Summary: There's always that uncertainty. Do they or Do they not? Is she or is she not? Am I seeing things, looking too much into it? One things for sure, Brittany has a crush on Santana. But are those feelings one sided? Follow the Story of Santana's struggle & Brittany's uncertainty about where they stand with each other from the beginning.
Chapter 1
Beep Beep Beep Beep...That's the sound that 10 year old Brittany hears outside her window when she wakes up that morning. She walks over to her window to look out of it and sees a moving truck backing into the driveway. More new neighbors. Brittany and her family just moved into the newly built neighborhood not too long ago. It's just Brittany, her Mom, Dad and younger brother by 2 years, Brandon. They've only been there for about 2 months and since then Brittany hasn't really felt the need to go outside as much until she sees the younger girl hop down from inside the moving truck. There are mostly boys in this neighborhood so finally having another girl to play with too may be fun.
"Finally someone else to play with." Brittany says out loud but more so to herself since it's still kind of early in the morning. She just sits at her window and watches them unload the truck. The girl seems to be about Brittany's age so there's definitely a chance of them becoming friends she thinks. Instead of putting it off any longer, Brittany eagerly gets ready for the day so she can go out and meet her new neighbors. After she washes her face and brushes her teeth, She goes to ask her mom and dad If she can go outside.
Brittany walks over to her mom's side of the bed and says...
"Mom?" she says shaking her awake.
"Yes sweetheart." her mom, Susan, answers as she stretches and yawns.
"Can I go outside? I already washed up and everything." sounding hopeful
"What time is it?" she says squinting looking at the clock on the nightstand.
"Umm...Like 8:32." she reply's looking over her shoulder.
"It's early hun. There's probably no one outside. Did you even have breakfast yet?"
"Well no, but there's some new neighbors moving in next door and I could make me a bowl of cereal.", she said trying to reason with her mom.
"Just let her go. It's Saturday." said by her dad, Benson, waking up to the conversation.
"Since your father says It's OK, go ahead. But wake up your brother and make sure you make him some cereal too before you go."
"Yes!" Brittany cheers excitedly as she runs out of her parent's room towards her Brother Brandon's room.
She hops on her younger brother's bed to wake him up.
"Get up Brand! Time for breakfast."
"Nooo...I don't want to yet." he says as he fights consciousness.
"Come on. Mom said to wake you up and make you some cereal."
"I can make my own cereal." Brandon says tiredly.
"Well...whatever. If you make a mess, you better clean it up. I'm gonna go get dressed and go outside after breakfast." And she's gone.
While Brandon continues to be lazy and sleep, Brittany goes back to her room into the closet to get some clothes on. After getting dressed Brittany heads to kitchen for her cereal.
Staring into the cabinet
"Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Apple Jacks?" sighs "I don't have time for this. I'm making both" why not?
Brittany does a half & half of both cereals and pours the milk into the bowl afterwards. As soon as she's done, Brittany puts her shoes on to go outside. Instead of going straight next door across the yard, she decides to sit on her porch for a second.
"What do I say?" she ponders to herself.
A little while after that she sees the girl from before coming outside the house, walking up the ramp into the back of the truck. But this time she has a better view of the girl. She has long brunette hair flowing down her back and the cutest little dress on. Brittany looks down to her own attire and she's wearing some ripped up jeans and a ninja turtle t shirt. "Oh well." she thinks.
Next door across the yard
"Santana you be careful picking up that stuff. I don't want you to hurt yourself or break anything." The older woman says from the porch.
"I got it mami!" the younger girl says from inside the truck.
Back over to the other yard
"Santana? So that's her name. Cool. That's different but cool." Brittany thinks to herself.
Making her way back down the ramp, Santana drops the box.
"Ugh!" she yells in frustration.
Brittany sees this and rushes over to help her. "Hey. Need some help?"
Santana looks up towards the girl and responds,
"No I got it." with a little bit of a attitude.
Brittany takes a step back.
"Whoa!" If looks could kill. She's kind of glaring but she has the prettiest eyes she has ever seen. Shaking herself from her daze, she continues,"You sound like my little brother Brandon. Never wants help with anything. Thinks he's a big boy. I'm pretty sure he's in the house right now making a mess with the cereal." laughing at the thought.
Santana just stares at Brittany while trying to hold her box upright.
AWKWARD...
"Oh! My name is Brittany. I live right next door." She holds her hand out to shake but says never mind when she realizes she's still holding the box. "Santana right? I heard your mom say it earlier. I mean that was your mom right? She looks like she could be your mom. If not..."
Santana interrupts her before she can finish though.
"You talk a lot. But yeah that's my name and my mom." she says.
"Cool. So you sure you don't need any help?" she asks hopefully trying to make a new friend.
"Well..." Santana begins to answer but...
