This is a story of girl meets girl. The first girl, Santana Lopez of Lima Heights, Ohio, grew up believing that she'd never truly be happy until the day she met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to catchy, American pop music and a total mis-reading of the movie "Pretty Woman." The second girl, Quinn Fabray of Shinnecock, Michigan, did not share this belief. Since the disintegration of her parent's marriage she'd only loved two things. The first was her long blonde hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and not feel a thing. Santana meets Quinn on January 8th. She knows almost immediately she is who she has been searching for. This is a story of girl meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.

(488)

Sitting side by side at her favorite park in Brooklyn, Santana's eyes focused intently on Quinn who gazed out on the skyline. The brunette scanned the girl next to her and she wondered how she could ever love anyone else. Just as Santana turned to admire the New York skyscrapers, she felt Quinn's left hand rest gently on hers. Like gravity, Santana's attention was pulled into the familiar touch. Quinn turned and gave her a warm smile, which Santana returned with soft eyes as the contact of the cold band on the blonde's ring finger weighed heavily in her consciousness.

(1)

Santana sat at the end of a long conference table and willed the hands on the clock to move faster. In a room with her fellow co-workers, she half-listened to her boss, Will Schuester, present an update on the current news stories they had been tracking. Most of the information didn't apply to her since she solely wrote the gossip column, but the weekly meeting was mandatory so she didn't have a choice. Like most days at the office, she felt like a robot just going through the motions with a complete sense of indifference. Amidst her thoughts of what this monotonous week would bring, a knock at the door made her abandon her daydream and wake up. A girl whom no one had seen before entered the room and her presence made Santana sit up straight. Dressed in a blue, floral patterned dress and a grey cardigan, the short haired blonde glowed as she smiled and waited for Will to finish his last sentence.

(240)

A frantic knock at the door of Santana's apartment sent her best friends Puck and Mike flying to get it. Relieved, the two boys swung open the door to see Santana's younger sister, Monica.

"Thank God. We didn't know who else to call," Mike said.

"It's Sugar Motta all over again," Puck added as the young girl entered the apartment.

"You did the right thing. Where is she?" Monica asked as she turned the corner to see Santana rummaging through the kitchen cabinets in a desperate search for sweets. On the counter, an empty pint of Ben & Jerry's rolled to the floor to join a bunch of other candy wrappers.

"Santana," the 18 year old said sternly.

"Monica? What are you doing here?" Santana said as she turned in shock at the sound of her sister's voice.

"I'm here to help you."

"Help me? Help me how?"

"First, put down the snickers bar."

...

"Tell us what happened," Monica said as she sat on the coffee table parallel to the couch where Santana was slouched over.

"It's nothing. It's really nothing. This is just fucking stupid," Santana insisted with her face in her hands. Puck and Mike took a seat next to her on the couch and rolled their eyes in unison.

"Oh, shut up. Look at me," Monica demanded. To her friends' amazement, the brunette instantly obeyed and picked her head up. "Drink this."

"What is this? Wait, does Mom even know you're here? Isn't it a school night?" Santana said with confusion as she gulped down the contents of the glass to find it was straight vodka.

"Raiding Dad's liquor cabinet again?" she asked as her lips puckered at the taste of the strong liquor.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me. This is about you. Tell us what happened."

Santana sat up and took a deep breath.

"We spent the entire day together," she explained as memories from the afternoon raced through her head. First, they went to the bookstore where Santana read up on the new venue that was being built down the street while Quinn shopped for a friend's birthday present. Then they got lunch and went to see the new dark comedy that Quinn had been dying to see for weeks. After that, they made their way to a record store where Santana found a Mariah Carey greatest hits CD. As Santana went over each part of the day in detail, Puck kept refilling her glass with the cheap liquor Monica had brought over. "Finally, we went to my favorite diner for dinner."

"Then what?" Monica pressed on.

...

"I love eating pancakes for dinner. It's like the best of both worlds," Santana declared as she anxiously awaited her plate of pancakes.

"I think we should stop seeing each other," Quinn said suddenly. After saying those words, she sighed heavily as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Santana stared at the blonde and blinked a few times as she shook her head, trying to find words.

"What?" Santana mustered up.

"This thing...you and me. Do you think this is normal?"

"Yes. No...I don't know. Who cares? I'm happy. Aren't you happy?"

"You're happy?" Quinn said with astonishment.

"You're not?" Santana questioned with even more astonishment.

"All we do is argue!"

"Okay, now that is bullshit," Santana said heatedly.

"Really? This can't come as a complete surprise to you, S. We've been on the rocks for weeks now."

Just as Santana was about to open her mouth to rebuttal Quinn's last statement, the waitress came with their meals and interrupted the two.

"Let's just eat. We'll talk about this later," Quinn said as she grabbed her fork and dug into the huge plate of pancakes in front of her. Santana remained still, leaving her food untouched and keeping her eyes glued on the blonde in front of her.

