Chapter 1

"LeRoy just called and said they were on their way to the Lopez's. Hiram had to stop by the office to grab their gift for Alma. Judy and Russell are already at there preparing for dinner. Maribel and Antonio are going to meet us at Party City to get the decorations." Susan says to her husband Byron from the passenger seat.

"That's great Sweetheart, have you heard anything from the kids? They were supposed to be with the Fabray's helping out with dinner." He flips off a driver who honks at them for not turning right away. The light literally just turned green. "Impatient asshole." Susan slaps him on the arm for cursing and he just shoots her a pout. And everyone wonders where their daughter gets that ridiculously cute pout from.

"I believe Brit and San have practice today, Quinn has her debate team, and Rach has Glee. So they'll be back in time for dinner. You and Toni are picking up Alma before dinner starts." Just as they pull into an open parking space, a sleek black Mercedes pulls into the space next to them.

Before Susan can roll up her window, the driver's side of the Mercedes rolls down his window and the man in the car shoots her a grin. "Hey gorgeous, how's dinner tonight sound?" He adds a cheeky wink and Susan feigns a gasp.

"Well I'd have to check with my husband, but I'm sure something could be arranged." Susan playfully says before opening her door and stepping out. The man and his wife steps out as well after rolling up his window and shutting off his car. He gives her a hug and a kiss on the cheek and they share a laugh. "Hi Toni." She heads over to the other side of the car to greet Maribel with a hug. "Your husband's a goof."

"You're telling me. This morning he and Santanita were flinging pieces of bacon at each other. If Lucy Q was there she would have probably flipped!" The two woman laughed while the two men shared their own personal greeting with fist bumps and man hugs.

The four of them, the men with their arms over their respective wives, head into the store to grab birthday banners and decorations.

Back at the Lopez household...
"Honey, I don't think Toni and Mari would appreciate it if we burnt down their kitchen." Judy says teasingly as she watches her husband struggle with frying the fish. He's already burnt one, but insisted that he could hold his own in the kitchen.

"I got this Babe, just hand me a plate will you." He says trying to keep this fish from burning. Judy laughs but hands him a plate and kissing him on the cheek before going back to cutting up some vegetables. The sound of the front door opening causes her to look up for a moment. "I'm pretty sure the Berry's are here." She says loudly and purposely. The chuckling of two men could be heard before two smile faces appeared in the kitchen.

"JuJu!" Hiram exclaims rushing over to greet one of their best friends with a hug, LeRoy does the same before they both greet Russell with hugs as well. "How can we help?" He says nodding towards Russell who look like he needed some assistance. Judy laughed and Russell huffed.

"We'll leave the cooking to you guys." Russell said handing the spatula to Hiram. "We'll go set up the dinner table." He says taking half the plates from LeRoy and heading the the dinning room. LeRoy winks at his husband before slapping Russell on the back.

"Let's go Buddy." Russell mumbles something indecipherable but leads the way while Hiram and Judy continue to chat and cook away.

McKinley High Gym
"Pierce get your head in the game!" Her coach yells after blowing his whistle from the sidelines. While most school sports are known for their boy's basketball and football team, McKinley had the number one girl's basketball team in the Nation.

Brittany shakes her head in attempt to concentrate better. She was the captain of her team and she had to focus. Come on Pierce. Focus. But she's invested so much time on basketball that her grades were starting to slip. So she's been staying up late studying and not getting enough sleep. She couldn't afford to be put on probation, their biggest game of the season was coming up and they had to win to get to playoffs.

"LT 12!" She yells to her teammates, dribbling the ball up the court. She passes the ball to their power forward before she can be trapped at half court and sprints to the right. She takes the screen and cuts to the left corner of the court just in time to receive the pass from her post at the three point mark. She shoots just as the defender is about to reach her, with nothing but a swoosh as the ball falls through the net. They had executed the play flawlessly before they're told to run suicides. By the time they were done the whole team was sweating bullets. And Brittany finally took the time to calm down, pretty much gulping down more than half of the water in her water bottle.

"Hey B." Her best friend Blaine says as he walks into the gym. The rest of the guys from the boy's basketball should be there any minute. "You look like crap." He says dryly.

"Well i feel like it too. I'm not getting enough rest with the big game coming up soon, the team is depending on me to bring my best, and with homework and our midterms coming up, i'm spent." She says with a huff. "And I think Lord Tubbington is mad at me for not spending as much time with him as i usually do." Her famous pout is now being sported and Blaine can't help but frown.

"Hey, it'll be okay B. We'll figure something out." Before he could say much more, his coach calls him over.

"Anderson! Stop flirting with your girlfriend and get warmed up!" Blaine's shoots his friend an apologetic look. Brittany just shrugged it off and sighed before heading to the showers to clean up.

McKinley High Football Field
"You call this cheerleading?! You girls are pathetic, if you keep this up we wont be keeping our National title this year! Boobs McGee! Get your squad together! I can't watch this pathetic excuse of a performance any second longer! Get it together!" Coach Sue Sylvester shouts through her bullhorn as her squad winces at how loud she actually is.

Santana frowns. Their routine was flawless. Coach Sue just wanted to bust their chops. They've been practicing this routine for a week now in preparation for the big game in a month.

