VERSES || And all that jazz...
Mercedes' current verses are growingupglee, backwithbaggage, beyondmckinley and inloveinlondon. The following is a brief outline of where she is at in all of them.
growingupglee || Growing Up Glee
This is a current canon verse. Mercedes is true to all her canon here, and it functions alongside the current episodes.
backwithbaggage || Back With Baggage
Like most, Mercedes world fell apart with that fateful night of McKinley's graduation. She went from feeling on top of the world to losing her beloved friends and having nothing. Her college applications didn't draw the attention of the performing arts programs she wanted, and she was left with a ticket to New York City, but not enough cash to her name to pull it off when an arrangement to share an apartment with Kurt obviously fell through. Unable to bear the thought of being in the same city as Kurt without being able to keep their friendship, she cashed her ticket in and went to live with an aunt in Chicago.
Things just went downhill from there. She only managed to find a job serving drinks in a crappy bar, and she spent a couple of years being lonely and miserable, finding herself in a relationship with an alcoholic and doing the unthinkable of getting knocked up by him. She couldn't believe what she let her life come to, but she resolved to be the best mama to that child a baby could ever have. It was going to be her fresh start and that was going to be the key to her happiness. But it all went terribly wrong when she passed out in the kitchen one night making dinner for her boyfriend and stupidly let him drive her to the ER under the influence. He ran a red light and smashed the car into a tree. Mercedes escaped with just a broken leg and a couple of cracked ribs, but the baby died on impact. Mercedes was crushed and has mourned for the baby ever since and it led her to do some very stupid things she will forever regret...
It was her ex high school boyfriend, Shane, that was her shining light. A random email one night simply asking her how she was and if she was ever in LA district, to give him a call. It was UCLA that Shane had eventually accepted a football scholarship with, choosing to aim higher than the Buckeyes after school. He was now a professional footballer, and helped Mercedes back on a path she was content with. She enrolled in college and three years later, graduated with a Bachelor of Education, soon after picking up a job as a singing teacher. She and Shane eventually got married in a small little family-only ceremony on the beach in California, but it just wasn't meant to be. Around the time of the McKinley reunion, they decided to give it one last shot to make the marriage work, but decided to just be friends. After hearing about Kurt, Mercedes knew New York was the only place - finally - she had to be right then. She gave two months notice to her job in LA, and applied for a job at a high school in Brooklyn. She has now moved to the bright lights of New York where so many other McKinleyites have landed after the reunion, only to discover that her goodbye to Shane has left her with a not-so-tiny complication...
beyondmckinley || Beyond McKinley
Along with Kurt, Quinn, and Mike, Mercedes has been a permanent fixture in New York since they all graduated McKinley. She was over the moon to score a place NYU's Tisch School of the Arts studying Recorded Music. She is loving every minute of it and aspires to be a recording artist with her own record label one day, even if it's only a small enterprise. She lives on-campus not far from Mike Chang, and works on the weekends with an Aretha Franklin tribute show who does the rounds of bars and clubs in Manhattan.
College life was good, plugging away smoothly with a happy mix of hanging out with her BFFs, until suddenly like was turned upside with Blaine's return to Kurt's life. No one could ever have expected Kurt to be the cheating sort, but Blaine was the one who got away... and was suddenly back again. When Blaine was nearly mugged and shot in a cab that terrible night in December 2010, they all knew their lives would never be the same again. Then just twelve months later, her beloved best friend was struck down with cancer and it shook everyone to the core. It changed Mercedes more than she could ever admit, and now she just wants to find happiness before it's too late.
But just when she thought love was never going to find her, Mercedes has found herself falling hard and fast for davidwarbler after he arrived in New York after travelling overseas for a couple of years. It's still early days, but it is the first time in a long time Mercedes has felt a warmth in her heart over a guy, and she hopes they maybe have a fighting chance in an otherwise stressful and hectic life after McKinley.
inloveinlondon || In Love In London
Once Mercedes heard that her boy, Kurt, was following his man to England to start their life together after they got fabulously engaged at McKinley's graduation, there was no way she was going to be left behind without her friends. She didn't have the luxury of a scholarship under her belt, though, so she decided to go the backpacking route and jumped on a plane to London with Mike Chang where they both grabbed a room together in some shared backpacking accommodation to start their new life in England.
It seemed that, just like Mike, Mercedes was about to catch a decent break in life. She initially got a job as a waitress in a piano bar in an posh part of London, but when she was fooling around with one of the starring acts and singing some beloved Aretha one night after closing, the boss of the bar snapped her up and she scored a performance slot four nights a week at the bar, meaning she could give up waitressing. She loved it, and it was exactly what she wanted to do, and success only became more bright for her when an Agent for EMI Records visited the bar one night and schmoozed her into the bright lights of stardom, and the rest was history. She is now one of London's most well-known soul and rhythm'n'blues artists with a regular gig at The London Soul Club and two CDs under her belt, and the record label sponsoring her for British permanent residency. She's doing exactly what she loves, and couldn't be happier.