"Brittany!" Susan, her mom, yells from the kitchen window.
"Uh Oh...I knew it. I just know he made a mess. And now I'm about to get in trouble for it. I'm sorry, I'll be right back. Don't leave. I'm coming right back. OK?"
Santana just laughs "I'm not going anywhere."
"OK cool."
She runs back across the yard into her house to the kitchen. She stops instantly when she sees her mom standing there with her hand on her hip.
"What did he do now?" Brittany says trying to lighten up the mood.
"You mean what you didn't do?" her mom responds. "I told YOU to make his cereal and now look at this mess. I'm upstairs lying in bed with your father and I hear all this noise coming from the kitchen. Look at this! A whole gallon of milk on the floor." Susan scolds.
Brittany just now notices her brother standing behind her mom with the mop looking guilty.
"He said he could do it himself, so I let him." she responds.
"Brittany you know that container is too heavy for him. Next time just do as your asked. You're the oldest." Susan reminds her daughter.
"Yes mam." she answers her mother.
"Now help him clean it up while I go tell your father we have to go out later for more milk."
"But..." she begins but after seeing that stern look she says, "OK"
Her mom goes back upstairs and Brittany takes the mop from Brandon.
"I'm sorry Britt, I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Brandon says feeling bad.
"It's OK Brand but next time, let me help you or at least ask for help. I know you think you're a big boy now but there's still things you can't do by yourself. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help. You know I don't mind." she says ruffling his hair.
"I know. But I swear I had it, It just slipped while I was trying to put it back in the fridge." he says trying to explain.
"I believe you Brand. Just go ahead and finish your cereal, I got this."
Brandon hugs her and goes over to the table to finish his Apple Jacks.
A few minutes go by and Brittany looks out the window to see If she can still see Santana moving her things. She doesn't see her but she does see a older guy trying to carry some boxes.
"Must be her dad." she thinks.
"Almost done Brand?" she questions him.
"Done." he says getting up.
"Let me get your bowl." She rinses it out and sits it in the sink for her parents to wash later. "Come on. We have new neighbors." encouraging her brother to come outside.
"They got kids?" he asks excitedly.
"Yeah, a girl." Brittany says just as excited.
"Eww. Don't wanna play with no girl." Brandon says with a frown of disgust on his face.
Brittany laughs at his facial expression "Hey! I'm a girl!" she says as she nudges his arm playfully.
"Yeah but you're Britt. You're not like other girls." he says matter of factly as head out the door.
"What's that supposed to mean?" confused at the 'other girls' statement.
"Your fast, you like sports, video games, you can fight and you play with boys. I bet she wears dresses and plays with dolls." he explains.
"Maybe she does but that doesn't mean anything. Girls can play with boys."
"No. Only you can. When I tried to play with that girl Mercedes the other day she yelled at me for messing her hair up." says Brandon sounding irritated by the thought of her
Brittany laughed at her brother's story "That's just Mercedes though. Not all girls are like that. Plus I think Mercedes is funny." she said trying to get through to him.
"Whatever. I just think that girls are loud & weird. I'm gonna go see If Puck & Sam can come outside." he says walking off.
"Alright well stay where I can see you." Brittany yells as he walks off.
"Britt, They live up the hill!" he yells back down to her.
"Well see If they can come down here & play! But come right back!"
"OK!" he says as he gives her the thumbs up and continues up the hill.
"Oh shoot! Santana." Almost forgetting why she was even excited to come outside in the first place, Brittany runs back across the yard to Santana's. When she gets near the moving truck she sees the older man again. "Hi mister. Is Santana coming back out? I'm Brittany by the way. I live next door." she tells the man.
"Oh hey." the guy says looking down to her. "Yeah she's just putting some stuff up in her room. You can go in If you like." he replies nicely.
Brittany makes her way upstairs and goes to the first door she sees open. As she steps into the room, Her eyes go right to the window.
"Cool. I can see right into my room from here." she says out loud walking past the bed towards the window, not noticing the girl in the closet.
Startled, Santana says, "Where did you come from?!" coming out of the closet.
Turning in the direction of the tiny voice, Brittany says "Oh! Sorry. Your dad said I could come in. I came back to help. My brother totally made a mess in the kitchen like I thought. Is this your room or are you just putting stuff in here?" she rushes out.
"Chill chica." Santana says with her eyes a little wide.
"Huh?" confused by the term.
"Nothing" she says.
"OK..." Brittany says stretching out the word...AWKWARD.
"Sooo...Wanna play?" asks Santana.
"Sure. Are you done moving already?"
"The other stuff is too heavy and my mami is gonna unpack my stuff anyway." she says positively.
"Right. Well come on." Brittany says walking back through the door but stops when she sees the older woman at the end of the hall.
"Mami I'm going back outside." she says to her mom coming out of the master bedroom.
