Brittany's absentmindedness

Glee practice had been _difficult. _Rewarding, to be sure, but difficult all the same. It had began as just a dance practice - the glee girls knew they'd be doing a number together for Nationals, so it was just them. Practice had grown into parts of a routine; nothing finalised, but segments that started to slot together, ready to be adapted to whatever song they decided upon.

Brittany had taken the lead (under Rachel's supervision, of course,) and turned out to be an effectively good teacher. The girl was ditzy, but smart in her own way, and with her girlfriend Santana helping to communicate occasionally, she led the group, helping those who struggled a little with the moves.

Not that Rachel would ever struggle with dancing, perish the thought; but it was nice for the choreography challenged of the bunch.

They'd all walked to the glee locker room together, afterwards. It wasn't officially theirs, but no-one else would touch it - it had been there since the school was founded in the 70s, and had only been renovated once since. Rumour had it the graffiti on the walls dated back to Mr Schue's time in school, that the 'I <3 George' meant Wham.

This made it perfect for the gleeks. Fact of the matter was, dancing made them sweaty and gross; and no-one wanted to walk around Lima like that. So they'd decided to use that locker room. It was a little awkward at first, for two reasons:

1) It was a fair walk away from both the choir room and the auditorium,

2) Instead of the cubicles that the more modern locker rooms enjoyed, it was just a row of ten shower heads against one wall, then a long plastic curtain between two stone pillars in front.

It had taken them a long while to grow comfortable with each other, but by this point, they were. Hell, Rachel was in Senior year, she'd known some of these girls for three, now.

So they showered together, exchanging light conversation, sharing shampoo occasionally.

Rachel had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice she was the only one left in the showers, and quickly scrambled to finish washing. She heard a "See you later!" from Tina, and poked her head round the curtain, watching the last couple of girls walk off, smiling at them.

"Don't forget to learn your lyrics!"

A minute later, Rachel walked out of the showers, water drip-dropping onto the tiles beneath her. It had been a good day.

That was when she saw her bag was gone. The bag that had her towel, clothes, and phone in.

She thought through the shock, wondering where it could have been, then...

Oh, G-d. Brittany had a similar bag. Brittany had forgotten her own bag that day, Santana had put her clothes in her own. Brittany must have picked up Rachel's, out of habit.

Rachel looked around the room, trying to find something, anything, to wear. But there was nothing, unless she would take the several metres worth of shower curtains.

She was stuck naked, in the middle of school.