-Secret Truths- Chapter One

Los Angeles. A week ago my two brothers and I were in small town Ohio, where I knew the rules. Now were in this big city where everything moves faster, harder and there are no rules. I feel kind of different being here, that's a good thing right?

As I step out of the car that my brothers and I share, leaning back in to get my backpack off the back seat of the car I hear my brother Artie say "Look at them, and each more taster then the next." Artie was the basketball star back in our home town in Ohio needless to say he was a lady killer. With his chestnut brown straight short hair that he wears brushed forward, swooping to the left in front and his blue green eyes he had the ladies swooning.

I come back with "God Artie you're such a pig"

With that he walks up to a group of girls and says "Hey….."

As I hear the sound of my other brother Mike I turn my head around "How does he do that he should be just as lost as we are, this place is a mad house."

I shot back with "I know we have been going here for three days and I still don't know where all my classes are, yesterday I spent the last part of the day just sitting in the parking lot cause I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find it again."

"That's what an additional two thousand and sixty-three students will do to your sense of direction" he spat back.

Suddenly Artie walks up behind us and says "Well I am good cause the gym is right across the quad."

For a minute Mike and Artie argued over whether or not weight training was indeed a real class. After a few minutes went by and they were getting nowhere with their arguing we found a map of the campus. Mike realized that his class wasn't even on the campus so he took off to go talk to a counselor. As Artie was trying to find out where our classes were I saw this cute guy looking at me. He was tall, taller than my brothers and had sliver grey eyes and a black Mohawk. Soon what seemed to be his girlfriend, I could tell because she called him baby came up to him and called him Puck. She didn't notice him looking at me she turned around saw me standing there and she asked me

"If I was the new alternate for the cheerleading squad."

I answered "Yea I am Brittany Pierce"

She cut me off saying "great see you at practice"

With that she pulled Puck's arm and walked away. To my distress my brother Artie thought she was hot. I thought she was intimidating. He turned around to look and me as he did he walked away and said "Don't be late after practice cause I am not going to wait around" and with that he was off. No more than two seconds later the bell rang leaving me to find a way to my class and I didn't even know where I was.

"Damn"

I didn't know where I was going. On my way to trying to find my class room I saw this girl she was about three inches short then me with dark black hair, she skin was tan she looked Latina. She was standing at her locker trying to get into it but was having a hard time opening it. I thought that maybe she could point me in the right direction so I decided to see if she could help to locate the class I was supposed to be in. As I walked up to her I saw that she had the most amazing mocha colored eyes as I was going to ask for her help she looked at me and she said "can I help you" in an annoyed tone, she must be upset because she couldn't get into her locker I thought.

I responded with "yeah do you know where science class three is?"

She said "yes"

When she did her locker popped open and some of her things fell to the ground. I bent over "Here let me help you" I said.

When I went to help the black haired girl to pick up the things that has fallen it only made things worse. When I bent down to help her gather her things I hit her hand caused be her to spill the coffee in her hand. I clearly pissed her off because when I told her I was sorry that I didn't mean to.

She snapped back "who cares what you mean, do you always got to create a disaster everywhere you go?"

"What is your problem I am just trying to find my way around here" I uttered.

"You and everyone else in this place" and with the black haired Latina walked off leaving me there to find me own way.

A few hours later I walked in to the locker room getting ready for cheerleading practice and the girl who walked up to Puck earlier called out to me "Brittany you're late"

"Yeah I am sorry I am still trying to get the campus figured out." I whispered

"Well don't let it happen again."

One of her minions walked over to me and stuck out her hand for me to shake.

"Hey I am Rachel don't mind Quinn the day she was born she thought that someone told her the world was hers."

Quinn was an average height blonde with shoulder length hair with green eyes, she was the captain of the cheerleading team, and she owned this school and all the girls wanted to be just like her. I soon found out that my suspicions were right Puck was her boyfriend and that he played basketball just like my brother. He was point guard and the two boys would be fighting for the same spot. After our discussion was over she handed me some keys and told me

"The pom poms are in locker three."

I looked at her then the floor I turned around and went to retrieve them bringing them to the gym with me.

After practice was over Quinn came over and showed me how to improve a few of the routine moves and then told me to collect the pom poms and put them away. I shook my head to let her know I had heard her.

On the basketball court Puck and Artie are getting into it arguing about who is going to start this season saying that there not going to be the one sitting out getting splinters in there ass. I look over and see Quinn watching the boys playing and she looks a little concerned.

