Rachel arrived at the choir room at her usual time, she was always early to glee club practises because she liked being able to get herself settled before everyone else arrived and discreetly place some sheet music in the stand that she loved to try and get Mr Shue to set it as their assignment (she feared however that he had got wise to this and so now only did it on occasions when there was something she really wanted to do). On this particular day however, Rachel had just got seated when she saw the red and white of a cheerios uniform coming towards her. Fearing a slushie (after all, she thought, why would the cheerios who were in glee club show up early?) Rachel guarded herself but looked up after a few moments when she saw the figure had stopped.
"Rachel?" Brittany asked, a confused look on her face. Rachel sighed in relief when she saw it was Brittany.
"I'm sorry Brittany, I feared that you were someone else with a slushie in hand" Rachel told her, assuring her not to worry when she saw that Brittany was still confused "Why are you early?"
"I didn't know I was early. Lord Tubbington ate my watch" Brittany said, leaning over Rachel to look at the girl's digital watch.
"There's a clock on the wall Brittany" Rachel pointed out, adjusting her wrist slightly to let the girl read the time anyway.
"The school clocks don't like me, they're always mocking me by making time go really slowly during class but super fast during lunch" Brittany said, reading the time from Rachel's watch she was satisfied and moved back to where she had been standing. Rachel just nodded, knowing not to question the blonde's 'different' view on things for fear of a verbal assault by Santana and/or Quinn (she wasn't sure which would be worse, Santana was notoriously feisty but Quinn was fiercely protective of Brittany and had been since since kinder garden) The blonde cheerleader sat down and put her bag down, going through it for something. She started to panic when she couldn't find it, picking up her bag before tipping it out and rummaging through the pile of things on the floor.
"Brittany, are you okay? Have you lost something?" Rachel asked, seeing that the blonde was distressed.
"Nemo" Brittany simply said, still rummaging through her belongings tears began to fall from her eyes. Rachel was confused for a moment before she remembered - on Thursdays Brittany went for a sleepover at Santana's house as the girl had announced once and therefore she always had her toy Nemo in her bag on Thursdays to take with her (Santana had shushed her and told her not to get the toy out of her bag till they were in private so that people wouldn't mock her).
"Are you sure you put him in your bag before you left your house?" Rachel asked, to which Brittany nodded. She was getting more and more worked up and then started wheezing. Rachel watched with a concerned look on her face, the girl's breathing seemed to be laboured. Her suspicions were confirmed when Brittany clutched at her chest and started panting, falling to her knees.
"Brittany?" Rachel said, it was all she could think of. She walked up to the girl, sitting in front of her. She put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her but her breathing just kept deteriorating. Suddenly Rachel thought of something she thought she'd heard once over.
"Britt, do you have asthma?" Rachel asked the blonde cheerleader.
Brittany nodded, pointing to her bag Rachel looked inside it and found a back zip compartment. She opened it and found an inhaler, walking back to Brittany she gave it to her.
"Can you take it? I'm not too sure how to help" Rachel pointed out, thankfully the clock had just struck 4pm and the other glee club members had started to arrive. Quinn was the first in, Brittany was supposed to have met her to walk to glee club like they always did so she was concerned. She rushed over upon seeing Brittany on the floor, glad to have found the girl but worried by what seemed to be happening.
"Let me handle this" Quinn told Rachel who was looking both worried and confused, taking the inhaler from her she sat behind Brittany and got the girl situated on her lap. She then held the blue plastic up to Brittany's lips and encouraged Brittany to breathe normally, pressing down on the button a few times.
"Just breathe, try and match my breaths Britt" Quinn told her, letting Brittany lean against her chest. Santana rushed over when she arrived, glaring at the other glee club members who were staring at the scene and whispering amongst themselves before crouching down in front of Brittany.
"Asthma?" Santana asked Quinn, who nodded. Brittany's breathing began to calm and Santana ran a hand through the girl's fringe to soothe her.
"Okay now?" Santana asked Brittany in a soft voice, which shocked the other glee clubbers. They knew Santana looked after Brittany but never thought she could be so caring or soft. Brittany nodded, reaching her arms out to Santana the girl helped her up before hugging her.
"What triggered it?" Santana asked quietly.
"Nemo's lost" Brittany said with a quiet sob. Santana looked confused for a moment, but as Quinn got up she saw Brittany's belongings scattered across the floor and realised.
"Oh Britt, I have him. I found him in the dining room" Quinn said, getting the toy fish from her backpack she handed him to Brittany who hugged him tightly.
"Brittany, what did I tell you about keeping Nemo in your backpack during school hours and not getting him out?" Santana said with a sigh.
"I didn't take him out I swear!" Brittany said, Quinn rubbed her back to soothe her.
"Actually I saw a bunch of jocks with that thing, bragging that they'd taken it from a retard" Puck said, making all three girls turn to face him. Both Quinn and Santana snarled, both at the jocks being stupid and the use of the word retard.
"I'm not retarded!" Brittany sobbed, Santana managed to calm her down before it set her asthma off again.
"We know you're not Brittany" Quinn told her, Puck raised his eyebrows and went to say something but a snarl clearly directed at him by Quinn made him shut up.
"Whilst I'm glad that Brittany is now okay and reunited with Nemo, could we please maybe get on with glee practise?" Rachel said from her seat. Santana rolled her eyes.
"Ever the bossy one Berry" she said with a smirk, to which Rachel simply huffed and turned to Mr Shue who asked the girls if they could take their seats. Quinn took Brittany's hand and guided her to their usual seats whilst Santana quickly put all the blonde's things back in her duffel bag before going up to sit with them.