However, in an interesting twist of fate, Mercedes found herself becoming closer and closer to finninator with endless online chats, and after hearing he wanted to relocate to London to be closer to Kurt after finishing college, she offers him an amusing deal he just couldn't pass up...
slidingmoments || Sliding Moments
Mercedes never had the best self-esteem. She was never destined to be size six, always had struggles with her weight, and was often too loud and mouthy for many people to stop and make friends with. She was determined once upon a time to always be a fabulous woman and never change herself for anyone, but the pressures of high school to confirm got their clutches into her and after she joined the Cheerios with Kurt to get more chances to shine, she found herself locked into the cheerleader mindset of body issues and being perfect. She fit into the whole popular-girl cheerleader persona like a square peg in a round hole, however, but she still stayed with it because it gave her some sort of purpose that Glee Club continued to fail to offer.
She knew she lost herself being a Cheerio, but when Quinn convinced Kurt to come back, Mercedes just stayed for the hell of it. Glee Club became boring and nothing but a fight against Rachel and Finn for top dog position. Mercedes certainly didn't want no damn race to be a fabulous diva. She would make it there herself somehow, even if she had to have a pit stop in the realm of cheerleader with little love for the "sport". She found herself just going from day to day and lacking passion for anything. Kurt slipped away from her a little into his own world, only peeking out into the line to get up and do his thing as Co-Captain, but Mercedes never even managed to realise anything was wrong with him until he was fainting on the Nationals stage at the end of junior year. That was when she realised it was damn time to pull her head out of her ass and truly become the fabulous diva she wanted to be.
It just wasn't as easy as that. It was never going to be, and she had to learn the hard way. She stayed in Cheerios just to be near Kurt and Quinn, but it became a chore. Her grades slipped when she kept getting distracted, and Glee Club nearly fell apart when Mr Schue dumped them all in favour of Broadway. Mercedes did find a spark of happiness, though, when she met Dalton Academy Warbler, Jeff Hinton and they started a sweet little romance together. Jeff was Mercedes first love, and they had fun together while it lasted, and although she had her first kiss with him just before Regionals that year, something was just missing. They lasted into senior year before the whole thing met a natural end and they called it quits. They stayed friends, and Mercedes is still frequently in touch with Jeff, but she knows they both have to have a One True Love out there waiting for them somewhere.
Mercedes really started feeling the pinch of her poor choices in school when she applied for music colleges and didn't get into any of them. Her applications didn't have enough support in them to be adequate and for something she always wanted to do professionally one day, her choices soon felt like they had all bitten the dust. With no options, Mercedes followed Kurt to Miami and got a place with him, and the only job she managed to score was a Nursing Assistant at a local hospital... only to discover she loved it. Thrived on it, even. It took her by surprise, but with a bit of coaxing from Kurt and some confused tears about her life course changing, Mercedes was accepted into a bridging course at the community college, Miami Dade for a Bachelor of Nursing and is now a fully qualified Registered Nurse having just started her first job in Pediatrics at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Finally, the diva can be content, even if it's not behind a mic or storming up the Top 40 charts.
gleecollegedays || College Days
Senior year was one of Mercedes happiest but also the biggest emotional roller-coaster of her life. After the confusion of suddenly having the affections of two guys after feeling like no one would ever be attracted to her whilst watching all her other friends hook up in sweet relationships, Mercedes had panicked and called everything off with both guys. Shane and showingnuttage both meant the world to her but when she got so confused that she didn't feel like she could choose, she thought it wasn't fair to either of them to string them along. Sam had been everything to her during their summer together, and she had been devastated when he told her he was moving away. The long distance thing didn't feel like something that could work for her. Letting him go was one of her biggest regrets, and it was why her heart was set into turmoil again when he came back and she lost Shane too in the process.
