"OK, so we're still on for the concert at BreadStix tonight, right?" I asked with a smile as I got out of the car.

"Absolutely! Pick you up at eight," Santana said as she winked at me and slowly drove off.

I was still smiling as I walked through my front door and headed up to my room. I had a sneaking suspicion that Lord Tubbington had been reading my diary again, and since Cheerios practice was cancelled today and I was home early, I wanted to catch him in the act. I dropped my backpack on the couch in the living room and started tip-toeing towards the stairs when I heard my mom from the kitchen.

"Britt? Is that you? Come in here!" she called.

*Sigh* I turned around and strolled back into the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

"What's up, Mom?"

"Just wanted to find out how your day went. I feel like I never talk to you anymore. Why aren't you at Cheerios practice?

"Oh, Coach Sylvester cancelled it for today. She's really depressed about losing her campaign for Congress, so I think she's going on some retreat in the Andes Mountains where they hunt their own food and cook it over an open flame. Or something like that." Mom furled her brow and kind of scoffed with a smile, shaking her head. She's always thought Coach was extreme, but she probably thinks I'm exaggerating.

I'm not.

"So how was your day, hun?"

"Oh, my day was fine. I'm going to a concert with Santana tonight, but I have some homework I have to do beforehand. She's picking me up at 8, will dinner be ready before that, Ma?"

"How's six sound? I'm cooking pot roast!"

I gave her a smile and a nod and headed back upstairs with my books. I walked into my room and instantly started looking for Lord Tubbington and my diary. I am pretty sure I did have homework to do, but considering the fact that I don't even know what classes I am taking, the chance of that happening are about as good as Kurt being next in line to accidentally impregnate Quinn. I stared at my desk. Hadn't I left my diary there? Hmmm. I glanced over at my bay window, and could see Lord Tubbington's tail sticking out from under the curtains. I walked over and pulled the curtain back, swooping up the fat cat in one smooth motion.

"Well hello there, Mr. Nosypants." I said as I nuzzled his face. But I looked down to the window sill, and there was no diary to be found. "Did you eat it, Lord Tubbington? Oh no, did you use it in your litter box again?" I gave him the meanest glare I could muster and dropped him on the bed while I continued my search. After eliminating the litter box as the Lord's hiding place, I looked in all my drawers, under my pillows, and in my bathroom.

Humph.

I plopped on my bed, defeated and confused, as I still couldn't find my diary. I mindlessly stroked Lord Tubbington's belly next to me on the bed, squeezed my eyes close tight and tried to remember the last time I wrote in it. It had definitely been a while.

Has it been since before I joined the Glee club?

After drawing a blank, I shrugged my shoulders and looked over at the clock. It was 4:07. I needed to shower and get dressed around five, so I could eat dinner with my family at six, and still have time to finish my make-up and hair before Santana picked me up at eight.

Perfect.

I sat down at my desk and logged into my email. I had three emails: one spam, one that my grandma sent me asking me what she should get my mom for her birthday, and one from Artie.

Why is Artie emailing me?

I opened it up and almost screamed for joy when I realized what it was. Artie and Puck had received in school suspension the past three days for attempting to spike the punch bowl at junior prom, and apparently it had given Artie lots of time to catch up on his school work, because he had sent me a copy of all of that night's homework assignments—completed. For the obvious reasons, I opened the documents and changed the wording of some of the answers and purposely misspelling and getting a few wrong. I didn't want to get caught turning in an identical assignment.

This is weird, I thought to myself, nine months ago, I didn't even know who Artie was. Why is he being so nice to me?

"Maybe Santana was right," I mumbled aloud to no one. She had told me a few weeks ago that "Stubbles McCripplepants" had a crush on me, but I didn't really believe her. Santana isn't used to people being nice to her unless they want to get up her Cheerios skirt, but Artie just seemed like a good guy. I finished changing the answers on Artie's homework, changed the font to Comic Sans (which I used for all the assignments I actually finished), and printed it on pink construction paper. I looked down at the clock on my phone: 4:32.

"SWEET!" I yelled.

With almost half an hour to kill before I needed to shower, I resumed the hunt for my diary. Finally, it hit me:

It's in the shower!

