Alrighty here it is. I know it's a little short for being so long between updates but I have a long ways to go still to where I originally planned to stop the chapter and decided to split them up if for no other reason than to give you guys something to read in the mean time.
Thanks, obviously, again for all the love I have received.
Her hand still burned. She closed it tightly into a fist and opened it again but the sensation remained. She watched as Brittany disappeared through the door, her blonde pony swinging like a pendulum behind her as she hurried to leave. Santana closed her eyes to get the picture of the blonde's retreating back out of her mind, but the only thing that replaced it was the dark purple bruise she witnessed on Brittany's smooth skin. The blemish stood out against the cream color of the rest of the girl's back. The dark color turning almost green on the edges as it melted into her healthy skin, as if trying to belong.
She gasped as she opened her eyes, trying to rid herself of the painful image. She hadn't been aware she was holding her breath. Her jaw remained clenched tightly and the air hissed passed her teeth to gain entrance to her throat and eventual lungs. The phantom bruise hung in the air as she stared at the row of lockers in front of her. She willed it to fade and eventually it did but was replaced by the image of blood, a split lip, small penny sized bruises with red edges. Some so new they still held a grey or blue dot center from the pen or pencil that had caused the damage. Things she hadn't noticed, not before Brittany had mentioned them. She willed her eyes to remain open, the visions only coming in more detail when she blinked.
Her hand burned where it had touched her. The entire palm blazed as if she'd touched a burner, her mind focusing on nothing but the feeling throbbing from her right hand as the images of damaged skin danced before her eyes.
"Fuck!" She yelled into the empty room, the sound bouncing off the walls and replaying over. The noise of it rang painfully in her ears. The images, the noise and the feeling in her hand wouldn't stop. She didn't realize what she was doing until she was moving. The burning had become too much. She needed it to stop. She yelled frustrated at the emptiness around her, the lockers staring silently, mockingly. The burn was replaced by needle-like stinging coming from her knuckles. Her breath hitched again as tears stung the back of her eyes.
She leaned her heated forehead against the coolness of metal before her as she cradled her right hand against her chest. It hurt, a lot. She inhaled through her nose and let the familiar scent of the room wash over and calm her. She tried to stretch her fingers and winced with the sharp pain as it shot up her hand all the way to her elbow. She let out a throaty laugh that came out a little too raspy to pass for happy. Even in her own ears it sounded half like a sob. She couldn't believe she actually punched the locker.
She pulled her head away and leaned back balancing her own weight instead of relying on the metal to keep her up. Her eyes scanned the room and landed on the small dint in Brittany's locker door that was the result of her losing her temper. Maybe she was losing her mind as well. She tried once more to straighten her fingers and stared down at her injured hand.
"Shit," she swore as pain lanced up her arm once more. She could plainly see that one of her knuckles had been dislocated. It had happened before. Cheerleading wasn't the safest sport in the world and unfortunately the others on her squad weren't always there to catch her when she tumbled off the pyramid. She'd become accustom to protecting herself and fixing her own injuries. She needed her squad to see her as strong, and witnessing her in pain was not something that would inspire faith. If she was able to be hurt doing a certain move than their chances of being injured were heightened.
She needed them to follow her without question.
She wrapped her left hand firmly around her injured one and clenched her teeth as she quickly maneuvered the bones back to their rightful places. She swallowed as much of the whimper as she could and took several deep breaths. The splitting pain ripping through her arm was slowly replaced by a dull throb. She knew that she would have to be careful not to dislocate it again, which would have been a lot easier if she didn't have practice to get to.
Her squad. She was their captain and they were supposed to follow her lead. Jes was making that line blur more and more with each day and she knew she had to stop it soon. She just hadn't figured out how. How to put Jes in her place without causing a rift in the team. She needed everyone to be working seamlessly and she only had two weeks to accomplish that. If Jes and the other five seniors were to rebel and cause trouble that would be a major problem. The seniors made up some of their better cheerleaders. And if any of the squad were distracted during their first meet in a few weeks it could cost them everything. She'd promised the team they would be bringing home another Nationals trophy and that wouldn't happen if things became tense within the team.
Right now Jes was playing the line, she was barely overstepping and not enough to warrant a real response from her. Actually besides gaining the attention of Bieste that day she hadn't done anything to warrant Santana's displeasure. She was acting the same to Brittany as she would have any other girl that spoke back to her. Brittany had gotten away with much more than any other girl had ever done.
