Shelter
Part One
Chapter Eleven: Me Against Friends
Ships: Brittana with Sam/Brittany, Santofsky, Puck/Brittany, Quinntana friendships. Very minor Quick.
Summary: The only thing worse than being reaped is volunteering for someone you love. Because then they have something to use against you. Brittany and Santana learn that the hard way.
Other: This is a Hunger Games AU. Every chapter will be named after a line from a Glee song with contextual or sometimes more literal relevance to the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or The Hunger Games.
Sorry for taking so long, but life sucks. School's been crazy. Work's been crazy. Life's been crazy.
When Santana had told Brittany that they would be training, Brittany didn't really know what to expect. She thought that Santana would make her run a few miles and maybe lift weights or something but she definitely did not get any of that. Santana's idea of 'training' was an hour of cardio, an hour of muscle strength training every day, and an hour of tactical defense (or whatever Santana called it) every day.
Brittany was grateful that she didn't have to stick with Puck's training plan which probably included more of those killing seminars and weapons trainings. Santana's tactical defense was basically the opposite of what Puck's training outline, or so she explained. Instead of learning instant and slow-death kill strikes, Santana taught her how to go through the Games completely undetected. She learned to be silent but quick and resourceful, and although she had been reluctant to learn at first, Brittany was taught counter-strikes and defensive tactics. It was a long, grueling process and she knew that her Mentor was probably just as tired as she was. Santana didn't have to do all that extra work for her and she was really grateful that she did.
Their sessions really were productive for Brittany. Not only did she get to flirt with Santana and touch her slim and toned body which looked even hotter under a thin sheen of moisture, but she learned things that Santana deemed essential and quickly became confident in her abilities. Her initial reluctance slowed down the process at first, but there was something about Santana that always made Brittany feel more comfortable.
Maybe it was the way she greeted Brittany with a really thick juice type liquid that was like nothing she ever tasted before. Maybe it was how she ditched that uniform-like (albeit sexy) skin tight suit for a pair of slightly looser but equally as distracting pair of really really short shorts and plain sports bra. Most likely, it was how Santana would smile, take Brittany's hand and whisper 'anything' inaudibly whenever Brittany showed her reluctance.
Now, Brittany was sitting in a corner of the Training Center. She probably looked pretty impressive in her synthetic full-body work-out suit, but her body language told a whole other story. Her eyes were quickly darting around the room to every single little sound that she heard, in anticipation. Her right leg was shaking up and down, rhythmically, and she kept cracking her knuckles.
Her first session, after that interesting morning in bed, was more than a week ago. Although she had become confident and knew what Santana was teaching her, she was extremely nervous on this particular morning. It was, as Santana had told her previously, the day of the combine. She would be meeting the rest of the Tributes today.
When Santana had told her that, Brittany had immediately started counting off Tributes in her head. There were her and Puck, of course, then Artie, the wheelchair-bound boy she had met in the elevator, and then that Jesse St. James guy, with his intimidating looks and luscious hair. Four Tributes, so that left twenty.
Brittany heard the familiar bell sound, signifying the opening of the elevator and snapped her head up to see who was approaching. She stood immediately when she saw Puck walking towards her apprehensively. He nodded in recognition and she feigned a smile in return. They both looked away from the other and gulped. They knew they were both thinking the same thing. They would rather be anywhere but there at that moment.
"So," Puck whistled. "How's your training been?"
"It's been good," Brittany nodded. "You?"
"Pretty good."
She was just as perceptive as she had always been and always would be but most people seemed to forget that. Puck evidently fell into the 'most people' category because he was shifting around on his toes and kept looking at Brittany quickly, then looking away. She knew he wanted to say something and pretty badly too.
"Haven't seen you around lately," Puck voiced his observation and swung his arms beside him like two heavy pendulums. He seemed to think about what he had said, because immediately after he added, "Like after training and stuff."
"Well, I've been training three hours a day and when I don't train I nap or eat with Santana," Brittany explained, conveniently leaving out all of the other things she had been doing with Santana when they weren't training.
"Three hours, huh? That's twice as long as I train daily," Puck tried to sound nonchalant, but Brittany thought he just sounded incredulous.
