SO a little explanation, this chapter is a flashback and all subsequent chapters will be for awhile. Italics are thoughts. Also the pace maybe a little slow at the start. Bear with me.
Thank you so much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts. I hope to do them justice.
Disclaimer- I don't own glee.
FLASHBACK
One year ago
The young blonde stood on the stage, panting slightly as she caught her breath, her attention directed at a trio of people who sat in the stands conferring amongst themselves. She was full of nervous energy as she waited their decision. She'd done a good job, she was sure, sometimes she thought dancing was the only thing she was sure of. "Brittany?" she heard a voice call as she looked up at the man in the wheelchair, seated in the centre. He smiled warmly at her and continued, "That was really good. We think you'll fit in really nicely with the other dancers. We would love to work with you." Brittany grinned a huge grin as she stood up straight and thanked him, before she was done the other man started speaking, "Well you move very freely and we appreciate that but we may not always go with a freestyle approach so you will need to work on that. We have a lot of people auditioning for these coveted roles and the label is interested in working with dedicated professionals..." Brittany zoned out a little, she didn't very much care for this particular person but he was a representative from the network and he pretty much called the shots, thankfully he was interrupted from his long and boring speech by the woman who sat on the other side of the table. "I think she gets it Jesse. Brittany, have your agent call ours and sign the necessary paperwork. We'll see you in the studio at 10 on Monday." Brittany nodded and smiled as she skipped off the stage and ran straight outside. She pulled out her phone and called her mom to tell her the good news. As expected her mom was as excited as she was and squealed about how proud she was of her baby girl. After she hung up, she sent a text to her friends, Sam and Ashley-Come ovr 2nite. Need 2 tell u guys something.
Brittany checked the wine and food she'd set out, while humming along with the radio. She heard a knock on the door and bounced to open it before looking through the keyhole as she'd promised her mom she'd do. She smiled when Ashley walked in closely followed by Sam. They both hugged Brittany and then stood looking at her expectantly. "Well, spill it. What's the news? I was so curious that I missed my dose of reality tv." Ashley said. Brittany tried prolonging it and playing it cool but she was just too excited. "I got the part" she blurted out. Both Sam and Ashley looked even more confused. "Umm, what are you talking about?" Sam asked. Brittany chucked at their confused faces. "Ok guys sit down, I'll start at the beginning. My agent called me a few weeks ago and told me there were auditions for a music video for a new singer. Motta Records is handling it and they're really big. I figured this would be my lucky break, so I went for it. And I got the part." She finished excitedly. "Wow Brittany, that's awesome! Why didn't you tell us, we'd have come along or something." Sam said as he engulfed her in a big hug while Ashley jumped up and down clapping her hands. Brittany shrugged, "I didn't really wanna get my hopes up incase I didn't make it but they really liked me, although the weird guy kept saying a lot of big words that I didn't quite understand. Anyway they want me to sign the paperwork and start on Monday." "We should celebrate!" Ashley screamed. "Let's go out clubbing!"
Which is why Brittany wasn't feeling her best the next morning. She groaned as she pushed herself out of bed and to the bathroom. Her hair was a mess and her normally bright blue eyes looked clouded and dim. She splashed water on the face and got in the shower, the hot water helping only marginally as she dressed and made her way to the kitchen to see an equally hung over Ashley pouring coffee. She grabbed her cup and tried to swallow, grimacing as the dark liquid made its way down her throat. Ashley stared at her incredulously. "Wow you must feel like crap. You hate coffee" she stated, pouring herself another cup. "I feel like there's an elephant sitting on my head and my mouth feels like I swallowed a panda" Brittany groaned as she forced another sip down. "I need to go sign the paperwork and need a clear head or they'll try to ship me off to China or Dubai like I saw in that documentary." Ashley laughed, "No one is sending you to Dubai, now go before you're late."
Brittany walked out into the sunshine of a beautiful day as she smiled to herself while she walked to the building. She loved living in L.A. Everyone was so happy and pretty and full of fun, just her kind of people. The walk cleared her head sufficiently so that she wasn't feeling as hungover when she walked in. After she finished signing all her paperwork, she looked up at the Asian girl who was there to answer her questions. "Hey Tina, right?" The Asian nodded in reply. "So who is this new singer I'm gonna be working with?" Tina smiled and replied, "Oh she's popular on youtube, mostly done covers and stuff. She's just finished her first album and we have a lot of hope for it. She's got a very unique sound. We're hoping the music video will spike sales in the teenage age group." Brittany nodded and then asked, "What's her name?"
"Santana Lopez"
Santana Lopez was all about image. A rising star she'd been discovered thanks to the wonders of the internet. A video of her singing had gone viral and after a brief stint in New York, she'd moved to L.A to follow her dream. She was soon discovered and signed with Motta Records (a name she found ridiculous in all sorts of ways). She yawned while sitting in the boardroom listening to the douchebag representative talk about the do's and dont's that she needed to follow. Apparently when a record company signed you, they also owned you, as the douchebag was fond of saying. The douchebag in this case was Jesse St James, idiot extraordinaire and unfortunately the one in charge. Her manager Will sat by her side, nodding in agreement making Santana want to punch him for being such a suck up, but as he often reminded her, it really was 'their way or the highway'.
