The week of nationals was finally here and Nellie couldn't be anymore excited. Matteo wasn't the biggest fan of going back to his home state for the competition but he realized he had to suck it up so here he was sitting with the glee club in Times Square as they ate food.

"This was my favorite place to go when I used to live here. Especially at night." Matteo mentioned and Nellie smiled, grabbing his hand.

"A year and a half ago the New Directions were nothing but a group of six misfits stumbling their way through a horrific rendition of "Sit Down You're Rockin' the boat." Now, here we are at the top of the show choir heap. Nationals!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Thank god I wasn't here to see "Sit Down You're Rockin' the boat. It sounded awful." Nellie commented.

"I want to hit Central Park, get my frolic on." Tina mentioned.

"I want to throw stuff off the Brooklyn Bridge." Puck added.

"I want to ride a Ferry!" Nellie cheered.

"I'm down with that." Matteo shrugged.

"Guys, hold on. I mean, we still have three songs to write." Finn mentioned.

"Whatever, Mr.Bossy Pants. But I think we have some time for a song before we leave." Jay smirked.

The glee club shared a tune before noticing Rachel walking over.

"Guys, I have news. To celebrate our impending win at nationals I got us all fifteen tickets to Broadways longest show ever Cats." Rachel explained walking over to them.

"Whoo!"

"Yeah, you did."

"Rach, I hate to be the one to break the news, but cats closed down over a decade ago." Matteo informed.

"Should've got us tickets to wicked." Nellie mumbled crossing her arms over her chest.

"He did seem crazy. He charged my credit card by swiping it through his butt crack."

"Yeah, remind me to never touch your credit card again." Nellie shuddered.

Eventually later that day the glee club was being led to their hotel rooms. Nellie took off her shoes and started jumping on the bed.

"Oh real mature Nellie." Puck commented making the girl laugh.

"I've always wanted to do this!" Nellie jumped one last time before falling back down laying on her back. Jay took this as an opportunity to start jumping on the bed with her on it. The girl fell off the bed with a thud, and just when everyone thought Nellie was actually hurt she let out a loud laugh of pure excitement.

"Do you know that I can get an ahi tartare and a steak sandwich at 3:00 in the morning from their all night dining menu? I feel like Eloise." Kurt mentioned making Nellie smirk.

"I heard food." Matteo walked out of the bathroom and everyone gave him a weird look.

"Dude, you heard all of that?" Mike questioned.

"I'm always on alert when it comes to food." Nellie raised a brow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"And mi amor of course."

"Barf." Santana commented.

"All right, guys. This is your time. Now, you are all on lockdown till you finish writing our songs for nationals. I want at least two solid verses by the time I get back." Mr.Shue instructed.

"Aren't you gonna help us?" Tina questioned.

"I, um-I will be back and ready your amazing creations and give notes. But right now I have to head to the theater to uh, fill out some paperwork." Nellie could tell Mr.Shue was lying through his teeth but decided to keep it under wraps for now. So she sat on the floor pulling out her song notebook, starting to write ideas. Soon Nellie had a beat going through her head and smirked before writing lyrics to the song. Eventually Brittany got up saying she had a song and wanted to perform it for everyone.

[My Cup-Brittany Spears and Artie Abrams]

"What?" Matteo asked when the song was over. Pure confusion was written all over his face and Nellie chuckled at that.

"Hold on. Are you singing about a cup?" Tina questioned.

"Yeah. Totally." Brittany replied.

"We gotta get out of here." Quinn stood up grabbing her jacket making Nellie grow confused.

"Wait. No, no, no. Mr.Shue gave us explicit instructions." Rachel mentioned and Nellie rolled her eyes pulling on her jacket as well (image above).

"Yeah, to write a song. And our problem is our only inspiration are mattresses and bathroom cups." Nellie responded.

"Nel's right. We're in the artist capital of the world. Poets, musicians, actors, playwrights, every dreamer that's ever lived here has passed through this city. If we want our dreams to come true, we need to be out there with them, not stuck in here." Puck added.