"Yeah, we cover a lot," Brittany shrugged. If Puck wanted something out of her, he was going to have to come right out and ask.
"Like what?" He replied, not looking at her eyes.
"Just stuff…" She answered blandly.
"So you're ready," Puck seemed to state rather than ask. "For the Games, I mean."
"I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Brittany admitted. "I don't really want to be ready though. It makes it seem more real."
She wasn't sure why she was being so honest with Puck when she knew that he was hiding something. She wanted to talk to Santana about that kind of stuff, but Santana seemed so cool and collected when it came to the Games. She was always brushing anything relating to the Games off when Brittany would mention them. Unimportant is what she would call them, but they didn't seem unimportant to Brittany.
"I know what you mean," Puck agreed, nodding his head and frowning. "Listen, Brittany, I actually wanted to ask you something."
"Okay," Brittany encouraged. Finally. "Go for it."
At that point, several other Tributes filed into the large room and from afar, they appeared to be just as apprehensive as Brittany. They were walking closer toward the pair. Brittany darted her eyes between them and Puck, wishing that he would say whatever it was that he had to say. She really wanted to meet the new Tributes.
She knew that her thoughts contradicted her previous feelings after her brief interaction with Artie. She had been so upset that day because she couldn't bear the thought of someone dying when they deserved to live. She was anticipating putting faces to the brief descriptions that Santana had robotically read out to her the previous night and she wasn't sure why. It wasn't like her and if she was being honest, it freaked her out.
"Now just, feel free to say no to this." Puck offered, preparing himself for a negative response. "Do you want t-"
"Welcome Tributes!"
Brittany jumped in her skin at the loud booming voice that seemed to project all around the Training Center. She didn't notice her before, but the tall woman in the middle of the room captured Brittany's attention immediately. She had her blonde hair cropped in a short boy cut and was wearing one of those synthetic suits that seemed to fit her quite looser than Brittany had seen it on Santana or Dave. There were a few prominent lines on her face and somehow Brittany knew that they weren't from old age but from life experience. It was her wrinkles and the way her voice commanded attention and the intensity emulated through her eyes that told Brittany that this woman was powerful and to be obeyed.
"As you all must know," the woman began speaking, with her hands resting on her hips. "I'm Sue Sylvester, the head Gamemaker."
Brittany didn't know that. She glanced around the room, now full of young men and women and even some boys and girls. None of them look the slightest bit surprised by the woman or her commandeering entrance. She saw Artie sitting in his wheelchair in front of an average-sized girl with long black hair and a pale complexion rivalled by Brittany's. She tried to catch his eye, but he seemed to be fully engaged on Sue Sylvester.
"You will each make your way into that room," Brittany looked back to Sue as she pointed to a door to the immediate right of her, guarded by two bored looking Avoxes. "Where you will prove to me why I should give you a good rating."
"Rating?" Brittany muttered as she knit her eyebrows together in confusion.
"Yeah," Puck leaned over and breathed quietly. "It shows the Capitol who's most capable of winning. It's how they'll base their bets and sponsorships. Didn't Santana tell you?"
Brittany thought back to the countless conversations they had had over the past couple of weeks. Her mind flickered to an occasion a few days before when Santana was talking about this combine, but Brittany couldn't seem to remember anything about a rating. It struck her as strange. Most of the things that Santana said, Brittany had ingrained into her memory. She must not have said anything about a rating which also struck Brittany as strange. It seemed important.
Sue seemed to have supersonic ears because when Brittany looked back up, feral eyes were trained on her. Brittany gulped and look down, avoiding the steely gaze.
"You'll be sent into the room with your District partner and we'll be going in numerical order. District One, be inside in thirty seconds. The rest of you are free to disperse and do whatever it is you want to do. Train, make alliances, go sit in the corner in fetal position and rock back and forth while singing somber children's lullabies. I don't care what you do but the second you get in that room, you better bring your 'a' game."
Sue turned swiftly and entered the room to the right of her as the guards slid open the door for her. Two Tributes, a short girl with fiery red hair and a boy with a head of loose curls, followed Sue into the room and seemed to exude confidence. Brittany recognized the head as the pompous boy that Brittany had seen before her first interview. Jesse St. James.
