My deepest apologies to everyone waiting for me to update my other stories. I will! I have been going through a few things and I'm back now. Anyhow, I've been wanting to do this prompt for forever! FYI There will be a gender!swap Brittany in this story simply because Santana and Brittany's friendship is irreplaceable even in an alternate universe. So here it is. I hope you guys enjoy the story. It should be fun to write. :)
Corruption
Her body was sore and her head ached as her alarm clock sounded. 6:00 sharp. She was unbelievably tired because she was up late contemplating how her first day of school would go. Quinn had heard a lot of neighborhood talk about this new school. William McKinley High School. The sports were evidently the main concern of the school and that bothered her to no end. She's moved from town to town and city to city to compensate for her dad's job within the military. General Fabray. He was a very respected man, and he was all about images. Therefore, sports was never really her thing. Every school she went to he drilled the importance of academics into her head. It was the same speech every time.
"Quinn, sweetie. I know you want to go out for sports but your education is much more important."
It took a little piece out of her every time he recited that to her. She didn't even bother to ask anymore. She studied hard, she was president of the celibacy club, and she didn't do sports, definitely not sports.
Quinn rolled out of bed and trudged into the bathroom. There were huge bags under her eyes, she looked so tired. Truth be told, she was. It got a little tiring moving around so much, making new friends every where she went. It was exhausting. This was her senior year, her final move, and she just wanted everything to be perfect. She knew that she wasn't exactly prom queen material, she never has been, but it wouldn't hurt if once, just once, someone thought of her that way. Quinn wasn't ugly, she knew that but no one ever made her feel more than ordinary.
Her shower was short lived because she wanted to get to school extra early to figure out where all her classes were. She quickly grabbed a piece of fruit and jogged out to her White Audi R8. There were perks to being the daughter of a man with a generous income. Especially when you abided by his every wish, getting spoiled was a frequent affair.
Russell Fabray was in the garage tinkering with an old car when the sight of his daughter jogging into the driveway grabbed his attention.
"Quinnie! Leaving so soon?" He shouts from underneath the car hood.
"Yes, Daddy. I wanted to make sure I didn't get lost looking for any of my classes. It's a big school." She nods and he gives her the classic 'be safe don't do drugs' speech. She playfully rolls her eyes at him. Typical.
To say the school was big was an understatement. The school was almost 3 times larger than her last school in Denver and she couldn't help but count her lucky stars that she had decided to come early.
When she reached the front doors of the school she was delighted to see that she was one of the few students that was here this early in the morning. She looked left and right and had no clue where to go. She sat there for about two minutes trying to remember the directions from the school tour she had in the summer. The twist and turns of the halls were complicated and she didn't know where to start. Just as she was about to give the left turn of the hallway a try, a man with brown curly hair approaches her. He reminded her of a poodle.
"Excuse me? Are you lost?" He asks as he plasters a kind smile on his face. She nods sheepishly. "Well can I help?"
"D-Do you know where the principal's office is?" His smile brightens. He has really nice teeth.
"Sure I do! But it's more than likely Figgins isn't here yet. I'll show you though. Are you new here?" She nods and follows behind him as he makes his way down the hall. He makes a right and she can't help but be glad he stopped her before she made the left. She would've been looking for the principal's office for hours in a school as big as this.
"Excuse me, sir?" He hums quietly. "Why are you here, but the principal isn't?" He chuckles at her question before he makes a sharp left turn.
"Figgins is, well uh, interesting. Him and a lot of other staff members around here. You'll see, I promise you. Anyhow, I'm just here because I'm in charge of the glee club so I wanted to take a look at a few music selections for the new year." He smiles brightly and gestures to the principal office. It's just as nice as she remembers it being in the summer. Glass walls. Nice desks. Everything looks so expensive in comparison to the last school.
He stays and talks to her for a while and she discovers his name is Will Schuester, or Mr. Schuester as the kids call him. He is the school's Spanish teacher and he's been working here for about 5 years. He's begins telling her what a 'glee club' is because she had never heard of one, her old schools didn't have any of those. Throughout their conversation of glee club, he discovers that she can actually sing which inclines him to invite her to come out for glee club.
"Oh sir, that sounds great but I can't." She knows what her dad will say. He always says the same thing.
He nods and insists that it really is a shame that she wouldn't be joining them, but he ensures that she's welcome to come on out if she ever changes her mind. Before she could respond the principal, Mr. Figgins wobbles his way to the glass door with a blonde in a track suit trailing close behind him.
"Look all I'm saying is that my cheerios could use a little more money."
"More money?!" The indian man in the grey suit shouts. "Oh Sue! What could you possibly need more money for? You and your cheerios are way over budget! And you have sponsors!" The blonde woman huffs loudly.
"Don't be so unreasonable! We just need a canon for nationals." Figgins chooses to ignore her and opens the door to his office. She follows right behind him, pleading her case. Will places his hand on Quinn's shoulder, guiding her into the office where the dispute continued.
"Look here Fi-"
"-As much as I'd love to hear you two argue, Figgins there's a new student here that you met in the summer, Ms. Fabray." He gestures to Quinn who is hesitant to enter the office. Figgins brightens at the opportunity to escape Sue's ridiculous argument.
