A/N: This chapter is mostly vignettes set during Mash-Up.
Chapter 11: Off the Team
When they wake up, impossibly tangled together, Quinn sighs and pokes Santana. Grumpy as always when woken up, Santana shoves her and Quinn ends up sprawled on top of Brittany.
"Santana!" Quinn screams in annoyance, rolling off of Brittany.
Britt sits up a bit confused.
"Sorry B, it was all her fault," Quinn proclaims.
Santana has rolled to face away from them and continue sleeping.
"I'll get the pancake stuff if you wake her up," Quinn offers, only feeling slightly bad.
Waking Santana in the morning is not a task she'd wish on anyone, but Britt seems to be particularly skilled at it.
"Deal," Brittany smiles offering her pinkie to seal the promise.
With Quinn gone, after double-checking to make sure she isn't coming back, Britt leans over and kisses Santana's cheek. When San rolls toward her, Britt follows it up with a deep kiss. Santana blinks up at her blurry eyed.
"Morning B," she says softly, her voice hoarse from sleep.
Brittany thinks this might be her favorite thing. Seeing Santana in the morning, happy, tired but real, in a way no one else gets to see her.
San yawns and smiles, reaching up to kiss her again. She has complete faith that Britt knows they are on the DL or whatever and Q isn't around.
"Good morning," Brittany replies once they pull apart.
Santana reluctantly sits up so she can pull Brittany into her lap.
"I'll squish you," Brittany proclaims trying to wiggle away.
Santana just tightens her grip, "Nonsense, Chispita," she says, "little spark" fits Brittany now, her blond hair wild and blue eyes flashing.
"I suppose you won't tell me what that means," Brittany pouts.
Santana gently kisses it away, "Of course not, that's the game Mariposa".
Britt reminds her of a butterfly in flight, constant motion and grace. Santana recently started using sweet Spanish nicknames for Brittany but she says it's a game, Britt has to figure out what they mean on her own. Santana really just can't bring herself to say the words in English, to let Britt understand, they invoke too many feelings and this is supposed to be just sex.
Santana sighs and drops her head onto Brittany's shoulder, kissing her neck. Britt giggles, one of her favorite sounds.
"That tickles, S," she laughs, twisting away.
"Querida," Santana coos pressing in one last kiss.
Brittany slides off her lap and tugs her to her feet. "Pancake time Liefje," she proclaims, tugging her along, two can play at this game.
"Lief," she whines insistently pulling Santana along.
When they get there, Quinn has finished the batter and made most of the pancakes.
"I left some for you to flip," she points for Brittany, before moving to fill her glass with orange juice. This house is like a second home and she knows where everything is.
Britt eagerly steps up to the stove and pours out a circle. Santana fills two glasses, one orange and one apple while watching Brittany. Flipping is the tricky part and Brittany has her tongue poking out of the edge of her mouth in concentration. It nearly falls out of the pan, but Quinn nudges the spatula at the right time so it just hits the edge.
After years of practice you'd think there would be some improvement, there was but it was minimal. Better than Santana though, she could cook Latino food and that's about it pasta, toast, grilled cheese on a good day.
"Set the table," Quinn bosses Santana, moving to supervise Brittany.
Santana rolls her eyes but does it, biting her tongue.
"Thanks for helping B," Quinn smiles when they finish without lighting anything on fire, "Pancake for you".
Brittany follows where Q is pointing and grabs the plate.
Santana stands up and peeks at it, "Cool cat".
Quinn makes shapes for Brittany and Brittany only. Santana asked once and got a straight up no. So stubborn as always, she tried to make her own and ended up with a warped blob shape.
They eat and dress quickly so they can be on time to church. Brittany is dropped off at home. Her family is Protestant Christian but they don't really go to church except on major holidays. The Lopez and Fabray families are Catholic and go every Sunday. Britt says church makes her sleepy anyways and she is supposed to baby sit her sister, Bailey.
Quinn races in just in time and sits with her parents in the front pew. Santana arrives late after parking the car and slides down a side aisle to meet her parents in the second row. It's like they do this on purpose to embarrass her. San feels better knowing they extracted a promise from Quinn at breakfast. She'll tell her mother tonight and the police if it happens again. Santana prays for her anyway.
School comes too soon for her liking and Santana isn't happy about it. She's grumpy after getting chewed out by her parents last afternoon for nearly missing the beginning of church. Then her cousins ganged up on her at dinner teasing her mercilessly. She accidently snapped at Brittany before school and now B is hanging with Mercedes and looking sad. Plus she's dumped Puck for his poor credit score, she knows what it's like to have no money and is never going back.
So her day already sucks when Quinn comes up to her looking worried.
