I do not own Glee. This fic is AU and none of the characters know each other although they live in the same city. I'm difficult, I know. Also, I live in the UK so some of the locations in Lima are made up because I don't know the real names. Roll with it. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1: THE LAST CHANCE
Her grades needed to be boosted. Her attitude needed to improve. The fighting needed to stop. She needed a better group of friends. These were just a third of the things that were spat from the mouth of Carlos Lopez, as he leaned over the expensive dining table facing his youngest child, Santana, on her fifteenth birthday. Santana rolled her eyes, looking as if she had a shield in front of her tanned face on which the criticism from her father just bounced off.
"Santana! Listen to me!" boomed Carlos, pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes blazing.
"I am, papá," Santana replied, giving him a dose of her fluttering eyelashes.
"I am serious, Santana! How is it that we get through three boarding schools, a young ladies institute, seven private schools and two tutors but nothing will help? I'm trying Santana, damn it, I'm trying!"
Gloria Lopez walked over, still dabbing her tears with a tissue, and put a hand on her husband's shoulder. Santana's older twin sisters, Gabriela and Adriana, shook their heads. Her older brother, Emilio, looked on into the distance as if the view of the lawn from the dining room's window was more interesting than the image of his family crumbling at the table; or perhaps because he was the only person in the Lopez household that never criticised Santana.
It took a moment for Carlos to regain his usual calm tone, squeezing his wife's hand. Gloria stepped back in between Gabriela and Adriana, who held both of their mother's hands and stared at their father waiting for him to speak.
"This, Santana," Carlos said, quietly, pulling a brochure out of a drawer and sliding it across the table to Santana. "Is your last chance. It's a summer camp, designed for people like.." he struggled to find the right words without sending his daughter into one of her tantrums. "People like you." he finished. Santana's eyebrows raised, as her eyes trailed down on to the cover of the brochure.
"Read it," her father urged. Santana cleared her throat, and Adriana moved to read it from over her shoulder.
"Lazy Creek Camp, a summer programme for troubled young people." Santana read off the page. She opened the first few pages, and her gaze fell on the prices; as did Adriana's.
"What the hell? You're spending more money on her? You've already spend thousands!" Adriana yelled, making everybody jump.
"Stop it," Carlos said, a note of finality in his voice that caused Adriana to fall silent.
"She has a point.." came Gabriela's voice. "You wouldn't have done that for Emilio, or Addy, or me." Adriana nodded, looking furious at her father.
"Santana is going and that is it! Stop arguing!" Carlos yelled, causing his wife to sob more profusely. There were more protests from the twins, more crying from Gloria and more shouting from Carlos; while Santana sat still and quiet before going up to her room. Her father came up to bring some dinner in the evening, and told Santana she would be going the next morning, that she should pack, and that this would be her last chance to make herself right before she ruined her future.
That's how Santana ended up on a large coach leaving Lima Airport at 6am the next morning, only saying goodbye to Emilio who hugged her tight and gave her his spare iPod in case hers died on the way there. She promised to text, email, and if she absolutely had to resort to using pen and paper, almost every day. The twins didn't seem too angry that Santana ignored their existence as Emilio loaded her three suitcases on to the coach, her mother cried and Carlos blew a kiss to his youngest daughter.
The tiny coach's engine started to rumble, and Santana climbed on, securing herself two seats at the back and waving goodbye to her brother who looked as if there were tears in his eyes. Santana sat nearest to the window, using the seat next to her to store her expensive handbag and a plastic bag of food that her mother had told Emilio to give her; because it was the only way she would take it.
There were a surprisingly larger number of 'troubled kids' on the coach. It could've just looked that way because of how small it was. Nobody dared sit on the back row of five seats near Santana, her glare had ensured that. She noticed a short boy, or at least he looked short while he was sitting down by the way he hardly took up any seat at all, with dark curly hair and prominent eyes. Beside him, a boy with a rounded baby face and light brown hair, wearing Marc Jacobs and blaring Beyonce in his diamond-studded earphones.
Nearer to Santana was a tall, blonde girl who gazed dreamily around and hugged a unicorn plush to her chest. What kind of insane place was she being sent to?
A tall, extremely tall, actually, boy with short brown hair was beside the blonde, looking uncomfortable at the way she was talking to the toy unicorn. A small blonde girl with big eyes and a pretty smile sat in front and to the left of Santana, with her legs stretched out on two seats and was singing under her breath, playing with her iPhone. A few times she seemed to look up and meet Santana's eyes for a quarter of a second before looking back at the screen, blushing.
A tanned boy with a thick mohawk sat beside a small brunette girl with a large nose who by the look on her face was extremely uncomfortable with the way he was hitting on her and gaping at her breasts. Santana thought she shouldn't have worn a low-cut shirt on a bus of strangers, and that was coming from Santana. There was also a blonde boy with huge lips looking extremely nervous nearer to the front, sat beside a girl with blonde-brown hair with a shirt that had the name 'Sugar' printed across it
She wanted to melt into the dirty floor of the small, musky coach and disappear. She would be spending six God damn weeks with these idiots, and if she didn't find a miraculous way to stick it out her father would probably disown her. And her mother would cry a lot, which was torture alone for the sheer irritability of it. Santana put her earphones in, turned up whatever music Emilio had put on his iPod and closed her eyes. She listened to her brother's music instead of her own so she could feel closer to him, instead of the harsh reality that was Santana drifting further and further away on his stupid coach while Emilio would have to spend his summer listening to Carlos ranting about work, Gloria crying and the twins constantly arguing over who borrowed who's Jimmy Choos. The thought of Emilio waiting for her seemed to push her into a sleep.