Rachel standing next to her said "the new boy is good"

Her response was "yeah there all good when they first come well see how it plays out."

After changing into my regular clothes I sat on the bleachers doing my homework when the Latina came up to me and sat down next to me

She questioned "So you like basketball or do you just like to watch guys pat each other on the ass?"

I pointed on the court and said "brother"

"Cute I haven't seen him around"

"Yeah we just moved here" I informed her

We talked for a little bit and I informed her about how my brother was all-star back in Ohio, she told me that she hopped he wasn't too good because if he took over point guard then it would bad because the balance in the popularity pool would be off. She goes on to tell me that here at this school it's all about being somebody. If you weren't popular then you were a nobody.

So I turn to asked her "and who are you?"

"Today I haven't really decided yet….. Santana Lopez" She reached out to shake my hand. "Brittany Pierce nice to meet this side of you"

"Yeah sorry about this morning" she said

Then she started telling me about how this morning her step father came over this morning only to run into her former step father and they got into it about…

As she was talking she bent down to grab a water bottle out of her bag when she bent over the back of her shirt came up. I couldn't help but me drawn to look at her lower backside where I saw a tattoo of a cross. I could hear her still talking about how the two step fathers were fighting over her new tattoo and when she looked up she caught me staring at it. I blushed and looked away. She looked over at me smiling

And asked "you like"

"I thought they were illegal for minors"

I said shyly I could feel this strange new feeling come over me sitting next to this girl.

"Everything cool is … anyway it was a long morning it made me cranky and you received the benefit of it"

"Lucky me"

"Hey have you seen much of LA yet? She questioned

"Yeah Universal City, Santa Monica Pier.."

"Ok stop stop" she interrupted me telling me to "come on" as she stood up and grabbed her bag.

"I have to wait for my brother he was my ride home" all of a sudden she yelled

"Hey" at my brother he turned to look at her she then continued with "I'll get her home" with a nod of his head she reached her hand out for me saying "come on" I looked up at her smiled and took her hand as he pulled me up and walked me out to the parking lot.

For the rest of the afternoon she took me around town showing me all the things that LA has to offer. We walked the strip, had slushies' and just enjoyed each other's company. I didn't know why I felt so comfortable with her I just met her a few hours ago but I did she made me feel safe.

After a while we got into her sliver SUV and headed to her house. As she pulled up to the gate to her property I looked around and saw that she lives in a mansion. The mansion had to be the biggest house I have ever seen. I looked over at her and asked

"You live here?"

She looked at me smiling proud and said "yeah just me mom and number four." I asummed she was referring to her step father.

I soon found us lying on her bed watching the Real World. When there was a commercial on she sat up and asked me "So did you leave a boy back home?"

"No one special, you?"

"No boys are too much trouble"

I told her that I thought that Puck was cute and she told me that I totally dropped in cool points sarcastically.

So I asked her "what kinda guy do you like then? The bad boy? The skater?"

She looked at me smiling and started laughing that made me start to laugh and then we playfully hit each other.

Then she said "no they all suck they think no means put your hands all over me"

"No it's the kiss they try and suffocate you with their tongues"

"I know and all they do is talk about how cool they are"

"Yeah and you have to sit there and act like you care."

We are both giggling and leaning into each other when she says

"I know it's a good thing that there not the only choice" she says. As she lies back in the bed next to me her hand falls down onto mine. We both lay there starring at our hands and then each other's faces I see something out of the corner of my eye on her night stand a picture of her and some girl and they look really close like closer then friends close. When I realize the meaning of what she just said she looked up at me then looking at the picture and she pulled her hand away. We just lay there not looking at each other for a minute, she offers to take me home and I look at the clock to see what time it was, it was getting close to dinner time so I said

"Sure"

As I walk into my house I yell out "I'm home" walking into the dining room I hear the tail end of a conversation that was about me and my whereabouts were. Artie looks at dad and says "admit it she's your favorite" Dad grabs me and pulls me into give me a hug and says "your right she is my favorite" He looks down at me and says "I hear you made a friend"

My dad is a tall handsome man he has short chestnut hair like Artie and hazel eyes. I walk into the kitchen and hear Artie say "yeah she's smoken you think she thinks I am hot." I turn to look at him and say "no why would she?"

"Because I was making their star point guard look like my Bit.."

