Not that anybody is going to read this, but I decided to just play around with the Sam/Santana ship in this story. While I will always love Fabrevans, I find their dynamic really interesting and wanted to give it a shot. In this story, Sam and his family are still living in Kentucky as he never returned to McKinley in season 3. Enjoy!
"You're dropping out!?" Exclaimed the voice from Santana's laptop. "Santana you have been there for four months!"
"Four months too long if you ask my opinion" Santana said seriously.
"Santana, please, you have to consider the rest of your life here."
"I have, Quinn!" Santana snapped at the girl she was video chatting to. "I have considered the rest of my life, and all I know is that I can't stay in this red-neck breeding ground!" She said, waving her hands around as if it was some kind of soap-opera.
Quinn waited a minute before continuing. "Santana, I know how hard it is to adjust to college life, I mean, it took me weeks to finally settle here and-"
"Look, Quinn, everybody and their abuela knows that the college life is for you. I mean, you belong at Yale with that bunch of mouth breathers-" she paused, seeing how Quinn had taken offence at her comment "no offence- but I'm not you! I have better things to do instead of waving pom poms around in Kentucky!" She paused to let Quinn take her reasoning into account.
"And plus," she continued "I don't like the people here. Lord knows these hicks are cramping my style - I just don't fit in with them! I'm from Lima Heights, not Lima Trailer-Park, Quinn." She huffed after finishing her sentence.
"I know, I know." Quinn muttered "You always did hate the hicks at McKinley. You said that Stoner Brett was their gang leader devout to convert us all to their 'hick ways'" Quinn said, using air quotes to emphasise.
"Damn straight" Santana responded nonchalantly
"Just-" Quinn sighed "Just promise that you're going to have some sort of plan, San. You're not just going to show up in New York and expect to crash at Rachel and Kurt's?" She pleaded with Santana.
"Quinn, of course I'm not going to do that." She reassured the blonde seriously. "I can't stand Berry and Lady Hummel for more than two minutes, I'm not going to move in with them!" Santana, of course, was lying through her teeth with this promise, it had been her plan since deciding to drop out of college to live with them. She couldn't understand Quinn's insistence that she wasn't to do this, as far as Santana was concerned, she was awesome, and didn't see why anybody would be annoyed if she just showed up on their doorstep and told them she was moving in. Quinn was just being overly judgmental of Santana's choices right now.
"Ok, good." Quinn sighed in relief. "Look, I have to go, I'll talk to you soon. Be careful."
"I will, Quinn. I promise." Santana said with sincerity.
"Oh, and, Santana?" Quinn added "Don't do anything stupid." With that Quinn hung up the call.
'Whatever' Santana thought to herself. She wasn't going to do anything stupid. Her plan was fool-proof, she was going to talk to her advisors, get the correct forms to leave, load up her car, and be out of Louisville by tomorrow afternoon. Absolutely nothing could go wrong.
Or so she thought.
The next day, Santana put the final boxes full of her stuff into her car and began her trip to New York. She drove off of campus into town, the odd crunching sound of her car being stifled by her excited hums of joy along to the radio, and pulled into a gas station to get some fuel for her car. After filling up her car, Santana got back in and began to drive. She got about two blocks before smoke started to emerge from her car hood and the car completely stopped in the middle of the street.
"Oh no no no! For fucks sake!" Santana exclaimed hitting her steering wheel. "You had to do this to me today?" She screamed. She got out of the car, slammed the car door, pulled out her phone and began googling for a nearby mechanic. After phoning them, she sunk down and sat on the curb next to her car, waiting for assistance.
Soon enough a tow truck pulled up in front of Santana's car, and she stood up to greet the mechanic just getting out of the car. Looking down at the hood of the car he said:
"God, that's really pouring out of there" He swatted his hand in front of his face, Santana just rolled her eyes, even though she couldn't see the man behind the smoke, she had a strange sense that she disliked him, although she had that with most people, so it wasn't all that strange. "How exactly did this happen, Miss Lopez?" Before Santana could answer, however, his head whipped to look at Santana, and she finally realised why she felt so irritated by his presence.
"Santana!?" He exclaimed in shock
Standing before her was a boy with blond hair and an extremely toned body, green eyes and the biggest lips she had ever seen. In front of her was Sam Evans.
"Jesus Christ this day could not get any fucking worse!" Santana screamed into the air.
Pulling down the hood of the car, which had now stopped heaping with smoke, Sam walked over to Santana, who was stood resentfully with her arms folded behind her car.
In a cautious tone he began "Erm, I'm not quite sure how to say this, Santana but-"
"Let's cut the crap, Trouty, is my car fixed or not?" She interrupted Sam as he spoke. "I can't bare to be out here with you for much longer"
Giving himself a second to let Santana's insults bounce off of him, he replied. "Uh, Santana, I'm sorry but I don't think there is any possible way to fix your car."
"What!?" She erupted "What the hell are you talking about? My car is perfectly fine! Sure, a little old, but nothing that can't-"
"Santana your engine is being held together with a rubber band." He quipped back.
"At least it's being held together by something! Which is more than can be said for your sorry ass!" She said angrily, poking Sam in the chest.
"Look," He sighed "if you don't believe me I can tow you back to the garage and you can hear my boss tell you."
Santana considered for a moment, being in a car with the single most irritating person she has ever met (besides Rachel Berry) was surely punishment, but what the hell else was she supposed to do?
"Fine." She replied, hatred obvious in her voice. "But when we find out that you're wrong, Evans, you're going to regret the day you were born!" Santana spoke before quickly getting in the passenger's seat of Sam's tow truck.
Sam stood there, utterly blindsided, as he remembered just how much of a force Santana Lopez was.
