A/N: Hello friends! I had to write this tonight after going to see Finding Nemo. That being said, don't read unless you've seen it/don't want to be spoiled about the plot! I try to leave out as many details as possible, but, y'know.

This isn't my usual style, but I figured I'd give it a try. Also, the characterizations are based off the premiere, not my opinions of the characters. It's just how I felt they were acting last night!

I unfortunately do not have a beta. If you spot mistakes, feel free to message me with them and I will definitely fix them right up.

Enjoy, and review if you feel so inclined. :)

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A/N2: I had to reupload this, unfortunately. Sorry to the kids who alerted it the first time around!

The red mark on her paper was glaring at her.

She shoved it under her notebook, hoping that she'd be able to forget about it until after class, but she could feel the red ink in the blush on her cheeks. She dropped her gaze to the back of the chair in front of her, unable to look the teacher in the eye. She didn't want to see the lack of disappointment, the lack of any reaction at all because this was just typical Brittany. The teacher didn't know about the hours that she spent studying on Skype with Santana, the amount of times she quizzed herself with flashcards to try and get just a few of the terms correct. And now, she would never get to.

She didn't pay attention for the rest of the class. The teacher only called on her once, but quickly moved on to another student when Brittany shrugged her shoulders. When other kids said they didn't know, she would try to force them to give her an answer anyway, believing that somewhere deep in their minds they knew the answer, they just were too lazy to try and remember it.

Not with Brittany.

She ran to the bathroom as fast as she could after class, locking herself in a stall before taking a deep, shaky breath and allowing the tears to finally sting at her eyes. She wouldn't cry, no, she was stronger than that, but she would at least let herself to feel them there. She would let herself feel the pain of failure, hoping that it would motivate her to do better next time.

But the issue wasn't a lack of motivation. She had tried her hardest, she really had.

Maybe I'm just not meant to do this… she thought, before sniffling and pulling out her phone. She couldn't let herself think that way, she knew that, so she turned to the one person she knew could make her feel better.

To: Santana

i got a C- on my history test…

She didn't get a text back before the warning bell rang, and figured that Santana must be in class. Either that, or she was so disappointed in her that she didn't know what to say, but Brittany pushed those sort of thoughts from her mind as she sat down in English. The second she laid her phone against the desk it began to buzz, earning her a glare from Mr. Hutch. He wouldn't look away until she had slipped her phone into her bag on the floor.

She waited for him to turn back to the board before grabbing her phone and putting it in her lap.

From: Santana

Aw, Britt. It's okay, you'll do better next time. You passed!

Brittany frowned. She had passed, yes, and while that was certainly an improvement she was never going to get into a college near Santana if she didn't pull her grades up even higher. And what if she had more than one test in one day? She had spent days studying for this one. She couldn't possibly handle it if there was more.

To: Santana

i studied really hard though. It feels like it was for nothing

She glanced up at the board. The teacher had already written some notes down, numbers in grids that she didn't recognize, and she hurried to jot them down.

From: Santana

I know you did, baby. It'll just take some practice.

To: Santana

but i've already failed once, i don't have the time to practice anymore San

"Brittany!"

Her head snapped up as Mr. Hutch called her name. He was looking at her, eyebrows raised, eyes darting between her face and the phone hidden in her lap.

"If I catch you one more time, I'll have to take it away from you," he said, giving a stern look, before turning back to the board. "Now, as I was saying, matrices…"

The phone buzzed in her hands to remind her she had an unanswered text. She chanced one more look at it before she had to put it away.

From: Santana

B, you're not going to fail again. Just keep doing your best.

Brittany sighed, dropping her phone back into her bag.

For the longest time, Santana had been the only thing that could make her feel any better. That was when she was there, though. She'd been gone for nearly a month at this point, and Brittany felt it that day more than ever. Santana used to be able to make her feel better with sweet words, promises of cuddling up on her couch with a movie on the television, small kisses peppered across her cheeks, but that day…

That day, Brittany was alone.

By the time she walked into the choir room, she just wanted to go home. She very rarely hated going to Glee Club. In fact, it was usually the best part of her day. For the longest time, the choir room was the only place Santana would act as if they were really together. That had ended last year, but Brittany still felt more herself in that room than anywhere else because of it. The glee kids were her family.

