I saw her across the playground. She was sitting there with her crayons and her notebook just drawing. Most of the kids were running around playing tag and monkey in the middle, except for her. She was sitting there her forehead furrowed in concentration. I walked over to her and smiled.
"Hello." I saw tentatively. She looked up at me as if out of a trance. I continued, "My name is Santana Lopez. What's your name?" She smiled broadly.
"Hi! My name is Brittany Pierce. Did you know unicorns are magical?" She showed me her drawings of unicorns.
"You mean the ones on tv?"
"No! I mean the real ones…" She continued to tell me all about unicorns, the different colors, how they grow their horns, and much more. As she was talking I watched her face grow more excited the longer she talked. I imagine I was the first kid of our age to give her the time of day. I had heard what one of the teacher's had called her, "Brittany: the girl with her head up in the clouds." I had never met someone so grounded. After she told me about unicorns she looked at me and smiled.
"You know Santana, you are a unicorn too. I can see it." I didn't know what she meant that day, but the thing I remembered the most?
She had the most wonderful smile I've ever seen in my life.
That day I swore that I would make sure she would never frown.
When Kurt yelled at Brittany that this was not the poster that they agreed on I could see her face drop.
"The poster you wanted gave me crippling depression." She had a point. I had seen the poster he wanted. It was dark and foreboding. He might as well be running for some debutant ball.
"I wanted something toned down!"
"This is toned down. In the original the unicorn was riding you." I replied before he could say anything else to hurt her feelings more. She took a step towards him.
"I don't know why you are so upset. You're special. You need to embrace it. This is who you are."
"I'm not going to win." Rachel walked by and Kurt grabbed her arm rushing away. Brittany turned toward me, crestfallen.
"I failed my precious unicorn." I could feel the hurt and disappointment in her voice.
"No, this campaign is brilliant." I told her smiling. She looked at me. Not really believing me. How could I blame her? Our so called peers laughing at her every time she messed up. I wasn't completely over the way they treated her in geography.
"Really?"
"Completely! And if he doesn't get it, then he doesn't deserve to have you as his campaign manager. There is no one like you. You're a genius Brittany. You are the unicorn." She looked at me and smiled with the same smile that I fell in love with at day on the playground.