Dad cut him off "Artie knock it off"

Mike was standing in the dining room and asked "where's mom"

Dad said "she's stuck at work she will be home soon"

My mom works at the local hospital she is a nurse. We moved her to LA so that she could take the job here in town.

Artie spit out "tell your friend I am thinking about asking her to the dance after the game on Friday."

"Why would she go with you?" I said

"Don't you think you should talk to her first?" Mike asked

"Why she's hot I'm hot it would be hot" Artie responded to Mike

We all just shook our heads laughing.

Mike is the same age and Artie and no there not twins Mike is adopted he came in to our family a few years after I was born. He has raven black hair, dark brown eyes and tan skin, he is of Asian features but to us he is just one of the family.

I am a year younger then my brothers, I have long dancer legs and a slim tone body to match I have been doing either cheerleading or dancing all of my life sometimes I even did both at the same time. I have fair skin and I long blonde wavy hair that goes down to the middle of my back sometimes I straighten it though and ocean blue eyes that I get from my mom.

Soon mom walked through the front door and we all gathered around the dinner table to eat. We held hands to give thanks for the food and started talking like always a typical Pierce family dinner. Mom and dad asked us about our day and if we had homework or not. After dinner I headed up to my bedroom and started to get my stuff ready for tomorrow's day of school. As I was lying in bed my thoughts drifted off to the mocha eyed girl I had come to got to know earlier in the day. What she said hit me made me think and I was unsure as to how I felt about the whole situation. When I thought about how I felt when our hands touched I would be lying if I said that I didn't like it. She has such soft hands. I turned over in bed and with that last thought drifted off to sleep.

Back at school the next day I walk down the halls as I see Santana approaching me before she can see me I turn around and walk fast in the other direction. Seeing her made me something new a feeling I never felt before, I still didn't know if it was a good feeling or bad so I thought until I did I would avoid her.

On the other side of campus Mike was walking out of one of his classes as he walked out the door and ran into some girl he didn't see was walking by. When he ran into her she dropped her books so he bent down to pick them up. Mike is a very shy guy. He handed the books to her and stuck out his hand saying

"Hi I'm Mike" she took his hand

And said "Hi I'm Tina"

They started talking and she admitted that she had seen him before in their art class. All of a sudden this big guy comes up and pushes him to the floor yelling at him to back up of his girl.

Tina turns to the guy and tells him "to leave him alone that he's not doing anything"

The guy then turns to Tina and says "you know I am all the man you need."

Trying to touch Tina as she standing there she is swatting at him to get way. Mike stands up and punches him in the face trying to defend Tina. The bigger guy picks Mike up standing him in the corner and starts to hit him in the stomach again and again. Tina try's to stop the guy eventually the fight is over and Mike has bruised ribs. He walks away defeated.

After the last class of the day I was walking down the halls when I hear Quinn call out to me

"Hey girl you did awesome in practice yesterday"

"Thanks those are some pretty out there moves we didn't do moves like that at my old school"

"You know they have to be if you want to stand out"

Quinn looks over to the guy standing with her and says "this is my boyfriend Puck, Puck this is Brittany she's hoping to be a permanent member on the squad"

Looking up at her boyfriend smiling she says "there is definite potential"

He says "yeah we met yesterday… Your brother is an ass"

I come back with "yeah that's why we had to leave Ohio"

Quinn chimed in with "so how are you getting to the dance on Friday?"

"I don't know if I am going" I responded

"Yeah you are the entire squad has to be there" she said

"Don't worry you can come with us and maybe we can hook you up" she said with a smirk on her face

At that moment Santana walked up behind me placing her hand on my arm almost giving me a heart attack. I had the same feeling as when her hand fell down on mine when we were laying in her bed at her house. I turned to look at her and she said

"Hey where have you been all day."

I felt bad that I had avoided her all day so I said the first thing that popped in to my head "we do have this thing called school"

She said "please not here, you just show up after four years and they let you out, doing school is so over rated."

Then she realized who I was standing with and started to get a funny look on her face like eww these people suck. After a minute she pointed to Puck and Quinn and said

"So you know them?"

Quinn spits back like venom "Good question you know her?"

I look at all of them and say "you guys know each other?"

Quinn looks up at Puck and then Puck says "Hey Santana how are you?"

She answers "good and you?"

You can see there is something is there between them like they had a connection or that use to be. Puck started to answer being cut off by Quinn when she answered "He's fine!"

