Glee | The Home Wall: 3. Home Away From Home | Brittany (3 of 6)
Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th , 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th cycle. Now cycle 29!
if you have things you would like to see get written, pleeease drop by the suggestion box. The link is further down!
TOP 16, TAKE 2: Okay so a couple cycles back, I did my second 'top of Glee at the moment' cycle. Now since I was still in university and such at the time, those were planned a while back, before the second half of the season every started. This made it that by the time that cycle rolled around I realized that some things had changed... Things were added, removed, bumped up... Point is it didn't really reflect where I was anymore. So I decided 'what the heck, I'll do another one ASAP!' And so here we are :) This is my revised Top 16 (of course I HAD to plan before the finale, so there are still a couple things missing like Samcedes, Unholy Trinity, etc, but let's assume they're there ;) They'll get some love in coming cycles ;)) So off we go!
Coming in at number one... (continuing the number one story, as I explained last week :))
"THE HOME WALL: 3. HOME AWAY FROM HOME"
Brittany
* Following the story "RED HERRING" *
Tessa and Aimee were off to see a movie that evening. They had actually invited her to come along, but she couldn’t go... She told them she wasn’t feeling well, and whether or not they believed her, they let her be and went on their way. The moment the door had closed though, Brittany sat back on her bed, pulling the blanket near, laying her head on the star cushion. It had been turning over in her mind all day, so much that she had completely forgotten about the cookies, or her run… It took until her stomach bellowed for mercy for her to realize she hadn’t eaten a thing until somewhere around three…
She’d been fine up until then, which was to say she had her down moments, yes, but she could work around them and still go through her days, go to class and take solace in the joy of the dance… No matter what was happening, she could manage, comforted by all the good parts of it.
She didn’t know what made it happen, why it happened then, but that morning she just snapped… Her parachute gave out, and now she was falling… Wherever she would land, it couldn’t be anywhere near home, and that made the drop so full with panic.
She wasn’t… she wasn’t equipped, to deal with something like this on her own. She was still herself, still Brittany… with her quirks, misunderstandings, naivety… Had it been any other situation, she would have immediately turned to family, or friends from school… And for a moment she had thought about them…
She had looked around her side of the room, to the box that held all the gifts from the Glee Club, when she wasn’t wearing or using them… she looked to the wall… It was Saturday. She didn’t have classes; or in her case, she had that night and the day after to try and get back on her feet.
She couldn’t call them.
Every last one of those things she had received from them, they all told her the same thing… they were all so proud of her, and they expected her to succeed. She had left them all behind and it hadn’t just affected her; it affected all of them in one way or another. What would they think of her if she packed up after a few weeks and returned to Lima? She couldn’t call them.
She’d forgotten about the letter from the day before. She hadn’t expected this one at all, but when she’d seen it… It made her feel loved, like any of those letters from home, but in a different way. She was still a fairly new person in her life; they had met in a strange way for sure, when, while up in New York for Nationals, Brittany had been wrongly accused of murder and, to draw out the real killer, Brittany - and Puck - had been stashed at the home of none other than mystery writer Richard Castle, who was assisting on the case with the detectives. There Brittany had met and befriended his daughter, Alexis. When New Directions had gone back to Lima, Brittany had gone back with the knowledge that she had a new friend, and that they would stay in touch. And when she’d come to Boston, Alexis had promised that, if she ever needed a familiar setting, as she was closer to New York than Lima, they would be thrilled to drive her up for the weekend.
The letter was propped up on her nightstand, by the lamp. She picked it up, turned it around in her hands. She’d read it, but she hadn’t gotten around to responding to it. Her solution was right there, in front of her, if she could just work it all out in her mind. Finally, she sat up, sniffling back that broken feeling, taking a deep breath. She lifted her head.
Moving to the computer, turning it on, she could hear the whispered hopes under her breath - please be there. The window appeared, and there the icon by Alexis’ name was green, blissful green… online green. Hesitating a moment, one hand reached to her hair, the other to her face… She wouldn’t kid herself into pretending whatever she looked like now could be hidden. So she clicked the name; she called. The ‘ringing phone’ sound was heard for a few seconds before the redhead’s face came on the screen, a smiling face which quickly changed when, instead of finding another smiling face staring back at her, she found one that was bleak, sad. Maybe Brittany’s idea that she could confide in Alexis the things she wouldn’t dare to tell those she’d left in Lima wasn’t as novel as she thought; maybe there had already been signs of what she’d come to say on that night, in messages she’d sent before.
“Is it that bad?” were Alexis’ first words. Brittany both shrugged and shook her head.