"I don't have time for your baby drama today," Santana hisses, straightening up as Sue passes by.
Quinn sends her one of those ice princess glares and stalks off. Just another issue to deal with later…
At practice she's patching it up with Britt when Mr. Shue walks in. Brittany sits next to her like usual and she takes it as a win. Santana is scrutinizing her nails when she sees catches Quinn cleaning slushy off of Finn. She feels a little bad at that point for snapping at her but mostly worried. If Quinn isn't popular anymore it could mean two things, either she'll will go down too or WMHS is primed for takeover.
Glee involves "Bust a Move" it's got a good beat and Britt pokes her before starting to dance. San joins in and isn't surprised when B reaches out to pull Quinn over. Q is a bit reluctant at first, laughing and kind of joining in. Santana shoots her an apologetic smile and is pleased when they are all in sync again. Quinn and Britt are all smiles so Santana is too, she is just so happy everyone else is.
Quinn is inwardly freaking out about this slushy thing. She forgets about it temporarily during Glee but in the hallway she's reminded they are major targets. The old Quinn might have accepted this as her lot in life, once Lucy always Lucy. But she is determined not to lose her popularity. So after a minor freak out to Finn he suggests they talk to Ms. Pillsbury.
"At the very least she must have gleamed tips off of watching popular kids and wishing to be them," he suggests.
Quinn agrees to go, knowing this is probably true. After all, Rose and her clique are the reason she knows how to run a school. This matters not just to her, but to her parents. Her mother always tells her popularity is currency; it's how she got into Arizona State not her grades.
Of course Ms. Pillsbury's advice is "be yourselves". But Quinn has gotten to where she is by being as unlike her self as possible. She shoots a look to Finn and gets a returned seriously face. They both know being popular is a lot more about the image you project than the person you are. This is what happens when you get advise from someone who wants to be on the inside but never has. Finn might be kind of dumb, suggesting, "Drizzle" for a baby name, but even he has a decent grip on how high school popularity works.
Puck looks kind of sweet singing "Sweet Caroline". He looks hot and he's got a good voice. Santana almost regrets breaking up with him. Quinn is all gaga eyed over him too but it's pretty obvious he's singing directly to Rachel, which is ridiculous. He's hers, and she doesn't share. If not her then Q, it is his baby. Rachel falls nowhere on the list. It's a good performance but all she can do is clap along half-heartedly. She is not excited about anything involving the dwarf.
Quinn wears the sunglasses with Finn anyway. It's the only idea they've got on how to boost their popularity. While they might not always connect on everything, they do on this. They are the King and Queen of WMHS and intend to keep it that way. Even if it means keeping Rachel as far away from Finn as possible, no matter how fake nice she tries to be.
Being slushied is like all of her worst nightmares coming true. Finn can't protect her from this; he's got grape slush covering his face too. The football team are his buddies, they are the guys who watch out for her at parties and whistle at her during pictures before school dances. Quinn is worried this is the beginning of the end, first the guys, then Brittany, Santana and the Cheerios. Her eyes are watering from the stinging corn syrup and as much as she wants to start crying that would not help things.
The slushy has seeped into her clothes making them cold and sticky. Quinn can picture her blond hair stained purple and hopes it will rinse out. At first they are stunned, Quinn is frozen and trying not to cry, Finn is stupefied in shock. Then Kurt comes and guides Finn away. If she wasn't so upset she'd be worried he was trying to make a move on Finn.
Rachel is at her side and pulling her into the girls' restroom. Santana and Brittany covertly join them. San considers dismissing Rachel but looks Quinn up and down and reconsiders. She has never been slushied before and neither has Brittany. Santana would like to keep it that way. Rachel can handle the hard part of actually cleaning up, Brittany can do the emotional stuff, and she can, um, go grab Q a change of clothes or something.
Rachel is already setting Quinn up at the sink to rinse out her hair. Santana grab's Q's bag and riffles through it before triumphantly holding up car keys.
"You still carry around clothes in your car?" she asks.
"Yeah," Quinn answers, eyes tearing as she tries to blink the corn syrup out. They all do in case they want to hang out right after school and change out of their uniforms.
"Why don't you three head into the Cheerios locker room? Go take a real shower instead of this makeshift stuff. I'll bring you real clothes and it'll be fine" Santana lies through her teeth.
Quinn looks at her worriedly, wiping her face with a damped paper towel.
"But the" Quinn rakes her brain for the right word before giving up, "the people".
Britt smiles, "No one messes with Santana, take her with you. I can get your stuff".
San isn't pleased with this plan but the more she thinks about it, Britt might be safer from slushies this way.
"Fine," Santana says taking Quinn's hand and tugging her along.
