A/N: It's been such a long time since I last wrote fanfiction. But it's great to be back! I just wanted to say that I'm now in Uni, and updates of this may become slow, so I'm just asking you all to be patient.
This story is going to be AU, obviously. Quinn Fabray doesn't have the same background as the one she has on the show. McKinley doesn't exist, which means that any characters from the show are not present in this story. Apart from Santana, who will also be slightly different here. But that's the beauty of AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Quinn Fabray, or Santana Lopez.
-BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP-
Shit.
Oh my god. Today's the day.
Out of bed in a split second, Quinn Fabray stood in the middle of her room. Saying that she was freaking out would be a complete understatement. For today was her first day at university. And she was more than freaking out.
She had set her alarm clock two hours before she was meant to be in the amphitheater.
Her apartment was five minutes from university.
By foot.
But still. She wanted everything to go well, and for that, she was ready to make some sacrifices. Two hours to prepare is… Reasonable, right?
Although, after showering, getting dressed, having a quick breakfast, and brushing her teeth, she still had a little more than an hour to kill before the university presentation started. And she now realized that two hours of preparation really wasn't necessary. But her eagerness to start a new life at university just pushed her to do these kinds of things.
Quinn Fabray wasn't the most popular girl in her high-school. She wasn't considered to be one of "those girls". The ones who'd hang out in big groups, with all the guys. The ones who'd skip classes sometimes, because those girls did that. She wasn't like that. In fact, she was rather timid, she often kept to herself. Well, often, being always. Most of her free time between classes would consist in sitting on the steps, flicking through books. She didn't talk to anyone, because she wasn't really that interesting. That's what she thought. And that's what proved the following saying wrong; "Your high-school years will be your best ones." Seriously, who came up with that?
But with university just around the corner, Quinn convinced herself that these years would be different. She wanted to make her university years her best ones, and forget about high-school. Many were the times when she had told herself that starting from this year, she would change. She'd talk to people, she'd talk about books, about music. She'd have friends, and she'd hang out with them. She'd go to parties.
Or maybe not the parties.
Baby steps.
And because she had nothing else to do but think about the past, Quinn decided to start walking to university. At least then, she'd be sure that she'd be on time. Maybe there were already people there, too.
So she grabbed her bag and jacket, and locked the door behind her.
-Skip, skip, skip-
Down the stairs.
Entry door opened.
Welcome to a new world.
She'd have to admit; Quinn quite liked this town. It was all new to her, since she lived five hours from here before. But she figured that to start a new chapter, she'd better move town, too. It seemed quite logical, actually.
So here she was, in a town named Clovesworth.
It wasn't that big. Nothing like New York. But it seemed just about right. It was a student town, because the university took over the center. And there were so many libraries surrounding the place.
She loved it.
Maybe she'd be able to call this town "Home".
CLOVESWORTH UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
The sign practically took over the building itself.
Not really. But almost.
Stopping for a second, Quinn looked up at the immense blue-colored architecture that stood before her.
This is it.
She really wanted this to go well. She was just hoping. Praying that it's start well. At some point, solitude gets a little… Lonesome. Now was the time for something different to happen. A little spice, as her mother may call it. A little excitement.
Quinn shook her shoulders, and smiled. She smiled on the inside, of course. She checked the time on her phone,
7.56AM.
Well. Half an hour to kill. It wasn't as bad as she thought, actually. But that was probably because she had taken her time with breakfast. And she had even stayed an extra five minutes in the shower.
She could see people arriving, too. A thrill of excitement shot through her as she arrived at the automatic doors at the main entry of the building. Quinn waited a second, and counted her heart beats, before moving forward and entering the place.
This was easily the biggest place she had walked into in her whole life. It was just immense. And somehow the immensity of the main hall intimidated her. She felt like an ant.
Half an ant, even.
It was rather frightening. But at least, there were other half-ants around, scurrying around, looking as stressed as Quinn. So she immediately felt less alone, and scanned the surroundings much more relaxed.
A few people were gathering in front of a board. So Quinn walked over, too, wanting to see what all the "hype" was about.
The amphitheater numbers. That'd probably be of good use. She scanned the list of the amphitheaters until she found the words "Language and translation."
A105.
