A/N: So I intended to write a funny short about Brittany trying to write an original song, but somehow it turned out much more serious, but I think I like it this way better. Hopefully the characters aren't too far out of character. Credit to Fox for My Headband, but Damaged Goods is a song written by me.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters just their thoughts and actions.
"Mr. Shue? I wrote a song." Brittany stated at the beginning of glee club rehearsal.
The whole room was silenced instantly as all members stared at the tall blonde in shock, some with their mouths agape and others with their eyebrows raised. Mr. Shue also seemed taken aback, but quickly recovered interested to hear what the girl had prepared.
"Okay Brittany, let's hear what you've got."
Brittany bounced off her chair and moved to the middle of the choir room. She gave a quick nod to Brad who began to play the intro to Brittany's first attempt at an original song.
"There you rest
With all the rest
of my accessories on my night stand"
The former cheerleader swayed back and forth as she softly sang the lyrics. Most of the glee club continued to stare at her perplexed except for Rachel who wore a look of utter despair. She turned her head to look at her fellow teammates expecting them to be furious, but no one seemed to notice anything particularly irregular- even Finn was clueless.
"You're red or yellow
And like a good fellow
Sometimes you get-"
"Wait a minute! This is absolutely ridiculous. That is not an original song Brittany, that's my song, I came up with it!" Rachel burst out not being able to stand it anymore causing the music to stop and silence ensued. Even if My Headband wasn't her best attempt at song writing, she wasn't going to let anyone else get credit for it.
"Come on, Finn you know that I wrote that song," she looked over to the quarterback for support who merely shrugged. "I sang it to you a few weeks ago and yes I will admit that it was not quite the quality writing as what I am striving for, but I simply refuse to let Brittany perform an original song that is not truly hers!" Rachel sat back down in her seat leaving a dumbfounded Brittany standing silently in the middle of the room.
Mr. Shuester walked over to Brittany with a bit of amusement and concern in his eyes.
"Did you write that song Brittany?" Mr. Shue asked as he placed a light hand on her shoulder
"Of course she didn't. How could-"
"Shut it Berry." Santana snapped from the back row, causing Rachel's mouth to close for the time being.
"Well no, I heard it as I was walking by the choir room the other day. It was like coming out of thin air and Santana told me that original songs came from nowhere because they never existed before then. This song came to me out of nothing, so it is my original song right?"
Mr. Shue held back a laugh while a few students turned theirs into coughs and Rachel rolled her eyes not trying to hide her annoyance.
"Um not quite, but I do like the effort. Why don't you try and team up with someone so they can help you with the logistics?" Mr. Shue asked gently.
"We have to sing about geometry? I don't understand math."
"No, you can sing about anything. Quinn, since you and Rachel have parted ways why don't you give Brittany a hand?"
Quinn looked up from her notebook uninterested, but nodded anyway. Brittany smiled and ran back to her seat next to Artie completely unaffected by her epic fail on her first attempt.
Quinn was pulling her History book out of her locker the next day when a tall blonde appeared next to her.
"Hi Quinn!" Brittany exclaimed. Her chipper personality was a little too much for Quinn to handle this early in the morning, but its constant presence was a bit of a relief to Quinn's confusing love life at the moment.
"Hey Britt," she replied with a small smile as she shut her locker and looked at her friend.
"I was wondering if you wanted to work on the original song after school today? Artie's watching a marathon on the discovery channel, and Santana said she had plans with Sam so we can't get our lady kisses on until this weekend." Brittany said nonchalantly.
Quinn winced at the second part of the sentence; not the part about Santana and Britt's relationship, she was on the Cheerios with both of them long enough to know all about that even if she thought it was wrong for them to be cheating on their respective boyfriends with each other. Though she supposed she wasn't one to judge, but at least she felt awful about what she did while Santana had let Brittany believe what they were doing was okay because the "plumbing was different." Still the idea of Santana and Sam together made Quinn nauseous.
"Helloooo…Quinnnn…" Brittany waved a hand in front of Quinn's face to snap her out of her head and back to the conversation they were having.
