Five Times Entry: Every Lady Needs an Escort (and Every Gentleman Too)
Series Title: Five Times one of the Glee guys agree to go on a date with Mercedes and One Time she returned the favour- Original 12
Title: Every Lady Needs an Escort (and Every Gentleman Too)
Chapter: Two, Math Camp wih Matt
Author: happy_overdose
Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership, but not love.
This is the entry for Five Times. I kind of miss Matt.
There is never anything to do in Lima during Spring Break. To get even sliver of excitement, you had to at least step beyond to the Welcome to Lima sign. Which was what all her Glee friends were all planning to do. Puck was going to visit some cousins, Rachel was going with her dads to San Francisco and Finn’s mom got him a job at an amusement park in the next town. Quinn was going to Cleveland to some Catholic conference thing, Brittany and Santana were going to a cheerleading competition with the rest of the Cheerios. Artie had invited Tina to go on a road trip with his family. Kurt’s dad dragged him to a car show in Toledo. Mike was going to a dance workshop.
Mercedes was content with her plan to sit on her couch for the whole week, watching soaps and movies when her mother handed her a brochure.
“Math Camp?” Mercedes read, then looked up at her mother, “Mom, seriously?”
“It’s not like it’s boring math,” her mother flipped the page of the brochure, “The whole thing is supposed to teach you to approach math in new ways. Look! Music class! You’ll like that!”
Mercedes sighed, knowing her mother won’t give up until she caved and went to the stupid camp. She didn’t even bother to tell her Glee friends what she was doing and in their excitement, they forgot to ask.
It’s no biggie, though. She could have the ice-cream parlor to herself now that even the bullies are out of town. She could do totally silly things like go on the slide in the park without a soul saying “What the hell are you doing?” She could even wear her jeans shorts that have been calling to her from the bottom of her drawer without a total Kurt smack down.
And, since she is a complete wuss when it comes to standing up to her mother, she could learn math too. And since it wasn’t like she was bad at math, it wouldn’t be hard.
She read the brochure. It didn’t really seem all bad. The classes were from 10 in the mid morning to two in the afternoon, so you had the rest of the day to yourself. And there was gonna be food, like burgers and stuff. And they were gonna take the participants on a trip on the last day. She guessed she wouldn’t totally die of boredom.
... ...
She dressed carefully that first day, not knowing the crowd; tight jeans, a short-sleeved blue and yellow striped top and her blue Converse sneakers, with her microphone chain and sparkly black headband. It was like the first day of school. Mercedes hated that feeling.
When she walked into the room where the rest of her campmates for a week were already milling around, introducing themselves to the others, she felt her heart stall in fear.
Then she spotted Matt at the back of the room. Immediately, she went to sit beside him.
“Forced against your will too?” Mercedes asked him.
He gave her a smile that totally said, Nobody volunteers to do math on a holiday.
But after a while, she had to admit though, it was kinda fun. The teacher Miss Berman was cool and she let them play games that taught them about angles and geometry. She didn’t say anything when one of the guys shouted “Holy shit!” when she put a really complicated word problem on the board or when another wanted to replace the ‘t’ in his Algebra equation to ‘tits’.
But it was school after all, and what were schools without a bully or two? Though Shay Smith and Amy Phang had nothing on Santana or Karofsky, their barbs still stung a bit...
“Hey fatty,” Shay said, her pouty lips stretched in an evil smile, gold eyes venomous, “What ya got there?”
They were all sitting at a pair of picnic tables outside the building that housed their camp, eating lunch. Mercedes had been slowly working her way through a bag of gooey cookies that followed her sandwich, enjoying the breeze under the tree, listening to the songs on one of her campmate’s iPod, when Stick Thin One and Two joined them under the tree without lunches.
“You really gonna eat all those cookies?” Amy’s almond shaped eyes were just visible under fashionable jet black bangs, “Hm, no wonder you’re a baby whale.”
