Chapter 8
"Britt!" Quinn beat her hand impatiently on the empty seat next to her "Come sit here"
"What?" Puck looked at her questioningly. He had been about to sit down but with a sigh she pushed him sharply further along, nodding at Mike and Sam who had chosen seats at the very back with the others from Glee club.
"Go sit with them. I have to talk to Brittany"
His face set in confused annoyance
"What is your problem Quinn? First you freak out when I put my arm around you this morning, and now I can't even sit with you?"
He leant closer, his back to Brittany who stood awkwardly behind him, waiting to sit down.
"Do you even want to go to prom with me? Cause if you don't, just say. It doesn't matter to me you know. There are loads of other girls who would love to be my girlfriend"
Quinn rolled her eyes
"Loads, huh? Well don't turn them down on my account Noah...and, again, I'm not your girlfriend anyway. Now can you let Brittany sit down please?"
She reached around him, grabbing the other girl's hand and dragging her forward, Puck having to shift down the aisle slightly so she could get through. Brittany squeezed past and sat down, feeling uncomfortable when Quinn looked up at him still standing there and raised her eyebrows.
"You gonna go sit down or...?"
He made a noise of barely contained frustration and reluctantly walked down the bus, throwing himself angrily into the empty seat beside a wary looking Rachel. Sam and Mike tried to engage him in conversation but he ignored them, preferring to stare at the back of Quinn's head in contemplative silence, his handsome face heavy with irritation.
"God, he is such a nightmare"
Brittany smiled and regarded her friend questioningly
"Quinn, are you serious? He just wanted to sit with you, and you were really mean"
Quinn made a noise of protest "I wasn't mean! You don't know how annoying he is. He never leaves me alone, he's always calling me, and he never stops touching me and..and it just drives me insane"
Brittany laughed "But you're basically dating, he's supposed to do that."
Quinn looked at her with a frown and leant back against the seat, her voice tired
"Yeah, I know"
Brittany's smile faded and she laid a comforting hand on her friend's arm
"What's wrong Q?...Have you two had a fight?"
She shook her head
"No, it's not anything like that. Although I feel like it would be easier if it were"
Brittany tilted her head in confusion "I don't get it, what do you mean? Don't you like him anymore?"
"I do like him" Quinn paused thoughtfully "I just don't want to be his girlfriend. But he keeps asking me, and I feel bad, and everyone expects me to. I kind of feel like I don't have a choice"
"Of course you have a choice Q, but I'm kind of surprised you don't want to. I thought you two were getting serious?"
Brittany narrowed her eyes, this whole thing seemed kind of sudden. Quinn had talked about Puck non stop the summer before senior year, and when he had finally asked her to prom a few months ago she had been so happy she hadn't stopped smiling for a week. Something must have happened for her to change her mind so completely in such a short space of time.
"Do you like someone else?"
Quinn looked at her carefully, her eyes drifting downwards as she noticed the jumper Brittany was wearing.
"Did Ms. Lopez give you that? It's a cheerleading jumper, right?" She leant forward to read the red stitching "Is her name Santana?"
Brittany just punched her shoulder gently, refusing to be distracted "Come on Q..you can tell me, who is it?"
Quinn opened her mouth to speak, struggling for a reply before shutting it again, shaking her head.
"I..no..that's not the reason"
Brittany didn't believe her for a second but she didn't push any further, instead asking gently
"Are you still going to prom together?"
Quinn nodded slowly "To be honest that's the only reason I haven't told him how I feel yet...I would really hate to go alone, and.."
She looked faintly embarrassed as she went on
"-well, we're still the most popular kids in school...and I really want to be homecoming queen"
Brittany was about to reply when they heard a loud squeal behind them, ruining the quiet moment they'd been sharing. Quinn turned in her seat to see what the noise was, her mouth falling slightly open in bewilderment as her eyes registered the scene behind her.
"What the fuck is he doing to Berry?"
Brittany twisted round, seeing Puck energetically tickling a helpless Rachel, whose genuine attempts to stop him kept dissolving into unwilling giggles that she couldn't seem to control. She was half collapsed in her seat, weakly batting his hands away as he leant over her, not letting up as her cries became almost hysterical.
"God, is she ok?"
Puck noticed Quinn and Brittany watching out of the corner of his eye and leant closer to the brunette with a grin, pleased that they were finally paying attention. This was the culmination of some loud, obvious flirting that he been putting on for at least 5 minutes, all for Quinn's benefit and now as half the bus watched him torture Rachel, he only noticed her.