But Santana couldn't get the images of Brittany's marred skin out of her head. She really hadn't thought that things had escalated to that level. She remembered how her stomach had flipped when she spotted Brittany in the Lima Bean on Sunday. She'd only been wearing a sports bra and shorts and there was an ungodly amount of skin showing. There hadn't been any imperfections on her body at the time, no bruises or blood. The sight of it had nearly stopped her heart and it had taken all of her will power not to stare at Brittany as she stood in line. Her body was perfect. Perfectly smooth and toned and the girl literally had abs. Santana had to gulp down a large mouthful of searing coffee to force herself from getting up and attacking the guy behind the counter for looking at Brittany the way he had been. He didn't deserve to look at her like that.
Santana had only been able to barely keep Jes from turning around and spotting Brittany and only relaxed when Brittany had caught her eye and rushed out of the building. She wasn't particularly happy that the sight of her could cause the other girl to literally bolt, but at the time she was relieved because she knew Jes wouldn't have let a busy public setting stop her from doing something to Brittany. And Santana couldn't promise that she wouldn't have done anything to retaliate against Jes.
She tried avoiding Brittany because it was easier than trying to hide what she was going through. She remembered how her skin buzzed when Brittany had touched her to wake her that one day, how her heart sped up when she was around and the anger she felt at the harmless pranks her squad had pulled on her in Math. She'd barely kept her anger in check and was actually thankful, for once, to Mr. Bates when he put a stop to it. She really didn't know what she would do if she had witnessed what Carmen was doing to her in class. Santana was barely keeping a hold on her anger in Gym. Quinn had intervened many times that week to stop her from going all crazy on Jes' ass. She never got worked up at seeing Jes abuse anyone else, just Brittany.
She quickly undressed and redressed in her Cheerios uniform, knowing that she was already late and Coach wasn't going to be happy about that. She just prayed that Carmen and Jes kept their shit together because the anger she was barely keeping down was waiting to be unleashed at the two seniors.
There was more at stake than Jes and her followers. Every action affected the entire squad. She had to keep repeating that to herself lest she do what she really wanted and risk everything she had worked to achieve over the past three years.
As she walked out of the school doors she was already acutely aware of Coach yelling at the other girls on the field. The megaphone she always brought with her carried her voice a great distance and from it Santana was aware that the squad was not on the Football field but had taken up on the smaller field on the one side of the school. It was technically the Cheerios field for practice but half the time they never used it. It was smaller to begin with and as such seemed less important than the space the football field allowed. Plus it wasn't situated in a spot of particular significance. It was sectioned off before the Cheerios had made a name for themselves. Santana quickly scanned the football field and, not surprisingly, found it full of players running drills and Coach Bieste's voice yelling out orders. She quickly turned and jogged her way over to her squad, slipping her way into the front line, beside Quinn.
"Finally you decide to show up Sandbags." Santana didn't even bother to correct her coach. She was sick and tired of defending herself against the woman. Christine may have graduated but the bitch's rumour had stuck. Santana had threatened the spread of it so effectively by now that Sue Sylvester was the only one still referring to it. "I was just telling the rest of these pathetic excuses for cheerleaders that you had better not screw up at the meet next week."
"That's actually in two weeks Coach."
Santana turned her glare towards the girl on her right. "Shut the fuck up Shelby." She hissed through gritted teeth. Santana looked up to Coach Sue and realized that her prayers were not going to be answered because the woman may be old as fuck but she had a weirdly good sense of hearing. Her piercing gaze and incidentally her megaphone were pointed in their direction. Coach Sue opened her mouth to speak but pulled the megaphone away a second before she did.
"Thank you," she said with a smile. Shelby rose up on her toes before dropping back down. She had a cocky, but pleased look on her face and she smiled to Santana before turning to face Coach again. "Thank you so much for correcting me." Coach rose the megaphone back up to her mouth, "Now go run ten laps for your thoughtless insubordination!"
Shelby hesitated for a single moment and Santana could see the venom in Coach Sue's eyes as the girl continued to remain routed to her spot. Santana elbowed her sharply causing her to jump. It was sufficient to bring her out of her confused stupor and she immediately took off running. Santana looked around at her squad and noticed that, thankfully, everyone was present and accounted for. She noticed Marcy was grouped next to Jes and the other seniors and wasn't surprised. It was the furthest away she could get from Quinn and herself and the girl obviously thought she could stay out of the crossfires if she remained near Jes. Just by that fact Santana knew the girl was avoiding her captain and second in command.
"Yo, Skunkhead!" Santana spoke up, getting the girl's, and subsequently the whole squads, attention, and that included Coach Sue. "Did you manage to do your laps?"
