Chapter Ten
"Hey, Mercedes," called Sugar jogging down the hallway. Mercedes stopped and turned to look at Sugar. She looked a little surprised.
"Yeah?" said Mercedes. Sugar stopped in front of her and tried to catch her breath. "You're Sugar right? Of the purple pianos and the um… interesting audition."
"Yeah, that's me," replied Sugar. "So I heard you got booted from the glee club. Sucks huh?" Mercedes frowned and crossed her arms.
"Oh hell no. I did not get booted from anything. Mercedes quit," she said.
"Right, well, I hear you're good and I need more people for my new glee club and I think you're just the person," said Sugar.
"So it's true?" said Mercedes.
"That there's a new group at McKinley? Oh yeah, and we're going to crush the New Directions into the sad puddle of Lima-loser that they are," said Sugar. Mercedes seemed taken aback by Sugar's outburst. "Sorry, Asperger's. But you should go talk to Shelby."
"I'll think about," replied Mercedes.
Sugar was walking down the hallway towards the lunchroom. Lately, she had just been buying lunch and sitting in Shelby's classroom since she had no one to eat with. As she made her way to the cafeteria, a long arm appeared around Sugar's shoulders startling her.
"Hey Sug!" said Brittany with a huge grin on her face. Sugar suddenly had a weird feeling in her chest that she recognized as homesickness. She really missed her moms. Her grown-up, parental moms. She missed going out for ice cream with them on Sunday afternoons and grudgingly going to the movies with them. She missed Brittany's soft hands smoothing her hair down when she was upset and she missed Santana calling her mija.
"Hi Mo—" Sugar caught herself before she finished. "Brittany." Sugar noticed Santana walking a few paces behind them, arms crossed and glaring.
"San, say hi to Sugar!"
"Hi Sugar," Santana said grudgingly. She's so whipped, Sugar thought happily to herself.
"Um, hi Santana."
"So Sug, I'm sure you've heard by now. I'm running for class president," said Brittany, arm still slung across Sugar's shoulders.
"Oh yeah, that's cool. I'll vote for you," said Sugar. Her head was swimming a little. It was intense dealing with Brittany that close and Santana just a few steps behind them. Brittany squealed.
"Really?" she said. "Awesome. I knew you were awesome. I said that; didn't I San?"
"Yeah Britts," grumbled Santana. She was obviously disgruntled by Brittany making so much physical contact with Sugar. Sugar wished she could have reassured her that she had no reason to worry. For more reasons than she'd care to think about.
"I heard that your dad is in the matrix which is also super awesome. I love Keanu Reeves," said Brittany.
"She means mafia," said Santana. "And no one actually thinks that Britt."
"Either way, I bet your dad could help me with my secret project," said Brittany. Santana was getting more and more agitated. She clearly didn't like sharing Brittany.
"Britts," she said. "We should go." Santana must have been feeling really overprotective because she grabbed Brittany's hand. She never did that in public from what Sugar could tell.
"Yeah," said Brittany grinning happily at Santana. "Okay, bye Sugar!" Santana tugged her towards the cafeteria, glaring at Sugar as they walked away. Sugar let out a huge breath once her moms were gone. Talking to them took a lot out of her.
Sugar casually leaned against a locker with a book in front of her face as she watched Mercedes make her move on Santana.
"Hi Santana. How many solos did you get in glee club last year?" she asked sweetly. Santana turned to look at her.
"A few," replied Santana.
"One," said Mercedes. "Valerie, and I loved it."
"I was also the lips in Rocky Horror," said Santana.
"Listen, if you and I were in Shelby's group we'd get all of the solos and the duets. Our voices sound amazing together," said Mercedes. "Plus, it's an all-girl group." Sugar raised her eyebrows. Did Mercedes know about Santana and Brittany?
"And why would I care about all-girl?" said Santana defensively.
"It's all lady-power, all the time. I mean, Shelby's a great teacher. I'm hitting notes I didn't even know existed. She gets me, what I have to give. It feels good."
"You know honestly I wish I could, but I… somebody's gotta look out for Brittany. I mean, that special place where she lives, yeah it's beautiful, but someone has to help her across the street. I could never just leave her," said Santana. Sugar aww'd loudly on the inside at that one.
"Get her to come with you," said Mercedes with a sly look on her face. Sugar watched as Santana considered what Mercedes had said and nodded. She recognized the look on her mom's face. That was her planning face.
"You should have seen her face," said Mercedes to Sugar, "she's in the bag."
"Who's in the bag?" asked Shelby walking into the room.
"Santana," said Mercedes. "She's definitely going to leave the New Directions."
"Mercedes, I promised Mr. Schuester that we wouldn't try to steal any of his kids," said Shelby.