"Yes! Of course. Russell's kid?" She nods.
"Hot pants here is Russell Fabray's kid?" Quinn snaps her attention to Sue instantly. Hot pants? "Hmm she's pretty fit. I want you."
"E-Excuse me?" Quinn stutters at the strange, direct comment.
"I want you to join my cheerios. Your father is an important man and we could use the extra publicity."
"No, I'm sorry I can't." She hated having to turn down those kinds of things because she had always wanted to get involved but she knew what would happen if she asked. She knew what her father would say. It wasn't worth the time or the argument.
"Of course you can!" Sue erupted from her chair.
"No I-"
"-Swing by the cheerios practice this afternoon. On the football field! I won't take no for an answer." She patted her shoulder rather harshly.
"But-" Before Quinn could set the record straight Sue was already out of the room. She stood there with her mouth hanging open, shocked at what had just happened.
"Ms. Fabray how can I help you?" She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face Figgins who was smiling up at her expectantly.
"I just need a schedule for my classes." Figgins nods and clicks a few buttons on his desktop. He's one of those people who says what they're typing out loud as they're typing it so there wasn't a single moment of silence within the office. Will leaned against the solid, non-glass wall and waited patiently for Quinn's schedule to print out. He snatches it off the printer and places it in Quinn's hands.
"I'll just show Ms. Fabray to her locker." Mr. Schuester guides her out of the office.
Once they find their way back into the halls there are a lot more students present, roaming and meandering the halls, catching up with friends that they haven't seen since the last school year.
A vast majority of them wore red jackets with the letter 'M' on the chest. Those individuals stood up a little taller than the rest, and spoke a little louder too. There was something about those individuals that emitted pure self confidence and even a little cockiness. Everyone in comparison was slumped over, quiet, and overall lived in the background. Quinn supposed that's where she would be, in the background with the others.
Mr. Schuester patted her back as he left her in front of her locker. A couple of people were whispering about her a few lockers down.
"Yo! Tiago! I haven't seen you since the party at Karofsky's last month!" Santiago glances at the boy strutting towards him with his red letterman jacket on and ridiculous shades on his face. He can't help but scoff at his appearance.
"Lose the glasses, Puckerman."
"Jealous?" Puck grins as he begins to unload his locker right next to his.
"Not even close. I just can't have you looking stupid if you're going to stand by me." Puck laughs.
"Whatever," He laughs before he turns and faces Santiago completely. "Guess what." Santiago raises an eyebrow in response as he pulls his letterman jacket out of his locker.
"There's a new girl." Santiago rolls his eyes.
"You would know that." Puck scoffs loudly.
"What is thats supposed to mean?!"
"It means you're a little pervert. Always, always watching." He takes a dramatic pause. "Waiting for your time to strike."
"Oh shut the fuck up, Lopez!" He slugs at his arm and Santiago playfully pushes him in response. Before it breaks out into a full blown play fight a lean, muscular blonde boy jumps on Santiago's back!
"Who the fuck-"
"Hey Sannn!" That voice. Santiago's grin is instantaneous. There's only one person in the world who calls him San. There's only one person in the world that he'd let call him San.
"Hey, Brett." This makes the blonde boy smile. He hasn't seen San since the last day of school because he was out of town all summer with his parents. Santiago looked so much bigger since he last saw him. He'd gotten taller and a lot buffer too. "You mind getting off me, loser?"
He chuckles and jumps off his back.
"You've gotten huge." He begins walking along side him.
"Just been hitting the gym. I'm determined to make it out of this rank town."
A small smile plays on Brett's lips.
"You've always been so ready to get out of here. Just a big fish in a little pond." Santiago can't help but grin at his best friend.
Since they were little Brett had always said that. The first time he had said it he told Santiago that he heard his mom say it once. Brett and Santiago had been best friend's since kindergarten. They always played on the playground together and always, always played sports together. Starting with little league baseball back in elementary school. Like Santiago, Brett was always great at sports. Granted, no where near as great as Santiago, but he was good. However, dance was where his heart was at. This didn't effect their friendship in the slightest.
"I prefer shark," He pauses. "Sex shark."
Brett laughs loudly and causes a few people to turn their heads and give strange looks.
"Yeah right! Some sex shark you must be considering you're always single." Brett smirks.
"Oh so you got jokes, huh? You know being single is a choice, asshole!" The smirk on Brett's face is replaced with a warm, small smile.
"Of course I know that. The girls are practically killing for your attention."
Santiago let's out a hearty laugh and shrugs his broad shoulders. "Well what can I say?" He wiggles his eyebrows.
They continue to speak for a few more minutes before he drops off Brett at his first class, Spanish.
His first class of the day was was honors trigonometry. He hated math with every single fiber in his body.
When he got there he noticed a girl he'd never met before. Strange. That must have been the girl Puck was referring to. She was hot so he was positive his friend would attempt to put the moves on her.
Evidently she was smart too. She got every question right when the teacher called on her. He, however, wasn't so lucky and got every question that he scribbled down on his paper wrong.
