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chapter twenty six !
(takes place during 2x02 'Britney/Brittany')

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LUNA SAT IN THE FRONT ROW OF THE CHOIR ROOM as she watched, enthralled, as Lia played a game of Temple Run on her phone. The Abrams girl was currently on course to beat her high score, which was something she had attempted to do many times before, but this was the closest she had ever gotten to actually doing it.

The Italian girl had been careful not to disturb her best friend as Lia continued on her winning streak, and the look of immense concentration remained on her face. Even Quinn had ended up watching as the youngest of the trio started to inch closer and closer to her personal best.

Lia's success, however, was short lived, as all three of the girls jumped at the sound of Will Schuester clapping his hands loudly. Everyone's attention sprung to him, and Luna heard Amelia let out a loud and dramatic gasp. Luna winced as she watched the little avatar Lia was once playing, fall off the temple path and into the murky waters below.

"Mr Schue!" Amelia whined loudly, making their glee club director look over to her in surprise.

"What?" He asked in confusion, furrowing his eyebrows at the devastated look on the teens face. "What's wrong? What did I do?"

Lia just scowled at him, and let out a low growl. Luna stifled a laugh as a look of slight fear appeared on the Spanish teacher's face.

"You just made her lose at Temple Run, Mr Schue." Quinn informed him. "Don't worry about it, she's just a little upset." The blonde then patted Amelia on the shoulder.

Luna and Quinn shared an amused look over Amelia's head as the other girl remained across the whole situation.

Mr Schue, however, seemed eager to move on. "All right," He addressed the whole glee club this time. "Who can tell me who Christopher Cross is?"

Luna made a face at the unfamiliar name, and shrugged. "The guy who invented Crossfit?" She asked, half-jokingly.

Mr Schue let out a chuckle. "Not quite." He told her.

"He discovered America." Brittany answered, confidently.

Luna raised her eyebrows in surprise, now she knew that wasn't correct. However, when the blonde Cheerio at the end of the row met her eyes, Luna quickly shot her a kind smile, causing Britt to smile back at her happily. Luna knew that most people in the school thought Brittany to be pretty dim, and whether or not that was accurate, the Moretti girl always went out of her way to make sure the Pierce girl never got that impression from her.

Brittany was such a sweetheart and Luna wasn't about to make her feel bad about herself, unlike some people. Luna saw Rachel roll her eyes from the other end of the row and she frowned deeply at her, but the brunette was too busy looking at Finn to notice Luna's unhappiness.

"Close." Mr Schue pointed at Brittany. "He did write an iconic chart topper, 'Sailing'."

"Did it top the charts, like, fifty years ago?" Lia asked from between Luna and Quinn. "'Cause until right now, I had no idea that song existed."

Kurt, from a few rows back, nodded in agreement. "I have a bad feeling about this lesson." He voiced.

"Same." Tina echoed. "Never heard of him, don't want to hear about him."

Luna found herself nodding in agreement with all their statements. One of the downsides of having Mr Schuester as their director is that he seemed to worship musical artists from the eighties and backwards. Maybe the nineties at a stretch. Luna remembered having countless conversations with Jesse the previous school year, back when he was attending Mckinley, and the older boy seemed to have many concerns about the older man's infatuation for Journey songs.

Their teacher seemed to dismiss their concerns over the subject of that day's lesson, as per usual, and brought a bunch of sheet music to the front and started handing them out to everyone.

"Now some people think of the term 'Easy Listening' as a bad thing." Will started off. "But I'm going to let this music speak for itself. You guys love Lady Gaga and the Rolling Stones. . . and you guys are really good about putting it all out there. But really good music can also be controlled, and restrained. It doesn't have to attack an audience, it can let them come to you."

Once he'd finished talking, he handed Quinn the last sheet of paper, and walked away. Once his back was turned, Luna, Quinn and Lia all shared an unimpressed look.

After a few moments of everyone looking over the sheet music in silence, Finn broke the silence.

"How could you get caught between the moon and New York City?" He wondered, dumbfounded. "They're like a hundred miles apart."

Luna looked at him in disbelief. "Bless your soul, Finn." She said to him, causing him to send her a confused smile.

"Mr Shue? If I may." Kurt interrupted. "I think I speak for all of us when I say it's not that we don't love the idea of spending a week on this silky smooth Adult Contemporary, it's just that, as teens, this isn't the easiest music for us to relate to."

Everyone murmured in agreement at Kurt's explanation.

"However, there is a burgeoning Facebook campaign that has swelled to over five members." Kurt continued. "The ardent demand, that this week, at the fall homecoming assembly, the McKinley High School glee club performs a number by. . .wait for it. . .Ms Britney Spears."

Luna felt Lia grasp her forearm in excitement at Kurt's suggestion, and Luna found herself letting out an excited noise of agreement. She loved Britney Spears.

As everyone else seemed to share the same excitement over this idea, Artie started doing a little dance in his wheelchair.

"Spears, Spears, yeah." He chanted, causing Luna to laugh quietly at him as she clapped along.

Luna's mood dampened, though, when she saw Mr Schuester shaking his head from where he stood in front of the class.

Of course he doesn't wanna do a modern artist, Luna thought to herself.

"Sorry, Kurt, Kurt, sorry." The glee club director refused. "No, no, no. I don't think she's a very good role model."

Luna felt her eyebrows shoot up at what Mr Schue said.

"Why?" She demanded. "Because she's confident in her sexuality? Or because she's unapologetic about it?"