The next few minutes went by in a blur. Brittany didn't move a muscle as some of the other Tributes began to cautiously talk to each other. Jesse and the heavyset girl seemed to come out of the room as confident as they went in. They weren't shaken at all. The next two Tributes were exactly the same. She hadn't realized how nervous she would be until she remembered what Rachel had said about the Tributes from Districts One and Two. They usually won and they were always the favourites. They had trained for this their whole lives.
Brittany suddenly had violent images of Jesse St. James mutilating her body as Santana did to that stupid training dummy. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She wouldn't be scared. She couldn't. She had promised Santana that she would do anything to get that kiss and she wasn't about to let a couple of Careers scare her.
All of a sudden, Brittany felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped at the sudden touch.
"Sorry," Puck said as he stepped away from her, respecting her space. "But it's our turn."
She hadn't realized that Districts Two and Three had already gone in and out, but she shrugged, trying to shake off her nervousness. She didn't have any clue what she was going to do. Puck guided her to the doors and the two Avox guards stepped aside, looking straight ahead and not at their faces. The guard on the right pushed a tiny black button beside the door and the metal panels slid aside, opening a gateway for Puck and Brittany.
"This is it," she heard Puck whisper behind her.
It was like the whole Training Center was squished inside a room an eighth of the size. There were about a hundred different weapons lined up along two parallel walls of the room and between the walls there were a few training dummies with targets on them.
Brittany felt her pulse begin to quicken and her breathing heavy. She had no idea what she was doing. She began to panic, her eyes flitting around to every corner of the room. She was in over her head. She couldn't do it. She tried to remember something, anything that Santana had taught her but it was like someone swept everything she had learned out of her brain. She couldn't even remember how to talk.
"Who's first?"
Brittany was still in a daze as she was being pushed outside the room by the guards, with Puck flanked at her side. When the two next Tributes stepped forward and the guards looked at her expectantly, she still didn't move. Puck sighed sympathetically and began to pull her aside. He placed his hands on her shoulders and scanned her face for any kind of reaction. He gently shook her shoulders, but she still did not evoke any kind of emotional reaction.
"Dude, what the hell?" He whispered loudly. He scanned behind him for any Tributes who might be eavesdropping. "You said you were ready!"
"I…" Brittany trailed off. "I don't know what happened. I just froze up."
Puck let out an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through his short Mohawk. He shook his head and rested his hands on his hips.
"You… You should've thought of what you were going to do or something. Now, Sylvester's going to tell everyone that you're not good for shit!" He was raising his voice like a slow-rising crescendo and his hand gestures were becoming more animated as his voice rose. He couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice.
"I don't know what you want me to say. I tried to but I just… She was just watching me with her notepad and pen and… I don't know. Forget it. It's over now."
"I can't forget it!" Puck exclaimed. "You just potentially ruined our chances of getting sponsors!"
Their chances? Brittany never agreed to be Puck's ally in the arena. Sure, most District partners usually have some sort of alliance, but she didn't want to be Puck's ally. She didn't want to see him in there at all.
"No!" She snapped. "I never said- I don't want to be your ally."
"What do you mean?" Puck demanded an answer. "We're partners! We went to school together!"
Brittany was trying to think of ways to tell Puck that she couldn't care. It's not that she didn't care about him, because she honestly did. Even if he would laugh with some of the other boys when someone called Brittany stupid, she still cared about him. But she was trying not to care about the fact that she once babysat Puck's little sister or that they went to school together since they were really young or any of that stuff. She couldn't care. If she started to care, she feared that she wouldn't be able to keep her promise to Santana.
"Only one person makes it out of there. One person not two District partners," Brittany uttered with a shaking voice. "So you stay away from me o-or I'll kill you."
Puck recoiled, almost as if Brittany had slapped him. He knit his eyebrows together in confusion.
