AN: Thanks for the continued reviews/favs/alerts. You guys rock.
Chapter 7
Santana still felt exhausted beyond her years when school rolled around the next day. There had been no text in the morning from Brittany, letting her know she was coming to get her. Santana drove herself to school alone and arrived on time for the first time in what felt like years.
Her heart weighed heavy in her chest and her feet felt like someone had tied cinder blocks to her shoes. She walked through the halls, head held high, refusing to let anyone see her weak. Last night there was no pressure to put up a facade around her father and it had been such a relief. Such a relief that Santana questioned why she bothered putting on her game face it to begin with. As she walked down the hall, she realized being this Santana Lopez that people feared was so much harder than she had ever thought it would be. It literally was draining away who she really was.
She felt too far gone to stop, though.
At her locker she shuffled her books around, looking for her damn math book. She had stopped taking her Spanish book a long time ago, simply looking off of Brittany's if she needed to, it made her book load for the rest of the day lighter. She shut the locker door and Brittany was there, looking at her with a calculated expression that Santana couldn't read.
"Hi," she said, heart fluttering with nerves. Santana wasn't sure how they were supposed to act around each other. All of her feelings from the previous night had washed away as soon as the Unknown caller had called. She wanted to pull Brittany close for a hug, even if people were watching. She needed the comfort, craved it.
"Someone broke into your house?" Her expression changed, it was concerned but Santana couldn't help but feel there was annoyance hiding in the corners of her eyes.
"Yeah," She replied glancing at the people around her. She didn't want anyone to know and feel sorry for her. "How did you know?"
"I heard it from Jessica," Brittany said quickly. "Why didn't you call me?"
"We had a fight," Santana said slowly. Her head was spinning. How had Jessica known? She grimaced. Jessica was an up-and-coming in the Cheerios who made it her business to know everything. What better way to get on top? How many people knew, though? Why had no one asked her if she was okay if it was such common knowledge? A million emotions spread through her at once, anger, betrayal and sadness that people either didn't care or were too afraid to approach her.
Two years ago that would have thrilled her. Having all of the attention because someone had broken into her house and she had showed up at school the next day, head held high, hips swaying provocatively as she made her way down the hallways she had once run.
What had changed?
Santana knew she had changed over the years. Glee had transformed her into someone she was starting to like. Someone who was more than just angry comments and a hot body. Brittany had softened her. Brittany was slowly, very slowly, pulling the real Santana Lopez out into the light.
She remembered the time the entire Glee club had tore into her and how she had been reduced to tears in the hallway. Brittany had been there to soothe her. They had been right, all she did was tear people down and now all she wanted was to let that person go and embrace who she wanted to be. Who she was with Brittany.
It was too much. It was her entire identity being shifted and it felt like the earth had moved beneath her. She was suddenly breathless. Everything clicked inside of her and fell into place. An epiphany that shook her to her core.
She turned her wide eyes on Brittany's.
"I'm your best friend, Santana," Brittany said with a bite to her voice. Santana didn't know how she could be so annoyed with her. She was trying her best to do what she felt was right but it was hard and it was suffocating.
"I know," Santana said, inhaling trying to calm her heartbeat. She felt like she was on another planet, far away from this body and the conversation. Something was changing inside of her and she couldn't stop it, only hold on and hope that she came out the other side for the better.
"Do you?" Brittany's expression changed. "Are you okay?" Annoyance was replaced with concern so quickly that Santana couldn't help but smile.
"Yeah," she said, shaking herself, trying to force the feeling down.
"You look sick," Brittany said gently. She made a move towards Santana and then stopped herself. Her eyes lost some of their Brittany-brightness that Santana had fallen in love with and her heart sank. She knew she had caused Brittany to stop, caused the light to fade.
But she couldn't let her show affection in the crowded hallway. Not right now.
Santana felt lost inside her own emotions.
"Let's go to Glee," Brittany said turning away from Santana and heading down the hall.
Santana exhaled and watched Brittany walk away without her. She hated seeing her alone in the halls and hated herself for not running to her and lacing their fingers together.
Figure your own shit out, she told herself firmly.
Santana sighed and made her way after Brittany, towards Glee, hoping she could figure her shit out because it was starting to feel like her shit was swallowing her alive.