"Oh right, um yeah, I think that will be fine." Quinn replied as she began to head off to class.
"Alright! Meet you in the auditorium then." Brittany said as she skipped ahead of Quinn and down the next hall.
Brittany was already standing by the piano with furrowed eyebrows looking down at some papers that were scattered across the top of the piano when Quinn walked into the auditorium. She smiled widely and waved when she saw Quinn enter from back stage.
"How's it coming so far?" Quinn asked as she approached her friend. She looked at the notebook paper sprawled everywhere and noticed they were all blank.
"Well I'm waiting for the song to come to me. I tried throwing the paper in the air a few times to let the words appear but it didn't work." Brittany stated slightly sad as if she honestly believed it might have worked. Quinn mouthed wow to herself slightly before regaining her composure. She should have known better than to expect much from her ditzy friend, but she wanted to be there for Brittany and if she wanted to write a song then Quinn was going to help her.
"Okay, so what exactly did you want to write a song about?" Quinn asked.
"How am I supposed to know? I don't have control over things that come from nowhere. I don't even know where nowhere is." Brittany gave Quinn a look as if Quinn was the less intelligent of the two blondes for asking such a ridiculous question. Quinn responded by arching her one eyebrow and biting her lip while trying to decide the best way to approach the situation.
"Britt, I don't know what Santana told you about song writing, but they don't come from nowhere. They come from right here," Quinn said as she pointed to her chest.
"Your boobs?" Brittany questioned blankly.
"What? No, your heart. You write songs based on what you're feeling inside that you can't express in any other way besides music." Quinn stated trying hard not to get frustrated. Brittany nodded though the blank expression remained on her face. Quinn continued on, "So what do you feel in your heart?"
"It's beating."
"Right." Quinn knew it was a too much of an abstract question, perhaps she needed a different approach.
"But not as fast as it does when I'm with Artie. Definitely not like when I'm with Santana either." Brittany stated thoughtfully. Quinn stood up straighter knowing she was finally getting somewhere.
"And what makes your heart beat when you are with them?" Quinn asked, not sure if she really wanted to hear the details of Brittany's answer.
"All sorts of things. When Artie sings me a song in his sexy voice or lets me dance on his lap. Or when Santana cuddles with me as we watch a movie, or when we lock pinkies while we walk. But…" She drifted off and looked out into the empty seats.
"But what Britt?" Quinn asked softly trying to get the taller blonde to open up. Brittany continued to gaze out into nothing, but eventually turned her head back to look at her friend.
"Well we haven't really done those things in a while." Brittany reflected sadly. Quinn was unsure who was included in the "we" so she chose to stay quiet and wait for Brittany to elaborate.
"I mean ever since I told her I wouldn't break up with Artie even though she said she loved me, she hasn't been talking to me. And then she wrote that song for Sam and I just don't know." Brittany kept her eyes directed at Quinn, but couldn't quite look the shorter blonde in the eye.
Quinn was completely taken aback by this new information. She wasn't sure what was more a shocker; the fact that Santana was in love with someone or the fact that she admitted it. Knowing she needed to be supportive of her friend, Quinn tried to keep her face composed. She took a step closer to Brittany and placed a hand lightly on her upper arm.
"And how does that make you feel?"
"I don't know, sad? Confused? Sometimes angry because I don't know what I did to deserve this." Brittany's lower lip began to quiver and it was clear she was trying not to shed any tears. Quinn could really tell that Brittany was struggling with this and she began to think that maybe there was more to the two girls' relationship than even Quinn could understand. As Quinn pulled Brittany into a hug, the taller blonde let out a soft almost inaudible sob. Quinn wondered just how much damage Santana had done. As if Brittany was reading her mind, she spoke up again as she removed herself from the embrace.
"Sometimes I feel like my diary after Charity scratches and rips the pages out, and it's all broken."
"Like you're damaged?" Quinn added helpfully.
"Yeah damaged. Like damaged goods." Brittany said quietly as she put her elbows on the piano and placed her chin in her hands. Quinn grabbed a pen from her purse and placed it along with one of the pieces of paper in front of Brittany, then moved to sit on the piano bench.
