Role Reversal Chapter 12, a glee fanfic

A/N: Haters will be haters. Last time, it's still going to be a LONG while before Brittana fully hits the storyline. There's going to be hints of it along the way, but we have a long journey before we see them as a couple ;) Mmmmmkay? Apologies if some readers disagree, but as much feedback as I'm willing to take, this is still my story.

So, keep a weather eye on the horizon, because when Brittana does happen, I'll change the summary :) You know, for those who are HATING the Pezberry.

Meh, negative, positive, constructive or otherwise, I still love hearing what you guys have to say. I'm just the writer – you guys fuel my passion ;)

Side note: Muchos gracias to the amazingly talented BrittanaTeam for the awesome cover art! :D

Onward and up!

-H

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee :(

CHAPTER 12

Brittany couldn't understand why she was nervous. She was fucking Head Cheerio! She'd been interviewed on ESPN and graced the cover of Cheerleader a record four times!

Why the hell was she nervous about singing a stupid song?

Because people don't know this about you. Only Rachel knows. And this would put you out there big time.

Ugh, fucking know-it-all conscience. If this song was going to make her appear vulnerable, then why the hell was she even doing it? What was the point? It's not like these people or this group actually meant anything to her.

Ha! Bullshit.

She really hated her conscience.

"Quinnie, are you sure about this?" Santana asked worriedly.

"Jesus, San, you sound like my mother," the blonde replied, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it's only been two days," Santana tried to protest, but Quinn cut her off.

"Santana, I'm fine. Physically, I'm ok. Mentally, maybe not right now, but I'll get there. Staying at home for the rest of the week with no one but my mother and the private nanny and nurse? That would very detrimental to my mental well being."

Santana simply nodded, knowing that her best friend had made up her mind. And she believed her if she said she was ok. Quinn wasn't stupid enough to subject herself to a torturous day of high school with stares and smirks if she didn't think she could handle it.

"I'll be there the whole time," she promised, linking their fingers and squeezing.

Quinn let out a chuckle. "Is your girlfriend going to let you?" she teased.

Santana huffed. "We're not attached at the hip, Quinnie."

"Uh huh," Quinn replied knowingly, seeing the cheerleader standing outside the front doors of their high school chatting to some other Cheerios.

Santana rolled her eyes and stepped out her car. For the first time since her accident, her mom had let her drive her own car to school. She'd begged after finding out that Quinn planned to return that day. She wanted to fetch her and be a good friend.

"You're a good friend, San," Quinn said quietly as they made their way towards the school.

The Latina just smiled. It didn't surprise her anymore that Quinn could tell what she was thinking.

"You're my best friend, Quinn," she said sincerely. "I'll do whatever I need to make sure that you're ok."

Quinn smiled. "I have no doubt."

They approached the group of cheerleaders and Santana caught Rachel's eye with a wink. The shorter brunette grinned and stepped outside her group for a soft kiss before tapping the Latina's ass smartly and going back to her friends.

"See?" Santana said triumphantly, continuing into the school. "We can totally survive without each other."

"Uh huh, and I'm sure the heavy make out session you guys will probably squeeze in before first period has nothing to do with you settling for a simple kiss, does it?"

Santana rolled her eyes and grinned. "I can't help it that my girlfriend is super sexy and I can't control myself when I'm around her."

"Actually, yes you can!" Quinn laughed, stopping at her locker. "It's called restraint."

Santana leaned against the locker next to Quinn's as she gathered her books. She looked thoughtful. "Can't say I've ever come across this foreign word."

"Well, that's pretty obvious," Quinn laughed.

Santana grinned. "Come on, friendling. Let's go and see Ms. S. Maybe you and I can do a duet for this week's assignment."

Quinn linked their arms. "But you've already sung, San."

"Psssh, like I need an excuse to sing again," she said with a wink.

"Hey, sexy!" a familiar voice called from behind them.

Santana and Quinn turned to see Rachel sauntering towards them with a knowing smirk on her face. Santana grinned.

