It happened in the morning. One moment she was flying, her form was all sorts of perfect; her face was stoic as the music played on. The next moment, her sleepy and hung-over partner missed a beat, didn't catch her on time and she landed on her extended arm. Something snapped and she was in pain. What happened next were a blur of panicked dancers that milled around her, and the calm but clearly concerned sound of her teacher's voice as she called an ambulance. She landed in an unknown hospital, her parents showed up, and then there was a surgery and its post-op, funny pills and crazy pajamas that her mom picked for her.

She guessed, considering that the standard recovery period for her injury lasts about three months, that it had happened at the least terrible possible time. She was finished with her second year at Juilliard and she was going to have some free time to do her rehab, hang out with her family, and eat some junk food. What she didn't expect was for her parents to so very enthusiastically ship her off to another country.

She was sitting in her room at her parent's house in Brooklyn with Quinn Fabray, who'd been her best friend ever since high school cheerleading had brought them together. Quinn's a drama major at NYU, and she was telling her about some major drama that had gone on between her loud and tiny roommate and the roommate's unnaturally tall boyfriend. It was pretty ridiculous stuff, which involved grown people expressing their true feelings for each other through heartfelt renditions of 80s hit songs, but since she'd been cooped up in her house for almost a month after being released from the hospital, she'd take any gossip she could get. Quinn was getting to the juicy part of her roommate's very musical love life when they heard the distinct voice of Freya Pierce say "Annie, go tell your sister and Quinn to come down to dinner". After which they immediately heard Annie yell, "Britt and Quinn, dinner!" Quinn got up, offered Brittany a hand and quipped, "Such strong, healthy lungs she's developing," as she got up Brittany answered, "Yeah, her screaming terrifies Lord Tubbs, I think he's plotting to murder her." They both exited the room and headed downstairs.

They got to the kitchen where Freya and Annie were setting the table as they argued about Annie's shouting. Freya noticed the girls, she made a gesture for them to take a seat at the table and without warning shouted, "Mike, everyone is at the table now!" Annie rolled her eyes at her mother and asked her "Pray tell, mother, where do you suppose I picked up this little habit you find so annoying?" Everyone laughed as they sat at the table and Mike Pierce, Brittany's dad, showed up and asked what the giggles were all about.

The Pierces were all tall, blonde and just generally happy people; they each had their own brand of quirky humor. The parents were all slapstick style situations and embarrassing sappiness, Annie was in her rebellious teen phase, and was fluent in sarcasm, while Brittany would just randomly spew out the end product of the strange but somewhat brilliant connections her brain made. And Quinn, who was already part of the family and was also tall and blonde, had more of a know-it-all with an edge type of charm to her. They had come to be "the Pierces" after Mike Pierce, a young electrical engineer from the US, had gone to Copenhagen to visit some distant family and had fallen in love with a dancer called Freya, he managed to get her to marry him, and he whisked her away to live with him in Brooklyn, New York. After a while, they had Brittany and later Annie. Quinn just came along one day after cheer practice and never left. And there they all sat, eating dinner one Thursday in the summer time.

About half way into dinner, Mike cleared his throat and said to his wife "Honey, I think it's time to tell her." Brittany shifted her look between her parents for a few seconds and asked, "Tell who what?" "Whom," Quinn softly corrected. Brittany looked at her, smiled and shrugged. Then Freya started, "Britt, your daddy, your sister and I have got you a present" she extended a folded paper across the table and offered it to Brittany, who took it and opened it. Quinn leaned closer to Brittany so that she could also read it. Freya started again, "We have been thinking that it might be time for you to see the world a little bit, and now seems like the perfect time to do it, with the injury and summer vacation." Brittany sat frozen on the spot, she couldn't make sense of the writing on the papers, it was clearly an itinerary, and a plane ticket, but she had no idea what any of it had to do with her. "Aa-argen-tina?" she asked in a shaky voice, "You're sending me to Africa? What's in Africa? I never did give my name that lady from the Peace Corps, how did she find me?" Mike looked at his daughter with a soft smile on his face and spoke, "Argentina is in South America, Bee, and we think a trip would be nice for you…" Quinn suddenly looked up "I think she's thinking of Algeria, that one is in Africa!" she interjected. Freya thought she'd try a different approach, "Bee, you're always in here, you don't even try to take a walk around the block; you might be depressed, for all we know… I mean you've been wearing that rainbow onesie for three days straight now!" she finished. "You got them for me! And excuse me for trying to be a cozy bicorn while my arm gets better!" Brittany snapped, clearly offended. Annie who had been watching the exchange and was just calmly sitting down with a knowing smirk decided to intervene before anyone had a conniption, "Will everyone just chill? I mean, Mom, you should show our Britt here some sympathy…" Brittany looked at her mom with a smug expression but Annie pointed at her and said "and you, no, don't look at her like that, Princess Dorito dust, and don't be a baby, we're trying to do something nice for you. Argentina seems like a lot of fun, plus your room is starting to look like it could be featured in an episode of Hoarders. You should go, or else I will." Quinn chose that moment to speak up, "Well, I think it's a great idea! I mean, think about it, there's tango, and Spanish, and I heard the food is great over there," she enthused. Brittany looked at Quinn and said, "Okay, I'll go, but only if you'll come with". Quinn just gave her a smirk and Brittany could already see the gears turning in her friend's head. This was going to be a very well planned trip.

After a small talk with her rich dad, Quinn got the money to pay for her trip to Argentina. Brittany was still wary of going somewhere so far and so different, and the fact that she barely remembered her high school Spanish classes wasn't helping her anxiety, but Quinn seemed to be on top of it all, and that gave her some confidence that it wasn't all going to be a disaster. After some clothes shopping, and a lot of strategic packing to get everything to fit in her gigantic backpack Brittany was ready. It was the 25th of June and Quinn showed up at her house very early, to get a ride to the airport with Brittany's parents. They both said goodbye to Annie at the door of the Pierces' home. Brittany's sister was sleepy and grumpy but she still hugged her and wished her a safe flight, and told her not to fall in love and get married over there, like her mom did, because that would just be overplayed and clichéd. Then she threatened to cut Quinn's balls off if anything happened to either of them. Quinn glared at her and then hugged her anyways, told her she'd miss her too. They got into the car and left, as Annie waved at them from the doorway.

When they got to JFK, Quinn went into efficient flyer mode and Brittany just followed. Brittany's parents said teary eyed goodbyes and gave a thousand recommendations to each of them at the gates. They had arranged that Brittany would do her rehab exercises on her own, and get checkups at a hospital in Buenos Aires. After they had promised Freya to Skype with her at least three times a week and Freya had promised to feed Lord Tubbington and keep him off the streets, Brittany and Quinn left to go through security. Once they were done with all the airport bureaucratic procedures, they found their gate and sat down to wait until they were called to board. While they waited, Brittany realized she had that effervescent feeling in her stomach; that same one she always got when she was waiting on the wings, ready to go dance onstage. She loved the feeling. All the very best things in her life had started with that feeling.