"Alright you heard her! Run it again!" She commands her squad before getting back in her place and counting off. They go through the routine four more times before Santana calls it a day and dismisses her squad to hit the showers. Sue's been putting more pressure on her as Captain. It's been stressing her out for weeks now. Before heading to the showers, she sneaks under the bleachers where her best friend is already waiting for her, a cigarette already lit.

"You look like you really need one." Puck says taking a drag. "Sue's something else."

"Sue's bat crazy. And she's driving me ape shit." Santana says taking a hit from her own cigarette. "I don't know how much i can take. With the big game and midterms coming up, this time of the year is always crazy."

"Yeah I hear you. I got my fake ID, we can always go to that park on main and get piss drunk under the slide. Maybe we can find a more fulfilling way to make that banging body of yours sore. " Puck suggest wiggling his eyebrows. Santana punches him on the arm before letting out a chuckle.

"In your dreams Puckerman. And as enticing as that sounds, it's my Abuela's birthday today, and were having a family dinner, so i'll have to take a raincheck on those drinks." She kills the remaining of the cigarette before getting up and heading to the showers. "See ya Loser."

"Yeah, yeah. Later Hoe." Santana flips him the bird without even looking back and Puck chuckles. That's they way their friendship has always been.

McKinley High Auditorium
"Push it, push it real good" They finish with all six of them panting out of breath. Mr. Schuester stands there with his eyes wide clapping slowly for the group of kids in front of him. Their official glee club had started two weeks ago and it wasn't exactly a successful turn out of auditions.

"That was...good guys.. really. We just need to work on some things an-"

"Just tell the truth , that was horrible. Although my voice was excellent as usual, our choreography sucked and we weren't in sync. We don't even have enough members to qualify for regionals, let alone nationals. I'm never going to be able to follow my dream as a famous actress on broadway. And i will never be able to share my beautiful voice with the world. I don't kn-"

Mr. Shue cut Rachel off before she could rant much further. "Rachel! Rachel! Calm down. It's alright. You guys were good, we just need a more suitable song and a little more practice and we'll find members. We can hold auditions Monday during lunch."

"Yes. You're right . Im sorry fellow glee members for over reacting. I realize that things can still be salvaged." Rachel said seemingly calm. But in the inside she was freaking out. Glee club was a chance for her and her team mates to show the world or well the rest of Lima that they were stars. She's wanted to be a star since she was three and first picked up a mic.

"So let's start brain storming for ideas. Oh and before I forget, Principal Figgins has asked if we could perform during half time at the big game next month, so this week and next, we'll be preparing with song that have the fighting spirit in them." Rachel sighed taking in the news. They had to be prepared for it, she didn't want another reason to be picked on at this school.

McKinley High Academic Decathlon Team
Bzzzz! "The answer is 42."

"Wrong. Quinn it's your chance to steal." The debate coach said. But it fell upon deaf ears. it seemed like Quinn was in her own little world. "Quinn. Quinn Fabray. Qiunn!" That seemed to snap Quinn out of her thoughts.

"Uh the answer is 12." She says after quickly assessing the math problem on the board. Her coach send her a look.

"That is correct. Pay attention Quinn. You know how important this competition is that's coming up. We need you to be focused."

"Yes . I understand." Mike Chang, her best friend shoots her a questioning look, but Quinn just shrugs it off. She's been stressing over colleges lately. It's getting closer and closer to the deadline for applications and she still was sure where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do. Quinn's always been an organized planner. Not knowing what to do is really throwing her off.

"Alright you guys get some rest and don't forget to study pages 94-143. We're running out of time." The team packs up their things and heads out.

Quinn says goodbye to Mike before heading towards the front of the school. Rachel was already waiting for Santana, and it looked like Brittany wasn't there either.

"Rachel." She greets stiffly.

"Quinn."

McKinley High School Girl's Locker Room
"You know that's bad for you right." Brittany says when she smells the cigarettes coming from Santana. She's done getting dressed and is about to head to the front of the school when Santana entered the room.

"Just mind your own business Pierce." Santana bites. Brittany raises an eyebrow.

"Just saying. And i know Abuela wouldn't appreciate you smelling like an ashtray either." She retorts before heading out. Santana rolls hers eyes before quickly getting showered and changed and heading to meet the rest of the girls out in front.

Their parents have always been close, ever since high school. And although they've grown up together, they all had different interests and different cliques. They pretended to act civil in front of their parents, but if it weren't for them they wouldn't be talking at all. The whole school thinks they're weird, some days they'll show up with each other, but they won't talk if they don't need too. In fact, they're mostly cold towards each other.

Today their parents insisted that they carpooled with Santana, since their plans later on was at the Lopez residence. Every car ride was awkward no matter who sat where and who drove.

Santana came to a stop in front of the school with her car, not bothering to look at the three girls waiting for her.

"Took you long enough." Quinn muttered under her breathe, getting into the passenger seat. Santana glared at the shorter haired blonde. Brittany had already put her ear phones in and Rachel was texting on her phone.

"It's my car Fabray. You could have walked."

"Uh huh, sure cause that would go over great with the 'rents." Santana rolled her eyes and nothing else was said on the way to the Lopez residence.