A/N: Yes Sue was nice… mostly because Jean was there, and it was Christmas holidays after all. Some words will be used that are not words, well maybe… I'm still looking for a good place to use "glomp", "huggle" and others….

To answer the question from two chapters ago: Yes we will see more Glee Club members, unfortunately I still haven't figured out how to write several of them. Kurt I've worked out some, Mercedes and Artie are hard for me but bear with it hopefully I'll get them down better. Berry, I'm working on, I'm tweaking her a bit. Finn, I kinda got. Those of you who like Sam, he is projected to be in this story too. Tina, Matt, and Mike I think I figured them out but they won't be in it as much as Berry, Sam, Kurt, Mercedes, or Artie (? At least not planned at this point in time).

Chapter 15 - Interlude – Josie Apple-Marie Pierce

She was told that, when she was born, her older sister had been obsessed with apples, and insisted that the newborn should be called "Apple". This was gently refused by both parents and, reluctantly, she agreed that the baby shouldn't be eaten. Seeing that their daughter really wanted Apple in her new sister's name, their mother suggested that it be part of her middle name. All three of them decided that Josie would be her first name, at that her older sister had jumped up and down, in excitement and run through the halls proudly informing everyone that she had a new baby sister by the name of Josie Apple-Marie Pierce. She had been told, by Brittany, that day had been one of the best days of her life. Josie, now at age eleven, couldn't help but glance at the empty spot on the couch this Christmas Day, and wonder when that happy family had changed.

Sometimes at night, when all she would stare blankly at the ceiling unable to sleep, she contemplated this question. Her mother's? Brittany's? Her father's ineffectiveness to support or defend either side? Was it her fault? Or were they always this unhappy and she had been too young to understand. She was older now, but some of the dynamics she still couldn't grasp. She didn't understand why her mom sent Brittany away when they had company over, she didn't know why Brittany's brain seemed to work differently from everyone else's. She didn't understand why Brittany never fought back, never argued, even when it hurt her that people told her she was stupid. She just didn't know.

Josie had to grow up a bit faster than most children, not much, but enough. She noticed the looks early on that the teachers gave her when they thought she couldn't see them. To know what they meant, to know that they thought that her success in school evened out her sister's failure. But they didn't know that her sister was her support, her go to person, her help when she was stuck, the person that loved her unconditionally, who used to be able love unconditionally before she was shot down over and over again. In the beginning she had tried to argue, tried to make them understand but out of all the instructors she had; only one did.

xxx

Almost a year ago, she had failed a math test, true she was only ten, she was only in fifth grade, and she was only taking ninth grade math, algebra to be exact, and she couldn't quite grasp the should-be-simple concept of FOIL. So when she was taken aside at the end of class, Josie couldn't hide her surprise when Mr. Harris of all teachers, told her to ask her sister for help. No one had ever told her that, most actually subtly made fun of Brittany, and failed to notice her hands clinch trying to rein in her anger at these stupid adults insulting her sister, they had no idea what they were talking about. The most shocking part of being told to ask her sister for assistance was the fact that it came from him, the most ruthless teacher in the history of the school district, some said in the state of Ohio, was unimaginable. But that didn't change the conversation that took place.

"Ask your sister for help." That was a sentence she never expected to hear.

"Sir?" she asked unable to believe she had heard him correctly.

"Don't give me that," he said gruffly taking his hat off the chair. "Your sister and this class just, for the lack of a better word, clicked." He put his coat on then turned to glare at her, "If you tell anyone I gave any semblence compliment, I'll deny it." She nodded. "Good. Because she took to this math so well that she not only got an A in this class but managed to come up with a problem and solution in minutes that took me three hours to solve. So you need help, go to her. I don't have time to waste on you." He left her there before anything else could be said.

The bus ride home was spent sightlessly looking out the window. Josie searched her memories as to the reason Brittany wouldn't tell them she had done well in his class. Since she could remember every time Brittany had gotten a report card, it had straight C's. She'd never seen one of course but their mother was vocal enough, that she was positive that even the neighbors knew. Sometimes, if she got home early, her mother would be ranting at her sister, only to stop when Josie entered the room. So why did Brittany keep quiet about it? She didn't realize that the bus had arrived at her stop until she was nudged out of her stupor by Neil.

"Your stop," he said getting up to let her out.

"Thanks." She muttered half-heartedly as she made her way off the bus.

"Hey! Uh…" it looked at though he was just about to say something but then thought better of it. "See you tomorrow." The bus doors closed.

"Yeah," she had muttered turning to her house. She was determined not to ask her sister about it, she wouldn't push, there had to be some reason that Brittany hadn't shared the grade with them. Her sister usually knew best, so she wouldn't mention why Mr. Harris said and just get help with the homework. Opening the door, she barely managed to form the words, "I'm home" before being swept off the ground into a hug.

"Hey sis. Let me down," Josie said after a few minutes, "I got a shit-ton of homework to do." If their mother was home she'd have been scolded, where was she anyway?

"Why shit?" Brittany inquired setting Josie down.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Where's mom?"

"PTA. I ordered pizza."

"And soda?" Josie asked.

"Homework party," Brittany confirmed.

It took the two of them only twenty minutes to set up properly in Brittany's room. Up until two years ago they'd done this in the living room, but their parents had wanted to have people over some nights, so their father had gotten a table to put upstairs. Eventually, after a few weeks of moving it from place to place around the house, before it found its home in Brittany's room. Now it was used almost daily, having notes, text excerpts, and book spread across it. They'd barely gotten all the homework piles set up when the door bell rang.

"I'll get it," Josie said grabbing the the money on the way down.