"You'll kill me?" He repeated in disbelief. His previously shocked face suddenly switched to one of arrogance and pride. "I'd like to see you try. What are you gonna do, huh? Stare at me with some idiot look on your face, like you did Sylvester? You're so stupid that-"
He said it. The 's' word. Brittany seemed to explode like a time bomb ticking down to that exact moment. She threw her right fist out wildly and it hit Puck at the side of his defined cheekbones. She didn't expect punching someone to hurt so much, but the second she felt her knuckles make a cracking sound against Puck's face, she felt pain shoot through the nerves in her hand. A part of her wanted to stop, but another part, one that she didn't know even existed, was telling her to hit him again. Brittany lunged forward again, prepared to hit that cocky look off his face once again, but she felt two arms wrap around her torso and pull her back.
"Calm down," she heard an unfamiliar masculine voice hiss into her ear.
She felt him pull her away from Puck, but she was still waving her arms around struggling to be released. She couldn't see where she was going, because the person was pulling her backwards. All she could see were the faces of the other Tributes. She saw the fear etched on the faces of some of the younger Tributes and the judgment reflected on some of the older faces. She saw Artie's shocked and slightly disturbed face. She wanted to wipe those looks off of each of their faces. They didn't know what Puck said. They didn't know anything.
By the time she calmed down, she was being pulled into a seat in a familiar room. It was the room that Santana had brought her in to calm her down after her first failed training session. She sat on the couch with her face in her hands, breathing heavily. She started to lean on her right hand but immediately jumped up when she felt the pain shoot through her hand once again.
"Ow," she breathed out.
She saw a calloused hand hold out a little plastic baggy filled with ice. She followed the trail up his forearm, then his bicep and shoulder before her eyes rested on the surprisingly delicate face of Jesse St. James.
"You," she murmured in disbelief.
"I don't think we've properly met," he smiled this brilliant smile that made Brittany feel like he could cure a disease or something. When Brittany didn't take the improvised ice pack, Jesse placed it gently on her bruised knuckles. "I'm Jesse St. James. You're Brittany Pierce, right?"
"Yes," Brittany answered with a sigh as she felt a cooling relief rush through her hand.
"That was quite a punch. I'm no doctor, but from what I can tell I'd say you might've cracked a few bones. It doesn't look like anything major, though. You should get it wrapped up when you get out of here. You might want to lay off hitting knuckleheaded idiots for the next few days though," Jesse joked.
"I didn't want to hit him." Brittany cut in, feeling the need to defend her actions.
Jesse looked down, inspecting Brittany's damaged hand. Wow. His hair was really nice.
"I used to feel it when I first started training. I was about four, I think. I wouldn't get my way or someone would take something of mine and I'd feel this almost carnal, animalistic urge to… Well, punch them in the face, more or less. I remember this one time I was walking through the main street of my District and this older kid tossed a slushy into my hair. That's this fruity drink that combines juice and ice, by the way," Jesse added. "I bit his finger off. Now whenever, someone touches my hair, I go absolutely crazy. I can't help it. It's just me."
"Well it's not me," Brittany mumbled pathetically. "It's not who I am."
"I know," Jesse nodded. "It's not anyone until it is and even then, you don't have to be."
"That doesn't really make sense," Brittany commented and the floppy-haired boy laughed. With that smile on his face, he kind of reminded Brittany of a hound dog.
"It doesn't matter. He probably provoked you right? Said or did something that really set you off?"
It was like Jesse was reading her mind. She remembered once that Santana had told her that the Careers were more skilled and ruthless than anyone else in the arena because of their years of training. Jesse didn't seem really ruthless, but she wondered if mind-reading was one of those things that he was more skilled at.
"Yeah. He called me stupid. What I did, well, I guess it kind of was stupid."
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad."
"It was my turn to show off in front of Miss Sylvester and I just didn't do anything. I just stood there. I tried to remember what I learned but I couldn't remember anything," Brittany rambled on. "He said some mean things but I could see that he was thinking more mean things. He thinks I won't last a second in the arena."
Just like everyone else, she thought bitterly. But she would prove them wrong.
"Well, Brittany Pierce," Jesse's face looked thoughtful. "I have a confession to make. I've seen some top secret videos of you training with that busty mentor of yours, not to mention the power behind that punch. You definitely have what it takes to make it in there."
"Really?" Brittany felt both hopeful and proud. A Career was telling her that she could make it.