"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, we still got those to write. If we don't write them, we're gonna lose." Finn said.

"No! They're right. Can't you hear the city calling to you?" Lauren questioned.

"We don't need to write songs for nationals. New York's gonna write them for us." And with that the glee club ran out of the hotel room to explore the city before Mr.Shue got back and noticed they were gone.

[New York, New York/I Love New York-Finn Hudson, Nellie Puckerman, Santana Lopez, Matteo Gomez, Artie Abrams, Mercedes Jones]

After running around all day Nellie sat in the hotel room while the girls plus Kurt were having a pillow fight. Nellie sighed as she stared down at her song notebook which only had one verse in it.

"Can you guys please keep it down?" Nellie begged but was ignored and had a pillow thrown at her face by Tina. Nellie sighed and grabbed her notebook walking over to the boys room.

"Guys? Please open up." Nellie begged. Seconds later the door opened revealing Puck.

"You ok?" He asked noticing how stressed out his sister looked.

"They're all being so loud. I'm trying to write and all that's happening is I'm getting pillows thrown in my face. Oh my god, it's so quiet in  here." Nellie gasped as she walked inside the room.

"That's cool. You can chill in here with us." Finn said with a smirk making Nellie smile as well.

"Thanks guys." Nellie started writing in her notebook as the boys were talking again. Unlike the girls, they weren't screaming and throwing things at each other. Just talking.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that. Rachel talks about you 25/8." Nellie mentioned when Finn was talking about Rachel being into Jesse.

"You're in New York! The city of love!" Puck added.

"I thought that was Paris?" Sam asked confused, with his mouth full of chips.

"Ew." Nellie deadpanned.

"Anything's possible here! You need to ask her out tonight. Take her out on one of those big awful dates you see in those unwatchable romantic comedies that you grow a vagina if you watch all the way through!"

"Shut up Puck. Those movies are adorable." Nellie threw a pillow at her older brother making him throw it back.

"This is your shot dude! I mean if I wasn't homeless, I would love to take a girl on one of those New York dates."

"Same with Mercedes." Jay added.

"I'll do it. But you guys gotta help me. You're my wing-men, plus wing-women, you're gonna help me make this special."

"I only came in here to write songs. How did I end up having to help Finn get Rachel back?"

"No clue."

That night Nellie fell asleep  and Matteo made up some excuse he had to watch over her so he didn't have to go with Finn to get Rachel back.

"Nel." Matteo whispered shaking the girl awake. Nellie groaned and turned over.

"Nel wake up." He whispered again shaking her harder. Nellie finally woke up and glared at Matteo.

"Somebody better be on fire."

"No, you wanna do something fun?"

"No." She turned over and pressed her face into the pillow. Somehow she could sense Matteo was pouting so she turned around to face him. He was in fact pouting and looking down.

"Meet me outside in five minutes." Matteo grinned and shot up walking out of the room. After changing her clothes:

And fixing her horrible case of bed head Nellie walked out of the hotel room. Matteo held out his hand for her and the girl smirked, taking it.

"Come on." The two giggled before running out of the hotel room, and exploring the city of New York.

"I've always wanted to try a New York pretzel! Nellie exclaimed as she took a bite out of it.

"Jeez you sound like such a tourist right now." Matteo laughed as he was also eating a pretzel. There was comfortable silence for a moment before Matteo spoke up again. 

"You know, I never thought I'd be back here. When I moved to Ohio I swore to never go back to New York. Here I am though."

"Matteo, you do know Mr.Shue gave you the option to stay right?" Nellie questioned, furrowing her brows.

"Then I would've had to put up with my parents. And I think I'm developing a case of major separation anxiety." Nellie let out a laugh at that and sat on a nearest bench. What she wasn't expecting was for a pigeon to swoop in and steal her pretzel.