But some things were just meant to be. Whilst priding herself on being Kurt Hummel's adoring fag hag and watching his own romance with Blaine Anderson blossom, Mercedes once again found herself caught up in affection for Sam when he came back to McKinley. He was relentless, though, whilst still respecting her want for independence, but eventually she couldn't fight it any longer and they hooked up officially and publicly. Now two years later with Sam finally graduated, the couple have joined the other successful pairings - Kurt and Blaine, Quinn and Puck, Tina and Mike, Nick and Jeff - in New York for college. In a very Friends-esque style set up, all of them share a large apartment in the city and whilst it's tight and they're always tripping over each other, Mercedes couldn't be happier with her gorgeous boyfriend, all her friends around her, and finally at college to pave the way of her singing career.
growingupglee || Growing Up Glee
This is a current canon verse. Mercedes is true to all her canon here, and it functions alongside the current episodes.
backwithbaggage || Back With Baggage
Like most, Mercedes world fell apart with that fateful night of McKinley's graduation. She went from feeling on top of the world to losing her beloved friends and having nothing. Her college applications didn't draw the attention of the performing arts programs she wanted, and she was left with a ticket to New York City, but not enough cash to her name to pull it off when an arrangement to share an apartment with Kurt obviously fell through. Unable to bear the thought of being in the same city as Kurt without being able to keep their friendship, she cashed her ticket in and went to live with an aunt in Chicago.
Things just went downhill from there. She only managed to find a job serving drinks in a crappy bar, and she spent a couple of years being lonely and miserable, finding herself in a relationship with an alcoholic and doing the unthinkable of getting knocked up by him. She couldn't believe what she let her life come to, but she resolved to be the best mama to that child a baby could ever have. It was going to be her fresh start and that was going to be the key to her happiness. But it all went terribly wrong when she passed out in the kitchen one night making dinner for her boyfriend and stupidly let him drive her to the ER under the influence. He ran a red light and smashed the car into a tree. Mercedes escaped with just a broken leg and a couple of cracked ribs, but the baby died on impact. Mercedes was crushed and has mourned for the baby ever since and it led her to do some very stupid things she will forever regret...
It was her ex high school boyfriend, Shane, that was her shining light. A random email one night simply asking her how she was and if she was ever in LA district, to give him a call. It was UCLA that Shane had eventually accepted a football scholarship with, choosing to aim higher than the Buckeyes after school. He was now a professional footballer, and helped Mercedes back on a path she was content with. She enrolled in college and three years later, graduated with a Bachelor of Education, soon after picking up a job as a singing teacher. She and Shane eventually got married in a small little family-only ceremony on the beach in California, but it just wasn't meant to be. Around the time of the McKinley reunion, they decided to give it one last shot to make the marriage work, but decided to just be friends. After hearing about Kurt, Mercedes knew New York was the only place - finally - she had to be right then. She gave two months notice to her job in LA, and applied for a job at a high school in Brooklyn. She has now moved to the bright lights of New York where so many other McKinleyites have landed after the reunion, only to discover that her goodbye to Shane has left her with a not-so-tiny complication...
beyondmckinley || Beyond McKinley
Along with Kurt, Quinn, and Mike, Mercedes has been a permanent fixture in New York since they all graduated McKinley. She was over the moon to score a place NYU's Tisch School of the Arts studying Recorded Music. She is loving every minute of it and aspires to be a recording artist with her own record label one day, even if it's only a small enterprise. She lives on-campus not far from Mike Chang, and works on the weekends with an Aretha Franklin tribute show who does the rounds of bars and clubs in Manhattan.
College life was good, plugging away smoothly with a happy mix of hanging out with her BFFs, until suddenly like was turned upside with Blaine's return to Kurt's life. No one could ever have expected Kurt to be the cheating sort, but Blaine was the one who got away... and was suddenly back again. When Blaine was nearly mugged and shot in a cab that terrible night in December 2010, they all knew their lives would never be the same again. Then just twelve months later, her beloved best friend was struck down with cancer and it shook everyone to the core. It changed Mercedes more than she could ever admit, and now she just wants to find happiness before it's too late.
But just when she thought love was never going to find her, Mercedes has found herself falling hard and fast for davidwarbler after he arrived in New York after travelling overseas for a couple of years. It's still early days, but it is the first time in a long time Mercedes has felt a warmth in her heart over a guy, and she hopes they maybe have a fighting chance in an otherwise stressful and hectic life after McKinley.
inloveinlondon || In Love In London
Once Mercedes heard that her boy, Kurt, was following his man to England to start their life together after they got fabulously engaged at McKinley's graduation, there was no way she was going to be left behind without her friends. She didn't have the luxury of a scholarship under her belt, though, so she decided to go the backpacking route and jumped on a plane to London with Mike Chang where they both grabbed a room together in some shared backpacking accommodation to start their new life in England.
It seemed that, just like Mike, Mercedes was about to catch a decent break in life. She initially got a job as a waitress in a piano bar in an posh part of London, but when she was fooling around with one of the starring acts and singing some beloved Aretha one night after closing, the boss of the bar snapped her up and she scored a performance slot four nights a week at the bar, meaning she could give up waitressing. She loved it, and it was exactly what she wanted to do, and success only became more bright for her when an Agent for EMI Records visited the bar one night and schmoozed her into the bright lights of stardom, and the rest was history. She is now one of London's most well-known soul and rhythm'n'blues artists with a regular gig at The London Soul Club and two CDs under her belt, and the record label sponsoring her for British permanent residency. She's doing exactly what she loves, and couldn't be happier.
