit to clear it and forced my mind back into mission mode.

"All right." I said. "Back to business."

Tina seemed a bit nervous now and queried, "What exactly do you have in mind?"

"Nothing to worry about." I assured her. "We are going to find a way to bring out your personality without disobeying Principal Figgins's new rules."

"How?"

I returned to her closet. I pulled out a pair of light blue jeans that looked like they hadn't ever been worn. In fact, they were almost identical to the pair she had on now.

"Hope you don't mind." I said. "But do you have any scissors?"

"Um, yeah." she handed me a pair and I promptly cut off the end of each leg right below the knees.

Tina stared, but it didn't seem to bother her very much. I'd learned that sometimes you had to mutilate clothing to make it look better. I found a pair of black leggings and held them up with the jeans.

"Perfect!" I declared. "Black t-shirts should be okay, but I'd play it safe and have something on them. And I'd stay away from dark makeup for a while, okay?"

"Sounds good. But aren't we all wearing our costumes this week anyway?"

"Yeah. This is for after. Just in case we don't come up with anything to change Principal Figgins's mind."

Tina didn't have to ask why I was doing all this. She knew. Together we sang:

"For, it won't be long

'Til I'm gonna need

Somebody to lean on"

Review Please! My first Glee one-shot.

I love Mercedes! She and Kurt are my two favorite characters. I don't own Glee, and like many others, I can't wait until it starts up again!

Just as a side note, Theatricality was my favorite episode. I mean, is it possible not to love what Finn did for Kurt at the end? Plus, I don't think anyone would pass up the chance to see him in a dress. XD