Note: The big section written in Italics is a flashback.
"Good evening ladies and gentleman, we've got a very special show for you all tonight!" The booming voice of Holly Holiday, New York's most popular late night TV talk show host, overzealously informed the live studio audience.
Santana looked around at her bandmates, all doing their final once-overs before they were called to the stage – Finn was making sure his hair was perfectly symmetrical, Puck was flirting with a young researcher (and she was loving it, poor thing), Rachel was finishing off the last of her herbal tea, Tina looked like a nervous wreck while Kurt tried to calm her down with deep breathing techniques, and Sam was stuffing his face with doughnuts from the craft service table. They had done a million of these spots since hitting the big time, but Santana always found it equally as intimidating, knowing millions of people would be tuned in, hanging on their every word, and ready to hold any slip up against them until something more interesting happened. It had been one crazy year, and their star just kept on rising. There'd be no slowing down any time soon.
The talk show audience whooped loudly at being told they were all receiving $100 Macy's gift cards and where then hushed by Holly as she began to build suspense for the upcoming guests.
"Now, you guys are in for a real treat," Holly teased the anticipating crowd, " because tonight, right here, we'll be talking exclusively to the biggest band in the world right now, that's right every body, NEW DIRECTIONSSSSSS are in the house! Lets give a warm NYC welcome to Finn Hudson, Rachel Berry, Santana Lopez, Sam Evans, Noah Puckerman, Kurt Hummel, and Tina Cohen-Chaaaaang!"
An uproar of applause filled the studio and feet stomped aggressively against the ground – the group had become accustomed to this reaction, since the release of their first single, Light Up The World, they haven't been able to so much as walk out the door without being greeted a loud approbation from adoring fans.
The seven stars walked in single file across the stage to their seats, waving and smiling at the enthusiastic crowd.
Once seated they all laughed politely as Holly gestured with her arms outstretched, wearing a look that said, 'can you believe this commotion?!'
Holly motioned for the audience to settle down and eventually it was quiet enough to proceed. "Wow, that was quite a reception! But you must get that wherever you go right? How to handle that?"
The question wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, so Sam spoke up, "Earplugs."
This garnered a laugh from the spectators and Sam beamed, he loved being the "funny one".
"You guys shot straight to the top, I mean, your success just seemed to happen over night, what do you think made you stand out against all the other groups out there right now?"
"It might look like it all happened overnight, but it was actually a really long time coming." The question had been posed to them so many times, Santana felt as though she were almost answering on autopilot. "I mean, we've been together for years, but I guess it was just the timing of our first album – there isn't really another group like us out there right now, so I guess that gap in the market really helped us out."
"You say you've been together for years, how did you get together?"
The entire group looked at eachother and smiled fondly.
"We've actually been performing together since we were five years old." Rachel offered and the crowd "awhhed" in response. "We didn't actually become a band seriously until highschool, but we all grew up together, and we all appeared in our local community center's production of the nativity story when we were what? 5 or 6?" She turned to the others for confirmation and they all nodded. "Yeah, there wasn't really a whole lot of opportunities to get involved in the arts in Lima – Ohio, where we're from" Rachel explained to the audience, who all nodded, not that there was any need, everyone and they're grandmother knew where New directions were from. "So we all got involved in theater at the community center as soon as we could. I for one had been dancing since I was 2 -"
Rachel was cut off by Holly who was more than aware of Rachel's tendency to drone on about herself for long periods of time, and she wasn't about to let that happen again. "The nativity story? Ha, that must've been an interesting production?"
"To say the least," Santana chuckled, "it was actually quite a disaster..."
Backstage was chaos. Organizers were chasing the young kindergarteners around, trying to fix their costumes, or wipe chocolate from their faces. The director, Will Schuester, had been very passionate about this project from the get-go, sometimes it seemed as if he were the only person in Lima that cared about the arts at all – well, aside from Emma Pillsbury - he always admired her eagerness for any of his endeavors, and jumped at the chance to accept her offer to make costumes for the nativity production.
