Guys, I'm totally blown away by the response to I'm Back! It was the best Christmas present ever! There is clearly so much love in the Samcedes ship and now you have a new convert! I love them and I love you! The Samcedes response has left all my other stories and ships in the dust. So here is another just to say thanks.

One reviewer pointed out that my version of Sam is AU and OOC (and in my view way more fun) but I made him a bit less aggressive and tried to make things fit the show as much as possible.

"Wow Blondie! I had no idea that you could cuss like that in Na'vi. But I can't say I don't blame you!"

Sam looked up from his seat and did a double take at Mercedes. Coming to think of it, she had been sitting next to him the whole time. The rest of the Glee club had filtered out of the choir room but he had stubbornly remained in his seat, cursing Santana, cursing Karofsky, cursing his public humiliation… hell, even still cursing Quinn for cheating on him! He still wasn't exactly sure what had just happened, but he knew he'd been screwed over yet again. Having to sit through Santana singing Trouty Mouth had been bad enough, and now she'd gone back for seconds. That bitch really didn't know where to get off. Fucking Bullywhips? Santana in love? The girl still had no clue which she liked the most out of cock, pussy or toys! And coming from an all boy boarding school, he'd also had suspicions about the motivation behind Karofsky's bullying for a while now too.

"Come on, we can chew the fat over it at my place. You look like you could use some fried chicken."

Sam frowned. What the hell was she talking about?

"Oh hell no... Do not tell me that you forgot again!"

He could see the irritation rising in her and tried to hide the confusion on his face. "Of course I didn't forget that I am supposed to... to be working on the English project with you today after Glee!" Relief flooded his body as the furthest recesses of his brain finally gave up the information he needed.

"Good. Because you've already had your ass whipped once this afternoon. I wasn't really feeling giving it a second."

He grinned and stood, relieved that he'd remembered just in time and pulling his bag onto his shoulder. Hit bit down the temptation to reply that an ass whipping from any girl would be one of the highlights of his day. Somehow he didn't think Mercedes Jones would appreciate that type of flirtation. She wasn't the flirtatious type really. But she'd probably make a really good Dom…

Especially in that Rocky Horror outfit...

That shit would definitely work!

He frowned down at her as they walked down the hall together. "So you can speak Na'vi?"

She shrugged noncomittaly. "I wouldn't say I can speak it well, but I definitely know my insults and cursings when I hear them!"

"Seriously? Quinn and Santana shot me down if I dared to speak in Na'vi and yet you can recognize it and know what I'm saying."

"Means you've been hanging out with the wrong girls. You can either be skinny, pretty and popular or you can actually have a life! I like to think that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive but some days I have my doubts."

Sam already knew that. His Casanova persona was the polar opposite of his geeky comic and Avatar loving soul. So far, the only time Na'vi had been a help was to get him a quickie in the bathrooms at Comic Con. The two needed to be kept far apart if he was going to have any kind of sexual success in life.

"Are you trying to say that I'm a dork?"

She didn't break her stride. "All I'm saying is that I've sat behind you in English for the whole year which means I notice every single time you pull out one of those Marvel comics that you keep tucked inside the textbook sleeve."

Wait! Obviously they were in the same class but she sat behind him? How did he not notice? Then he remembered that he sat across from the Cheerio with huge nipples who never wore a bra. Between her and the comics nothing else settled in his brain during that particular class!

She clearly caught the expression of surprise on his face. "You see the great thing about being invisible is that you get to see all sorts of things about other people without them noticing that you're even looking."

"But you're not invis-"

"My car is the gray Sedan." She ran ahead of him down the front steps. "I'll stop by the main gate and you can follow me home. It's not far."

And then she was gone.

The Jones home was just as he had expected it. Comfortable without being flashy. They sat at the breakfast bar tucking into the most delicious fried chicken he'd ever tasted. He hadn't even realized how hungry he was until the first mouthful had hit. Even the salad it was served with tasted good, and Sam wasn't usually one for salad! Unfortunately, Mercedes managed to make his appetite start to dwindle with her choice of conversation topics.

