CHAPTER 6

"Girls, these are the last boxes, where do we put them?" Sam asks with Kurt standing by his side, each of them carrying a large box.

"Can you put them over there, in the corner?" Britt replies.

"Thanks guys, that was really nice of you to help us moving in", I add with a smile.

Sure it's a tiny apartment and for now it just looks like a mountain of boxes that will take us forever to unpack but I already feel right at home. No more sleeping on Rachel and Kurt's couch, my squatter days are finally OVER! I actually have a bedroom now, with a real bed! I still can't believe that Brittany and I are moving in together. Everything happened so fast since the Glee reunion a few months ago, it's hard to wrap my head around it all.

With Britt dropping out of MIT and moving to New York, we really needed to rent an apartment of our own. We found one but the rent remains expensive. According to Britt's calculations, if we are careful with how we spend our money, we can afford it. It's true that we both have some income now, even if we are definitely not rich. We both work part-time at the Spotlight Diner and now I'm also paid for my work on Mercedes' album. That also still blows my mind, I'm now going to the recording studio every day and I absolutely love it! Britt is going to join the NYADA extension dance courses as from next week and she managed to find a job to teach dance to kids.

After the guys leave, Britt and I start unpacking.

"I think we'll just have to unpack little by little every day, we won't get it done in one go" she says.

"Agreed" I reply. "Let's just unpack the essentials for now, and we do the rest later".

Despite focusing only on the essentials, it takes us all day to clean and unpack. Thank God we both had a day off today.

As a reward for all that work, I'm enjoying our new couch, laying lazily on it, next to Britt. We are surrounded by boxes, our living room looks like a war zone.

"Oh god it's already 9pm" says Britt. "Do you think Kurt will be mad if we don't drop by the pub tonight, I really don't feel like going anywhere."

"To be honest, I don't feel like going anywhere either, but I'm sure Hummel will understand, we just moved in! We can go out another time. I'll text him" I say.

"So what do you want to do?" she asks.

"Well… maybe we could christen our new bed" I reply with a smirk, wiggling my eyebrows.

She kisses me and I feel her smile against my lips. "Let's move to the bedroom then…" she whispers in my ear and she holds her hand to me as she's standing up.

THE NEXT DAY, AT THE RECORDING STUDIO

I already recorded my parts for Mercedes' album but she asked me to urgently come to the recording studio. I have barely passed the front door that I hear Mercedes' voice: "Santana, over here!"

I walk up to her and she immediately drags me into one of the empty aquarium offices.

"Is everything OK?" I ask, not knowing what we are doing there.

"No it's not OK" she replies. "My producer just listened to the final cut of my album. And in his words, he "didn't hear a single." So now he's worried that the label won't give it a release date."

"Wait, what?" I say. I'm actually not sure what to say, I only heard the bits that I was supposed to record, I never listened to the final cut myself, so I don't really know how good the album is. But it's Mercedes we are talking about, it cannot be anything else than awesome.

"I need your help" she just replies.

"My help? But Mercedes, you have a whole team behind you".

"A whole team yes, and yet they didn't manage to write a single. I want my album to be the best, Santana. And you make me better, you always have. All our duets from Glee club have proven that to be true."

"Ok point taken, but I'm not a songwriter" I reply. Where the hell is she going with this?

"That's not true, you wrote Trouty mouth."

"Oh come on" I laugh. "You can't be serious. Sam didn't speak to me for a whole month after I sang it, and I wrote that song only to make Brittany jealous".

"That still counts. Look Santana, I know that you have what it takes to write the kind of song I want: I want something sassy, witty, ballsy. And you are all of those things".

I inhale deeply, thinking a thousand things per second. It's true that I'm known to be sassy and witty, and I have always loved to write. Besides I owe a lot to Mercedes, so it would be my chance to give something back to her. And it would be a nice challenge but I don't know if I am capable of doing this.

"I… I think it is crazy" I say. But I'll play along for a minute: assuming that I write a good text, you would still need someone to write the music."

"Didn't you also compose the music of Trouty Mouth?" she asks. "It's not my style of music but it was very good nevertheless".

"Yes but I just came up with the melody, I was not alone to compose it Mercedes, I was working with Tina, remember?"

"Well, we can ask Sam to work with you, he wrote songs before".

"I… I don't know… this is your first album, you should work with professionals, people with a well-established reputation, none of us is experienced in songwriting".

"Maybe so, but you guys are the ones that know me the best. I want a song that reflects who I am. Please, San… I don't know what else to do."

I can tell that Mercedes is not going to give up on the idea, she really wants us to do this. I sigh and say "Fine… I guess I will give it a try". She hugs me so hard that I can't breathe. "But Mercedes, we need a plan B. We try for a few days but if that doesn't work out, you need to go back to your team and ask them to write a new song".

"OK…Yeah OK, fair enough" she replies. "But for now you're my plan. So go home now and write me a badass song, Lopez!"

HOME – LATER THAT DAY

"God I can't do this" I say, throwing another crumpled paper ball into the bin. "Mercedes is fucking crazy, I'm no one in this business, why on earth she asked ME to do this?" I say, raising my hands in the air.

"Baby, you don't have to be famous to be able to write" Brittany tells me. "You're talented. Mercedes knows it, I know it, and you know it too!"

"Fine I'm talented, yet I have spent the whole afternoon and evening on this and I have NOTHING!" I say, my voice full of frustration.

