Holy fucking shit. So many story alerts.
Being the grateful little shit that I am I tried to get this chapter done as fast as possible, and if I can maybe get some possible reviews, I will try to get the next one out by the end of tomorrow (3 or 4am tomorrow) So yea. I'll be on a 2 week break soon, and I'd like to post as much as possible.
"So, I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Schuester did last year, but I'll try to go about coaching you guys the way I feel is right, is that okay with everyone?" In unison everyone in the choir room nodded their heads, even Rachel kept her mouth shut. Brittany told Santana all about their triumphs and losses on their way to the choir room. Santana didn't like losing and if she was going to invest in the glee club she was going to make sure that they would win this year.
"Good. I heard you guys didn't even place last year, or the year before that. Do we know why New Directions didn't win last year?" All at once, everyone looked at Finn and Rachel.
"Those two decided to make out on stage, therefore costing us Nationals," Quinn blurted out, shooting hazel-eyed daggers at the couple in the front row.
"In our defense, it was the superman of kisses," Finn explained to Santana while Rachel just looked around with an embarrassed look on her face.
"So you guys lost Nationals because they kissed on stage?" Santana laughed dryly to herself and then looked at both Rachel and Finn. "So both of you are out."
"WHAT? You can't do that," Finn explained standing up, towering over Santana's small body.
"Yes, I can. I am in charge of this club. You cost the entire team the chance to win or at least place because you couldn't control yourself. That is what's not fair. Now gather your stuff, both you and Rachel, and get an audition ready because for now, you are no longer on this team." Santana said sternly, not once raising her voice and keeping her composure, as smoke nearly came out of Finn's ears.
"Ms. Lopez, please understand that I regret the kiss completely, please don't take this away from me. Glee club is the only place where I can truly express myself without a fear of being judged or slushied," Rachel begged as tears began brimming around the whites of her eyes.
"This is garbage, Mr. Schue would've never done thi"
"I am not Mr. Schuester, I am Ms. Lopez. Now get your stuff and go, you can audition in a few weeks," unlike her high school days, Santana did not yell, she did not hit and she did not curse. She kept her cool.
No one in the choir room knew what to do, they have all been like family for the last two years and now Santana had walked in with no intention of making them feel special or loved, she was focused on winning. Some, like Mercedes and Kurt, liked the idea of having a coach that was actually going to help them beat Vocal Adrenaline, others, like Tina and Artie, preferred having a club centered more around acceptance and expression.
"We are both captains, we have led the glee club for two year-"
"Enough, Rachel. Both of you led the team to failure. You will have an opportunity to rejoin but for now face the consequences of your actions." Wiping an idle tear on her cheek, Rachel just nodded, secretly looking forward to audition again, before walking out of the choir room.
"Don't expect me back," Finn huffed before storming out. Santana watched them leave and once they were gone she turned back to the group.
"Now that we're done with that, when do we usually hold auditions?" Everyone looked around the room not really knowing the answer.
"They're not really auditions, whoever wants to be in the club, gets to be in the club," Tina explained.
"Well, that obviously has to go. We hold try outs this year, just like the Cheerios and the football team, and everything else in this school."
"No one ever comes to auditions," Artie interrupted.
"What, why?"
"Glee club isn't cool in this school, so no one's really open to joining," Mercedes retorted.
"Well, I guess we'll have to make it cool then."
"How would we do that?" Quinn asked.
"Athletes, cheerleaders, I mean, we already have two," she said eyeing Quinn and Brittany, more Brittany than Quinn, obviously. "Now we just need a few more."
The rest of the meeting went pretty well as Santana took different suggestions from everyone in the group, she wrote them all down and promised the group that she'd try her hardest to get them a well deserved win this year. Almost everyone felt good after that meeting, they felt like they were in good hands and there was even some confidence left in the air. Even the reluctant ones managed to take a liking to Santana, who wasn't all that bad to begin with. All except for Brittany who was a fan of self-expression and seeing Santana sort of tear it down sort of made her sad, so she waited for everyone to leave before confronting her.
"Why were you so mean to Finn and Rachel?" Brittany asked innocently.
"They decided to care more about their hormones than their team. It's all about priorities, Brittany."
"They didn't mean to though, I mean I wanna kiss Rachel sometimes too, I can't help it."
"I'm letting them audition, Brittany. They just need to learn how to care about something other than themselves. Okay? Is that okay?" Santana wanted to make sure that it was okay with Brittany, because so far she had been her favorite out of all the students she had encountered. There was warmth around her, warmth that brought ease to Santana, an ease that didn't come easily. As, Santana explained herself; Brittany realized that she was right. It wasn't like Sue who would make the Cheerios suffer just to put fear in their hearts, she did it because Finn and Rachel had caused the glee club to lose despite all the work they put in. In a way Santana was protecting their efforts, and Brittany really, really liked that.