Soon things started to get heated between Quinn and Santana so Santana and I started to walk away only to have Quinn spit out

"Be careful who you hook up with Brittany it has a way of getting around"

I turn to look at Santana and ask her what that was all about she told me nothing that Quinn is just a bitch. I looked at her in her eyes and said

"No not her! What was that with him?"

She didn't want to talk about it. All she said was that they were a couple but that now they are not. Then she turned the tables on me and said

"Hey I freaked you out yesterday didn't I?"

I looked down at the floor not wanting to show off that what I was feel but whatever it was it was something new to me. I shyly admitted that yesterday was a little different but I was ok. We then went on to talk about how other than that moment in her bed when she said that guys weren't the only option we had a good time with each other and I couldn't help but smile.

As we were walking to the parking lot we see a sign for the school dance on Friday I asked her if she was planning on going and she said no that she hadn't been to one and wasn't planning on ever going to one. I informed her that Artie was planning on asking her to go to the dance with him saying that he thinks she is hot. She smiled and said

"Yeah he's got that right"

This made me laugh. She's so confident something I am not use to feeling unless I am dancing that is. There is something about this girl that makes me feel different inside new almost. With that we went our separate ways.

That night I had a bad dream I was in the locker room at school Quinn and Rachel where there they were calling me a freak saying they knew that I liked girls. I called out for Santana to help me and when she appeared she was with Puck holding hands. They walked away from me and then Quinn and the Cheerleaders where laughing at me calling me gay. I woke up in a wet sweat. God what was going on?

The next morning before school I walked to my dad's work, he is a social worker and I needed to talk to someone about the feelings I had. I didn't tell him that I was having these weird feelings for Santana because I didn't know what they meant yet but after talking for a while he made me feel much better about what I was going through. He told me that

"Kids my age are supposed to try out new things and make mistakes but that he loved me no matter what I choose."

I said "what if I make a choice that he didn't think I would?"

He said "that's what makes people more special, the unexpected"

When I made it to school I found Santana as we were walking to class she said "I heard your brother got into a fight yesterday."

"Artie" He always gets into fights mostly over girls

"No it was Mike"

I was so shocked. He has never been in a fight in his entire life. She informed me that he lost the fight and that he might want to work on his skills, I was worried because we are really close but he didn't tell me about it.

As we were talking Puck walked past us and stared us down. I could see Santana staring back which made me wanna know more about the two of them.

"What was that about" I asked

"Nothing, we had a past but that was just a phase"

"Wearing your hair in pig tails when your ten is a phase not guys"

"I don't know who he is anymore, we drifted apart"

The bell rang signaling the time for us to head to our classes as we get to my class I gave Santana a hug goodbye and walk into my science three class.

While I was practicing with the cheerleaders in the gym Santana walks in and gives me the cutes smile I have seen. I look at her mocha eyes and this surge runs through my body making me feel a sensation in my stomach like you have when you're on a roller coaster at the top of the hill about to go down, I quickly look away blushing. She had no reason to be there she wasn't on the cheerleading team and she didn't have a boyfriend on the basketball team either. I wondered if she came to see me. This made me blush even more.

At home after practice the family was preparing dinner together, something my family did when we were all at home on time. Artie was telling us about a conversation he had with one of the guys in the locker room. He said that one of the guys told him that Santana was gay.

"That's not true" I said

"That's what the word is"

"Well the word is wrong" I snapped back

"You should know she's your friend"

Mom stepped in and told him not to spread rumors. That's when I informed him that she dated Puck.

"I know I heard he turned her gay" he said

Dad chimed in with "son people don't just turn gay they either are or not"

"That's one opinion" mom said as she was pulling out a pan

Then she started to go on saying something along the lines that we should pray that she finds god and yea yea yea. I stopped listening until she told me that I should try and make new friends. I didn't wanna make new friends I like the one I had. I liked her and maybe I even liked her more than just friends. I couldn't tell her that though so I just kept quiet and helped finish dinner.

The next day at school I was huddled up listening to Quinn talk about her plans for the squad for the day. It was Friday which means we the school's basketball team had a game and we were there to show our support for the guys by cheering then after the game we had the dance. As Quinn was finishing telling us the plan Santana walked up to me and said

"Hey"

That's when Quinn looked at me and told me

"You might want to rethink your friendships right now while you're being judged."

God what was with everyone one not wanting me to be friends with this girl. She has been nothing but nice and sweet to me and she's beautiful. Wait did I just think that?