"Okay guys," Mr. Schue began. The class silenced it's chatter almost immediately. Santana looked over at Brittany. She was sitting with Mike and Tina, smiling and laughing. It had been the first time during the year they had sat away from each other and Santana felt naked without Brittany there.
"As you all know, Figgins wants to try out something new for Halloween this year." Santana looked up, confusion written plainly on her face. She glanced at Brittany who looked confused as well but was also listening intently. Halloween was Brittany's favorite holiday, besides Christmas.
"He wants to do a fall festival to raise money for the school," Mr. Schue said happily. He held his arms out as if expecting applause to shower over him from the announcement.
Santana sighed, other people groaned their disapproval.
"What?" Brittany said to the class. "What's wrong with that?"
All eyes were trained on her. "Don't you remember those lame festivals we used to do in elementary when you could play games in each classroom?" Quinn said, turning in her chair to face Brittany.
"Yeah," Brittany said slowly.
"That's what he wants us to do. It's lame." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Dude, those were so awesome. I used to win a goldfish every year." Brittany was smiling wide.
"Well, it's a bit different from that," Mr. Schue began again trying to pull the attention back to him. "It's a haunted house theme. Clubs or classrooms can participate and turn their room into a haunted house."
The mood in the choir room changed and Santana felt herself listening more closely.
"I already signed New Directions up to participate," Mr. Schue finished.
"What?" It was Quinn again.
"Listen, guys," Mr. Schue began holding up a hand. "When you get to the festival you have to buy tickets, at the end of the night each club turns its tickets in and gets a dollar for every four tickets. That's money straight into the Glee clubs pocket. We can use some of old Rocky Horror stuff to make the classroom look crazy. This is a great opportunity for us to raise money and we're doing it." He looked firm and crossed his arms.
"I'm totally down," Brittany said immediately. Santana smiled.
"You know, guys, this could be fun," Tina said out of the blue, everyone turned to her.
"Fine," Quinn mumbled. "I'm not wearing fake blood."
The room erupted. People were talking, brainstorming, laughing. Santana watched the group and smiled. They were a united front. It rarely happened, but when it did, Santana felt it fill something inside of her, some space she seemed to forget she had until she was reminded it was empty.
Santana looked over to Brittany and their eyes met. Brittany smiled, the excitement of the haunted house overshadowing her anger, and Santana felt her stomach flip-flop. God, she had it bad.
"Okay, guys," Mr. Schue began again, calming the class down. "We're going to need someone to put this together, a leader. Someone creative and good at thinking outside of the box and I know just the right people."
Santana rolled her eyes. Rachel had sat up straighter in her chair at word 'creative.' Santana resisted the urge to throw things at her.
"I think that Tina would be a great co-leader for the New Directions Haunted House," Mr. Schue said smiling big.
Mike kissed Tina on the cheek and she stood up and walked awkwardly to the front of the class to stand by Mr. Schue.
"You only picked me for this because of the way I dress, didn't you?" She looked skeptically at Mr. Schue who laughed nervously.
"Well," he began.
"I totally love it," Tina said quickly. She looked as if she was afraid that someone would steal away her moment in the spotlight if she said anything else.
"Good," Mr. Schue said smiling. "But you're just the co-leader."
Santana smirked as Rachel perked back up. She had watched the girl's shoulders slump when her name hadn't been called. Finn had placed an arm gently around her shoulders. An arm which was now being forced off by Rachel scooting to the edge of her seat.
"Brittany," Mr. Schue said.
Everyone turned to look at Brittany, including Santana.
Brittany, on the other hand, looked shocked, as if she hadn't quite heard right. Her eyes darted around to meet everyone's, lingering just a half a beat longer on Santana. She made no move to stand up.
"Brittany, do you want to be co-head runner of the haunted house with Tina?" Mr. Schue asked it slowly, as if Brittany didn't understand what he was asking of her. Santana wanted to punch him, she knew Brittany was just shocked.
Brittany glanced at Santana who nodded quickly at her.
"That would be fantastic," she said drawing out each word, savoring the moment.
She joined Tina at the head of the class.
"Okay, let's get to brainstorming," Mr. Schue said clapping his hands together.