“The classes are fine,” she promised. “The school’s fine… My roommates pretend like I don’t know they’re together…” she listed off, then paused… “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t say that… Never mind.”
“Right,” Alexis assured; it was forgotten. “So what’s wrong then?” Brittany looked at her, caring blue eyes staring back… She wished she was there with her, in the room… No matter what, she still felt alone like this. “You miss home, don’t you?” Alexis spoke when Brittany didn’t. The blonde slowly nodded. “So… you want to go back?” Alexis went on guessing.
“Yes… No… Y… No…” her mind struggled to settle on an answer; she couldn’t, except… “Yes…” When there wasn’t a ‘no’ tripping to step in and cancel out that ‘yes,’ it actually shocked her; she’d never said it… never said it without going back on it. But then… she looked down, seeing Artie’s gloves on her hands, Mike’s lucky laces and Puck’s pick on her wrist, Sam’s hoodie… and the thought of their faces made her cry now… of joy that she might see them soon, of sadness that they’d see she’d let them down… “No…” she tried saying, but even she didn’t believe herself.
“Hang on, okay? I’ll be right back,” Alexis told her before disappearing from the screen. Brittany just sat and waited, gathering up her knees. She played with Tina’s key, dangling from the chain around her neck. When Alexis finally returned, whatever she’d left for seemed to have gone well. “Hey, we’re going to come and get you, alright? We’re going to drive up to Boston, pick you up, and you can spend tomorrow with us. If you want to talk about this, we can do that. If you don’t want to talk about it and just want to relax, we can do that too. We’ll have you back by Monday morning. Okay?” she asked. Brittany could feel her heart’s trepidations… yes, absolutely, yes… She nodded. “We’ll be there in three hours, tops… a lot less, if my father has anything to say about it. He’s not above getting a police escort,” she hoped the joke would get at least a smile out of Brittany; it did.
For the moment, she had a purpose, something to distract her. She gathered up some things to bring with her, wrote a note for Aimee and Tessa and left it on Aimee’s bed; they should find it there. That still left her some time to kill… She showered, dressed again. She was still hungry, and she went to the diner nearby… Now that they were coming for her, she was starving. She ate two platefuls, then dessert… twice, too… Finally she went back to sit outside the main entrance of the school, waiting for Alexis.
The car arrived, two and a half hours after they’d hung up their online call. Alexis got out, Brittany got up, and they hugged. “Ready to go?” Alexis asked, and Brittany nodded. Alexis got her bag and they climbed into the backseat.
“Hey, Mr. Castle,” Brittany greeted their driver.
“Evening, Brittany,” he nodded, turning to see her. “You alright there?” he asked, and she nodded. “Fasten your seatbelts, girls, we’ll have you back in New York in no time.”
Brittany didn’t even remember getting there. After the ride, the next thing she recalled was waking up in the guest bedroom at the Castle apartment. It was probably a combination of the long ride, the feelings of the day before, and the relief of being in the second best place she could be in if it couldn’t be Lima… but she’d slept through the night, the best sleep she’d had in something like a week.
She had breakfast with Alexis, and Mr. Castle, and his mother… Somewhere along the line she must have decided to go with Alexis’ option to ‘just not talk about it,’ because the subject didn’t come up. Either way, they were too busy. Alexis took her around the city, fully intending to clear her mind, reboot her system or something… For a while, Brittany wasn’t even thinking about it anymore. But then the subject came of having to drive on back, and with it came the thoughts again, of what she was going to do. This one day away had at least put a pause to her thoughts of going home. She still wasn’t sure what she would do, but she had rested enough now that she felt she could try again now, with a clean slate.
THE END
* IN CONSTRUCTION! *
PREVIOUS DAYS
[Cycle 01] [Cycle 02] [Cycle 03] [Cycle 04] [Cycle 05]
[Cycle 06] [Cycle 07] [Cycle 08] [Cycle 09] [Cycle 10]
[Cycle 11] [Cycle 12] [Cycle 13] [Cycle 14] [Cycle 15]
[Cycle 16] [Cycle 17] [Cycle 18] [Cycle 19] [Cycle 20]
[Cycle 21] [Cycle 22] [Cycle 23] [Cycle 24] [Cycle 25]
[Cycle 26] [Cycle 27] [Cycle 28]
[Cycle 29]
[589] [590] [591] [592] [593]
[594] [595] [596] [597] [598]
[599] [600]
Suggestion Drop Off
Title: "The Home Wall: 3. Home Away From Home"
Pairing: None; Brittany, Alexis Castle (x-over)
Rating: G
Summary: Now that she's in Boston, she can't wait to get letters from home and reply to them.
