Hello all! This is my first Brittana fic, so please feel free to critique and review along the way! I had feels this week from reading crammit, frayedattheends and jenja, so thank you ladies for your Brittana inspiration! They say you write what you know and this idea came to me because I ran cross country in college and it's preseason / move in week at my alma mater. Also, my gf (cactusgirl329) is coaching volleyball and that started up this week as well and since I don't hear enough about it from her, I wanted to write about it! It's not going to be an overly athletic fic, just mostly a happy Brittana fic. Hope you enjoy!

It was that time of year again.

Santana parked her car in her usual spot in the lot, grabbed her gym bag from the seat and shut the door. She took a deep breath and thought to herself.

It's good to be back on campus.

She smiled, looking around at the familiar buildings, making her way to the gym locker room. It was quiet on campus and she maneuvered her way through the buildings with ease. Move in day for the athletes was this past weekend, but most of campus wasn't back yet for the start of the semester.

Practice started earlier this week for her. It was her fifth year coaching at her alma mater; her first year as head coach of the volleyball team. She got the call in June that Coach Beiste would be retiring and wanted Santana to take over. Santana had played under Beiste for her 4 years in college, starting as a freshman. After graduation, Santana was Beiste's assistant coach and she was honored to have the position now the Beiste was stepping down.

She found her way to the locker room, stopping in the hallway outside to look at the trophy case from last season. Her team was seated first in the regular season and moved onto playoffs, where they ended up in the conference final. There they fell short and came in 2nd place; the silver trophy brought her back to that match. She was proud of her team for making it that far, but she was disappointed they didn't take the gold. This was going to be her year to take them all the way. She smiled and continued down the hallway. It was weird how often she came through this locker room; first as a player, then as assistant coach. Now she bypassed all her lockers and went to the back office. The key jingled on her key ring as she opened the door. Beiste had been in a few weeks ago to clean out her stuff from the office. While it looked the same as Santana had remembered, it weighed heavily on her to think this was now her office, her desk. She threw her bag on the floor and sat in the big desk chair. On the desk was a note.

To Santana

Intrigued, she opened the letter.

Go get em, girl. –Coach B

Santana smiled and felt her heart flutter. She wanted to make Beiste proud for choosing her as her replacement, just as she wanted to make her proud for the 4 years she played for her and for the time she spent coaching with her.

Santana folded the note and tucked it neatly in the upper right desk drawer.

"This is my year."

Santana spent the past few days working her girls pretty hard. They knew better than to slack on the summer workouts she assigned them and she was pleased to see that except for a few of the freshmen, most of her team was in good shape.

Today was the annual coaches meeting for all the fall sports teams, so Santana knew she was going to miss practice tonight. She was on campus early to give her captains the workout for tonight and figured she'd hit the gym.

She ran 3 miles on the treadmill and then lifted. The gym was mostly empty, except for the few local students or patrons that cared to be there in the summer; she paid them no attention. On her way out, the football team was coming in. She was so thankful that she had finished her workout and was leaving as she met Puck and Finn in the doorway.

She crossed her arms over her chest and waited until the football team ushered in, most of the boys giving her over the shoulder stares and smiles, along with the hushed whispers about how hot she is, before addressing the coaches. "Well if it isn't dumb and dumber. Please tell me, how's the team looking this year?"

The boys looked at each other. She could almost see the wheels turning, as they were trying to figure out which was which and who she was insulting more. Puck answered first. "Well hi there, Miss Santana". Puck pretended to tip his hat at her and she had to smile at his weirdness. "I think this is our year." Puck folded his arms over his chest and went to lean against the doorway, but missed and almost fell over. He recovered as Finn outwardly laughed and Santana smiled to herself behind her hand. She went to college with both of the guys and while she couldn't stand Finn, she enjoyed Puck every now and then.

"Well, I don't think it can get worse than last season; you guys only won one game! I wish you better luck this year." She walked away and called out over her shoulder, "See you around."

She headed back to the empty locker room to shower after her workout and was in her office when her phone buzzed.

Where you at? Let's eat before this meeting.

She texted Quinn back, "Meet you in the caf in 5."

Santana met Quinn years ago at freshman orientation and they instantly hit it off. They sometimes had clashing personalities, but were also similar, so they became close friends within the first few weeks. Luckily, they didn't play the same sport, because they were both extremely competitive, but they supported each other. While Santana rocked it on the volleyball court, Quinn was a beast in the field hockey goal. Like Santana, they asked her to coach the year after she graduated, so they've been inseparable for the past few years.

"You ready to go all the way this season?" Quinn asked Santana as she ate her salad.

Everyone knew Santana was crushed when the team lost the final match of playoffs last year and was coming back for gold this year.

She looked at Quinn, "Of course. Everybody knows it and that trouty-mouth asshole coach better know it too!"

Quinn laughed as Santana took the last bite of her chicken and rice.

"Alright, let's get this boring meeting over with. We can't be late for the fifth year in a row, especially now that you're head coach."

They arrived in the auditorium with time to spare, making the athletic director, Sue Sylvester, very happy. She pointed at them with two fingers when they walked in and then to her eyes and back at them again, suggesting she was keeping an eye on them. They've all known each other for years and while Sue's bark was worse than her bite, they didn't want to be in trouble with her already.

They said their hellos to the other coaches in the room. They'd known most of them well enough over the past few years to at least make small talk; most of them even went to college together. Sugar was already waiting for Santana and Quinn and motioned for them to come sit with her.

