Santana Lopez, eighteen year old living in Lima Heights and attending McKinley High School. Her parents have to work two jobs in order to pay the rent and put food in their mouths. On the weekends Santana works in the Lima Bean in the centre of town, the place to go if you want to have the best coffee and homemade cooking, a slice of homemade apple pie is their speciality.
But Santana isn't the most perfect person in the world. She may be on the Cheerio's, her school's cheerleading team but that doesn't mean that she is perfect. In fact Santana has a past that she doesn't like to reveal to anyone. When she was sixteen years old she'd gotten herself into trouble with the cops because of the people she was hanging around with outside of school. Her boyfriend at the time, Trey, was leader of the Loco Cartel, a drugs gang in Lima Heights. But after a year of dating him, she stopped dating him after being arrested by the cops for drug dealing and shut down the gang, however that didn't stop the gang from reforming but under a new name that was so secret that the cops had no idea about.
That was Santana's part but of course things that happen in the past, don't always stay in the past. As Santana was around when they had raided their hideout she too was arrested but wasn't charged as boyfriend at the time, Trey, confessed to the cops that she had nothing to do with the crimes. Letting them off with a warning, she left the police station and never looked back, however, she still had a criminal record and that will one day resurface when she won't want it too.
It was the weekend and she was standing behind the counter serving coffee to the customers and occasionally giving them the odd slice of homemade apple pie. She wore her hair in a tight ponytail like she did when she was in school in her Cheerio's costume, a green shirt and grey pants that were covered with an apron with the Lima Bean logo displayed across it.
Rachel and Kurt walked through the door linking arms with one another chatting about what they had experienced earlier in the day. They walked towards the counter, turning their heads to look at her and smile.
"Hey, Santana," Rachel said quirkily, "I'll have the usual, please." Santana forced a smile at her and looked at Kurt.
"And you?" She asked him.
"You know what I like," he told her, "I'll have the usual too."
"Sure," she said harshly, she turned around and started making their coffee's with the coffee machine. Rachel and Kurt both looked at each other with furrowed eyebrows with confusion.
"Are you okay, Santana?" Rachel asked her. "You seem really tense today, and I mean more than usual."
"I'm fine," she snapped.
"Really?" Kurt asked, "Because you don't sound fine to me. You seem to have your panties in a twist." He leaned forward. "Is it your time of the month"? He whispered. Santana turned around quickly and held her index finger up in the air.
"One," she said angrily, "Don't assume that because a girl is angry that it's her time of the month. And two, don't be so damn rude."
"Jeez, sorry," Kurt said stepping back and holding his hands in front of his chest defensively. "I was just asking because I don't know what the hell is wrong with you."
"We're just trying to help, Santana," Rachel told her, "We're supposed to be friends after all. We're all like a family now."
"I just don't want to be here," she told her and she exhaled heavily. Rachel looked around and noticed that the place wasn't busy, she walked around to the counter and held her arms out to the side.
"Come on," she told her, "I think you need it." Santana shook her head and sighed once more, she stepped towards her and hugged her. Rachel patted her on the back. "You see," she told her, "Isn't this much better?"
"I guess," Santana replied. "But it still doesn't mean that I'm not in a mood." Rachel pulled away from her and looked at her.
"Look," she told her, "I know that a hug won't solve whatever problems you're going through. But you know what will solve it or just help it a little bit more?"
"What's that?" Santana asked her.
"If you talked to us about it," Rachel replied, "Even if it's not a matter than you want to be talking about, at least you know that you have somebody that you can talk to us about it, okay?"
"Okay," Santana nodded.
"Good," Rachel said as she walked around the counter quickly. "I really shouldn't be behind there, I wouldn't want you to get into trouble and then make your day any worse than it already is."
"Look," Santana told her with a small smile, "You guys go and sit down and I'll bring your drinks over. It's not trouble. And when my shifts over I'll come over and speak to you."
"Are you sure?" Kurt asked her, "Because we can wait here and take them over ourselves, it's no trouble."
"Well if you insist," Santana said as she turned around to finish off making the coffees. Kurt shook his head and smiled, his cell beeped and he looked down at the screen , it was Blaine. "Hey, Santana," he said, "Could you do Blaine's usual too," he looked up at her, "He's on his way here."
"Sure," she said shrugging, "I'm sure that I could do that too. You should all be grateful that I actually remember all of your god damn usual's."
"Thanks Santana," Rachel said before Kurt could complain about her attitude. Rachel turned to Kurt and placed her finger on her lip and shook her head slightly. Kurt sighed and folded his arms across his chest and pouted like a child when they didn't get their own way.
Santana turned around with two cups coffee in her hand, she placed them down on the counter in front of them. "There's your Cappuccino with a hint of caramel, Rachel."