And right now, the family was fighting.

"Rachel herself picked me to take her place! Blaine might have won our little competition, though after that duet the two of you did I can see why. But the fact remains that Rachel Barbara Berry, Broadway Bound, picked me to take her place, and that should mean that I get at least half of the solos!"

"Tina there are plenty of solos for everyone," Blaine said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, says the boy wonder who gets all of them," Tina snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Guys!" Sam broke in, interrupting them. "Listen, it's barely a month into school and we're already at the bottom of the food chain again. This club is all we have now, so we all need to chill the hell out and get along."

"Sam is right," Mr. Schuester stepped out from behind the piano, nodding. "We need to buckle down and focus. Sectionals will sneak up on us before we even know it, and we'll have wasted all of our time arguing over nonsense."

"Why whenever I have anything to say it's nonsense?!" Tina yelled, throwing up her hands. "Rachel got to be a diva about everything. When Mercedes was told she had to even share Maria, she quit the entire show. Hell, she went and made her own damn show choir group! I have been here every day. I have worked my ass off with everyone else, and for what? To be told that my opinion, that my feelings are nonsense?"

"Tina!" Mr. Schuester interrupted her. "We can talk about this after class. For now you can either sit down and work on the song, or go cool off for a bit. Either way we can't waste any more time on this!"

Tina narrowed her eyes before turning to sit a few seats down from Brittany. She could practically feel the hot anger radiating off her. It made her feel sick.

"Unique, Artie, come up here, you two will be singing the first solos," Mr. Schuester called, waving them towards the piano. "The rest of you, look over your music. Brittany, maybe see if you can think of some choreography while you're not busy."

Brittany nodded absentmindedly, taking the sheet music from Blaine as he passed it around the room.

"Hey," Sam said, sitting next to her.

"Hey, Sammy!" she said, trying to sound as bright and enthusiastic as possible.

"Mind if I work with you on this?" Sam doesn't dance, so the question strikes her as weird, but she nods anyway.

She began to explain the choreography she had in mind to Sam, pointing at different spots in the music as he went along. He nodded the entire time, and once or twice gave her a little input- nothing negative, usually "sounds great!" or "that will look really awesome!"

She appreciated having Sam there. He'd been really great to her ever since the start of the school year. She had always been friends with everyone in the glee club, but never had bothered to get particularly close to anyone but Santana.

Mr. Schuester worked with Artie and Unique for nearly half the meeting. They were doing a lot of runs, the awesome kind that Brittany couldn't even begin to attempt, and it made her miss Santana's voice. She would have to ask her to sing for her on Skype later.

They went over her choreography for the rest of the meeting. Unique was a good dancer, considering the heels, and Brittany knew she could always count on Blaine to get the choreography right. The rest were able to follow their leads, and they had learned about half of the song by the time Mr. Schuester said, "Alright guys, that's enough for today. Great job pulling it together."

Brittany went to gather her things as Tina and Blaine went into Mr. Schuester's office. Just as she turned to leave, Sam stopped her.

"Hey, Brittany, wait up!"

She smiled at him and waited as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"I was just wondering… if you didn't have any other plans, that is, maybe if you wanted to come with me to see Finding Nemo tonight? It's only in theaters this weekend, and I know you love that movie…"

Brittany's smile faltered, then fell.

"Um, Sam, listen. I know you and Mercedes broke up but Santana and I-"

"No, no! Not like that. Just as friends. It's just, you've seemed kind of lonely ever since school started. You're not as… I don't know, Brittany anymore, and it's sad. I miss the old you."

"The old me?" Brittany was confused.

"Yeah, the Brittany who was happy and always making jokes and danced at every opportunity. I know you miss Santana, but I don't think it has to be like this," Sam said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"I do miss Santana a lot, but it's not just that. I'm just… I feel like everyone else is doing things and I'm just not," she said, shrugging her shoulders sadly.

"So do something. Come to the movies with me tonight, it'll make you feel better, I promise," Sam smiled.

She thought it over for a second before nodding, allowing herself to be pulled into a hug.

"Great!" he said, once they had let go. "I'll text you in an hour or two to let you know what's going on, okay?"

