"How was your summer guys?" asked Will. Various replies were stated by the thirteen teenagers sitting before him. Rachel rested her head on Finn's shoulder as he put his arm around her. Mercedes Jones and Sam Evans sat close together, something they hadn't done the year before. Also unlike the year before was the fact that Santana Lopez seemed to be keeping an unsteady distance away from Brittany Pierce, not that Brittany noticed much. Besides her usual clueless personality, Brittany also had a distraction.
Her distraction, Artie Abrams, reached to grab Brittany's hand. The once again couple shared a smile before returning their attention back to Will, who was currently talking about the club's newest member, Blaine.
"...so now with another member, someone very familiar with singing, we have an even better chance this year!"
"Mr. Schuester, can I say something?" asked Rachel.
"Oh, god..." Quinn Fabray muttered.
Will ignored Quinn's comment and nodded. "Well, I'm just thinking how will the voices match out? Not that I'm not happy to have Blaine in our club, because I'm very happy to have him here, but won't the girl's voices be overpowered with another guy in the group? There's only one practical solution and that's-"
"For you to quit the club? Good. Leave," said Santana.
Rachel exhaled heavily and rolled her eyes.
"She has a point guys. I mean we kind of need an even number of people for the songs to sound right," defended Finn.
"Plus, most of our dances are in couples. We can't have someone by themselves, that's weird..." said Mike Chang.
Will nodded. "So we hold auditions?"
Quinn crossed her arms, "And who is going to audition? I don't want to be here half the time, and the rest of the school hates us. No one will join."
"If you don't want to be in the club, don't come," muttered Tina Cohen-Chang under her breath. Quinn darted her eyes at Tina, but Tina didn't seem to notice. If she did, she didn't care.
"Well, I'll post an audition sheet on the main bulletin board, but try and recruit if you can," Will said. "Now for this year, I was thinking..."
Brittany bent down to kiss Artie. "See ya later, boyfriend," she smiled. Artie rolled away in his wheelchair smiling. Brittany opened her locker and placed her history book inside. Santana watched until Artie was completely out of sight before making her way to Brittany. Brittany smiled as she came near.
"Hey! Cute sweater! Where'd you get-"
"Forget about the shirt, Brittany. We need to talk."
Brittany paused for a second, taken back by Santana's angry tone. "Ok, let's talk then."
Santana sighed, collecting her thoughts. She knew she needed to talk with Brittany, but the idea was the hard part. There was so much going on in her head that she didn't know which part to say. "Why are you dating Artie?" she finally blurted out. Brittany stared back at Santana, not answering. "Why are you dating Artie?"
"Look, Santana... I just... You and I are best friends. You should be supportive of me and Artie," Brittany answered.
"But I thought that you and I... I told you everything last year... Why don't you care?"
"Santana, I do. But not you and me... That's just... We can't..."
"I hate you, Brittany," Santana ended. She stormed away with tears rolling down her cheeks. It was the only time she had ever said something like that to Brittany. But Brittany deserved to be hated, right? Santana could control herself anymore. She walked into the nearest bathroom and locked herself in a stall. She scanned the writings on the stall door and walls: "Damian=HOT", "Julie Snodders is a bitch", and "You're amazing". Santana cringed at the last one.
If I'm so amazing, she thought, then why doesn't Brittany like me?
Santana searched her purse for any form of a marker. She found a blue one then crossed out the lie. She capped the marker and put it back in her purse. She put the toilet lid down and sat down. More tears rolled down her face as she thought about the girl she once knew but now didn't know at all.