"What about clowns?" Puck suggested. "Clowns are scary sh...stuff." He corrected himself as Mr. Schue shot him a look. They were sitting in a circle while Tina and Brittany scribbled things on a pad of paper. Brittany looked deep in thought.
"No, absolutely not," Kurt said suddenly. "Clowns have terrified me since I was a child and we will not do clowns."
"No clowns then," said Tina crossing out something on her notebook.
"Clowns are lame," Brittany said. Everyone turned to look at her. "We can do better than that."
Her odd determination washed over the group and they seemed to go into hyper-drive, throwing out ideas left and right.
It took them a long time and a lot of thinking and patience but with twenty minutes left of class they come up with their theme: Blood and Massacre.
"So, the name could use some work," Tina said writing the plans she and Brittany had put together on the dry erase board. "But it's simple and with the space in the choir room we can pull it off."
"Yeah," Brittany began beside her. "It's great. There are three parts."
"Part one," Tina began. They work so well together that Santana can't believe they hadn't rehearsed their presentation. She felt a twinge of jealousy in her at how easily they got along. She pushed the feeling away, she wasn't going to let her petty feelings stomp on Brittany's moment. "You enter and there is a table with body parts you are forced to sample."
Santana chuckled at the look on Quinn and Rachel's face.
"What?" Quinn asked staring at the girls like she'd never seen them before.
"Don't worry, Quinny," Brittany said gently. "It'll be like peeled grapes for eyes and badly cooked noodles for innards and stuff. You just reach a hand in and get a scare."
"Gross," Rachel mumbled.
"I like it," Finn whispered to her.
Santana rolled her eyes and looked back to Brittany.
"The next part will take some work," she began. "We want to have someone hanging from the ceiling. Like they just hung themselves."
"Brittany," Mr. Schue tried to interrupt.
"It's cool, Mr. Schue," Brittany countered. "My parents do it every Halloween and it doesn't hurt, you wear like a body harness or something so it just looks like you're dead. I don't really want to hang someone. That would suck."
A few people chuckled. Santana's heart seemed to bloom with love for Brittany. She felt proud Brittany was taking charge and letting her creativity show. She knew Brittany didn't get enough credit for being anything other than a dancer.
"And the last part," Tina said drawing a note on the board. "Is the slab."
The room became silent, attention on Tina, for just a beat before she continued. "We want to have someone dressed as Ghostface, you know, from Scream cutting up someone on a table. Big finale."
"Add in some creepy music, lights and decorations and I think you got yourself a pretty good haunted house," Brittany finished quickly. "I've been to like, a million, so I know this to be a fact."
People were muttering their approval.
"So how will this work?" It was Puck who asked. "Do we all have to do it? What if I want to go and like, see all the other scary stuff going on?"
"It works out better than we had hoped. The choir room has two doors. So people give their ticket at the first door where we hope Mr. Schue, you'll take tickets," Tina looked up at him, waiting for confirmation.
"Of course," he said, smiling. "Ms. Pillsbury agreed to help too."
"Awesome," Brittany smiled at him. She made a note on her notebook paper.
"Everyone has a part," Tina continued smiling at the room. "Brittany and I figured it out. We all have a part and we switch out those parts every few shows so that everyone gets free time at the festival."
"I have to say guys," Mr. Schue said smiling at the two girls. "I'm impressed. You really have this down. I picked two good managers, it seems."
"It would seem so, yes," Brittany said beaming at Tina.
"Who gets what part?" It was Rachel. "There are three positions and twelve of us."
"Oh, right," It was Brittany. "I already cast the parts."
There was a murmur through the group, like Brittany had dropped a pebble into still water. Santana rolled her eyes, it was just a haunted house. Santana knew how her peers were, how they craved the spotlight and would treat this like any solo Mr. Schue gave away. She wasn't going to let anyone mess with Brittany's hard work.
Santana had been watching her for most of the class, keeping to herself. She felt off from her conversation with Brittany in the hall. Sitting and just existing in the comfort of the choir room had been a nice relief. She felt as if she was watching from outside of a window, Brittany wasn't there to be her human anchor to the group. She hadn't participated in the brainstorming but had enjoyed listening and making sure no one stepped on Brittany's toes.
"Well I think whatever parts you've cast us in will be great," Santana said loudly so all eyes turned to her. "You've already done pretty much all the work and the plan is great."
