Most fics assume Santittany has been friends since childhood. But as Britt's not in the pilot and they aren't shown being close right away, I thought what if they weren't really friends until Glee? Mostly from Santana's perspective. It's going to go AU/end after the "sex isn't dating" phone call because I am tired of sticking to the canon. And tired of Artie. Will eventually be about eight parts.
I don't own Glee.
Sue Sylvester spent the first day of school watching freshman gym classes. In most schools the first day of gym class was a boring affair that didn't even involve changing; not at McKinley where Sue and the Cheerios ruled the school. Sue made sure the teachers had them running sprints, doing pushups and situps, and most importantly for her, basic gymnastic skills. Of course, general looks were important too, but hot girls who tripped over their own feet were no good to her.
"I think she was watching us." Santana whispered after they finished doing cartwheels across the floor.
"She better have been. Most of these girls couldn't even go in a straight line." Quinn scoffed.
The two girls had known each other since they were seven and in beginning gymnastics class together. They'd moved up the ranks together but neither would ever be anything more than mediocre. However, a mediocre gymnast made a pretty great cheerleader, especially since they both had good rhythm and were hot. The Cheerios were legendary around town, so they'd spent the entire summer practicing in hopes of getting on the squad and ensuring lasting popularity.
By the end of the week, Sue had decided who made the first cut. She accosted the students in question in the hallways, inviting them to the Friday practice as a sort of test. Her intuition was good, but every year about 10% of the ones she thought would be good were awful. Besides, cutting people after one practice made all the others more scared. Santana and Quinn were certainly scared.
Brittany Pierce wasn't scared. She wasn't totally clear on what she was doing here, but a large blonde woman had told her to come to the gym on Friday after school, and Brittany tried to do what grownups told her to do, so she'd come. Anyway, she didn't have dance class after school anymore because her mom was worried she wouldn't be able to get her schoolwork done in high school.
By the end of practice, Sue had cut four people. Brittany wasn't one of them, although she wasn't sure why. She'd done well at the dance parts of the routine they did, but struggled a little with the gymnastics parts. She could do cartwheels okay but not flips and things like some of the girls could. Finally the coach told them to hit the showers. Brittany followed two other new girls back to the locker room. She'd been near one of them, a beautiful girl with dark hair, for most of practice.
"Why does she want us to hit the showers? Did they do something wrong?" She wondered aloud.
Quinn stared at her like she was an alien. Brittany was used to this kind of look.
"Um…she means take showers. That practice is over. Not to actually…hit them." Santana tried to explain to the lost-looking blond girl.
"Oh! Thanks. I don't know why people can't just say what they mean, you know? Hey you were really good." She said.
"What?"
"At those flippy things. And everything back there. You were good at them." She clarified. "I'm Brittany."
"Oh. Thanks. I'm Santana. This is Quinn."
They got to the locker room, and Brittany started stripping her clothes off. Quinn did the same. Santana looked up from removing her own clothes just as Brittany walked by, fully naked, towards the showers. Her stomach suddenly felt strange and she turned away.
"What's wrong with you, San?"
"Um, nothing. Just tired."
Santana and Quinn quickly became Sue's favorites on the Cheerios. This was in part because they were good at the flashy gymnastic moves, but also because they, even more so than the rest of the girls, were willing to do anything Sue demanded. For most of their freshman year, this meant picking up drycleaning, slushying kids the coach randomly decided she disliked, and cleaning her car. At the beginning of sophomore year, their coach become irrationally obsessed with the Glee club, which meant that Santana and Quinn were required to hate Glee club too.
Unfortunately for them, Quinn's boyfriend decided to join it.
"Santana. I need your help." Quinn came up to the brunette at her locker.
"What's up?"
"I am auditioning for Glee."
Santana just raised her eyebrows.
"I know, I know. I have to get Finn back, okay?"
"You really care that much about him?" Santana asked skeptically.
"Of course I do! Don't you care that much about the boys you date?"
Santana shrugged. "Not really." Santana dated guys because she was hot, and they asked her out. She liked getting taken to dinner and movies. But cared? She didn't really care about any of them. Puck was the closest to an actual boyfriend that she had and she wouldn't really care if he did something stupid like join Glee. She would just stop hooking up with him.
Quinn gave her a funny look. "Okay, well, I need backup singers for my audition. You can sing, right?"
"Sure."
"You know anyone else who does? I thought two would be better."
"Brittany is pretty good. She sings in the shower a lot, remember?" Santana was suddenly glad her skin was dark, because she got a mental picture of Brittany singing in the shower, naked, and she blushed at the thought. Neither of them knew Brittany that well, but she was a good dancer and she did sing in the shower a lot. She didn't seem to care what other people thought of her, which was a strange concept to both Quinn and Santana, but because of that, Santana figured she wouldn't mind trying out for Glee.
"Okay I'll ask her. I'll text you about practicing. Thanks Santana!"
It turned out that Glee didn't turn anyone away, so Santana wasn't really sure why Quinn was so worried about her audition. On the other hand, she did like singing, and she was getting major brownie points from Sue for spying. She figured she was killing two birds with one stone.