Luna wasn't stupid, and she knew that one of the main reasons people Mr Schuester's age didn't like Britney was due to the ways she would dance and perform in her songs. Luna always found that empowering whenever she watched one of the artists' music videos.

Before Will could respond to Luna's accusations, Rachel also butted in.

"But, Mr Shue, we kind of grew up with her." The Berry girl tried to reason with their teacher.

Tina nodded. "She's literally why I wanted to become a performer." She told everyone, and Mike smiled widely at her.

As everyone looked back to Mr Schue for a further explanation, their attentions were turned to Brittany once again.

"I don't want to do Britney." The blonde Cheerio spoke quietly.

Kurt shot her an annoyed look. "Why no Britney, Brittany?" The Hummel boy quizzed her.

"Because my name is also Brittany Spears."

Everyone's head whipped around to stare at Brittany in disbelief. Luna felt her mouth open in shock at what the blonde had just said.

"Come again?" Amelia puzzedly asked.

"What the hell is she talking about?" Exasperated Mercedes as she pointed weakly over to Brittany.

Even Santana was looking at her best friend in confusion, clearly not having been privy to this information until right now, like the rest of the club.

Brittany sighed. "My middle name is Susan, my last name is Pierce." She told everyone, who still looked at her in confusion. "That makes me Brittany S Pierce. Brittany Spierce."

Lia sighed heavily at Brittany's words, putting her head in her hands. Luna found herself closing her eyes in exasperation. She did not see the conversation going this way.

"I've lived my entire life in Britney Spears' shadow." The girl continued. "I will never be as talented or as famous. I hope you'll all respect that I want Glee Club to remain a place where I, Brittany S Pierce, can escape the torment of Britney Spears."

Everyone sat in a stunned silence after Britt finished talking. Amelia sat rubbing her temples, Quinn beside her, patting her thigh supportively.

"It's just so much to take in." Amelia responded wearily, causing everyone else to nod.

"Well, there you have it, guys." Mr Schue concluded. "It's been decided. No Britney. Sorry." But his voice didn't sound the least bit apologetic, in Luna's opinion.

The Moretti girl rolled her eyes in annoyance at Mr Schuester, and she heard Lia huff from beside her, before the younger girl brought her head to rest on Quinn's shoulder. The blonde then adjusted herself so they were both more comfortable.

"Thanks, Britt. Thanks a lot." Kurt said snappily.

Santana glared angrily at Kurt. "Leave Brittany alone!" She said in defence of her friend.

Britt smiled gratefully at the Latina. "Thank you for understanding. It's been a hard road."

Santana nodded sweetly at the blonde, and Luna smirked, despite the slightly annoyed feeling she had in her stomach, but she just put that down to being slightly annoyed at Brittany giving Mr Schue more reason to refuse the Britney Spears assignment.

Rachel cleared her throat to get Mr Schue's attention. "Um, can we move on?" The Berry girl coaxed, and their teacher nodded.

Turning back to the piano, and picking up more sheet music, an excited grin spread across Will's face.

"Yes." He agreed. "Let's talk about Michael Bolton!"

Luna groaned loudly.

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Let's get one thing straight, Luna wasn't one to find men twice her age attractive, like, ever. Not in the slightest.

But, when she walked into glee rehearsal the day after the whole Britney Spears debate, and saw Miss Pilsbury's current boyfriend, Carl, her opinion on older men almost shifted. It also seemed that Luna wasn't alone in her slight attraction to the dentist, as practically all the girls in the New Directions began watching the three adults at the front of the class, quite intently.

The sudden, and random, appearance of the dentist hadn't even occurred to Luna, not until Lia had pointed it out to her, anyway.

"Why is a dentist visiting us?" Amelia asked Luna in confusion.

Lia seemed to be the only one not currently fawning over Carl, which somewhat surprised Luna. Had she mentioned that Carl was a very attractive guy?

Luna shrugged in response, resting her chin in the palm of her hand as she leaned forward in her seat, resting her elbow on her knee.

"I have no idea, definitely not complaining about it, though." The Moretti girl joked.

Amelia shot her a weirded out look. "Do you really find him that attractive?" She asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Luna turned to face her friend. "Don't you?" The Italian girl asked, sounded just as confused as Amelia had.

The Abrams girl pressed her lips into a thin line and she shrugged her shoulders. "Nope." She replied honestly. "Maybe he's just not my type. Older men might just not be for me, you know?"

Luna nodded in consideration. "To be fair, I was the same, and then this guy walked in and now I'm questioning everything."

Amelia let out a giggle at Luna's obvious crush on Carl. "You need to calm down."

Luna smiled widely and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. This is getting weird." She then leaned back in her chair, bumping her shoulder with Amelia's.

Quinn came and sat down beside them a few seconds before Carl started talking, and the trio all smiled at each other before they brought their attention to the front.

"All right, so here's the deal, you chew this little capsule. . ." Carl addressed the glee club as he handed out little blue capsules to everyone. "Now if there's any plaque you missed, the dye will stick to it and turn your teeth blue."

When Carl handed Luna her capsule, he sent her a smile, as he had done with everyone else, which Luna returned. She could feel her cheeks reddening, much to her annoyance.

Amelia and Quinn snickered from either side of her, and she shot them both hardened glares, but they both just continued to laugh at her, much to her dismay.

"Can I just say that you are the hottest dentist I've ever seen?" Santana said to Carl from her seat in the front row.

Luna nodded in agreement, as she looked over to see Miss Pillsbury looking at Carl with a proud grin on her face. Beside her, Mr Schuester seemed somewhat put-out at how much everyone seemed to like Carl. Particularly, how much Emma liked him.

