Okay so since it's holiday, and I pretty much got nothing to do, I think it's best if I proceed on writing fanfictions. School had been a pain in the ass but thank god it's finally over (for now). So yeah, I present to you the third chapter!
Also, I'm sorry if this chapter isn't that well-written or anything. So yeah, thanks to whoever reads this! I'm sorry for wasting your valuable time.
Please let me know if you read this, I'd really love to hear any kind of review!
Chapter III – The Changeover
Brittany didn't know what to expect from The Changeover, but she knew that she was nervous as they strode past the Peculiar Home. Hand-in-hand, they strode in silence, with Santana leading Brittany through another path that she knew would lead them to town. Brittany's hand slipped out of Santana's, but the brunette quickly latched their pinkies together. Brittany smiled down at their linked pinkies, Santana didn't even look back when her hand slipped but she managed to link their pinkies, it was somehow impressive. They then started to see the other kids from the house skipping in front of them, Brittany even heard Noah's laugh clearly from meters away.
When they finally approached them, Santana finally slowed her pace. Brittany followed her suit, slowing her pace until they walk behind Noah and Quinn.
"Ah, Satan", Noah greeted Santana, grinning widely upon seeing the girls. "And Brittany"
Santana huffed then rolled her eyes, unlinking her pinky from Brittany's to cross her hands on her chest. Brittany couldn't help the frown that immediately taken over her face at the loss of contact, but none of the three other teens there seemed to notice. "Noah, you are a moron"
"What are you doing, Santana? You usually didn't come to witness The Changeover with us", Quinn asked, not too subtle about her attempt to broke off Noah's and Santana's inevitable cat fight.
"You usually want me to come with you all during The Changeover", Santana snickered. "I've got a responsible, too. Miss Kestrel trusted me on helping Brittany to understand, so that is what I'm going to do"
"It's been decades since we got a newbie" Noah grinned at Brittany. He turned around, making him walk backwards as he thrust out his hand. "I believe we haven't been introduced properly, name's Noah Puckerman. Please call me Puck"
"Don't. It's a ridiculous nickname", Quinn shook her head in disagreement. "He always thought it was cool, but you've got to agree that it's not"
Brittany laughed at that, she was sure that she already liked this trio already. She took Noah's hand in hers then shook it firmly. "I'm definitely going to call you Puck, just so you're happy"
"Well thank you, Miss Pierce", Puck bowed his head with a chuckle. Quinn only snorted at Noah's over-reaction.
As soon as Noah turned his back towards the Latina and the tall blonde, Quinn slowed her pace so that she walked beside Brittany, "I'm Lucy Quinn Fabray. Only these two call me Quinn, the others call me Lucy. Quinn was what my mama and papa used to call me, so I only let the people that are closest to me to call me that. Since I already like you, Brittany… May I call you that? I'm going to let you call me Quinn as well"
Brittany was really flattered to hear what Quinn had just said to her. She was only there for a couple of hours and Quinn had already trust her. These three were obviously close, and to be having an access to their little circle was definitely something.
"Thank you, I feel honored. And yes, Brittany will do just fine", Brittany said honestly. Quinn smiled at her brightly before catching up with Noah.
"Quinn don't do that a lot", Santana said amusedly after awhile in. They've reached the town now; there were a lot of people walking here and there. But none of them seemed to pay any mind to the line of children that entered the town. "Even to the person that came before you"
"And who came before me?", Brittany asked, her eyes following an antique looking car that had just passed in front of them.
"Samuel, he arrived here about 22 years ago", Santana nodded to a blonde guy a few children away from them. Brittany remembered him as the guy that said that she dressed funny, "He could copy any sound in this world, that's his peculiarity"
"What?!", Brittany exclaimed. Santana flinched a bit at Brittany's high-pitched voice, making the blonde winced in embarrassment. "Sorry. So everyone has some sort of superpower here?"
Santana then recovered quickly, exhaling an amused chuckle before answering, "It's not a superpower. It's just what we are. It's not even genetics; most of us don't have peculiar parents. It could skip a generation or two, but mostly it was just a gift from God"
"So Samuel… Sam could copy any sound. What's Puck's peculiarity?"
Santana smirked at her, making her brows shot up because she hadn't seen that look on the Latina's face before. But she had to admit that Santana looked… hot with that smirk.
"It won't be fun if I told you all of our peculiarities, you should find out for yourself, Brittany"
"Right, fine", Brittany huffed. Of course she was going to say that, she wouldn't want to answer every single one of her questions. It'd exhaust her, right?
Santana probably saw the scowl on her face because she reached for the blonde's hand and tugged it gently. Brittany looked up to those warm brown eyes; a soft smile had stretched on the brunette's face. "I just figure it'd be fun to let you figure it out by yourself, Brittany. I am not tired of answering your questions. I just want to play a game with you"
Brittany felt a smile crept up to her face, she then whispered softly, "Okay"
Santana smiled wider this time, squeezing her hand gently before pulling away again. They then walked side-by-side in a comfortable silence. Brittany then got the chance to observe the town. The buildings were mostly the same, though the ones here were much more polished and new than the ones in the future. The street was still covered in stones instead of asphalt. There were a lot more people than in the future, seeing that there were also many boats tied onto the harbor in the distance. Willkinleyburg had always been some sort of rest area for sailors and people who traveled by ships, but time changed and in the future, people preferred planes than ships. So it made sense if Willkinleyburg wasn't as crowded as it was in the year of 1974.
They finally reached the beach. The white sand made little crunching noises when their shoes step on it. The sun had already started to set behind them. Miss Kestrel was already there, facing the blue ocean in front of them. A couple of people looked at them weirdly but didn't comment any further. Brittany followed the other children towards Miss Kestrel.
