It was a pretty normal day for Nellie if she did say so herself. The weather was nice, she landed five flips during cheer practice and she got to hang out with Matteo during lunch per usual. Things were going swell. Until Brittany walked over talking about how Rory was a leprechaun and was granting her wishes.

"What?" Nellie asked once Brittany finished explaining. She honestly had no words to describe how confused she was at the moment.

"Yeah! Rory said he would grant you a wish too. You're pretty and Rory grants wishes to pretty girls."

Nellie sighed and rubbed her temples. It honestly got kind of exhausting how gullible Brittany was at times. "Well, you tell Rory I'm in a happy relationship. But if you want wishes granted then you can go have your wishes."

The reason Nellie didn't tell Brittany Rory wasn't a leprechaun in the first place was because the last thing she needed was Brittany ending up even more confused and Nellie having to explain the entire thing all over again.

"Hey Brittany, can I talk to Nellie alone?" Mercedes questioned walking over to the pair.

"Yeah. See you at glee club Nel." Nellie waved goodbye before turning around to open her locker.

"Hey Cedes. What's up?" She greeted.

"Hey Nel, I wanted to ask you something. How many solos have you gotten recently?"

Nellie looked up to the sky as if she was in deep thought. "Uh, not much lately. With that play in production Mr.Shues been giving solos to Rachel a lot. Why?"

"Because I have the perfect solution for that. Shelby's group. If we were there together, we'd get all the solos and all the duets. Just imagine you, me, and Santanas voice combined."

"Well I did miss doing songs with you guys."

"Exactly! So you'll join?"

"Cedes, you know I'd love to, but I have friends in glee club. My boyfriends in glee club. I-I can't leave him. And what about Jay? He thinks you're magically gonna walk in and take your spot back."

"I'll talk to Jay. And I'm sure Matteo will understand. He's one of the most understanding guys I know." Nellie shrugged in agreement and the duo started walking down the hallway.

"I-I do miss getting solos. And a new scene would be nice for a change."

"Just think about it." Mercedes walked off leaving Nellie all alone to her thoughts. Eventually the bell rang and Nellie sighed before walking over to glee club.

"You know what girl Chang, if you cry every time someone gets a hangnail, it kind of starts to lose its effect." Santana commented once Nellie walked inside the room. She furrowed her brows and moved to sat down next to Matteo who kissed her cheek.

"I don't know why you're targeting me. Look at Jay." Tina nodded her head at the brown haired boy who had laid down flat on his back on the ground.

"What the hell are you doing Parker?" Santana sighed.

"I can't stand being without Mercedes. We lost our best singer. How the hell are we gonna win sectionals now?" Jay questioned as he got off the ground and moved to sit next to Nellie who just rubbed his back.

"Parker's right. Without her singing for us we're gonna have to perform naked for the judges to vote for us at sectionals." Puck added causing Jay to groan and cover his face with his hands.

"No. I will not let this setback crush our spirits. We have handled worse." Mr.Shue mentioned causing Nellie to roll her eyes.

"We lost one of our best singers. What can be worse then that?" She questioned.

"Kind of hard not to blame you Mr.Shue." Quinn commented.

"You were kind of being......excuse my language, an ass." Jay added shrugging nonchalantly.

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

"Because that would have damaged my integrity as an artist."

"Well your "integrity as an artist" was what caused Mercedes to leave. I hope you're happy." Matteo scoffed while rolling his eyes. Suddenly Rachel walked in causing Nellie to groan and throw her head back. As if her day couldn't get any worse, Rachel had to show up and make her want to slam her head against a wall.

"Sorry I'm late. I was putting up posters for my—my campaign."

"Don't be shocked if they all suddenly....disappeared. More specifically in the trash." Nellie grinned causing Rachel to glare at her. Nellie hated Rachel with a passion. The girl was so full of herself and was another one of the reasons Mercedes quit. She was counting down the days until graduation so that Nellie could finally be free from Rachel.

"Did you airbrush out your jowls?" Kurt commented causing Jay to snicker.

"Did you make someone wanna go death with your talking?" Matteo added.

"No!" Rachel exclaimed back causing Nellie to laugh out loud.

"Look, stop it everybody! So we lost a singer. So they canceled the musical." Finn said standing up.