"Thirteen more days, Lopez," Rachel purred as she walked past.

"Oh my God," Santana breathed, her eyes fixed on the sway of Rachel's hips as she strutted away.

"Jesus," Quinn chuckled. "Drool alert."

Santana clamped her mouth closed, not even aware that it had fallen on the floor.

"Ugh, stupid ribs," she groaned, looking down at her stomach. "My own body is cockblocking me. How messed up is that?"

She sounded so forlorn that Quinn couldn't stop from letting out another laugh. "San, you're totally smitten with her. I've never seen you like this."

The Latina blushed and pushed her glasses up her nose. "It's weird, right?" she muttered. "She's like my kryptonite or something. Anything I do, she has the perfect comeback."

"Hmmm, seems like you've met your match."

Santana grinned.

"You ok?"

Brittany nodded and sent a smile in Rachel's direction. She was sitting at the Cheerios table during lunch for the first time since going public with her relationship with Santana.

"You don't have to sit with us," she said. "I'm sure you'd rather be with Santana."

Rachel simply smiled. "I know. But you got me thinking yesterday. Sure, I love spending time with San, but I've neglected you, whether consciously or subconsciously, and I should've seen how hard things have been for you. So I'm making a conscious effort to split my time between the two of you better."

The blonde just smiled.

They played around with the stuff that Coach Em passed off as food on their plates in a comfortable silence until Brittany broke it again. Her pain meds must have her on a trip.

You're not taking pain meds anymore.

Shut up.

"You know, you shouldn't have to split your time. Between me and Santana, I mean. I did promise that I would try and be nice to her, which I guess I haven't really done."

"B, it's ok," Rachel said softly. "You've had a lot of shit going on."

Brittany shrugged, still keeping her voice low enough so that her squad members wouldn't hear their conversation. It was bad enough that her perks had been taken away as the top dog. She didn't need for them to find out that she actually had feelings and shit.

"That's not really the point. You've done a lot for me and it's about time I was a friend to you like you've been to me. Which means making nice with your girlfriend."

Rachel must've seen the pained expression on her face and sent her a dazzling smile.

"Britt, I can't tell you how much that means to me, really. Thank you."

"Meh," Brittany replied nonchalantly. "So maybe we should all do something together or something. Like…I dunno. Whatever."

Rachel giggled. "You're so bad at this. But I appreciate that you're trying. Well, we've got our spa day on Saturday. Why don't we see of she and Quinn want to come with?"

"Quinn too?"

She hadn't really counted on that. She was still a little sore about Queen Quinn stealing Puck right out from underneath her nose. She was Brittany fucking Pierce, for Christ's sake.

"They're best friends," Rachel explained.

"I know," Brittany snapped, immediately berating herself. "Sorry. Baby steps, Rach." She sighed. "How about we start with just Santana, ok?"

Rachel nodded in understanding. Brittany started to feel a little panicky at all the niceness so she turned to the squad.

"Girls, practice for an hour after school. Coach Em is less than pleased with your half-assed attempts at a basic routine. She wants it down pat for Friday's pep assembly. No arguments," she added glaring around the table as a few girls dared to open their mouths to protest.

"B, what about Glee?" Rachel whispered.

"Glee's two hours. That's why I only made practice one hour."

The grin on her best friend's face made her realise that the short reprieve of niceness actually wasn't a reprieve at all.

Ugh. What had this fucking Glee Club done to her?

"Right, we need to start thinking about our set list for Sectionals," Ms. S said, bringing the group to order after an hour of messing around and randomly singing whatever songs they wanted.

"I call dibs on a solo," Mercedes declared. "I only got one last year, Ms. S. Quinn got like fifty."

"Don't be ridiculous, Mercedes," Quinn huffed. "We didn't even sing fifty songs in competitions last year."

"Oh, lordy," Santana mumbled.

"Quinn, I know you got hurt and all, but don't you think that it's time you let someone else share the spotlight?" Mercedes bit back.

