Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!

THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!

This story is a Prequel to Never Flew So High, a Boston Britt series story, originally posted from November 7 to 12 2011.

This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: My Sister My Hero.

"Opened Door"
Brittany & Sherry Weston (OC)
Boston Britt series extra
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

It took her a couple times to really latch on to the feeling. Once she did though, it was impossible to shake it, and it left her puzzled. Since the period had started, she had been sensing eyes on her. It kind of reminded her of when James Maurizio had been at McKinley, watching her, before he had approached her with the invitation to come audition here. But he wasn't here, so it couldn't be that… Besides, she was already at school, so why would he be? She still couldn't shake it, and as much as she was keeping up with choreography, her eyes continued to search, wondering what could possibly…

There was a woman, watching her. It took a few careful turns for her to spot her, but she was definitely watching. Brittany had done her best to ignore her, which had somehow translated into shutting her eyes whenever a turn might direct her to spotting the stranger. When this had almost caused a crash, with another one of the girls, she'd had to give everything she had to really just pretend like she wasn't there. It wasn't like she was scary, or threatening. She looked really clean, and polished. Brittany was used to people watching her when she danced, but there was a difference, and this one was no casual observer. Maybe she would go away.

As the period had ended, Brittany had gone to grab her things from the corner, standing back up and seeing the woman was now standing just behind her. She let out a bit of a squeak as she turned to face her. "You're Brittany, yes? Brittany Pierce?" the woman asked.

"I… Yes," she confirmed. The woman reached in her bag, pulled out a card, and handed it to her.

"Sherry Weston," she introduced herself, and Brittany held out her hand to shake the one that was stretched out to her before turning her eyes to read what the card said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Finally?" Brittany asked.

"I've been hearing a lot about you, from a mutual acquaintance of ours, James Maurizio?" she explained, and Brittany relaxed. "I've actually been heading about you from your teachers, too," she then went on, which took Brittany by surprise once more. "Can we talk?"

"I thought we were," she hesitated, and Sherry smiled.

"Let's go find somewhere to sit, alright?" she guided the blonde toward the door, and Brittany followed. They had found a table, and they sat face to face.

"You were watching me?" Brittany asked.

"Yes, well I had to see for myself," she confirmed. "They were right about you," Sherry smiled. "They told me that when you got here, you were excellent, but in these last few months here, you've become so much better already." Brittany bowed her head, her face taken over with a smile. "Looks to me like you'd be just what we need in my company," the woman went on, and now Brittany's head shot back up.

"What?" she asked, and Sherry laughed.

"I think I was ready to talk to you after all of two minutes of watching you, and now I have absolutely no doubt about it. I would very much like to have you join us, Brittany."

"You would?"

"Well, now, I wouldn't want to take you away from here just yet, not when you're on your way the way you are," she explained. "But you say the word, and we'll start getting things in motion, that way you can join us when the time is right." Brittany was speechless. Sherry smirked, nodding to the card in her hand. "You hold on to that, and when you've given it some thought, just give me a call, okay?" Brittany nodded. "Good. I hope to see you again," Sherry told her, and then they were shaking hands again and the woman was gone.

As she had walked back to the dorm, her mind too distracted to concentrate on looking where she was going or who she might hit on the way, the initial reaction that came from the encounter was just… joy. People liked her, people saw potential for her. All she could think about was the people back home, the teachers and counselors, all the ones who would look at her like she would never amount to anything. For a while, she'd sort of had no choice but to believe them, but… since she'd gotten here, it was all so different. Sure, her non-dance teachers still looked kind of exasperated with her, but then there was the other side, and those teachers would look on to her with smiles, and tell her she was doing great… how could she not love that?

But then she'd gone and thought of home, and it had taken her just a few seconds more to realize something else, something bigger. If she became part of Sherry Weston's company, then she would have to stay in Boston, or wherever it was… It wasn't going to be in Ohio, for sure. She'd have to live there, same as she was now, which was to say she would have to stay somewhere that wasn't home, where her family was, where her friends were.

When she'd come to Boston, months ago, it was always under the impression that she would spend some time here, but eventually she would return to Lima. Her little sisters depended on that as much as she did, her parents, too… Santana… They hadn't signed up for this, that wasn't what it was supposed to be, she was still… It wasn't time… She didn't know what to do.

Her grandfather would have told her that the reason she was feeling so conflicted was because she knew exactly what she wanted to do, but it was the one that would upset people, so she was trying to talk herself out of it. Her initial reaction had been happiness. How could it not? It was a dream, getting to do something she loved for a living. That was what she'd do, if she accepted Sherry Weston's offer. If she said no, then who knew when another opportunity like this would come up? It might never come up at all, and she would have let it go.

She hadn't said yes yet, and so the best thing she could do at the moment was to talk to someone about it. Right now, her choice was simple: she had to talk to her roommates. Maybe they'd make the choice easier… She hoped they would.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!