If only casting had gone so smoothly. All the kids wanted to be Mary and Joseph, they cried and screamed and kicked Will in the shins in an effort to get their way. However, once he explained how important other roles, such as the narrator, and shepherds, and the donkey were, the children all changed their mind and fights ensued for the role of innkeeper and angel Gabriel. Eventually he managed to find a spot for everyone and convinced each individual that their role was most important – unbeknownst to the others, of course.
Tina wanted to be a shepherd, in fact she was the only child who requested a non-speaking part - she was shy about her stutter.
Rachel Berry had immersed herself in the role of Mary, so much so that she had taken to wearing a veil everywhere she went in the weeks leading up to opening night, Puck stood firm on wanting to be Joseph, and since his main competitor for the part was Finn, who had subsequently decided he wanted to play the donkey, got the part. Kurt had begged to be the baby Jesus, but once told that would require he wear a diaper, he settled on being the innkeeper instead on the condition he got to design his own outfit, Sam got the role of Angel Gabriel, while Santana was content to be narrator.
Will peeked out from behind the curtain and was happy to note that each child had a family representative present, all armed with some device to capture the moment.
He turned back to address his kids. "Okay, we've got a full house, everybody ready?"
He clapped his hands together and frowned when, after weeks of preparation, Rachel refused to get up on the donkey.
"Why not, Rachel?" Mr Schue inquired in his most gentle voice.
"I don't want to say." The little diva insisted, folding her arms across her chest and avoiding eye contact.
"Come on, Rach, you can tell me..." Will tried again.
"I'm just not doing it." Rachel said adamantly.
"Are you afraid of falling off?"
"No! It's because Mary is the mother of God and there's no way she would be seen dead, riding around on a dirty, stinky donkey."
Finn sniffed himself self-consciously – he had had bath before leaving the house. His expression quickly changed from one of embarrassment to one of anger as he addressed Rachel, "Well, I'm not letting you get up on me anyway! I don't want your smelly butt on my back."
Rachel gasped, offended, and threw the boy a deathly glare.
"That's enough!" Will interjected firmly. "We'll use this blanket as a saddle. Now, I want you both to apologize to eachother and be nice for the rest of the evening."
The pair mumbled a barely audible apology before walking in separate directions.
"Okay everyone, take your places." Ms Pillsbury instructed the children as Will addressed the parents and other family members.
Once he walked backstage, he nudged Santana forward, "Off you go, Santana."
The curtain rose and Santana went bright red, "Once upon a time, a very long time ago, like, ages and ages ago, in a place called Naz- Naz-..."
"Nazareth" Will prompted from side stage.
"Oh! Yeah! Nazareth!" The young girl beamed. "So yeah, in Nazareth there was a girl named Mary, and she was like, super hot, and everyone wanted to date her. She was a really nice girl, not a slut at all, and she never took drugs or smoked, or anything like that. No way!" Will brought his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose, he knew the children were prone to improvising their lines, but the audience didn't; he didn't want the parents thinking he taught their little darlings words like 'slut'. He returned his attention to the show, it was too late now, these kids would do what they wanted and there was very little he could do to stop them.
"So anyways, one day, Mary was having a cup of coffee in her kitchen and the Angel Gabriel showed up out of nowhere."
Sam strutted onto the stage wearing white robes, fairy wings, and a halo made of tinsel. Santana snorted into the microphone as the blonde boy took his place in front of Rachel.
"Sup Rach- Mary!" He quickly corrected.
"Hi! How do you do?" Rachel responded.
Sam looked awkwardly at the audience, "Are you not surprised to see me?"
"Oh! Yeah! Sorry, I forgot!" Rachel's hand shot up to her mouth and she threw Will an apologetic look.
The audience erupted in laughter.
