Hey, guys! I hope you all are enjoying 2018. Sorry for the length between updates. My college classes have started again, so I've been pretty busy the past few weeks between school and work, but I've been working as hard as I can in my spare time. I kinda ran a few things together in this chapter, the week of the glee clubs coming together is officially over, but there's plenty more of stuff to come. This chapter is the softball semi finals for Logan and the rest of the softball team. Also, there's going to be a huge party after the game and that's where it's all going to start heating up in the story. I'm probably bringing Shelby back in the next chapter or so, and I'm also going to officially bring Faberry into play. I think they've danced around each other enough. Sectionals will also be coming up, and I'm keeping the set lists the same for both the New Directions and Trouble Tones.

Let me know what you guys think. I love each and every review I get, good or bad.

Always be Brave, guys. ~BraveGirl13

Ch:8

Logan

"Do you like parties?"

Raising an eyebrow, I leaned around the door of my locker, confused by Skylar's sudden question. "Do I like parties?"

Skylar rolled her eyes, leaning against the unoccupied locker next to mine. "Yeah, you know, loud teenagers and music and drinking?"

Laughing lightly, I tossed my brush back into my locker before closing it. "Yes, I know what a party is, and I've never really been to one. Unless you count one of Quinn's sleepovers a party. Why are you asking?"

For a split second, hesitation filled her usually confident green eyes. "Uh, I was wondering if maybe, after the semi-finals tonight, we could go to Jenny's party she's having to celebrate? Win or lose, it's still been a great season."

"Yeah, she mentioned it to me the other day. Is the team going together, or would we be going separately from the team?"

Skylar shrugged, gathering all her things together to dump them into her duffle bag. "No, the whole team is going, but I was hoping we could go. Like, together?"

"So, this would be like a date? Is that what you're trying to do? Ask me to be your date to this party?"

Once again, the blonde shrugged, rummaging through the contents that she had just dumped into her duffle bag. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it's totally cool if you don't want to go. I just figured that we could hang out a little. We really don't get the chance to hang out between that glee thing you do, and practices and you kinda disappear on the weekends, so it was just an idea. But you don't have to say yes if you don't want to."

An image of a familiar pair of brown eyes automatically came to mind, and for a split second, I found myself starting to say that I wasn't ready to go out on a date yet, but then Quinn's words popped into my head. "You can like someone and still be attracted to someone else. Trust me, I've been there, and I've done that before. Besides, look at it like this. If you and Santana were ever meant to be anything more than just friends, then you will be. No one ever said you couldn't date along the way. If you like this girl, then go for it. Who even knows if you just think she's cute? It could be nothing, but you'll never know if you don't try."

After mentally shaking myself and forcing all thoughts of Santana out of my head, and our obvious complicated…whatever, I smiled slightly, nodding my head. "You know what? I'd love to. A party sounds like a great way to celebrate."

Skylar's face automatically brightened up, that usual sparkle returning to her eyes. "Seriously? That's great! So, right after the game, we can shower here and then head out?"

Nodding, I picked up my bag before slinging it over my shoulder. "Sounds like a plan. I'll see you later?"

My smile grew as I turned and left the girl's locker room, feeling a little excitement about tonight. It's been a while since I've been on a date, and I was beyond nervous, but I was looking forward to it. Skylar's a great girl, and just like everything else in life, I was just gonna have to let this play out and deal with it.

"Hey, Mackenzie! Wait up!"

I glanced over to see most of the glee club members, both the New Directions and Trouble Tones walking down the hall, each of them wearing Titan colors in some way of form, causing me to smile even brighter. "Hey, you guys look peppy!"

Quinn was the first to bounce out from the group, looping her arm through mine. "It's your first softball game and it's also a huge game for you guys, of course we're going to dress appropriately."

"Speaking of the game, we were wondering if you had any plans afterwards?"

"Actually, you all know that party my captain is throwing to celebrate?"

Most of the heads nodded, and I shrugged, squeezing Quinn's arm. "I'm going to that. You all are invited if you wanna go. I've heard the glee club can party like no one else, and yes, Puck, there will be alcohol."

The mohawked boy's hand lowered almost as fast as he had brought it up, a grin forming on his face. "I'm game. There's nothing sweeter than chicks and booze."

Rolling my eyes at his words, I returned my attention back to the group as a whole. "Anyway, you're all more than welcome to come if you want."

