AN: Okay, so first, thank you for stopping by to read this. It is very much appreciated. Secondly, yes this is an AU fic. I used to be quite against them, but have recently read a few that blew my mind and thus made me consider writing this. At work this evening, I realized how oddly similar relationships in my own life are to those on Glee. And of course, I am a Brittana fan, so that's ultimately what this is...Brittana is endgame. The first chapter is a bit of intro, but I assure you, once the characters come in to play, then the real story will begin to unravel. As I said, this is based on my own life, but on Glee as well. If you don't enjoy it, I apologize, but if nothing else, it gives me an outlet for the workings of my life. Enjoy. And as nervous as I am, feedback is welcome. Definitely. Brittana fans, don't worry...Brittany will appear very soon.
-C

McKinley's

Chapter 1

Santana shot up in her bed and looked around quietly. The room was just beginning to fill with light which meant that she woke up before her alarm…2 minutes before to be exact. Somehow her body had made this a habit as of late, and although she would have been more than annoyed in the past, she couldn't complain these days.

Only 4 short months ago she remembers waking up to the cold and bitter chill in Lima, Ohio. Each day was a struggle as she hoped and prayed every waking (and sleeping) moment that some higher power could sweep her away from the dark, cold lifeless place that Lima had become to her. She wanted to go somewhere where dreams come true and unfortunately, Lima was not it. It seemed an impossible dream then, as singers and actresses don't find fame in the boring Midwest, especially not a place like Lima. Lima's only reason for fame would be providing a story for a good movie of the week, but nothing else.

New York always seemed like the ultimate dream until 6 months ago, when Santana's best friend and soul mate, Blaine, had convinced her to visit Sunny California before making a final decision. Blaine had taken a college leadership trip to San Francisco and knew instantly that if Santana ever set foot in the Golden State, she wouldn't want to leave. Boy did he know her better than she sometimes knew herself. Santana, Blaine, Santana's best friend Mercedes, and Mercedes' husband, Marcus, all took a week long trip to Southern California. Santana organized the whole trip, claiming it was mostly to see her favorite band and one of the most epic concerts of the century, but she secretly knew this was going to be a big piece of the puzzle in trying to figure out life after college.

There was a day towards the end of the trip in which the fantastic four were sightseeing at Venice Beach. Blaine and Santana wandered away from Mercedes and Marcus, giving the couple time alone as they had never taken a true honeymoon yet and this doubled as one for them. Santana slowly trudged through the sand along the shoreline, feeling a bittersweet pull in the bottom of her stomach. She felt so free walking along this massive pool of water they called the ocean, but felt so overwhelmed at the same time. She knew that after seeing the beauty of the water, smelling the sea and the mountains and enjoying the warmth of the sun out west, she couldn't return to the cold dark land of Lima that held nothing for her anymore. Blaine noticed that something was up, as most everyone else at the beach were playing joyously in the water and playing in the sand, and yet, his best friend Santana looked like her dog died.

Blaine decided to try and find out what was going on with his best friend, hoping for the best. "Soooo….is there anything you want to talk about, Santana?"
"No….I mean, what? What do you mean? We're on the beach in beautiful California…what is there to talk about? I'm fine. It's beautiful here. That's it." She didn't mean to sound rude, but she was fighting the inner turmoil of knowing this vacation was almost over and real life was coming back to slap her in the face with a cold hard wake up call.

