Day 2. The second day of school is always better than the first day back. There are no more awkward hellos and there are no more lectures about how amazing the year is going to be. The second day of school is the real first day of school. It's the first day you learn anything. It's the first day that you and your friends hang out on normal terms. It's the first day that you feel like your back at school. It's also, the first day you don't smell that school smell because it only really takes a day to get used to.
Brittany practically bounced into school the next morning. Brittany is a morning person. No coffee, no energy shots, just a plain old bundle of pure energy. However, the good feeling that she had left over from yesterday was quickly erased by Sugar's high pitched bickering, "Hey, what's up my bitch? Why'd you bail yesterday? We were supposed to hit the mall and hit it hard, but you were a total no show."
Sugar is one of those people who tries way too hard to be cool. "I had tutoring. I ended up staying late."
"But we didn't learn anything yesterday…" Sugar is clearly confused.
"Imagine how late I'll stay once we do get work," Brittany pretended to look worried.
David walked up and slipped his arms around Brittany. He smelt like that nasty smelling Axe cologne. Brittany almost gagged at the amount he had on. "Hey babe," Dave greeted before releasing his grasp on Brittany. "You didn't return any of my texts yesterday. What up?"
"I had to stay late for tutoring. I can't believe you left me…loser," Brittany shot Dave a look.
Before Brittany could really give Dave a piece of her mind, she saw Santana approaching with one of her friends.
Santana and Brittany locked eyes, "Hey Santana," Brittany said with a light wave.
"Hey Brittany," Santana replied.
While their exchange was brief, both Santana's and Brittany's group of friends noticed. Brittany and Santana continued about their day not realizing that they were under the careful scrutiny of their friends who were just waiting for a moment to judge them.
Sugar was the first to break the silence in Brittany's group of 'friends', "What was that all about? You're talking to geeks now? Is this a charitable thing?"
"What?" Brittany was clearly confused.
"Okay, I know that you're a dumb blonde, but seriously? I'm asking you why you talked to Santana Lopez; the queen of the geeks?" Sugar added for clarification.
Brittany looked down, hurt by her friends words. Nothing hurt Brittany more than when someone called her dumb or stupid. Brittany knew that she didn't understand things, but it still hurt when other people said it out loud.
"One, she's my tutor, and two, she's my friend," Brittany said pointedly. Brittany believed Sugar to be her best friend, but she still could give a crap less what Sugar thought most of the times. Often Brittany wondered why she even bothered.
Sugar stood in a state of shock, "Oh my God, that's like total social suicide. You cannot just talk to geekzilla and pretend like it's okay."
"It is okay. She's my friend and I can talk to her whenever I want," Brittany defended.
"You're so delusional," Sugar commented, trying to knock some sense into Brittany.
"No, I'm perfectly lusional; I know exactly what I'm doing and who my friends are!" Brittany and Sugar were making a scene at this point. People were beginning to think that this was the start of what would turn out to be an all-out fist fight.
Puck, a football meat head who wasn't nearly as mean as David and Azimio, ran up to Sugar and Brittany to be a voice of reason, "Hey, I think that we all have to get to class, what do you two think?"
"Yeah, this conversation is over anyway," Sugar's words spewed from her mouth like venom.
"Jerk face," Brittany mumbled to herself as she walked toward her class.
Quinn was genuinely worried about Santana. She could see that there was some sort of growing "friendship" between Brittany and Santana, but she knew that it could all be just an evil popular girl plot to knock Santana down a peg or two.
"Hey, Santana, can we talk about something?" Quinn wondered, pulling Santana aside.
"Anything, what's up," Santana was a little worried that something might be wrong with Quinn.
"I was just wondering when you became friends with Brittany Pierce."
"Oh, we just started being friends yesterday. Why?" Santana didn't understand why Quinn would care.
"Well, you see, Brittany is in the crowd of people who claim their HBIC status. I just think that you need to be careful, you know. Think about what you're doing before you become close friends with her. I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"Look, she's not like that okay, I know what I'm doing," Santana was a little offended that Quinn questioned her judgment.
"What are we doing?" Mike wondered as he butted into Santana and Quinn's conversation.
"Nothing," Santana didn't think that being friends with Brittany was a big deal.
"Yeah, except for the part where you became friends with Brittany Pierce," Quinn added so that she could get some backup from Mike on stopping Santana from continuing her friendship with Brittany.
"You're joking, right?" Mike thought that they were joshing him.
Santana simply shook her head no.