~unf~
"I need help," Brittany said during lunch when she strolled into the Spanish room one day.
"With?" Already the pile of papers that Santana needed to grade were getting less and less important as Brittany found her seat in the middle of the classroom and sat down.
"Homework," Brittany said with a smile.
"Well, lets see if I can help," Santana got up from her desk and sat in Quinn's desk, Brittany scooted her desk closer to Santana so that she could feel the heat radiating off of Santana's body. The proximity made Santana comfortable and happy, almost, and that reaction made Santana uncomfortable and well, unhappy. Almost. For weeks now, Santana has not been able to stop thinking about Brittany. Like a little schoolboy with a crush, Santana admonishes herself every time Brittany decides to creep into her thoughts. Which is most of the time. Just the other day, Santana almost screamed out Brittany's name during a late night romp with her boyfriend, Noah. She doesn't like to think about that though, she hasn't had these types of feelings for another girl since college and she wasn't prepared to go through them again, not with her parents breathing over her shoulder at least.
"I don't understand anything, its like another language or something," Brittany said doe eyed and confused as Santana tried her best to explain conjugations to her. Honestly, Brittany had been studying harder and harder, she figured that adults like Santana were interested in other adults and the only real difference between adults and teenagers that Brittany could come up with was that adults were smarter and bigger, but Brittany was already pretty tall and she had no real interest in growing big arms like Coach Beiste, so Brittany had studied and even asked Quinn even though she knew how irritated her best friend could get. Turns out that that's really all it took for Brittany to understand everything she was learning, sure math was a little hard because she barely knew the basic but Quinn's been helping her with that and in English, Rachel's even helped her, of course Brittany didn't ask, but one day when she walked into the library and saw Quinn and Brittany studying, she wanted to make sure that her extensive vocabulary was put to good use and decided to help Brittany. So far, Brittany had gotten close to Rachel, learning that the girl really does have good intentions, no matter what Quinn says. In Chemistry, Brittany's gotten help from Artie, who has so far shown great patience with her.
"See its like-"
"Are you married?" Santana raised her head from Brittany's textbook and gave her a questioning look.
"Like with the ring and the dress and everything?" Brittany elaborated.
"Well, no," Santana said finally deciding that it wouldn't do any harm to answer her.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"No," Santana eyebrows crinkled at her response. "I mean yes, yea I have a boyfriend." Santana felt more regret telling Brittany that she had a boyfriend, than she had towards lying about it. She bit her lip and closed her eyes for a second to gain some sort of command over her words, and when she opened them, Brittany was closing her textbook and getting all her stuff together. Strangely, Santana could feel her heart start to move around in her chest trying to tell her to call Brittany back, to break up with Noah and just be with Brittany, Santana can't do that though. Santana may be rebellious at times but the girl has a conscious. Teachers and students do not go together. Santana has seen this movie before, it does not work out, and she will not pretend that her and Brittany could be an exception. So instead of reaching out when Brittany walked away from her, she sat there, deciding that it was for the best. She breathed in and gave out a long sigh before going to her desk and reaching for a pack of cigarettes in her purse, she walked outside to the teacher's parking lot and lit it. She took a long, deep drag and let it float around in her lungs before blowing it back out.
Brittany was running through the halls absent-mindedly until her body guided her into the choir room where she landed on her chair emphatically. She didn't really mean to run out on Santana like that, if anything she would've loved to just sit and listen to Santana's voice but something in her just wanted to run out of that room when she heard that Santana was already taken. Well not just something, everything. Brittany's used to living in a constant state of confusion finding questions in just about everything, but if there's something Brittany thought she was sure about was Santana. Sure, Brittany might've been a little too quick to judge the potential of her and Santana's relationship but inside Brittany knew that Santana was the one for her and not just because of how hot she is but how she made things a little clearer for Brittany, Santana may have just been a Spanish teacher but because of her Brittany knew every hallway by heart, she started trying in all her other classes and Brittany doesn't feel so empty. She's enthusiastic, not just about dance but about everything, she goes to class with a smile on her face and even when she can't quite understand she tells herself that she will eventually. She started off doing all these things for Santana but after a few a days, Brittany realized she was doing it for herself. Brittany felt empowered, smart, and just strong and it was all thanks to Santana.
Santana walked back into the classroom and noticed that Brittany had dropped some sort of comb on the floor; she knew it was hers because she's seen it on Brittany's desk before. She kneeled down next to the chair and grabbed it. On the spine of the light blue comb, it read 'Artie's Magic Comb, do NOT lose,' in bright pink letters. Santana chuckled softly and slipped the comb onto her desk to give to Brittany during glee this afternoon, anxious to form some communication between the two.
"Brittany?" Rachel asked, stunned to see her in the choir room, usually she liked rehearsing during lunch.
