"Maybe it's just that time of the month," Artie suggests helpfully as he watches Tina practice her dance routine in front of them. Glee ended ten minutes ago but, much to the blonde's dismay, Santana was a no-show. To say she's concerned for her best friend is an understatement. To say she's practically running around like Chicken Little screaming, 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling,' might be a little closer to the mark.

She was fidgeting so badly during Glee that Mr. Shu asked whether she had to go to the bathroom. The fact that she had needed to go was beside the point.

"What time of the month?" she asks, wondering what a month would ever have against Santana and, if that is the case, how do you ask a month to stop having something against someone?

Artie blushes, seemingly unable to explain, and Tina pauses in her dance to look over at them.

"He means that maybe she's on her period." Her cheeks redden slightly after she says the words and she quickly turns away. Artie seems to be in an even worse case, actually looking quite sick, and it is clear to Brittany that Santana might not be the only person that this so-called Month has it out for.

"Oh," the blonde responds after a pause, taking that in and mulling it over. It takes her a little while but eventually she understands what Artie actually meant earlier and that, luckily, there is no need to start planning a defence system against this Month. "No, that's next week."

The boy in the wheelchair looks increasingly uncomfortable and Tina makes a face of revulsion, turning away, banding down to touch her toes in stretch to distract herself.

The Cheerio doesn't really understand the reaction because their health teacher in seventh grade told them that it was a completely natural thing and nothing to be ashamed of but she also happens remember what Santana said once, about how everyone in Glee Club is weird, and lets it slide.

"Look, Brittany," Artie begins hesitantly. "We don't really know anything about Santana other than that she's . . . kind of mean; well, that and she was a full on klepto in the eighth grade. Don't get me wrong, we'd love to help you but we just don't really know how."

She doesn't know what a klepto is, except that it sounds kind of like a small little, furry creature from out of space that she might like to take home one day and name Bob. The fact that Santana, as far as she knows, is not a small furry creature, has never been to out of space and her name's not Bob (though she does sometimes like to take Santana home with her) only makes things more confusing. However, the rest of what Artie says does manage to make some kind of sense and Brittany sighs in defeat, taking a seat. "I just want to make her happy again." It seems like a simple enough thing to do in theory. She herself is happy almost all the time and even if she's not it doesn't take much to make her so. Making Santana Lopez happy, however, is turning out to be another thing entirely.

Artie reaches out an arm and pats her shoulder sympathetically, Tina offering her a small, reassuring smile. Brittany tries to smile back, she really does, but it's proving to be a lot more difficult than usual and eventually she just gives up. Santana being unhappy is making her terribly unhappy as well but there doesn't seem to be anything she can do about it.

For the next twenty minutes, Brittany and Artie watch the Asian girl practice her dance, hoping for inspiration to strike her and point her in the way of curing Santana's grumpiness.

It doesn't.

In fact, Brittany spends so much time and effort trying to wait for inspiration and its strike that it's only when Mr. Shu calls out to her questioningly half an hour later that she realizes Artie and Tina have left. She's now the only one left in the choir room. And it's odd because Brittany not used to being alone – with Santana by her side she doesn't have to be – and she's not sure she likes it very much.

"You OK, Brittany?" the Glee coach asks in concern.

Brittany likes Mr. Shu. He's warm and fuzzy and kind of makes her feel the same way rainbows do. Sometimes when he smiles the blonde's sure she can see Mother Mary, who the Preacher talks about all the time at church on Sunday mornings, shining through and looking down at them adoringly. Santana tells her she's just being silly because for one: Mr. Shu isn't a girl, for two: he's not the mother of Jesus, and for three: she doubts very much that he's still a virgin.

Nevertheless, Brittany still calls him Mary sometimes during practice which leads Mr. Shuster to wonder if she's forgotten his name again. It doesn't seem to help matters when she asks him whether he's ever given birth to a little boy named Jesus. He's assured her that he hasn't but Brittany still holds her suspicions.

After all, if one had given birth to Jesus it seems doubtful that they would admit to it - too much media attention.

In her head it all makes sense but out loud, in front of Santana, it's apparently not right at all. But then, Santana hates church and hasn't gone since she was little so Brittany decides that she might not be the best expert on this subject.

She'll have to ask Quinn later.

"Santana's sad," the blonde mumbles, to which he smiles sympathetically and takes a seat beside her.

"That's not good. Do you know why?"

Brittany shakes her head dejectedly. "I don't like it when she's sad, Mr. Shu. It makes my tummy hurt and sometimes my heart feels like Coach Sylvester's squeezing it really hard." He nods understandingly and the blonde continues. "The worst thing is though that she's mad at me and Santy's never mad at me."

"Did you do anything?" Mr. Shu asks, though he doesn't sound accusing at all, just curious. She kind of wishes he would sound accusing because Brittany knows she's done something wrong and when you do something wrong you're supposed to get punished. She doesn't really like the idea of being punished but she likes getting away with hurting Santana even less.

