Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"

A/N: I know I serious need to stop creating new stories and work on the ones I have but this one just moved in and set up shop in my head, so here it came. I'm planning to structure this one a little differently though, so hopefully I can write it in between things. Chapters of this story will probably be much shorter than my usual. This one is only about 1700 words. Updates will be sporadic, unless I get blocked on something else and need this to break my block.

The story is slightly AU in that Brittany graduated with the Class of 2012 and that Santana wants to go to LA instead of New York. Hope you enjoy.

Based on this Tumblr prompt: mylittlefaith(dot)tumblr(dot)com/post/23881234191

Chapter One

Day One - Introduction

"So it's Day One, I'm your host Brittany S. Pierce," she said pointing the new video camera her parents bought her for graduation towards herself, "I'm here with the best, most amazing girlfriend in the whole world, Santana Lopez." She turned the camera on Santana whose eyes were firmly fixed on the road in front of them. "Say hi, Santana," Brittany prompted.

"Hi," Santana said glancing at the camera from behind the wheel only momentarily before looking back at the road.

Brittany turned the camera back to herself. "She's usually way more talkative than that, but she's driving right now and she's focused on us not having a wreck. Our friend, Quinn, made us all promise to be safe driving on our trip. Hi, Q, we love you and we miss you." Brittany quickly blew a kiss at the camera. "Also with us is our captain the awesome, awesome, awesome Mercedes Jones." Brittany turned the camera to the backseat. "Say hi, Ms Jones."

"What up, World?" Mercedes said and waved, "Hi Mom, hi Daddy, love you."

Brittany turned the camera back on herself. "Mercedes, Santana, and I are The Troubletones, the newest and greatest girl power trio coming soon to the top of the Billboard Charts and sold out arenas near you. You may already know us from our smash hit viral video cover of Disco Inferno. If not, there will be a link in the description below. Although, I must say that the video quality and camera work on that particular video wasn't all that it could have been and quite frankly should have been."

"Hey!" came a shout from the back seat. "It was recorded on my iPhone. What do you want from me?"

"That's our fourth for this trip," Brittany said to the camera, "The Troubletones' very first groupie, my assistant documentarian, Mercedes' boyfriend, and the best lezbro money can buy, Sam Evans." Brittany turned around in her seat to point the camera back at the boy seated behind her who was in fits of laughter from his introduction. "Say hi, Sammy."

Sam suddenly shot forward in his seat to get very close to the camera and yelled, "ROAD TRIP!"

"Yes, that is very true," Brittany said, "And to answer your question, Sam, I want you to show a little more respect the art of cinema. You are going to be my camera man for a lot of this trip. When we're up on stage performing, I don't think it's ridiculous to expect a certain amount of misc-en-scene from your camera work."

"I have no idea what that even means," Sam said.

"You'll learn," Brittany said, "I loaded several lectures on the subject into my laptop for you to watch as well as a tutorial on how to use my camera. Our first Open Mic Night is tomorrow night so you may want to get on that."

"Yes, boss," Sam said with a huge smile and a sloppy salute.

Brittany turned back around in her seat and returned the camera to herself. "As Sam said we're on what we're calling 'The Road Trip to Superstardom'. Three weeks, six thousand miles, nineteen states, Lima, Ohio to Los Angeles, California by way of some of the most important musical cities in the country, visiting musical landmarks by day and trying to get gigs at night. Along the way, I'm documenting what music means to us, what it's like out here on the road for a band starting up on their own, doing it our way, and just… y'know, life. I'll also be supplying you our fans with the history of The Troubletones, both personally and professionally, so be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss a single moment. And look out World…"

All four of them chanted out in unison, "Here Comes Trouble!"

X

"That was terrible," Brittany said matter-of-factly as she clicked off her camera, "You guys are gonna have to get a lot better at talking to the camera if we're going to be superstar singers. Ellen and Jimmy Fallon won't put up with your monosyllabic answers." Mercedes and Santana looked chastened but said nothing. "And Sam, you gotta not steal the show, okay? We all love you but if our fans are more interested in you than us, it's a problem. You gotta dial it down, okay? At least until these two find their personas."