Blaine chuckled before responding, "Yeah, there's the Santana I know…always shutting down when life has the chance to get really good."
Santana gave him a look. "Excuse me, I do not shut down!"
He grinned and looked out at the ocean. "Oh, of course you don't."
She looked out at the sun setting on the horizon. "Shut up, Blaine. I don't…I just…get really bitchy…when I know that life could go a certain way but probably won't because I live in Lima-fucking-Ohio, and good things don't happen to Santana Lopez." Her frown slowly turns into a grin. "Yeah, I do that, don't I?" They both share a laugh.
"So, tell me, what are you thinking, Santana?" he asked again, honestly.
"I'm thinking," she says slowly, "that I can't go back there. I can't go back to that place. It was great when I went off to college…I mean, college was the first time I could really be me -the true-to-life version of me and not some version I tried to be for everyone else. I could love girls and let everyone know and not have to keep looking over my shoulder to see if someone was whispering about me. But after so many failed relationships with straight girls," Blaine chuckles to himself and slugs Santana in the arm, "and no chance at making it big in the entertainment industry, I just think Lima and the Midwest are over for me. And as much as I wanted to go to New York…I just feel like this is it. THIS is where I'm meant to be…at least at this point in my life. I need to be here. I feel like for the first time in years, I can just…breathe….and I feel…alive. Ya know?" Dammit. She really hated when Blaine made her open up like this. How did he do that? Damn soul mates.

"Well, Santana, let's make a pact, right here and now…within, let's say, ohhhhh, one year. Yes, one year from this month of September, let's move back here, to beautiful California. The land of ocean, mountains, and good old gays like ourselves." Santana, caught off guard by his last few words, laughed loudly.
"Did you really have to add that last part in," she asked with a smile.
"We are who we are, San. No point in hiding it at this place in our lives, right? We're nothing less than perfect and we should be so…proudly." He put his arm around her to ease her nerves.
"Yeah, yeah…what would I do without a friend like you?" She gave him her signature smile.
"Well, you'd be crying right now thinking about being in Lima land for the rest of your days. But instead," he flashed his Hollywood smile, "we can now begin focusing on the beauty that will be our lives in Sunny So-Cal. Don't be sad today, San…just you wait. One year from now, we'll be here living our dreams. And who knows, maaaaybe you'll even have a lady in your life. That doesn't require batteries of course," he added quickly with a smile before taking off running. She was definitely going to punch him for that. Or perhaps throw him in the ocean.
"Are there sharks here? I really hope so!" she screamed. "I hope they eat you!"
"No," he laughed, "but I'm pretty sure there are dolphins."
"Well…..dolphins are just gay sharks, anyway," she replied as she ran down the shoreline after him.

Santana smiled as she looked out at the mountains from her bedroom window while fondly recalling that day by the water. The sun was now peeking just over the tip of the landscape. She shook her head slowly, "I can't believe I live here. I can't believe this is all real and that only 2 months after that pact, Blaine and I made it happen." She opened the bedroom window and inhaled the morning mountain air. "Mmmm…I can't believe I get to smell the ocean every morning. God definitely laid a hand." She smiled as the bed moved slightly. She looked over to see Lord Tubbington, Blaine's cat join her on the bed to smell the air with her. "Isn't that right, Tubby?" she asked while giving him a scratch behind the ears. He purred back loudly. "Yeah….the only thing that could make life better now, is if I had a girl to share it with. " Lord Tubbington blinked at her. "What," she said while pushing him away from her, "I can find a girl. Just wait. I didn't come to the land of dreams for nothing." Lord Tubbington keep staring. "Yeah, okay, I didn't come for just a girl either. Buuuut, a singing career might too much to ask for right away. A girl isn't, right?" She realizes she's still talking to a cat. "Omg, I've gotta make some new friends, fast. I'm talking to a frickin' cat. Don't you dare tell anyone about this," she ordered. Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of her phone alarm.
"But first…I've gotta get ready for that lovely thing called work. McKinley's, here I come."