Quinn's glare found Marcy as she realized that the girl that was usually glued to her hip was situated so far away. Her eyes squinted and Santana knew she had come to the same conclusion as she had moments ago. Marcy was unable to meet either of their gazes but stared at their runners on the grass. She shook her head in the negative.
"No, I wa-"
"I don't want excuses." Santana cut her off. "Now get your lazy ass out there and keep Shelby company."
As Marcy walked passed them on her way to catch up with Shelby, Quinn grabbed her arm. "Laps for a week," is all the blonde needed to say. Marcy ducked her head lower, knowing her idol was disappointed in her and nodded her head. The second Quinn released her arm she took off at a sprint.
Coach Sue let out a bellowing laugh. She wiped her eyes of non-existent tears before turning back to Santana and Quinn. She pointed her megaphone at them and shook it excitedly. "That right there is why you two are leading these cheerleading shaped pieces of mushy meat packets. You're not afraid to show some authority."
Even if Santana couldn't see it out of the corner of her eye she would have been able to feel the change in Jes to her right. She straightened her spine and jutted her jaw out. She thought she had what it took to lead the team. Santana forced herself to not look at the senior Cheerios. She didn't trust herself not to lose herself and explode. Her encounter with Brittany remained raw in her mind. She needed time to figure out how to deal with it.
She hadn't seen any more bullying since Monday, excluding the balls of paper that were thrown at her in Math earlier on in the week and the pathetic display Jes had put in Gym class half an hour ago. She thought she had gotten to Jes, she knew Jes was using Gym as an excuse to prove some kind of point and that left Santana with little room to reprimand, but it looked like Jes had gone behind her back and recruited a good portion of Cheerios to do the dirty work for her. Maybe she wasn't giving Jes enough credit. Maybe she was smart enough not to start something when Santana was around anymore, at least not in the halls.
At Coach's approval Santana called out a routine they had been working on for the past week. Her squad was quick to respond and Shelby and Marcy hurried to take up their spots, knowing if they failed to get there before the signal their punishments would increase.
During the routine Santana hoped her squad was performing well. She was able to improvise most of the cartwheels and flips required of her into one or no handed moves. The others in the squad were too nervousness, trying for perfection, to notice Santana's choreography change. When the end of the routine came and she looked up to Sue she was sure she had seen acceptance and maybe a little pride in her eyes.
"Sloppy," The megaphone was back to her mouth and Santana sighed. Either Coach Sue wasn't going to admit that she was impressed or Santana had read the signals completely wrong. "That was pathetic. I've seen baboons wearing stilts that had more grace than the lot of you. You expect that to win you Regionals?" She paused but no one answered. They all knew she wasn't actually looking for a response. "Start from scratch. That routine was tedious and boring, borderline suicide worthy."
Santana was long over the yelling and rants of her coach by now. Her and Quinn had already been thinking up a better routine for Regionals anyway. It just wasn't ready yet. But if Sue Sylvester wanted another routine, next week she would get one.
When Coach Sue left them to their own devices Santana took no time in sectioning everyone off. She had Jes led a Gymnastic section. The girl was mediocre with everything else but was surprisingly decent at flips and cartwheels and the like. She made Carmen in charge of the tumbling section. They needed to find, and start training, a new Cheerio for the pyramids for when the seniors graduated. Normally she would have Quinn lead the dance movements and ground choreography but they really needed to finish the choreography for their half-finished routine. And if Coach wanted it done by next week than Santana would need Quinn with her the next few practices. So instead she decided to place Amanda, a junior who Santana knew happened to take dance lessons, in charge of Quinn's normal group. Amanda wasn't anything special on the field but she was one of the quicker studies when it came to ground choreography. The rest of the squad Santana assigned to a section leader according to their own personal needs. She was trying to get many of the younger members on par with some of the older. It didn't matter if the seniors had two more years experience on them, Santana expected perfection out of everyone on the squad, even the youngest.
Santana and Quinn were just about to run a rough version of the routine by the team when the side door into the school opened. Santana didn't think anything of it as she turned to her squad.
"Alright, gather 'round bitches." When no one made a move to join her and Quinn on the far side of the small field Santana turned to the blonde beside her. Quinn looked just as perplexed as she was; they both knew she'd spoken loud enough to be heard. It was then that Santana realized she had heard the school door open but no student had passed by in either direction. Quinn moved first, taking the first couple steps forward, and Santana observed that every member of the squad was facing the school. Whoever had come out of it was obviously of interest to the girls. Santana instantly got a bad feeling.