"So I guess you had no clue about Satan and Karofsky before then announced themselves to the world?"

Sam shook his head, focusing on chewing the piece of chicken in his mouth as his emotions began to swirl again.

"Wow! I know she can be a bitch, but that was new heights, even for her. She always has an ulterior motive. Let's see what it is this time."

He swallowed and decided to be uncharacteristically diplomatic. "Her motive was to provide a safe school environment for Kurt to come back to."

Mercedes clearly saw straight through his measured response. "Humph! That may be a coincidental effect from what's going on, but I doubt that it's the main reason."

"I thought you liked Santana!"

"Sometimes. When she's human. Most of her heart is actually quite good. But sometimes… just sometimes, I really wanna cutabitch!"

Sam choked as he laughed and she joined him.

"Well at least you're not looking as cut up as I thought you'd be. For a moment on the drive back I started to panic and wonder what I would do if you started crying on me when you got here."

He shook his head and laughed louder. "Big boys don't cry!" he cried in a Jersey Boys falsetto. "Besides, me and San were never really serious anyway."

"You looked pretty serious at Rachel's party!"

"That was just alcohol fueled fun. And even then I thought she was going to razorblade me when I kissed Brittany on spin the bottle! San and I were just- well, we just were and now we aren't and I'm not really that cut up about it. I'm not even sure why she even offered to be my girlfriend. She doesn't like me most of the time anyway!"

"Wait! She offered to be your girlfriend?"

"Yeah. She was the one who told me about Quinn cheating. Hell, she was even the one that gave them mono! I guess we were both out to get something out of it, even though it was not necessarily each other. I still got to be with a Cheerio and she got back at Quinn knowing that deep down Quinn still wants me." Sam was surprised at himself. He had no idea why he was opening up to this girl but somehow it was easy.

Mercedes sat back on her stool. "Wow! That is so not how I thought it all went down. So are you going to beat Karofsky tomorrow?"

"Nah. They deserve each other." He reached over for his fourth piece of chicken, purposely ignoring the side eye he was being shot for his greed. "I'm not mad about me and San ending, it's the way that it was done that pisses me off. And to be honest, I have my doubts about both their sexualities anyway."

Mercedes' eyes widened and she nodded in agreement. "Me too! San is way too into Britts and Karofsky stares at Kurt far too much for my liking. But he always has this expression like he doesn't know whether to kiss him or hit him."

Sam paused. "You miss him don't you."

"Who? Kurt?"

"No! Karofsky…"

She rolled her eyes again. "Of course I miss Kurt. We were besties. But now he has Dalton, and he has Blaine… hell he's even got Finn as a stepbrother now which means he hasn't got much time for me."

"So who do you hang out with then?"

She shrugged. "Tina, Artie…"

He thought it through. Tina had Mike, Artie had Brittany. Something in her tone of voice said that she wasn't too happy with the way things were. Her sass was slipping. There was something about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Her face was sad but as she caught him looking at her she snapped back up and pulled the bowl of chicken away from him.

"That's enough Blondie! My dad will draw blood if there isn't enough left for him!"

It was as if she has just put her shields up right before his eyes. He was going to have to try harder with this one. "I'll get us some paper and we can work through some ideas for the assignment."

She abruptly turned and walked out of the kitchen and he didn't even bother to hide the fact that his eyes followed the curve of her ass as she walked away from him.

By the time she had returned with the things they needed he'd thrown away the bones and stacked their plates in the sink. She was in study mode now and for the next hour it was Shakespeare until his head hurt.

"Fì'u nìhawng nìtxan!"

"No it isn't. You just have to concentrate!"

It was time for his second double-take of the afternoon. "I thought you said you only recognized a little bit of Na'vi!"