The small group erupted in chatter, the majority saying that they would come. This clamed my nerves slightly. It would be a lot easier to handle this date with all of my friends there. "Great! The party starts at eight on the dot. Just, guys, don't get pregnant or get anyone pregnant, okay?"

A resounding round of laughter came from everyone, but Rachel was the first to sober up, stepping out to stand on my other side. "Okay, are we all carpooling together? I probably won't be drinking, and I can fit at least four more people in my car."

Biting on my bottom lip, I chanced a glance towards the back of the group where a certain Latina was deep in conversation with Mercedes. "Uh, I won't be carpooling with you all. I have a date tonight, so me and her are going to meet up after the game and head out together."

Everyone fell silent, a few of the members forming smiles on their faces, or in Puck's case, a look that told me there were inappropriate thoughts swimming through his mind. The others, namely my sister and Santana were simply staring at me with blank looks on their faces.

"Who's the lucky girl?"

Clearing my throat, I quickly looked away from Santana's blank look, instead catching Quinn's gaze. "Skylar."

The blonde smiled, pulling her arm away only to wrap it around my shoulders. "Okay, then. Logan is out in the carpool. I won't be drinking either, I don't need another Beth situation, so I can carpool anyone else who wants to drink as well. Just let me or Rach know by the time the game is over, okay?"

Everyone dispersed from the impromptu meeting, and I quickly scanned the retreating forms, only to find the one person I was looking for no where in sight. Rachel caught my eyes wandering, squeezing my hand lightly. "Hey, it'll be okay."

I let out a sigh, turning and wrapping an arm around my sister and the blonde who hadn't left my side. Right now, I couldn't be stressing over Santana, who was always hot and cold about everything. Right now, I needed to concentrate on the game and my date afterwards. "Alright, this is a huge favor to ask, but I think I might need a little help deciding what I'm going to wear tonight. Would you two be as so kind to help a poor girl out? Please?"

The two girls began to ramble on about proper things to wear to a party, and before I knew it, I was in the middle of an argument about whether or not to wear a dress, the word "no" falling out in the direction of my sister, eliciting a laugh from Quinn as we made our way towards the parking lot and my sister's car.

Santana

The stands fell silent as the batter of the other team came up to home plate. Our girls were still ahead of the other team, and this was the opposing team's last attempt at the bat. My eyes automatically fell on my favorite softball player, standing in the middle of the outfield, hands on her knees as she watched every single move the other team made. The sight made me smile slightly to myself, but it dropped just as quickly when I noticed Logan's eyes move from the batter at the plate to her left, where Skylar was standing. The two shared a look before both returned their attention to the game, a smile on both of their faces.

From my spot on the edge of the field, I crossed my arms over my chest, wishing now more than ever that looks could kill. Because if they did, Skylar Roberts would be dropping dead at the moment.

But I had no right to act jealous.

I had told Logan that we should just act like last year happened. That we should just make this the best year possible. As friends.

Even now, like it did then, the word made me cringe. There was no denying that I had feelings for the blonde. Hell, if I was being completely honest, I was slowly falling in love with the girl. But I had been a coward, afraid of what it would mean for me to admit my feelings. I was afraid of what my parents would think. So, I bottled everything up and shut it away, and in the process, I pushed Logan away.

And now she was going on a date with Skylar.

The sound of the ball cracking against the wooden bat brought me out of my self-pity long enough to cheer with the rest of the cheerleaders as the softball flew through the air. The crowd was still silent as the ball came closer and closer to the ground, all while the batter was flying around the bases.

As soon as the ball was in within Logan's reach, the cheers died a little, at least until the ball was safely within the confines of Logan's mitt and the main dude up front declared it an out, and our girls the winners. The bleachers erupted in cheers, as did our home team, all of them racing towards Logan, who was simply holding up the mitt with the ball, a bright smile on her face as she was tackled by her team mates.

My eyes scanned over the sea of red and white on the field, and eventually my eyes landed on who I had lost track of, only to find a certain scenario that both creating a huge hole of hurt in my chest while also fueling the fire that I had been trying to dim all afternoon.

Standing in the middle of the softball field was Logan, with Skylar's arms around her, their lips locked as the rest of the team members whistled and clapped.

Ducking my head, I let the pom-poms that I had been holding drop to my feet, quickly gathering my bag and letterman before heading off in the direction of the parking lot.