"Wait what? No no no, you can't cancel my musical." Rachel exclaimed standing up.

"Sue cut the funding." Mike explained.

"The point is, right now, we shouldn't be turning on each other!"

"Real nice pep talk Finn." Nellie mumbled rolling her eyes. Lately it felt like Nellie and Finn were strangers now. He abandoned her for Rachel and never looked back. The last time they hung out other then in glee club was about a year ago. It hurt at first to see Finn leave her in the dust, but Nellie realized that she had a boyfriend and a happy life. She could do much better without him.

"I agree. I can only speak from my experience in 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 said causing Nellie to nod and lightly clap for him. It was a way better speech then what Finn gave.

"Which is easy when your waiting list has a waiting list. Dude I know you're a big deal at Dalton or whatever, but we don't do blazers here. So have a seat. I'm trying to have a pep talk."

"Stop being a douchelord Hudson." Matteo snapped standing up.

"Matteo's right. Why don't you sit the hell down and let Blaine continue? Asshole." Jay scoffed rolling his eyes. Nellie just sent Finn a look between sad and angry before looking away.

"No. You can't cancel my musical ok? I was thinking of changing my name to Maria."

Obsessed much?

This was one of the reasons Nellie couldn't stand Rachel.

"The musical is not cancelled. 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." Mr.Shue emphasized causing Nellie to roll her eyes. It sucked Mercedes was being brushed off.

"How?" Tina questioned.

"We sell ads in the program. I figure we can get 10, maybe 20 bucks apiece for them."

"So we'll only have to sell about 200."

"Well, I think it's a brilliant idea. And I volunteer myself to spearhead the charge. It'll give me a perfect opportunity to bust out my Banana Republic Mad Men Collection." Kurt commented causing Nellie to raise a brow.

"Ok! All right! Let's split into smaller groups. Figure out who's going to canvass which parts of the city. And guys, I don't care what Sue does or who leaves us. Everyone in this groups dreams are going to come true this year. Let's do it!" Nellie stood up and grabbed her stuff making her way out of the choir room when Finn stopped her.

"Hey Nel. Ready to help out the team?" He asked.

"Sure. Why?" She replied a bit skeptical."

"Just checking."

Nellie rolled her eyes before finally leaving the choir room.

                           *******

A couple days later Nellie was in glee club along with everyone else. After selling ads for days straight she was exhausted. Which is why she laid on Matteo's lap with her feet resting on Jays lap.

"Okay, everyone. I have some very exciting news. Due to the collective spirit of this club—particularly the hard ad sales work of Kurt and the generosity of the entire Hummel-Hudson household, it's my pleasure to announce that we have raised the money to do West Side Story this year!"

Nellie cheered faintly and rubbed her eyes. She forgot to take her meds that morning and really didn't feel like running to the nurse at the moment.

"Great job! Thank you and thank you! Blaine, you actually had something you wanted to say right?" Mr.Shue questioned causing Blaine to stand up and nod

"I just wanted to acknowledge that we've all had a really rough week, what with Mercedes leaving. So I prepared a little something to show what Mr.Shue just said—-that the magic is still here. So this is to remind us of what Glee is all about, which is just fun."

[Last Friday Night-Blaine Anderson and the New Directions]

After performing the only person who seemed to not be into it was Santana. Nellie really didn't care, since she was too busy having fun.

"You guys, that song is amazing! I think we should do it for sectionals!"

"So, no concerns about showcasing any other voices at the competition?" Santana questioned getting out of her seat.

"Oh come on Santana, you were featured last year at sectionals." Mr.Shue argued.

"Yeah, I know. And we won. Oh. No, you know what? I get it. Since Mercedes is gone this year, it's going to be the Blaine and Rachel show. Yay! Noted, good to know."

Santana shot a look at Nellie who just sighed. She knew what Santana said was true, and was definitely hinting at joining Shelby's group. Nellie wanted to join too, but the decision was too hard. Which is why after glee club Nellie and Matteo walked down the hall together talking.

"Hey love, can I ask you something?" She asked.

"Ask me anything in the world." He replied causing Nellie to giggle.

