Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, much to my disappointment.

Author's Note: This was a really long wait, and I know that. I'm sorry, but I'm on summer break now (until March) and I hope to finish the story by then at the latest. Happy reading.

/-/-/-/-/

Interlude – Santana Leads by Many (Part Four)

Tina, Mike, Santana, Brittany, Rachel and Quinn were all at the Lima Bean after school. Santana had originally organized the afternoon meeting to be just her, Brittany, Quinn and Rachel as a way to slowly get closer to Quinn again. She knew that Quinn had a weird affection towards Rachel (which she couldn't really tease Quinn about because Rachel minus Finn was a lot easier to handle and Santana would grudgingly admit that Rachel was growing on her, but only to Brittany) and Santana was going to use every advantage she could. Mike and Tina had already been at the Lima Bean when they arrived and it had seemed natural to sit together. Brittany and Mike were going over theoretical dance moves like the normally did when they were in the same room while everyone else chatted about whatever came to mind. The afternoon so far had been easy and very laid back.

So, to say that Santana was surprised when Rachel and Tina tensed up when Sebastian Smyth approached with a threat not to use Michael Jackson at Regionals was an understatement. Mercedes had decided on Michael for her song of the week and the Troubletones had soon voted on a two week Michael dedication as they had all wanted perform Michael after New Directions' Sectionals performance. No one in the Troubletones wanted to pass up performing Michael, even if it was only to the rest of the choir. All in all, Sebastian hadn't made a particularly good first impression.

"Oh look, it's the girl flower power squad. Shouldn't you be parading around like you think you're the first women to ever even consider women's power?"

Santana turned in her seat and looked up at the tall weasel of a boy standing behind her. Santana stared at him with confusion. Brittany didn't look up from her drink. Quinn, looked like she couldn't care less and Rachel and Tina were glaring something fierce. Mike gently laid a hand on Tina's knee and gave Sebastian a dirty look.

"Look Warbler, I don't know who you are…" Santana started before Sebastian interrupted her.

"The name is Sebastian Smyth."

"As I was saying, I don't know who you are, and I don't care."

That was a bit of a lie, she had heard about a Warbler called Sebastian who had stirred up trouble in Kurt's love life, but had never actually met him.

"You should." Sebastian said with a smug half grin. "I'm your competition."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Duh, you're in the Warbler uniform that Blaine used to sing to Kurt in. I liked it a lot more than his suspenders; he doesn't wear them as well as I do."

Santana turned and looked Brittany up and down. "You know it, babe. I bet you could even pull off wearing his awful bow ties."

"They're not awful." Sebastian said hotly, though he looked embarrassed about his outburst as soon as the words left his mouth.

"As America's most fashionable teenager I have to disagree. I was on a magazine, Blaine's bowties weren't."

Sebastian opened his mouth to speak but Quinn quickly waved a hand dismissively at him. "I'm assuming you came over to us for a reason."

Sebastian smiled at them smugly again. "You can't sing Michael Jackson at Regionals."

They all shared a confused look with each other. Rachel started to speak but stopped when Quinn squeezed her hand and tilted her head at Santana. Obviously she wanted to watch Santana handle this. It wasn't unusual; Santana remembered a time when she and Quinn competed to make as many people cry in a school day as possible. The only rule had been that they weren't allowed to interrupt each other, and it made Santana happy that Quinn seemed to be enforcing that now.

"Okay," Santana said slowly. "I'll bite. Why can't we perform Michael at Regionals?"

Sebastian sipped slowly from his coffee, still smiling smugly. "Because the Warblers are and we're performing first."

Santana narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but just ended up closing her mouth and shaking her head.

"Sure, whatever you say, Fievel. You take your wannabe Disney Prince haircut and get lost on your way back to the gay bar you call a school; preferably getting hit by a bus on the way."

Sebastian huffed and took a napkin off their table to write something on it. "If you somehow gain some courage and stop letting your girlfriend own you, I'll be in this car park tonight, we can finish this Warbler style."

Santana laughed and spoke up just after Sebastian turned around to leave. "I don't know Bitchlet, I'm quite fond of her owning me; it makes for some fun times. I guess we'll see if I, what was it? - 'Get some courage' - in time to show you up."

Sebastian left with another huff and a snapped "Be there."

Their group was quite for a few seconds before Brittany giggled. When everyone looked at her she grinned. "It does make for some fun times."

Quinn grimaced slightly at the mention of Santana and Brittany's sex life (she already knew too much from not-so-sneaky trysts at sleepovers and in the Cheerios locker room), but otherwise ignored the comment.

"So, this is news to me. When did we decide to do Michael Jackson for Regionals?" Tina questioned quietly.

Rachel frowned slightly. "Actually, how are songs for competitions decided? Shelby hasn't mentioned it."

"It's a group vote thing based off of the songs we perform each week. If we can't pick three that stand out we all offer up suggestions. Brittany's solo was one of those. We were going to do 'Candyman' but we decided that the performance really depended on the costumes and we wouldn't be able to use those dresses for the competition. Shelby has veto if she thinks something won't work and we tend to listen to her suggestions." Mercedes explained while Santana read the address Sebastian had left her.

Brittany quickly snatched up the napkin. "You're not going, San."

"I would really like to show him up, Britt. I'd really, really like to."

Brittany shook her head. "Nope, no violence."

They stared at each other for a while before Santana nodded and held her hand out. Brittany handed the napkin back for Santana to study.

"Isn't that the address of that huge apartment complex that Sugar said her dad owned?"

Brittany leaned into Santana to see the napkin clearly. "Yup."

Santana drained the last of her coffee and started to get up.