"I get that all the time." Carl chuckled.

"No, like, seriously, you can totally drill me whenever-" Santana tried to continue, as she leaned forward in her seat.

"Santana!" Miss Pillsbury cut the Latina off, mid sentence, in a shrill voice. "Okay, let's stay focused."

Carl moved to the front of the room. "Rock n' roll, Emms." He said. "And besides, this guy. . .now this guy's pretty easy on the eyes too, huh?" He insisted, pointing at Mr Schue.

Luna tilted her head in confusion, before shaking her head.

"And you know what? No matter how hard I tried, I bet I couldn't sing and dance like him." The dentist then patted Will's cheek goodnaturedly.

"Probably not." Mr Schuester agreed, somewhat smugly, as though he were happy that there was at least one thing he outranked Carl in.

"All right, let's take a look at those chompers, huh?" Carl spoke excitedly.

Kurt stood from his seat, and everyone turned their attention to him.

"Before we chew," The Hummel boy addressed dramatically. "I would just like to alert Mr Shue that there's been a new addition to the Britney Spears Facebook campaign."

He then shot the glee club director a pointed look, and Luna also sent a similar face Will's way. She knew there was a minimal chance of Mr Schuester relenting in his opinion, but it was still worth a shot, Luna thought.

"Sorry. The answer's still no." The older man shook his head, before pointing to blue capsules that everyone had. "Capsules, guys."

As the members of the New Directions began chewing, Emma clapped happily from the front of the class.

" Yes, chew away." The redhead chirped. "Chew, chew!"

Luna's face involuntarily screwed up as the bitterness of the plaque capsule spread throughout her mouth, she sent a grossed-out look to Lia and Quinn, the latter of which seemed kind of unbothered. Luna raised an eyebrow at the blonde, who just shrugged in return.

Once Luna finished chewing her capsule, she turned to the front with a wide smile. The three adults smiled back at her, which indicated to her that her teeth must be clear of the blue dye that Carl had talked about a couple moments earlier. The Moretti girl turned and looked to Quinn, who was also smiling widely, teeth completely clear.

Just as Luna was about to turn back to the front, she heard a gasp come from Quinn, who had been looking over at Amelia. The brunette girl whipped her head around to look at Lia, as well, and a large gasp also emitted from her mouth. 

"Woah, what is it?" The younger girl asked worriedly, her teeth now a bright shade of blue. "Are my teeth blue?"

Luna nodded, feeling almost guilty for doing so.

Amelia's eyes went wide as she began patting her jacket pockets, retrieving her phone and looking at her reflection in the screen, bringing a hand up over her mouth in embarrassment.

"Shit." She mumbled quietly.

The girls' attention was then brought away from Lia's blue-stained teeth, over to Kurt, who was looking over at Rachel in shock.

"Oh, my God!" He shrieked.

Rachel frowned at him in confusion, and turned to Finn, who also flinched back as he set his eyes on his girlfriend's blue teeth. This reaction from him then caused Rachel to bring a compact mirror out of her bag and see for herself what everyone was so surprised about.

"Ah!" She squeaked, also covering up her mouth. "I don't understand. I floss between classes!" She told Carl, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, sometimes it's genetics." He explained to the Berry girl, which made her frown even harder.

Well, at least my parents gave me good teeth, Luna thought to herself. They neglected the hell out of me, but at least my dentist appointments will be few and far between.

Artie also had blue teeth after chewing the plaque capsule, and he just shrugged. "I think I might be better at brushing and flossing if I could see myself in the mirror." He expressed.

Amelia pointed down at her twin. "He has a good point, actually."

Puck then turned up to look at her. "What's your excuse then?" He wondered, and she shot him a dirty look.

Lia then shrugged. "I don't know." She told him. "Well, I barely knew our dad, so maybe it's his lame-ass genetics."

Artie nodded in agreement, before turning his chair around and holding up his hand for a high five from his sister. "Hell yeah! High five for our daddy issues, sis!"

Luna let out a loud laugh as the two Abrams twins high fived each other.

Santana smirked at the two of them. "There you go, blue tooth." She joked mischievously.

"I don't brush my teeth." Brittany explained her reason for also having blue stains on her teeth from beside Santana. "I rinse my mouth out with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure Dr Pepper was a dentist."

Luna stared in concern at the back of Brittany's head. Sometimes she genuinely worried for the girl. The three adults at the front also seemed just as concerned at the blonde's revelation, Miss Pillsbury in particular looked extremely disturbed.

Carl placed a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "I got this, Em." He told her comfortingly. "With some deep bleaching or scaling, you'll be as good as new."

Luna felt Lia stiffen from the seat beside her, and Luna shot her a sympathetic look, knowing how much her best friend hated dentist appointments.

"All right, open up." Carl told Brittany, who did as he said, but then the dentist pulled a face of disgust as he inspected her teeth up close. "Nah, close. Close again."

As Carl walked back to the front of the class and all the glee kids started talking quietly amongst themselves, Luna turned to Amelia, who had a sad look on her face. The younger girl looked at Luna and Quinn, with what could only be described as Puppy-Dog Eyes.

"Do I have to go to the dentist?" She fretted, and the other two girls nodded. "But I hate dentist appointments! Please don't make me!" She pleaded as she grabbed onto Luna's arm like a small child.

Quinn reached over and patted Lia's head lovingly. "It won't be that bad, Amy." The blonde tried to reassure her. "You won't even feel anything because of the anaesthesia."

This only made Lia groan louder. "That's even worse! I've never been under before, what if I don't wake back up?" The younger girl asked.