Spoilers: AU, X-Over... so no, not really ;)
if you have things you would like to see get written, pleeease drop by the suggestion box. The link is further down!
TOP 16, TAKE 2: Okay so a couple cycles back, I did my second 'top of Glee at the moment' cycle. Now since I was still in university and such at the time, those were planned a while back, before the second half of the season every started. This made it that by the time that cycle rolled around I realized that some things had changed... Things were added, removed, bumped up... Point is it didn't really reflect where I was anymore. So I decided 'what the heck, I'll do another one ASAP!' And so here we are :) This is my revised Top 16 (of course I HAD to plan before the finale, so there are still a couple things missing like Samcedes, Unholy Trinity, etc, but let's assume they're there ;) They'll get some love in coming cycles ;)) So off we go!
Coming in at number one... (continuing the number one story, as I explained last week :))
"THE HOME WALL: 3. HOME AWAY FROM HOME"
Brittany
* Following the story "RED HERRING" *
Tessa and Aimee were off to see a movie that evening. They had actually invited her to come along, but she couldn’t go... She told them she wasn’t feeling well, and whether or not they believed her, they let her be and went on their way. The moment the door had closed though, Brittany sat back on her bed, pulling the blanket near, laying her head on the star cushion. It had been turning over in her mind all day, so much that she had completely forgotten about the cookies, or her run… It took until her stomach bellowed for mercy for her to realize she hadn’t eaten a thing until somewhere around three…
She’d been fine up until then, which was to say she had her down moments, yes, but she could work around them and still go through her days, go to class and take solace in the joy of the dance… No matter what was happening, she could manage, comforted by all the good parts of it.
She didn’t know what made it happen, why it happened then, but that morning she just snapped… Her parachute gave out, and now she was falling… Wherever she would land, it couldn’t be anywhere near home, and that made the drop so full with panic.
She wasn’t… she wasn’t equipped, to deal with something like this on her own. She was still herself, still Brittany… with her quirks, misunderstandings, naivety… Had it been any other situation, she would have immediately turned to family, or friends from school… And for a moment she had thought about them…
She had looked around her side of the room, to the box that held all the gifts from the Glee Club, when she wasn’t wearing or using them… she looked to the wall… It was Saturday. She didn’t have classes; or in her case, she had that night and the day after to try and get back on her feet.
She couldn’t call them.
Every last one of those things she had received from them, they all told her the same thing… they were all so proud of her, and they expected her to succeed. She had left them all behind and it hadn’t just affected her; it affected all of them in one way or another. What would they think of her if she packed up after a few weeks and returned to Lima? She couldn’t call them.
She’d forgotten about the letter from the day before. She hadn’t expected this one at all, but when she’d seen it… It made her feel loved, like any of those letters from home, but in a different way. She was still a fairly new person in her life; they had met in a strange way for sure, when, while up in New York for Nationals, Brittany had been wrongly accused of murder and, to draw out the real killer, Brittany - and Puck - had been stashed at the home of none other than mystery writer Richard Castle, who was assisting on the case with the detectives. There Brittany had met and befriended his daughter, Alexis. When New Directions had gone back to Lima, Brittany had gone back with the knowledge that she had a new friend, and that they would stay in touch. And when she’d come to Boston, Alexis had promised that, if she ever needed a familiar setting, as she was closer to New York than Lima, they would be thrilled to drive her up for the weekend.
The letter was propped up on her nightstand, by the lamp. She picked it up, turned it around in her hands. She’d read it, but she hadn’t gotten around to responding to it. Her solution was right there, in front of her, if she could just work it all out in her mind. Finally, she sat up, sniffling back that broken feeling, taking a deep breath. She lifted her head.
Moving to the computer, turning it on, she could hear the whispered hopes under her breath - please be there. The window appeared, and there the icon by Alexis’ name was green, blissful green… online green. Hesitating a moment, one hand reached to her hair, the other to her face… She wouldn’t kid herself into pretending whatever she looked like now could be hidden. So she clicked the name; she called. The ‘ringing phone’ sound was heard for a few seconds before the redhead’s face came on the screen, a smiling face which quickly changed when, instead of finding another smiling face staring back at her, she found one that was bleak, sad. Maybe Brittany’s idea that she could confide in Alexis the things she wouldn’t dare to tell those she’d left in Lima wasn’t as novel as she thought; maybe there had already been signs of what she’d come to say on that night, in messages she’d sent before.
“Is it that bad?” were Alexis’ first words. Brittany both shrugged and shook her head.
“The classes are fine,” she promised. “The school’s fine… My roommates pretend like I don’t know they’re together…” she listed off, then paused… “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t say that… Never mind.”