"Santana! You have got to be kidding me! You do realize that these people that you're now calling your friends are the same people who used to dump me in the trash every day? The same people who shoved me into the lockers, stole my lunch money, and book checked me every chance that they had? You're really considering being friends with them?" Mike was livid.
"I'm not friends with all of them Mike, just Brittany. She's not really like the rest of them. Also, it's none of your business who I'm friends with, Beijing!" Santana started to get a little red in the face. Her friends had never been this judgmental before.
"She's not your friend Santana. She's a manipulative bitch and you just can't see it," Mike continued his tirade.
"I don't think so. Plus, you don't even know her. How dare you think so lowly of her," Santana decided to go on the offense a little.
"Do you even know her? How long have you two been friends, a day?" Mike wasn't letting up anytime soon.
"I'm so done with this conversation," Santana said as she walked away from her friends.
"Because you know I'm right," Mike yelled from across the hall.
"Bite me," Santana added as she continued to walk away.
When all of your friends tell you that what you're doing is wrong, you almost believe them…almost. Even though you want to believe them you don't because you know that you're right. It's hard, but every once in a while you have to make a decision for yourself, even if that decision leads you to stray away from the people that you love, the people who have been there for you for the past few years. It's a difficult journey, but in the end, you know that you're doing the right thing for you.
Both Brittany and Santana came to the library with a lot on their minds. They had heard so much negativity about their friendship that they both were on the brink of believing that they really should just not be friends.
"So, what do want to work on the most?" Santana started the session by trying to avoid the fact that everyone she knew looked down at her for wanting to hang out with Brittany.
"Um, let's do math. We're doing some new stuff with the quadrilateral formula, but I didn't even know what that formula was in the first place," Brittany began.
"Okay, well first of all, it's the quadratic formula. Like qua-drat- I have to learn this formula," Santana was slowly but surely learning how Brittany's brain worked. She was hoping that by putting things into Brittany-speak that she would be able to teach Brittany the material easier.
Brittany couldn't help but laugh at Santana's way of teaching her the word, "That's hilarious."
"Too school for cool right here," Santana laughed at herself. "Well the quadratic equation is something you use when you have a problem in this format: ax²+ bx + c = 0," Santana wrote the format down on a sheet of paper.
"Yeah, I think I've seen that before, but I've never seen it on any tests. So I never understood what it really is," Brittany looked extremely confused.
"Well, a, b, and c are just variables. So numbers are usually in those places. Like this: x2 + 3x – 4. 1 is where the 'a' is, 3 is where the 'b' is, and 4 is where the 'c' is."
"I still don't get it."
"Okay, well the actual equation is ax²+ bx + c = 0 and the numbers that replace the letters are like a representation of the equation. Like if you were to draw a picture of me. You would draw in certain features, but if someone else were to draw a picture of me it might be different. So the equation is always the same, like I am always the same, but the numbers that fill in the spot of the variables are different depending on the problem, like if there were different artists painting my picture. Does that make sense?" Santana didn't even know if it made sense in her own head, let alone it making sense to Brittany.
"Yeah, it does actually," a smile grew across Brittany's face like.
Santana continued to explain the quadratic equation to Brittany. It's interesting how easy it was for Santana to translate these topics in such a way that Brittany understood them. Santana managed to get Brittany to understand the equation and how it works using an assortment of colors and pictures and lots of Brittany-speak. But when it came time to explain the quadratic formula, Santana wasn't certain what to do.
"So this is going to be the hard part," Santana warned Brittany. Brittany responded with a groan. Santana couldn't help but smile as she wrote down the quadratic formula on a sheet of paper. Brittany stared at the formula wide eyed. She knew that there was no possible way that she was going to understand this. She placed her head in her hands as she tried to figure out what the formula was doing.
"So this formula is solving for x. Remember when we talked about the graphs?" Santana tried to help Brittany remember.
"Yeah, x was the only thing that wasn't colored because it's the thing that we don't know. It's the thing that we're trying to find."
"Exactly! So, all this formula does is it helps us to find x."
"But the rest of it looks way too complicated," Brittany groaned again.
"Trust me it's not. All you have to do is put the numbers where the variables are in the formula," Santana said as she color coded the formula to the equation that they had color coded earlier.
"So you just plug in those numbers? That's it?" Brittany wondered.
"Yeah, that's it. Then you just use your calculator to solve for x. Remember that you'll have two answers."
"But how am I supposed to memorize this monster?" Brittany was clearly worried.
"Do you know the song Frère Jacques?" Santana thought back to when she first learned the formula. Their teacher had taught it to them in song.