Brittany ended up getting dropped off at the theatre by her mom at 9:00. They were going to a later showing, hoping to avoid the hoards of small children that would probably be coming to see the movie.

"I love you," she said, leaning across the console to kiss her mother on the cheek. Her mother smiled back at her, glad to know that no matter how old she got, Brittany never minded being 'mommy's little girl.'

"Sam is going to drop you off at home, right?"

"Right!" she said, closing the car door behind her as she got out. She leaned her arms against the window, ducking so she could see her mother's face. "Don't wait up!"

"You know I couldn't if I tried," Mrs. Pierce replied with a chuckle. "I love you. Enjoy the movie!"

Sam was waiting inside the lobby. He had a huge popcorn and two boxes of DOTS.

"Hey!" he called, a huge smile on his face (not that that was out of the ordinary- just look at that boy's lips!).

"Hi, Sam!" Brittany responded brightly, walking up to him.

"I figured we could share. I didn't uh… have enough for drinks, though, sorry…" he said, eyes turned towards his feet.

"It's okay, you wouldn't have been able to carry it all yourself anyway," she assured him. "Why don't you go get us seats and I'll get us some pop?"

Sam smiled gratefully. His hands were incredibly full, so he directed her to pull her ticket out of his hoodie pocket.

When he had called earlier to tell her he got their tickets, she had tried to insist on paying him back, but he wouldn't hear of it.

"Tonight is about you," he told her at least ten times before she gave up. His family was still so low on money, and she knew he worked hard to get all the cash he had to spend. The fact that he was willing to spend it on her made her feel like he really, truly cared about her. Which, for the time being, was exactly what she needed. She was just happy that she was getting to buy the drinks to try and pay him back.

He was sitting in the middle row when he found her. The chairs at the theatre were the nice kind, with upholders and plush cushions that reclined. The commercials had already started, and she had to climb awkwardly over several peoples legs and laps to reach Sam.

"Yo," he whispered when she sat down, shoving the popcorn in her face. She grinned at him and grabbed a handful, throwing it piece by piece into her mouth. "Thanks for the soda."

"Thanks for the snacks," she replied through a mouth full of buttery popcorn.

They watched the rest of the trailers mostly in silence, occasionally leaning over to whisper to one another when a movie came on that they wanted to see. They were all commercials for animated kids' movies, which were Brittany's favorites, and she was surprised to see how excited Sam got about some of them, too. She thought he would be an action-flick kind of guy, but she could tell she was wrong when his eyes lit up as the Pixar short came on in the beginning.

"Saddest opening to a Dinsey movie ever," he commented after the title song played.

"Um, no, Up was," she answered, looking at him like he was crazy. He smiled back sheepishly.

"I actually haven't seen it…" he answered, and her eyes widened.

"What?!" she said, a bit too loudly, and shrunk in her seat when someone turned around to glare at her.

"How?!"

Sam just shrugged, and she threw a few pieces of popcorn at him. He laughed, and it rang through the silent theatre.

"Shh!" someone hushed, and they both started giggling.

"We'll talk about it after," he said, and she nodded.

They watched the rest of the movie quietly, laughing along with the rest of the audience and occasionally whispering favorite lines back and forth to each other. A couple of times throughout the movie he thought he heard her sniffle, but it was hard to tell if she was actually crying at the touching moments with the thick, black glasses covering her eyes. It wasn't until after Nigel had dropped Marlin and Dory back in the ocean after visiting Dr. Sherman's office that Sam began to notice a change in Brittany.

"Please don't go away. Please? No one's ever stuck with me for so long before…"

Brittany's hands began to shake, and Sam could have sworn he heard a hitch in her breathing. He squinted at her to try to make out her expression in the dark theatre, but all he could see was that her lips were sucked into her mouth. He reached out and grabbed her hand, and she squeezed it back tightly.

"I remember it, I do. It's there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I... and I'm home. Please... I don't want that to go away."

Brittany tore her hand out of his grip suddenly. Her jaw was now quivering, her lip worried between her teeth.

"I'm sorry, I-I can't, I have to-" she got up, almost knocking her popcorn over as she ran out of the theatre.

She was only outside for a few seconds before Sam caught up with her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to a stop.

