First of all I want to apologize in advance for the grammatical mistakes in this fic. English isn't my first language, but I'll do my best to proofread the chapters a thousand times before I post them. Secondly; this is my first fanfic, so bear with me, please. Thirdly; This story is AU, I've decided not to use too many characters from the show so that means that there will be a lot of OCs. Quinn and Santana are of course in it, but there will also be mentions of Finn and Brittany (Maybe Kurt and Rachel I haven't decided yet). Lastly; Quinn hasn't been pregnant or in a car accident, also Quinn and Santana don't know each other. But enjoy! Also, I'm sorry if my description of the places we visit are not 100% correct, I'll try my best though!
Most people don't like airport. They run around and stress about checking in their luggage, finding the gate in time, and all the waiting and generally the feeling of just being trapped. But I like airports. For me airports represent the beginning of yet another adventure, a new place, new people and maybe even a new beginning.
Waiting in line for the passport check, I take a look at my passport. I've so many stamps from all over the world: Britain, Holland, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and now my first stamp in South Africa and there'll be many more soon.
A year ago I wouldn't have imagined me standing in Africa or any other place, actually, all of this was spontaneous, it wasn't planned at all. After High School I started at Yale University studying law, my whole family was so proud of me, especially my dad. Everything at Yale was great; I got friends easily and classes were good. But everything at home was falling apart without me knowing. Around Thanksgiving, I found out that my parents were getting a divorce, due to the fact that my dad had cheated on my mom. When I was alone with my mom over Christmas break, I started to wonder what I was doing with my life. I always wanted to travel and see the world, but my dad wanted me to go to college right after High School so I didn't waste my time. I realized that I would never have the time, because after school, I would probably get a job, or spent a lot of time looking for one. After this realization I guilt tripped my dad to "sponsor" my tour. He wasn't happy about me taking a semester off, but he still felt guilty about the divorce and the cheating, so he gave in at last. I didn't even feel guilty using my dad like that, we've never been that close and he has enough money anyway.
"Hi miss, can I see your passport please." I hand over my passport to the man behind the glass. He takes a look at it and then at me. "How long are you staying in South Africa?" He asks, looking intently at me. "Only a week. I'm driving up South Africa and then into Namibia.". His frown turns into a smile. "You're going to love Africa. I guarantee that you don't want to leave again." I smile back at him, "I already like it." He laughs sincerely "Have a nice trip, miss.".
After picking up my backpack, I leave the terminal and tries to find my transfer. Pretty quickly I find a sign with my name, even though they spelt my name wrong, it's Quinn Fabray not Quin Fabrey. There's some other names on the sign, but it looks like I'm the first one, hopefully the others won't take too long.
Driving through Cape Town was interesting. On one side of the freeway you see small shacks for miles, and on the other side you see big expensive houses up the hillside. It's weird seeing poverty and wealth live side by side. Seeing the shacks, leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I feel grateful that I had everything I needed in my childhood.
After an hour drive and dropping other people off, we finally arrived at the hostel I'll be staying in for the night. It looks decent for a hostel, it's a two story white house with a fence around it and a main gate, so it's only people staying at the hostel that can get It looks decent for a hostel, it's a two story white house with a fence around it and a main gate, so it's only people staying at the hostel that can get in and out. Before I started traveling, I was kind of uneasy about staying at hostels, because of strangers, and I wasn't used to stay in places like that. But I've got to learn some great people at hostels in both Europe and Australia.
After checking in, I decided to go to the shared dorm room I'm staying in for the night. The room only contains a sink in the corner, four bunk beds and some lockers, but there isn't much space for anything else. The receptionist shows me the bed, I'm going to use, luckily it's one of the bottom bunks, I don't like sleeping in the top bunk, not after I fell down from one at cheer camp one year. He leaves the room, and I decide to take a nap, after traveling for over 20 hours I'm quite exhausted and I didn't get much sleep on the plane.
"Do you think she's on the safari? She's so pretty." Even without opening my eyes, I know someone is staring at me, I can just feel it, and it's probably me they're talking about. Have they never learned that it's rude staring at people who's sleeping and it's quite creepy too. "Sh.. Be quiet, or you'll wake her up." Someone says behind her, also a female voice with some accent I can't quite place. "Too late." I say as I sit up and check what time it is, apparently I've been sleeping for over two hours.