Brittany takes my hands in hers and looks at me silently. I'm confused but these blue eyes of hers are hypnotizing.

"Breathe" she says. "You just need to take a moment, to pause and breathe. You can't be inspired if you're all agitated and frustrated".

She has a point. So I breathe in and out calmly, while she rubs her thumb on my hand.

She should be a meditation coach or something, she really has a talent to calm me down.

Now that I'm calmer, I ask her: "how do you do it when you create your dance choreographies?"

"I turn off everything around me, I go into my own bubble, my… creative bubble if you like. And when it's all quiet, I hear it" she says.

"Hear what?" I ask.

"I don't know how to explain, I guess it's inspiration, it's like my inner voice. You just need to find yours, and you will if you let your mind freely speak up".

"Yeah well the problem is that it's not really my inner voice that I have to find, it's Mercedes'. This song is supposed to reflect who she is, it's really difficult to write for someone else…"

"But you two are a lot alike. You're both fierce women that can't be held down and who don't give up. And both with a giant, giant heart." She smiles.

"You're not in love with Mercedes, right?" I joke.

"Nope, I already found the love of my life" she says before kissing me.

I sigh before saying: "I might have to pull a all-nighter for this one… but I'll follow your advice and will try to find the inner voice ".

"Some people are more creative at night because it's more quiet, maybe that could work for you. I'll let you work and go to bed, come find me when you're ready" she says before kissing my cheek.

"Night…" I reply.

NEXT DAY – 7:00 AM

"San… wake up" I hear from afar. I wake up and I immediately feel my neck hurting like a bitch. I realise that I'm still sitting at the kitchen table, with Britt hovering over me.

"What…? What times is it?" I ask, lifting my head with a sheet of paper stuck to my cheek.

"It's 7:00 AM, I guess you fell asleep here… Did you finish writing the lyrics?"

"God that must be why my neck is killing me…" I reply. "Yes I finished the song, I think."

"Can I read?" she asks. I hand her the sheet of paper, and observe her while she's reading it.

She looks at me and smiles. "She's going to love it, it has Mercedes written all over it, I can totally picture her singing this."

"You think?" I'm nervous though, I don't want to disappoint Mercedes.

"I'm sure, don't worry. A song titled Hell to the no? That's so her! And I'm sure that with Sam, you can come up with some awesome music."

"Actually I already have the melody in my mind, that's how I even managed to write the text down, I kept hearing it in my mind for the chorus. But let's see what Trouty Mouth says when I sing it to him. First, I'm going to text the lyrics to Mercedes and see if we have her green light."

A few minutes later, I get a text from Mercedes.

FROM "WHEEZY": "Hell to the YES! I knew you I could bet on you, Lopez! Thank you so much, I LOVE it! Can you meet up with me and Sam tonight? To write the music?"

TO "WHEEZY": Sure. I'll pass by around 9pm, apparently I have more inspiration at night…

Relieved, I decide to go to bed to rest. Tonight is going to be intense.

TWO DAYS LATER, AT THE RECORDING STUDIO

I'm sitting at the piano, Sam next to me with his guitar, and Mercedes is behind the microphone. D'Shon just joined us, ready to hear the song we wrote, and I'm feeling more nervous than ever. If this fails, it will be on me.

Mercedes addresses D'Shon: "As I told you on the phone, we wrote a song that I think could be my first single. We'll now sing the acoustic version, of course it will need drums and the whole deal if you agree to feature it on the album. Santana and Sam will do the back vocals."

I can't read D'Shon's face, I can't tell if he's even open to the idea. But he sits down and looks at us.

God, my hands are so sweaty. I wipe them on my clothes and remember Brittany's words "breathe in, breathe out". I breathe and play the first notes on the piano, as Mercedes starts singing, with me and Sam doing the back vocals.

Mama said get your ass out of bed

I said hell to the no

Said wash your grandma's nasty head

I said hell to the no

They tried to take away my tots

I said hell to the no

Yeah, 'cause I'm the one that calls the shots

And I say hell to the no

Try to make me change my weave

Well I got something up my sleeve

It's a whole lot of

Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh

Hell to the no-no, no-no, no-no, no-no

I'm not trying to diva out

But this shows gotta stop so shout

Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh

Hell to the no-no, no-no, no-no, no-no

Take me you can leave me but I won't ever change

If you don't like the rules don't play my game

Talk to me to get R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but if I don't, it's all in me

Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh

Hell to the no-no, no-no, no-no, no-no

Awe, hell to the no...

As we end the song, the whole room falls silent until D'Shon simply says: "Okay...it's ballsy, it's catchy... but it's also got that unique thing we were talking about…"
He pauses before adding "Congratulations Mercedes Jones, you got yourself a single".

I can't believe it, he actually approves our song! I run to Sam and Mercedes for a group hug, we all jump up and down in excitement.

"Thanks guys, I don't know how to ever repay this debt to you" Mercedes says with a gigantic smile on her face.

"I'd love to take the credit" replies Sam. "But I honestly didn't do much, Santana did most of the work, she already had the melody in mind and came up with the chords, I just embellished it a little at the guitar."

Before I can even say anything, Mercedes turns to me: "Well Ms Lopez, no matter what happens next, you can now officially say that you're a songwriter."

A/N: Any feedback? Reviews are useful, so please do not hesitate. Some exciting things to come.