Luna laughed at her friend's dramatics. "Listen, you'll be fine, okay?" She assured. "Want me to come with you and wait? I could drive you back?"

The Moretti girl then looked over to Quinn, a small look of concern on her face.

"Your mom won't mind if I borrow the car back, right?" She asked.

Judy had given Luna permission to drive her car multiple times since the Italian girl moved in with the Fabrays, but she never liked to just assume that it would be okay, so she always asked.

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, of course."

Lia then sighed loudly in defeat, realising that there was no way that she was getting out of this appointment.

"Fine." She huffed, giving Luna a scarily stern look. "But you better hold my hand whilst I'm being put under."

Luna giggled. "Of course, Lia."

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The day of Lia's dentist appointment had arrived and, as promised, Luna was there. She had calmed the Abrams girl's nerves by blasting Britney Spears in the car on the way over, and held Lia's hand as Carl had given her a dose of anaesthetic in the dental office. Albeit, Luna's fingers did go slightly numb as the other girl had an iron grip on her fingers.

She was now sitting outside in one of the comfy chairs, flicking through a Cosmopolitan magazine, not really paying attention to any of the stuff she was reading, her mind was more on the awkward encounter she'd had as her and Amelia had walked in.

As the two had walked into the building, they passed Brittany and Santana, who must have been in for an appointment before Lia. This was confusing for two reasons. The first reason being that Brittany had already been for her appointment earlier in the week, so she wasn't really sure why the blonde had come back for a second one. And the second reason was that Santana didn't actually need to come for an appointment, as her teeth had been amongst the sets that didn't have any plaque that needed taken care of. So Luna had been pretty confused when she'd seen the duo exiting the building.

But hey, who was Luna to judge them for maintaining their dental hygiene?

The awkwardness came when Luna had locked eyes with Santana. The Latina seemed pretty grounded for just having been under anesthesia, so Luna assumed that they had waited in Carl's office for the effects to wear off before actually leaving. The brunette Cheerio had sent Luna a flirtatious smile as they passed each other, which took Luna aback slightly.

The two girls hadn't actually had a conversation since the moment they had shared during the first week back, so when Santana had sent her a knowing look and mischievous smirk as they walked past each other on this day, Luna was understandably confused, but she smiled back, nonetheless.

Luna was broken out of her thoughts, and lackluster reading, by her phone buzzing in her leather jacket's pocket, indicating that she had received a text. She brought it out and looked at who had messaged her, her eyes lighting up when she saw it was from Jesse.

FROM: jesse🥰
TO: luna💫

Are you busy? x

Luna smirked, and began typing out her response.

FROM: luna💫
TO: jesse🥰

Yes. I'm currently contemplating my mortal existence whilst sitting in a dentist's waiting room and reading a trashy magazine. So, as u can tell, I'm very busy xx

The Moretti girl could almost picture the St James boy's confused expression as he read her dramatic explanation of her current activity. Luna then held back a laugh as Jesse's caller ID popped up on her screen.

She slid her thumb across the bottom of the screen and held the phone up to her ear, putting on her best fake-annoyed voice.

"Wow," She drawled into the speaker on the phone. "I tell you how busy I am, with my extremely important plans, and you just call me? Do you think you're more important than my own needs, Jesse?" She jested.

Jesse let out a breathy chuckle from the other end of the phone. "Oh, I know that I'm more important than your plans at the dental office, Moretti." He said cheekily. "Why are you at the dentist, anyway?"

"Lia has an appointment and she hates the dentist, so I figured I'd be a good friend and go with her." Luna explained.

"Wow, how noble of you." Jesse stated, causing Luna to smirk.

"I know, I'm just the best." Luna responded.

"That you are." Jesse agreed, before switching the subject. "So, let me be a good friend and distract you from the inevitable boredom of waiting for Lia's appointment to finish. Tell me, how has your week been?"

Luna sighed deeply. "Fine, I guess." She shrugged, before remembering everything that had been happening in glee club. "Oh! But Mr Schuester's really starting to irritate me this week."

"Well, that was an inevitability." Jesse reasoned. "But, what's the noodle-haired man done now?"

Luna giggled lightly at Jesse's nickname for Will, before she began telling Jesse about the whole Britney Spears debate.

"Well, pretty much all of us in glee club wanna do a Britney Spears song for the homecoming assembly, but Mr Schue thinks she's a 'bad role model'." Luna rolled her eyes as she quoted the teacher's words from during the week.

"What? Why?" Jesse sounded confused from the end of the call. "I mean, she's no Barbra Streisand, but Britney Spears is still an iconic performer."

Luna nodded in agreement even though Jesse couldn't see her. "Exactly!" She yelled, attracting the attention of the other people in the waiting room, causing her face to turn red. "I mean, I understand that she probably wouldn't be the most appropriate for a school assembly. But, I think, if she were a male performer, Mr Schuester wouldn't have half as many problems with performing those songs." Luna voiced.

Jesse hummed from the other end. "Very true. Plus, your director seems to have an obsession with artists from the eighties and nineties, which is concerning in and of itself. Those types of songs will never get you guys to Nationals this year."

"Right?!" Luna whisper-yelled. "And just from a selfish standpoint, I really wanted to perform a Britney song, too. But I can't, because Mr Schue's being annoying."

There was a beat of silence from the other end of the phone as Jesse pondered over what Luna had just said to him. Luna sat back in her chair as she waited for him to say something again.

"I have an idea," Jesse finally spoke again. "You go to dance classes, right? With that Mike guy?"