"I don't know. She's always the one who tells me if I do something wrong. And then she helps me make it better." The blonde feels lost without Santana to help guide her and, really, she thinks that the brunette's the only one who will know how to make own self feel better but Brittany's already asked her and that didn't work.

Mr. Shuster smiles comfortingly at her. "That sounds nice."

Brittany nods her head, staring at her hands in her lap. Silence fills the choir room for a few minutes but she's still happy that he's there because so far he's the only person who seems like they actually want to help, the only person who cares. Although, Kurt did offer up his services to give Santana a facial earlier. "The other kids in Glee, they don't really like Santana very much, do they?"

"No, they don't," he answers truthfully, smiling sadly.

She doesn't know why it surprises her, after all, she has suspected it for quite some time now, but it does. Mostly because Brittany tries her best to ignore all the mean things Santana says to people and things they say and do behind her back in return. It's not that hard to do really because everyone's really quiet about it because no-one wants Santana to know what they really think and say about her. Sadly, Brittany thinks that the Latina actually knows better than anyone.

She pouts and looks up at him. "I just want them to see how special she is. And she is, you know – special. She's the most special person I know." The blonde really doesn't understand why everyone else can't see that because she saw it from the moment she first met Santana. Back when they were just kids and the Latina promised to buy her a rainbow one day after Brittany told the class in an oral presentation that it was what she wanted most in the entire world and they all just laughed at her. But Santana didn't laugh, she didn't laugh at all.

She's special, even if nobody can see it but her.

"I believe you, Brittany. I really do."

"What do you think I should do?"

He thinks about it for a moment and Brittany sighs, thinking she's hit another dead end. Sooner or later she's going to have to face the fact that she's only one who knows how to make Santana smile and that asking everyone else how to do it just isn't going to work at all. "Maybe you and the Glee kids could throw a party?" Mr. Shu suggests, eyebrows knitted together in thought. "I know for one that a party always proves to cheer me up when I'm down. Or maybe you could sing her a song."

A light bulb goes off in Brittany's head and her eyes widen. She's probably wrong but . . . "Mr. Shu, what's the date?"

"Uh . . . the 19th." She stares at him questioningly for a moment longer and he continues. "Of May."

It's so obvious that the blonde honestly doesn't know how she missed it in the first place and a deep feeling of guilt sets in as the pieces begin falling into place.

Some friend she is.

Brittany pouts and sits back in her chair; no wonder Santana is so angry with her.

. . .

The next few hours are quite possibly some of the toughest of Brittany's young life. Coming up with a way to make San happy again was surprisingly easy as soon as she realized why she was sad in the first place but getting everyone else to play along with her master plan is proving to be much more difficult.

The only ones who readily volunteer their support are Mr. Shu and Miss Pilsbury, but Miss Pilsbury looks more like she's doing it as a survival tactic as she can still remember the last time she got on Santana Lopez's bad side – the blonde doesn't know exactly what happened but, according to Quinn, it wasn't pretty. Brittany's just happy for help, though, especially when it looks like everyone else isn't going to be quite so kind.

"Rachel, please," the blonde begs. She called the Glee club together after school, using the phone numbers Mr. Shu had given her as the Cheerio had lost hers (to her credit, the only phone numbers she can remember are Santana's, Quinn's, her cat's and her parents', and that's because they're on speed dial).

"I'm really not understanding this," the star informs her, looking very uncomfortable, much like the rest of the Gleeks. "Wasn't my Care Bear advice enough?"

Brittany pouts and tries to put on the puppy dog face that Santana always says is really effective. She sees Kurt cringe back in alarm, already futilely trying to fight its power, and Quinn rubs her tummy fearfully.

Mr. Shu claps his hands together to grab everyone's attention when it looks like Artie's going to knock himself out just so he doesn't have to look at the blonde's big, tearful desperate eyes any longer. "Guys, I don't see what the problem is. We're a Glee club – we're supposed to help our fellow members out."

"And S is a member," Brittany points out just to make sure that they all know this. She knows it can be easy to forget with the amount of time and effort the Latina puts into glaring at the lot of them. Plus, the blonde sometimes forgets about who the members are as well. She went up to Karofsky the other day to ask him whether they were still doing Lady Gaga in Glee but and he just looked at her funny.

"But, Mr. Shu, if the situation was reversed I can assure you that Santana would not do the same for us," Quinn voices what everyone else is thinking, still smarting from when the other girl, who she had thought to be her best friend, had basically abandoned her in favour of rising in the social pyramid. This pivotal fact is something Brittany has gotten from Mercedes when she asked the girl last week why Quinn, she and Santana didn't have slumber parties anymore. She would have asked Santana, or Quinn, but they were fighting at the time.