"Yes," Jesse nodded. "Perhaps you don't do well under pressure. That's understandable. You don't need to do well under pressure when you're in the Career Pack. You need good instincts."
"Wait," Brittany stopped Jesse, mid-speech. "Are you asking me to join the Career Pack?"
"Yes. Your muscle tone is impeccable and I've been watching your pulse for the past few minutes and you have a resting heart rate of just over 40," Jesse raised his eyebrows and smirked. "You'd be a perfect fit for us."
"I'd kill you sooner or later. You've been nice to me and everything for these past few minutes, but I promised someone that I'd do anything to come out of there so I'd kill you eventually and the rest of the Career Pack." Brittany blurted out.
"That's understandable. We all want to come out of there alive, but only one of us will. I get it," Jesse nodded and tilted his head to the side.
"That's why I don't want to be Puck's ally," she admitted. "We weren't really friends back home but I knew him. I don't want to kill him."
"We're all just kids put in a crappy situation. The difference is, I'm more prepared for this than everyone else. I'm ready to die and most of us are, but I'm also ready to kill. Something tells me that are, too. So take a few days to think about my offer," Jesse stood up, and brushed some lint off of his pants. "And get back to me, Brittany Pierce."
Brittany had left the combine, without looking back. She didn't look at Puck's undoubtedly furious face or at any of the other Tributes, who were probably wondering what a Career wanted from that ditzy blonde Tribute. She was walking aimlessly around the lobby when she saw Santana sitting at a table by herself, sipping a mug of tea or coffee or some other liquid that people drank when they sat alone, looking attractive. She smiled at the sight of the brunette and silently padded toward her. Santana smiled in recognition when she saw Brittany. She lowered the steaming mug from her pink lips and placed it on the table.
"Hey," Santana greeted with that secret smile that Brittany loved so much. "Done already?"
"Yes," Brittany thought about lying to Santana for a second, but quickly decided against it. She sat in the chair opposite to Santana and shook her leg, anxiously. "Well, kind of. I'm done, but everyone else is still down there."
"What do you mean?" Santana squinted her eyes together and scrunched her nose up in confusion.
"Well," Brittany bit her lip, nervously. She really didn't want Santana to be mad at her. "I kind of punched Puck in the face and left."
"You what?" Santana sputtered, choking on her drink. "You punched Puck in the face? What the fuck?"
"He said some stuff," Brittany answered, keeping out the part where she completely blew her chance with Sue Sylvester. Santana didn't need to know that and Brittany didn't want to tell her. "And it made me mad so I punched him."
"And then you left?" Santana said, more calmly.
"Well, not really. I did, but I was talking to Jesse St. James before and he asked me to be his ally."
"Jesse St. James?" Santana repeated, incredulously. "The District One Tribute?"
"Yeah," Brittany nodded. "He was super nice to me and he said that I had good muscle tone and resting heart something."
"You're considering this?" Santana asked and Brittany could hear the disbelief in her voice. "You trust him? He's a Career."
"I think so," Brittany responded. "Being in the Career Pack is better than being part of nothing, right?"
"Puck didn't make an alliance with you? I told that meathead to watch you," Santana muttered, more to herself than to Brittany.
"You told him to watch me?" Brittany said, slightly angered. Everyone was taking her for a fool but she thought that Santana knew that she wasn't stupid. She thought that Santana thought more of her.
"No, it's not like that," Santana immediately defended in a relaxed tone. "Before we started training, I just asked him to be your ally, that's all."
"Oh," Brittany said, feeling stupid. Of course Santana would look out for her. "Well if that's all, you could've told me since, you know…"
"I know but I just didn't want to make you mad," Santana beseeched. "I know you've been working so hard and I should've told you earlier. If you don't want to be his ally, then you don't have to."
"But?" Brittany finished off for her. There was always an exception.
"But I don't know if I trust the Careers," Santana admitted. "They're known to betray each other. One minute, they're chasing a Tribute together and the next, three of them have knives in their backs. You need to be careful, no matter what you do."
"So if I don't want to tie myself to Puck and you don't trust the Careers, what do I do?" Brittany asked.
"I don't know, Britt," Santana sighed. "I can't tell you what to do here. I'm sorry."
