This was the year that separated the amateurs from the professionals. At least that is what Rachel told Brittany a few days before the beginning of her second year at Julliard. She was really nervous about going back to school after just bumming around the city the entire summer, taking classes here and there whenever she could fit them into her schedule. Blaine had gone with her to a really great ballroom class in Soho, and Rachel had accompanied her to a string of modern jazz sessions she'd found at a tiny studio a few blocks from their shared loft. Either way, she hadn't kept herself in the shape that she was used to, so a few first-day jitters were in good order.

It wasn't twenty minutes into her tap class before she was right back in the groove. One of the instructors went through a particularly difficult combination, and Brittany was the first one to pick up on it. It wasn't long before she was helping a couple girls with the series of steps. This had always been one of her fortes, helping others. She had excelled at it back in high school when Mr. Schuester had basically made her and Mike the unofficial dance captains of the glee club. Those had been good days for her, and moments like this reminded her that school could be good for her again.

"Brit, thanks so much for helping out," the instructor told her as the rest of the students began to gather their things. Brittany smiled kindly and nodded while wiping the light sheen of sweat from the back of her neck. "You have a natural affinity for choreography. Have you ever thought about making that your specialty?"

The truth was that Brittany knew the day was coming soon where she would have to declare her dance specialty as a performer or a choreographer. She loved both equally and couldn't imagine her life without either. However, she knew that wasn't how Julliard worked and she'd eventually have to pledge her allegiance to one or the other in order to graduate. Dancing was her life, but she was starting to wonder if teaching could become her passion.

"I don't know," she shrugged eventually, pasting on her trademark sunny smile before tossing the soiled towel into her dance bag. "I just want to dance. I guess the rest will sort of figure itself out."

It was that naivety that had always made people believe that she was stupid. Brittany wasn't really all that dumb, just innocent and trusting. She truly believed that the world would work itself out and everything would come up roses. It always had in the past, and after a long talk with Lord Tubbington, even at her saddest, everything always ended up okay in the end. This wouldn't be any different. The Skype session she'd had with her favorite cat (via her little sister) last night assured her of exactly that.

Brittany was still thinking about what her focus should be going into the rest of her sophomore year when she came home to find the loft empty. It was rare these days to not find at least one of her roommates lounging somewhere in the house. She tossed her gym bag on the floor in the foyer and hooked her keys on the peg Rachel had assigned to her next to the door. The silence was nice, but she could have really used someone to talk to about the thoughts floating through her head. She grabbed a piece of fruit out of the fridge and headed toward the room she shared with Sam with plans to Skype with Santana. It'd been awhile since she had talked to her best friend from high school, and she thought maybe the Latina might understand.

She logged onto her laptop and pulled up Facebook to check on the rest of their old friends. Mike was still in Chicago at Joffrey, taking the city by storm like she always knew he would. Finn was back in Lima, and if the photos recently posted were any indication, New Directions had already had a few minor successes just a few days into the new school year. There were some photos of Mercedes' new hairstyle out in LA and an update about Tina's latest academic woe. Finally, she clicked over to Santana's page to check in.

Brittany was shocked at what she saw. Sure, she hadn't spoken with Santana all summer and hadn't really been in touch all that well before that. She had gotten busy during the spring with the freshman showcase and trying to work out time to spend with Sam, and their conversations had become less and less frequent the longer she was in New York. Santana had moved down to Boston after that spring she spent in New York, a move that had surprised everyone after how much she had talked about wanting to be a star. The distance wasn't much but was enough to allow them to grow apart. Brittany missed Santana when she let herself think about it, but these days, she didn't let herself think about it a lot.

On the page, though, was an entirely different person than the girl she had known most of her life. Well, actually there were two people that she didn't feel like she knew since Quinn seemed to be in most of the photographs. Their arms were around each other, smiling into one another's eyes and at the camera. There were even a few of them kissing, and Brittany recognized the sparkle in those warm brown eyes. Santana was a girl in love, deeply, with the other blonde that had once been part of the Unholy Trinity.

