A/N Thanks to anyone to followed, favorited, or reviewed! Hopefully I don't disappoint you.

Here is Chapter 2 for you all. This one takes place not long after the end of Chapter 1, but just to warn you, most of the rest of the story won't flow like that. I basically wrote a series of scenes related to major events throughout Brittany and Santana's relationship that we didn't get to see in canon, and there are significant jumps in time to help the story move along.

I wasn't too thrilled with how this chapter turned out. It mostly just establishes their friendship some more, and since we have nothing in canon from their Freshman year I didn't really have much to work with that wouldn't risk me completely screwing up canon somehow. I promise that the chapters improve as it goes along, I just didn't have a lot of ideas for the beginning. Now that I have sufficiently bored you, I do hope you enjoy it! And please review so I know if I am doing okay or to give me ideas of what to work on for my current story!

Chapter 2

The whole first week of Cheerios practice was the worst hell Santana had ever been through in her life. She had never worked so hard at anything. And Coach Sue was the meanest, most insane person she had ever met. If she didn't need the status so much that being a cheerleader could bring, she would seriously consider quitting.

Sue definitely intimidated her with the crazy pace she pushed the girls at and the insults she hurled at them like it was nothing. Despite all of that, Santana was thriving on the squad. The two uniformed girls from their small group at try-outs, Monica Jones and Cynthia Adler, had been named co-captains of the squad. Santana, Brittany, and Quinn were also definitely at the top of the squad based on their skills.

Quinn seemed to know she was in line to be Sue's favorite. She pranced around like she owned the place, and Santana wanted to smack her for it. She knew, however, that if she kept on Quinn's good side and remained friends then she would reap the benefits.

Santana was really more worried about Brittany. The blonde dancer had no issues as far as the cheering went, but seemed to crawl into herself whenever Sue yelled at them or insulted them. She didn't like to see the other girl so withdrawn and timid. She wanted to see her be as free as she was when she first saw her dancing.

Santana didn't have much time to talk to her during practice, and they hadn't had the opportunity to hang out otherwise yet. Sue worked them so hard that they barely had enough time to breathe, much less converse amongst themselves. She was looking forward to the sleepover at Quinn's house tonight so she could actually get to know Brittany better. She really hoped they could be best friends. She had never wanted to let someone close to her like she wanted to with Brittany. She really couldn't explain it, but she couldn't ignore it.

After practice was over, Santana was finishing changing in the locker room when she heard someone crying. Normally she would have let whoever it was cry in private, but something drove her to seek out where the sounds were coming from. She peeked around the bay of lockers to the next aisle over and spotted Brittany sitting on the bench, her head bowed forward and her shoulders shaking from her quiet sobs. Finding out it was Brittany crying gave her a pain in her heart, and she immediately went to comfort her.

"Brittany? What's the matter?" Santana asked quietly as she approached the blonde.

Brittany looked up at Santana, tears leaving wet tracks down her reddened cheeks. Her lip trembled as she looked away from Santana, embarrassed. She whispered, "I forgot how to open my lock."

"You forgot your combination?"

Brittany shook her head and looked down further. "No, I remember my combination. I forgot how to open the lock."

Oh. Santana felt bad for the other girl, but knew it was more than just a lapse of memory that caused the tears. She got the combination from Brittany and showed her how to open the lock.

"Thanks," Brittany said quietly, finally looking at Santana's eyes again.

"No problem, Brit. But can you tell me why you forgot? I know you knew how to do it earlier. What happened to upset you so bad?" The girls sat down on the bench facing each other. Santana was concerned about the other girl, particularly with the way she had broken down like this. Brittany looked away again before turning back to her.

"I think I want to quit the Cheerios."

"What? No! You can't quit! We are the best on the squad, why would you want to give that up?" Santana was in a near panic. She didn't want to think about coming to practice without being able to see Brittany.

"I don't think Coach Sue likes me very much. And I don't like the way she makes me feel stupid." Brittany was very quiet as she said this. Santana knew that this obviously meant a lot to her, and this was the reason why she broke down. It didn't have anything to do with a lock.

"Brit, you are not stupid. You pick up her routines faster than anyone, and you make them look better than she ever could. Sue is just a bitch. Don't listen to her. I don't." Santana implored, looking sincerely into Brittany's eyes.

"Yes, you do." At this, Santana looked down, embarrassed at how Brittany could read her so easily.

"Well, yeah I guess I do. She is pretty mean, and to be honest, she kind of scares me a little bit." Santana had no idea why she was confessing this. She wanted to be strong for Brittany. She didn't want her to hurt like this. She gathered her confidence and looked back into the blonde's face. "But we can't let it affect us. The things she says she just says so she can intimidate us and hold power over us. I'll tell you what. If she starts making you feel bad again, just know that I will always have your back. We can face her together. I am going to be there for you."

Brittany searched Santana's eyes and a soft look came over her face. Her tears had stopped by now, and she smiled slightly as she wiped her cheeks. "Promise?"

Santana smiled back, her heart doing that little flutter again in her chest. She felt giddy all of a sudden, and extended her pinky of her right hand toward the other girl. "Promise."