Mercedes ignored them, ate another cookie.
“Look at her go!” Shay laughed, “It’s like those cows you see on tv eating down a whole field!”
“Damn Bessie, slow down!” Amy laughed.
“Hey leave her alone,” Matt mumbled from beside Mercedes. It was hardly audible, but Amy had clearly heard. So had Mercedes, and she whipped her head around. She wasn’t sure if she ever heard the boy speak. She heard him sing loads of times, but he usually just whispered to Mike in Glee meetings.
“What are you the boyfriend?” Amy scoffed, as if she never heard something so absurd in her life.
Matt stood up, twice as tall as the Asian girl, “Yeah, I am. Got a problem?”
And Mercedes thought hearing him speak had been a shock.
After that and for the rest of the week, Matt made a beeline for her every time they were in the same room. He held her hand all the time, glaring at Shay and Amy anytime they came nearby. He even kissed her cheek and put his arm over her shoulder sometimes, like a boyfriend would.
All that didn’t mean he spoke much. Mercedes guessed he really was just the strong, silent type. Either that or he was more shy than Tina. She appreciated him being there, however, and plus it would have been weird if Matt suddenly became Mr. Narrator.
It was kind of fun with him, too. They built a pyramid out of glue and popsicle sticks. They beat Amy and Shay at Math Wheel of Fortune, Matt doing the problems and Mercedes spinning the wheel. They teamed up for the water balloon fight and Mercedes had to take a picture with her phone of the football player with his blue t shirt all wet and slightly sticking to him... yummy.
They killed it in music class when it was their time to perform. Mercedes sang lead, Matt did backup and they had the instrumental that they got online blasting through the speakers (They sang I Need Your Lovin’ by Teena Marie, who had a higher pitched voice than Mercedes, but baby girl made it work). The whole time Mercedes is dancing around with Matt, she registers the put out look on Shay and Amy’s faces.
They sometimes hung out after camp let out for the day, going to the park or the game arcade or to the ice cream parlor. They don’t talk, just smile at each other while their on the swings or over their ice cream cones while they do their math homework.
One day they were in the ice cream parlor, Mercedes had chocolate chocolate chunk and Matt had fudge ripple, and the window behind them is quite wide. So both of them spot Amy and Shay walking out of the clothing store next door at the same time.
Mercedes can’t stop looking, though she knew if they spotted her they would be there in a second taunting her. She was actively willing them with her mind not to turn and see her, but it doesn’t work and the pretty black girl spots her first.
Mercedes almost groans in frustration, when a tap on the shoulder alerts her and she turns and suddenly Matt’s lips are on hers, completely distracting her to the Mean Girls and when he pulls away, she turns to see they’re gone. She gives him a smile and he gives her back one.
[She doesn’t think Fly’Cedes and SilentMatt use Distract-o-Kiss. It is super effective! when he kisses her. She so doesn’t think it. Damn Puck and Finn for sneaking that game into assembly one morning].
On the last day, before going to the amusement park, they had a social. There was music and Miss Berman asked them to bring snacks. Mercedes spent the night before icing cupcakes she begged her mother to make. They were pretty, with blue and white addition, subtraction, multiplication and division symbols. She walked proudly into the room with them, placing them on the snack table. She looked cute too, wearing her red summer dress and white cotton jacket with white ballet flats with musical notes on them.
Matt was dancing in the cleared space in the middle of the room when Shay and Amy walked over to the table.
Mercedes gave them a look that said, Hey today’s the last day, bitches. So don’t be starting nothing and there won’t be nothing. Maybe Matt’s rubbing off on her a bit.
Shay turned up her little brown nose at the cupcakes, “What do you think we are, three? Why didn’t you put some pi signs on them?”
Mercedes sighed, “If you don’t like them, Shay, don’t eat them.”
“I don’t think anyone should. They’re hideous,” said Amy.