Brittany wished that Santana would tell her what to do. She always seemed to know what the right thing to do was.
"Britt, I have to go," Santana said, apologetically. She took one last sip of her drink and left it on the table as she stood up. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I need to go somewhere."
"Where are you going?" Brittany asked.
"Top secret Mentor meeting thing. I'll let you know about it later. Meet me in my room in an hour?" Santana smiled at Brittany and the blonde nodded immediately.
"I'll miss you," Brittany smiled shyly.
"I'll miss you, too, Britt," Santana replied, her smile forming deep dimples in her cheeks.
Some part of Brittany wondered why Santana was going to see an investor. What could Santana possibly want them to invest in? She basically had everything she could ever ask for, compliments of the Capitol. That tiny part of Brittany had existed for a while now. Santana would always mention a business meeting or a conference call or a mysterious investor, but she would never tell Brittany anything more than that. That part of Brittany knew she was hiding something. The rest of her was trying to drown that part out.
Brittany was standing outside of Santana's room. She checked the watch that Kurt had given her a few days earlier. It had been fifty-seven minutes since Santana left to go meet that investor. Brittany had been waiting outside of Santana's door for the past seven minutes, but she hadn't seen Santana come back from the meeting yet. Maybe the meeting ended early and Santana was already in her room. Brittany mentally agreed with herself. Santana was in the room waiting for her.
Brittany patted her body, searching through the seemingly endless amount of pockets on her suit until she felt the familiar outline of a card. She unzipped her back right pocket and took out two key cards. She slid the first one in and when a red light appeared on the card reader, Brittany frowned. That must be the key to her own room. She tried the other one and the light went green immediately. With one hand on the door knob, Brittany slid both cards in the same pocket and zipped it shut.
When Brittany pushed open the door, she couldn't see Santana anywhere. She took off her shoes and lined them up neatly against the door mat like she knew that Santana liked. She walked through the large suite, checking under the bed and in the washroom and front closet and behind open doors. She wasn't anywhere. Sighing, Brittany pushed open the closet where she knew Santana kept all of her normal clothes.
"Santana?" Brittany whispered hopelessly.
She felt something small hit her in the face and after feeling around and recognizing it as the pull-string for the light, she yanked on it gently. The small room illuminated, a pale yellow light radiating from the light on the ceiling. Anxious blue eyes scanned the tiny room from left to right, but saw nothing but blouses, sweaters, and those awesome skin tight dresses that Santana would wear to dinner sometimes. Then, her eyes landed on a familiar grey sweater. It was Santana's dad's.
Brittany remembered how Santana would wear it during every single sleep over they had. She had always insisted that it was because it was really comfortable and warm, but not heavy, but Brittany knew better. When she'd wake up and see Santana with her nose buried into the ratty fabric, she knew it was because she used to miss her dad like crazy whenever he went on one of his week-long fishing trips and despite her complaints, Santana loved the smell of seawater.
Brittany wondered briefly if the sweater still smelled like seawater and fish. She gently pulled the sweater off of the hanger and brought it up to her nose. She sniffed at it for a moment, before realizing how ridiculous she looked. She probably looked like a hound dog. As she maneuvered to put the sweater back on the hanger, she heard something slide out of the wide front pocket and bounce once on the ground in front of her.
"Shit," she whispered.
She hung the sweater back on the rack in a rush and bent down to pick up the dropped mystery item. It was really small, only a little bit bigger than the pad of Brittany's thumb. It was a gold and silver pin but seemed to have lost its lustre through years of wear. It showed a silver fish jumping (or at least Brittany assumed as much because of the way its body was curved) and a gold triton crossing over it. The symbol seemed so familiar to Brittany.
Brittany heard a quiet rustling coming from the front door. Santana was back. Brittany panicked, shoving the pin back in the sweater pocket and jumping out of the closet. She ran the short distance from the closet to the bed and arranged herself in the middle of the mattress, trying to look natural. When no one entered the room, Brittany stood from the bed and cautiously made her way over to the door. She watched the handle for any sign of movement and when she received none, she stuck her eyes behind the tiny looking glass. It was Dave.
She swung the door open to meet her Mentor and smiled in greeting. However, Dave did not return her cheery sentiment and stared at her expectantly.