Quinn looked around. She followed a few individuals until she met the amphitheater hallway.
She turned the corner, and that's when she saw that she definitely wasn't alone.
And that was almost enough to make her turn around and run back to her apartment.
Breathe.
Quinn, breathe.
She took a few deep breaths.
A102
A103
More breaths.
A104
Come on.
And when she saw "A105" inscribed on a plastic place right next to double doors, Quinn felt a rush of relief flow through her.
Because she hadn't got lost. And she had managed to get past all those people.
She dropped her bag to the ground and decided to wait. Besides, the doors weren't opened yet.
Steadily, because she wanted to be subtle, Quinn looked at the other people that were around her. She pursed her lips as she noticed that everyone had the same expression on their faces. They seemed quite lost. As did Quinn. First days aren't easy for anyone, she realized.
As the minutes went by, more and more people started arriving. Some instantly spotted faces that they recognized, and went over to talk to those people.
Maybe they were in the same high-school.
But there still remained a vast amount of people who stayed alone, like Quinn, waiting for the doors to open.
And as the last ten minutes went by until they were supposed to all be settled down in the amphitheater, Quinn spotted someone walk through the hallway and slump down to the ground.
A tall brunette, with a grey beanie and large hoodie, black jeans and converses. She looked stunning although she didn't seem quite… Awake. She actually looked as if she had just woken up, and she had placed a red thermos right next to her bag. She must be a coffee drinker. The brunette didn't look anywhere in particular. She looked quite dreamy.
Maybe she had caught Quinn's eye. Or maybe it was just because, growing more nervous by the second, Quinn had to focus on something in order to forget the anxiety that was slowly taking over her.
And then the doors opened. They didn't open by themselves, obviously. Someone inside pulled them open. He was probably a professor, or just some guy who would be presenting.
Either way, once the doors were opened, the students started flowing inside the gigantic room, taking their seats here and there, leaving Quinn quite behind, still at the door because she couldn't possibly get past all these people. So she waited a bit, until the amount of people entering decreased.
She took a seat at the edge of a row.
A row of twenty, at least.
Behind her, the seat wasn't taken, in front of her either. She felt better like that. But she knew that those places wouldn't stay empty for long, as the room filled faster and faster.
Quinn looked around and tried to spot that girl she had seen a few minutes ago. Maybe she could talk to her, try to make conversation. That could be her goal for today; be the first one to say something.
That seemed like a good goal.
But she couldn't find her.
So she waited for the presentation to start. And just before a professor started talking, the brunette appeared at the doors, walking to make her way towards a seat.
One that was two rows behind Quinn.
And somehow, a warmth radiated around her, and Quinn could feel it.
After two hours of brain-filling information, the professor announced their first day over.
This week was presentation week, he had told them. So there would be no classes.
As all the students started making their way towards the exit, Quinn, subtly, turned her head to see where the brunette was. And to her surprise, she wasn't there. As if she had disappeared. Or maybe she had just left with some other people. There were so many people here anyways. So Quinn just shrugged to herself and made her way out, walking down the hallways, into the hall, and then out of the building.
A cold breeze stroked her face as she walked across the pedestrian crossing that she would now cross every day to go to class and back. She wasn't really thinking of anything. It was quite blank, but it wasn't dark, and that was a good start. Nothing bad had happened today and that was what counted the most.
But she still had some sort of hole deep down in the pit of her stomach. Something that she tried to ignore, although she knew it was there, and it didn't seem to want to move anytime soon. So she tried to accept it, hoping that it would eventually fade when she wouldn't give any importance to it anymore.
Baby steps.
Quinn walked the stairs up to her apartment and turned the keys to unlock the door.
First thing first; her bag was dropped to the floor, next to the door, with a light THUMP.
The blonde walked over to her sofa, eyeing the clock which indicated that it was 10.58am. Realization took over here when she figured out that it wasn't even the afternoon yet; what was she going to do today? She still had an afternoon worth left of free-time.
She reached for the remote control and turned the television on.
Her fingers were pressing buttons, flicking through the channels on her television. And boredom took over her. As well as tiredness.
Her eyelids growing heavy, Quinn decided that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have a little snooze. Besides, she had woken up at 6.30am. A ten minute snooze obviously wouldn't harm her sleep schedule.