Santana was bored, as she pulled out her nail file and started filing her nails zoning out Jesse's voice. He paused his monologue and looked at her in astonishment. "What the hell do you think you're doing? I'm literally in the middle of talking to you. Do you not comprehend how important this is to your success?" he asked sarcastically.
Santana paused her ministrations and glared at him. "Let me make one thing clear, my voice and my looks are important to my success. People are gonna hear me or see me and want to buy my album, not cos you just sat here and slowly sucked the life out of everyone with the most boring speech ever."
Jesse turned red and started to splutter, as Will hastily stood up to work on damage control, a task he was getting very good at. "Jesse, why don't you and I go over all these legalities. Maybe Santana can go meet the dancers we chose for the tour. I mean we are going to start rehearsals tomorrow. It'll give them some time to get to know each other" he said. Jesse just snorted derisively as Santana shrugged and stood up. "Hey Asian Sensation, wanna show me where these dancers are at?" she asked. Tina's eyes widened and she looked at her boss for confirmation. He nodded and she quickly picked up her things and followed Santana out who threw a "Later Losers!" over her shoulder.
They walked in silence till Tina looked at her. "My name's Tina by the way. Tina Cohen-Chang"
Santana looked at her in surprise and nodded. "Not gonna remember that, but thank you for trying" she replied sarcastically.
Tina looked at her again before venturing tentatively. "You know, maybe it's best to rile him up."
Santana looked at her incredulously. "Wait, did we walk into a parallel dimension where I seem to have lost my mind and actually asked for your advice? No... Didn't think so. Maybe you should just continue doing your job and let me worry about mine ok."
Tina glared at her as she forcefully pushed open a door, and led her into a room where she saw a few people who were in the middle of a routine. She stood and waited while they finished while she eyed them speculatively. Santana could sing and yeah she could even dance pretty decently but this lot looked really good, especially the asian guy and the blonde in the front. The song ended and the whole lot high fived each other as they looked at the choreographer who was nodding his approval. He walked in between them correcting postures and giving them a few tips on how to best do the steps. It was the Asian who finally noticed them. "We have company" he declared as he smiled bashfully.
The choreographer turned around and looked questioningly at Tina who seemed to have forgotten where she was, as she stared...no leered at the tall Asian guy. Santana rolled her eyes as she stepped forward and introduced herself to the choreographer. She didn't get a chance to process his name as her eyes looked past him into the clear, blue eyes of the dancer behind him. He must have asked her something and she snapped back but not before noticing a smirk flit across the blonde's face. She felt annoyed with herself and strangely flushed. The choreographer who everyone seemed to call J then took her around and introduced her to the other dancers. There was a tall, shy guy called Matt, a redhead called Jess and a pretty looking African American called Nicole or Nikki. She nodded hardly paying attention till she reached the asian guy and the blonde. The guy leaned forward cutting off her view of the blonde face and said, "I'm Mike Chang" his name sounded familiar, but her thoughts were distracted when the blonde jumped forward and announced her name- Brittany S Pierce. Santana smirked, at that, to which the blonde told her with a very serious face that she was in no way related to Brittany Spears, and was a much better dancer. Santana just nodded, not quite knowing what to say. She was really surprised, that she didn't say something bitchy and for a second felt worried, that is till she saw Tina talking to Mike with a sappy look on her face and then it clicked. She smirked evilly and walked up to them.
"Hey isn't your surname Chang too?" she asked Tina, who was looking at her warily.
Upon seeing Tina's nod of confirmation, her smirk grew as she looked between the two of them and asked, "So then are you two related? Like you're brother and sister right?"
Tina looked horrified and Mike looked confused. "No no, we aren't related. Atleast I don't think we are. Wait are you related to Tim and Gina Chang who live in..." Santana laughed as Tina glared at her while Mike kept trying to find relatives that they may have in common.
Brittany sidled up to her and whispered, "That wasn't very nice. I think she likes him"
Santana rolled her eyes and said, "Well blondie, why do you think I did it? She was so embarrassed."
Brittany turned her blue eyed gaze on her and leaned forward. "Well Santana, I think that it was mean of you"
Santana scoffed, and once again tried to give the blonde an appropriate comeback. Unfortunately her brain did not seem to want to, so she just stared back at Brittany with her piercing gaze mutely, till her mouth did finally work to mumble out a "sorry". Brittany's blue eyes lit up immediately while Santana flushed... wait what just happened? Why the fuck did I apologize? And more importantly why did the damn blonde's opinion matter? She huffed and turned around and walked over to J. "Hey G, so I'll see you guys tomorrow for the start of rehearsals. I need to go now." She turned and walked away, without waiting for him to reply weakly," Its J"
That night Santana sat holding a glass of wine in her hand, soft music streaming through the system. She looked of her windows on to the dark street below, the noise of traffic keeping her up. She really should sleep, but she was really excited about tomorrow, she was finally going to be recognized, be a star. It was everything she had ever dreamed about.