"Hi Rachel," Brittany's head turned to the girl, and then turned the other way to look back down at her hands. Already, Brittany's hunched demeanor worried Rachel. Her and Brittany had gotten closer and Rachel really did care for Brittany.
"Brittany, what's wrong?" she asked as she sat down next Brittany and put her hand on Brittany's shoulder.
"Ms. Lopez has a boyfriend," Brittany said softly looking over at Rachel who was nodding understandingly. After the whole 'you're hot' thing during class and a couple of other comments during glee club, Rachel was able to piece together the fact that Brittany had developed a crush for Santana.
"Well such a pretty woman like Ms. Lopez is bound to have a boyfriend."
"I thought she liked me, Rachel," she said with tears welling up in her blue eyes. Rachel put her arm around Brittany and let her lay her head on her shoulder.
"I know, Brittany. I had a similar occurrence two years ago with Mr. Schuester and I thought I was positive that he returned the same feelings, but then I had to face the fact that he didn't have any romantic interest in me at all, despite how well our voices sounded together," Rachel said as softly as she could, Brittany looked so fragile that Rachel didn't want to break her with her voice's usual volume.
"But I thought she did," Brittany whined into Rachel's argyle sweater.
"Sometimes things don't work out like we think, Brittany. Sure, I didn't end up with Mr. Schuester but I found Finn, didn't I?"
"Are you really happy, though? Its not like Finn is really that great of a boyfriend. You deserve better than him, Rachel," Brittany sat up and looked deep into Rachel's eyes, trying to express sincerity.
"That's beside the point, Brittany. I thought Mr. Schuester loved me and he didn't. I was able to get over it, though. That's the point," Rachel retorted quickly. Whether or not she was settling for Finn was something that she thought about often. The two of them had nothing in common, and Rachel really just liked the idea having someone to hold her and love her and that was enough for her. For now, at least.
"I don't care about that though. I don't want a Finn. I want Ms. Lopez," for the first time Rachel saw Brittany get frustrated, not even late nights over comma rules got Brittany down, the girl was like steel in Rachel's opinion but this was the first time she saw it dent a bit and as her friend, Rachel wanted her to be happy.
"Well then, give it time. Maybe she's just scared, I mean she could lose her job and with the struggling economy that can be scary. Also, even though you are 18, it's not like student teacher relationships are embraced, so Brittany, just wait for her. If she does really shares the same feelings then we'll just have to push her a bit. Okay?"
"Okay," Brittany smiled brightly at Rachel and gave her a big embrace.
~hnng~
"I think I like her," Santana confessed.
"Who?" Blaine asked as he looked over the Breadstix menu.
"Brittany," Santana said in a hushed tone.
"Oh the cheerleader," Blaine said finally remembering. "Wait, the cheerleader?"
"Yea, her."
"Isn't that illegal?" Blaine asked dubiously.
"Just a little, she's 18 so it's not like rape."
"How romantic."
"Today I gave her back a comb during glee club and she could barely look at me."
"Why do you think so?"
"I told her I had a boyfriend and she ran out on me."
"What'd you do after that?"
"Had a cigarette."
"Maybe she likes you, too."
"Probably thinks I'm weird. I stare at her a lot more than I should."
"When?"
"Today, the wheelchair kid, Artie and Mercedes sang this really cool duet version of Guilty Pleasure and it's like a dance song. Brittany, being the dancer that she is, started dancing around everyone and I'm sure my eyes teared up from not blinking."
"That bad?"
"I want her so bad."
"Looks like you got the hots for the cheerleader, Lopez. You haven't changed at all, since high school, have you?"
"Fuck you."
"Well I'm not really interested, you're not exactly my type, but Brittany might want to."
"God knows, I do."
"Oh wow, you're already planning sex?" Blaine said coyly.
"Well, no. Its not like I think about it or anything, not like all the time, no. Maybe when I see her, or during clas- you know what? Lets just drop it," Santana finished, hiding her face behind the menu. Blaine always managed to get her to ramble like an idiot. They've been friends since pretty much infancy, and he was probably the only person in Santana's life who knew everything about her.
"What about Puckerman?" Blaine said sarcastically, knowing that Noah was merely a façade that Santana used for her parents.
"What about him?" Santana asked carelessly, scanning through the appetizers.
"Does he not play a role in this, I mean he is your boyfriend."
"Not really, not like I have any feelings towards him."
"Why are you with him again?"
"Makes my parents happy, and I don't have to hear my mom whine about me being single."
"You could always just come out, to them. I suppose you're old enough now."
"Well, no. It's not that simple."
"But it is."
"You've met my parents, you know its not."
"Alright, alright," Blaine said holding both his arms up in defeat. He always tries to budge Santana into doing things for her own good, but it never really works out because if Santana Lopez does not do well when it comes to being pushed.