AN- You asked for it, Gleeek, you got it: a Brittany chapter! Thanks for reading, everyone, and for all the favorites and story alerts! Makes me feel loved.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Tina. Listen, I'm worried about Rachel."

"Rachel kind of makes my head hurt," I said.

It was like there were two Rachels, and one of them was pretty and smiley, and her singing would make my whole self feel all light and happy, and when we were both dancing, I could understand her and she could understand me. After we dance in Glee or in our ballet class, I sometimes have to give her a big hug, because we're just so happy.

But the other Rachel talks so fast and uses big words, and I just feel so dumb. But she's kind of dumb, too, because she can't follow the rules. Well, she follows the out-loud rules—the ones parents and teachers tell you out loud. But she doesn't get the secret rules of how to be cool or be friends with people. Like you don't date a guy, break up with him, then date his best friend. You don't admit out loud that you wear a training bra or like The Wiggles (even if you really do in secret). You don't wear whatever you want, or admit how much you want things. That's not cool. And Rachel's supposed to be all smart or whatever? But she breaks all those rules, and never gets why people don't like her?

I asked Santana if I should teach her the rules, because sometimes I do dumb stuff, but if people show me how to do it right, I can fix it.

Santana had rolled her eyes: "No, sweetie. Then you'd be breaking the rules."

So when Tina called wanting me to help Rachel, I didn't know what to do. She told me about Rachel singing on stage, but super-sad. She told me about the video, and I promised not to post it online, so she sent it to me. I watched, and instead of the normal feeling I got from watching Rachel on stage, I felt all dark and heavy.

So the part of me that loved that part of her wanted to help so bad, but the other part was afraid of breaking the rules and making Santana mad at me. Maybe there are two Brittanys, just like there are two Rachels. The thing is? The scared side of me gets it wrong sometimes, and messes up, but the singy, dancey side doesn't. That side always knows just what to do. I twirled around and around, using my computer screen with sad Rachel singing on it to spot.

"You still there, Brittany?"

I forgot I was still holding the phone to my ear, with Tina waiting on the other side.

"Yeah. I want to help."

My cat, Maxi Ford, was staring at me, like she knew I was breaking the rules, and she was going to tell Santana. I named her after a tap-dancing step. That way, whenever I do a Maxi Ford turn, it makes me think of my cat, so I smile, and whenever I look at my cat, I think of dancing, and that makes me smile, too. But last week my diary wasn't where I left it, and I found Maxi sitting on top of it, open, and she was looking at me like she knew my secrets. San says cats always look at people that way, but I never noticed before.

"Brit?"

"What?"

"I asked what you thought we should do."

"Oh. Sorry. Well, we need to figure out why she's sad. The people who would know are…" I thought for a second. "Finn, Quinn, Puck, Jesse, and Kurt." Tina didn't say anything for a while. "Tina?"

"Sorry, Britt. I'm just surprised. All those people know why she's sad?"

"I don't know if they know or not. They're just the people who would know. Because Quinn lives with her and they're becoming friends or whatever. Puck used to be her boyfriend and they're still friends. Finn wants to be her boyfriend, and Jesse is her boyfriend. Kurt watches her a lot, but not as much now as when she dated Finn."

"Huh," Tina said. "I knew I called you for a reason."

"Yeah," I said, "Because Rachel is sad."

"No, I meant…never mind."

Why do people always say that to me?

"So, what should we do?" Tina asked.

"Well, we can't call Finn, Quinn, and Puck. That would just be a mess. And Kurt's kind of mean to Rachel sometimes. I mean, I am, too, but…anyway, I think we should start with Quinn and Puck." I pushed a bunch of buttons to start our four-way-call, and explained to Puck and Quinn what was going on. I forwarded the clip of Rachel singing.

"Shit," Puck grumbled after watching it.

"That's from Wicked," Quinn said. "Wicked is her favorite, but she usually sings Elphaba songs, and they always cheer her up. That's a Glinda song. It has happier parts in it, but she's skipping them."

"I thought she was happy since that Jesse douche transferred here," Puck muttered.

"We all did," Tina said.

"Ugh," Quinn replied, "No, she's been all angsty about it. Remember that day in the choir room when she was complaining about him getting all pissed when she wouldn't…you know."

"Have sex," I said, helping her, because I hate it when I can't remember the word I want to use.

"He WHAT?" Puck yelled. I had to move the phone away from my ear, because Puck's yelling made my ear hurt.

"Calm down, Noah," Quinn teased. "He just got grumpy and left, but he apologized later. And that was all before he transferred and joined New Directions."

"You know, Mr. Shue never said whether Jesse was his son," I pointed out.

Puck laughed. "I think they just look alike, Brittany. Guess Berry's not completely over her hot-for-teacher phase, after all."

"Or she is, if her singing is any indication," Tina said.

"So, what, she's still lusting for Finn?" Puck grumbled.

"That can't be it," Quinn said. "Finn's made it quite clear that Rachel can have him if she wants him."

"Unless she's afraid it will hurt your feelings," I said. Maybe Rachel's finally learning the rules.

"No, she asked if I minded before they started dating in the first place, and I told her it was fine."

But those were out-loud rules. Sometimes people's mouths say something is okay, but the rest of them says something different. The saddest part is, Quinn and Finn are saying the same thing. They try not to look at each other, but whenever they're stuck near each other, they kind of mirror how each other is standing, and their bodies kind of lean toward each other. Their faces say, "I don't want to be around you, and I don't care anymore," but their bodies show that they do.

I tried to remember what Rachel and Finn's bodies did around each other. On stage, they still gave me goosebumps and stuff, but not off-stage anymore. With Jesse, sometimes she sunk into his arms all comfy, but other times she kind of held herself away from him. The one Rachel mirrored, and her body couldn't help leaning toward, was Puck. I thought really hard and remembered that his did, too. I wished I could see what his face and body were doing while we talked about Rachel. I'm not as good with words and stuff.

" 'kay, I'm coming over."

"Coming over where?" Tina asked. She sounded surprised, for some reason.

"To see Quinn at Rachel's house! Puck, meet us there." I hung up and grabbed my purse. I was about to run out the door when Maxi meowed. I pet her on the head. "I'll miss you," I said. "Please don't read my diary."

AN- I wanted to integrate Brittany's mean side with her sweet side, and her clueless side with her perceptive side. How did I do? Review, please!