"Ladies, ladies, I have a solution to this problem," Ms. S said, holding up her hands.

"Mud wrestling?"

"Jesus, Karofsky," Santana snapped. "Douchebag, much?"

"Language, Santana," Ms. S chided. "And Dave, less vulgar comments, if you please."

The large senior just grinned.

"Um, hi. Is this the Glee Club?"

The entire room looked to the door and saw a blonde guy with the biggest lips ever, wearing way too much hair gel and a bowtie. Also, his pants were about two inches too short.

Santana just smiled. Wow, this guy screamed gay louder than she did.

"Uh, yes. And you are?"

"I'm Sam Evans," he said, smiling and walking in. "I just transferred. I was wondering if you had room for me in your club?"

"Well, seeing as how Puck's deserted us, most definitely," Ms. S said with a smile.

Santana felt Quinn stiffen next to her at the mention of Puck's name and she simply grabbed her hand and squeezed. The reciprocal squeeze made her breathe a little easier.

"So, Trouty Mouth, can you sing?"

"Mercedes, did you wake up on the wrong side of your prison cell this morning?" Santana teased.

"Bite me, Lopez."

"Sorry, you're not my type," she chuckled back.

"I should hope so," a familiar voice said from the doorway. "I wouldn't want to have to beat you down, Mercedes."

"Yeah, I'd like to see a midget like you try, Berry," Mercedes retorted, but a smile crossed her face.

"Hey, baby," Santana greeted, leaning up for a kiss.

Rachel pecked her lips and say down on the empty chair next to her, immediately interlocking their fingers.

"B, there's a spot here," Rachel called.

Santana's eyes met Brittany's and she was surprised to get a small smile from the blonde as she stepped up to take a seat next to Rachel.

Hmmm. That's progress.

"Back to business," Ms. S said in exasperation. "Sam, welcome to New Directions. As you can see, we're a close knit bunch who can't be bothered to stay on point for more than two minutes."

"I totally stayed on point for three minutes and fifty-two seconds yesterday," Santana chirped, earning chuckles around the room.

"Well, this is the most comfortable I've felt since I got here," Sam confessed with a guppy grin. "This town is…"

"Close-minded?" Santana supplied.

"Naïve?" Rachel said.

"Vindictive?" Quinn added.

"Crazy," Mercedes laughed.

"Actually, I was just going to say different," Sam chuckled. "But I guess, yeah. It's not easy to be different here."

"Preach," Tina said.

"T, you're not black. Don't make me go all Lima Heights on yo' ass," Mercedes snapped, but there was no malice in her tone.

"Oh, Mercedes, leave the rich girl alone. If she wants to be black, let her buy all of Rihanna's albums and braid her hair and learn hip-hop. Next week she'll be back to her normal self," Santana said, grinning. She thrived on pushing her friend's buttons.

"Santana, I'm about two seconds away from beating yo' ass."

"Mercedes, we discussed this on Monday," Santana replied with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "If I have to get into another fight, you'll have to endure another week without my awesomeness, Ms. S will assign us Accountability for our next assignment and then I'll rock out Adam Levine again and-"

"Baby, shut up," Rachel said with a smile.

"K."

"Damn, Berry! Where can I get some of that mojo?"

Everyone laughed.

"See what I mean?" Ms. S said with a smile, indicating her misfit group of singers.

"I think it's awesome," Sam replied softly.

"So, where's this song we were promised?" Quinn asked, trying to get things back on track.

"Well, I wasn't sure if I'd even have a shot of getting in, so I didn't really prepare anything."

"Oh, honey, there ain't no waiting list for this club. Really, we'll take all the voices we can get," Tina said.

Santana saw Mercedes roll her eyes at the Asian girl's faux ghetto attempt.

"Well, anything you can sing off pat?" Ms. S asked. "It doesn't have to be anything long. We just want to hear if you can sing."

"Um, ok, sure. I was working on a duet with one of the girls at my old school. Maybe I could just sing that?"

