Chapter 1:
Rachel walks up the grey steps to the looming blue-black door of the great Victorian house and knocks tentatively. She looks down at the words scrawled on the back of her mother's business card to be given to the taxi before: 'Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies'.
The black letters are smudged slightly by the rain as it pours down from the gray clouds.
As she hears the sound of the door being unlocked, she looks back up and smiles brightly. She wants to make a good impression for her new freak show sorority, or so she had heard her sister call it when her mother told them Rachel was being sent away.
A blonde woman opens the door and matches the brightness of Rachel's grin.
"Hello, I'm Cordelia Goode. You must be Rachel Berry, the girl from Ohio we've been expecting," she says.
"Hi. Um, yes. I'm Rachel," Rachel says.
"Please, come in," she continues.
Rachel suddenly feels herself becoming less afraid. There is a feeling about the house that she has never felt before. It's a dark but familiar and almost comforting aura. The interior of the building is stunning. The walls, the furniture, the fireplace, everything is white and absolutely beautiful. Rachel admires the Gone With the Wind-esque stairs and walks through the threshold of the mansion.
She carries three bags with her, not knowing for how long she would be staying. She closes the door behind her.
Cordelia guides her over to the bottom of the stairs.
"Rachel, I'm sure that by now you've noticed that there is something special about you. Something that you may have previously thought impossible," Cordelia says.
"I'm not sure exactly what your parents told you, but this is not just a place that people send their children when they have problems they don't know how to deal with. This is a coven. The only one left, actually," Cordelia says.
Rachel, about a week ago began to notice strange things about herself that, when she inquired to her parents, they told her of her lineage going back to Salem and that she was indeed a witch.
"Yes, um, my mother told me that. She said that her grandmother was a part of this coven. I- She also said that witches are growing scarce," Rachel says, stuttering at how strange it sounded coming out of her mouth.
"Unfortunately, yes. That's true. Seventy year ago, this coven housed more than forty girls. Now, it's down to seven. Well, now eight," Cordelia says. She smiles. Rachel sees now why she was so happy to see her. She fears that witches will die out and knows that if new witches do not discover their power, then they could cease to exist forever. "Not including me and the council and of course my mother," she finishes.
"So, where is everyone?" Rachel asks.
"Abigail, Samantha, Keira, Gia, and Sage are all out, but Quinn and Santana are both upstairs. In fact, I was just about to show you to your room. You'll be living with Santana, as fate would have it," Cordelia smiles again.
Cordelia walks Rachel up the stairs and down a long, white hallway. She stands next to the door and knocks.
"Who is it?" Santana's voice is muffled by the door that separates them.
"It's Mrs. Goode, Santana. I'm here with your new roommate, Rachel Berry," Cordelia says.
"Rachel Berry? Where'd she get that name? Bath and Body Works Summer Collection?" Santana asks.
Rachel stiffens up but almost smiles as she does so. Mostly because she's used to it, but partly because even though the joke was pointed at her, she doesn't detect cynicism in Santana's voice. For the first time, strangely, she feels in on the joke.
"Santana-" Cordelia is cut off by the white door opening and Santana standing in the doorway.
"Santana, this is your new roommate, Rachel Berry," she finishes.
Santana is suddenly hit with a feeling- something uncanny- something she'd never felt before herself but countless movies and books had tried to put into words. It is a kind of magnetic sensation, and she feels it over her whole body. She's undeniably drawn to the beautiful girl looking back at her. Her own dark brown eyes blink quickly as she tries to conceal her star struck gaze.
As silly as it sounds and embarrassed she is for even thinking it, Santana suddenly understands the pure essence of butterflies in your stomach. This doesn't feel like mere attraction- no. It's an undeniable urge, almost on a cosmic level, and it feels like it takes everything she has not to push Ms. Goode-y Two Shoes out of the way and kiss Rachel right there and then.