She followed a few strides behind Quinn as they made their way through the squad to get to where the commotion was. As they drew nearer Santana was able to hear voices, or one voice in particular. Jes wasn't speaking overly loud but it was as venomous as Santana had ever heard the girl speak.
"-ay for what you did."
It was obvious that Santana and Quinn had missed the first minute or so of the interaction, although, Santana didn't hear anyone speaking up in the moments that followed Jes' voice. As they emerged from the crowd, Quinn having to push aside the last two girls to make room for them, Santana was finally able to see exactly what was capturing her squads attention.
It was exactly what she dreaded.
The squad was gathered in an uneven semi-circle with Jes, Carmen and two other senior Cheerios at its centre. They were all facing the same direction and as Santana's eyes followed theirs she caught a glimpse of the same back she'd been trying to forget for the past hour.
Brittany was facing the parking lot in the front of the school, obviously having tried to escape Santana's friends, but there was a group of girls, spread out and arms crossed, blocking Brittany's route. With a brick wall on one side and cheerleaders on all others, Brittany was trapped. Santana noticed how Brittany clenched her fist around the strap of her bag which was flung over her shoulder. Her other hand was twitching at her side, fingers moving rapidly. Santana stared at Brittany's hand realizing she was taping her fingers to her thumb in rhythmic order.
"Don't be a coward, Blondie. Turn around and face me." Jes spoke up once more when Brittany failed to react to her earlier words.
Santana saw Brittany's shoulders stiffen more than they already were and one of her hands pulled the strap of her backpack tighter. The irony wasn't lost on Santana, Jes calling Brittany a coward when she herself had nearly twenty girls behind her and Brittany stood alone.
"Did you not hear me? This chick must really be as stupid as they say." Jes laughed and Santana's skin crawled in response. Many of the other Cheerios joined in. "You better start listening if you know what's good for you. This week has obviously taught you nothing about how things work around here."
Santana watched as Brittany walked forward instead of turning back to Jes. She watched as Brittany approached the wall of Cheerios separating her from her vehicle. She watched as her Cheerios closed ranks, narrowing the gaps between them as Brittany drew closer. And she watched as one of them pushed Brittany back when she refused to halt her escape. Brittany backed up a few steps with the force of the shove and paused for a moment before hoisting her backpack up on her shoulder and once more made to push past the girls trapping her.
Santana was slightly aware of Quinn taking a step towards the commotion out of the corner of her eye but before she was able to do whatever she had planned Jes took action. Santana was brought out of her frozen state and Quinn's movement stilled when Jes snapped her fingers. The wall of Cheerios Brittany was up against moved in perfect sync, and so they should as Santana had trained them well. It took three of them to grab Brittany and turn her around as the blonde fought them, trying to shake the hands grasping her upper arms, but it was no use. Jes stepped forward, Carmen and the other two seniors following close behind her. Santana was sure Jes was speaking again but her focus was so trained on Brittany she wasn't aware of the words coming from the seniors mouth.
Brittany struggled again as Jes drew nearer to her and winced as the hands holding her all tightened in response. Her jaw clenched and Santana was sure she was holding back a sound of pain so her tormentors wouldn't have the satisfaction of hearing it. It's what Santana would've done in her shoes. It all happened so fast and then Brittany was wearing her trademark blank expression. Santana was sure no one but her had seen any discomfort on Brittany's face. Santana stared at the hands holding Brittany's upper arms and forearms and watched as her Cheerios' fingers turned white with the exertion to hold her in place. She imagined the pressure of each digit digging into the flesh of Brittany's arms, causing more discoloured bruises to appear on her already damaged skin.
The phantom images were back, swimming in Santana's vision and she felt her own skin heat up in response. She clenched her hands at her sides and felt the deep thrum of pain coming from her injured knuckle at the pressure. Jes reached one of her hands up and by the time she was brushing the back of her knuckles against Brittany's jaw line Santana was already moving.
"Such a pretty face. Too bad about your lip though; ugly is the only thing anyone's going to see until that's healed. And if I have my way as soon as this one disappears there will be another ready to take its place. That is until you learn to behave." Jes turned her hand to cradle Brittany's chin in her palm and pressed her thumb firmly into her bottom lip, directly over the partially closed wound.
This time Brittany wasn't able to choke down the gasp as she struggled, in vain, to rid the pressure of Jes' thumb on her face. The girls behind her were more than enough to keep the blonde in place as Jes dug her thumb in a little harder. And even though she tried Santana was close enough to hear the almost silent whimper escape Brittany's lips.