"We'll help you out," Santana said with a smile, gesturing to the back row.

"Ok," Sam smiled again.

Damn, those lips are really distracting.

Sam picked up one of the acoustic guitars and started strumming.

Do you hear me?
I'm talking to you
Across the water
Across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky
Oh my, baby I'm trying.

Santana grinned and she, Quinn and Rachel jumped into the second verse.

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard.

She glanced at Brittany who looked uncomfortable and wasn't singing. She brushed it off as everyone joined in for the chorus.

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Oooohoooooohoooohooohoooh

They harmonised the rest of the song and provided back up vocals as Sam finished off with a strum of the chords.

"Well, that was very impressive, Sam," Ms. S congratulated him.

"Thanks. Uh, thanks for joining in. That was pretty cool."

Santana shrugged. "S'what we do."

Rachel chuckled and squeezed her hand.

"So what do we say?" Ms. S asked everyone.

"Well, I dunno. I mean, maybe he can sing, but can the boy dance?"

Everyone turned to look in surprise at Brittany. She looked just as surprised that the words had come from her mouth.

"Uh, well, I don't know about dancing, but I mean, I can hold a beat and do a few moves."

"Oooh, idea!" Santana said suddenly, sitting up. "Brittany, can you dance?"

The blonde scoffed, sounding more like the Brittany they were used to.

Santana smiled despite herself. "No, I know you can, but I mean, are you able to. You know, with your injuries?"

Brittany shrugged. "They don't hurt as much as they did on Monday."

"What happened?"

Sam's whisper was probably supposed to be soft, but everyone heard it.

"Well, Santana and Brittany have somewhat of a hate-less hate relationship," Tina began. "They kind of had a smackdown here last week."

"Thanks, T," Santana said, rolling her eyes. To Sam, she added, "We beat each other up, got it out of our system and are now moving forward."

Sam nodded and the Latina turned back to Brittany. "Quinn and I have a number we'd like to perform and you could maybe throw in some choreography while we're singing and see if Sam can keep up?" There was silence. "It was just an idea," she added quietly, feeling like an idiot as the unusual quiet echoed around her.

It wasn't something she was used to feeling and she definitely didn't like it.

"Sure."

Santana looked up. "Yeah?"

The blonde nodded.

"Ok. Quinnie?"

Her best friend stood up and they walked to where Sam was standing.

"To be formal and such, I'm Santana, this is Quinn and Brittany and that smokin' piece of ass is Rachel."

"You make me sound like a hooker," Rachel laughed.

Santana grinned and gave her sultry look. "Then we have Mercedes, Tina, Dave, Lauren, Jacob and Brad. He doesn't say much, though."

"Nice to meet you all," Sam said with a smile. "You seem to be a little short on numbers, though?" he ventured.

"Well, we always make a plan for competitions," Ms. S stepped in. "Finn Hudson always joins us for competitions to spice up our dancing."

"Wait, Finn Hudson?" Brittany asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

"Yup," Santana confirmed. "He's a good dancer."

"Yeah, I know that," the blonde replied, smirking.

The Latina rolled her eyes. "Moving along swiftly. Sam, follow Brittany. Quinnie and are about to get our Freddie Mercury on."

"Oh, hell yeah!" Dave said with a grin. He fist-pumped Lauren.

Santana grinned and pointed at the band. She and Quinn were so used to performing together that they'd only needed to run through the song once during lunch.

Quinn stepped forward and started the first verse softly, the piano playing soon after she started singing.

Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world turning inside out, yeah!
And floating around in ecstasy

Santana stepped forward and joined in, grinning at her best friend.

So don't stop me now,
Don't stop me
Cos' I'm having a good time, having a good time.

Santana could see in her peripheral vision that Brittany was going through a few dance steps with Sam as the tempo of the song picked up. She took centre stage and belted out the second verse.

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity.
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I'm gonna go, go, go, there's no stopping me
I'm burning through the sky, yeah!
Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic girl out of you.