He had began chatting with the the brunette in the hopes that Quinn would see and get jealous, maybe even make him swap places with Brittany. But up until now she had been oblivious, and Rachel hadn't exactly been helpful. He could only assume she didn't understand he was flirting, as she had looked more affronted than charmed when he asked her what panties she was wearing.
She had turned to him with a noise of disgust, her face screwed up as though his words had physically hurt her "Ugh..that is awful Noah, what is wrong with you?"
And then after a brief, appalled silence, she had answered curtly "But if you must know, they are white. With a kind of stitched motif on the front, in silver thread, that looks like a star"
He had breathed out heavily, folding his arms in failure as he realised he had sat next to the wrong girl
"Right..well they sound great"
Noting his sarcasm, Rachel had pressed her lips together and looked pointedly out the window, wishing he hadn't sat beside her
"Yes, well I like them"
But then, with a smile, he had remembered a time in Glee club the year before, when Kurt had jokingly tried to tickle the singer and she almost fallen off her chair as she tried to smack his hands away. She had thrown herself backwards, her chair tipping dangerously as she yelled that she was actually really ticklish and it wouldn't be funny at all, so would he just sit back down now and stop messing around. At the time Kurt had backed off straight away, anxious to quieten her shrill voice but with the memory, Puck had pounced, Rachel doubling up with a shocked whimper as his fingers dug into her sides.
She had seemed angry and taken aback at first, feebly trying to push him off in surprise "Noah..what..are you doing?..get off me now!..get off" until uncontrollable, painful laughter swept away the tide of her protests and encouraged Puck to go on.
Quinn looked at Brittany, her pretty face hard with anger
"Everything he does is for attention. Look at him, trying to make me jealous"
"...by making Rachel cry?"
But Quinn didn't hear her as she was already climbing over the seat and into the aisle, storming towards Puck and grabbing his arm to yank him off the now choking brunette.
"What are you doing, you idiot?"
He looked up at her smugly, misreading her fury as jealousy.
"Sorry babe, didn't notice you there. I was just messing around with Rach"
Quinn looked at the girl who was now sitting up straight, red in the face, her eyes streaming.
"Messing around? It looked more like assault"
Rachel nodded weakly in agreement, coughing as she tried to get her breath back.
"Guys, what's the problem? Quinn you shouldn't be out of your seat"
From the front of the coach, Will had noticed the commotion at the back and had come to settle the situation down. He stood just behind Quinn, looking at them with a frown.
Rachel leant forward to get his attention, drying her face with her sleeve "Mr Schue, I have to sit somewhere else. Puck is insane"
"What? Look Quinn can you sit down please and Rachel, uh, just wait a second" He turned to Puck as Quinn pushed past them, returning to her seat with a fleeting backwards glance at the shorter brunette who met her stare quickly before looking away.
"Right Puck, what happened?"
"Nothing, we were just kidding around"
"Then why is Rachel crying?"
The singer interrupted "I'm not crying, my eyes were just watering" but Will ignored her
"It's always you Puck. Can't you just keep out of trouble for once?"
"I'm sorry alright?" He put his palms in the air defensively "I was tickling her for christ sake, I didn't know she'd freak"
Will stared at them both
"You were tickling her?...Rachel, is that right?"
She nodded "Yes, he was tickling me, completely unsolicited I might add."
"Why was Quinn involved?"
Puck smirked and answered smugly "I guess she doesnt like it when I'm friends with other girls"
Rachel interjected again "We aren't friends, he attacked me"
"Right" Will struggled to find an appropriate response "Well, Puck...maybe you could try and keep your hands to yourself for the rest of the day, yeah?"
Puck rolled his eyes "Yeah"
"And Rachel..." He paused. It wasn't really her fault, but she had been making such a lot of noise. He had been worried at first that something serious had happened. He tried to make his voice gentler to show he wasn't really blaming her but firm enough that she knew he was serious "Try not to be so overdramatic."
"Mr Schue! I didn't even want him to sit with me, he nearly made me sick, this is ridiculously unfa-"
He put out a hand to stop her
"Rachel..please?"
She looked extremely put out but nodded anyway, still reeling from her struggle with Puck and not in the mood for an argument.
He walked back up the aisle, smiling at Quinn who was back next to Brittany and had been watching the exchange in silence.
"Stay in your seat till we get there, yeah?"
She nodded and he gave her a patronising thumbs up before returning to the front, where they saw him lean over the seat to tell Ms. Lopez and Ms. Pillsbury what had happened.