"Yeah. . .?" Luna faltered slightly, unsure where Jesse was going with this. "Why?"

"Well, if Schuester isn't going to let you perform it in glee club, why don't you just perform it in dance class?" The older boy suggested. "It could be a little performance just for yourself. That way you get to perform Britney, but don't risk getting kicked out of the glee club because you did so."

Luna raised her eyebrows and pulled a surprised face. "Wow." She said. "That's actually not a bad idea, St James."

She could picture the smirk that would be on Jesse's face after she told him this. "Always the tone of surprise." Jesse tutted, sounding almost offended.

Luna rolled her eyes at him. "Shut up." She scoffed. "But, that's actually a really good idea. Thanks, Jesse."

"I'm always here to help you, Moretti." He said nonchalantly to her.

Luna felt herself grin at his words again, before she cleared her throat and opted to change the subject. She then asked him about college and California, to which he responded by going on a tangent about how his drama professor chose another guy to play the lead in their fall show. Luna listened somewhat sympathetically as he complained, but she also couldn't help the few giggles that fell from her lips at his dramaticness.

After about ten more minutes of talking back and forth with each other, Luna looked up and saw Lia walking with Carl. The girl still looked somewhat dazed, clearly still feeling the effects of the anaesthesia.

"Jesse?" Luna felt bad interrupting the boy's story, but she knew she'd have to give Lia her undivided attention as soon as she met her. "Lia's coming back, and she still looks pretty drugged up, so I have to go. But, I'll call you later, okay?"

They quickly said their goodbyes just as Amelia and Carl entered the main waiting room. Luna stood up from her seat, grinning shyly at Carl, who smiled back at her, before nodding his head towards Lia.

"This one's still a little dazed." The dentist informed Luna, who nodded at him. "It should wear off within a few hours. Probably a bit less but the drugs affect people differently."

"Cool." Luna smiled. "Was she okay?"

"Yeah, she was fine." Carl disclosed. "Weren't you, Lia?"

Amelia looked away from the rings on her hands, which she had been incredibly intrigued by for the past few minutes as Luna and Carl talked. She looked up at the man beside her, a goofy grin on her face.

"Yep!" She beamed, sticking both of her thumbs up in approval. "I was suuuuuper brave, right, Carl?"

The older man chuckled. "Yep!" He confirmed. "That's what I was just telling your pal, Luna, here." He then gestured to Luna with his head.

The Abrams girl followed his head and then, when her eyes set themselves on Luna, she let out a loud squeal.

"Luna!" She yelled loudly, bounding over and wrapping the Italian girl up in a massive hug. "I missed you soooo much whilst I was in there!"

Luna smiled widely at her friend's wild antics. "I missed you too, Lia." She reciprocated, making the younger girl happily grin. "Okay, let's get you home." She cooed.

Amelia nodded, and snuggled her head into the space between Luna's neck and shoulder, wrapping her arms around the older girl's midriff. Luna put an arm around Lia to steady her, before turning back to Carl and smiling at him in thanks. He nodded, waving at the two of them as they made their way back outside to the car.

They had almost reached the car when Amelia began to sing under her breath, as Luna listened more, she realised it was, ironically, a Britney Spears song. Luna smirked.

"You okay there, Lia?" The Moretti girl asked with a smile.

Lia nodded. "Yeah!" She then gasped, looking at Luna excitedly. "Wanna hear something really cool?!"

Luna nodded as they approached the passenger door of the car, she opened it, and helped Amelia climb in, making sure that her friend wasn't about to fall back out the car, before quickly helping to buckle her in. Luna then ran around to the drivers side, hopping in quickly, before turning back to Amelia.

"I would love to hear something cool." Luna answered.

Luna smiled and nodded. "Okay, so, whilst I was under the. . .anna-annie-ana. . ." Lia stopped herself, looking immensely confused with what she was saying. She then waved her hand and carried on speaking. "The drug thingy! Well, I had this dream that I, me, Amelia Imogen Abrams, was with Britney Spears. We were singing that one song about Amy!"

Luna raised her eyebrows at her friend's revelation. It actually made a lot of sense that Lia would dream of that, as If U Seek Amy had been one of the last songs that they played in the car before they actually went inside of Lia's appointment. She had also heard that the types of chemicals in the anaesthetic often made you hallucinate whilst you were under.

"Wow." Luna nodded, starting the car up and beginning to pull out of the parking lot. "That sounds wild, Lia."

The Abrams girl nodded, leaning her head back on the headrest of the seat. "It really was. It was super fun, though! Britney Spears is so nice!" She gushed to Luna.

After a few minutes of quiet and Luna making all the correct turns in order to get to Lia's house, she heard the drugged-up girl beside her start to sing quietly.

"Love me, hate me, say what you want about me," Amelia sang quietly. "But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."

The younger girl's voice still sounded pretty good even though she was slurring her words ever so slightly.

Luna smiled and fought against the urge to record the singing on her phone, instead she just bit her lip to stop herself from laughing too loudly and breaking her friend out of the trance she seemed to be in.

As the car pulled up to the Abrams' home, Lia was still singing, even as Luna got out of the car and walked around to the other side and quickly unbuckled her best friend, helping her out of the car. Lia stumbled slightly, but she quickly grabbed onto Luna to steady herself.

"Love me, hate me, but can't you see what I see?" The Abrams girl continued to mumble-sing as Luna opened the front door to the house. "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."

As they made their way down the hall to Amelia's room, Luna gave a sigh of relief as she eventually was able to place her friend down on the bed. Once Lia had comfortably and safely sat down, Luna attempted to crack her shoulders and neck so that she should regain the feeling in them again.