"Hi!" Brittany greets sweetly.
"This is Brittany from next door." Santana tells her mom.
"Hi Brittany. You can just call me Mrs. Lopez." she says just as sweetly.
"Lopez...That sounds cool." Brittany says in awe but gets an odd look from Santana.
Mrs. Lopez just giggles at Brittany and tells Santana to stay in the yard as the girls make their way down the steps.
The girls head outside to the front yard but Brittany stops and turns around to ask Santana a question.
"So your name is Santana Lopez?"
"Yep. My dad's name is Santino & My mom's name is Maribel. We're Hispanic." she explains.
"What's that?" Brittany has heard the word before but never knew what it meant. Now she has a reason to ask.
"Like when you speak Spanish & stuff."
"So you speak English & Spanish?" Brittany says clearly fascinated with this revelation. Santana nods at her but she continues "But how? I only speak English." feeling a little sad that she doesn't speak other stuff too.
"I don't know. I guess I was just born like that." she says flatly not knowing how else to explain it. She's never really been asked that before.
"Whoa. You must be like really smart then." Brittany says sort of amused
"Yeah, I guess." Santana says going along with it.
Moving along...Brittany asks, "So what do you wanna play? I got a basketball and football. Or we could ride bikes. Do you have one? My brother has one if you don't." she says offering.
"No I don't have a bike yet. My papi said he was gonna get me one after we moved here. I couldn't ride a bike at my old house anyway. Papi was scared It would get stolen or I get hit by a car." Santana explained.
"Oh. Where did you move from?" Brittany asked interested.
"Lima Heights Adjacent" she said.
"Oh my gosh. You're from there. I heard about that place. My friend Mercedes use to live over there too. She said she hated it there because her parents always made her stay in the house. She said people there got guns too. But she only goes back there to visit family." she told Santana.
"Mercedes? I think I know her. But It's true. This one time my papi's car got stolen and they shot my window. After that, Papi said as soon as he makes enough money we were gonna move. And now were here." she finished.
"Wow! Why they shoot your window?" Brittany said concerned.
"I don't know." she replied really not knowing why.
"Sounds scary."
"It was. I miss some of my friends but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. Kids would always try to fight me and I'd get my clothes dirty. This one boy kicked me in my stomach but I made him bleed too. Papi showed me how to hit a boy right in the nose to take him down. Oh and to kick between his legs too. But then my papi and that boys daddy started fighting because I beat him up."
"Geez. So you can fight?" amazed by this. "I can fight too. Me & Brand always play fight." Brittany said.
"Well yeah, but only If I have to. I don't like getting dirty. Plus my mami hates it. She says girls shouldn't play so rough." Santana said.
"Oh. My Dad and brother are always playing rough. Sometimes we play football in the grass and we tackle my dad." she says happily.
"You play football?" Santana asked a little surprised.
"Yeah! Basketball, videos games & wrestling too." she says with excitement.
"You play like a boy." Santana says straight up.
"No I don't. I just play with my friends." Brittany retorts not really sure what she meant by that.
"That's what boys do. Do you like Barbie's & makeup?"
"Eww...No. I hate Barbie's. And I'm too young for makeup. I got in trouble the last time I was messing with my mom's makeup anyway. I wrote all on the wall and the mirror with it when I was younger." Brittany recalled.
"Makeup is for your face & dolls silly." she giggled at her.
"But I didn't want it on my face." Brittany said seriously.
"You're weird." Santana started.
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
Brittany was tired of going back & forth. Were they gonna ride bikes or not?
"Well what are we gonna do? I'm bored."
"I don't know..." she replies sounding just as bored.
Brandon comes running down the street with Sam & Puck towards the girls.
"Britt! Can you get my football out of the garage?" he asked out of breath.
"Be right back." Brittany dashes off real quick to get the ball from the storage container in the garage.
"Fresh Meat!" Puck says looking at Santana. "What's your name girl?"
"None of your business!" she says disgusted
Sam laughs out loud at the two.
"Shut Up Sam! Hey Britt, Wanna play football?" he asks her ignoring Santana after being slightly embarrassed.
As Brittany's walking back from the garage with the football, She turns down the offer.
"Naw. I'm just gonna chill with Santana." she says as she throws the ball to Puck.
"Santana? What kind of name is that?" asked Sam.
Brandon & Puck start to laugh
Brittany punches her brother in the shoulder to get him to be quiet and says, "Shut Up! I think It's a cool name." to Sam. She looks in Santana's direction and sees that she looks upset. Almost about to cry.
Santana turns to leave but mumbles something she didn't quite understand on her way back up to her porch.
"Wait!" she calls out to Santana and she pauses "Say sorry to Santana guys. That wasn't nice." she asked the boys.
"For what? I'm just saying It's a funny name." Sam reasoned.