Brittany's smile turned into a grin as she looped the pinky of her left hand around Santana's pinky and swung their linked hands slightly. Santana laughed at Brittany's antics, not bothering to correct the fact that she used the wrong hand. She kept their pinkies linked as she stood up, ready to get out of there.

"Come on, BritBrit. Let's get out of this place. We've got a sleepover to get to!"

Brittany laughed at the nickname and Santana's cheerfulness. The girls gathered their things and walked out of the gym, pinkies still linked together as they walked outside, smiling.

"What do we got here? A couple of lezzies?" A large boy taunted them from the sidewalk.

Santana's heart jumped into her throat at the words, though she wasn't sure why exactly. She was about to drop Brittany's pinky in a panic when she felt the blonde's finger tighten around hers.

"My name's Brittany, not Lizzie." Santana's head whipped over to look at the other girl's face, confused as to whether or not she actually misunderstood the boy. Brittany looked at the boy, who was clearly a football player by the size of him and the letterman's jacket, with a blank look on her face. Santana would swear she was messing with the kid, but couldn't quite tell.

"No, not Lizzie. Are you stupid or something?" At this, Santana's spine straightened and she tightened her own pinky back around Brittany's. She saw the blonde's eyes flash hurt at the football player's comments.

"Listen up, mouthbreather. When my bestie and I are married to rich men living the high life away from this shitty place, you're going to be selling used cars downtown reminiscing about the "glory days" when you actually had friends and a future to look forward to. Now why don't you go along now and pretend that you don't get a hard on every time you slap another dude on the ass, knuckledragger." Santana's heart was beating hard after that. She had never gone off on somebody quite like that before, and she didn't really enjoy the look of terror that came over the boy's face as she insulted him. He hurried off without looking behind him.

"Sorry about that," she said as she turned toward Brittany. She was surprised to see a look of admiration in the blue eyes looking back at her, when she expected to see fear or disgust.

"Don't be sorry. Thanks for having my back." Brittany smiled then, and Santana smiled back, relieved. She really believed she may have found a best friend.

"So how many boyfriends have you guys had?" This question came from Quinn. They were at Quinn's house, sitting on sleeping bags on the floor of the finished basement. The girls were eating popcorn as a movie played in the background while they talked and got to know each other.

"I've just made out with some boys, but I haven't found a boy I considered to be actual boyfriend material yet." Santana hoped her lie sounded convincing. It was true that she hadn't found any guys that she wanted to be her boyfriend yet, but she really had only made out with one guy. She hadn't been all that into it at the time, but she knew she was going to have to change that in high school in order to fit in.

"I haven't had any boyfriends or made out with anyone either." Brittany shrugged, looking unaffected by her response.

"Why not?" Santana asked. She thought Brittany was really pretty. She couldn't imagine why no one would want to kiss her. She got a little uncomfortable thinking about Brittany kissing someone.

"I wasn't really popular at my middle school. People thought I was weird, so no one really wanted to date me." Brittany looked uncomfortable as she said this. Santana wanted to give her a hug, but fought the instinct. She wouldn't do that in this situation while Quinn was around. They didn't know each other that well yet.

"Well all that will change now that we are on the Cheerios," Quinn stated. "I broke up with my boyfriend after middle school. He was my first one, but we aren't going to the same high school, so it wasn't worth it to continue when we wouldn't really see each other anymore."

Santana wasn't sure she believed Quinn about the boyfriend. But she wasn't too concerned with it. She really wanted to learn more about Brittany. So far she had learned that the blonde had a cat she was fascinated with named Lord Tubbington, that she took dance lessons on the weekends, and that she had a little sister who was eight years younger than her. Santana also learned that Brittany was prone to mix up words, she was whimsical, and she wanted to believe the best in everyone.

The more she learned about her, the more she liked her. And the more she could see how other people might think she was weird or stupid. That just meant those other people were closed-minded, and they were missing out on the wonderful person that was Brittany. Santana couldn't complain, because it meant it gave her the chance to be the blonde's best friend. She knew she was going to have to stay by her side and protect her from the idiots of the world who couldn't see how special she was.

The girls talked into the night about tons of things. Santana could tell that gaining status at McKinley was just as important to Quinn as it was to her. She knew that staying on Quinn's good side was necessary for now, especially since she could see how invested Coach Sue seemed to be getting into Quinn.

Once Quinn had fallen asleep, she and Brittany began to talk between just them. They lay face-to-face by each other in their sleeping bags, talking quietly to not wake Quinn. Santana didn't think she had felt more comfortable around anyone else before in her life. They talked about so many things and nothing it seemed like.

Santana told her that she didn't have a lot of friends before. She was scared of people thinking she didn't fit in, and that she wanted to be popular so she felt like she belonged for once. Brittany reassured her that she was sure that Santana would be popular and have tons of friends, but hoped she would always be Santana's best friend.

Brittany told her that she was nervous about starting high school. She was scared about trying to learn her way around a new school, and remembering what classes she needed to go to. She was afraid people would think she was weird and stupid and wouldn't like her.

"Hey, BritBrit, listen to me. You are not stupid. You are awesome! And if you need help around school, you know that I have got your back, remember?"

Brittany smiled sleepily at Santana. "I remember." She reached out her left hand toward Santana, pinky extended. Santana linked her right pinky to Brittany's and the girls slowly drifted into sleep without letting go.