Disclaimer: I'm just a fan, I do not own glee or it's characters.

A/N- Hey all, this story is un-beta'd so please don't mind the errors, sometimes I miss something when I'm reading over it.

The story is rated as 'drama' but I'm leaning towards a humorous drama.

Enjoy! :)

Prologue

The Lopez and Pierce family history started with a young Jonathon Pierce. Drunk and merry, he cackled and howled with his white friends in their favourite bar at the sight of Christiano Lopez mopping up their spilt drinks.

"Fucking Mexicans, in our country," he was slamming a hand on the table, fully aware that Christiano could understand English. "At least you serve us our beer, but a dog could do that too."

Jonathon Pierce got red in the face when he laughed at the way Christiano Lopez ducked his head in fear of pissing him off.

Christiano could not afford to lose this job, so week after week he cleaned the bar and worked his ass off to serve the racist men in Lima, Ohio. He had a wife and kids that depended on his low wages, he was a good religious man with an honest heart, and he saw the bigger picture: a future for his family.

Secretly, he spit in their beer.

Not-so-secretly, he raised his kids with an emphasis on education. Jonathon Pierce worked construction and Christiano soon owned the bar he had worked in, relishing the day he had a right to refuse service to the cackling red-faced asshole. They never saw each other again.

Many years later, nerdy sophomore Santiago Lopez got the best grades in McKinley High School and joined jazz band to play the drums. Popular senior, Bradford Pierce, who won the school's championship game with his golden arm in football routinely shoved Santiago into lockers and knocked his textbooks down.

"Nerd," he would snigger with his football friends and echo racism his father ranted at night, "go back to Lima Heights, to your Mexican flock."

Lima Heights was for the poor, blue-collared immigration folk that were beneath most students at McKinley High School.

Santiago was different from other kids bullied by Bradford, however. He would talk back and give Bradford smug smiles of his own, giving as good as he got. "I know two languages, you hardly know one."

Bradford would choke him against a locker, "at least I can get a fucking date, and the only action you get is that fat-ass Rita."

Any other day and the two would glare and go about their business, but on that particular day Santiago had the balls to taunt him with what the whole school knew, "heard you got your girlfriend pregnant. How classy. Ruin her life as well as yours!"

Bradford Pierce was red-faced as he socked him in the jaw, relishing how Santiago Lopez collapsed to the ground from the blow.

Weeks later, Bradford had to drop out of school and work construction to pay for the upcoming baby when Susan's parents kicked her out. Susan Doyle was teased and berated by all, and Santiago felt bad for her that he actually helped her study for a math test so she could graduate.

A generation later, Santana Lopez met Brittany S. Pierce at cheerleading camp. Women in Brittany's family were accustomed to cheerleading and Santana had been in gymnastics for awhile, deciding that if she was going to attend McKinley High instead of Lima Heights High, she should at least attempt to be part of the famous Cheerio's that made it on Fox Sports Net.

Sue Sylvester's Cheerios were a Lima pride. Santana had seen the special treatment they got around town from simply wearing their red and white uniforms while Brittany's mother was one of the important people that funded the Cheerio's booster club and urged her daughter into the sport via enthusiasm and agreeing to let the girl take dance classes.

When they met, Santana overheard girls calling Brittany 'stupid' and giggling about how the blonde had believed them when they said condoms were balloons. Santana noticed how the blonde's eyes watered with tears because she could hear what the other girls were saying, and in that split second she did something she had never done before. She stood up for someone other than herself. She told them to 'shut the fuck up and leave her alone' and the girls scattered off quickly.

"Th-thanks," Brittany wiped at her eyes. "But they're right… I'm stupid."

"No you're not," Santana had been watching the blonde during the first week of camp because there was something so captivating about her.

"How can you say that," Brittany looked confused, "you don't know me… they go to school with me and-and… everyone thinks I'm stupid there too."

Santana shook her head and smiled, admiring the way sunlight reflected off of gorgeous blonde hair. "You're the best here, they're just afraid of how amazing you are."

Brittany smiles, "you really think that?"

"Ugh… yeah. Totally. I bet you'll be the only freshman to make Coach Sue's Cheerio's."

Brittany S. Pierce turns red-faced from shyness, and Santana Lopez ducks her chin and avoids eye contact because she's afraid she's revealed too much. She knows the way she's been staring at Brittany isn't entirely normal, and sometimes she stares at other girls in ways that are wrong and frighten her.

When Brittany smiles at her though, bright blue eyes shimmering and teeth on display, Santana finds the courage to make eye contact again and return the smile.

"I'm Brittany," she sticks out her hand.

"Santana," she shakes the gentle hand, butterflies swimming in her stomach.

"You're like, super pretty," Brittany informs her, starting off their beautiful friendship.

Just over three years later, Santana Lopez was outed to the state of Ohio through an ad campaign and all of Lima knew she was dating Brittany S. Pierce.

OOO

The grocery store in Lima Heights Adjacent always had more Hispanic people than white, but one thing had never changed throughout Santana's childhood: people stared at her.

At first it was because she was the adorable daughter of the community's doctor, the girl boys fell in love with and girls wanted to be. They lived in one of four large houses in Lima Heights, wore noticeably nicer clothes, drove luxurious cars… and hell, she was as gorgeous as her mother and had her father's tan skin and wit.

People were jealous, her father would say to explain the stares.

Appearance is everything, her mother would correct.