"Hurry the fuck up, Lips, I don't have all day." She shouted, deadpan, from inside the truck. Instantly, Sam hooked up her car, got in his truck, and began to drive.
Santana watched as she saw Sam and another man fussing over her car, each of them mumbling something every now and then, it didn't take much of this before the older man, presumably Sam's boss, turned to Santana and said:
"Miss Lopez, I hate to be blunt, but I have never seen a car in worse condition." He stated sorrowfully. "I mean, your battery is burned out, your engine is falling apart, and your exhaust is trailing - it's practically broken …" He trailed off, hoping that Santana had understood him.
"What, uh - what does that mean?" She responded softly, evidently upset.
"It means that while we very much want to, we unfortunately can't do anything to fix your car. The best that we can offer is to give you a small amount of money for it so we can use it for spare parts, well, as many as we can salvage." He paused. "I am sorry."
"It's ok - thank you." She said tenderly to the man before he walked away.
Santana took a few steps away from her and began to think. How was she going to get to New York now? There was no way she could afford a plane ticket, and she sure as hell wasn't getting the train - she'd rather walk then use public transport to get across the country. After a few minutes of silence spent thinking, she was awakened by Sam walking over to her.
"Here you go." He chirped happily, giving her the cheque for her car. Santana looked down at it, she was so possessed by figuring out a way to get to New York that she couldn't even be insulted by the amount they'd offered her for her car.
"Thanks." She said dismissively.
"Hey, are you ok?" Sam asked genuinely "Because, in the time that I've known you, you have never once thanked me for anything, so something's bound to be wrong." He said jokingly
"Shut up" Santana laughed out with a small smile as Sam walked away. Before she could get back to forming a back up plan, she heard Sam call her name again.
"Santana, you need these boxes taking anywhere? I don't mind dropping them off anywhere for you." He said walking back over to her slowly
She paused for a minute, swallowing a lump in her throat, trying to figure out what to say as he looked up at her, his eyes piercing through her.
With a dry throat she managed to squeak out "Erm, thanks Sam, but seeing as I have no idea where I'm even going to stay right now I think my stuff can wait."
"What do you mean you have nowhere to stay? I thought you were at college here?" He asked in a non-judgemental way
"I was, but I dropped out yesterday and moved out of my dorm today, so I'm a little stuck, I was actually just leaving for New York when all this happened." She gestured to the car being emptied by out in front of her.
"I'm sorry, San." He replied sadly "I didn't know, but I think I may be able to help to you."
Santana looked up at him with confusion as he began to explain.
Before she knew it, Santana was sat around a small table in the Evans household with all of Sam's family, his little brother leaning across her to tug his sister's hair.
"Stevie - if I have to tell you once more to stop that I'll tell Santana here about what happened last week at your friends birthday." Mary, Sam's mother, said in a stern tone, which instantly put a stop to his actions.
Santana shot a confused look to Sam who mouthed 'He peed himself' in reply, causing Santana to giggle.
"So, Santana, what is it that you do these days? We haven't had the, uh, pleasure of seeing you for well over a year now." Sam's father asked, referring to the time in which her and Sam had briefly dated in their junior year, causing shivers to go down Santana's back in disgust.
"Well, I was a student at the University of Louisville, but that didn't work out, so I'm moving to New York." She stated simply, smiling at Sam's father, Dwight.
"And Sammy is giving you a ride?" Mary asked.
Santana just nodded in response. As it turns out, Rachel had been berating Sam to go and visit her and Kurt in New York for the better part of three months, and eventually, Sam gave in and was planning on going up for a few days, fortunately enough for her (or unfortunately, as Santana saw it), she was able to get a ride with Sam in his truck to New York.
After dinner, Sam and Santana were sat out on the porch as his parents put his younger siblings to bed.
"I gotta say, Trouty, when you suggested I stay with you, I was expecting a tent in a field - given your track record with, you know, not having a house-" Sam just shook his head and chuckled "but I'm actually pleasantly surprised." She said, looking at him with a small smile. "And, as much as it pains me to say, thankful that I'm not out on my ass."
Sam laughed in response before responding "Well, we've done our best here, I mean, it's nothing compared with what we used to have, but it's better than a motel." He stated honestly.
They sat in silence for a while before Santana piped up again.
"Truthfully, I am shocked that you still talk to Rachel Berry. I mean, you pretty much fell out of contact with the rest of us after a few weeks."
"Yeah, well, it's not like I talk to Rachel, it's more like she talks at me and I pretend to listen." He said, getting a laugh out of Santana.
"And here I was thinking that I taught you nothing." She stated with a jokey sense of pride.
As they sat and spoke, Santana remembered that whilst Sam was incredibly annoying with his impressions and awful jokes, she didn't despise him as much as she thought she did. When she was with Sam, she wasbdesperately trying to figure out who she was, and how that was going to fit into the life that she was trying to lead, but over the past year, she realised that, regardless of who she became, the people that cared about her would always be there, so nothing else mattered. Talking to Sam, she realised why she had been inclined to tolerate his ways before; because he cared. For some unknown reason, he listened, and Santana found herself realising this - until he tried to do a Matthew McConaughey impression.
"Enough, please." She raised her hand to stop him. "I need to go to bed without the sound of that Texan bouncing around in my head." She explained to Sam, getting a chuckle from him.
"Alright, Alright, Alright." He conceded, giving Santana a wink when she realised that he was quoting him again. She laughed lightly and stalked off to bed, ready to hit the road tomorrow in the first steps to her dreams coming true.
If there is anybody out there reading this, drop a review of what you think, it goes a lot further than you think - and if you want more, let me know! - GleeFiction