"You can't know that, Quinn," their teacher reminds. "None of you can."

Brittany nods her head, agreeing with him. While she knows better than anyone the number of names and insults the Head Cheerio has managed to come up with for her fellow Gleeks, she also knows that, in some way, Santana also views them as her friends.

"I'm sorry, but I can still remember when Skinny shoved me around over the whole Puck thing," Mercedes spoke up, looking suitably irritable, and eliciting a smirk from the footballer himself.

"But Puck's hers," Brittany points out, not seeing why the rest of them can't see this. "She took his virginity." And, according to Madonna (she thinks), this makes him hers.

All eyes turn to a very embarrassed Puck, eyebrows raised, and Mr. Shu clears his throat uncomfortably. "Um, thanks for that input, Brittany."

The blonde beams. "You're welcome."

The choir room falls into silence and the blonde looks around at everyone, wondering whether she should give the Puppy Dog Eyes another try. She needs to make Santana happy and to do that she needs their help. She'll do anything to get their help.

"I'm in," Finn sighs, causing everyone's heads to snap around to look at him in confusion. "I promised Brittany I'd help with whatever she came up with," he says defensively, shifting uncomfortably and earning a delighted smile from said Cheerio.

Kurt looks at Finn, eyes wide, before turning to Brittany with a strained smile. "I'll help – nobody can organise a party better than I can." She thinks his offer might have something to do with the moon eyes he gives Finn all day, every day but the blonde doesn't point this out. She knows what it's like to be in love with someone and be so close that you can almost feel their love right back but you can't say a thing. She knows what it's like because Santana told her once, looking at her in a very peculiar way whilst doing so. And then she kissed her. And then they had sex. And then they went to the diner down the street for breakfast with the Glee Club (the blonde having to practically drag the other girl there). And then Berry started annoying Santana so the Latina accidentally set her top on fire.

Still, even amongst all that, Brittany thinks she kind of understands what her best friend was talking about. Because she knows Santana loves her, knows it just like she knows one plus one equals three – it's a given fact. Still, the Latina's never said it to her, not once (she'll say 'you too' or 'right back at you' but never actually 'I love you'), and she's always talking about how they can't kiss and stuff in public (that part Brittany doesn't really get, no matter how hard she tries, because kissing is nice, kissing Santana is especially, so kissing in public would also probably be nice). So she thinks Santana was talking about her when she said it.

Especially since it was just after Brittany told her she loved her.

Rachael frowns and locks gazes with Brittany, eyes stern as she makes her demand. "No slushies for the rest of the month."

And the blonde beams because she knows all she has to do is smile at Santana and the Latina will make the Jewish girl's wish come true. When she's in a better mood, of course."Done."

Mercedes sighs and scowls around at everyone. Brittany doesn't like it when she scowls because it makes her look kind of like the trolls Santana would tell her about in bedtime stories when they were younger. She likes it better when Mercedes smiles or laughs because, apart from when it comes to Santana (everything she does is better), they're the most beautiful things in the world when she does them. "I hate it when y'all make me seem like the bad guy. Fine, I'll help with Queen B, but only this once. And only because I don't want to be the villain."

Artie and Tina nod along with her and Brittany throws them a little enthusiastic wave of gratefulness which they return awkwardly. All eyes turn to Quinn and Puck (Matt and Mike have never had anything against Santana so there's no need to wonder whether they'll help), seated beside each other. The pregnant girl is staring determinedly at her feet while Puck just looks confused at all their stares.

"What are you all staring at me for? She's my girl, of course I'm in," he points out as if it's obvious and they all should have guessed so earlier.

Brittany's so happy for his help that she doesn't bother to correct him and say that Santana is most definitely her girl (everyone knows that). Quinn's still staring at her feet and fiddling with her hands, apparently the comment about Santana being Puck's girl gliding right over her.

"Quinn?" Mr. Shu asks with concern and the blonde Dutch girl frowns in confusion. She can still remember days when she, Quinn and Santana would sunbake together on the roof of the Latina's house, and the sleepovers where they shared all the latest gossip and fought over which boy was the hottest. It's because of this that she still doesn't understand why they don't still do those things, why Quinn's pregnancy changed anything, and why Santana, on her bad days, mostly glares at the former Cheerio. Most of all, she doesn't understand why they're not friends anymore because they should be.

The pregnant teen looks up and forces a smile that even Brittany can see isn't at all true. "Sure I'll come. I'll even bring the cake."

"Coffee cake," Brittany orders with a smile.

Quinn's brow furrows. "I don't think they-"

"Coffee."

"OK."

. . .

A/N: OK, what do you think? And I know I made Quinn sound a little meaner than she should be but all will be explained in the next chapter, which is in Santana's P.O.V.

I don't actually know if they make coffee cake – I know they make tea cake – but I'll google it later to find out.

And thankyou so much for the reviews, by the way.