Santana was seeing red and her peripheral vision began to blur like it always seemed to do when her rage took control. She couldn't remember ever being this angry before, in her entire life. She fought against the urge to tackle Jes and take the anger out on her face, but realized that might cause further pain to Brittany as Jes' hand was still gripping the other girls lip. Instead Santana reached up and grabbed a handful of Jes' dark hair in one hand as her other went to grab the wrist at Brittany's face. She made sure she had a firm grip on Jes' wrist before tugging her hair sharply. Jes' head whipped back with enough force to unbalance her and Santana was glad she had the foresight to grab her wrist as she felt the tendons contract in surprise at the same time Jes' body leaned back. Santana pressed against Jes' back steadying her while still maintaining a hold on her hair, keeping her facing the blue sky above. She dug her nails into the flesh of Jes' arm as she heard a small squeal coming from Brittany and she didn't let up until she felt the tendons below her nails relax, fingers releasing Brittany.
Once she was detached from Brittany it didn't take long for Santana to release her hold on Jes completely. She roughly shoved her back and stepped into the space created, effectively placing herself in front of Brittany. It took Jes many seconds to process what happened, but when she did she turned her murderous glare on Santana. By this time all but one senior cheerleader was standing behind Jes, grouped as a unit; five seniors all stared at Santana with a mixture of confusion and loathing.
Santana waited for them to make the fist move and an uncomfortably long stare down ensued. The sound of movement behind her distracted Santana from the potential threat of the group before her. She turned, looking over her shoulder, and saw Brittany was trying to free herself from the grip the Cheerios behind her still held. Brittany's head jerked to the side as she tried to wipe the line of blood trickling down her chin into her shoulder but the girl gripping her arm shook Brittany's body with enough force to probably give her some form of whiplash. Brittany stopped struggling but tried to stop the flow of blood by sucking her bottom lip into her mouth, wincing as she did so.
"Oh for fuck sakes, let her wipe the blood off her face at least." When the Cheerios kept their hold on Brittany, Santana turned around fully. "Hands off, or I break them off." All three dropped their hands to their sides while averting their eyes from Santana's annoyed glances.
Once freed, Brittany reached up and carefully wiped at the red trail below her lip. When she pulled her hand away she wiped it on the side of her jeans. Santana reached her hand up to Brittany's face when she noticed she had missed a spot. Brittany flinched and Santana paused gritting her teeth in anger towards her own team.
"You missed a spot on your chin." She motioned to the spot she was referring to and Brittany wiped it clean as well. Brittany stared at Santana, looking her in the eyes and Santana saw confusion written on her face before her eyes flickered over Santana's shoulder and her blank expression returned.
"That was uncalled for." Santana heard Carmen speak up from behind her. She chose not to respond, it wouldn't accomplish anything anyway. Instead, she bent and picked up Brittany's back pack that had fallen to the ground in her struggle with the girls behind her. She dusted some invisible dirt from the front of the bag which had been touching the grass before holding it out to Brittany.
"What the hell is she doing?" A different senior spoke up, but no one answered her.
Brittany took her bag and slung it across her shoulder once more but stayed routed in her spot, staring at Santana with her now unreadable eyes.
"You should probably get going." Santana spoke up. Brittany turned her head slightly and Santana caught her looking at the Cheerios present behind her, blocking her escape still. "Move!" Santana spoke loudly, eyeing the girls, disbelieving they needed the order to do what she had already implied with her dismissal of Brittany. The girls immediately created a path.
"San-" Santana lifted her hand in a dismissive gesture at Jes' voice. It only proved to stall her for a brief moment. "There's no Bieste here this time, jeeze. Take a chill pill."
Brittany's eyes narrowed at Jes' response, and this time Santana could practically hear her thoughts. Jes wasn't going to stop. Santana looked to Brittany's arms where there were red circles forming from the fingers that had held her. This wasn't going to stop. It was just going to stop in her presence. They'd take their frustration out on her, Brittany would get it worse than before. Santana wouldn't put it passed them to dragging Brittany out to the dumpsters, where there was no staff or prying eyes and doing more to Brittany. They would keep it hidden, but they loved public humiliation too much to not make it worth their time in hiding Brittany's punishment. The severity of pain would increase and it would be Santana's fault for driving the Cheerios from the safety of the halls to the danger of secluded back alleys. Santana met Brittany's eyes and tried to portray how sorry she was for what was happening.
"This won't happen again." Santana spoke with more force than she thought she was capable of looking into Brittany's blue eyes. "I promise."