Quinn's hair is long and scraggly, partially washed out by Rachel but not really. Rachel is hesitating, waffling between following and leaving.
"Come on," Santana insists.
She takes them around the back hallways that are rarely used, it takes longer to get there but they avoid more people. Quinn showers and Rachel washes Q's uniform in the sink trying to get the stains out. Santana leans against the sink and files her nails trying to look nonchalant. She won't really be able to relax until Britt returns and Quinn is done. Finally, Brittany comes into the room holding Quinn's bag.
"About time," Santana says exasperated.
Rachel looks surprised at her tone, figuring she'd be nicer to Britt at least. But B sees through her and hands over the bag, hugging Santana tightly around her waist at the same time. It makes San want to kiss her forehead but she refrains, shooting daggers at Rachel.
"Santana?" Quinn's voice comes softly from the showers.
"Britt brought your stuff, she'll bring it to you," Santana calls out shoving Brittany toward the showers.
Britt frowns at her and shoves Santana back.
"San?" Quinn pleads again.
Santana rolls her eyes, snatches the bag, and stomps over.
"Here," Santana snaps shoving the bag at Quinn, "God Quinn".
Q looks up at her with red-rimmed eyes.
Rachel is surprised that San seems to be taking charge.
Quinn swallows hard, and then barks out "Don't you Quinn me, Santana Marie. Get Rachel to leave".
She grabs the bag and heads into the stall to change.
"Leaving," Rachel calls out, heading out the doors quickly.
Quinn comes back out in a baby doll dress and sweater. Santana is determined to avoid any actual conversation so they hurriedly exit into the main locker room area.
Santana gives Q a quick side hug, "Come on, we spent all of lunch in here, we're gonna be late to class".
Quinn shrugs her off and picks up her backpack. She still feels all wobbly but she isn't about to tell S that.
Brittany smashes into Q in a tight hug, "See you in Glee!"
San and Quinn nod at each other and leave.
Quinn was worried about her clothes and keeps nervously smoothing her dress but Sue is in a great mood for some reason today. Quinn doesn't know why, but she's glad. A short yelling spree is all she gets for being out of uniform. Brittany says Sue is being nicer to her too, giving her extra time to work on choreography by pulling her out of class. She hasn't seen Santana since lunch but even the little JV cheerleaders are happier so she'd bet it's been a good day all around. Quinn can't wait to get to practice. The good mood will mean hard working, eager girls. Today's the day they are going to nail the intro when no mistakes. She can feel it.
Santana kind of thinks Puck has it coming to him when he's slushied. It's not like she encouraged it, no of course not. Well…he shouldn't be with Rachel. He's screwing up the hierarchy and someone needed to put him in his place. If she ever wants to get back together he needs to be on the football team, Cheerios and football players, that's how it goes. Guilt pools in her stomach anyway, over any part she played in the whole ordeal.
But at 3:30 she's got a sinking feeling in her stomach as no one walks in. San tries to focus on Quinn's ridiculous sunglasses instead; they need a serious fashion talk after this. They are a team and she's worried that the guys have forgotten that, that maybe her not so subtle slushy reminder scared Puck away. So she's happy to see Matt and Mike enter the classroom just after 3:30. They move to give hugs eagerly. Matt has been a good distraction from Puck and she's glad he made it.
Puck is sitting on the bleachers wondering if he made the right choice. Glee over football, Rachel over fighting for Quinn. Watching practice he misses the team, but he thinks deep down he would have missed Glee more. And Quinn is Finn's, always has been, always will be. Fighting for her would have resulted in him getting passed over again for Finn the golden boy. Finn's his best friend but it can be tough when Finn is always someone's favorite. He literally stayed in Glee just to have the chance to watch Quinn knowing that's the closest he'll ever get. It's pathetic and even worse that Rachel can figure it out so easily. He probably does want it too much.
After all, he's wanted Quinn since she walked in out of nowhere freshman year. She was hands down the hottest girl he'd ever seen. Santana is pretty hot too but there was something about the way Quinn was regal, closed off, and bossy all at once. San was fun but it was always fiery, hot make out sessions, blazing fights, passion and no in between. Q chose Finn of course, so quickly he couldn't make a move. Then she was off limits, he wouldn't go behind his best friend's back and neither would Quinn. He was a third wheel to their coupledness. Until Q started bringing along Santana and their decade old friendship became something more.
But now San had dropped him, Rachel was dumping him, and Quinn was with Finn. Like maybe if he repeated it enough it wouldn't hurt each time he remembered. He couldn't listen to Rachel anymore. This was a dumb idea, sure she was Jewish, but she was annoying. Quinn was Finn's and he was over it.