Santana played volleyball with Sugar in college and when she was offered the head coach's position, she was pleased to suggest Sugar take her old place as assistant coach. Beiste put in a good word with Sue and it was settled. Things were really going Santana's way this season.

Sugar turned to them both as they sat down. "Ok, so there's already drama and it's only preseason!" She giddily clapped her hands and looked around to make sure no one was in ear shot before continuing. "This year, we can't do the annual athletes vs. alum games to raise money like we used to because the lacrosse teams slaughtered each other last year and there were a million injuries and their best player got injured mid-season." Quinn looked over her shoulder at Kitty, the lacrosse coach, who fake smiled and waved at her. Kitty also went to school with the girls, but they never got along with her.

"Also, the tennis coach, Mike, knocked up his girlfriend, and there's going to be a celebratory party later in the season for them." Mike just walked in and was awkwardly standing in the back, looking around. Before he could escape, Puck and Finn ran over to him and slapped Mike on the back and started shoving him around. Santana rolled her eyes and figured it was their caveman way of congratulating him.

Sue went to the center of the stage and called everyone to order.

"Excuse me, people in the back, sit down!" She looked out at everyone. "Hello to all you great people. Thank you once again for coaching our athletes, some of you doing a better job than others." Sue gave an approving head nod in the direction of Santana and Quinn and scowled at Puck and Finn as they rushed to take their seats as far away from the stage as possible. Mike ran in the opposite direction so as to not incur the wrath of Sue this early in the season.

Sue continued to go on and on about the rules and responsibilities as a college coach. Santana zoned out; she's heard this speech for the past four years. She looked around and noticed a few new faces. One short brunette with a huge nose was sitting in the front row.

San nudged Sugar. "Who's the new girl?" Sugar somehow always had the latest news.

Sugar shook her head. "I think she's the new swimming coach. Raquel or Rachel or something like that?"

"Mr. Puckerman, why is it that you cannot follow a few simple instructions?!" Sue was barking into the microphone at Puck, who was just looking around, clueless as usual.

"Ms. Lopez, can you please pass out the stacks of paper I have here?" Santana got up quickly and grabbed the papers from Sue. There were multiple stacks of instructions that Sue liked to pass out to the coaches, the more confusing the better, so that only the smart would survive. Santana handed a few stacks to Sugar and a few to Quinn and they passed them around.

When Sugar passed by Santana she whispered "Oh, one more rumor floating around. The cross country team is going to be disbanded this year if they don't get enough people to make a full team." Sugar shrugged her shoulder at Santana as they both made a "like it's really a sport anyway" kind of face. They couldn't be bothered with that news.

Suddenly the auditorium doors burst open and in rushed a tall blonde in bright purple shorts and a white tank. Her blonde hair was up in a high ponytail and she had her phone in an armband around her bicep.

Sue came to a halt mid-sentence. "Great, so nice of you to finally join us. Sit down here." Sue pointed to the front seat next to Rachel. "New coaches up here."

As the blonde made her way to her seat, she was saying "I'm so sorry I'm late. I got lost and couldn't find my way around. I talked to the janitor, Mr. Figgins or something, but he gave me the wrong direc-"

"It's fine, Miss Pierce." Sue cut her off. "Let's hope your timely skills for this meeting don't reflect poorly on you getting your team of awkward individuals to the starting line on time."

The blonde ducked her head and remained quiet.

Sue looked back to the rest of the coaches. "Now as I was saying, you already know Santana Lopez. Beiste had to get a hip replacement so Santana will be taking the position of head volleyball coach. Sugar Motta will take her place as assistant coach. Let's see these ladies win the conference this year!" Sue clapped and her smile portrayed the pride in Santana; Sue had always taken a liking to her work ethic. The assembly of coaches cheered and clapped as well. When the auditorium finally died down, Sue continued. "And these are the new coaches for the season. Stand when I call your name. Rachel Berry – swimming coach". The short brunette stood awkwardly and waved at the assembly. "Artie Abrahams – that can't be right." Sue scratched her head. "Wrestling?"

Artie wheeled forward and waved his hand at Sue and the crowd, his smiled wide. "That's correct, Ms. Sylvester. I might look scrappy, but I'm a fighter."

Sue looked around the room and didn't stop until she found who she was looking for; some mousey red head, sitting off to the side of the stage. Sue gave her an icy stare for an uncomfortable about of time before looking back to Artie. "It seems my assistant hired you. Bug eyes, why did I trust that you could handle this one little thing?" She then mumbled into the microphone, "I should have given you cross country since we're not going to have a team very long anyway."

On the words 'cross country' the blonde stood up, smiled and waved to everyone, catching Sue's attention once again. "Oh yes, and last but not least, Brittany Pierce – cross country coach for as long as we have some people who want to run for sport and not for punishment." Sue slapped her knee and burst out laughing at her own joke while Brittany just continued to look around and see if anyone else was as confused as she was.

Santana was in the back of the auditorium still handing out papers when she locked eyes with the blonde. Brittany gave her a half smiled and a head nod before she turned around and sat back down.

Sugar nudged her arm. "Oh yeah. And they have a new cross country coach."

Santana followed Sugar back to their seats. This may be the first time Santana had ever given a single thought about cross country.

So I don't know how long this is gonna go. I have a few cute ideas and of course, as always, brittana is end game! #brittanaordiebitches