"It's okay," Will whispered, "go, on."
"It's fine, Mary." Sam said. "So anyways, I came to tell you awesome news! You're going to have a baby and his name's Jesus."
"But I'm not married!" Rachel protested in horror.
"Don't sweat it." Sam waved his hand dismissively. "It's God's child and you're going to marry a different guy called Joseph. He won't mind that the baby-daddy's God."
"He's a bigger man than me!" Shouted a dad from the audience.
"Shut up, dad! I'll forget my lines!" Sam hissed in frustration.
"Is this Joseph rich and handsome?" Rachel asked, ignoring the interruption.
Sam looked confused – this wasn't part of the script. "Eh, yeah, he's okay. I think he owns McDonalds or something, so you can have free nuggets whenever you want."
Sam smiled proudly at his quick improvisation.
Rachel thought about this for a moment before nodding her head. "Okay then, I'll do whatever God says." Rachel and Sam walked offstage.
The spotlight landed on Santana again. "So, like, I guess soldiers or the king or whatever, came and kicked Mary and Jospeh out of their house and she had to go on a donkey for, like, days! And Mary was the size of a house – so she finally fit her giant schnoz – but anyway, she was super tired."
Puck and Rachel appeared on stage. Rachel sat on Finn's back and was looking a little unsteady. Finn was was busy trying to find his mother in the crowd.
"Hi mom!" He shouted when he saw her. She waved at him; he waved back and Rachel fell off.
"For God's sake, Finn! Will you sit still?!" Rachel shouted in frustration at the boy dressed as a donkey.
Realizing her slip in character, she immediately calmed and turned to address Puck. "I'm really very tired, Joseph. We need to stay in a hotel. Also, this donkey is terrible, you should get rid of it."
"Shut up!" Finn snapped.
"Stop that!" Will scolded from the side.
"Okay, I'll go see if there's any room." Puck knocked on a cardboard door, and the top half shot open, revealing Kurt as the innkeeper. "Hey dude, can you hook us up with a room with a widescreen TV and a mini fridge filled with candy?"
Kurt snorted. "You've got to be kidding! There's no room here for you! Look at you, all smelly and dirty; wearing last season's robes! No way!"
"Come on, dude! My wife's about to have a kid!" Puck begged.
"Ugh! Fine! You can stay in my stable."
As Rachel shuffled over to the lump of straw that was the manger, Finn shoved his foot out in front of her and she faltered. She glared at him before storming off toward the hay, and dropped down. The pillow that acted as her pregnant belly fell out of her skirt.
"You just went into early labour." Santana's abuela cackled from the audience and everyone laughed. Rachel shoved the pillow back up.
Santana walked center stage again, "Nice going, Berry!" Rachel stuck her tongue out at her but Santana just ignored it, bringing her attention back to the audience. "'Kay, so some shepherds and wise old men followed some star and brought Mary and Jesus presents, kind of of like Santa. I'm getting a bike off Santa, right, Ma?"
"Yes, sweetheart." Her mother called from the audience.
"Yeah. So then the baby was born." Santana summed up, seemingly bored with the play now, and walked offstage.
Rachel, who was lying on her back, legs thrown in the air, began to scream violently, "AAAAAAAAAAAH! Get this thing out of meeee! I'm in agony! Give me drugs for the pain. Pull it out, Joseph! For God's sake, DO SOMETHING! AAAAAH!"
"Jeez, quiet down and push, drama queen! PUSH!" Puck said, finally getting into it. "I see the head, Mary, push!"
"It's coming! Oh God, this pain is unbearable. AAAH!"
Puck pulled a plastic doll from underneath the hay and waved it proudly by one leg.
The audience clapped, and cheered, and whooped.
In the excitement of the moment, Puck, showing off, threw the doll in the air and dropped it.
"You've killed it!" Rachel wailed, throwing the back of her hand against her head for dramatic effect. "You've dropped my child on his head, you idiot!"