“Right,” Alexis assured; it was forgotten. “So what’s wrong then?” Brittany looked at her, caring blue eyes staring back… She wished she was there with her, in the room… No matter what, she still felt alone like this. “You miss home, don’t you?” Alexis spoke when Brittany didn’t. The blonde slowly nodded. “So… you want to go back?” Alexis went on guessing.
“Yes… No… Y… No…” her mind struggled to settle on an answer; she couldn’t, except… “Yes…” When there wasn’t a ‘no’ tripping to step in and cancel out that ‘yes,’ it actually shocked her; she’d never said it… never said it without going back on it. But then… she looked down, seeing Artie’s gloves on her hands, Mike’s lucky laces and Puck’s pick on her wrist, Sam’s hoodie… and the thought of their faces made her cry now… of joy that she might see them soon, of sadness that they’d see she’d let them down… “No…” she tried saying, but even she didn’t believe herself.
“Hang on, okay? I’ll be right back,” Alexis told her before disappearing from the screen. Brittany just sat and waited, gathering up her knees. She played with Tina’s key, dangling from the chain around her neck. When Alexis finally returned, whatever she’d left for seemed to have gone well. “Hey, we’re going to come and get you, alright? We’re going to drive up to Boston, pick you up, and you can spend tomorrow with us. If you want to talk about this, we can do that. If you don’t want to talk about it and just want to relax, we can do that too. We’ll have you back by Monday morning. Okay?” she asked. Brittany could feel her heart’s trepidations… yes, absolutely, yes… She nodded. “We’ll be there in three hours, tops… a lot less, if my father has anything to say about it. He’s not above getting a police escort,” she hoped the joke would get at least a smile out of Brittany; it did.
For the moment, she had a purpose, something to distract her. She gathered up some things to bring with her, wrote a note for Aimee and Tessa and left it on Aimee’s bed; they should find it there. That still left her some time to kill… She showered, dressed again. She was still hungry, and she went to the diner nearby… Now that they were coming for her, she was starving. She ate two platefuls, then dessert… twice, too… Finally she went back to sit outside the main entrance of the school, waiting for Alexis.
The car arrived, two and a half hours after they’d hung up their online call. Alexis got out, Brittany got up, and they hugged. “Ready to go?” Alexis asked, and Brittany nodded. Alexis got her bag and they climbed into the backseat.
“Hey, Mr. Castle,” Brittany greeted their driver.
“Evening, Brittany,” he nodded, turning to see her. “You alright there?” he asked, and she nodded. “Fasten your seatbelts, girls, we’ll have you back in New York in no time.”
Brittany didn’t even remember getting there. After the ride, the next thing she recalled was waking up in the guest bedroom at the Castle apartment. It was probably a combination of the long ride, the feelings of the day before, and the relief of being in the second best place she could be in if it couldn’t be Lima… but she’d slept through the night, the best sleep she’d had in something like a week.
She had breakfast with Alexis, and Mr. Castle, and his mother… Somewhere along the line she must have decided to go with Alexis’ option to ‘just not talk about it,’ because the subject didn’t come up. Either way, they were too busy. Alexis took her around the city, fully intending to clear her mind, reboot her system or something… For a while, Brittany wasn’t even thinking about it anymore. But then the subject came of having to drive on back, and with it came the thoughts again, of what she was going to do. This one day away had at least put a pause to her thoughts of going home. She still wasn’t sure what she would do, but she had rested enough now that she felt she could try again now, with a clean slate.
THE END
* IN CONSTRUCTION! *
PREVIOUS DAYS
[Cycle 01] [Cycle 02] [Cycle 03] [Cycle 04] [Cycle 05]
[Cycle 06] [Cycle 07] [Cycle 08] [Cycle 09] [Cycle 10]
[Cycle 11] [Cycle 12] [Cycle 13] [Cycle 14] [Cycle 15]
[Cycle 16] [Cycle 17] [Cycle 18] [Cycle 19] [Cycle 20]
[Cycle 21] [Cycle 22] [Cycle 23] [Cycle 24] [Cycle 25]
[Cycle 26] [Cycle 27] [Cycle 28]
[Cycle 29]
[589] [590] [591] [592] [593]
[594] [595] [596] [597] [598]
[599] [600]
Suggestion Drop Off
Title: "The Home Wall: 3. Home Away From Home"
Pairing: None; Brittany, Alexis Castle (x-over)
Rating: G
Summary: Now that she's in Boston, she can't wait to get letters from home and reply to them.
Spoilers: AU, X-Over... so no, not really ;)