She's almost unable to speak at this sudden feeling, but she opens her mouth and says, "So you're the newbie. We've heard about you. None of the interesting stuff, of course," she looks pointedly at Cordelia, "you'll have to fill me in yourself on all of that," Santana says, knowing that it is better to deflect her very sudden, very terrifying feeling as the usual innuendo filled vibe she reserves for... well everyone. But she can already tell this Rachel girl is not everyone.
It is better to appear as guarded and find out as much as she can. Hell, she doesn't even know if she's a lesbian yet. 'Put it back in your pants, Santana," she thinks to herself. 'Fate is not so generous that your incredibly hot new roommate, who shows up mere months after you came out to the coven, is a lesbian too. No. Your luck is not that's great,' she thinks.
Rachel has been struggling with confusing feelings for a while now. She used to open magazines and think to herself, 'Wow, she's beautiful,' rather than, 'Wow, he's handsome,' and she would think nothing of it. But recently she's been wondering. What it would be like to be with a woman- to experience everything she's always wanted to experience. She's always known she's had these feelings on some levels, but standing here, looking at Santana, one of the most beautiful women she's eve seen, magazine or not, it all feels so real. As she looks at her, she realizes that there is nothing more that she wants than to kiss her, touch her; it's an undeniable attraction, and she had never felt it for a boy. The urge. The want. Chemistry bounces off the walls, and even Cordelia seems to notice the depth of the gaze between Rachel and Santana.
"Well, you guys... um," Cordelia searches her head for the words to use without them being soaked in innuendo, "have fun getting to know each other," Mission failed. Oh well. Cordelia smiles yet again and walks away and down the stairs.
Rachel bites her lip, insanely cutely, Santana, if she were narrating this story, might add.
"Um... Here, come in. Well I mean it's your room. You don't need my permission or anything," Santana internally rolls her eyes at how awkward what she just said was.
Rachel just smiled.
"So, Santana. Thats a cool name. Like the band?" Rachel asks as she sets her things down on the floor of the room.
"Uh, yeah. I'm not sure how I got it. I wasn't really there for the naming process," Santana says. She looks at Rachel. There's something about her that she just can't put her finger on. It's something special- a quality she's never seen in anyone else before. It magnifies her beauty and intoxicates her.
"This is my bed; this room was originally intended for three people. I mean, there are like twenty empty rooms in this house. I guess they put us together to be good influences on each other or something," Santana says. Not that she's complaining.
"Sorry you're stuck with me, then," Rachel says. Santana is about to tell her that that wasn't what she meant, but she sees the smile on Rachel's face as she looks down, unpacking her luggage.
"So, I take it this bed is mine," Rachel asks.
"Unless you wanna share," Santana says, gesturing to her own bed.
Rachel's eyes widen in surprise, and she can't say she hates the idea.
"Um- I... Uh-" Rachel stutters.
"I'm kidding," Santana says, more confident now in her new roommate's impartiality towards females, so to speak. The look on Rachel's face when she said it, it was the most adorable thing Santana had ever seen.
Rachel now also wonders about Santana. She considers doing the one thing her mother told her never to do; use her power unless absolutely necessary. She discovered that she has a sort of Clairvoyance, but a very special kind. For whatever reason, hers is different. She can hear people's thoughts, but she can control who's thoughts she hears and when.
It's strange to Rachel; when she first discovered them, she was staring at her mother after she had gotten into trouble for doing something- she doesn't remember what- and she suddenly heard 'What will I do with you, Rachel?', and she clearly knew it wasn't her own thought. She had been told about the Seven Wonders and the lineage of witches in her family, so she... experimented a bit. Now, looking at Santana, she is wondering if she could forgive herself for invading Santana's mind like that. Then a terrible thought shook her. What is Santana herself can hear her thoughts? Should she ask her.
"So what can you do? What's your power?" Santana asks.
Turns out she didn't have to.
"Clairvoyance," Rachel says.
Santana is frozen. She fears that Rachel has heard everything that she has thought about her since she saw her. 'Shut up, stupid brain,' she thinks.