Puck picked the doll off the floor and shook it. "No! Look, it's fine! Just a bump."
Rachel sat up straight, hands on hips, she glared at Puck. "Well, I'm not leaving him on his own with you again! You're a terrible father!"
Puck's expression hardened and he threw the doll on the floor again. "Fine! It's not even my kid! God's the dad, so why don't you get him to look after it?!"
With that, the young Joseph stormed offstage. Will stopped him, "You have to go back out and finish the play, Puck", he reasoned.
"No way! Rachel's annoying! She said I tried to kill Jesus and I didn't! It was an accident!"
Will crouched down so that he was eye level with the boy, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I know, Puck, you're very good with the baby. Now get back out there, and finish the play. Please?"
Puck huffed but charged back out onto the stage, followed by shepherds, and angels, and wise men. They all sang a very enthusiastic, but not entirely in-tune rendition of 'Jingle Bells', that brought the audience to their feet.
"So you were bitten by the performance bug from that day forward?" Holly asked.
"I think so, yeah." Santana nodded. "I mean it wasn't easy to get the group going, we're all very different, but at the end of the day, these guys are my best friends."
"Yeah, we're like a dysfunctional family." Finn chimed in with a goofy grin.
"Isn't every family?" Holly winked at the audience.
"So, Tina, tell me, how did you overcome that stutter?" Tina's cheeks tinged pink. Tina had never actually had a real stutter, just a severe case of stage fright, she lied about the stutter so that she could hide in the background and it was a lie she kept up until her freshman year of highschool. It's not really a secret, but it's also something that she's been embarrassed about for a long time.
"Oh, I uhm, got a voice coach."
Holly nodded her head, clearly hoping she'd elaborate, but when she didn't, she continued with her questions. "So, your new album, Loser Like Me, was released this week. What was the inspiration behind it?"
"Well, I think at some point in our lives, we've all felt like underdogs," Kurt looked to the crowd who all nodded in agreement, and continued, "and that's really what this new album is, it's a celebration of the underdogs of the world. We're really proud of it."
"It's already been garnering Grammy buzz." Rachel boasted.
"Well, I'm not surprised! I loved it! And you're going on tour soon..." Holly continued.
"Yes ma'am," Puck nodded from the end of the row. "First worldwide tour."
"We start rehearsals tomorrow actually." said Rachel. "We've got a great choreographer, he's actually a very dear friend of ours from highschool. Mike Chang. He's amazing."
"Guy's a genius." Santana agreed.
"Well, I wish you all the very best of luck with the album and the tour. I've already got my ticket for the Madison Square Garden show." Holly smiled warmly before addressing the audience again. "Well folks, that's all we've got time for tonight, but tune in tomorrow when we'll be talking Olympic bronze medalist, Roz Washington, and everybody's favorite TV villain, Sebastian Smythe.
The whole group filed into the large room, mirrors lining one entire wall. This wasn't the first time they'd been here, they used this room frequently when learning choreography for music videos,and had been first acquainted with it last year, before their North American tour.
"Hey guys." came the familiar voice of Mike Chang as he strolled out of an adjoining room.
"Hey Mike."
"Sup Mike."
"So, you ready for some hardcore dance moves today?" He asked playfully nudging Finn in the shoulder.
Finn just smiled awkwardly. Finn Hudson dancing, was about as graceful as a Bambi learning to walk, he had even managed to break Rachel's nose on the last night of tour the previous year, and since then, everyone agreed that his involvement in dance routines should be kept to a minimum.
"Oh good, the others are here." Mike said, acknowledging the crew of dancers who had just entered the room. Santana followed his line of sight and was happy to note that she was familiar with pretty much all of them.
"Hey." The dancers greeted; the ones who had worked with the group before stepped forward to embrace their old friends; the newbies hung back a little waiting to be introduced.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, I have one little announcement to make." Mike's revelation piqued everyone's interest and the room fell silent, assuring he received their undivided attention.