I was done being scared. I was done with letting my fears get in the way of everything. I earned my spot at the top of this fucking food chain, and I was done playing the nice little friend. If Skylar wanted war…

Well, she's got herself a war.

Logan

"Stop fidgeting, you look great."

Glancing at myself one more time in the rearview mirror of Skylar's car, I sent the girl next to me a small smile. "Thank you. I've just never been to an actual party before. Are sure I look alright?"

Skylar's eyes roamed over me, her smile growing. "Yes. You look fine. And I am honored to be your escort for your first party, but you can't really experience the party from the car. We should probably go in."

Nodding, I took a deep breath, waiting until Skylar was already out of the car before slipping out of the passenger seat, smoothing out the wrinkles of my shirt. Thank god for Quinn and my sister's help. Well, mostly Quinn's. My sister's taste in clothing wasn't exactly…mature, but Quinn had slipped me into a pair of ripped up jeans and simple dark grey tee shirt. It was comfortable, but also looked hot. Not to mention, my make up was on point.

A hand suddenly came into my view, and I held Skylar's gaze for a few seconds before matching her smile and taking her outstretched hand. Even from the driveway, the music could be heard, along with the voices of all the other kids who had gotten here before we did.

Skylar was the first to enter the house, our hands still attached as my nostrils were hit with the scent of sweat and alcohol. There were a few kids already giggling like crazy, some slumped over one another while others were busy dancing on the makeshift dance floor in Jenny's living room. Thankfully, her house was huge, so it wasn't too suffocating.

Our team captain met us in the living room, red and white face paint smothered on her face and cup of something blue in her hand. "Ladies! Glad you could make it! Drinks are in the kitchen, the bathroom is just past the kitchen on the left, and for later…the bedrooms are upstairs and there's a bowl of condoms and socks on the hallway table. Just hang a sock up on the door handle and have fun!"

Feeling the heat rise in my cheeks, I quickly ducked away from the obviously drunk Jenny, dragging a laughing Skylar behind me. "We're only fifteen minutes late and already everyone is wasted. Tonight should be fun."

My eyes found my sister and friends all huddled on one end of the dance floor, and I turned to Skylar, pointing in their direction. "We should probably go say hi."

The blonde nodded, and as we integrated ourselves into the small group, all of us getting into the music and dancing for a good solid half hour, laughing at lame jokes in between the songs, the night gaining more fun as it went by.

Eventually, most of us schooled away from the dance floor, and I found myself walking behind my date as she and my sister were giggling about something, Quinn on my left.

"Hey, you haven't seen Santana, have you?"

Shaking my head, I felt my mood dampen slightly upon thinking about the Latina. "No. I haven't. The last place I remember seeing her is at the game. I thought she was supposed to carpool with you and Rach?"

Quinn nodded, her eyes scanning the groups of teenagers as we passed them on our way to the kitchen. "She was, but she texted and said she'd just meet us here."

"Hey! Mackenzie! Bring your friends down here and join the game! We're playing Never Have I Ever and as our MVP, you're doing it first!"

Rolling my eyes, I followed Skylar and the rest of the glee club down into the basement, where a few of the other softball team members were already huddled into a small circle with some girls I recognized as Cheerios.

"Okay, and of you who are not willing to drink, you can sit out and observe. Take some notes as I'm sure there's going to be something you can use as blackmail on someone."

I laughed as my sister automatically pulled Quinn to one of the couches away from the circle, the look on her face telling me that she was more than willing to gain some blackmail about me. Grabbing Skylar's hand, I pulled her down into the circle, waiting as Jenny filled shot glasses with tequila and placed them on the inside of the circle.

Upon feeling something hit the back of my head, I turned to glare at my sister only to see her staring in the direction of the basement stairs. My eyes followed her line of direction, immediately latching onto Santana as she stepped down the last step, my eyes widening. She was dressed a lot like I was, in a pair of form-fitting skinny jeans and low cut black tee shirt that showed a lot more cleavage than mine did. The room was suddenly rising in temperature as I tore my eyes away from the girl, staring down at the tray of shots.

"Hey."

My head snapped up at the voice, my cheeks still burning as I smiled politely up at Santana. "Hey. We were all getting worried that you skipped out on the party."

The Latina shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. "I had to make a stop at my house. Congrats on the win by the way. I would have told you at the game, but you seemed a little…," she glanced over towards Skylar's direction, her eyebrows pulling together, "preoccupied with things."