Then before Mercedes could stop her, Amy took the heel of her hand and smashed every one of the cupcakes, all her mother’s hard work, into smoosh.
Mercedes could only gasp in reaction. Then she bristled with rage.
“Bitch, you’re lucky this table’s between us or I’d have to snap your chopstick legs in two!” she yelled. She saw Amy jump and then narrow her eyes.
“I like to see you try, Bessie!”
She made a swing at Amy, but someone held her back. It was Matt.
“Good thing boyfriend held you back, Bessie,” said Shay, “Amy has a black belt in tae kwon doe.”
“When I’m done with her she can use it to put herself in traction!” Mercedes yelled from behind Matt, who stepped in front of her.
“What are you gonna do, boyfriend?” Amy taunted. Shay cackled.
“He doesn’t have to do anything,” said Miss Berman, “You two, get your things and go home.”
As Amy and Shay muttered all the way out the door and the rest of the group shouted good riddance, Matt turned to her and wiped a tear from her cheek, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. They’re just cupcakes, but my mom was so tired and I begged her to make them...”
He held her hand and Mercedes felt instantly better.
They went to the amusement park and when Finn spotted them, he got them to cut the line to go on the roller coaster. They rode all the rides twice and Matt won her a blue bunny. And she won him a green teddy.
He walked with her in the direction of her bus stop, even though his house was in the opposite direction.
“Why did you say you were my boyfriend that first day?” she asked the question that was on her mind all week.
He took a while to answer, and Mercedes thought he wouldn’t, but then he said, “At school, you always have someone from Glee looking out for you. But this week you had me. So I had to step up.”
Mercedes smiled and took his hand, “I guess on Monday it’s all gonna go back to normal, huh?”
Matt shrugged. She knew what he meant.
And she kinda didn’t want it to end yet.
“Wanna go for ice cream?”
Matt smiled and nodded.
The next week in Glee, she and Matt sang I Need Your Lovin’ for everybody and she noted a few dropped jaws. Rachel, Tina and Quinn squealed when she showed them the wet t shirt pic on her phone.
Title: Every Lady Needs an Escort (and Every Gentleman Too)
Chapter: Two, Math Camp wih Matt
Author: happy_overdose
Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership, but not love.
This is the entry for Five Times. I kind of miss Matt.
There is never anything to do in Lima during Spring Break. To get even sliver of excitement, you had to at least step beyond to the Welcome to Lima sign. Which was what all her Glee friends were all planning to do. Puck was going to visit some cousins, Rachel was going with her dads to San Francisco and Finn’s mom got him a job at an amusement park in the next town. Quinn was going to Cleveland to some Catholic conference thing, Brittany and Santana were going to a cheerleading competition with the rest of the Cheerios. Artie had invited Tina to go on a road trip with his family. Kurt’s dad dragged him to a car show in Toledo. Mike was going to a dance workshop.
Mercedes was content with her plan to sit on her couch for the whole week, watching soaps and movies when her mother handed her a brochure.
“Math Camp?” Mercedes read, then looked up at her mother, “Mom, seriously?”
“It’s not like it’s boring math,” her mother flipped the page of the brochure, “The whole thing is supposed to teach you to approach math in new ways. Look! Music class! You’ll like that!”
Mercedes sighed, knowing her mother won’t give up until she caved and went to the stupid camp. She didn’t even bother to tell her Glee friends what she was doing and in their excitement, they forgot to ask.
It’s no biggie, though. She could have the ice-cream parlor to herself now that even the bullies are out of town. She could do totally silly things like go on the slide in the park without a soul saying “What the hell are you doing?” She could even wear her jeans shorts that have been calling to her from the bottom of her drawer without a total Kurt smack down.
And, since she is a complete wuss when it comes to standing up to her mother, she could learn math too. And since it wasn’t like she was bad at math, it wouldn’t be hard.
