Brittana: cannon

Chapter 2: pinky promise

The whole first week of Cheerios practice was the worst hell Santana had ever been through in her life. She had never worked so hard at anything. And Coach Sue was the meanest, most insane person she had ever met. If she didn't need the status so much that being a cheerleader could bring, she would seriously consider quitting.

Sue definitely intimidated her with the crazy pace she pushed the girls at and the insults she hurled at them like it was nothing. Despite all of that, Santana was thriving on the squad. The two uniformed girls from their small group at try-outs, Monica Jones and Cynthia Adler, had been named co-captains of the squad. Santana, Brittany, and Quinn were also definitely at the top of the squad based on their skills.

Quinn seemed to know she was in line to be Sue's favorite. She pranced around like she owned the place, and Santana wanted to smack her for it. She knew, however, that if she kept on Quinn's good side and remained friends then she would reap the benefits.

Santana was really more worried about Brittany. The blonde dancer had no issues as far as the cheering went, but seemed to crawl into herself whenever Sue yelled at them or insulted them. She didn't like to see the other girl so withdrawn and timid. She wanted to see her be as free as she was when she first saw her dancing.

Santana didn't have much time to talk to her during practice, and they hadn't had the opportunity to hang out otherwise yet. Sue worked them so hard that they barely had enough time to breathe, much less converse amongst themselves. She was looking forward to the sleepover at Quinn's house tonight so she could actually get to know Brittany better. She really hoped they could be best friends. She had never wanted to let someone close to her like she wanted to with Brittany. She really couldn't explain it, but she couldn't ignore it.

After practice was over, Santana was finishing changing in the locker room when she heard someone crying. Normally she would have let whoever it was cry in private, but something drove her to seek out where the sounds were coming from. She peeked around the bay of lockers to the next aisle over and spotted Brittany sitting on the bench, her head bowed forward and her shoulders shaking from her quiet sobs. Finding out it was Brittany crying gave her a pain in her heart, and she immediately went to comfort her.

"Brittany? What's the matter?" Santana asked quietly as she approached the blonde.

Brittany looked up at Santana, tears leaving wet tracks down her reddened cheeks. Her lip trembled as she looked away from Santana, embarrassed. She whispered, "I forgot how to open my lock."

"You forgot your combination?"

Brittany shook her head and looked down further. "No, I remember my combination. I forgot how to open the lock."

Oh. Santana felt bad for the other girl, but knew it was more than just a lapse of memory that caused the tears. She got the combination from Brittany and showed her how to open the lock.

"Thanks," Brittany said quietly, finally looking at Santana's eyes again.

"No problem, Brit. But can you tell me why you forgot? I know you knew how to do it earlier. What happened to upset you so bad?" The girls sat down on the bench facing each other. Santana was concerned about the other girl, particularly with the way she had broken down like this. Brittany looked away again before turning back to her.

"I think I want to quit the Cheerios."

"What? No! You can't quit! We are the best on the squad, why would you want to give that up?" Santana was in a near panic. She didn't want to think about coming to practice without being able to see Brittany.

"I don't think Coach Sue likes me very much. And I don't like the way she makes me feel stupid." Brittany was very quiet as she said this. Santana knew that this obviously meant a lot to her, and this was the reason why she broke down. It didn't have anything to do with a lock.