Frustrated by her friends she tells them, "You know what just go and play football then." embarrassed by her friends and for Santana.
"I'm sorry about them." Brittany apologized.
"Whatever. I can't stand boys. They're so stupid" she says sitting back down on her porch.
"They were just playing though. That's how they are." trying to explain their behavior.
"Well I don't like them." Santana responded with a straight face.
Brittany just sighs...More awkward silence ensues. Not really knowing what to do or say next, They just sit there. Brittany is so confused by this girl. She seems nice but gets upset and moody easily. Maybe that's how people from Lima Heights Adjacent are. She remembered Mercedes being that way but at least she was funny. Santana is just mean. Even through all of that, she still wants to be her friend. There's something about the girl that she likes. Plus she speaks two stuffs. How cool is that? She thinks. She has long hair, pretty brown eyes, face like a Barbie doll. Kinda makes Brittany like Barbie dolls now. Well not really. She just like Santana's face. She looks over to her and sees her looking down at her shoes. Brittany thinks she's sad. She knows she would be too If her friends did that to her as well. Maybe Santana isn't that mean. She can't be. Not with a pretty face like that. Tired of the silence, Brittany begins to ask Santana If she wants to ride her & Brand's bikes or maybe even play with Barbie dolls. She'll do just about anything now to change her current mood. But before she can ask she hears Puck yelling...
"Watch out!" he yells as the football comes towards them.
Brittany turns right around just in time and catches the ball before it hits Santana in the face.
Santana looks up frightened but shocked at the same time. "Oh My God! How did you do that?"
"What? I just caught it." like it was no big deal.
Sam, Puck & Brandon came running back down to Santana's yard.
"That was so cool." Puck says walking up to Brittany about to give her a hive five but out of nowhere here comes Santana charging at Puck.
"You did that on purpose!" she yells and pushes Puck down to the ground.
Falling over, Puck yells, "That wasn't even me! Sam is the one who threw the ball!" snitching.
Then she charges for Sam and pushes him over too.
Sam falls over and screams "What the..."
Brandon just looks on scared thinking he's about to get hit too. But before the boys can get back up and go at Santana, Brittany steps in the way.
"Hey! Everybody just chill out! It was a accident!" she screams.
Both sides still trying to get at each other until Brittany asks for Brandon's help. "Do something Brand!" He snaps out of it and tries to pull his boys back.
Brittany grabs Santana and they finally calm down a little. Just a little...
"That chick is crazy man!" Pucks says in labored breaths.
"Puck chill." Brittany says not wanting them to get riled up again.
"Yeah I'm crazy but your estupido!" Santana says back.
"Guys come on. Calm down." Brittany pleads.
"No. Your friends are stupid Brittany." she repeats.
"Whatever man, Lets go." Sam says walking away.
Puck grabs the ball that Brittany was still holding throughout all that shoving.
"Come on Britt." he says to her as the boys walk onto the sidewalk away from Santana's yard.
"Yeah go ahead with your stupid friends." Santana spits to Brittany. Obviously hurt and affected by the altercation.
Britney looks back at her kind of shocked at her attitude towards her but says "I don't want to."
"Well I don't want to play with you. I mean you dress like a boy, do boy stuff. Why don't you just go play with them?" Santana yells.
Feeling hurt, Brittany looked down at her clothes and started to feel bad. She liked the way she dressed. She felt comfortable. She never thought twice about how she dressed until now. What was so wrong about the way she dressed? The way she played around, It would be pretty stupid of her to go out wearing dresses. Besides that, she really didn't care for them. She loved her cartoon shirts, torn jeans and sneakers. Starting to feel the tears well in her eyes, She just glared at Santana. Mad and sad at the same time. She couldn't deal anymore. She just turned around went to go play with the "boys".
"Told you girls are loud & weird." Brandon said to his sister when she caught up to them.
"Dude, You do know that your sister is a girl right?" Sam laughed a little worried about Brandon's intelligence.
"She's Britt though." he deadpanned.
"Yeah Britt's just like one of the guys. Ain't that right Britt?" Puck says slinging his arm around Brittany's shoulders.
Grabbing the ball from Puck she tells him, "Shut up and go long."
All three boys make their way up the hill and wait for Brittany to throw it.
Santana is back in her house now. She runs up the stairs past her dad and goes in her room. She immediately flops on her bed face first in frustration.
"What's wrong mija?" Santana's mom asks as she begins to unpack her boxes and fill her dresser.
Santana just sighs, "Nothing." She soon gets up and walks over to her window to see If she can watch Brittany play from her window.
Brittany took one last look at Santana's house. Not seeing her on the steps any longer she said "Welcome to the neighborhood" out loud turning back around. Talking to no one that could hear her but she was definitely talking to Santana. Oh the uncertainty!
What do you think? Should I continue?