"I'm so sorry, it wasn't my intention waking you up!" In front of my bunk are two girls, one of them with blonde hair and fair skin, and the other one with red hair and freckles covering her nose and cheeks, I guess that they're around the same age as me.
"No problem, I forgot to set my alarm anyway, so you kind of saved me from oversleeping." I reply with a small smile before getting up. "I'm Quinn and yes, I am on the Overland Safari from Cape Town to Livingstone." The blonde, who woke me up, smiles. "I'm Louise and she's Katrhine." Kathrine glares at Louise and cut her off before she continuous talking. "Hey, I can talk myself, thank you very much." Okay, these girls don't seem that bad even though they woke me up. "So, where you from?" Kathrine directs at me. "I'm from Ohio, you know in the United States." They both chuckle "We know Ohio. We're both from Norway, you know where that is?"
An hour later it was time for the Pre-departure meeting. We meet up in a huge yellow truck outside the hostel, and supposedly that truck is my new home for the next three weeks.
"Can everyone take a seat, please, and then we will get started." A smiling African man calls out. "Hi, I'm going to be your guide for this entire safari. Everyone calls me Mr. Bombastic, so I expect you guys to do it too." He tries to glare intimidating at us, but end up laughing, then he points to the back of the truck. "Your turn, my brother."
Another African man nods. "Hi, I'm James, it's not my real name, because that is too hard to pronounce, so yeah, you can call me James. I'm going to be your driver, and the girl you're sitting in is Rufiji. She's a truck, not a bus. I'm a truck driver, not a bus driver. If I hear anyone calling her a bus, you're going to pay me or I will kick you out, and you can run after the truck." He looks absolutely serious and when I'm looking around I can see some terrified faces.
Mr. Bombastic just laughs "Don't be fooled, he's very serious. Okay, I'll call out your names and just put your hand up when I call your name: Daniel, Hannah, Kathrine, Lily, Marijke, Mei-Zehn, Quinn, Ryan, Santana.."
Everyone looks around when no one puts up their hand. "Anyone who knows Santana Lopez and why she's not here?" Mr. Bombastic asks, when no one answers he continues. "Oh okay, we'll try to contact her.. Tobias and Tony are you here?" Both guys put up their hands and nod.
"Okay, then let's get started maybe Santana will be joining us later. Some of you are going with us all the way up to Nairobi and others will be leaving the tour after three weeks in Livingstone. All the information you'll get now, is for the next three weeks and we'll take the information for the rest of the tour then. Okay, we can start with the local payment…"
I zone out after I realize that most of the information is in the papers they already sent me. I decide to take a look at the people that I'm going to spend three weeks with. Some of the girls I've already met and talked to, but some of the others I haven't talked to yet. Most of them are girls, but there are some guys, and it looks like and sounds like it's people from all over the world. I can't stop wondering about what happened to that girl who didn't show. She probably forgot about the Pre departure meeting or just didn't want to show up, or maybe something happened to her.
After one and a half hour of talking we're finally done, some of the others left for other hostels, so we're only a small group of girls left. It's late and I'm so hungry, because I haven't had anything to eat since my flight, fortunately the two Norwegian girls suggest that we order some pizza.
We're waiting yet another hour before the delivery guy shows up with the pizzas. We all settle down in the small TV room and start eating. When I take the first bite of my pizza I can't help my eyes rolling back, and I almost moan in pure pleasure. I haven't had a decent pizza in a month and there's even bacon on it, it can't get any better. Normally I would feel bad about eating pizza with all the grease and cheese, but in Thailand I ate rice for almost a month, so I think I deserve some pizza.
When everyone's done with their pizza, most of the girls decide to go to bed. Instead of joining them, I decide that I can use some of the precious wifi to Skype my boyfriend Finn. We haven't really talked much since I left 4 months ago, but I should tell him that I got here safely.
"Hi, Finn." He turns up on the screen, the angle not very flattering because he's laying down in his bed. "Hi, babe.."
Author's note: I promise that we'll meet Santana in the next chapter, don't worry :-) If you think that this is going to be a shit story and that I'm just wasting my time writing, please leave me a note!