"Yeah, but only the English version, is that okay?"
"Absolutely. I'm going to sing part of the equation and you just repeat after me. It's in the form of the song."
Then in the style of Frère Jacques, Santana sang, "Negative b."
"Negative b," Brittany mimicked Santana.
"Plus or minus square root."
"Plus or minus square root."
"B squared minus four a, c."
"B squared minus four a, c."
"All over two a."
"All over two a."
"And that is how you memorize the quadratic formula," Santana laughed. Brittany couldn't help but laugh with her. The way that they were going over this is ridiculous, but it was cool. Brittany and Santana sat in the library singing the quadratic formula for another five minutes or so, laughing each time they finished the song.
"Can I tell you something?" Santana wondered when the hour was almost up.
"Sure," Brittany didn't know what Santana could possibly want to talk about.
"You're not like those other popular kids you hang around. Some of my friends were trying to convince me not to hang out with you today, but just know that no matter what my friends think, I'm still your friend."
Brittany laughed, not because of Santana's confession, but because the exact same thing happened to her today. "My friends tried to tell me the same thing, Sugar and I almost got into a cat fight!"
Santana started to laugh with Brittany. Despite the fact that high school separates people into different cliques, people aren't so different. The geek crowd isn't so different from the popular crowd when you really look at it.
"It's interesting, isn't it?" Brittany wondered.
"What's interesting?" Santana didn't follow.
"That we both have the same problem. We both can't be ourselves around the people that we call our friends. That the only time that I really feel like I'm myself is when I'm with you. It's interesting."
"I feel the same way, like even though we have never really hung out before, it seems like we're already best friends," Santana hoped that Brittany felt the same way and that she wasn't just making a fool of herself.
"I like that, best friends," Brittany smiled at the thought. "Since we're best friends, can I tell you something?"
"Anything."
"I've never understood math. Ever. I have never once really understood what was going on, but I feel like I actually learned something today. You're a great teacher."
"I told you yesterday that you were going to do great, you didn't believe me, remember?" Santana nudged Brittany's arm playfully.
"Yeah. Can I take all of this home? All of the things that we color coordinated and what not," Brittany asked.
"Of course, it's all yours. Maybe you should take more notes and color them and draw pictures of what you think the teacher is talking about and write down any questions that you have. I mean, the whole color coding thing seemed to help, so maybe if you do that, you'll remember better," Santana suggested.
"I'll try that," Brittany was just happy that she finally understood something that she was taught. "The only thing that has ever come easy for me is dancing. Maybe it's because I put movements to the words. Maybe that's just how I learn. I have to put something with the material to understand it. Like colors or music."
"Yeah, maybe," Santana was only beginning to understand how Brittany learned, but if this was true, then it's possible that Brittany just needs to connect the material with something to learn. It's possible.
"You know what? I actually have a dance lesson today after school. You could stop by if you want. I mean, I know that that's a little weird to ask, but it would be kind of cool if you could see something that I'm good at. Plus, you're my best friend now. It's about time that we do some best friend things," Brittany began to ramble.
"I'll come. It should be fun," Santana accepted the invitation.
"Cool," Brittany exhaled a deep breath in relief. Brittany had never invited any of her other friends to a dance class before. She had never even told another soul that she was in dance. It's interesting how two people can connect so quickly even when they seem to be worlds apart in the high school social hierarchy.
The final bell of the day rang and the two girls stood up to leave.
"Oh, before I forget," Santana said as she grabbed a piece of paper out of her folder and handed it to Brittany. "This is all of my contact information: my phone number, email, Facebook, and Skype. If you ever need to get ahold of me for whatever reason."
"Yeah, I'll text you my number and I'll add you on the sites," Brittany said as she took the paper and placed it into her notebook.
"Thanks for being so patient with me, I know that I can be a handful," Brittany added as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
"You're really not. I actually prefer tutoring you than any of the other kids," Santana shrugged.
Brittany pulled eyebrows together questioningly, "Why?"
"Because you're amazingly fun to be around."
Brittany just smiled. "Well, we should get going. My class starts at 4:00. It's over by that funny looking building with the weird top that looks like that spaceship where I got probed."
"I know which one you're talking about."
"Yeah, the dance place is right there. You can't miss it. It says 'DANCE' in big, gigantic letters on the front," Brittany used her arms over dramatically to express how huge the letters were.
"Okay, I'll be sure to be there," Santana laughed at Brittany's exaggerated expression.
Author's Note:
"Underneath It All" - No Doubt