A/N

WELL HEY!

First, if your coming to this story from being subscribed to me previously, hello! I'm Rainy! Still the same person, a little older, but not much has changed.

If you don't know me... Hello! Thanks for clicking. I was listening to the Next to Normal, and suddenly this idea came to my mind. Now I haven't read many Glee fanfics, so I wouldn't know if this is a reoccurring topic, but the idea had just been stuck in my head, and I wanted to get it out on paper.

My writing might be a bit rusty, I apologize. I haven't written fanfiction in like, two years. So anywho, read, review, enjoy- you know what you need to do.

Beep... Beep... Beep

Santana smiled to herself as she heard the oven go off. Finally, the thing she'd spent that past hour trying to finish was done. The latina got up from her chair and quickly made her way across the empty Home Ec room to retrieve the chocolate cake that had been baking. Chocolate... It's Brittany's favorite flavor.

Santana opened the oven, letting the chocolate smell waft across the room. The school seemed so eerie after hours, but Santana didn't mind. She took the cake out, setting it on the counter. She examined the chocolate cake, trying to determine whether or not to use pink or blue icing... Pink was Brittany's favorite color, but blue matched Brittany's eyes. Santana was so caught up in trying to figure out what to use when suddenly, she heard a familiar voice from behind her.

"Knock knock!" Giggled the whimsical little voice Santana could only pinpoint as Brittany's. Thinking quickly, Santana removed the sweatshirt she was wearing and tossed it over the cake. She spun around to face the beautiful blonde in front of her.

"Brittany!" Santana gasped, leaning against the counter, covering what was behind her. "What are you doing here?" Brittany stepped into the room and started walked towards Santana. Santana's heart beat faster every time Brittany took a step towards her, like it always did.

"Looking for you! What else would I be doing?" Brittany said, not taking her eyes off Santana. Santana took the risk of walking away from the covered cake over to where Brittany was, stopping her in her tracks.

"Well, I'm right here, babe..." She said, locking her gaze into Brittany's. Brittany looked at her with the same intensity, and smiled as she reached over to brush hair away from Santana's eyes.

"Well we should go," she said, grabbing Santana's hand. "Everyone's at Glee club, wondering where you are." Santana nodded quickly.

"Right! Okay!" She said almost too quickly, squeezing Brittany's hand. "How about I meet you there in like five minutes?" Santana said, as she lead Brittany to the door. "I promise, I'll be right there." Santana noticed Brittany looked slightly neglected by this, so she gently put her hand under Brittany's chin and kissed her on the cheek. Brittany just cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You call that a birthday kiss?" Brittany said, teasingly. Santana opened her mouth in defense, but Brittany didn't give her time to speak, for she had already reached her neck out to kiss Santana deeply on the lips. Santana, not forgetting about the cake, gently held the kiss for a few seconds, then pulled away.

"Britt... I love you... but seriously, go!" Santana took Brittany's hand and twirled her around, directing her out the door. Brittany just gave a cute giggle, and started to skip down the hallway. Santana watched as she skipped down to the choir room, her long blonde hair bouncing up and down as she ran.

Santana smiled as she ran off. Then, when Brittany was out of sight, Santana darted back over to the cake, through her sweatshirt off of it, and began to ice it furiously with the pink icing. When there was an even layer of pink icing, Santana took the blue icing and carefully etched the words "Happy Birthday Brittany!" into the cake. She grabbed her bag from the table and rummaged through it before taking out two candles that created the number 17. She stuck the candle into the cake, and lit both of them before picking up the cake and heading out the door.

Santana resisted the urge to skip as Brittany had done just a few minutes before. Instead, Santana walked carefully, making sure the candles in the cake wouldn't blow out. On her walk down, Santana lost herself in her thoughts about Brittany. The past year had been perfect. Santana, after coming out to her family, confessed her love to Brittany, officially asking her to be her girlfriend. That was one of the best days of her life. She saw the excitement on Brittany's face when she said yes... That reaction was etched in Santana's mind as she walked. After that day, it had only been uphill for the two lovebirds. This cake was a present for Brittany, along with the necklace Santana planned to give her later that night. She would make sure this would be the best day Brittany ever had.

As she neared the choir room, her excitement increased. She could hear the Glee kids singing some chirpy upbeat song that, on a normal day, Santana would rip to shreds. But today, Santana didn't feel like berating anyone, just making a special day for Brittany.

"Hello everyone, it's a very special day today!" Santana chirped. The whole room stopped singing the upbeat number, and turned around to stare at Santana. Good, she had everyone's attention. Santana took a deep breath before she began to sing. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!"

Santana examined the looks on the kid's faces, and right away, she knew something didn't seem right. They didn't smile. They didn't start to sing along. Was Rachel... crying? Finn wrapped his arm around her, almost consolingly. "Happy birthday to Britt-"

"Santana." Mr. Schue cut her off rather abruptly, with a firmness in his voice that seemed to take back the whole Glee club. Mr. Schue looked over to Mike, who happened to be standing the closest to him and whispered, "Go get Ms. Pillsbury." Upon this request, Mike broke into a sprint out the door.

"I don't understand?" Santana said, darting her eyes around the room. "Where's Brittany? I sent her back down a few seconds ago..." She swallowed hard, growing panicked as the room stayed silent. Each and every person in the room was staring at her with such a strange intenseness.

Kurt cupped his hands around his face. "Oh my god..." He muttered, shocked at what he was hearing. Mr. Schue took the initiative to walk towards Santana, and gently removed the cake from her hands.

Santana just stood there, frozen and confused. "Hey! That's for..."

"Santana." Mr. Schue set the cake down on the piano and looked her straight in the eye. "Brittany's dead, Santana. She's been dead for a year now."