Luckily, Lia had opted to wear leggings and a baggy jumper to her after-school dentist appointment, which meant Luna wouldn't have the extra task of trying to help her friend into pajamas. A task which would, no doubt, take much longer than Luna would like.

"Okay," Luna sighed, taking a seat at the edge of Amelia's bed. "You all good? Comfy?" She inquired, bringing a blanket up to cover Lia with.

Lia nodded, looking as though she was about to get comfortable and fall asleep, before her eyes shot wide open again. She grasped Luna's hand, causing Luna to shoot her a look of confusion and concern.

"Woah, are you okay? What is it?" The Moretti asked worriedly.

"You're not leaving are you?" Amelia practically whimpered.

Luna shook her head no. "Don't worry, I'm staying here until your mom's back from work and Artie's back from football practice." She reassured.

As a side note, Artie getting on the school's football team was a plot twist that Luna did not expect to happen this week. She was happy for her friend, though. Seeing him as happy as he was now that he was a member of the Mckinley High Titans was enough to make the initial worry she had felt go away.

Amelia sighed in relief. "Okay, good." She patted Luna's hand. "Oh! Did I tell you that Quinn was in my Britney Spears dream?"

Luna smiled slightly. "You did not."

Amelia snuggled deeper into her pillows. "Yeah, well she was. She looked really pretty, too. We were dancing together, and our faces were super close. It was nice." The younger girl cooed.

Luna tilted her head in confusion. "Was everyone in this Britney Spears dream apart from me?" She asked jokingly. "Damn, I'm offended."

The other girl giggled slightly at Luna's tone, before shaking her head. "Don't worry, you'll be in my next one." She assured her friend.

Luna laughed, and shook her head at her friend. She then stood up from the foot on Lia's bed, walking round to the opposite side and opted to take a seat actually on the bed, resting her feet near the bottom of the mattress, and leaning her head against the headboard.

With Lia suddenly going quiet, Luna assumed that she had fallen asleep. So, the Moretti girl pulled out her phone, deciding to flip through Facebook and Twitter until she woke back up, or until Nancy and Artie got home.

After a few minutes silence, Amelia's quiet, groggy voice interrupted Luna's scrolling.

"Hey Lu?" Her voice was quiet. "Can I tell you something? It's about Quinn."

Luna furrowed her eyebrows. It was about Quinn? Had something happened? Had her two best friends gotten into a fight?

"Yeah, of course you can." Luna's full attention was now on Amelia, awaiting her confession.

Lia sighed loudly. "Don't tell anyone, okay?" She asked of Luna.

Luna was now becoming more concerned, Lia's voice was becoming a lot more serious as she got closer to telling the Italian girl.

"I promise." Luna told her. "Lia, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, but I just wanna tell you. . ." She trailed off, hesitating slightly.

Luna stared down at Amelia in anticipation, a pit of anxiety starting to form in her stomach the longer she waited.

Finally Lia spoke again.

"I think I like Quinn." The girl told Luna. "As in like-like, as in romantic styles. Whenever I see her I just wanna grab her and kiss her pretty face."

Luna felt her mouth drop open at this revelation. She stammered slightly as she looked for the words to respond with.

It wasn't that she was completely shell shocked by this information. Luna wasn't an idiot, she had noticed all the looks that her two best friends had been sending each other for the past year, the ones of longing, the ones of fondness, and every time Luna seen them staring at each other like this, she would always smirk to herself at their obliviousness to the other's crush on each other.

She just wasn't expecting Lia to confess her feelings at this very moment, let alone tell her how much she actually did like Quinn.

So many questions went racing through Luna's head to ask, but she didn't get the chance to, as when she looked back down at her friend, the Abrams girl was fast asleep and snoring lightly.

Luna sighed loudly, running her hands down her face. "Dammit, Lia." She mumbled under her breath.

How typical of her best friend to fall right asleep only seconds after admitting her feelings for their other best friend.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The dance studio was empty bar two people, those two people being Luna Moretti and Mike Chang. The two of them had arrived to dance practice earlier than usual that day.

After asking Mike about performing a Britney Spears song at dance practice, like Jesse had suggested to her during their phone call, the boy had practically jumped at the chance to help her. The two friends had spent almost the whole of glee practice talking about which song they would be doing, and what kind of routine they would also be performing. Mike seemed to be as big of a Britney fan as Luna was, which was exciting for Luna.

Now, Luna was sitting on the floor doing some stretches, as Mike was setting up the stereo system. One of the perks about Mike being a junior instructor was that he had a set of keys to the dance studio, which enabled the two teens to be able to sneak in the place a bit before everyone else.

If she were being honest, Luna had a hard time focusing on this dance number ever since Lia's revelation about her feelings for Quinn. She had kind of asked Mike to help her with this as a way to distract her from blurting out what Amelia had shared with her whenever Quinn walked in the room. Of course, Luna would never actually tell Quinn, as that was down to Amelia whenever the Abrams girl felt ready.

But still, with Lia not bringing it up at school, Luna assumed she must have forgotten that she'd said it. So now Luna had the weight of a massive secret that wasn't hers, but the person who's secret it was, was none the wiser about her knowing.

It was a confusing time.

Once the music had been all set up, Mike walked over to Luna and helped her to her feet, breaking the Italian girl out of her thoughts. He shot her an excited smile.

"You ready for this, Moretti?" He asked teasingly.

Luna fake-glared at him. "I was born ready, Chang."