"Yeah, thanks. Uh, are you playing?"

The brunette smiled, walking around the edge of the circle until she sat down next to a laughing Brittany. I gulped slightly, looking towards my team captain as she stood at the head of the circle. "First off, I would just like to say congratulations to everyone on the team. This season kind of took a hard hit when we lost a key player, but thanks to Skylar's very pointed eye, she scored us Logan who was responsible for catching the ball tonight and successfully winning it for us. So, on behalf of the team, we all thought you should have this."

I caught the softball as it flew towards me, smiling and flipping it over and over to see most of the team's signatures on it, chuckling as Skylar took it from my hands and proceeded to sign it with a sharpie before tossing it back to me. "Thanks, guys. This means a lot to me."

Jenny smiled back, hushing the applause that had started upon mention of our win. "Okay, okay. Enough of this sappy bullshit. Let's get down to business. Rules of the game are as follows. You think of something, anything, no matter how crazy or random it is, and those who are guilty of having done that must take shot. Logan gets first question, since she's obviously the star tonight and then we'll move counter clockwise. Logan?"

Clearing my throat, I placed the softball in my lap, crossing my legs. "Okay. Never have I ever…had inappropriate thoughts about one of my teachers."

I laughed as most of the group picked up a shot glass, downing it quickly. We went around the circle a few times, and I was lucky that I had only done a few of the things on everyone's list, so I wasn't completely buzzed as the rest of the group, Skylar included, who had her head resting on my shoulder.

"Okay, okay. I got a great one! Never have I ever been in love…with anyone sitting in this circle!"

No one reached out to take a glass, until Santana reached out to take a glass, catching my gaze as she pointedly emptied the glass and set it aside, her eyes never leaving mine as she did so, eliciting a round of whoops and cheers from the other players.

A warm filling slowly began to bile up from the bottom of my stomach, expanding to my chest, so I quickly snatched a glass from one of the trays, downing it and placing it back on the tray, excusing myself from the game and made my way up the stairs, desperate to have some sort of fresh air to clear my thoughts. I shouldn't be happy that I felt that entire mini performance seemed to be aimed at me. I was on a date with Skylar, and Santana had made it perfectly clear that we were just friends.

Leaning against the cool bricks, allowing my eyes to close, I could faintly hear the sound of the front door of Jenny's house opening and closing. "Logan? Are you okay?"

Reopening my eyes, I raised an eyebrow in Santana's direction. "Am I okay? Of course I'm not okay! What the hell was all of that for?! Are you trying to get under my skin?! Because it's working!"

The Latina shook her head, taking a few steps towards me, her arms crossing over herself. "Look, I'm not trying to get under your skin. I wasn't lying or joking around when I took that shot. There was someone in that circle that I'm in love with. I just wish I had realized it sooner and wasn't too afraid to admit those feelings."

I could sense where this conversation was going, and I quickly pushed myself off the wall, shaking my head. "No. We are so not having this conversation right now."

"Why not? What's wrong with now?"

Turning back towards the girl, I let out a frustrated breath, my anger and emotions getting the better of me. "Because it's not fair! I've waited over a year to hear you say that! You are all I've thought of since I met you, Santana, and you said we were better off as just friends! And now that I've finally got the courage to try and move on, you're suddenly announcing that you like me?! How is any of that fair?!"

Santana's eyebrows pulled together. "You think I wanted to wait so long to tell you? I was scared and confused, but I know who I am now, Logan. I know what I want, and I'm not about to give that up because softball Barbie decided to try and dig her claws into you."

I rubbed my eyes, letting out a groan at how crazy my life was. This seriously couldn't be happening, could it? I must be dreaming, or I've had too much to drink. Or some other rational solution to this. "Santana, what do you want me to say? That it's all going to be okay? That'll I just chose you over Skylar?"

"No. I just wanted you to know that I'm not giving down without a fight. And I don't plan on losing you again."

Glancing up at the girl, I watched as she stared at me for a few seconds before taking the last few steps to close the distance between us, her lips crashing against mine and successfully forcing my brain to race back to the first time I kissed her in the girl's bathroom last year, and all the events and pain that followed.

Eventually, she pulled away, both of us breathless as she leaned her forehead against mine. Without a word, she pulled away, leaving me to watch as she made her way down the sidewalk in the direction of her house, never once looking back and leaving me to wonder what in the hell just happened.