She had known that they had hooked up over a year ago after Schue's failed wedding to Miss Pillsbury, but no one had ever really talked about it much after that. Santana had went back to New York with Kurt and Rachel, and Quinn had resumed her studious life back at Yale. Brittany never asked Santana about the incident because she didn't feel like she really had the right. She wasn't jealous that she'd kissed Quinn, only curious really, because it didn't quite make sense. Santana had given Brittany the chance for them to reconcile and she had chosen Sam. Brittany didn't regret it for a single moment, but it didn't mean that she didn't miss her friend. The whole thing was just really weird.

But as she looked through the albums and various status updates, she realized she had missed Santana's entire life. It never clearly outlined that they were together, but the evidence was right there on the page. She checked Quinn's page and saw more of the same. The girls seemed happy together, and Brittany felt a twinge of something unfamiliar in her heart. She wasn't sure that it was jealousy because that had always been Santana's thing. It felt more like sadness, though she wasn't sure why exactly, and that made it even more upsetting.

She didn't know what to feel, but she knew that she needed to work it out for herself. She usually talked to Sam whenever she was trying to figure something out, but this wasn't exactly the kind of thing she could discuss with him. He was her boyfriend, and she seriously doubted he wanted to talk to her about one of her exes, even if the girl in question also happened to double as her best friend. Instead, she decided to opt for getting lost in a song for a few brief moments, hoping that the energy of dancing around would help clear her head.

"I hate you, I love you, I just can't remember to forget you. Who are you, who needs you? You make me feel alive," she sang as she started to stand up in the middle of the bed. "I die, so high, I'm crawling on the ground and I found I can fly."

She turned around in an elaborate serious of circles before starting to bounce on the balls of her feet. Brittany threw her arms over her head, whipping her hair back and forth in a whirlwind of blonde. "One of these days it all comes together. One of those days that goes on forever," she wailed loudly, not caring at all how she sounded. "Think it sounds crazy? Maybe, whatever, what's it all about?"

With a single graceful leap off the bed, Brittany bound onto the floor and started to perform some old Cheerios routine she'd thought she had long forgotten. "It's about life, it's about fun. It's over before it has begun," Brittany sang happily, closing her eyes as she let the words sink in. "It's about you, it's about me, it's about everything between and I say. I'm saying goodbye to you, I say hi to you with no clue. It's about time that I make up my mind!"

Brittany collapsed on the floor in a pile of laughter as the song continued to play on her computer. "Hey, anyone here?" Brittany slammed the lid down on her laptop at the sound of Puck's voice echoing through the loft, bringing an abrupt end to the tune.

"In here," she called out before pushing the computer beneath a pile of Sam's clothes in the corner. She always hid it when she didn't want to think about something as if making it disappear from her sight would actually make it cease to exist altogether. Puck appeared in her doorway, his eyebrow raised at the sight of her sprawled out on the floor. "I was just...singing."

"I know, I heard. You sounded good, Brit. It's been a long time since I heard you sing by yourself," he acknowledged as he came further into the room and sat next to her on the floor. "I also know that you only sing like that when you're trying to work something out in that pretty little head of yours. Why don't you tell the Puckasaurus what's going on and we'll try to figure out how to fix it?"

Brittany rested her head on his sturdy shoulder as he slid his arm around her back. The two of them had become best friends since she had come to New York. She had figured that Puck was basically the male version of Santana and her innocence seemed to remind him of Finn and it just worked. He never judged her or made her feel stupid, and she loved him in a different way than she loved Sam for it. They'd always been friends ever since they were kids and started running in the same social circle, had hooked up a few times over the years, just been part of each other's lives. It was comforting to have him around. He knew her history and understood a part of her that the others would never fully get.

"I just figured out that Santana and Quinn are like, I don't know, in love or something," she said softly. Brittany nibbled on her bottom lip for a minute. "I mean, when did that happen, Puck?"

He shrugged with the shoulder not holding her up. "I guess awhile ago. San never said anything to you?" he asked rhetorically. They both knew that she hadn't and why she couldn't. A part of the Lopez heart would always belong to Brittany. "Q never really said anything to me either, Brit. She just sort of kept casually mentioning Santana and her as a 'we' whenever I'd call to give her an update about Beth. I don't know if it's serious, don't even know if they know, but I think they're happy."

