Title: Juice Box
Summary: The day Brittany and Santana became friends.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
"Now, mija…promise you'll be good today, okay?" Santana's mother said as she kissed the little girl's forehead. "We don't want another incident involving a certain boy again".
Santana nodded, "I will, mama…if the others are nice to me, I'll be nice," she said all the while grinning mischievously.
Her father smiled at their little girl. "That's my girl. But, please…if anyone gave you a hard time, don't hesitate to tell the teacher, alright? You know she's here to help you," he said.
"Okay, I will," Santana said goodbye and then waved to her parents as she made her way into her classroom.
Emilio and Maria Lopez looked on as their only child skipped happily into her classroom.
"I hope she behaves today. Imagine our little girl wrestling a boy to the ground. Granted, it is the boy's fault," Emilio said to his wife. "At least she knows how to take care of herself, right?"
Maria looked at her husband, "I blame you, you know…you and your Monday Night Raw. Thank goodness there was no chair lying anywhere near them when that scuffle happened," she shuddered. Maria playfully swatted Emilio's arm while he laughed.
"I'm not the only wrestling fan in the house, dearest. How do you know about the chairs, huh?" Emilio said teasing his wife. Maria was thinking of a comeback to that when Emilio laughed again.
Maria was about to ask why he was laughing when she saw what caught her husband's eyes. She joined in the laughter too when she saw their daughter on one of the windows. Santana was frowning but then smiled and waved to her parents.
"Looks like she caught us staring again...we better get to work now, dearest," Emilio held Maria's hand and then led her away to the parking lot. "Don't worry, she'll be fine," he added.
Then with one last look, Maria sighed and then smiled at her husband as he led them to their parked car.
Santana looked out the window again and was satisfied to see that her parents had finally left. She then went to sit next to Quinn and waited for the class to start. Santana thought about her parents. She knows that they were only trying to make sure she would be alright, but really, she thought to herself, she could take care of herself.
Yesterday for instance was a good example of how she had managed to take care of herself. During recess, Noah Puckerman or Puck as the others call him had sat next to Santana that day. He tried to grab her juice box once he was finished with his.
"Hey, Santana! Gimme your juice box…I'm still thirsty!" he said as he tried to grab it from Santana's hands. Before he manage to grab it, Santana had moved out of the way and sent Puck falling to the floor as he lost his balance. In that brief scuffle, Santana had accidentally squirted juice on her nice blue t shirt. Puck saw it and he laughed. His friend, Finn, joined in the laughter too when he saw it.
Santana was furious. "You're dead, Puck!" she yelled. And the next thing you know, Santana was on the ground, wrestling with Puck as the boy frantically called for help. Finn was shocked to see a girl wrestling with his best friend. The other kids around them were all chanting fight! Fight! Fight!
Santana's friend, Quinn was trying to grab Santana off of Puck as Finn who finally snapped out of it, tried to grab Puck too. The teacher came and intervened. After the teacher heard what happened, she made both Puck and Santana apologized to each other, but scolded Puck more as he was the one who started it first. The teacher then punished them with a time out.
When Santana sat alone during time out, she did not feel sorry at all. She was rather satisfied with herself. "Nobody mess with Santana Lopez and gets away with it," she thought and smirked.
Her parents were informed about the fight of course, when they came to pick her up. Her father was impressed at how Santana handled the situation. Her mother scolded her and told her she would not be able to watch the TV for a week. Santana felt it was unfair but she could not do anything about it.
Santana was brought back to the present day when she heard her classmates greeted their teacher, Mrs. Owens. Mrs. Owens greeted them with a warm smile. She asked the children to settle down before she continued.
"Class, we're going to have a new student joining us today," she then gestured to the tall, blond haired girl who was standing by the door to join her in front of the classroom. Santana looked over and was surprised she did not notice her standing there. Mrs. Owens smiled to the girl as she slowly walked up to the teacher.
"Children, I'd like you to meet Brittany," the whole classroom chorused a "Hi, Brittany". Brittany smiled and waved to them. Mrs. Owens then assigned her to her seat, which was on Quinn's other side and then began teaching for the day.
Soon, it was time for recess. Santana grab her lunch box and brought it with her to the park bench outside. Quinn joined her a few minutes later with the new girl in tow.
"I thought she could join us for lunch today. Brittany, this is Santana. Santana, meet Brittany," Brittany shyly said hi to the dark haired girl. Santana returned the favor and gave the girl a small smile.