"Hey! Give that back!" Nellie yelled shooting up and sprinting after the pigeon. The pigeon flew away and Nellie kicked the wall in anger.

"Welcome to New York amor." Matteo joked patting her back.

                          🎤🎤🎤
The next day Nellie was banging on the bathroom door, huffing in frustration. Quinn was taking forever in the bathroom and Nellie still didn't do her hair yet. It looked like a birds nest. Santana and Brittany were also banging on the door, just as frustrated as Nellie.

"Quinn, quit hogging the bathroom. I need to re-pencil my eyebrows on." Santana yelled as she kept banging.

"Yeah and I need to do my hair!" Nellie added as she knocked on the door. Quinn finally walked out of the bathroom and Nellie watched her every step.

"It's all yours."

"Everybody's already in the other room working." Santana mentioned turning to face Quinn.

"Oh yeah? Is Mr.Shue in there? Cause I think I'm gonna tell him that Rachel and Kurt keep sneaking off." Quinn responded.

"Why do you need to snitch?" Nellie questioned.

"Yeah, you can't do that. He'll have to suspend them." Brittany added.

"And then there goes our chance at nationals. Darn." Quinn sarcastically said making Nellie scoff. She's had just about enough of Quinn's petty attitude.

"You know what? We get it. You're pissed about Finn dumping your sweet ass. Get over it." Santana yelled.

"I don't wanna get over it?"

"The only person you're sabotaging is yourself. This isn't going to make you look like a better person." Nellie added sticking up for Santana.

"I don't care about some stupid show choir competition!" Quinn screamed and Nellies face softened when she saw Quinn starting to cry.

"Well, you should. Because this is the one chance that we have to actually feel good about ourselves." Santos mentioned.

"Aren't we supposed to be the popular girls? So why can't we have our dreams come true? She has love. Tina has it. Nellie has it. Even Zizes hooks up. I just want somebody to love me."

"I think I know how to make you feel better." Santana said.

"I'm flattered, Santana, but I'm not really into that." Quinn commented.

"No. No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a haircut." Santana corrected and Nellie smirked at that. She's been meaning to give someone a haircut since forever really.

"Yes, totally." Brittany agreed.

"I got the scissors." Nellie added as she walked off to find the scissors. The four girls walked over to the bathroom and cut Quinn's hair. The girl really seemed to like it.

"Thank you guys." The four girls hugged before walking out of the hotel room.

Later that night Nellie and the rest of the girls sat in the boys hotel room waiting for Mr.Shue. Dustin Goolsby dropped some tip that Mr.Shue was leaving the glee club for Broadway so they decided to confront him about it.

"All right, guys. Who's up for some real New York......Pizza?" Mr.Shue trails off when he notices the looks on the glee clubs faces.

"We heard." Quinn said.

"Heard what?" Mr.Shue asked.

"Don't play dumb Schuester. We know you're leaving for Broadway." Jay snapped. Nellie gave him a warning look basically telling him to calm his tone down.

"Look. I haven't made up my mind about anything." Mr.Shue mentioned.

"We get it. And we're happy for you." Kurt said.

"I don't understand. Who told you guys?" Mr.Shue questioned.

"Goolsby."

"Are you ok Mr.Shue?" Mike questioned.

"I'm not going. I'm staying with you guys. I had my moment on that stage, and it was glorious. But you and I.....have some unfinished business to take care of. Now get our your notebooks. Time to get to work. Come on. This is nationals people." Nellie smirked and cheered at that, causing everyone else to cheer as well

"Whoo!"

"So we're gonna—Oh! Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

Puck stood up to hug Mr.Shue and everyone soon got up to join in. Nellie was just happy Mr.Shue was staying with the glee club and not ditching them so soon.

                            🎤🎤🎤
Nationals was finally here and Nellie couldn't be anymore nervous. Mr.Shue had allowed Matteo and Nellie to sing their duet which made the girl even more nervous.