"Is Santana here?" He asked, glancing around the room.
"No," Brittany replied. "Didn't you just see her? At that Mentor thing?"
"That ended about half an hour ago. She wasn't supposed to tell you about that, though." He didn't sound surprised in the slightest. "Just let her know that I'm looking for her."
He turned to leave but didn't make it one step down the hallway. Brittany reached for his large wrist before her could move and he turned right away, subtly pulling his hand out of Brittany's grip. That symbol was plaguing her mind and she had a pressing feeling in her stomach that Santana wouldn't tell her what it meant.
"I found this thing on Santana's… desk... It's a little metal thing with a silver fish and a gold triton over it. It looks really familiar, but I can't seem to remember what it is. I think it's something from on a building or a company logo from back home. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
"You found a little metal thing with a silver fish and a gold triton? In Santana's room?" Dave repeated, incredulously.
"Um," Brittany was starting to think that perhaps she shouldn't have mentioned it to him. "Maybe."
"Tell Santana to come to my room the second she gets back. I need to have a little talk with her."
He had this kind of growly tone in his voice when he said it and it scared Brittany a little bit. She thought back to what Jesse had told her about that animalistic feeling to rip things apart and retreated a little bit before stepping forward and putting on a steely glare. Sure, she was kind of (really) scared and Dave and Santana seemed to be pretty good friends, but she had this sudden urge to protect Santana from this side of Dave.
"What if I don't want to?" she questioned shakily.
"Brittany," he said again in that voice. "Right now, you're getting involved in things that you shouldn't be involved in."
"Whatever it is, I'm already involved," She said. Her confidence shook for just a moment as Dave laughed, unamused. "If Santana's involved then I'm involved."
"Look, Brittany, this isn't as simple as you think it is. It's actually very complicated," Dave hissed, leaning forward into the doorframe. "This is Santana being a coward. She's trying to do things that she shouldn't be doing, but she's being too much of a scared little girl to do it right."
"She's not a coward," Brittany interjected. "She's not a scared little girl either. You're wrong about her."
"She wasn't, but maybe you're rubbing off on her," He snapped, in anger.
There it was. That feeling again. She wanted to punch that stupid, smug look off of Dave's face just like she had with Puck's. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly, focusing on the way her it felt like her chest was expanding and contracting with each breath.
It's not anyone until it is and even then, you don't have to be. That's what Jesse had said. She didn't want to be. She hadn't wanted to punch Puck and she definitely did not want to punch Dave. So she did the only thing she thought she could do.
She pushed Dave out of the way and closed Santana's door shut behind her. She ignored the burly young man as he glared daggers into her back and only stopped walking to press her forefinger to the 'up' button of the elevator.
For the second time in the past ten minutes, Brittany found herself confused, contemplative and waiting outside a door. She raised her fist to the door and lightly tapped on it. She heard some movement coming from inside the room behind the door and when she heard footsteps nearing her, she took a half-step back. When the door opened, she skipped any greetings or pleasantries.
"I'm in," she said, in lieu of a greeting.
Jesse didn't seem surprised to see her there. He seemed pleased and his thin yet oddly pink lips turned upwards into a grin that made Brittany think that maybe he really did have some mind-reading powers. He knew that she would come eventually.
"You're making the right choice, Brittany." He said, nodding his head in approval.
Brittany only prayed that she really was. At the back of her mind, she could hear Santana's impending disapproval and possible anger, but she ignored it. She promised Santana that she would do anything to get back to her. It seemed that joining the Career Pack, the most back-stabbing, betraying but skilled Tributes in the Games, would be Brittany's anything.
So that's chapter eleven. I hope you all liked it. Another shout-out goes out to manatees-have-thick-skin for being an awesome beta. Let me know what you all think :-) I'd love to hear what you all think of the chapter as well as Brittany's new alliance and about that mysterious pin that she found. What are your thoughts on Jesse? Can he be trusted or not? That is the real question ;-)
If you have any questions or anything like that, just drop them in a review or a PM. Thanks for reading.
If you're Canadian, like me, I hope you have an amazing Victoria Day. Go watch fireworks or something.