"Well I didn't want to look like a complete dork did I!"

He chuckled. Mercedes Jones was pulling out surprises all over the shop today. He threw a pen lid at her. "Are you trying to say that I'm a dork?"

She pretended to think about it for a moment before grinning and nodding.

That was it. He leapt off his stool and ran to grab her but she twisted out of his reach. "Txìng oe nì'awtu!"

"Kawkrr!" He went to reach for her again but thought better of it. With any other girl he would have chased them, wrestled them to the ground and seen how far his luck would take him with them. But strangely there was something stopped him with Mercedes and he reluctantly let her go.

"Maybe I can help you." Her eyes were serious again after their moment of stupidity.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you struggle with English because of your dyslexia. Maybe when we finish this project I can tutor you. Not with the deep stuff, but maybe just with the reading and research."

He bit his lip as he thought about it and she seemed almost nervous as she waited for his response. "I mean, with Kurt gone I have plenty of time for that kind of thing."

It began with a smile. "Sure. I'd like that. But only if you want to."

"Okay."

"Will there be food?"

She nodded. "Every time."

"Oh then I totally want to!"

"So when do we start?"

"Well I have practice tomorrow but maybe we can continue on Thursday after school?"

"Sure." She was smiling too. And something about that smile made her eyes light up. Sam Evans never usually actually noticed crap like that. He would just say it to get girls. But this time he actually did see it. Not only that, he was secretly pleased to be the cause.

He grabbed his bag as it was more than time to go and her parents would be back soon. Following her to the front door he smiled down at her again. "Thanks for today Mercedes. I really needed this."

"It was nothing. Thanks for coming Sam."

"Hey! You called me by my name! So I'm not just Blondie anymore."

She grinned. "Oh you are. Blondie's this jock that I have a couple of classes with at school. But I guess you're also dorky Sam to me too now."

"As long as you drop the 'dorky' prefix we'll be cool."

And so it began.

At school she was the sassy diva and he was the jock with an eye for the ladies. But in the Jones residence they could let their hair down. Sam quickly learned that Mercedes had a wicked giggle and a happy girl laugh which he hadn't seen since she was drunk at Rachel's party. And being around a girl without feeling the need to make her another notch on his bedpost meant that Sam was more relaxed and less aggressive than usual. They found they could talk for hours and laugh at nonsense. They introduced each other to different things. He now watched anime and she now flicked through his comics. Some weekends they even watched and argued over movies although the Avatar: Navi Edition was the only one they both sat through in full agreement. With Stacy only being a baby when he had to the boys schools meant that Sam had never really got to experience a platonic relationship with a female and he was really enjoying it. He came to see that sassy Mercedes was generally a defensive one. When she was relaxed it tended to come out more as humor and banter. Sure he still had a roving eye, but that had nothing to do with Mercedes. And it would never get in the way with his time spent with her. Their time was something that he was happy to prioritize.

Prom was a whole new revelation. He'd felt bad for Mercedes not having a date but had made a point of going without a date of his own so that he could scope out the talent. It had worked for him before and was bound to work for him again. What he hadn't counted on was seeing her sitting there all alone watching shyly as everyone danced. Finally he could put his finger on what it was about her. She was lonely. Even with Kurt now back, the two former besties weren't as close as they used to be. The second part of the revelation was even more startling. It suddenly hit him that he was lonely too. Without a girl on his arm he felt incomplete. The thrill of the chase was fun but the victory was hollow. The third part of the revelation was that she looked fucking stunning! He'd always known she was cute, but for some reason he'd never quite put her in the same category as all the other girls that he chased. She was darker, heavier and had twice as much brains. But when she had walked into that hall, with the sea of fuchsia clinging to every curve, and the strapless bodice supporting cleavage that he could be lost in for days, his body had reacted before his mind and it freaked him out. He'd done his best to ignore it and go for his usual miniskirted types but his eyes kept being drawn back to her. By the time Rachel started her depressing song he' given up and simply stood near the wall, openly staring.