Quinn folded her arms with an irritated sigh
"What is he even doing here anyway? He teaches spanish"
"Helping out I guess. I think he's pretty good friends with Ms. Lopez"
Quinn smirked angrily "Yeah, I bet they're really good friends." She shot the other cheerleader a knowing look "I wonder what she did for her 'friend' to get him to come on this stupid trip"
Brittany rolled her eyes. Clearly the other girl was still pissed with Puck and wanted to vent her frustration, but Brittany didn't feel like humouring her.
"Whatever Q"
Quinn seemed to realise that she was being ridiculous and she fell quiet, sitting in near silence for the rest of the journey, lost in her thoughts. Every couple of minutes she would turn her head and glare at Puck, making sure he wasn't harassing any of her other friends and ignoring him when he tried to mouth words at her. Next to him Rachel sat edged up to the window, staring out at the icy roads with a martyred expression and willfully ignoring all his half hearted attempts at apologising.
Brittany didn't notice any of this. She sat nestled into her borrowed jumper, the sleeves pulled over her hands and the hood bunched comfortably around her neck whilst she listened to her ipod. The material was soft inside, cosily snug and when Brittany inhaled she could smell the lingering scent of Santana's perfume, warm and heady. It reminded her of family camping trips to the lake when she was younger, sitting beside a camp fire, roasting marshmallows with towering trees all around them, the scent from the dying fire and the forest relaxing her as she fell asleep. It was like all those things, mixed with chocolate, cinnamon and sunshine. It was perfect, and Brittany breathed in deeply, jumping slightly when Quinn nudged her hard, pulling one of her headphones out and looking at her expectantly.
"Brittany, come one, move"
"Huh?"
She pointed out of the window to the large, stately building they had just pulled up outside, her face unenthusiastic
"We're here"
...
Santana looked down at the pamphlet again, her manicured finger gliding lazily down the page
"It says they have a projection room upstairs, and they show short films 4 times a day..."
She flipped the page
"The film today is about the end of slavery and the period of reconstruction afterwards."
Will looked at her blankly and gestured to the sea of 20 students in front of them.
"Is that what they're studying?"
"It's close enough."
They had been at the museum for an hour, and it had taken Santana less than half that time to realise the trip had been a bad idea. The exhibit was small, only one room, and was clearly aimed at much younger students, the information presented simply and mainly through bright colours and illustrations. Their tour guide was a 30 something, self righteous man called Tony, with slicked back black hair and a pair of cuban heels that still only put him at about 5'8. He was completely useless, knowing less about the exhibit than even Will did and seemed far more concerned with chatting up Santana than teaching the kids anything.
Despite his limited knowledge, he had managed to make the tour last at least half an hour longer than was necessary, spinning it out so he could impress Santana with random facts he'd clearly learnt from the museum information booklet. And most of them he seemed to have learnt wrong anyway.
"Of course when the civil war ended after 6 years of battle-"
"4 years"
He had turned to Santana with a condescending smile
"I'm sorry?"
"The civil war lasted 4 years. You should probably know that if you work in a history museum"
He had looked uncomfortable for a second, but then seemed to decide that he liked feisty women, it was more of a challenge that way.
He had laughed, trying to include all the kids in his joke
"I better watch out, your teacher's after me"
She had smiled coldly, already bored of being polite to this idiot
"I can assure you I'm not"
But he was incorrigible, shamelessly flirting until the last minute of the tour, where he had cornered her to present a map and pamphlet for the museum, winking as he said
"Maybe one day you should come down and teach me about the civil war. I think I might need a history lesson"
She had taken the proffered booklets with a slight grimace as their hands touched.
"Yes you do need one, definitley"
He smiled suggestively
"So maybe you could be my teacher? I don't know if you're free on sataurday?"
She wanted to punch him in the face. But a quick look around at her students wandering around the exhibit reminded her that she was a teacher and it really wouldn't be appropriate.
So she had leant forwards, her voice low
"Tony, is it?"
He nodded dumbly, half intoxicated by having her so close to him
"Well, Tony...or Danny Devito as I've been calling you in my head for the last hour...I'm going to have to turn down your hideous offer, as the thought of spending any more time with you than I absolutely have to makes me want to take that confederate sword over there and cut my own throat. So why don't you get together with Al Pacino and Tom Cruise or who ever else is in your little pint sized Napoleon club, call up Nicholas Sarkozy and maybe you could all go down to france for the weekend and treat yourself to some fancy new heels?...Because you certainly wont be spending it with me"
He had seemed confused "Sooo..you don't want to?"
She smiled at him in mock amazement, surprised at how quickly she could return to 'high school bitchy Santana'.