I put in the shower a few days ago, because Lord Tubbington is afraid of water, and I figured it was the best way to keep him from snooping. I reached up to the top shelf of my corner shelves and pulled out my diary from behind my shampoo bottle. I frowned at the big glop of conditioner on the side, and wiped it off with a towel. I sat back down at my desk and pulled out my favorite pencil, with a unicorn eraser at the top.

Dear Me,

It's amazing how life has changed since I started writing in this diary. I've made a whole new group of friends through the Glee club, and found another way to dance on a regular basis. Coach Sylvester tries to incorporate some dance moves into our Cheerios routines, but it's nothing like the dancing I get to do with New Directions. Plus, I love having Mike Chang around to dance with, too. I've never really had anyone to dance with that can keep up with me, but he is probably better than I am. It's a nice challenge. I've also learned that I'm not a bad singer, either. Of course, I can't sing as well as Rachel or Mercedes, and I especially can't do that smoky, sexy thing with my voice that Santana does, but I am a good back-up singer, and they've let me do a solo here and there, too. Glee club has basically given me a new family, and that's been nice. Plus, they don't make fun of me and call me stupid like some of the girls on Cheerios. I love my cheer girls, but they can be really mean sometimes.

Being in Glee club has also made me and Santana that much closer. Even before Glee club, we were best friends, and have been since middle school. But we had always also been really close to other Cheerios, and it's never really been just the two of us. But now that Quinn got pregnant and was kicked off the squad, we're together all the time. Some of the Cheerios look down on us because we're in the Glee club, and some of the people in the Glee club (mainly Rachel) still think we're only in it because Coach Sylvester made us. Of course, that's why we started in the club, but we have both come to love it, though Santana would never admit that to anyone but me. Like I'd already said, I've loved making new friends, and having an outlet for my dancing, but I know Santana has really appreciated the unconditional love and support that everyone in New Directions gives one another. She's a very hard person to get to know, because she has lead somewhat of a hard life in Lima Heights, and she isn't used to people helping each other out for the sake of simply helping them. As amazing as she is, she doesn't trust that other people think she's amazing, too. But I think Glee club is helping her with that. And it makes me so happy to see her becoming happier, too.

OK, well, I guess that's a good update for now. Time to shower and get ready for the concert!

Hugs and Unicorns,

~Me

I closed the book while a smile on my face, but that quickly turned to a frown when I spotted Lord Tubbington eyeing me from across the room. I checked the clock, 5:04, glared back at Lord Tubbington, and held my diary tightly to my chest as I carried it into the bathroom to hop in the shower.

At the dinner table I devoured the pot roast and mashed potatoes.

How is it possible for my mom to be this good of a cook?

The dinner conversation was the same as usual; everyone took turns saying what new was going on in their lives and we all soaked it in. My little sister had just joined the soccer team at her middle school, and was the new goalie, so she was pretty pumped about that. My dad was up for a promotion at the business he worked at, though I never really understood what he did. Something about sales and marketing and public relations? Or maybe none of those three.

After dinner I helped my dad do some of the dishes before realizing that I had to finish getting ready for BreadStix. I hustled upstairs and took a long look in my full-length mirror.

Great outfit, Brittany. Now for the make-up and hair.

I expertly stroked on some smoky gray eye shadow and a touch of mascara, pulling my hair half-way up and twisting it, putting a clip in at the top. I had dried it with a bunch of waves in it tonight, so it had a lot of volume. "Sexy hair" is what Santana had always called it. I laughed a little when I thought of that.

A little bit of soft pink lipstick and a coat of gloss over it finished off my look. Back to the mirror.

"Dark, tight, slightly ripped jeans? Check. Black halter top? Check. Black stilettos? Check. Make-up and killer hair, to boot? Check."

Damn, I looked good. Eat your heart out, boys.

*Honk, honk!*

I looked out the window to see Santana's black SUV in the driveway, her with her head sticking out the window looking up at me with a smile. I grabbed my purse and my cell phone and headed downstairs, saying a quick "bye" to my parents and sister, who were in the living room watching TV as I headed out the door and towards the passenger side of her car. I opened the door and hopped in, looking at her with a smile.

"Ready for the concert?" I asked.

She just stared at me for a moment before muttering, "Uhh… yeah… Sure am!"

Was she checking me out?