She read the brochure. It didn’t really seem all bad. The classes were from 10 in the mid morning to two in the afternoon, so you had the rest of the day to yourself. And there was gonna be food, like burgers and stuff. And they were gonna take the participants on a trip on the last day. She guessed she wouldn’t totally die of boredom.
... ...
She dressed carefully that first day, not knowing the crowd; tight jeans, a short-sleeved blue and yellow striped top and her blue Converse sneakers, with her microphone chain and sparkly black headband. It was like the first day of school. Mercedes hated that feeling.
When she walked into the room where the rest of her campmates for a week were already milling around, introducing themselves to the others, she felt her heart stall in fear.
Then she spotted Matt at the back of the room. Immediately, she went to sit beside him.
“Forced against your will too?” Mercedes asked him.
He gave her a smile that totally said, Nobody volunteers to do math on a holiday.
But after a while, she had to admit though, it was kinda fun. The teacher Miss Berman was cool and she let them play games that taught them about angles and geometry. She didn’t say anything when one of the guys shouted “Holy shit!” when she put a really complicated word problem on the board or when another wanted to replace the ‘t’ in his Algebra equation to ‘tits’.
But it was school after all, and what were schools without a bully or two? Though Shay Smith and Amy Phang had nothing on Santana or Karofsky, their barbs still stung a bit...
“Hey fatty,” Shay said, her pouty lips stretched in an evil smile, gold eyes venomous, “What ya got there?”
They were all sitting at a pair of picnic tables outside the building that housed their camp, eating lunch. Mercedes had been slowly working her way through a bag of gooey cookies that followed her sandwich, enjoying the breeze under the tree, listening to the songs on one of her campmate’s iPod, when Stick Thin One and Two joined them under the tree without lunches.
“You really gonna eat all those cookies?” Amy’s almond shaped eyes were just visible under fashionable jet black bangs, “Hm, no wonder you’re a baby whale.”
Mercedes ignored them, ate another cookie.
“Look at her go!” Shay laughed, “It’s like those cows you see on tv eating down a whole field!”
“Damn Bessie, slow down!” Amy laughed.
“Hey leave her alone,” Matt mumbled from beside Mercedes. It was hardly audible, but Amy had clearly heard. So had Mercedes, and she whipped her head around. She wasn’t sure if she ever heard the boy speak. She heard him sing loads of times, but he usually just whispered to Mike in Glee meetings.
“What are you the boyfriend?” Amy scoffed, as if she never heard something so absurd in her life.
Matt stood up, twice as tall as the Asian girl, “Yeah, I am. Got a problem?”
And Mercedes thought hearing him speak had been a shock.
After that and for the rest of the week, Matt made a beeline for her every time they were in the same room. He held her hand all the time, glaring at Shay and Amy anytime they came nearby. He even kissed her cheek and put his arm over her shoulder sometimes, like a boyfriend would.
All that didn’t mean he spoke much. Mercedes guessed he really was just the strong, silent type. Either that or he was more shy than Tina. She appreciated him being there, however, and plus it would have been weird if Matt suddenly became Mr. Narrator.
It was kind of fun with him, too. They built a pyramid out of glue and popsicle sticks. They beat Amy and Shay at Math Wheel of Fortune, Matt doing the problems and Mercedes spinning the wheel. They teamed up for the water balloon fight and Mercedes had to take a picture with her phone of the football player with his blue t shirt all wet and slightly sticking to him... yummy.
They killed it in music class when it was their time to perform. Mercedes sang lead, Matt did backup and they had the instrumental that they got online blasting through the speakers (They sang I Need Your Lovin’ by Teena Marie, who had a higher pitched voice than Mercedes, but baby girl made it work). The whole time Mercedes is dancing around with Matt, she registers the put out look on Shay and Amy’s faces.
They sometimes hung out after camp let out for the day, going to the park or the game arcade or to the ice cream parlor. They don’t talk, just smile at each other while their on the swings or over their ice cream cones while they do their math homework.