"Since we only have two weeks to put this whole thing together, and contrary to popular belief, I'm not actually a machine, I've hired an assistant choreographer this year." Mike smiled but the band looked warily at him. Sensing their hesitation, he continued, "She's a very good friend of mine from college, and one of the most talented dancers I've ever had the pleasure of working with, she'll be a real asset to this show. Ladies and bros, allow me to introduce you to the only and only, Miss Brittany Pierce."
The door of the room Mike had previously evacuated opened and out walked the most beautiful woman Santana had ever seen. She wore 3/4 length sweatpants and a tight fitting purple tank top, her blonde hair cascaded down past her shoulders in soft curls, and she had the bluest eyes.
"Fierce." Santana whispered, but Rachel still heard and threw her a quizzical glance.
"Hi everyone. I'm Brittany. I know some of you from the circuit," she said, talking to the dancers who nodded and waved, some muttered a 'good to see you Britt.' "Anyway, Mike has been filling me in on how things usually work around here and I'm really excited to show you what we've cooked up for the show." This time Brittany talked directly to the New Directions.
Santana caught her eye and smiled mischievously at her; Brittany blushed but smiled back politely.
"Okay, let's begin." Mike called.
They started with some warm up exercises, and then Mike and Brittany ran through the new steps slowly. Some of the more experienced dancers picked the moves up quickly and stood to join them.
Once they had run through the first routine a couple of times, the two choreographers stepped back agains the mirror, and watched the others.
Brittany wanted to laugh at how oafish Finn looked trying to master the routine, the grace and skill of the professional dancers just making him stand out even more. He seemed to have flagrant disregard for the direction, or else he just wasn't very bright. She kind of thought it was the latter.
She felt eyes burning into her from the other side of the room. She tried to ignore it, but every so often she'd glance over and find Santana staring right at her with the most intense look in her eyes. Brittany would be lying if she said she didn't think Santana was cute, hey, she was basically the most desired member of the band, both males and females swooned over her, and Brittany had found herself trolling the singer's tag on Tumblr a lot more than she cared to note, she even got text alerts for her tweets – not that she'd ever openly admit to that. But the way Santana was looking at her now, like an animal stalking their prey, made Brittany a little uncomfortable. She had a job to do, a great opportunity and she refused to let a little celebrity crush compromise her big chance, so she tore her eyes away from Santana, and moved to help Finn.
Santana glared at the tall boy who was now receiving all of Brittany's attention. Why does the big friendly giant get the spotlight just coz he sucks she thought to herself, but she wasn't about to intentionally fuck up the routine just to get the girl to notice her, besides, knowing her luck, Mike would come to her aid. No. Santana Lopez knew she was a hot piece of ass, she was well aware of her sex-symbol status, and she knew she could pretty much have anyone she wanted, she didn't need to look like a buffoon to get her way.
The next four hours were spent locking down another two routines. The end result was by no means perfect, but they were off to a good start; there was still time to knock out the kinks.
"Okay, let's call it a day." Mike said, looking worriedly at Finn whose face had now turned bright red and was sweating profusely. Gross, thought Santana, wondering what Rachel could even see in him. Rachel and Finn had been dating since highschool. Their brief break up two years ago had almost cost the band their chance at the big time, but when given the ultimatum of get along, or get out, they overcame their differences and eventually reconciled.
"Hey, Mike? We were all gonna grab some dinner, wanna come?" Puck offered.
"Sure thing! I'm starved."
"Brittany should come too!" Santana proposed without missing a beat, the way her voice rose just a little too high to be cool, made her inwardly cringe but she simply brushed it off.
Brittany looked a little surprised at the offer. "M-me?... I wouldn't want to impose."
"It's no imposition. I insist." Santana's tone became more flirtatious, even the fly on the light above her head could sense the sexual vibes she was exuding.