Quinn is still wearing the sunglasses, absentmindedly hoping they will start to work with some more time. When told, she pulls them down quickly, if Sue is on a rampage it is better to just do as she says. Then Sue tells her she's off the squad. Quinn is losing in it the middle of the hallway and wishes she still had those sunglasses on to hide her red-rimmed eyes. This baby was ruining everything. Q had figured on a few more months with the Cheerios. She wasn't even showing yet and the doctor had assured her it was fine. That quiver was a one-time thing she passed off as exhaustion from glee. Quinn wipes away an errant tear and shoves the sunglasses back on her face.
"Get out of my way," she barks to a few JV squad cheerleaders. They part, clearly not aware yet that she has no juice anymore.
Off the squad, not captain, not a Cheerio, not a cheerleader… Quinn is nothing without her place as Cheerios captain. If her popularity was falling before, it will be reduced to nothing now. She won't be surprised if she loses Finn, Santana, Brittany, Puck, the other cheerleaders and football players. She can't bear the idea of telling them, but she can't stand the idea of them hearing it from anyone else.
"Brittany, Santana come on," she yells out at them during passing period. People still part and the girls listen, B willingly, S grudgingly.
"What? Santana snaps, "We have like 5 minutes Q. Can't this wait until practice."
"Which practice? Glee or Cheerios?" Britt asks confused.
"Not here," Quinn hisses, dragging them into an empty classroom.
For someone acting so bossy, Quinn quickly loses her nerve.
"As much as I don't want to go to Spanish," Santana drawls, "Let's move this along," she motions with her hand.
Quinn twirls her cross and bites her lip.
"It's over," she finally says, "everything".
Santana and Brittany exchange looks, Q tends to be a bit of an over-exaggerator, but considering everything lately…
"I've been kicked off the squad," Quinn blurts out.
Santana sighs and shakes her head, "Sue is just mad her dance partner is using her. She'll reinstate you next week".
"I don't think so," Quinn says hoarsely, "you didn't see her face. I've never seen her so mad at me".
Britt frowns, "Don't cry Quinn," she whispers, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
Quinn snuggles into her side, "I'll admit it, it doesn't matter now anyway... I think I did get special treatment. There was always this look in her eyes…but today it was completely gone. It's over".
"I don't wanna be totally harsh. But you knew this was coming didn't you?" Santana asks, "You couldn't possibly believe we would be hauling your whale-ass to the top of the pyramid 6 months from now".
Quinn shakes her head, "I didn't think it would happen so soon," she snipes.
Santana is coming from a place of love; she's always defensively mean.
She sends back a glare then wraps her up in a tight hug, "We will be the same no matter what," San whispers, pressing a kiss into Quinn's hair. She then pulls away and slides into Brittany's lap.
Brittany leans in and murmurs, "I'm proud of you San" softly so Q can't hear.
Quinn is wondering if she means it. Watching Santana suddenly bolt away giggling, "No fair tickling". Brittany is laughing too, her hand on Quinn's shoulder but her attention on Santana.
"Time to bounce," Santana says in a silly voice, grabbing her backpack, "One more late slip and I've got detention".
Brittany waves her out and grabs her bag, "You okay Q?"
Quinn nods and then shrugs, "I will be" she lies, leaving with B.
Quinn is still out of uniform in the choir room, there have been plenty of rumors why and by now everyone knows of the slushy mishap. She's in the baby doll dress that was in her car so she could change and meet her parents for dinner after practice. The thought of telling them she's off the squad makes her nauseous and she just twirls her straw in the slushy cup instead of sipping on it.
Mr. Shue brings her out of her head asking, "You okay, Quinn?"
Seriously, "Do I look okay? I'm devastated. Now that I'm off the Cheerios, I'll start every day with a Slushie facial". And that's just the beginning; school will be miserable but home will be worse.
People shoot her concerned looks.
"That's okay if that happens, Quinn, because there are 11 of your friends right here... who are gonna be more than happy to help clean you off," Mr. Shue enthuses.
"Yeah. Whoo!" various glee clubbers cheer, eager to show their support.
As awful as everything is, she can't help but smile. All she has ever wanted are friends, and it seems that in Glee she's got eleven of them. With that she takes a sip of the grape slushy. It's sweet and cold, just like her. Surrounded by eleven friends she can't help but laugh as they toss their slushies at Mr. Shue. Hers is still pretty full. If it's the last slushy she ever gives, it was a good one.
A/N: So this was a bit different style wise. I'd love to know if you thought, if flowed okay... Do you like the little "add ons" to episode scenes, "Outtakes" which would be things like the sleepover that didn't happen in canon, a combination...? Also who would you like the story to focus on more Santana, Quinn, Brittana, the Unholy Trinity friendship...? Thanks for reading!