"Britt, wait- come here," he said, wrapping his arms around her. She resisted at first, but felt herself relaxing more into his embrace as he rubbed comforting circles onto her shoulders.

"I-mh, sorry, I j-just…" Brittany felt herself beginning to sob.

"I know, I understand," Sam said softly, and she heard a truth behind his words that she really wished she didn't.

"I miss her," she said, pulling Sam tighter against her.

"I know you do," he said. "I miss her too."

Brittany wasn't sure whether or not he was talking about Santana.

They stayed that way for a few minutes before Brittany loosened her grip, sniffling.

"I ruined our friend date."

"Our what?" Sam asked, chuckling.

"Our friend date. It's like, a date, except one you go on with your friends. I was excited for us to go on a friend date and now I've ruined it."

"You didn't ruin it, Britt," he replied.

She scoffed.

"No, really. The whole point of this was to try and make you feel better, and if this is what you need, to have a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to… Well, I'm more than happy to do it. I could use a friend, too, you know?"

His words made her smile, a genuine smile, which felt a bit silly considering how wet her cheeks still were.

"Okay, but… maybe we should go somewhere else. I think people are starting to stare," she said, giggling. And it was true. People had been giving her strange looks since she had run out of the theatre crying. She always thought it was weird how many people would pass by without asking what was wrong when someone looked visibly upset.

"Good idea."

Faurot Park was too far of a walk away for this late at night, but they had Sam's car. They listened to the radio on the ride there, and Brittany leaned her head against the window. She wasn't really crying anymore, just the occasional tear, and every minute or two Sam would reach out and rub her arm to make sure she was all right.

They were there within five minutes. Sam shut off the ignition, and they sat, enjoying the silence for a few minutes before Brittany finally spoke up.

"She's not here anymore," she said softly. "And it sucks way more than I thought it would. I want to be a good girlfriend, I want her to go and do what's best for her but I- I just, I need her and I don't think she knows that because she hasn't been here."

"It's only been a month, Britt. She can't visit that often. Gas is expensive, and it's like two hundred miles away," Sam explained, turning to face her in his seat.

"Two hundred and twenty seven," she corrected, nodding. "But that's not what I meant. I just mean she's not here like… she's not with me anymore. Like, she isn't… her texts are just words and our phone calls are just our voices, they're not our love, they're not our hearts. I just can't feel her the way I need to. I thought I would be able to with her gone, but I can't."

"I understand," he said, nodding. "Have you guys been talking a lot?"

"Yeah," she affirmed. "But like, she hasn't really been saying much. I mean, she's keeping up conversation but I feel every mile that's keeping us apart in everything she says."

"Have you talked to her about it?" he asked.

"No," Brittany said, shaking her head sharply. "I can't. She can't take out any more time than she is now to spend on me. She has a lot going on, she's really busy. I can't ask that of her. I won't."

Sam sighed, knowing exactly what she meant. Mercedes was busy singing in California, and they had broken up because he didn't want to distract her from making her music. He wasn't being like Finn, he knew for a fact that they were not going to get back together. Mercedes was too beautiful and had so much ahead of her, he knew that their relationship wasn't going to be good for her career. It had hurt when she agreed, but the fact that they were both crying when she left gave his heart a little comfort.

"So, you need to distract yourself more," he suggest. Brittany found herself agreeing.

"Yeah, I know. Tonight was really good! At least, until…" she trailed off, and Sam laughed. It made her laugh, too. "But, I mean, I wasn't… it wasn't that I didn't miss or that I wasn't thinking about her, but it didn't hurt as much."

"When is she visiting next?" Sam asked cautiously. Brittany's face fell again.

"She doesn't know. She was supposed to come up weekend after next but her squad has to cheer at their first game then. She might not be home until Fall Break…"

"Well, you know what that means, right?"

Brittany looked up, curious.

"We're gonna have to plan a lot more friend dates."

Sam's smile was infectious, and she felt herself grinning back at him after rolling her eyes.

She woke up the next morning feeling a bit more like her old self. She danced around the kitchen as she packed her lunch, juggling the tangerines before picking two out to shove in her backpack for breakfast.

Her mother dropped her off, and she kissed her cheek before getting out of the car.

"Have a nice day, hun!" she called.

"I will!" Brittany answered.