"That's good," she retorted, and they both knew that she genuinely meant it. She really did want her friends, especially Santana, to be happy. "I just don't know when Iquit knowing her. We used to tell each other everything. I mean, I could even feel her pain before I knew she was hurting. And now, I look at these pictures of the two of them, and it makes me sad because I don't know them anymore. I don't know her."

He tightened his grip around her and hugged her firmly to his side. "Sometimes we outgrow people, Brit. It sucks but it happens," he replied sadly. "I feel the same way whenever I talk to Finn or even Q. Those two used to be the most important people in the world to me besides my ma and my sister and Beth, but now, they're basically strangers. And you know what? That's okay with me. Do you know what makes it okay?"

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You," he answered softly, affectionately. "You and Berry and the Hobbit and Evans. You guys fill up the space they used to take up. You've become my family away from home, the people that I want to share all this shit with. You're my best friend now, Brit, and I am so fuckin' glad you are. That doesn't mean that what Finn and I had when we were kids means any less, it just means that things have changed."

"I'm glad you're my best friend, too," she decided. Then, she smiled up at him brilliantly and nudged her knee against his. "And to celebrate our best friendom, we should totally sing a duet because we've had this life-changing realization or whatever and that's what Rachel would say we should do."

"Fuckin' Berry," he muttered. "Alright, you pick the song, and I'll follow along."

Brittany accepted the phone from his outstretched hand, quickly scrolling through his extensive playlist until her eyes fell on a track she recognized and knew he loved. She wasn't sure that it was fitting or whatever, but she liked that it was upbeat and that they both knew most of the words. As soon as the song filled the confines of the tiny room, he had his trademark grin on his lips and his head started to nod along in time to the beat.

"Take it off, take it in. Take off all the thoughts of what we've been," he sang to her, his boot stomping softly on the carpet. "Take a look, hesitate, take a picture you could never recreate."

"Write a song, make a note, for the lump that sits inside your throat," she chimed in. "Change the locks, change the scene, change it all but you can't change what we've been."

"Your trojan's in my head," they sang together. "Oh, oh, your trojan's in my head. Your trojan's in my head."

Brittany started to shimmy a little as she took on the second verse. If it was anyone else, Puck would have probably been turned on, but watching Brittany now, he just felt happy that she was happy. "It's okay, if it's gone, the thoughts that you had that it was the one," she went on, perfectly in key. "And oh, what is left? For all those times, is that what you get?"

"Oh, regardless, the walls get painted away," Puck answered her in song. "Oh, you're guarding the gates, but it all got away."

"Oh, oh, your trojan's in my head," they came together in unison. "Oh, oh, your trojan's in my head. Your trojan's in my head."

As the song faded away, Puck looked over at Brittany and laughed softly. "You feel better now?"

"Yup," she nodded, letting the last consonant pop for emphasis. "You're a really good friend."

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, brushing her off. "Just don't tell anyone."

The next afternoon, Brittany invited all of her roommates to come to a preview of a performance they we're putting on for a few of the school's alumni and biggest benefactors. There were only a couple dozen guests littered around the front few rows of the auditorium, but Brittany was proud when she recognized her own little cheering section from the wings of the massive stage. It was a hip hop piece this time, full of the high energy that she was known to bring to her dancing. She had been working hard on it ever since they were assigned the choreo their first day of class and had pretty much perfected in just under 72 hours.

The driving beats of a hip hop instrumental started to boom through the speakers, and before she knew it, the curtain was lifting on the stage. Brittany moved to the front position of their V formation, bending and folding her body in these impossible positions that proved she was just as talented as everyone thought. She looked amazing with her insanely long legs kicking far over her head, completely parallel to her body, while she used a little hairography to her advantage. It looked like something straight out of a Beyonce video, but Brittany privately thought that the singer had nothing on her. As she did a crossover turn and pulled herself into a perfect back tuck right into the splits, she couldn't help but smile out at her friends. Their reaction was why she loved doing what she did.

"You were amazing, Brit," Sam said afterward, kissing the side of her head as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend proudly. "Wasn't she just amazing, you guys? My girlfriend was amazing!"