"We made it. We're one of the top 50 show choirs in the nation. Tomorrow only 10 move on to showcase, where they'll vie for the national championship." Rachel informed.

"We've so got this!" Kurt cheered.

"Only. Usually I'm pretty cautious about getting your hopes up but honestly, guys I think we got a pretty good shot at winning this thing. All right. Everyone put your hands in the middle." Mr.Shue said.

"Of course we do."

"Whoo!"

"One, two, three!"

"New Directions!"

The glee club headed to the auditorium and sit down to watch the performance. After the first groups performed it was time for Vocal Adrenaline.

[All My Life-Sunshine Corazon and Vocal Adrenaline]

Matteo was leaning against the wall biting his nails to try and hide his nervousness. Nellie was in the same position he was, until Mr.Shue walked over to the both of them.

"Hey, you both got this alright? Just give it your all, and nothing else matters." The two smirked and pecked each other on the lips and waited for their cue.

"And now from William Mckinely High in Lima, Ohio, the New Directions!"

Matteo and Nellie walk over to the stage and grab each other's hands before starting.

[Perfect-Nellie Puckerman and Matteo Gomez]

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Everyone cheered for Matteo and Nellie and they ran backstage, hugging and kissing each other.

"Oh my god. This was the most stressful moment of my life." Nellie laughed at thay and kissed him, making Matteo pull away after a few moments.

"Come on, we better watch Finn and Rachel." Matteo said and Nellie nodded, walking over to the side to watch.

[Pretending-Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry]

Nellie was caught off guard when Finn and Rachel kissed.

On stage.

"Oh my god." Nellie mumbled in pure disgust. That one action could possibly cost them the competition. But she shook it off and got in her position for the next number.

[Light Up The World-Santana Lopez, Artie Abrams, Brittany Pierce, Jay Parker, Tina Cohen Chang, and the New Directions]

At the end Everyone cheered making a smile appear on nellies face. They bowed before walking off the stage waiting for the judges response.

Nellie was talking with Jay, Matteo, and Puck when she heard squeals.

"Oh my god!"

"They just posted the top ten for showcase. Okay, come on, everybody. Gather around. It's a moment two years in the making." Kurt cheered.

"Okay, okay. What should we do?" Rachel asked.

"Let's look at it together. Come on. Come on." Mr.Shue said and Nellie nodded and walked over to where the announcement was.

"Oh, I'm to nervous to look."

"What did we place? Well, Mr.Shue. Say it. What did we rank?" Finn questioned.

"We didn't. I'm so sorry, you guys. We aren't in the top ten." Nellie slowly processed the mood and her face twisted into one of pure rage. This was all Rachel and Finn's fault. Once they got back to the hotel room Nellie took the opportunity to shove Rachel against the wall. She tried to hit her but Matteo grabbed her wrists pulling her back before she could.

"Eschucha soy de Lima Heights Adjacent y soy orgullosa. Sabes lo que pasa en Lima Heights adjacent? Cosas malas!" Santana yelled also trying to attack Rachel.

"I'm sorry, I know I did not spend all night on a song for us to just lose! You idiots! You could've saved the kiss to backstage like Matteo and I! But you always find some way to mess it up don't you?" Nellie screamed as she was being held back by Matteo.

Nellie huffed before releasing herself from Matteo's hold and locking herself in the bathroom.

"Nellie! Nellie open the door!" Matteo pleaded as he knocked on the door. The boy turned to glare at Finn.

"Thanks a lot Hudson. Because you couldn't keep your hands to yourself and lost us the competition Nellie locked herself in the bathroom and I can't get her out. Hope your kiss was worth it."

                             *******
Nellie was still heated after what went down in New York. So she sat next to Matteo who was gently squeezing her hand every now and then. Mr.Shue walked inside the choir room with the twelfth place trophy

"You guys want to see what 12th place looks like?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

Hopefully Nellies junior year would be much better then her sophomore one.

Word count:3,005