Unforunately, her good mood could only last so long.

Kitty. The girl had weaseled her way onto the team, and now she was trying to get Brittany's slot as captain. Brittany had earned it more than anyone else on the team. It was only because she was so sure of that fact that she got so angry when Coach told her that she was going to have to make sure her routines and grades stayed as tight as possible in the upcoming weeks.

"Kitty talked to Figgins. She demanded to know why she had to keep up her grades if a fellow squad member was allowed to flunk out of her senior year and still have a spot not only on my Cheerios, but also in the Glee Club. Now, I personally don't give a rat's ass what you do in these classrooms. To me, all that matters is what you do out on that field.

Nonetheless, Figgins is now involved. He's going to have his eye on you. Keep your grades up if you want to stay captain, understand?" Brittany nodded. "Good."

She left the coaches office feeling even worse than she had the day before after receiving the bad grade on her history exam. Before, she was only fighting for the opportunity to be near Santana as soon as possible. Now, if she flunked, she'd end up being away from Santana for even longer, and, on top of that, absolutely miserable without the glee club and Cheerios.

Glee didn't make her feel too much better. Tina was no longer fighting, but she wasn't saying anything at all. The room was tense, and they only made very little progress because of it. Mr. Schuester dismissed them after lecturing them on the importance of teamwork.

Brittany waited for Sam outside the choir room doors.

"Are you busy tonight?" she asked.

Sam sighed. He wanted to say no so badly, because her she had this little pout on that was goddamn near irresistible, but unfortunately he had to tell her he already made plans to Skype with his parents in Kentucky.

"But maybe I can call you after? You can tell me about…" he trailed off, then shrugged. "The rest of your day and stuff."

"Oh, yeah, that sounds fun!" Brittany nodded. She knew she wasn't going to have anything new to tell Sam at that point in the day. She'll probably have spent her evening with her face buried in her math textbook, attempting to do her homework, but she figured it would be nice to have someone to complain to about how hard it was afterwards. After all, Sam was dyslexic. He understood where she was coming from a lot more than anyone else.

"Give you a ride home, though?" he offered, and she nodded happily.

They sang loudly to her Mulan playlist on her phone on the ride home. Sam had an old, beat-up car that he must have bought off of one of his friends' parents. It looked awful, but it drove well enough, and it at least had seat belts in it.

Brittany hadn't bothered learning how to drive yet. It wasn't that she didn't want to, because she did, but her parents were so busy all the time and between Glee and Cheerios she hadn't had a spot open after school to take driver's ed yet.

They were home too soon for her liking. She tried inviting Sam to come inside, but he shook his head, saying he didn't want to intrude. She told him that only her mom was home, and there wasn't anything to intrude on, but he insisted, claiming that his mother hated it when he invited people over without telling her and that he wouldn't want to put that on her mother.

She rolled her eyes, called him a southern gentlemen. He laughed and shoved her, telling her in his politest drawl to "go'ern, n' get da hell outta ma ca."

"I'll call you later," he said, smiling up at her through the window. She waved as he drove away, and sighed. She didn't feel like going back to being unhappy, but she knew, inevitably, that was what was going to happen.

"Mom? I'm home!" she called, slamming the door closed behind her.

"In here!" her mom responded from the kitchen.

Brittany walked in, dropping her stuff next to the counter before going and taking a seat next to her mom.

"Why don't you go put your things upstairs?" her mom said teasingly, and Brittany rolled her eyes. Her mother was sort of a neat freak.

"In a few minutes," she replied, snuggling into her mother's arm. "I just wanna do this for a few."

"Aw, honey," Mrs. Pierce replied, wrapping one arm around Brittany. "Hard day at school?"

"Yeah," she sighed, not willing to go into it any further. She was sure her mother had noticed that something was off about her, but she didn't want to address it, especially not now. Now, she just wanted to go wallow for a little while and watch cartoons on the couch.

"How was work?" she asked, muffled by her mother's shirt.

"Work was good. Do you have any homework?" Brittany nodded. "Why don't you go sit up at your desk and get it done, that way you have the whole evening open?"

Brittany wanted to reply that she didn't think that starting now would allow her to open up her evening any more, but instead she just shrugged.