"Yeah, yeah, Brit's amazing, we get it," Puck rolled his eyes as he leaned over to hug his friend. She smiled up at him when he winked, and she knew then that he was proud of her even if he wasn't going to show it. "Can we get out of here? I'm fuckin' starved."

"You're so crass," Rachel muttered before gently nudging him out of the way. "We are here to support and celebrate Brittany, and Samuel is right, Noah. Brittany, you were wonderful."

"The best on the stage," Blaine agreed as he hugged her tightly. "No surprise there."

"That's my girl," Sam repeated boastfully, causing Brittany to giggle. He was just so darn cute when he was proud of her, and Brittany adored how he always supported her completely no matter what she was doing. "What do you want to do to celebrate?"

"We could go to Central Park," she suggested, her eyes twinkling. "We could get food from those carts and find something Rachie can eat and then go feed the ducks. Doesn't that sound like fun, Sam? Can we feed the ducks?"

They all pretty much agreed that whatever Brittany wanted most of the time, they would give to her. Her requests were simple and easily granted, and no one was more excited when they got their way than Brittany, not even Rachel. "Sure, Brit, we can feed the ducks," Sam promised before linking his hand with hers. "What do you say? Everyone up for some duck feeding?"

"I could walk," Puck remarked, which pretty much meant that he was in. Rachel and Blaine were equally as agreeable, and the five of them set off into the warm New York afternoon to enjoy one of the last really beautiful days of summer.

Later that night, Sam came into their bedroom after beating Puck at yet another round of COD and a quick shower. "You smell good," she mused without looking up from her computer. Sam listened to the clicking of her nails on the keyboard as she typed away. He smiled at her when she finally glanced in his direction. "Writing an email to San. It's been awhile."

"Yeah, how's she doing?"

"I wouldn't know," Brittany admitted. "I think she's with Quinn, but we're not really sure."

"We?"

"Puck, I guess Quinn said something when he called her about Beth," she replied. "It's weird but whatever. It looks like they're happy, and that's all that's important."

Sam dropped down next to her on the bed and rubbed at her shoulders a little. "And are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, I am," she replied confidently, and this time, she really and truly meant it. She wasn't sad about it like she was before. "I got over Santana like that a long time ago. She will always be my friend, but she doesn't mean the same thing that she once did. I mean, I love you and I have Puck as my best friend, and I think that Quinn has given San those things in Boston. I'm glad she doesn't have to be alone since I can't be there."

"You have a good heart, Brittany S. Pierce," Sam remarked, leaning forward to kiss the tip of her nose. "I'm really glad that you decided that you wanted to be mine."

"Duh, Sammy, we're soul mates," she reminded him, grinning at him like she never had a choice in the matter. "It's always gonna be me and you, remember? We promised on the Mayan Apocalypse, and you know that I am really good at keeping my promises."

"The best," he agreed before kissing her again, this time more deeply and on the lips. "Love you, Brit."

"I love you too, Sam," she smiled before kissing him on the cheek one more time and turning back to the task at hand. She typed for a minute longer before reaching down to click send. "I told Santana goodbye. Maybe it's not forever, but for right now, I think that it's a good time for that part of my life to end."

"And the next part?"

"The next part has been going on for almost two years when I kissed you in a hallway by your locker," she decided. "There was a little overlap but that's okay. I asked Lord Tubbington and he said that happens sometimes."

"He's very wise, that cat," Sam mused. "I'm so glad he's on my side."

"This totally wouldn't work without his approval, so I'm glad too," she replied before jumping up from the bed. "Now watch this combination I'm trying out. I totally think it's what has been missing from that piece I want do in the recital next month!" She started to do this complex set of steps but stopped when she realized Sam was watching her but wasn't really paying attention. "Sam!"

"Sorry, Brit, I just forget how beautiful you are," he complimented her, sending a pretty blush down her neck. She smiled shyly at him as he tugged her by the wrist down to the mattress. "Why don't we spend a little time helping me remember?" Brittany couldn't help but laugh then because she had the perfect plan to make sure that he would never, ever forget.

Lyric credits go to "It's About Time" by Lillix and "Trojans" by Atlas Genius. Like it? Let me know with a review.