"Don't worry. It's kind of a distorted Clairvoyance. I can hear thoughts, but I get to choose who and when. I have control over it," Rachel's says, "And I haven't been peeking in on your head, just to let you know," she finishes.
"Oh," Santana says, relieved.
"What about you?" Rachel asks, plopping down on the bed, sitting up and smiling feeling a slight head rush and then giggling like a kid drunk on candy and soda.
"Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, and Transmutation," Santana says, not exactly humbly.
"Wow, three? That's amazing. Have you ever wondered if," Rachel lowers her voice as if she is telling the biggest secret, "you're the next supreme?"
Santana nods. She feels like she has a groupie, and she's making no effort at all to prevent it from going to her head. But Rachel's no groupie. She's the main event itself.
Rachel, again very close, almost whispers, "Can you show me?" The close proximity makes Santana's legs feel like they've turned to liquid and her heart beat acts like it's confused. Rachel smells like lemons and vanilla which shouldn't really go together but do- so so well.
Santana blinks and swallows hard, trying to take herself out of the trance mere eye contact with Rachel has put her in and sits up.
"Yeah, sure," she says.
She holds out her palm and without even thinking about it, a flame dances on her skin. Rachel watches in awe like she's seeing fire for the first time. Santana looks to Rachel again as Rachel watches the flame. Distracted, Santana lets the flame go out, and Rachel looks back to Santana.
"That was very cool," Rachel said.
"Thanks," Santana says.
"Sorry," Rachel says as she accidentally brushes her hand on Santana's thigh.
"It's fine," Santana says.
Thunder booms, and the rain becomes heavier. But Santana and Rachel's eyes never leave each other's.
Rachel doesn't exactly know what was the reasoning behind her sudden impulse; normally she would wait weeks and weeks to try this, but something about Santana, about this moment, and the culmination of all her wondering and confusing feelings that lead Rachel to here. She leans in and kisses Santana. Santana, at first, is shocked but also elated at the sudden turn of events. She kisses back and feels the softness of the brunette's lips.
Their lips, tingling at the sensation of each other's mouths, part for a moment. They return to each other unable to stop; their lips feel like they are mad for each other, and though the kiss remains slow and sensual, the intensity and desperation in the movements of their lips grows as Rachel runs her tongue along Santana's teeth and let's her own dance softly with the other girl's tongue.
They part again. Santana's hands are amid Rachel's soft brunette locks, and she gently holds the back of her head, not wanting there to be too much space between them. They both kind of smile and let out a nervous giggle.
"I've never tries that before," Rachel says.
"Kissing a girl?" Santana asks.
Rachel nods. It was the truth. And it was everything she imagined it would be- soft and gratifying.
"Well that's surprising. You're a really good kisser," Santana says.
"So are you," Rachel says.
"I'm sorry. I know I must seem weird. I mean, I met you like five minutes ago, but I don't know; something was telling me I had to try that," Rachel says.
"So you're not-" Santana is disappointed and distraught hearing that this may have been a whim, an experiment.
"No. I mean, I've been wondering. For a long long time about it. I've always wanted to... try it, but I just hadn't met a girl that I felt you know that for," Rachel says.
Santana knows what she means. When she was first thinking about coming out, she had only kissed a handful of girls, all of whom are straight, but she knows the feeling Rachel is talking about. It's like you have these feelings you want to act on ,and suddenly there's an opportunity too, so you have to take it.
Suddenly Santana had another thought. Quinn. She knows Quinn just came out to her parents a couple weeks ago. Santana and Quinn have a complicated relationship. They've always been in competition with one another. Santana doesn't want Rachel to be just another thing to fight over. She thinks Rachel could be really something special, and she doesn't want Quinn coming in the middle of it.
(A/N: Sorry, kind of a crappy way to end the chapter. This is still a work in progress, and this is also a lot of set up before we get to the good stuff. :) Quinn will come in in the next chapter, btw. So, I hop you liked it! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!)