After the introductions were done, Santana and Quinn began unpacking their lunch from their lunch boxes as Brittany just stared. Santana ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich heartily. Quinn was in the middle of unpacking hers and noticed Brittany was sitting rather quietly with her head down.
Quinn was concerned and asked her, "What's wrong, Brittany? Aren't you hungry?"
Brittany shook her head and Santana saw she looked like she was about to cry. Brittany replied in a small voice, "I kinda forgot my lunch at my daddy's car. I was busy looking at the clouds and see what shapes they turn into today. When we get here, I was excited to be in school, I forgot my lunch box," she said almost on the verge of tears.
Santana saw something endearing about Brittany there. Quinn felt sorry for her.
"Hey, Brittany…how about you share my sandwich? See? I brought two today, you can have one," Quinn said as she offered another packet to Brittany. Brittany wiped her eyes and timidly accepts the sandwich. Santana felt sorry for her too.
She then pokes her straw into her juice box then offered it to Brittany. "Here, we can share this," she offered it with a smile.
Brittany gladly accepts the offer from both of her friends and thanked them. The three friends then ate together happily while they chat away about the various cloud shapes they had ever seen.
However, dark clouds soon hovered over them in the form of Puck and Finn. Puck saw that Santana was sharing her juice box with the new girl and he felt a bit angry with that. Puck advanced to where Brittany was sitting and snatched the juice box from her hand. He then laughed and walked away with Finn.
Brittany looked like she was about to cry again. Santana saw Brittany's face and quickly rise from the table and go after Puck. Quinn, fearing another fight was about to start, quickly go over and grab Santana's arm.
"No, Santana…if the teacher finds out, she'll give you a time out again," Quinn said in an effort to stop the girl.
Santana remembered her promise to her parents so she just let Quinn drag her back to their seat. Brittany looked scared. She was afraid that Santana would be mad at her for getting her juice box taken away. Brittany apologized to Santana.
"Don't worry about it, Brittany. Listen, I'm going to go over to Mrs. Owens and tell her about this," Quinn said and she left the two on the table.
Santana was angry at Puck. She did not hear Brittany's apologies. She thumped her little fist on the table. Brittany saw it and she could no longer hold back her tears. She then began to cry. Santana was surprised when she saw the blond girl cried.
"Please don't be mad at me, Santana…Tomorrow I'll give you my juice box, promise," Brittany said between sobs.
Santana was taken aback. She was exasperated that the other girl thought that she was mad at her. So she tried to calm her down.
"It's not your fault, Brittany. Puck is a jerk. He is always trying to get other people's juice box around here. Please stop crying, it's not your fault," Santana pleaded.
Brittany did not show any signs of stopping. Santana quickly look for ways to comfort her. She looked up the sky and then saw the clouds. An idea came into her head.
"Hey, look at that cloud! It looks like a bunny rabbit. Don't you think so?" Santana asked excitedly.
Brittany finally looked up. Santana look at the clouds and kept pointing on different cloud formations here and there. Brittany was no longer crying.
"Look at that one! Don't you think it looks like a cat?" Santana asked Brittany. Brittany smiled at her new friend, "I think it looks more like a duck," she said.
Santana looked at the cloud she was pointing. She was pretty sure it looked like a cat since it has two pointed ears and a long tail. She shrugged. At least Brittany stopped crying, Santana thought to herself.
Brittany was no longer crying and she was admiring the cloud, the one which looked like a duck. Santana sighed contently and then look around. She saw Quinn standing by their teacher, Mrs. Owens, as she scolded Puck. Santana smirked to herself. She then turned to look at Brittany. Brittany looked like she was about to cry again when she saw Santana looked at Puck.
"Please, don't cry Brittany. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at Puck, okay?"Brittany bowed her head and kept looking at her feet.
"Hey, if it makes you feel better, how about tomorrow I share your juice box?" Santana asked. "I won't be mad if you let me share," she added as Brittany look up.
A smile lit the blond girl's face, "Really? You promise?" Brittany asked.
Santana said yes and the blond girl jumped up and down clapping her hands. Santana smiled when she saw her new friend happy at last. Brittany took Santana's hand and then linked their pinkies together.
Santana asked what she was doing. Brittany smiled, "This means I promise to share my juice box tomorrow, silly". Santana returned the smile. The bell rung, signaling recess had ended. Brittany and Santana then walk together happily to their classroom with their pinkies still linked.