"The Mistaken M. Jones"

17. Change the Game

March 2012 – Lima, Ohio

The last few days, Brittany had found it even harder to focus on school and homework. Ever since she and Santana had learned that there were others at school who had met the Doctor, like they'd done a couple years before, and that on top of this one of his – her – companions was in their school pretending she was a substitute teacher, it had been one question after another, coursing through her thoughts.

This meant that, once she got home at night, she had to give everything she had, to finally get things done. She couldn't allow herself to fall behind, especially now. So there she was, sitting at her desk, elbows planted on the desktop, hands supporting her head and possibly keeping her eyes open… and then her phone chirped, and she startled and nearly let her head smack right down to hit her history textbook. At least she managed to stop herself and reach for her phone.

"Let me in."

For how tired and headache prone she was at the moment, all she had seen had been the message, and her mind had immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was Santana, so she hurried down the stairs, pulled the door open and…

"Puck?" she blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"Okay?" she let him in, shut the door, and led him up to her room.

"Been a while since I've been here," he remarked, looking around. He met her eye again, and they were both remembering exactly what had gone down the last time he'd been there. They snapped out of it, shaking the memory off, and he took care to sit at her desk chair, while she remained standing, crossing her arms in front of herself for lack of knowing what to do with them.

"What do you want to talk about?" Brittany asked.

"I need your help with something," he started.

"It's not for school, is it? Because I'm not…"

"No, it's not for school," he reassured her. "Well, not really. It's the fake sub. Artie won't want to hear me out on this, but I thought maybe you'd be able to lend a hand."

"Why me?" Brittany was at once touched and confused.

"Santana will take it too far, Artie will be dead against it, Quinn, well… you know," he shrugged, and Brittany nodded. "And Sugar, well… she's about as against it as Artie is, and I keep thinking there's something she's not saying."

"So I'm your last choice?"

"I didn't say that. You asked me why not them…"

"I asked why me," Brittany corrected.

"Same difference. Look, do you want to help me or not?"

"But Artie said…"

"I know what Artie said, but I'm saying something, too," Puck stood, frowned, then sat back down.

"You okay?" Brittany stepped forward, hesitant.

"I don't even know what's happening anymore," he admitted. "All I know is that something's coming, and the only way we'll know what is by talking to her, or going with option two."

"What's option two?" Brittany asked, more curious than she'd intended.

"Option two is we look into this Gemma, and she doesn't have to know about it." She didn't get it. "She doesn't have an office, so we can't break in to that, and she never leaves her bag alone unless she knows no one can get to it, so all that's left is her home. If we can find out where that is, we can go there and…"

"Break in?" Brittany's eyes flickered wide.

"You got a better idea of sneaking in somewhere we don't belong?" She said nothing. "So what do you think?" Brittany stared at him for a beat.

"How do we find out where she lives?" she asked tentatively, and he smirked.

"That's the easy part."

Before she knew it, Brittany was following Puck through the doors of McKinley. She hadn't known what to expect, or if there'd even be anyone left at this hour, but the door had still been unlocked, and though the halls were empty, the lights were still on. At the door outside the secretary's office, they'd stopped and looked. The woman was still at her desk, while they could see the principal had already left. This would make it even easier.

"Okay, go," Puck whispered, and Brittany nodded, hurrying out just as they'd planned. She went up to the door, knocked until the woman would get up and come to her.

"The office is cl…"

"Please, I think I left something in class, and if I don't get it back I won't be able to finish my assignment, and if I can't finish it I won't be able to hand it in on time, and if I don't hand it in on time I'll fail class, and if I fail class I'll flunk out, and if I flunk out, I'll…" she rambled on without pausing for air, and before she could lay out exactly what would happen to her if she flunked out, the secretary sighed and went to grab her keys.

"Alright, come on." Brittany led her off, taking a quick look over her shoulder to see Puck had slipped into the office and sat at the computer.

It was almost too easy. All he had to do was put in her name, and he had all the information he could need, and maybe even things he didn't need. He had to admire how she'd managed to infiltrate this place so seamlessly, but then this was McKinley, so maybe it wasn't that hard.

Once he had the information, he put everything back where it had been, left the office and the school, returning to his car as he and Brittany had agreed. A few minutes later she would show up, clutching a folder and smiling brightly.

"Did you get it?" she asked.

"Yeah, I got it. What's that?" he nodded to the folder.

"Turns out I did forget something in there after all," she revealed, shrugging. "So what now?"

"Step two. Not tonight."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)