"Hypothetically, what would you say if I left glee club to go join another show choir? I mean, glee clubs great and all, but this new club will give me more chances to shine. But I wouldn't want to leave you, and Puck, and Jay, and everyone else. Except Rachel. I'm mainly joining to get away from her."

"Well, hypothetically, I'd say go for it. And I already knew about Shelby's group. Jay told me Mercedes talked to him about it. You wanna be the star I know you are? Then go ahead. I'll be cheering you on at sectionals either way?"

"So you're not upset? Or betrayed?" Nellie questioned shocked by that Matteo was saying.

"What? Of course not! If glees not making you happy anymore who am I to force you to stay?"

Nellie grinned and grabbed Matteo's neck pulling him in for a kiss. Matteo smirked into the kiss causing Nellie to smirk back.

"Woah woah woah! You're quitting glee?" Finn exclaimed causing the couple to quickly pull away. Nellie turned her head and rolled her eyes, getting mentally prepared for the argument that was about to go down.

"Were you listening to our whole conversation?" Matteo questioned annoyed.

"I was. And I overheard Nel talking about quitting. How could you wanna do that?"

"Because I can't stand your girlfriend stealing the spotlight anymore. I wanna be my own star without having to dance as backup or be backup vocals. You didn't even bother to ask why Mercedes left. All you cared about was being on Blaine's balls the entire week." Nellie snapped causing Matteo to nod in agreement. Finn just clenched his jaw and looked to Matteo.

"How can you be ok with this?"

"I'm not gonna pressure her into staying in something that clearly doesn't make her happy. And honestly, you're a pretty messed up friend if you think trapping Nellie in glee club is a good thing."

"Look man, you've only known Nellie for about a year, Alright? I've been her best friend since day one." Finn argued.

"Then why does she never hang out with you anymore?"

"Matteo. Leave us." Nellie kissed Matteo's cheek before shoving him away.

"How can you do this? I thought we were friends." Finn mentioned and Nellie scoffed.

"Friends don't ditch their other friend for their snobby girlfriend. Friends don't lie and say they have plans when the other one wants to hang out. I know damn well you spend those nights with Rachel. Friends don't get mad at me when I want a solo. Matteo's right. You're a messed up friend. And it's about time I realized that. See you at sectionals Hudson River."

And with that Nellie turned and walked off, not looking back at all.

                          *******
The next day Nellie informed Santana and Mercedes she was joining Shelby's group to which they were extremely excited about. Brittany also joined which made the situation even better. And so the group of four walked inside the room not expecting to see Sugar Motta there.

"Awesome! More backup for me!" She exclaimed causing Nellie to raise a brow and step forward. The last thing that was going to happen was that she was going to get stuck with a Rachel Berry 2.0.

"Oh hell no. No way I just left all my friends just to be stuck with the exact reason I left in the first place. Let me break it down for you, Sugar. You're just gonna stand in the back and give very weak vocals while my girls and I sing our solos. So be quiet and study your lines!" Nellie said causing Santana to raise a brow and pat her back.

"I've taught you well." She said proudly.

"I, um, just wanted to be on the winning team for once." Sugar stammered causing Nellie to roll her eyes.

"Then turn down the tude, and you will be." Mercedes commented.

"Ladies, welcome. We were just brainstorming names for our new group."

"Perfect. Hot bitches."

"Mean girls but hotter." Nellie added.

"Free beer."

"Oh, okay. I was thinking something that captured our essence, sums up who we want to be and who we really are."

"What we are is trouble for the other groups." Mercedes said causing Nellie to nod in agreement.

"The troubletones."

"Awesome!" Nellie cheered.

Later on the group was in the auditorium performing their first number. Nellie couldn't be anymore excited to learn she gets her own solo.

[Candy Man-Santana Lopez, Nellie Puckerman, Mercedes Jones, Brittany Pierce]

"Wooo! Go Nellie!" Matteo cheered giving a standing ovation. Nellie waved to him and blew a kiss.

"Mercedes! You look amazing!" Jay added also giving a standing ovation. Mercedes just grinned and looked down. Finn and Mr.Shue tried to pull the two boys down but nothing was working.

Nellie sent a dark grin to Finn and just walked off the stage, causing Finn to gulp and look away.

Word count:2,528

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