"It's his own fault Ms. Corcoran," replied Mercedes. "Santana is totally unappreciated. She's one of the best singers in the club and Mr. Schue has her and Tina oohing and ahhing behind the Rachel Berry show. Plus, if she joins she'll bring Brittany with her."
"Ms. Corcoran, you know that we need more members to be a real club," said Sugar.
"We're not really stealing anyone. We're just letting them come to us," said Mercedes.
"Fine, but you're not allowed to go after anyone anymore. Got it?"
"Yeah," said Mercedes.
Sugar and Mercedes set their trays down at the table where Brittany and Santana were already seated.
"Hey girls," said Mercedes. "How's the New Rejections treating you?" Santana rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, Mr. Schue's buttchin made an announcement and Blaine sang another vomit-inducing Katy Perry song," said Santana.
"I liked it," said Brittany. "Blaine's cute.
"He's gay Brittany," said Santana frowning.
"I know Santana," replied Brittany. They held eye contact for a few seconds before Mercedes interrupted them.
"Okay then. I'm gonna go get some more tots. Anyone want anything?" she asked. Everyone shook their head no and she got up from the table.
"What's your problem Santana," asked Brittany. Santana's eyes flicked over to look at Sugar who pretended to be very preoccupied with her lunch.
"Nothing, Britt. Let's talk about it later," she said.
"No, I want to talk about it now," said Brittany forcefully.
"Fine, if you know he's gay then why were you flirting with him during that song?" hissed Santana.
"What? I wasn't."
"Brittany, don't play dumb with me. I was there," said Santana glancing over at Sugar again.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Brittany. Sugar was starting to panic a little. They couldn't fight. They had to be all lovey-dovey all the time or Sugar would never make it back to the future to see them.
"Fine. Forget it then," said Santana. Brittany reached across the table towards Santana's hand, but Santana pulled her hand off the table with a quick glance at Sugar. Brittany looked hurt.
"Are we still on for tonight?" asked Brittany quietly. Santana's expression softened.
"Of course, you know I love me some Breadstix," she said. Mercedes sat down at the table with a big tray of tots. Brittany held up five fingers on one hand and her pinkie on the other. Santana nodded and they linked pinkies. Now Sugar knew when and where their date was. She was going to have to crash it and make sure nothing went wrong.
"Al, it's after six, can you please drive faster?" said Sugar impatiently.
"If I crash this car and you die, I have no idea how that will affect the space time continuum, so be patient," he said. Sugar crossed her arms huffily and sank down in her seat, putting her feet up on the dash. She was relishing the freedom to put her feet anywhere she wanted. Santana was really strict about Sugar propping her feet up on things. Tables, dashboards, anything around the house really was off-limits. Al and Sugar sat in silence until they pulled into the parking lot of Breadstix.
"Are you coming in?" asked Sugar.
"No, I'll wait here," he said. Sugar nodded and hurried into the restaurant.
"How many?" asked the hostess.
"Oh, just one," said Sugar craning her neck over the woman's shoulder to look for her moms. The hostess raised her eyebrows.
"This way," she said. Sugar spotted her moms sitting in a booth in the middle of the restaurant. They were wearing their Cheerios uniforms she noticed. The hostess was leading her away from her moms.
"Um, excuse me," said Sugar. "Could I maybe sit at that table?" She pointed to one that was diagonal from Brittany and Santana's. The hostess raised her eyebrows again. She looked annoyed.
"If you prefer," she said. Sugar sat down at the table and put the menu up in front of her face. It was kind of loud in the restaurant, so Sugar couldn't catch everything they were saying. She heard something about Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears. Then, it came.
"Are we dating, or what?" asked Santana. Sugar sat forward in the booth trying to catch the words.
"Wait, isn't this a date?" asked Brittany. Then something about shrimp. "Wasn't last week when we were taking a bath together, wasn't that a date?" Sugar cringed a little, but then Santana looked away.
"Are you crying?" asked Brittany. Then, Santana said it was because she was happy.
"So, I should come back later then?" Sugar looked up, startled. A grumpy looking older waitress was standing over her.
"Oh, um, sorry," said Sugar. "I'll have water."
"That's it?" said the waitress.
"Um, yeah," said Sugar, trying to hear what her moms were saying. The waitress sighed and walked away and Sugar leaned forward again to listen.
"I wish you'd hold my hand," said Santana. Brittany smiled and reached across the table to hold Santana's hand. "But like, under the napkin."
Mission accomplished. Status of moms' relationship established. Time to move out.
Sugar stood up from the table right when the waitress came back with her water.
"I just realized I need to… check my Facebook page?" said Sugar. She scurried out of the restaurant and climbed into Al's car.
"They're together!" said Sugar. "But I'm worried that Mami is hurting Mom's feelings by not telling people about them."
"So that's phase three?" said Al, putting the car in drive and pulling out of the parking lot.