Later that night I was at the party like I was supposed to be. I crimped my hair to make the waves stand out more. I wore a dark teal green tank top with shiny tinsels on the shoulders, skin tight denim jeans with a pair of shoes that matched my shirt. I did Smokey Eyes for make up with a light tint lip gloss. I don't know why I was so did up it's not like I knew anyone here after all.

I decided to call Santana and see if I could get her to meet me I missed her for some reason. I picked up my phone and dialed Santana

Ring… Ring… Hello

"You have to come" I begged her

She laughed at me "no I have to keep my record intact"

"It will be fun no dates no nothing"

"I dunno I don't think I am going to fit in with the little cheer bitches"

"You, you'd fit in anywhere"

"Yeah that's true"

"And hey I am one of those cheer bitches"

"Right sorry I forgot"

"So get off your lazy butt and meet me at the side door if its lame will leave"

Click

I sat there smiling knowing what effect I had on the mocha eyed girl if she was willing to break tradition and come to meet me at the dance. As I sat waiting for her at the side door to the dance I couldn't help the feeling growing in my stomach. Thirty minutes later she pulled up in her SUV

"Hey" she called out to me

I turned around to see Santana wearing a black v neck dress with a silver sequence on the right shoulder the flowed down to the top of her knees. It had a gold belt that went around the middle of her waist. She had her hair pulled back in a low ponytail and was wearing a gold necklace. She was stunning! She slowly walked up the stairs towards me I could tell she was nervous.

"Did you get kicked out already" she said

"No I am waiting for a friend"

"Oh"

"Are you nervous? I asked

She told a deep breath and made the smallest sound "yeah a little" I reached my hand out to her and she took it. I looked down our hands and smiled. We turned around and waked in to the dance.

The whole school was there. Puck and Quinn were in the corner of the gym dancing. Artie was dancing up on some girl, even Mike was there with that girl he tried to defend. Quinn saw that Santana was with me and she looked pissed. She came over to us and said "Brittany your blowing up girl, if we would have known you were gay we never would have considered you"

Santana stepped in to defend me and said "It has nothing to do with Brittany your just mad cause you think Puck still likes me"

Puck walked over to where we were standing

"No I don't" he said
"Whatever you're off the squad Brittany so you can go play with your like partner" Quinn said looking at Puck glaring.

Artie over heard what was going on and told me he was going to take me home. I told him I was going with Santana and he tried to pull me by my arm to the door, that's when Puck stepped up and told him to leave me alone. He told Puck to mind his business, which lead to fists being thrown. When the teachers saw the fight they started to head our way.

Santana grabbed my hand and walked us out into the parking lot to avoid the teachers she lead me to her car. We sat there in her car for a minute thinking over everything that just unfolded in front of us. I looked over to Santana and asked her

"Are you gay?"

"I'm not into labels".

"What does that mean, do you like girls? Do you like boys?"

"I'm not into labels" she said again.

Puck must have gotten away cause when we were about to pull out of the parking lot he ran up to the window blood dripping from his eyebrow. He said he was sorry to us and then the teachers started to run up after him so we yelled at him to get into the car. As he stepped in and closed the door behind him Santana yelled "Don't bleed on the leather" at him.

The car stopped after a while of driving up windy roads we were at a vista point on the top of one of the hills looking down on the busy city. We all got out and sat in front of the car to gets some fresh air and look at the city lights down below. We sat in silence foe while and then I spoke

"This dance was different than the ones at my old school"

"It actually wasn't all that bad but we didn't even get to dance" Santana added

"Hey I am sorry about that" Puck said

"It's no one's fault" Santana answered

"Do you two wanna be alone" I asked them kinda feeling sad

"No" they answered at the same time

"Do you two wanna be" Puck asked looking at us?

We looked at each other and smiled "no" we said together

"This whole night has been intense and confusing" He said

"Yeah I never would have guessed the three of us would have ended up together" Santana said

"So Brittany are you gay" Puck ask me blankly

"Um… I'm not into labels" I said looking at Santana

"Oh ok" "So what do you ladies wanna do tonight" he asked

Santana walked from the hood of the car to the rail looking out at the city and all its lights she turned around and said

"Well its LA we only have a few minutes to take a breather before we have to head back to the madness"

We three sit in silence starring at each other then I say

"So let's hit the madness" I said.

"Alright let's do it" they said as they threw their hands in the air. We all hopped into Santana's SUV and head back to the madness.