Brittany looked shocked, actually shocked, and Santana felt a mixture of pride and disappointment at simultaneously breaking Brittany's blank mask and realizing Brittany thought so little of her that her declaration would be a surprise. The confused and slightly shamed expression of the girls behind Brittany caught Santana's attention.
"And my squad apologizes for their actions. Right?" A few mumbled 'yeahs' were heard but when Santana turned around and rose a questioning eyebrow most of the team spoke louder, agreeing with their captains words.
Brittany gave a stiff nod before turning and walking to the parking lot. Santana's eyes remained on her back, this time memorizing it instead of trying to forget like she had earlier in the change room.
When Brittany was safely out of the danger zone Santana became aware of the tension surrounding her. She turned slowly, eying every girl as she did, and stopped only when she squared her shoulders against the group of seniors who hadn't seemed to move since they first grouped up. Immediately now that this was a squad matter and no outsiders were present Quinn took her place beside Santana, automatically casting her vote with their captain.
"You had no right to but in." Jes started.
"I had every right." Santana responded, gauging the tension and scanning the other girls to see who would potentially side with her or Jes if this was going to end in a vote to oust her as captain.
"You just gave a loser a free ticket out of here." Carmen stepped up beside Jes and waved her hand in the general direction Brittany had disappeared. "Again."
"And gave her the impression she has power over us. How do you think that's going to go over when she tells the other losers. By Monday there is not going to be a single glasses wearing dork that remains fearful of us." Jes said looking at the other Cheerios as she did. She was trying to rouse a response from the others. She was trying to play on their love of being on top to get her the votes she needed. She'd obviously been taking pointers from one of the other seniors, not being smart enough to come up with such speeches on her own, and from the approving nod Carmen was giving Santana would bet it was her.
"Oh, please." Santana started. "She's new and probably won't say a damn thing to anyone. Besides I told you to back off and that's what I'm most concerned about now."
"I shouldn't have to back off. I was trying to teach the slut a damn lesson. She has too much self importance for her own good. She needs to see herself for what she really is. A nobody."
Santana didn't have to see the other Cheerios nodding to feel their approval at Jes' words. This was the way McKinley, and the world, worked. It was frustrating.
"There is a difference in teaching someone their place and attacking a girl for the fun of it." Santana voice rose so every member of the team could hear her. "The dumb jocks of this school can think they are on top because of the constant fear that follows them around but that is not how it works. That is not how we work. We are on top because we know the difference between beating down the masses and leading them. You want students to fear you, we already have that. You want to keep them in line and teach them where they belong? Well you aren't going to get any results the way you are going about it. That girl you say is so self important has done nothing but mind her own business since she arrived."
"Mind her own business?" Carmen shrieked. "Look what she did to Jes' face. It looks like she's had an allergic reaction with how puffy and red her one cheek is. It's disgusting."
"That's enough Carmen." Jes cut in embarrassed.
"I agree, that is enough." Santana looked at her senior Cheerios. She knew what she was about to do was a risk but at this point there was no alternative. If she didn't do this than she would forever seem weak among her squad and Brittany would be worse of than she already was. "I'm stopping this once and for all."
"Because you have the hots for her, you are going to risk everything?" Jes stared at Santana before looking around at the other girls. "She's done nothing but act up against us since she has been here and you are blind if yo-"
"She acts up because you give her no choice. You attack her and have the whole squad torment her day in and day out without reprieve and expect her to bend over and take it. I've never witnessed her starting these altercations." Santana was fuming again. "I only see her ending them, which puts you more at a disadvantage and only results in embarrassing yourself and the rest of this team."
"It's the truth. I know you all have made it your mission to torment the girl as much as possible. And I know Jes has even instructed you all to not do so in Santana's presence." Quinn spoke up from Santana's side. She looked around glaring pointedly at a few members, who looked shamefully down at their runners when they met Quinn's eyes. "As far as I'm concerned you all deserve to be punished for disrespecting our captain."
"W-what? We didn't disrespect Santana." Marcy stepped forward.
"Were you not instructed to bully Brittany as often as you could as long as Santana wasn't around?" Quinn answered her protegé.
"Well yeah, but that's not-"
"And why do you suppose that stipulation was put in place, huh? Why would Jes ask you to avoid Santana unless Santana would not approve of it?" Marcy stuttered a few syllables before closing her mouth and averting her eyes, obviously caught in Quinn's logic.