"Okay," he said.

"Personas?" Mercedes asked.

"The person that you want to be to the rest of the world," Brittany said, "You figure out how much of yourself you want the world to know and you build around that."

"Britt, what are you saying?" Santana asked, "You want us to pretend to be someone we aren't."

"No, nothing like that," she said quickly, "Just like, some people when they're famous don't want to talk about certain parts of their life. Like Raven from 'That's So Raven', back a few months ago there were like rumors that she's gay, but instead of saying yes or no, she said that it's no one's business. Then there's other people like The Kardashians who put their whole lives out there for the world to see. You guys have just got to figure out if you want to be like Raven or The Kardashians or somewhere in between."

"My life is an open book," Mercedes said firmly, "Everything I've done, good and bad, has made me who I am, and I like who I am."

"Yeah," Santana agreed after a moment, "I spent years hiding all the most important parts of me. I don't want to do that anymore."

"So would you guys be okay if I wanted to make this documentary something a little more serious than just us taking a trip across the country?"

"How do you mean?" Mercedes asked first.

"If in between shows or on days when we can't find a gig or whatever, if I wanted us to sit down and talk about things, serious things, things like what it's life to grow up black in a mostly white place or Hispanic or lesbian or bi-sexual or what it's like to be bullied because of your weight or because people think you're dumb…"

"You're not dumb, Britt," Santana said.

"I know that," Brittany said, "Everybody in this car knows that, but there were a lot of people who think otherwise and weren't afraid to tell me to my face and I want to address that at some point, and that's what I asking here. Would you guys be willing to talk about those things on camera and have me post the videos on our YouTube page?"

Both girls stayed silent after this catching each other's glimpses in the rearview mirror. They reflected each other's concern. Mercedes then looked to Sam who smiled at her and nodded his head confidently. Mercedes spoke first, simply saying, "I'll do it."

Santana looked back at her slightly annoyed at the lack of solidarity from her fellow skeptic. Finally she said, "Is this important to you, Brittany? I mean, I know it is or you wouldn't bring it up, but I guess I don't really get the point of airing old grievances. I've let go of all that anger already. What's the point in bringing it back up? Can you make me understand that, please?"

"It's not about being angry about something," Brittany said, "I'm not angry about being treated the way I was, not anymore, I just want the opportunity to talk about it, to put it out there for the world to see and I think you guys should do it too."

"But why?" Santana asked.

Brittany was about to reply but Sam piped up first, "Because you're not the only ones dealing with the issues that you're going through," he said.

"Exactly," Brittany said, "San, you struggled so hard with being gay. How much would it have helped you to know that there was someone else your age, just like you dealing with the things you were dealing with?" Santana didn't speak so Brittany continued, "I think we have the potential to be such an amazing force for good in the world. There's no doubt in my mind that we're gonna be famous. Don't you want to make the world a better place? For Charity and for Stevie and Stacy?" Brittany said referencing her little sister as well as Sam's younger siblings, "For our kids?"

"Okay, that is so incredibly unfair," Santana said scoffing before shaking her head smiling.

"You don't have to," Brittany said, "It's just an idea." Again Santana didn't speak, "I just think it would help people struggling with some of the same stuff as us, plus it would be us telling our story… on our own terms."

"Fuck," Santana said softly, "Yeah, okay. I'll do it."

"Are you really sure you're okay with it?" Brittany asked. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"I'm… y'know, not wild about putting a lot of emotional stuff out there for everyone to see," Santana began, "but you're right, we're going to be big famous Grammy winning artists some day and everyone's going to want a piece of us and I don't want some record label dictating to me what we can and can't tell people about ourselves. So yeah, the whole 'tell our story on our terms' thing, I'm in. I'll deal with my discomfort."

Brittany reached across the center console taking Santana's free hand in hers and said, "Do you know how much I love you right now?"

"About as much as I love you," Santana replied.