Yup, for sure everything has changed.
Her Louisville ID lets her in. She knew she'd kept it for a reason.
It's a single, thank heaven, no roommates for once, with a single bed, but they can deal with that. There's a sink in the corner by the door, and covering the entire north wall, there's a mural of the album cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (something she recognizes because her dad had it hung, in a frame, in the closet of his study). It's signed BW and dated thirty-some years ago. Not even the custodians had had the heart to paint over it.
The only thing that says "Brittany" in this room is the picture of the two of them on the shelf next to the bed.
She finds a corner for her rolling case, then starts to work on Brittany's desk. Actually, she doesn't need to pull everything out. Brittany's class schedule is sitting on top, right in the middle of the calendar blotter. Today's date shows, in bright crayon, that her physics presentation is now. Santana looks up its location. There's enough time.
Santana finds it hilarious that she passes through MIT's so-called security buildings with nothing more than this form-fitting green striped dress, spike heels, and a smile.
Brittany looks up from the pit of the lecture hall when she feels the change, maybe a change in temperature, maybe a change in barometric pressure, maybe a change in smell, but suddenly she feels more at home than she has in a month. She lays down her notes, takes a breath, and finishes extempore. The entire tone of the room changes during her summation.
It's as if suddenly she's making sense to the professor and the other students. They sit up, and the ambient noise drops considerably.
She answers questions for ten minutes, three from the freckled girl who never talks, before she actually catches sight of Santana.
When class is dismissed, Brittany shucks her chill and runs, taking stairs three at a time. Santana waves off her flying embrace, saying, "You'll break my heels," but she folds Brittany into herself, tucks her chin into Brittany's neck, and wraps her arms tightly around her.
Brittany picks up Santana's legs and wraps them around her, cradling her in both hands. The remaining students file out of the lecture hall around them, acting as if they don't notice.
Santana takes Brittany's face in her hands, looks in her eyes, and says, "I will always love you the most, Brittany Susan Pierce. Will you be my girlfriend? Again? Please?"
Brittany answers silently, applying the inner surfaces of her lips to those of Santana's.
Strong as she is, Brittany's arms are beginning to fatigue, so she slides Santana down so she can stand again, and pulls away for a moment, coloring, and whispering, "Proudly so."