Santana watched amazed at how Quinn could work a situation to her advantage, and Santana was never more glad at having her as her second in command as she was at this point. Santana was still way too worked up to think properly. Quinn was giving her a minute to calm down and think rationally about the situation. The squad was going to need a reason for Santana being so protective over Brittany, and the truth that she was inexplicably drawn to the girl was not going to cut it.
"If Santana wasn't so emotionally attached this wouldn't even be an issue." Jes spoke up again, not liking that the attention had been taken off of her.
"You know what? I am emotionally attached." Santana found her voice once more and it was more calm than she had sounded earlier. "You can bet your ass I get emotionally attached to anything that affects this squad and its performance."
"This has nothing to do with our performance."
"It does when you have the entire squad running around behind my back and wasting their time with a petty grudge that was all made up in your head." Santana turned away from Jes to face the rest of the girls still surrounding them in a half circle. "If you have time to sneak around thinking up ways to torment a girl for no reason then I'm obviously not doing my job. You heard Coach. Yous all were sloppy and that just ain'ts gonna cut it anymore." Santana paused. "Do you still want to be a part of a champion team? Do you want me to take you to Nationals again this year? Are you all still willing to do anything to get there? Do you trust me to do this?" Each girl nodded her head after every question Santana posed. "Good, because the next girl I catch bullying Brittany will be off this team."
"What?" Jes and Carmen shrieked at the same time.
"And that means no throwing things at her, including paper, no tripping her in the halls, no jabbing her with pencils or shoving her into lockers." Santana continued to address the team, ignoring the seniors. "In fact if I see or hear of any Cheerio so much as looking at Brittany the wrong way I won't hesitate in removing them from the squad."
"You can't do that?"
Santana turned to address Jes only when she was positive the rest of the team knew how serious she was. "And why's that?"
"Um...I. Well you." Jes turned to Carmen for guidance and Santana made a mental note to watch the both of them more closely. "You can't forbid us to do anything. You're not the boss of us."
Santana narrowed her eyes in response. "Is that right?"
"Yeah it is," Jes straightened to her full height, thinking the added couple of inches were going to beat Santana down.
"I have every authority to kick your mutinous asses off this team for any reason I see fit. I am the captain if you've somehow forgotten that little piece of information.
"Coach will kill you if you jeopardize our chances of winning this year. And you can't win if you kick your best off the team over a stupid nobody."
"Oh please, like she knows what it takes to win. She's hardcore and makes the most of the publicity when we win but who the fuck do you think is winning her those trophies? Who do you think organizes and plans every routine? Is she the one out here drilling you into perfection? Is she the one busting her ass so you all," Santana swept her hand out motioning to the rest of the squad, "can continue living your blessed lives on top of the social ladder looking down upon those who wish they were half as important as you?"
"That's besides the point. Coach will still take away your title if you fuck this up." Carmen spoke up, finally moving to stand beside Jes.
Santana laughed. "Right. After Christine's fuck up last year you think Sue is going to risk demoting me again?" The three seniors behind Jes and Carmen began fidgeting. They hadn't thought of needing Sue's blessing in this. "Sue knows I'm the best chance she's got of winning Nationals again, I've proven that. And if any of you are stupid enough to believe Coach will risk her reputation just because a few of you suddenly don't like the rules you are sadly mistaken."
"Whatever," Jes scoffed once she realized there wasn't really anything more to be said. Carmen shot her a pointed glare but Jes turned away, ignoring it. "I was getting bored of her anyway, I'll just find someone else to occupy myself with."
"No you will not because until we win Regionals everyone on this team is going to be living cheerleading. We are adding extra practices before class and doubling up time on weekends." A collective groan passed through the team but Santana chose to ignore it. "And when you are not at practice you will be working on your routines at home. I want every waking, and dreaming, second of your day focused on winning. I won't be embarrassed by a single member of this team because of something as stupid as lack of training time." Santana motioned with her head for the seniors behind Jes and Carmen to join the rest of the squad. They had spent the last five minutes trying to look invisible. "If you have time to throw one slushy at someone you have time to perfect your choreography. If you have time to think up any number of lame ass insults you have time to run the routine in your head. By the end of these two weeks you are going to be so sick of the word cheer that you'll wanna puke the second we win that trophy. I'm done accepting mediocre performances because you all are too distracted with trivial things."
Jes and Carmen spent the next hour either glaring at Santana or yelling obscenities to the other squad members. Apparently they assumed bullying the squad didn't count as going against Santana's new rules and the only reason Santana accepted their behavior was because they were actually scaring the younger girls into stepping up and perfecting their techniques; no one wanted to be the one to run into either girl because they were out of sync themselves. Santana did admit, but only to herself, that she also liked the picture of those that had bullied Brittany getting a taste of their own medicine.