"I think I'm gonna go lie down," she replied instead.

"Oh, okay, I'll come up and wake you when dinner is ready?"

Brittany shook her head.

"Won't be needed! I think I'll camp out on the couch."

"Oh," her mother replied, frowning. "Alright then."

Her sister was watching Danny Phantom in the living room. She flopped down on the couch, her feet coming to rest against Brianna's legs.

"What's up, Bri?" she asked as she settled against the couch.

"Sh!" Brianna hushed, her eyes glued to the TV. It wasn't until the commercials kicked in that she tore her eyes away from the screen, locking on Brittany with a grin.

"Hey!" she shouted, jumping across the couch to land, sprawled, on top of Brittany. Their family didn't have many boundaries when it came to physicality.

"Hey, bugs. How was school?"

"It was okay," the younger Pierce shrugged. "We learned multiplication!" she added excitedly.

"Oh, that's fun!" Brittany said, grinning. Sure, if Brianna asked her for help with her homework, she probably wouldn't have much to offer, but she was glad to see that the kid had begun to enjoy learning so much.

"What are you doing down here?" Brianna asked, cocking her head to the side.

"What do you mean-"

"Bri, baby, could you come here for a second?" her mother's voice came from the kitchen. Brittany eyed her sister suspiciously as she sprang up, running into the hallway.

She returned not a minute later, smiling.

"What was that abo-"

"Sh!" Brianna hushed her again. Danny Fenton was back on the screen. Brianna, although she was doing a lot better in school, had a similar attention span to Brittany's. By the time the next commercial break hit, they were discussing the intricacies of Sam and Danny's relationship together.

Brittany fell asleep somewhere between the first and second episode. She woke to her mother shaking her shoulder, telling her it was time for dinner.

She checked her phone, realizing she hadn't responded to Santana since glee club let out. She had six unread messages. Most of them were just calling her silly names for forgetting to respond, but she felt bad anyway.

To: Santana

sorry, i fell asleep. I'll text you after dinner?

From: Santana

It's fine, baby. I'm just bored without you… I miss you L

She sighed, reading the message a couple of times over before responding.

To: Santana

miss u more baby. can we skype tonight?

From: Santana

Sorry Britts, I can't. I'm going out.

Brittany was almost tempted to ask "with who?" but she figured that that would be borderline creepy. She didn't want to turn into one of those overly attached girlfriends. Instead she just told Santana it was okay, and left to go sit at the table.

They ate tacos, which was a rarity in their household. Usually her mother would save these sorts of meals for when Santana was over, in an attempt to make her feel welcome. It always made Brittany feel slightly embarrassed, because, aside from being stereotypical, Santana's family was never around to eat tacos with her. Most nights, she knew Santana ate pizza or Chinese food or ramen noodles. Still, it made Santana happy, and that was enough for Brittany to never mention it to her mother.

She helped clear the table afterwards, wiping down the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher while her sister put away the various things on the table.

After she was done, she went and sat back down on the couch, picking up the remote to flip through the channels.

"Britt?" her mother called, standing in the doorway.

"Mh?" she answered, not feeling like acting cheerily anymore.

"Britt, I think it's time you go and get some of your homework done," her mom said gently. Brittany sighed.

"What would even be the point?" she asked solemnly, and her mother let out a puff of angry air.

"Brittany Susan Pierce, don't you use that tone of voice with me! Now you go upstairs and do your homework, and don't come down until you've finished!"

Brittany stared at her mother in awe. She hadn't yelled at Brittany since she was a little kid. It sounded strange, coming through her mouth.

"Fine," she mumbled, dragging her feet to pick up her backpack before walking dejectedly to the stairs. Her mother had been supportive when she told her she didn't pass her senior year. She was always understanding of Brittany's… issues when it came to school.

She knew her mother was just trying to get her to succeed, but still, it hurt that she couldn't find a way to do that without yelling at her. She wished that she had offered to help, or at least been a little nicer about it, or…

Brittany sighed, kicking open her door and dropping her bag by the foot of the bed before throwing herself face-first into her pillows.

"What, I don't even get a hello?"

Brittany jumped, startled, pushing herself off her bed with energy she didn't know she had after that day to look at the person swiveling happily in her desk chair.

"Santana?!"