Santana enjoyed the walk to work, taking in all of the California scenery and listening to her ipod. Music and landscape was all she needed to start her morning right.
"Who needs Wheaties when you've got all this," she thought to herself with a chuckle. She was on her way to McKinley's, a popular grocery chain on the west coast. The retail world was nothing new to Santana as she had previously worked in the apartment industry and at another grocery chain back in Lima. She worked both jobs while going to school and hoped that one of them might take her to her next point life. After moving to CA, she decided she was pretty burnt out on the housing world and wouldn't mind continuing with her experiences in the meat/seafood world. Although it sounded a bit crazy for a college grad to want to work with meat and fish every day, Santana found it to be an interesting/alternative way to pay the bills. Sure, she could've tried her hand a being a starving artist, or starving waitress, but there was just something about the meat and seafood world that she couldn't get out of her system. Since beginning work in the department a year and a half ago, she had learned so much about cooking and food in general - such as cuts of meat, types of fish, liquor and beer and how to pair it with a meal….really, the knowledge was endless. She almost felt like she learned more at her job than she did in college. Almost. Crazy how that sometimes works.

She arrived at McKinley's a few minutes before 8, right on time as usual. She couldn't wait to get the day started and see who she could meet today. She headed back to the back room where she began to put on her white meat coat and red apron. She made sure her name tag was on the left, just as they had explained in training. She'd only been working at McKinley's for a month and was still trying to make a good impression. Ultimately, she didn't expect to be working here forever, but wanted to make a good impression while she was here anyway.

As she opened the door to the meat cooler to enter the department, she ran into her co-worker, Finn. She thoroughly enjoyed everything about Finn Hudson, but couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was. Finn was just one of those people you meet in life that you know you were supposed to meet, yet you fear you may never learn why. She already knew that fate or God or some higher power had put her and Finn on the same path, for the simple fact that she and Finn showed up to the same exact interview for McKinley's on the same exact day. Now, that might seem not out of the ordinary, but the interview took place at a completely different store than the one for which they were both hired. They also didn't know at the time that they were both applying for the same position. The level of crazyiness went up a notch when Santana walked into her customer service training class and found Finn sitting with the only empty seat next to him. From the moment she sat down, they instantly knew they'd be friends.

"Hey, how's it going, Santana?" Finn asked with his usual dopey grin.
"Oh, another day in paradise. Literally," she said with a smile.
"Still not missing Lima Bean, I take it?" he asked with a small chuckle. Lima bean was the nickname Finn had given her former place of residence. He hated lima beans and thus decided that if she hated Lima, OH as much as he hated lima beans, then of course the only way for him to truly feel her hatred would be to nickname it Lima Bean.
"You know me so well…for not really knowing me at all," she said with a smile but still not understanding how she already was lucky enough to make a friend like Finn.
"Well, if I know you as well as I think I do, I know you'll be just THRILLED,," he said while putting up jazz hands, "to know that Sue is on the rampage right now. Apparently, Jacob is working later today and, well, you know how worthless, I mean, what a good worker Jacob Ben Israel is." His frown slowly turned upwards into a smile.
Santana put on her hat with a sigh. "Ugh…Sue just had to ruin my mood, right? I mean, I love this place, but seriously, how is Jacob still working here? He's the laziest piece of sh-"
"GOOD morning ladies!" Sue exclaimed while literally popping out from nowhere. Finn and Santana looked at each other. Did she just say ladies? "I mean, Lady and Santana. As much as I love my team exchanging pleasantries, I love even more when they get to wrappin' and I'm not talking Tupac or Christmas presents. Get out there and wrap up some meat and seafood. I'm sure you've heard Jacob, aka, "talks-a-lot-and-does-very-little" will be making an 8 hour appearance later today, and as such I need you two to actuallydo some work around here. So, enough with the warm up, get going with the routine. And as usual, I'll just go sit in the back and do…uh, paperwork, You know, the fancy shmancy behind the scenes work that runs the show. See you in two hours." And before they could even get a word in, Sue was gone with her meat coat flowing behind her.

"I don't know who has it made more, Ben or Sue," Santana said while walking into the meat department.
"Wait, did she call me a lady?" Finn asked still standing in the same spot. "And wait, what does that make you, Santana? Santana?" He looked up realizing she was already gone. "Oh, man. This place is definitely something else," he said as he ran to catch up with her