When Santana finally dismissed the team she watched as they dragged their feet to the locker room. She'd definitely not been lenient in the least and the entire squad was going to have sore muscles the next day as a result.
"Don't forget we're starting practice two hours earlier tomorrow!" Santana yelled to the retreating backs. "And I won't be accepting any excuses for being late or absent."
"You never do." Santana eyed the blonde sophomore that had spoken up as she trudged past. "Captain." the girl added in hopes of placating Santana with a sign of respect. Santana herself was way too exhausted to even attempt to scare the younger girl into submission and just waved her on.
"So after that performance are you still going to look me in the eye and tell me there is nothing going on between you and Brittany?"
Santana jumped and pressed her hand against her racing heart. She had assumed everyone had made it into the school, but hearing Quinn's voice she realized that had just been wishful thinking; of course Quinn would want to discuss what had happened. She turned her head just enough to see that Quinn was standing beside her, closer than Santana would have believed considering she hadn't been aware of anyone left on the field.
"She was a distraction the team could do without."
"So you go after the team instead of the distraction, makes sense." Santana rolled her eyes at Quinn's sarcastic tone.
"What I said was true. The squad has been attacking her, not the other way around. Me telling Brittany to stop distracting my team would be like me telling a gazelle to stop tempting a lion."
"Nice analogy." Quinn's giggle made Santana smile.
"Shut up."
"No really, it was very descriptive."
"Ugh, I've been watching way too many nature shows okay?" Santana grumbled pushing Quinn slightly with her elbow. "Leave me alone."
"Fine." Quinn smiled but conceded. "And I know you were right. Attacking Brittany wouldn't solve anything. The squad's been really hard on her this last week."
"You don't know the half of it." Santana blurted without thinking, memories of the locker room rushing back to her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Quinn asked. "Have you spoken to her about this?"
"Uh, her? who?"
"Don't play dumb with me. Brittany, did you talk to her about Jes and the rest of the squad?"
"No."
"Then how do you know what the squad's been doing?"
"How do you?" A horrible thought suddenly came to Santana. "You haven't been..." She trailed of not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"God, no." Quinn waved her hand dismissing the idea and Santana felt relieved at knowing Quinn at least hadn't laid a hand on Brittany. She wasn't sure if she could have handled the images of Quinn bullying Brittany along with the images already haunting her mind. "Marcy told me a brief version right before Coach arrived for practice."
"Oh, right." Santana looked to the school and then scanned the football field, which was now standing empty. No wonder the football team never won, they didn't have the discipline to hone their craft with late practices.
"You haven't answered my question."
"Obviously." Santana quipped as her attention was drawn back to her friend. And when Quinn responded with a raised brow Santana rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I just saw the bruises in the change room earlier."
"Bad?" Santana looked to Quinn out of the corner of her eye and noticed her wince. It made her feel as if maybe she wasn't completely crazy about caring for the blonde new girl. Brittany shouldn't mean anything to her. And yet, she couldn't seem to get the blue eyed blonde out of her head.
"You could say that." Santana spat out remembering the darkened bruise that took up a large section of Brittany's back. "It's completely uncalled for. I don't know what the fuck Jes and Carmen's problem with her is."
"Seriously? You can't think of anything? No reason why they chose to target her?"
"No I can't." Santana eyed Quinn as she scoffed and threw up her arms.
"Then you're even more dense than I've been giving you credit for all these years."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that just because you don't want to admit anything is going on doesn't mean that others can't see that something is there." Santana opened her mouth to refute such claims but Quinn continued before she could. "They may be taking a stab in the dark with it but the way you've been acting isn't helping your claims otherwise. Anyone can see you are getting way more defensive when Brittany is involved. How many times did I have to step in this week?"
Santana didn't know how to respond. She wasn't even sure if a response was needed. Either way Quinn was going to believe what she wanted. And she'd been able to read Santana for years now, hiding anything from her was near impossible. But Santana wasn't ready to voice her attraction to Brittany just yet. Voicing it made it real, and considering Brittany pretty much despised her it didn't matter what she did or did not feel for her.
Santana turned and made her way to the parking lot.
"Hey what about your bag?" Quinn yelled after her.
Santana flicked her wrist over her shoulder. "I'll get it tomorrow."
Maybe tomorrow the locker room wouldn't seem so daunting. There was no way she would be able to walk into that room, not with her squad. Seeing them in the same space where images of the damage they'd caused had been shown to her, she'd snap for sure.