However, in an interesting twist of fate, Mercedes found herself becoming closer and closer to finninator with endless online chats, and after hearing he wanted to relocate to London to be closer to Kurt after finishing college, she offers him an amusing deal he just couldn't pass up...
slidingmoments || Sliding Moments
Mercedes never had the best self-esteem. She was never destined to be size six, always had struggles with her weight, and was often too loud and mouthy for many people to stop and make friends with. She was determined once upon a time to always be a fabulous woman and never change herself for anyone, but the pressures of high school to confirm got their clutches into her and after she joined the Cheerios with Kurt to get more chances to shine, she found herself locked into the cheerleader mindset of body issues and being perfect. She fit into the whole popular-girl cheerleader persona like a square peg in a round hole, however, but she still stayed with it because it gave her some sort of purpose that Glee Club continued to fail to offer.
She knew she lost herself being a Cheerio, but when Quinn convinced Kurt to come back, Mercedes just stayed for the hell of it. Glee Club became boring and nothing but a fight against Rachel and Finn for top dog position. Mercedes certainly didn't want no damn race to be a fabulous diva. She would make it there herself somehow, even if she had to have a pit stop in the realm of cheerleader with little love for the "sport". She found herself just going from day to day and lacking passion for anything. Kurt slipped away from her a little into his own world, only peeking out into the line to get up and do his thing as Co-Captain, but Mercedes never even managed to realise anything was wrong with him until he was fainting on the Nationals stage at the end of junior year. That was when she realised it was damn time to pull her head out of her ass and truly become the fabulous diva she wanted to be.
It just wasn't as easy as that. It was never going to be, and she had to learn the hard way. She stayed in Cheerios just to be near Kurt and Quinn, but it became a chore. Her grades slipped when she kept getting distracted, and Glee Club nearly fell apart when Mr Schue dumped them all in favour of Broadway. Mercedes did find a spark of happiness, though, when she met Dalton Academy Warbler, Jeff Hinton and they started a sweet little romance together. Jeff was Mercedes first love, and they had fun together while it lasted, and although she had her first kiss with him just before Regionals that year, something was just missing. They lasted into senior year before the whole thing met a natural end and they called it quits. They stayed friends, and Mercedes is still frequently in touch with Jeff, but she knows they both have to have a One True Love out there waiting for them somewhere.
Mercedes really started feeling the pinch of her poor choices in school when she applied for music colleges and didn't get into any of them. Her applications didn't have enough support in them to be adequate and for something she always wanted to do professionally one day, her choices soon felt like they had all bitten the dust. With no options, Mercedes followed Kurt to Miami and got a place with him, and the only job she managed to score was a Nursing Assistant at a local hospital... only to discover she loved it. Thrived on it, even. It took her by surprise, but with a bit of coaxing from Kurt and some confused tears about her life course changing, Mercedes was accepted into a bridging course at the community college, Miami Dade for a Bachelor of Nursing and is now a fully qualified Registered Nurse having just started her first job in Pediatrics at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Finally, the diva can be content, even if it's not behind a mic or storming up the Top 40 charts.
gleecollegedays || College Days
Senior year was one of Mercedes happiest but also the biggest emotional roller-coaster of her life. After the confusion of suddenly having the affections of two guys after feeling like no one would ever be attracted to her whilst watching all her other friends hook up in sweet relationships, Mercedes had panicked and called everything off with both guys. Shane and showingnuttage both meant the world to her but when she got so confused that she didn't feel like she could choose, she thought it wasn't fair to either of them to string them along. Sam had been everything to her during their summer together, and she had been devastated when he told her he was moving away. The long distance thing didn't feel like something that could work for her. Letting him go was one of her biggest regrets, and it was why her heart was set into turmoil again when he came back and she lost Shane too in the process.
But some things were just meant to be. Whilst priding herself on being Kurt Hummel's adoring fag hag and watching his own romance with Blaine Anderson blossom, Mercedes once again found herself caught up in affection for Sam when he came back to McKinley. He was relentless, though, whilst still respecting her want for independence, but eventually she couldn't fight it any longer and they hooked up officially and publicly. Now two years later with Sam finally graduated, the couple have joined the other successful pairings - Kurt and Blaine, Quinn and Puck, Tina and Mike, Nick and Jeff - in New York for college. In a very Friends-esque style set up, all of them share a large apartment in the city and whilst it's tight and they're always tripping over each other, Mercedes couldn't be happier with her gorgeous boyfriend, all her friends around her, and finally at college to pave the way of her singing career.