"I'll get the napkins, then." Brittany took off in the opposite direction of the door.

"Pizza delivery," said the voice on the other side of the door. Josie inwardly groaned, it was Aaron, she couldn't help but think how unfortunate it was he worked for the best pizza place in town. He treated Brittany like she was some kind of museum piece to gawk at and make fun of. Steeling herself, she opened the door.

"It's about time," he said snidely. "Where's your sister?" he asked peering into the house.

"Just do your job." She said reaching for the pizza.

"Uh uh uh." He said wiggling his finger at her and lifting the pizza over his head our of her reach.

"Hi Aaron," Brittany said pleasantly as she easily took the pizza from his hands.

"Brit slow in getting here, huh. Now my money," he practically demanded, holding out his hand.

"Josie," Brittany said warningly, seeing her sister's hand clench. "Why don't you take this upstairs and I'll pay him."

"No, I got it." Josie insisted. "Just take it up and I'll be right there after I finish paying this man." Brittany hesitated gauging her sister's possible responses to the situation before nodding. When she was out of sight Josie turned back to the boy.

"Not very well trained is she?" he said. Josie strained to stay civil.

"Here's your money," she said with a sweetness that would make your stomach curl before she closed the door purposefully. She took a moment outside Brittany's room to force down her feelings of frustration. Succeeding, she put a smile on her face and went in. If her sister knew something was off, she didn't give Josie any indication. Josie sat down opposite of Brittany, taking a piece of pizza before pulling out her math book. Trying a few problems on FOIL, she only managed to get one right. She took another slice, sighing in annoyance, causing Brittany to look up from her biology book.

"What's going wrong?" inquired Brittany.

"FOIL."

"It's ruining your food?" Brittany guessed.

"Math."

"Oh," Brittany moved next to Josie. "Oh!" She shifted to be more comfortable and reached for her notebook. Turning to a blank page, she picked out a random problem and wrote it down; (x+3)(x+4). "I'll try to explain it ok? Although, I don't know if you'll understand it," Brittany told her. Josie knew better though, whenever her sister clarified something to her it always made more sense, that thought made her pause, but she didn't have time to muse about it because Brittany had already started to explain the problem.

"This here is the mother bear," Brittany pointed to the "x" in (x+3). "And the number 3 here is the cub; the mother bear is keeping an eye on her cub. And they're traveling in," she drew and arrow à "this direction. While the father bear is this x," she pointed to the "x" in (x+4) "he's protecting the cub that is following him. They're traveling in the opposite direction than the mother bear and her cub. See?" Josie nodded. "The mother and the father meet first to see if their cubs will get along," Brittany wrote down "x^2". "Then they inspect the other's cub," she wrote down "3x" and "4x". "Then the cubs play together," she explained writing "12". "All that's left is the signs which is adding or subtracting and do the usual. Do you need me to explain it a different way?"

Josie shook her head, granted it was a weird explanation, even Josie had to admit that, but after trying it a few times, there was no denying that it worked. When she thought of it in that way, it helped. She finished the problems with ease and got all of them right, with that finished she started on the next section of homework. What caused the spark later that evening was anyone's guess. Maybe it was the pent up anger that the younger girl had hidden, or the lateness of the night, or even the realization that Brittany could teach her younger sister with such ease and yet not appear to do better than average in her grades. Whatever the reason was, the feelings that Josie had kept inside all those years spilling out after a single utterance from her older sibling.

"The photosystem looks like blown up condoms," Brittany muttered to herself taking her note for Biology. "Catabolism is not the eating of cats, who knew?"

"Stop," Josie said before realizing it.

"I'll be quiet."

"No, I mean stop."

"Stop?" Brittany said genuinely confused.

"You're not stupid, damn it." What was she doing she never swore at her sister. The next words came flowing out of her mouth before she registered she was talking. "I was five when I started defending you. Why won't you defend yourself?" Brittany said nothing. "Why? Why didn't you tell us that you had passed Mr. Harris's math class?"

"It didn't matter."

"But it does matter! It proves that everything people have decided about you isn't true."

"Josie," Brittany's voice was soft. "One fluke, from a nice old man, doesn't constitute as evidence that will make people change their minds."

"I hear them! I have to hear people say terrible things about you everyday. They don't even try to hide it! Sometimes," it hurt her to admit this. "Sometimes, I start to think they're right, and then you say something like that, intelligent, and I know that they're wrong. So why?"

"It isn't worth it. You can't change people's perceptions of you with just one event. Once is a mistake, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern. Remember?"

"You haven't tried to change what people think of you!" Josie said her voice rising, "Why?"

"Fighting is never an answer," responded Brittany struggling to remain neutral.

"What the hell would you know? You've never fought for anything in your life!" Josie fled out the door before she could say anything else; she didn't want to fight with her sister. The person she loved and looked up to, she just needed to get away, to not think about this. She felt a small pang of disappointment after she slammed her door shut, Brittany hadn't followed her. She shook that thought from her mind; she wanted to think about anything, anything at all but not her sister. Of course, when you try your hardest to avoid thinking about something it comes to the forefront of your mind. She didn't sleep well that night.

xxxx

Josie sighed, pulling herself out of that memory. They hadn't talked about that incident, it was as if they both were pretending it never happened. Thinking back on it now, Josie wondered if the resignation she saw on her sister's face that day had been her imagination or added memory. Exhaling, she looked at the calendar. No matter what happened, her sister was still her sister, and when she got back; maybe, some semblance of sanity would return to this house.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, it's always encouraging. If you have any questions feel free to message me or ask me in a review, if I am able to answer them (without giving the story away), I will. I hope to be done with the next chapter sometime this month.