She looked so sad. Now her lonely was really starting to show. For some stupid reason nobody was asking her to dance. And then the final realization hit him. He could. They were friends so she wouldn't slap him to high heaven if he did. Yet as he made his was over he was hit with a sudden attack of nerves. This never happened to the great Sam Evans. He was a lothario! A smooth talker. He knew every trick in the book and had tried most of them.

And yet now here he was, trying to speak to his friend, and his smoothness was gone. His game was gone. And for the first time ever he felt vulnerable.

"Mercedes. I… just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful. Would you like to dance?" He held out his hand, half expecting her to laugh in his face or say no. But she didn't. She took it. And he felt his heart soar.

After their time on the dance floor everything changed for Sam. He'd started the evening with the plan of taking home and getting lucky with some drunk pretty little thing who had fought with her boyfriend/best friend/parents but instead of a quick fumble in the bathrooms he'd ended up walking Mercedes home and hugging her at her front door. And yet he would not have had it any other way.

The following week at school was difficult. Something subtle had changed and Mercedes had gone from invisible to sought after. It annoyed him no end. The worst offender was Marcus from the football team. He was one step worse than Anthony Rashad. He'd worked through most of the Cheerios and since prom had developed a craving for brown sugar. Sam glowered at the two of them standing talking by Mercedes locker. He went to his own one across the hall, watching their interaction and slamming his locker door just as the football player reached up to touch her cheek. Neither of them seemed to even notice the noise. A feeling coursed through his veins.

It was a lot like jealousy.

He made his way over to them. "Let's head over to practice," he said to Marcus, totally ignoring the pissed off expression on Mercedes' face for his interrupting.

"Don't worry, I'll see you there Evans." Marcus didn't even turn his eyes away from Mercedes' cleavage as he dismissed him.

"Dude we'll be late if we don't go now!"

Marcus was also starting to show his annoyance now. "Dude! Can't you see the lady and I are just getting to know each other a little better!"

Sam felt his hands clenching into fists and quickly shoved them hard into his pockets. "You've had all year to get to know her. Why today?"

"That's none of your fucking business!"

Sam stepped back. "Okay. I'm going." He turned his attention to Mercedes who was still glaring at him. "I'll see you after school."

"Sorry Blondie, I can't do today. I've got a date. We'll have to postpone to tomorrow instead." With that she spun on her heels and walked away. Both boys followed the swing of her hips until she rounded the corner before turning back to each other.

It hurt Sam that she'd reverted to calling him Blondie.

"What the hell was that?" Hissed Marcus.

"Nothing." Sam started walking, trying not to overthink his little outburst.

"That didn't look like nothing. It looked like you were marking your territory."

"No I wasn't!"

"Look. You've been hanging with the girl for weeks. If you were going to make a move you had plenty of opportunities. Now step back and give a brotha a chance with that fine piece of ass. I don't want to start hatin on you for this!"

Sam stepped back. He didn't like confrontation. Karofsky was the only confrontation he'd ever had and he didn't ever want to go through that again. "Whatever man. Let's just go." But inside he was seething. Both at Marcus for moving in on Mercedes. And at himself for being bothered by it. Sam Evans didn't do feelings. He did no strings sex. And yet suddenly, was he getting strings without sex?

What the hell was this thing that was starting to happen with him and Mercedes?

Can't a guy and a girl ever just be friends?

That infernal question.

And more importantly, could a guy like him be friends with a girl? After all, she wasn't what he would normally go for. Surely he shouldn't be bothered.

He prayed that this date would go badly. And that Mercedes didn't stay mad at him.

He needed to sort his head out!

Na'vi translation:

Fì'u nìhawng nìtxan! = This is too much!

Txìng oe nì'awtu! = Leave me alone!

Kawkrr! = Never!