"Watch this", Noah suddenly said beside her. "It never bore me"
Noah then motioned to the sea, the waves started to roll backwards. Her eyes widened, it rolled back for hundreds and hundreds of meters… this could only meant…
"There's going to be a tsunami", Brittany said in a high-pitched voice, she felt panic swept over her. But no one moved from their places.
"I know," Quinn said calmly, her expression showed no signs of panic. Instead, she looked hopeful and almost giddy, it freaked Brittany out.
"Then why don't we move?", Brittany whined, looking at Santana for help.
Santana only smiled softly at her. Her thumb drew soothing circles on the tall blonde's wrist, and for some reasons, it helped to sooth Brittany down. For what felt like the millionth time that day, Brittany found herself speechless at the sight of Santana there, smiling next to her with her dark hair blowing around her face. And for a second there, she forgot that a tsunami was about to wash over them at the calming feeling with just being with Santana combined with how beautiful the Latina looked. But then she felt a rush of cold air around them, her head snapped up to see hundreds of feet of wave approached them.
Her grip must've tightened around the other girl's hand because she heard a hiss coming out of the brunette's mouth. She didn't get the chance to apologize before Santana said, "It's alright, Brittany. Trust me"
It was as if the time was being slowed down, Brittany could see the way the wave rolled towards them almost like it was in slow-motion. "What if we got wiped out?"
"Peculiars won't get wiped out", Santana squeezed Brittany's hand again.
Another rush of panic washed over Brittany, "How do we know I'm peculiar?!"
"You passed the Loop entrance, Brittany. I told you only peculiars could do that—"
"But—"
"Brittany, trust me", Santana reassured her one last time before the wave started to roll down so fast that Brittany quickly shut her eyes closed in reflect, expecting the wave to crush her into pieces.
Except it didn't.
She slowly opened her eyes, and was sure her breath was quickly taken away at the sight in front of her. There were water surrounding them, but it was as if there was an invisible wall around them to keep the water from swallowing them all. Like she was in those tanks in Seaworld she used to see as a kid. Brittany looked around to find that there were many things outside the invisible walls, mostly the things that were wiped out by the tsunami, like trees, rocks, and even some fishes. Minutes later, the water around them suddenly whirled around so fast like they were inside this giant blender, making her head feels dizzy. The invisible walls around them suddenly became smaller and smaller, the water swallowing each kid in its rage. Brittany felt the surge of panic hit her for what felt like the millionth time that day, she gripped at Santana's hand frantically only to find that the other girl was as tense as she was. Santana's grip also tightened in hers and both girls held their breaths and shut their eyes closed, preparing for the worst. It didn't take long before finally the water swallowed them, but instead of the feeling of drowning, both girls only felt like there was a chilly breeze swept over them. When they opened their eyes, they were met with the sight of a calm ocean at night.
"That was breathtaking, wasn't it?" Noah chuckled from beside Brittany, nudging her elbow lightly.
"I—", Brittany trailed off, she was rendered speechless. What just happened around her was impossible and for some reasons, yes it was terrifyingly beautiful. Miss Kestrel turned around to face the kids, a content smile was drawn upon her face.
The headmistress walked gracefully towards them, there were no crunching noise of the sand under her, it was almost as if she was floating. Miss Kestrel stopped in front of Brittany and Santana, her smile quickly faltered as soon as she saw Santana's face.
"Miss Lopez…", Miss Kestrel reached out carefully.
Brittany hadn't seen Santana's face after all that happened, so when she saw that the brunette was pale and her eyes were still snapped shut, she couldn't help the pang of worry that washed over her. Her jaw was clenched tight. Her fist was balled on her side so hard that her knuckles turned white, while her other hand still gripped Brittany's like it was holding on for her dear life.
"Santana…", Quinn cooed as she made her way towards Santana. The hazel-eyed blonde put her hand gently on Santana's shoulder.
The dark-haired girl suddenly opened her eyes as Quinn touched her, a look of panic flashed over her face. But Miss Kestrel quickly cooed her, telling her that there was nothing wrong and that she was completely safe. Even though their hands were still intertwined, Brittany felt useless as she watched Santana broke into a sob next to her. She didn't understand what was happening, and it seemed like the other kids also didn't understand what was happening. Noah suddenly put his hand on her shoulder, telling her to leave the three women be. Brittany reluctantly pulled away her hand, Santana didn't even notice the loss of contact as Quinn immediately ushered the Latina back to the house, Miss Kestrel following suit.
Brittany looked at Noah, confusion and worry painted clearly on her face. But Noah simply shook his head, running a hand through his almost bald head, "that's why she doesn't go to see The Changeover a lot"
"Why?", Brittany looked absently to the road where the three women went, she could barely watch them anymore. After she couldn't see them anymore, she looked back at Noah.
"It's… complicated", Noah offered her a weak smile. "Santana didn't even open up to me and Quinn, she only opened up to Miss Kestrel"
"You never asked her?"
"We did ask, we do care about her, y'know. She's our friend", Noah averted his gaze to the calm ocean in front of them, "She wants to keep some things to herself, I guess"
"Okay", Brittany sighed.
The other kids made their way back to the house, leaving the two of them with a heavy silence weighing over them. Brittany liked Santana, but if her long-time friends didn't even know what was going on in her head, how was she going to get to know Santana more?
"We should head back", Noah gestured towards the road after what felt like eternity. Brittany snapped out of her thoughts and looked into Noah's brown eyes. "Dinner is going to be fun for you, future girl"
"And why is that?", seeing the smile etched across Noah's face, Brittany felt the heaviness in her heart eased a bit.
Noah only winked at her, suddenly sprinting towards the road. "Race me to the house! I shall give you my dessert if you race me, Brittany!"
With a smile upon her face, she raced with Noah to the house.