"Wow Tony, you're quick"
She had turned then, going to re join Will and Emma and letting them know with a roll of her eyes she would tell them what had happened later. Will had asked her if there was anything else in the museum worth seeing and she had looked down at the information programme, deciding the projection room was the best idea. It was too early to take the kids back anyway, so they would watch the film and then they could probably waste about an hour for lunch, and then a further hour discussing the exhibit. And then, thought Santana with relief, they could finally leave.
"Ok, it's through here, at the back of the west hall and on the left side" She double checked the map whilst Emma and Will rounded all the kids up, leaving Tony still dumbfounded as he watched Santana go.
The west hall wasn't difficult to find and a good looking boy outside, dressed like an old fashioned theatre usher, told them the 11.00 film was about to start and showed them in with a large silver flashlight.
"You're the only group today so you can sit where you like"
The room was set out like an old cinema, with rows of plush red velvet seats, all facing a blank projector screen that shone white, giving the room a dull glow. There were 5 seats to every row and the students bustled in, quickly taking up most of the space. Quinn and Brittany were the last to go in, having lagged behind briefly when the handsome usher had tried to flirt with them and once they went through the curtain there weren't many places left over. The closest seats were at the back next to the teachers but at the front Puck had saved two spaces, looking up at them hopefully. Quinn turned away from his pitiful expression and nudged Brittany towards the back.
"Let's sit there, next to Ms. Lopez"
Hearing her name, Santana looked up and gave the girls a quick smile which encouraged them to go forward and sit down. Quinn went in front, choosing the seat closest to the aisle and swinging her legs to the side so Brittany could get past, to the seat next to their teacher. Santana gave her a quiet "Hiya" as she sat down and Brittany beamed back as the projector clicked on.
The film began, numbers flickering onto the screen in a countdown, like a 1940's movie.
Santana took a deep breath and tried to concentrate, moving her arm onto the connecting arm rest just as Brittany did the same thing. Their arms bumped together and the blonde girl murmured a quiet "Sorry" into the darkness.
Moving so she was only taking up half of it, Santana whispered back "we can share it", smiling when she felt Brittany lift her arm back, brushing lightly against her own.
On the screen, an actor dressed as Abraham Lincoln was marching around as a monotone narrator began to speak. Santana tried to listen but the feeling of Brittany's hand an inch away from her was distracting, goosebumps raising on her olive skin. She flexed her hand, feeling it briefly connect with the other girl's wrist and tried to ignore the nervous flutter in her stomach. Unable to stop herself she was about to move her arm again, when she saw Will lean towards her and she flinched away from Brittany, suddenly feeling as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have been.
Folding her hands into her lap, she answered his question about the film with forced casualness, glad she knew the subject well as she hadn't been paying attention at all. When he turned away, she kept her hand resting on her leg, trying not to let herself analyse the reason she felt so uncomfortable putting it back and trying to concentrate on the film.
She was just being friendly. Brittany was a sweet girl and she liked her, it was normal for a teacher to warm to certain students. She was just being nice when she suggested they both use the arm rest, it wasn't weird, Brittany hadn't thought it was weird. She had had a lot in common with Brittany when she was young, both cheerleaders, both popular at school. It was natural for Santana to take an interest.
So why had she freaked out when Will had leant over to talk to her?
She shook her head lightly to get rid of the thought. She knew she hadn't done anything wrong. It was all perfectly innocent, she was just tired and over thinking it. Everything was fine.
Having reassured herself she turned her attention back to the film, clenching her hand tightly in her lap and determined to focus on what the dull narrator was saying. But 10 minutes later, when the lights went up, although she didn't remember moving, she looked down to see her arm back resting lightly next to Brittany's, their forearms just touching and their pinky fingers half an inch apart.
She stood up, careful not to look at the cheerleader as she jerked her arm away.
"Right, ok everyone! Lunch, let's go have lunch"
Will laughed, slowly getting to his feet "Santana there's no rush"
But she didn't stop, stepping past him to get to the door
"No I know, but I'm hungry, so, you know, let's pick up the pace a little" She snapped her fingers at the students to make them hurry up, pointedly ignoring a pair of piercing blue eyes that stared at her questioningly.
"Come on people, let's go."
She pulled back the curtain and walked out into the hall, striding down the corridor towards the museum café without even a backwards look to see if anyone was following.
...
Sorry it's kinda late. I've been super busy, I ended up staying at my friend's for the whole weekend and then I had to work all day monday and tuesday. This is the first chance I've had to put it up. So it's pretty long as a lil treat for y'all.
Apparently this story has had over 12,000 hits? You will never know how happy that has made me. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing, I appreciate every story alert I get so really really thank you.
I'm not sure if I like this chapter but hopefully you do, feel free to tell me whatcha think.
:)
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