–
She dreamed. It was the best dream she'd had in a long while. More of a memory replaying than a dream. She was in the Lopez's pool with Emilio and his friends, who had always been irrevocably kind to Santana since she was a little girl. They were all throwing an inflated beach ball around, catching it and throwing it again. A voice interrupted.
"Um.. E-excuse me? Hello?" Santana batted her arms, squeezing her eyes shut and not wanting Emilio to fade away. The cool feeling of water around her seemed to disappear.
"Hello? You need to wake up.. W-we're here.. Excuse me?" A gentle hand matched the voice and was placed on Santana's shoulder. Eventually her eyes flashed open.
It was the small brunette with the large nose, and the sky had gone from dark and foggy to blindingly bright and sunny.
Santana stood up and pulled all of her belongings into her bag before following the girl off the coach and into beating white hot sun. A woman with short red hair, a barbie-esque plastic smile and a clipboard. "Hello happy campers! Welcome to Lazy Creek Camp where you can get back on track and enjoy life! Lazy Creek is split into four sections. Aqua Springs, Shady Lagoon, Sunny Cove and Emerald Rivers Edge. I am the head of camp for Sunny Cove, and my name is Lisa. There are four more coaches coming. All of you will be in Sunny Cove," she gestured to a stretch of grass behind her that held five log cabins behind her. "Behind these cabins where the hill goes down, is a lake. The lake is where you will wash, and wash your clothes. Everybody stand in a circle around me."
The group stood in the circle around plastic-smile Lisa, and she rotated slowly on the spot to face each and every one of them with her creepy smile.
"Everybody say your name, and then I will assign you to your cabins. You first," she said, pointing at the blonde boy with big lips.
"Uh, I'm Sam.. Evans."
"Rachel Berry."
"Finn Hudson."
"Sugar Motta."
"Noah Puckerman, call me Puck."
"Kurt Hummel."
"Blaine Anderson."
"Brittany Pierce."
"Quinn Fabray."
"Santana Lopez." A few eyes landed on her when she spoke her name, taking her in as she had done with them. Lisa grinned and read her clipboard.
"Okay kids, grab your bags when I call your name and head over to whichever cabin you are assigned to. You will have a cabin partner, too. The numbers are on the doors."
She took a deep breath and started to read off the list of names, still grinning.
"Samuel Evans and Brittany Pierce, you are assigned to Cabin One."
Sam and Brittany, who was still clutching her unicorn, picked up their cases and hand-luggage before walking up the hill to the first cabin. Sam didn't look too happy, but Brittany looked delighted.
"Finn Hudson and Noah Puckerman, Cabin Two."
Finn and Noah picked up their suitcases and walked up the hill. Santana could have sworn she saw Noah check out Finn's ass...
"Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel, Cabin Three."
Kurt and Blaine, already holding their bags, marched up the hill and kept stealing smiles at each other. Great, everyone was already 100% gay for each other. Literally.
"Rachel Berry and Sugar Motta, Cabin Four."
Rachel and Sugar trailed off up the hill after the two boys, and their blurred figures disappeared behind the row of log cabins.
"Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez, Cabin Five. You're lucky, it's the best one."
Lisa handed the two girls their camp maps. Santana didn't make eye contact with the blonde, and picked up her bags before shooting Lisa a dirty look and making her way up the hill. The blonde, who she now knew as Quinn, didn't speak. They walked down the row of cabins until they reached the last one, which looked a little larger than the others. The two girls entered and Santana dumped her bags near the door, looking around the ground floor.
The kitchen, dining room and living room were all integrated. It was a big space, but there were no walls on the ground floor. There was a big fireplace in front of a couch, no television, and an old-fashioned layout where everything was made of wood. A small wooden staircase led up to the second floor. Santana grabbed her bags and followed Quinn upstairs to the bedroom.
Also old-fashioned, the bedroom consisted of two double beds with sickly floral bedspreads and a small square window.
"So, Santana, right?" Quinn's voice made Santana jump, because she'd been staring out of the window. She pulled her suitcases up on to the bed and opened all three, unpacking.
"Yeah, Santana. You're Quinn, right?" she asked, piling her underwear up and loading it into the wooden chest of drawers beside the bed. Quinn nodded.
–
Silence settled in the room again, and about fifteen minutes passed while the girls unpacked every last thing into the drawers and stowed their cases underneath their double beds. Santana cracked open the window, sighing and collapsing back on her bed.
"You're hot," Quinn said, sitting opposite Santana on her own bed and fanning herself with her map of the camp grounds.
"Excuse me?" Santana asked. She was used to attention, only from guys.
"You're hot. You just sat on that coach for six hours in the heat and came into a boiling cabin. You must be hot. We should go down to that lake place." Quinn said, sounding as if this were extremely obvious.
"Oh, right, yeah." Santana said, sitting up and looking in her drawers for a bikini.
The two girls walked out of the cabin and down to the lake, which was deserted and hidden from view of the cabins from thick foliage. A breathtakingly beautiful waterfall sat at back-center of the part of the lake at the bottom of the hill. The waterfall was surrounded by rocks, and Santana and Quinn dived head first into the cool water.
In the next chapter, Quinn and Santana get to know each other better. A 'getting to know you' session is planned by Lisa for Sunny Cove and some other relationships are revealed inside the group, some unintentionally.