"I think you have found your song Britt," Quinn said and the two got to work.
It took Brittany and Quinn a few days to perfect the song and a couple more for Brittany to work up the courage to actually sing it in front of the entire club. Quinn kept telling her that she would be great and that the song was actually an original so there wouldn't be a Rachel outburst like last time. Finally, a week after her first attempt, Brittany was ready to try again.
All the team members had settled into their seats, except Brittany who remained in the middle of the room, when Mr. Shue walked in. He took a quick look at the group before turning to Brittany.
"Hey guys! You can take your seat Brittany," he said motioning for her to sit down with the rest of the club.
"I'm ready to sing my song." Brittany stated plainly.
"Oh um," Mr. Shue looked at Quinn to see if Brittany had indeed written a song that was actually her own. Quinn nodded so Mr. Shue continued, "Alright let's hear what you came up with."
With a hesitant look at Quinn who smiled in encouragement, Brittany handed the sheet music that Quinn had written to Brad and positioned herself in front of the piano.
"So I wrote this song, but Quinn helped with the music and the harder words, but it came from my heart's feelings so it's my song." Brittany stated as she stared at a tile near her feet. She thought about all the feelings Quinn had brought out in her when they were writing the song and used them to get courage to look up. "It's called Damaged Goods," she said as she locked eyes with the latina in the back row.
Brittany started off the intro softly speaking the words as they weren't meant to be sung.
"Stop coming to me
Because of you
It's all your fault"
Standing with her back resting against the piano she kept her eyes on Santana making sure the latina took in every word to the song Brittany wrote to her.
"What happened to us, where did we go
Lockin pinkies down the hall was it all for show
You said that what we had was special to you
So why do you get it from other boys too
Sometimes I wonder how I could've been so blind
I knew you only had one thing on your mind
I just wanted to do what I thought was right
So why can't I stop crying over you at night
I hurt you once, so you said we're done
But you've been hurting me since day one
I just wish that I could understand
The games you've been playin with the cards in your hand"
Gaining confidence, she picked up the volume and intensity in her voice as she began the chorus.
"Don't you know your words mean nothing to me now
Just leave me alone so I can get over you somehow
I know you're lookin' for somethin' shiny and new
Stop coming to me cuz I'm damaged goods
Don't feed me lies sayin' the sky ain't blue
Because of you I'm damaged goods
It's all your fault that I'm damaged goods
You're coming back
You're at my door
My love for you makes me want more
You pull me close
You hold me tight
Make me think things will be alright
I can't do this
No not again
My broken heart just needs to mend"
Holding out the last word on the bridge Brittany couldn't focus on anyone except the girl she was singing to. Santana sat stiff in her seat not being able to take her eyes off the blonde, but also trying hard to keep her face void of any emotion. Brittany stared at her intently trying to read her face, to see something, anything that may have shown that the message was getting across. She took a deep breath and continued to the reprise.
"Don't you know your words mean nothing to me now
Just leave me alone so I can get over you somehow
I know you're lookin' for somethin' shiny and new
Stop coming to me cuz I'm damaged goods
Don't feed me lies sayin' the sky ain't blue
Because of you I'm damaged goods
It's all your fault that I'm damaged goods"
Lowering the volume of her voice, Brittany slowed with the music as the song neared its end.
"Stop coming to me
I'm damaged goods"
Santana's eyes were no longer on her best friend but instead she sat with her head down, her hands holding her forehead and hiding her face from Brittany's view.
"Because of you
I'm damaged goods"
Sam put his arm around his girlfriend to comfort her, but she immediately shook it off. Santana looked up with wet eyes to meet Brittany's somber gaze.
"Yeah it's all your fault
I'm damaged goods"
As her last note drifted off into nothingness, the two girls stayed locked in a stare down. Neither of them heard the round of applause or Mr. Shue's impressed compliments. Quinn and a few other members got up to hug Brittany, but all she saw was Santana who now had tears slowly flowing down her cheeks. The latina wiped them away with the back of her hand then mouthed "I'm sorry." And as much as Brittany wanted her best friend back in her life, she just wasn't sure if sorry was enough.