"Hold on!" Rachel said loudly. "Where are you going and what are you doing? We need to talk about how to deal with Sebastian, he threatened out team and as part of that team I can't let you just go off and do something g that might negatively effect us."

"I'm not going to do anything that will 'negatively effect us', Hobbit, so shut your trap."

"While that is an honourable point of view I find it hard to believe. The Santana I know would have threatened to hurt Sebastian and would be planning some sort of revenge."

Quinn sniggered. "She's got a point Lopez, what happened to that Santana?"

Santana looked away from her team members, picked up her bag and linked her pinky with Brittany's. "That Santana got outed to the state of Ohio and is recognised everywhere in this town as 'that lesbian cheerleader'. That Santana got disowned by the woman who raised her. That Santana learnt that there are a lot of people out there to be angry at and that most of them aren't worth it. That Santana learnt that the best way to make her girlfriend happy was to ignore all the comments and pretend that the looks from complete strangers doesn't hurt. You can't fight all the time and that loser isn't worth my energy. I have bigger things to worry about than some meer cat who is obviously crushing hard on the boy dwarf Porcelain is shacking up with. Right, babe?"

Brittany grinned and kissed Santana on the cheek. "Right."

"Besides, I have something else in mind for Warbler Weasel."

/-/-/-/-/

Brittany drove them to Sugar's house. Santana didn't particularly want to knock on the door because Sugar and Mr. Motta were having a father-daughter afternoon, and interrupting seemed like a really jerkish thing to do. Particularly now that Santana knew Sugar didn't have a mother to spend her time with when her father was away on business, just a bossy housekeeper. But she needed to, because Sebastian Slimeball Smyth seemed to pose a threat (a small one, but a threat none the less) to the Troubletones, and Santana wouldn't have that.

Mr. Motta answered the door and Santana could see confusion on his face before he realised who they were.

"Santana and Brittany right? You're in the Troubletones?"

Brittany nodded happily. "Yes, sir!"

"Are you here to see Sugar?"

Santana shook her head. "Actually, we're here to see you. Can we come in?"

Mr. Motta stood aside and gestured for them to enter the house. He led them deeper into the house, but paused for a second, unsure as to where to lead them. Brittany took over and skipped into the lounge where she dropped down onto the sofa and pulled a surprised Sugar into a hug. If Sugar had been annoyed at the interruption to her father-daughter day (a movie day from the looks of the paused movie on the large television screen), she didn't show it and hugged Brittany back. Mr. Motta took one of the arm chairs and Santana sat next to Brittany.

"Hey Sugar."

"Hi Santana, Brittany. What are you doing here?"

Brittany snuggled into the couch, leaning on Sugar and putting her legs over Santana's lap. "We were at the Lima Bean - remember we invited you but you decided to spend time with your dad instead, which I think is really cool – when this guy with really big hair came up to us and threatened us into not using Michael Jackson at Regionals. Except he's an idiot but a mean idiot, so Sanny has a plan that involves your dad."

Mr. Motta looked absolutely bewildered, but Sugar just nodded.

"When did we decide to do Michael Jackson? I'm amazing at his songs, so that'd be cool, but I didn't know we had decided anything yet."

Santana smirked. "We haven't; but Sebastian seemed so sure of it and he challenged me to some sort of …" Santana screwed up her face in confusion. "sing off, I guess? Anyway, he gave me this address."

Santana handed the napkin over to Mr. Motta. He looked at it for a second before realization dawned on his face.

"Well, I think you can leave this to me." He said with an amused smile. "I'm sure a few extra security patrols around the car park would prove very interesting."

/-/-/-/-/

Sugar ran into Shelby's class room waving a DVD over her head. "Daddy gave it to me this morning. Wait until you see his face."

Shelby somewhat reluctantly allowed them to play the video even if they were meant to be practicing a rendition of 'Smooth Criminal'. The video showed Sebastian and a few of the Warbler's entering an almost empty car park and waiting around for a few minutes quietly chatting. The only strange thing was the rather large slushie cup on the floor, half hidden behind a pillar in the car park. Suddenly one of the Warblers tensed and turned towards Sebastian, trying to warn him or otherwise get his attention. But it was too late, as several uniformed guards entered the car park each laying a hand on the shoulder of a Warbler. Sebastian started to well, but was quickly pulled off of the screen. The television screen turned black.

Shelby stared at the blank screen for a bit before she spoke. "I don't know what that was, I doubt it was illegal because you're all good girls, but I didn't see it. I wasn't here and it was never played. So, Smooth Criminal."

/-/-/-/-/

Important Author's Note: I'm coming up to Regionals, and I want to know what sort of performances you'd like to see. So I've put a poll up on my profile, but you can also review your preference. Here's a handy list to choose from:

Santana-Mercedes Duet

Rachel-Quinn Duet

Santana-Rachel Duet

Quinn-Tina Duet

Tina-Mercedes Duet

Quinn-Mercedes Duet

Brittany-Santana Duet

Mercedes Solo

Santana Solo

Rachel Solo

Tina Solo

Another group number

/-/-/-/-/

MusicFlowsWithin: Ever since the whole Emma/Carl thing I lost all respect for Will acting like an adult. I know he was pretty bad before, but that was the last straw for me.

mixtapesandcellmates: I'm glad you're enjoying it. The Finchel engagement was just useless, and the fact that they ended the engagement in the show is just proof of that because it really served no purpose.

manatees-have-thick-skin: I have quite the strong head-canon, which means that those little facts will often pop up. I'm glad you're still following.

living in the movie scene: This didn't start out as a bashing fic, but it has sort of ended up like that. The sad part is that it only my intention to pint out how badly some of the characters were managed. I'm sorry it took so long, but I'm now on summer break until March and I hope to have finished this story by then. :)