Respect

Chapter 14

I OWN NOTHING!

They waited until they were back in Santana's car, bags returned to the trunk, before any of them said a word.

"Isn't Shelby the name of the coach for Vocal Adrenalin?" Tina asked, breaking the silence.

"Shelby Corcoran," Mercedes filled in. "I went with Quinn and Rachel when they went to spy on them. There's no doubt where Rachel got her looks, attitude, and talent from."

"Her aunt was nice," Brittany told them. "She was really pretty to."

They all turned to look at her.

"How do you know that B?" Santana asked

"Rachel and I had dance classes together when we were little. Rachel was really tiny then." Brittany smiled as she remembered Rachel as a little girl in sparkly pink tutus and tap-shoes. "Her aunt always made the best cookies and birthday cake."

"B, what else do you know?" Santana was curious, if she was being honest with herself. Rachel always spoke of her dads and their connections with the ACLU, but never of any aunt.

"She had cancer," Brittany continued. "She died and Rachel went to a different school." She shrugged. "I was the only went who ever went to her…" she counted in her head, "seventh birthday party. I don't think she ever had anymore…but her aunt was still really nice and we had a lot of fun." She frowned. "That was when she started to be really sad and diva-y, after her aunt died."

They exchanged looks. They had heard just about everything Rachel had said. At least, they had heard enough to gain a little more insight on their co-captain.

"Do you think Finn knows?" Tina asked.

Santana snorted. "He's an idiot. He would believe anything that Berry told him. St. Dickhead's ego was is so big he wouldn't bother to notice much less care about the absence of parents."

"What about Puck?" Brittany asked. "Don't they go to the same Jewish church?"

"Temple," Mercedes absently corrected. "I think so, but this is Puck we're talking about. If he knew, he'd be after Rachel so he could use her house for his parties and sexcapades."

"Probably," Brittany nodded, "but he cares about Rachel even if he won't admit it. If he knew, I think he'd care that she was hurting and try to fix it."

"How does something like this get missed?" Tina asked. She knew the teachers at school were pretty oblivious, but certainly someone had to have noticed the lack of parental activity since the eighth grade.

"They probably have some kind of system in place to keep the cover going that they're just on an extended business trip." Santana replied. "Berry isn't exactly known for having friends to notice."

"Whose fault is that?" Mercedes shot at her.

"It's all our faults," Tina interrupted before they could begin arguing over whose fault it was or wasn't. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

Santana frowned. She knew what she'd like to do, which was drag the Berry men back (kicking and screaming if she had to) to see what their neglect had done to their daughter. At least her dad was around, even if he was always busy. Brittany's parents were always around to; even if they could sometimes be a little spacey their daughter never doubted that they loved her.

"You two," she decided firmly, "get Puck and Kurt. Mercedes, you tell Kurt we're having a group makeover done for Rachel and this is his chance to apologize or some shit like that." Mercedes nodded. "Tina, you deal with Puck, get Mike and Matt, hell even Wheels to help if you need it, but somewhere in his twisted, perverted head he'll want to help Q and Berry in any way he can." Tina nodded. She could do that.

Santana knew she'd have to threaten them into silence later about her caring anything for anyone besides Brittany and herself, but right now it was worth it. She'd been a shit friend to Q when the girl needed friends the most so she needed to make up for that. Berry needed a break before she broke and ruined any and all chance they had at Regionals, not to mention before she convinced herself that she was just another Lima Loser. Berry was a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them.

"What are we gonna do S?" Brittany asked, nearly bouncing in her seat.

"We're going on a little field trip." Santana explained, smirking. "Because I wonder if Mommy has any idea just what her star seniors did to Berry, much less anything but the obvious about her."

"Don't kill anyone," Mercedes said warningly. She smirked. "However, if you get a chance to hit St. Douche, hit him once for me."

Santana just smirked. So did Brittany, which was more terrifying than Santana when the Latina smiled.

Carmel High School was mostly dark and locked up for the coming weekend. The auditorium and surrounding area wasn't. None of them had really had anything to do with Vocal Adrenaline since New Directions had showed them up with their funk number the week before Finn decided to proposition Rachel. Puck had just issued the challenge that they would see them at Regionals.

Santana, for one, had little interest in interacting with anyone other than Shelby. She could deal with Jesse at a later date, preferably with Puck and Quinn at her side so the idiot got the idea that you didn't mess with a girl's girl. Brittany had a slightly insane grin on her face, eager to both help Rachel and undermine their biggest competition.

Before making the drive to Carmel, Santana had taken them to Brittany's so they could change. What they wore now was just to prove a point. They were serious and no one had better mess with them because they weren't here for that. It was also to show that they were not there as part of either the Cheerios or New Directions.

Together, they entered one of the doors and made their way to the auditorium where VA was rehearsing. Santana smirked when two of the girls nearly tripped over themselves at the sight of two-thirds of the Unholy Trinity. She was mildly disappointed that they hadn't actually tripped, especially since if they had they would have taken Jesse down with them.

Shelby turned to see what had caused her team's attention to leave their performance to come face-to-face with two of Rachel's teammates. Clearly, they were here for battle if the tight, dark clothing and attitudes were any indication. She glanced back at her team, taking in their reactions. Several of them looked uneasy, as if the two girls knew something about her team that she didn't.

"Is there something I can assist you with?" Shelby asked them. "You're interrupting our closed rehearsal, and if this is an attempt to spy you aren't doing a very good job of it."

"I guess we know where Rachel got her diva-'tude from," Brittany stage whispered to Santana.

The VA kids didn't know if they should be shocked that someone had said something like that in their coach's hearing or affronted that it had been said at all.

Santana smirked. "We're here to talk to you," she informed Shelby, "unless of course you helped them to plan making Rachel into an omelet."

"What," Shelby asked, partially in anger and partially in disbelief, "are you talking about?"

Santana's smirk went wider. "You mean they didn't tell you?" She shot a look at the paling faces of the frozen members of VA. "Some of your soulless automatons decided to take revenge on Berry by throwing eggs at her about, what was it B?"

"Two weeks and three days ago," Brittany answered, having looked it up. She could remember things when she wanted to do so. "A full dozen," she added in, smiling brightly.

Shelby fumed. "Is there anything else you wish to inform me of?"

"Yea," Santana shook her head at Brittany when then girl opened her mouth, "but in private. Certain," she sent a glare at Jesse, "people might take advantage of what we know."

Shelby eyed them. They didn't appear to be armed, but that didn't actually mean anything. She knew she was hesitating, because honestly they could be lying.

"It's about Rachel," Brittany said softly. "You do care about her, right?" She made certain she looked sad, as if Shelby replying with a negative answer would dissolve her into tears. It just might, because Brittany couldn't grasp that there were parents that didn't care about their children. She understood it, but she couldn't accept it.

Santana rolled her eyes, annoyed by the woman's reluctance no matter what the cause of it was. "Look, we've got other things to do," she sneered, "If you don't care, fine, but don't keep stringing Rachel," she took some pleasure in Shelby's winch at Rachel's name, "along like a kicked puppy."

Brittany knew when Santana was ready to perform her own version of a storm-out. She snagged her girl's pinky and sauntered out beside her. Shelby didn't follow them.