The Asian boy chuckled, before running over to quickly press play on the stereo, as the song began, he then came back to stand beside Luna and the two of them smiled at each other, before putting their focus back on the routine.

Luna took a deep breath, getting ready to start singing. It had been established that Luna would be the one to sing for the two of them, Mike had been incredibly adamant about not doing the singing.

Luna had managed to twist his arm and convince him to sing the back up vocals, with some help and persuasion from Tina, too. 

"Say hello to the girl that I am," Luna sang. "You're gonna have to see through my perspective."

Overprotected had seemed like the perfect Britney song for Luna to sing. She found that the words of the song seemed to resonate with her a lot more than she'd initial thought, and after listening to it multiple times this week, the lyrics hit a bit too close to home.

As the music continued, Luna moved her hips in tandem with the beat, doing her best to mimic how the blonde songstress had moved them in the music video of this song.

"I need to make mistakes just to learn who I am, and I don't wanna be so damn protected." Luna continued singing, doing her best to copy and keep up with Mike's dancing.

"There must be another way, 'cause I believe in taking chances." Luna quickly spun to end up on Mike's other side. "But who am I to say what a girl is to do? God, I need some answers."

For the chorus of the song, Luna and Mike had decided, instead of going with the original choreography from the music video (one of them anyway), they would combine a bunch of Britney's iconic choreography from a bunch of her music videos.

"What am I to do with my life?" Luna sang as her and Mike did the move from Oops!. . .I Did It Again, bringing their hands to their chests and pumping them back out as if their hearts were beating.

"You will find it out, don't worry." Mike's low voice went surprisingly well with the song, and Luna shot him a smile as he sang.

"How am I supposed to know what's right?" The dancing duo then created little boxes with their hands as they stepped sideways to the beat of the music.

"You just gotta do it your way." Mike sang.

"I can't help the way I feel, but my life has been so overprotected." Luna sang, as her and Mike finished the first chorus by doing the two-step from . . .Baby One More Time.

"I'll tell 'em what I like, what I want, and what I don't." The Moretti girl carried on with the second verse. "But every time I do, I stand corrected."

As she sang these words, she couldn't help but relate them to how she felt growing up in the same household as Claudia and Leo. Because it had been drilled into Luna since a young age that she was to study hard and become a lawyer she rarely expressed that there were other careers she wanted to explore.

But when she did, when she would turn around and tell Claudia that she wanted to be an actress in big movies, after watching The Wizard of Oz and being enthralled by Judy Garland's performance and how the movie managed to help her escape the overbearingness of her parents for an hour and a half, she was always shot down in flames with a 'don't be silly, Luna. No you don't.'.

"Things that I've been told, I can't believe what I hear about the world. I realize I'm overprotected." Luna sang. "There must be another way, 'cause I believe in taking chances. But who am I to say what a girl is to do? God, I need some answers."

As they reached the chorus again, Luna and Mike opted to copy the routine from the music video. Luna would be lying if she said that she hadn't spent almost all of the previous night watching it and lightly practicing it in her room at Quinn's house.

"I don't need nobody telling me just what I wanna," Luna and Mike sang the bridge of the song together, doing a quick kicking move that was also from Baby One More Time. "What I, what, what, what I'm gonna do about my destiny."

Luna then sang the next part of the bridge by herself as she watched Mike do a bunch of impressive breakdancing moves around her. Moves that she would probably break her back if she even attempted them.

"I say no, no, nobody's telling me just what I wanna do, do," Luna sang as she clapped for Mike's dancing in an attempt to hype him up. "I'm so fed up with people telling me to be someone else but me!"

As Luna sang the 'Me!' at the end of that line, she attempted her best Britney Spears impression, making her voice sound nasally, like the iconic artists' baby voice. Her impression caused a loud laugh to come from Mike's mouth as he continued to dance.

The song soon came to an end, as Luna had joined Mike in repeating the same choreography they'd done at the beginning of the song.

"I can't help the way I feel," Luna sang the last line of the song. "But my life has been so overprotected."

When the music stopped, Luna turned to Mike with a massive grin on her face.

"Holy shit!" She yelled excitedly. "We did it!"

Mike smiled back at her, holding both his hands out for a high five, which Luna reciprocated. The Chang boy then went back over to the stereo, turning it off and grabbing his phone from where he had propped it up against the large mirror at the front of the dance studio.

She let herself fall to the floor, and lay down against the cool tiles. Luna then brought up her metal water bottle to press against her face in an attempt to cool herself down and get rid of the sweat that was all over her face and neck.

Mike sauntered back over, and smirked down at her. "You do realise we now have dance class for another hour, right?"

Luna let out a whimper. "Do you think they'll notice if I just sleep at the back today?" She asked him, only half-joking.

Mike chuckled and walked over to where he'd put his bag down without answering Luna's question.

Luna frowned in offence. "Hey, Mike! I'm being serious. I genuinely think I'm dying."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Can you believe we caused a sex riot today?" Lia Abrams asked Luna, as they sat on the younger girl's bed.

Luna let a giggle slip from her mouth at Amelia's question. "Honestly? Yeah."

Lia raised her eyebrows and sent the Moretti girl a weird look. "Seriously? I was kidding." She brought her hands to her chest.

Luna shrugged. "Well, think about it, everyone in glee club is pretty attractive, and then combine that with Britney Spears music and a gymnasium filled with hormonal teenagers, and boom, you got yourself a sex riot." Luna then paused her explanation, and tilted her head in thought. "Minus Mr Schue, obviously. His inclusion in the performance was just disturbing."