Santana pointed to Rachel, who winked and clapped her hands in time to the beat. Quinn joined in.

Don't stop me now
I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball.
Don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call
Don't stop me now (because I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (yes, I'm having a good time)
I don't want to stop at all.

Quinn took over the second verse and Santana stepped back, slipping into the easy routine that Brittany was running through with Sam. She loved the rush of performing, but doing things spontaneously just added to her energy.

I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars
On a collision course
I am a satellite I'm out of control
I am a sex machine ready to reload
Like an atom bomb about to
Oh oh oh oh oh explode.

I'm burning through the sky, yeah!
Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Santana faced Quinn as they sang the bridge to each other.

Don't stop me, don't stop me
Don't stop me, hey hey hey!
Don't stop me, don't stop me, oooh oooh oooh (I like it)
Don't stop me, don't stop me
Have a good time, good time
Don't stop me, don't stop me, aaah!

I'm burning through the sky, yeah!
Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you

Don't stop me now
I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball
Don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call
Don't stop me now (because I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (yes, I'm having a good time)
I don't want to stop at all.

Santana harmonised the last bit of the song and watched as Sam attempted a moonwalk. Brittany just laughed and showed him how it was done. Santana was impressed. She knew Brittany could dance, but she was really versatile.

The performers bowed to a standing ovation.

"Wow, girls, I'm seriously impressed. I think that could definitely be a potential candidate for one of our Sectional numbers," Ms. S said with a smile.

"You ok with that, Mercedes?" Quinn asked.

The diva shrugged. "Y'all were ok."

"Ok? They killed it! You were awesome," Rachel gushed.

Santana laughed at her girlfriend's enthusiasm.

"I have to agree with Rachel, but Quinn, I'm confused as to how this song pertains to the assignment this week," Ms. S queried.

"Well, we're not saying 'screw accountability, we're gonna do what we want anyway', we're saying something along the lines of 'we know we messed up, but we love what we're doing'." The blonde grimaced. "Ugh, that didn't even make sense. I promise it sounded better in my head."

"It's ok, Quinn. I think I understand what you mean. It's a little abstract, but the performance was great. Brittany, I hope you'll allow us to use those very impressive dancing skills?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, if you want to."

"Maybe she and Finn could do a routine?" Rachel suggested. "They'd look really great together, I think."

"Excellent suggestion, Rachel," Ms. S said, beaming. "Brittany, once you've done your song, maybe we can talk more about it?"

"Sure."

Santana took her seat and glanced at the blonde cheerleader. She wondered what song she was going to sing. Santana had been a little facetious with her song choice on Monday and she wondered what stance Brittany would take.

"Um, Ms. Sylvester, I'm not so sure that I'm ready to sing today," Brittany suddenly said.

"Why not, Brittany? You seemed pretty eager this morning."

"Yeah…" she trailed off.

"Ms. S, could we have a minute?" Rachel asked.

The teacher nodded and Santana watched as her girlfriend led Brittany out of the choir room. She looked…nervous. Brittany Pierce, Head Cheerio and HBIC nervous? What the hell did she have to be nervous about? She was popular and everyone knew her. She had nothing to hide. If she did, people would've found out by now. That was the price of popularity.

"Jesus, I can't do this, Rachel! I don't know what the fuck is going on with me lately, but I'm making these decisions and saying these things and thinking really bad thoughts and I feel like I'm losing control of who I am!"

"B, calm down. Breathe," Rachel said quietly.

She had rarely seen her best friend honest-to-God freak out like she was at the moment. The last time had been back at their cabin after Coach Em had given her the captaincy.

"Hey, B. You know who you are?"

Brittany blinked.

"You're Brittany Pierce. Fierce Pierce. Singing is cake for you. Nothing scares you because you know who you are. You're a brilliant captain, the best this squad has seen in a long time, you're the sexiest dancer I have ever seen, and no I'm really not hitting on you, you're hot, you're popular and you rule this school. You can do anything."