Once again, Rachel threw Santana a look that said, I know what you're up to, but I haven't quite worked out how I feel about it yet, however, she had taken an instant liking to Brittany and agreed with Santana that she should tag along.
"Oh, okay then. Where will I meet you guys?" Brittany became a lot more chipper now that she knew she was really wanted there.
"We're just gonna go to this great little Italian place down the street, Breadstix. " Sam said, he's huge smile engulfing his entire face.
Brittany smiled back and Santana frowned at their silent interaction.
"That's settled then," Rachel spoke again, "let's all go home and shower and we can meet at Breadstix in an hour."
"An hour? But I'm so hungry I could eat a horse, let's just go now!" Sam whined. Brittany laughed at his childlike behavior. She found the boy quite endearing from what she'd seen in interviews and on TV, and he seemed just as likable in real life.
Santana really didn't like the way Brittany was smiling at her blonde friend now, so she interjected, "Oh, great idea Trouty Mouth, let's all go out together smelling like we've spent the day lost in the sewers, the tabloids would love that!"
"I got lost in the sewers once." Brittany said seriously.
Santana shot her a confused look, but then smiled gently, and without taking her eyes off the other girl, reiterated Rachel's earlier statement. "Breadstix, one hour."
The others left, but Santana hung back while Brittany packed up her things.
"So hey, you were really great today, I don't think Frankenteen has ever moved so well." Santana flirted, approaching Brittany and leaning on the wall next to where the girl was crouched on the floor next to her bag.
Brittany stopped what she was doing and looked up to Santana in disbelief. "You're kidding, right? He dances like he's carrying dried cement in his shoes."
Santana let out a genuine laugh at that and Brittany blushed at the glorious sound she had drawn from the other girl.
"You, on the other hand, are really talented, you could totally be dancer!" Brittany spoke animatedly before growing more coy, "although, from what I can tell, you're pretty amazing at everything you do."
"Are you flirting with me, Miss Pierce?" Santana quirked an eyebrow, the hint of a smirk playing on her lips.
Brittany's eyes shot open wide, "WHAT?! No! I was- wasn't... I just meant-"
"Relax." Santana interrupted and smiled at how furiously Brittany was blushing. "You won't get any complaints from me."
Brittany looked up, still mortified, but Santana just winked at her, and she calmed some.
"So, listen," Santana stood up straighter when Brittany rose to her feet and threw her bag over her shoulder, the brunette oozed an air of confidence that Brittany could only truly convey through dance, and she envied that, "what do say we ditch the other losers, and find our own fun tonight?"
The blonde met her gaze, "Like a... date?"
Santana's eyes glistened and she properly smirked this time, "Exactly like a date, Brittany."
"Uhm, no thank you."
"Wait, no?" Santana was sure she had heard her wrong, but the apologetic look on Brittany's face assured her that her hearing was just fine.
"I'm sorry, you're totally hot and everything, but this is a really big opportunity for me and I can't afford to get distracted."
"You find me distracting?" Santana's game returned instantly and she moved a step closer to the blonde.
Brittany took a step back, first nodding her head, then quickly shaking it, "I don't mix business with pleasure."
Santana stepped closer to the other girl again, this time totally invading her personal space; bringing her lips right next to the shell of Brittany's ear, she whispered, "We'll see about that Britt Britt."
And with that, she walked away, pausing at the door of the studio, she turned her head and threw one last wink over her should, before leaving to get ready for dinner.
A/N: Thank you for reading. I know this chapter wasn't exactly Brittana centric but this one was really just to get the show on the road. I haven't entirely decided if I want to write the whole thing in the third person - it's not something I usually do. For anyone interested in reading this story, what would you prefer? Alternate chapters from the girls' point of views, or continue in the third person?
Also, I have a rough idea of what I want to do storyline wise, but I'm open to suggestions of what kind of things people would like to see, so let me know.