One day they were in the ice cream parlor, Mercedes had chocolate chocolate chunk and Matt had fudge ripple, and the window behind them is quite wide. So both of them spot Amy and Shay walking out of the clothing store next door at the same time.
Mercedes can’t stop looking, though she knew if they spotted her they would be there in a second taunting her. She was actively willing them with her mind not to turn and see her, but it doesn’t work and the pretty black girl spots her first.
Mercedes almost groans in frustration, when a tap on the shoulder alerts her and she turns and suddenly Matt’s lips are on hers, completely distracting her to the Mean Girls and when he pulls away, she turns to see they’re gone. She gives him a smile and he gives her back one.
[She doesn’t think Fly’Cedes and SilentMatt use Distract-o-Kiss. It is super effective! when he kisses her. She so doesn’t think it. Damn Puck and Finn for sneaking that game into assembly one morning].
On the last day, before going to the amusement park, they had a social. There was music and Miss Berman asked them to bring snacks. Mercedes spent the night before icing cupcakes she begged her mother to make. They were pretty, with blue and white addition, subtraction, multiplication and division symbols. She walked proudly into the room with them, placing them on the snack table. She looked cute too, wearing her red summer dress and white cotton jacket with white ballet flats with musical notes on them.
Matt was dancing in the cleared space in the middle of the room when Shay and Amy walked over to the table.
Mercedes gave them a look that said, Hey today’s the last day, bitches. So don’t be starting nothing and there won’t be nothing. Maybe Matt’s rubbing off on her a bit.
Shay turned up her little brown nose at the cupcakes, “What do you think we are, three? Why didn’t you put some pi signs on them?”
Mercedes sighed, “If you don’t like them, Shay, don’t eat them.”
“I don’t think anyone should. They’re hideous,” said Amy.
Then before Mercedes could stop her, Amy took the heel of her hand and smashed every one of the cupcakes, all her mother’s hard work, into smoosh.
Mercedes could only gasp in reaction. Then she bristled with rage.
“Bitch, you’re lucky this table’s between us or I’d have to snap your chopstick legs in two!” she yelled. She saw Amy jump and then narrow her eyes.
“I like to see you try, Bessie!”
She made a swing at Amy, but someone held her back. It was Matt.
“Good thing boyfriend held you back, Bessie,” said Shay, “Amy has a black belt in tae kwon doe.”
“When I’m done with her she can use it to put herself in traction!” Mercedes yelled from behind Matt, who stepped in front of her.
“What are you gonna do, boyfriend?” Amy taunted. Shay cackled.
“He doesn’t have to do anything,” said Miss Berman, “You two, get your things and go home.”
As Amy and Shay muttered all the way out the door and the rest of the group shouted good riddance, Matt turned to her and wiped a tear from her cheek, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. They’re just cupcakes, but my mom was so tired and I begged her to make them...”
He held her hand and Mercedes felt instantly better.
They went to the amusement park and when Finn spotted them, he got them to cut the line to go on the roller coaster. They rode all the rides twice and Matt won her a blue bunny. And she won him a green teddy.
He walked with her in the direction of her bus stop, even though his house was in the opposite direction.
“Why did you say you were my boyfriend that first day?” she asked the question that was on her mind all week.
He took a while to answer, and Mercedes thought he wouldn’t, but then he said, “At school, you always have someone from Glee looking out for you. But this week you had me. So I had to step up.”
Mercedes smiled and took his hand, “I guess on Monday it’s all gonna go back to normal, huh?”
Matt shrugged. She knew what he meant.
And she kinda didn’t want it to end yet.
“Wanna go for ice cream?”
Matt smiled and nodded.
The next week in Glee, she and Matt sang I Need Your Lovin’ for everybody and she noted a few dropped jaws. Rachel, Tina and Quinn squealed when she showed them the wet t shirt pic on her phone.