"Thank you, Santana," she took her money out of her purse and handed it to her. Santana took the money off her and placed the order into the cash register, she took her change out of the register and closed it behind her, she stepped back to her and handed her the change. She turned around and started making Blaine's usual, she finished it off and placed the lid on top of the cup, turning back around to them, she placed the cup down on the counter in front of Kurt.
"There's your flat white, Kurt," she said as she pushed the cup towards him and she slid Blaine's coffee cup towards him also, "And here's Blaine's unusual and still strange, Soya Cappuccino with no foam and extra chocolate on the top." She placed her hands on her hips. "Seriously, Hummel, how do you cope with his strange things? I mean, he's no longer at Dalton Academy but yet he still insists on wearing his hair like that and don't get me started on the bow tie."
"Don't worry," Kurt said snidely, "I won't." He handed her the money and she took it off him, he turned his back and stormed off dramatically. Rachel looked at her and shook her head. Santana looked at her and shrugged.
"You know that he gets offended when you talk about his boyfriend like that," Rachel told her, "He's very protective over him."
"Yeah," Santana told her sarcastically, "Like I haven't heard that one before." She shook her head and stepped towards the register typing in the order and putting the money into the register.
"What's really on your mind?" Rachel asked her as she took a sip of her coffee. "You know that you can talk to me about it."
"Gee, I would," Santana told her rudely, "But I just don't know how it could revolve back to you."
"I was only trying to help," Rachel spat.
"As you can see," Santana told her gesturing to her face, "I'm not exactly in the mood right now to be talking so just leave me alone before I say something that I'm going to regret. Which won't probably happen because I never say anything that I'm gonna regret. I just tell the truth."
"But sometimes, Santana," Rachel told her, "The truth can hurt. Just be less honest with us, yeah?" She turned her back to her and headed towards Kurt who was sitting on the sofa's in the middle of the Lima Bean. Santana rolled her eyes and sneered. She turned her back to the customers and started cleaning the back counter where somebody earlier had spilt milk and it had stained the counter.
It wasn't unusual that the Lima Bean was empty at this time of day. It was the evening where most people would rather be having dinner out in a restaurant rather than having a something sweet quick to eat and then washing it down with a strong coffee. She carried on cleaning the counters where those earlier in the day forgot to clean up after themselves. She knew that she worked with a bunch of lazy asses who didn't give a damn about the place, but neither did the floor manager who was never there. Even though she'd only been working there for a couple of months she knew more about the place than the floor manager did and had more responsibilities because the floor manager had no idea what they were doing. She hated the job but she needed to help out her parents with the house but also, she had to buy new clothes to keep up with the Cheerio's and their fashion senses. She didn't want to be left out just because she didn't have the money to buy the latest trend so if it meant that she had to work in a job that she didn't want to work in, so be it.
The clock struck five and it was her time to finish. She untied the apron around her waist and threw it on the hanger at the end of the counter. She stepped out from behind the counter and walked over to them, sighing hard as she slumped onto the sofa that was opposite them.
"Thank god that that day is over," she told them, "I swear to god, I'm working this place on my own."
"Then why don't you quit?" Kurt asked her. "If you hate the job so much then why don't you just leave?"
"Because Lady Hummel," she told him with him rolling his eyes, "I can't leave this job, unlike you two, my mom and dad can't afford to pay for me to get new clothes, or in your case, Kurt, my parents don't give me the money for the fabric to make my own clothes."
"That's so offensive," Kurt told her.
"Why?" She asked confusedly, "You do make your own clothes."
"I don't know," he told her, "I just thought that I would throw that one in."
"Right," she said harshly as she slumped lower into the sofa.
"I'm sure there's other jobs out there that would hire you," Rachel told her.
"You don't understand," Santana told her, "Other places won't hire me, that's why I have to work here."
"Yeah, why is that?" Kurt asked her. "You've never told us."
"And you're not gonna find out," she said bluntly. Kurt looked at Rachel and threw his arms up in the air dramatically.
"Nothing ever works," he told her, "I'm seriously gonna stop trying."
"Santana," Rachel said to her, "Would it hurt for you to actually be nice today?"
"Yes," she said bluntly, "It would actually kill me to be nice."
Both Rachel and Kurt shook their heads. Santana wanted to be nice to them, she really did but today was not one of her best days, especially when it was the anniversary of the day that she was arrested with Trey. But that wasn't the only reason why she was acting the way that she was, today was the day that Trey was getting released from prison and she was afraid that her past was going to come alive, something that she's kept hidden for years and something that she hoped would never show itself again. But sometimes the past comes back to bite you on the ass and that was her biggest worry.