The two girls then shuddered in unison.

The Mckinley High School homecoming assembly had been that afternoon, and, much to everyone's surprise, Mr Schue had finally agreed to let the New Directions perform a Britney number. The only catch was that he would perform it with them, much to everyone's horror. The thought of it alone made Luna not want to perform Britney anymore, but she still did, along with everyone else.

The Moretti girl also couldn't help but feel glad when Sue Sylvester pulled the fire alarm during their performance of Toxic. It was the one time Luna didn't mind Sue's interference with one of their performances.

Luna turned back to her Chemistry textbook, slouching down a bit further in Lia's bed, the two of them falling into another silence as they each studied for their different subjects. Usually Quinn would be joining them, but as she had Cheerio practice, the other two decided to go back to the Abrams household and get some homework done.

With the thought of Quinn now in her mind, Luna took a quick glance at Amelia, who seemed preoccupied with her History textbook. Luna decided to take a chance and ask the other girl about what she had told Luna the other night.

"Hey, Lia?" The Italian girl asked cautiously.

Amelia looked up from her notebook, lifting a brow at her friend. "Yeah?" She replied.

"You know the other night, when you were all drugged up because of your dentist appointment?" Luna met Lia's gaze, but the Abrams girl still seemed unsure as to what Luna was about to ask.

"Not entirely," Amelia told her honestly. "But I do remember some of it."

Luna nodded apprehensively. "Well, I was just wondering if you still mean what you told me about Quinn? When I brought you back here."

Luna saw Lia's eyes widen for a fraction of a second, before the other girl cleared her throat and looked back down at her textbook.

"Um, what, uh, what did I tell you?" Lia faltered slightly.

Luna didn't wanna say it right away, so she kept her eyes on her best friend for a few more seconds, waiting to see if any memories of her confession would come flooding back. But, alas, no such luck.

So, with a loud sigh, Luna decided to just bite the bullet and tell her. "You told me that you liked her."

Amelia's eyes shot up to Luna's, she looked suddenly panicked. "What?!" She asked. "Why would I say that?" She demanded, making the Moretti girl shrug in response.

"I dunno, but you did." Luna confirmed to her. "Do you, you know, like Quinn. . .romantically?"

Amelia went silent for a few seconds, and Luna eventually looked down and started playing with the pen in her hand. She wasn't about to rush an answer out of her friend, not when she could be coming to terms with something quite important for her. So, Luna decided to wait until she was ready to say something.

However, when she heard Lia stifle a sob, Luna's head shot back up. The Abrams girl now had her head buried in her hands as she cried.

"Hey, Lia, it's okay." Luna attempted to comfort her best friend, moving all their school supplies out of the way so she could reach Lia and pull her in for a hug. "You're okay."

The younger girl wrapped her arms around Luna's torso as the older one ran a hand through her hair.

"I don't know." Was all Lia said at first. "I think I do like Quinn. Everytime I see her I always get these butterflies in my tummy, and I love making her laugh."

Luna couldn't help the small smile that crept onto her face as Lia described her feelings. The Italian girl couldn't help but relate those feelings back to when she felt them for Jesse. She still felt those feelings now, too. Despite him being on the other side of the country from her.

"But, I just feel so scared about admitting it." Amelia continued, sniffling slightly. "Because what if I tell her and then she thinks I'm weird, or a freak. Then our friendship would be over and I don't wanna lose her, Lu."

Amelia's voice shook near the end of the sentence, and Luna tightened her grip on the younger girl. "Lia, I promise you, Quinn would never think you're a freak, okay?" She assured her. "And who says you have to admit anything right now? You don't have to do anything you're not ready for, okay?"

Lia pulled back and looked at Luna with wide, teary eyes. "Really?" She whimpered.

"Really." Luna affirmed. "If you're not ready to talk about your feelings yet, then you don't have to. I'm not gonna make you. Just know that I'm here if you ever want to, got it?"

Luna heard Lia sigh loudly in relief. "Got it." She agreed, wiping her tear-stained cheeks. "Thanks, Lu."

"Don't be silly." Luna said affectionately, ruffling her friend's hair. "Okay, now, let's kick some Chemistry ass!" She bellowed, and Luna smiled as Lia let out a laugh as the older girl flopped back to her side of the bed.

As the two of them continued studying, Luna would reach over and squeeze Lia's hand every so often. Using this gesture as a small reminder that whenever she wanted to talk, Luna would be there.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

I do not own glee, all rights go to Ryan Murphy, FOX and whomever else made that acid trip of a show that I love so much.

I neither own the gifs in any of my chapters unless stated otherwise, all credits go to the creators of the gifs.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

A/N:

everyone @ lia and quinn:

omg hello guys, I'm back again with another chapter. This one is a lot longer than I intended it to be lmao 😂😂. But I couldn't really see a point in splitting it either so enjoy this long ass chapter lmao.

It's also a very friendship-based chapter too, which I loved writing. Obvs I love Jesse, and st moretti but I also love Luna's friendships with everyone else so I thoroughly enjoyed writing the scenes between Mike and Luna and also between lia and Luna too.

We also got lia finally (sort of) admitting her feelings for quinn!! Yay!! I love my lil bby lia so much🥺💞. So I hope you's enjoyed that part too! And Luna's Brintney Spears performance with Mike! Overprotected is such a bop and a perfect song for Luna so I couldn't resist hehe.

Anyways I hope yous enjoyed this chapter, the next one up is 'Duets' and the first proper intro to my boi Sam Evans🥺.

ily all sm and thank u sm for reading

— jade💫💖