"You're right, these are some great pancakes," Quinn noted as she avoided making eye contact with Santana. Once the silence grew to be unbearable, the blonde peered up to see the look of disbelief on Santana's face before she got up and stormed out towards the door.

"Wait, Santana, don't go! You're still my best friend!"

...

"Damn. The best friend line," Mike said as he took a swig of vodka himself.

"Give me that," Santana said as she stole the glass away and downed the remains. On cue, Puck refilled the cup before she could place it on the table.

"Come on, San. This isn't that bad," Monica said. "You've gone through break-ups like this before. Give it a week or so and you'll be over her and on to the next one."

"No. This is different."

"Why are you so sure?" Monica asked.

"Cause it's Quinn."

"San, she wasn't even that special. Honestly, the girl was kind of a bitch," Puck said as Mike and Monica quickly gave him disapproving looks. "Uhh, I mean you'll find someone else. Someone better. Really San, you deserve someone better."

"Yeah, it's like they say, there's plenty of fish in the sea," Mike offered.

"No," Santana said strongly.

"Sure they do, they say that," Mike insisted.

"Well they're lying," Santana said with a slur as the alcohol started to hit her. "She's the girl I've been looking for," she continued with confidence as she took another sip from the glass. "I don't want to get over her. I want to get her back."

(1)

"Sorry to interrupt," Quinn said as she handed Will a note with a message from a field reporter.

"Oh it's no problem at all," he said with a cheeky smile. "Everyone, this is Quinn, my new secretary. She just moved here from Michigan, isn't that right?"

"Yep. Michigan," she confirmed with a nod.

"Right. Everyone this is Quinn. Quinn, everyone. Well, I have to go return this call so that's good for today. Make sure you all get your articles for Wednesday to me by the end of the day," Will said as he stood up and briskly left the room.

Quinn suddenly found herself standing in front of a bunch of strangers. She waved politely as she quickly scanned the room for a friendly face. When her eyes locked briefly with Santana's, she gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"Nice to meet you all," Quinn said in a soft voice before following Will out of the conference room.

As if Santana had just been put under a spell, it took her a few seconds to move, let alone change her facial expression. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but there was something about Quinn that had her spinning. Maybe it was her breath-taking good looks. Maybe it was her quaint style. Maybe it was the sound of her melodic voice. Maybe it was the mesmerizing feeling that came over her from one, simple smile from the blonde. Now abandoned in the conference room, Santana forced herself to snap out of her daze and return to reality. Thanks to the new girl from Michigan, she rejoined her co-workers filled with an unfamiliar feeling of optimism.

(3)

Santana sat at her desk and desperately tried to focus long enough to finish her latest story on celebrity look-a-likes.

"Hey, Santana!" Puck said from the next cubicle over, waving his arms trying to get her attention. "I hear she's a bitch."

"Who?" Santana asked, although she had a pretty good idea of who he meant. Ever since Quinn's arrival, the two had been doing everything they could to try and figure her out. Santana, especially, had been completely infatuated with the blonde. From across the office, she had the perfect view of Quinn shuffling reports and stories on her desk while, at the same time, trying to keep up with the phone that never seemed to stop ringing. It was quite a distraction for Santana and multiple times a day she caught herself staring at Quinn from the corner of her eye. As her best friend and wingman, it was obvious to Puck that Santana already had it bad for the new secretary.

"Quinn! Jacob tried to talk to her in the supply room and she totally ignored him. Didn't say a word."

"Damn," Santana said as she shook her head.

"Why do all the hot girls think they can treat people like that?" Puck said.

"That's the million dollar question, my friend. You know what? Fine, whatever. If she wants to be like that, she can be like that. I don't even care," Santana said, trying to convince herself that that was the truth.

(4)

Santana stepped on the elevator, put on her headphones and escaped to the world of music. Drowning in the melodies of her favorite playlist was the one thing that was guaranteed to make her happy after a long day of work. Just as the elevator was closing, Quinn slid her hand between the doors and stopped them. Santana's heart raced as the blonde smiled and nodded in her direction. The 11-floor ride began and Santana decided that ignoring the gorgeous blonde was the best way to avoid doing anything stupid.

"Adele," Quinn said as she heard the music blaring from the headphones. Santana, pretending not to hear or care, simply gave Quinn an unenthusiastic wave.

"I love Adele," the blonde continued.

"Sorry, what?" Santana said, removing one of her ear buds.

"I said I love Adele, you have good taste in music."

"You like Adele?" the brunette questioned in amazement.

"'I dare you to let me be your one and only.' I love her," Quinn sang along briefly as the elevator doors opened at the lobby. The blonde smirked at Santana before leaving her alone with her music.

"Holy shit," Santana said aloud. Jaw dropped and feet rooted to the ground, she made no attempt to exit as the elevator doors closed in front of her.