Lucky the teacher didn't actually call me.
He slammed his notebook closed and laid his head on the desk, ready for the class to be over with. He hated math.
"Quinn Fabray?" She turned to see a blonde cheerleader staring down at her from her comfortable place on the bench, just outside the school's entrance.
"Yes?" She raises her eyebrow curiously.
"Good! So you are Quinn!" The cheerleader grabs her hand and begins shaking it wildly in some sort of attempt at a handshake. "I've been looking all over for you."
"For me?"
"Yes! Sue Sylvester told me to find you and bring you to this afternoon's cheerio practice. I'm Kitty." She grins after she finishes her mouthful.
"Well hi, uh, Kitty?" The girl nods.
"Hi! Ready to go?" She bounces on her toes.
This girl is very overwhelming.
"No. See, I can't actually g-" The girl, Kitty, shushes Quinn in an instant which causes her to raise her eyebrow in confusion. What's the matter? Why is she shushing me?
"It's really best if you just do what Sue says. You don't wanna make that woman mad." And with that Kitty grabs Quinn's hands and practically drags her to the football field.
The field was large and very, very nice. It was filled to the brim with the school's colors, red and white. There were boys in practice football jerseys scattered on the field running practice drills as well as individual exercises. Over all the grunts and growls of the football players you could hear Sue Sylvester yelling at her cheerleader's through a bullhorn.
Kitty jogs up to her and Quinn reluctantly follows.
"I found her coach." Sue gives a single nod and Kitty falls in line with all the other cheerleaders.
"Run it again!" She shouts into the bullhorn.
Why must she yell and use a bullhorn? Quinn thought to herself. That thought brought A small smile to her lips.
Quinn watched, fascinated, by the cheerios performance. It was, in lack of better words, incredible! Their moves were so in sync and it was so impressive because their moves were so very complicated. It was an awesome sight.
"Sloppy! You're sloppy babies! Honestly, just dreadful! Get out of my sight now! Hit the showers. Wash the stink off from that performance. You're making me nauseous." Sue yelled harshly at the cheerios.
Her response left Quinn in shock. She thought it was great.
Sue trudged down from the bleacher stairs she was standing on and walked right up to Quinn.
"I want you on my cheerios." She deadpans.
"I'd love to buy my da-" Sue holds up her hand, stopping her midsentence.
"Don't worry about it. I'll have a talk with o'l Russell. We go way back." She knows my dad?
"I want you to swing by my office. Go get Kitty she'll take you and get you your uniform."
"This is all very nice but I've never cheered before in my life." Quinn flushes. How was she supposed to do this? This is a national winning team. She couldn't just jump on board like she'd done this before because truthfully she hadn't.
"Don't worry about it. I want you. I'll have you ready. Now go find Kitty."
Quinn scanned the field and found Kitty on the sidelines of the football field, speaking to one of the boys who was getting water. She took her time walking over to her.
"Excuse me Ki- Ow!" A tan boy ran directly into her, knocking her to the ground.
"Oh fuck! I'm so sorry." He grabs her waist and helps her to her feet. The first thing Quinn notices is that his shirt is missing and she couldn't help but stare as he bends over to collect the football he had been chasing after. The athletic shorts he's wearing are hanging low on his hips, revealing a valley outlining his pelvis and a tiny trail of hairs running down his navel. A happy trail. It made her very happy indeed. His back is so chiseled and his arms are so defined. When he turns and faces her again she notices how his chest is built and his abs are detailed.
God he's gorgeous.
He offers her a small smile and another apology as he runs his fingers through his curly, short hair in a nervous gesture.
She nods, signifying that it's alright before he turns and throws the football to another shirtless boy with a mohawk further down the field. She blinks and turns her attention back to the task at hand. Kitty.
When she turns her head Kitty is already looking at her and the boy she had been speaking to was gone.
"Who was that who just ran into me?" Kitty smirks.
"Only the most popular boy at McKinley. Santiago Lopez." She grins. "Cute, huh?"
He was but Quinn was always too prideful to admit that sort of thing. "He's alright, I guess?"
"Alright?! You guess?! You must have had super models at your last school." Not even close. There were a few cute boys here and there at her last school but she'd be foolish to say that the boys there were cuter than the boys here. She'd got a glance at a couple of boys throughout the school day and they were certainly attractive.
Nonetheless she simply shrugs. "I guess." She glances back at the field and notices that a lot of the boys neglected to wear tops. "Why are so many of them shirtless?"
Kitty smiles at this question. "The football coach makes them scrimmage. Shirts vs skins. She makes all the athletic and fit boys skins and they don't hesitate to take of their clothes because they know girls are watching." She laughs at her own statement and Quinn laughs along.
"Sue told me I had to ask you to get me my cheerios uniform." Kitty's eyes widen at Quinn's words.
"So you're joining?! That's great welcome!"
"Not exactly willingly." Kitty shrugs her shoulders and waves her comment off with her hand.
"You'll love it."
I sure hope so. She thought to herself.
Quinn Fabray had no clue what she was in for.