And although she fought against sleep that was slowly taking over her, Quinn found herself drifting into a dream-like universe.
That useless metaphor being sleep, simply.
Quinn turned her body so that the front of her body was facing the back of the sofa, and her fingertips grazed her collarbone while doing so.
Goosebumps appeared on her arms and her muscles tensed, as she felt a feather-like something tickling her neck. She was obviously dreaming. She was dreaming, for sure.
And there, out of the blue, soft lips grazed her ear-lobe, and Quinn's hand were busy twirling smooth brown hair around her fingers. Brown hair that she had already seen somewhere.
And then she opened her eyes.
Sweaty.
Hot.
And flustered.
It was obviously a dream.
The week passed by rather slowly for Quinn's liking. Maybe it was because she was eager to start the actually classes, instead of having presentations for different things every day. Even though, she'd had to admit, the information seemed very useful indeed. She just wanted the real deal to start.
The real deal.
Alright.
When Thursday arrived, three days after the first presentation, Quinn spotted the brunette again. This time, she had short shorts. And by short, she meant short. But she had black tights. And her t-shirt showed a bit of her skin. She seemed very tanned. She was probably Latina, but Quinn didn't want to give any labels, so she figured that this'd be something that she would ask when she'd get the opportunity to actually talk to this girl.
That probably wasn't going to happen today, too, because the brunette was right on the other side of the amphitheater.
Since the start of the week, Quinn had talked to two people. Another blonde, who seemed rather nice, and whose name is "Jennifer but call me Jen". And a red-head, who also seemed friendly.
She managed to remember that the blonde was good at ice-skating. Thing that Quinn was absolutely rubbish at. Balancing really wasn't her thing, at all. And the red-head was quite a computer-whizz. Which was cool, according to Quinn.
During this hour of presentation, the students were told that tomorrow, they'd have a day free. Something that they'd have to "make the most of", because Monday, it'd be back to work.
That didn't seem to scare anyone, though.
At the end of the day, Quinn had exchanged numbers with Jennifer, and was just about to walk home, when she spotted that brunette again. And from what it looked like, she was looking for something.
Quinn watched attentively, as the brunette walked in her direction, her head almost plunged into her bag. Now, obviously looking for something.
"You have got to be kidding me." The brunette screeched angrily.
Furrowing her brows, she was just about to ask if she could help her out in any way, seeing as the brunette was walking towards her. But the girl didn't actually seem to know where she was going, as she soon crashed into Quinn.
There weren't any fireworks or anything. No electricity, if anyone was wondering.
Just a body to body, painful crash.
"Shit!"
"I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry. I should have moved, I'm sorry. I saw you coming and I just-" Quinn got cut of.
"Woah, just stop- stop talking." The brunette mumbled, holding her head as if it were going to fall off. "Do you have any change?"
"Change?" Change. What is change.
Change.
"Yes! Yes. I have change." Quinn blurted out. "How much to you need?" she asked, trying to contain herself as she looked through her bag, pulling out her purse.
"Just enough for a bus ticket. One-fifty I think."
"One-fif… Yeah. Here. There!"
"I'll catch you some other day if I can. To give it back."
"It's fine." Quinn said.
The brunette looked down at the coins in her hand, and nodded, mouthing "cool". She readjusted her bag on her shoulder and looked at Quinn. "Well, catch you later." She told her, as she started walking away.
"Okay." Quinn nodded.
Nothing.
"Ah!-" the blonde called out, "I'm Quinn! Quinn Fabray." She said, staying right where she was. Were her legs even functioning?
"Santana." The brunette said, over her shoulder, as she ran to the bus stop right in front of the university. A bus stopped right there. A few people rushed out, and Santana hopped in.
Quinn watched as the brunette went to sit at the back of the bus, crossing her lets on the seat.
And the bus driver closed the doors, and drove away.
That's when she felt it.
A/N: This chapter is rather short because I just wanted to present the surroundings, and the main character to you all. If you guys have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a message, or drop a review (those are nice, too).
I have two main inspirations for this. One that you will discover later on, and another, that is the beautiful song "Borrow My Heart" sung by Taylor Henderson. You guys should check it out.