Finn nodded. "Yeah, Brittany, Tina, this is really good work."
Santana smirked. Finn would step up and be a leader if he was just pushed the right way.
"Awesome," Brittany said quietly.
"We agreed that Brittany would run the body parts table first and she would switch out with Artie," Tina began looking at her notebook closely.
"I'm down with that," Artie said. "It'll be easier for me since I'm already, you know, sitting." Brittany smiled at him and he smiled back.
Santana resisted the urge to slap him.
"Awesome," Brittany said again. "Tina will be the first one hanging with Mike Chang sobbing hysterically at her feet, possibly wanting to kill himself." The way she said it so nonchalantly made everyone cringe. Mike looked uncomfortable but Tina smiled at him as Brittany plowed on. "Quinn and Puck take their place later."
"I have to hang form the ceiling while Puck tries to act sad beneath me?" She rolled her eyes.
"I'm down, babe," Puck said shrugging. "As long as you wear a nice skirt so I've got a good view." He winked at her and she crossed her arms over he chest, turning away.
Any other day Santana would have been on board with making Quinn feel uncomfortable, today was Brittanny's day, though. "Come on, Q.," Santana spoke up suddenly. "Everyone's involved."
"You're just saying that because you don't have to do anything embarrassing." Quinn crossed her arms and huffed. "Fine."
"Thank you," Brittany mouthed to Quinn. Quinn smiled slightly.
"Right, so, the slab," began Tina. "We want Finn to be Ghostface first."
"I love this idea," he said earnestly. "I love Scream."
"But we want you to be torturing Santana," Brittany cut in quickly.
"What?" Three voices had said it. Rachel looked outraged, Finn looked confused and Santana just hadn't expected to be involved at all.
"We want Santana on the slab because we want you to be the guide through the haunted house, Rachel," Brittany said gently. She exchanged a look with Tina. Santana's smile curled up her face slowly, they had foreseen Rachel's reaction to not being with Finn. "We don't want a clog to form or something, so you lead people through and explain what's happening. We're writing a script, trying to like, tie it all in. Make it like, real. You'll have the most lines."
"Oh," Rachel said, clearly shocked. "That would be..." she stopped. "That's so nice of you."
"What about me?" It was Mercedes who spoke up, her eyebrow cocked.
"And us?" Kurt spoke motioning to Blaine.
"Well you two," Tina said smiling at them will be taking Finn and Santana's place on the slab and as the second Ghostface."
Blaine smiled broadly and Kurt looked skeptical. "As long as I don't get fake blood on my clothes, I'll be okay."
"This is going to be great," Blaine said to the girls. "I'm going to have so much fun killing you." He laughed and Kurt shoved him, playfully. Santana could see the smile tugging at his mouth, though.
"And me?" It was Mercedes again.
"Well, duh," said Brittany, pulling all eyes back on her. "Haven't you figured it out? We've got to have both our stars shine. You're the other tour guide."
The smile on Mercedes face made Santana grin. Everyone had a part and everyone was happy.
The world felt good again. Santana felt at home.
Talking about the different parts of the haunted house had begun immediately, Brittany and Tina were questioned thoroughly and looked more than happy and prepared to answer. Santana's heart swelled with pride and love and all of those gooey emotions that made her cringe when she saw them on anyone else.
She felt her phone buzz in her pocket.
The world around her seemed to disappear and her ears began to ring slightly.
She slowly pulled the phone out and looked at the screen.
Unknown caller.
Horror filled her entire being. It seeped into every nook and cranny and made her feel cold and exposed. No one was paying attention to her. She answered her phone, turning her body away from the group that was growing louder with excitement.
"I know you were in my house," she said through her clenched jaw.
The person on the other end laughed and Santana felt the blood drain from her face.
"Did you also know I'm in your school? Blood and Massacre theme. My favorite." The line clicked off.
Santana's heart was racing a mile a minute and she felt dizzy as if she hadn't eaten anything all day but had run a mile. She turned around and looked outside into the hall. There were people scattered already, even though the bell hadn't sounded their dismissal.
Football players, A/V geeks, a stray Cheerio, random students who didn't have a discerning feature for Santana to place on the social hierarchy, one teacher.
They all had cell phones in their hands.
Fuck.