She saw the effect that her little pep talk had on her friend and she breathed a sigh of relief. Having Brittany open up to her like she had was awesome, but having never really dealt with an emotional Brittany before, she wasn't always sure how to react. So far, it seemed like she was doing ok.

"I'm Brittany fucking Pierce," she said firmly. "Jesus, I'm losing my fucking mind." She let out a humourless laugh.

Rachel just grinned. "Ok, you ready?"

The blonde nodded.

Brittany rolled her eyes at her mini-breakdown. Screw all this shit going on in her head. Regardless, she was Fierce Pierce. Clearly she just needed to remind herself of that fact.

The song she'd chosen was definitely soul-bearing and probably would make the Glee Club curious, but fuck that. She was capable of feeling shit. And honestly? She felt like she wouldn't actually be judged by the bunch of oddities.

She took a deep breath and followed Rachel back into the choir room. She wasn't actually surprised to see Santana doing a handstand again.

"Santana Lopez, don't make me call your mother," Rachel warned.

"Jesus, calm down," Santana laughed, straightening up. "I wouldn't have done it if it hurt, Rach."

Brittany couldn't see her best friend's face, but could only imagine that she was rolling her eyes. Santana definitely seemed like a handful.

"Brittany, are you ready now?"

She nodded and pulled out a stool from next to the piano.

"I know that I was the one that started the fight last week," she began, startling everyone, especially Santana. "I guess the song I chose doesn't excuse what I did, but maybe it'll help you guys understand why? I dunno." She cleared her throat.

Fierce Pierce. Here we go.

She closed her eyes and let the opening chords run through her. She'd never practised so much for anything in her life. Her heart started beating a little faster as she opened her mouth.

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow.

She opened her eyes and saw admiration on the faces in front of her. She saw Rachel's proud smile and encouraging nod of her head. Unwittingly, her eyes drifted to Santana, who had a curious glint her eye, her teeth nibbling slightly on her bottom lip as though she was trying to figure out Brittany's reason for singing the song.

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very mad world, mad world.

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher, tell me what's my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me.

Brittany took a deep breath once ending the last note. There was silence before Santana spoke up.

"I don't care what anyone else says, but that has to be our opening number for Sectionals. Just like that."

Brittany's eyes widened in surprise at everyone nodding enthusiastically. She met Santana's dark eyes and the Latina gave her a genuine smile.

"That was amazing, Brittany," Ms. S said sincerely. "Thank you for showing us what you're capable of."

"Um, sure," she mumbled, walking back to her chair.

"B, I'm so proud of you," Rachel whispered.

She gave her a small smile.

"Brittany, I can't even describe how amazing that was."

Say what? Queen Quinn?

"Look, I know we probably would never have spoken if not for He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but I'm really glad you joined Glee Club. You and Rachel have really upped our chances at Sectionals this year."

"Geez, just say that she did a great job, Quinnie," Santana teased. "It's like a backhand compliment."

"I was just being honest," Quinn said in a hurt voice.

"Thanks," Brittany said quickly. "Um, yeah."

She sat back in her chair and kept her expression neutral.

Fierce Pierce.

You are the HBIC. Don't fucking forget that. So you like to sing and dance with these kids. Big effing deal. Remember where your priorities are.

Fierce Pierce.

A/N: Eh. Not very sure how I feel about this chapter…It felt like a filler, but a necessary filler. And there were times when I wanted to just delete it all. Argh.

Let me know what you guys think? We've got a spa day coming up :) And a bit of a party to look forward to :)

Oh! Songs were Lucky by Colbie Caillat & Jason Mraz, Don't Stop Me Now by Queen (one of my all time favourite bands) and Mad World. Originally, Mad World was sung by Tears For Fears, but the rendition that Adam Lambert did for American Idol seemed for fitting. More haunting, more angsty.

Brittany's inner struggle is actually a lot more difficult to write than I anticipated. Hope I'm not messing it up too much…

-H