For her parents, the way they were perceived always meant a lot. It was why coming out of the closet was so scary. She never in a million years thought her parents would still love her. She thought they would disown her but they didn't. She thought her grandmother would still love her but she didn't.

Abuela had disappointed her, but the sad thing was Santana still craved to be welcomed back.

It was Catch-22 that way. Abuela's genuine hugs were like a ghost that haunted her, and her parents hung around more. It was both awkward and comforting that the parental figures who were hardly there in her childhood had stepped up to love her when the woman that pretty much raised her told her to beat it.

Her grandmother had been there for her when Santana was the unlucky young woman who managed to be that 0.5% statistic for breast cancer while her parents hardly blinked and eye and paid the medical bills.

Now, as she walked towards the bakery section of the Lima Heights Food Value, people stared because she was still the extraordinary beautiful daughter of the community doctor, but they whispered because she was that "lesbian cheerleader" outed in an ad campaign who had shamed her family.

She had decided that it was no longer something she would let people hold over her, but it still hurt when she was judged and gossiped about so obviously.

Fucking Lima Heights. At least in McKinley, her status as Captain of the Cheerios helped her terrorize. At least at home her parents accepted and instilled pride in her. At least she had real friends, in Glee Club of all places.

"It's the dyke." The word still made her quiver inside, so much spite in the tone. She turned to see who actually had the guts to face her about it instead of harshly whisper it behind her back (this time).

Hernando. One of the people she used to think of as a friend. Quinn Fabray was a better friend, and that said a lot.

"Hernando."

"Ah! You remember my name," he reeked of cigarettes and the box of soda he was carrying was actually a box of beer that the store owner secretly stashed in the back to sell to minors. Again, Fucking Lima Heights. Kids at McKinley succeeded underage drinking through older siblings and parents. "Say, I'm sure I can fuck the dyke out of you. Let's do it."

Like she hasn't her that before. The natural look of intense disgust that covers her face is enough of an insult for Hernando, and his scoff indicates his manly feelings were hurt.

"Awww leave her alone baby, don't tempt her with what's mine" Hernando's girlfriend, Ava, was labeled Santana's best friend from the age of six. Then Santana left Lima Heights district school to attend McKinley High School because her parents didn't want her getting close to gang-kids and her grandmother didn't want Santana going away for boarding school. When she met Brittany at cheer camp the summer before McKinley, she learned what a true friend was. In comparison, Ava was a conniving bitch.

Then again, in comparison to Brittany there really was no better person.

She reached out and snatched the bread her mother absolutely loved. For the first time in her life - as she saw Ava cling desperately to her boyfriend and him wink roguishly at Santana – she was actually grateful to be a lesbian for a reason that didn't involve Brittany.

Since she came out of the closet she likes to think she's become a better person, someone actually worthy of Brittany's love. The fact that the opinion of these people didn't matter at that precise moment gives her confidence (even though she's pretty sure Hernando is packing a handgun these days).

"Disgusting." She shudders and then adds because she can't help herself, "you do know your boyfriend used to stalk me, right Ava? Obviously that hasn't changed."

They both stutter like fools and Santana is actually surprised Hernando still apparently crushes on her. It's been like, forever since she even gave him a second thought. Creepy.

"He did not!" Ava scoffs, shoving Hernando off of her. Santana smiled at the reaction raising an eyebrow as Ava stepped in front of her.

At school Ava had always had eyes for Hernando, he was considered the stud of studs. He had always crushed on Santana, and Santana had even danced with him once in eighth grade and they kissed for a bit, until he suggested she suck his dick and then she stopped talking to him because ew. She has never nor will ever suck a dick, the idea always grossed her the fuck out in ways that going down on a woman never did. How did she not know she gay back then, again?

Ava then stopped talking to her out of jealousy and offered to suck Hernando's dick and the rest was history. She met the Unholy Trinity and put the Lima Heights kids behind her to please her family, and her Abuela scared the crap out of Hernando whenever he would creep outside their house so the boyo wisely stayed away. Apparently since her grandmother doesn't love eh anymore, Hernando and Ava have the guts to try and annoy her.

"At least my parents aren't ashamed of me," Ava spat, grinning when Santana flinched. "My grandmother still cooks for me on Sundays, Santana. Everyone knows yours kicked you out."

Santana hadn't expected that. Did the whole fucking town know how she was disowned in a millisecond? Her Abuela was a figurehead of the Lima Heights Church, all Hispanic people she knew in Lima Heights she knew through that Church and her grandmother. Her parents were alienated from the whole social part of Lima, she didn't even know if her parents had a social life outside of travelling the world together.

She didn't go to Church these days either. She only ever went to please her grandmother, but even then she had often used to cheerleading as an excuse to bail. Her parents weren't religious, though she had seen her mother pray on occasion before bed.

Ava took a step forward and hissed, "you think you're better than us? Dr. Lopez must be absolutely devastated to have you as a daughter, at least my Papi is proud of me. I'm no pecadora."

"I'm very proud of Santana," her dad's American accent snaps the three's concentration to Dr. Lopez. He's cradling his purchases in his arms and glaring at the two kids.

Santana finds it easier to stand a little taller as her father reams her two ex-childhood friends loud enough for witnesses.

"How dare you say such things to my daughter. Come on Santana, we're leaving." He pauses and says to hit the point home, "Next time police will be involved."

They sit in the car after paying and Santana makes sure the bread isn't crushed in her grip.

"You're a good girl, Santana," her father says as he drives them home. "I know I don't say it to you, but I'm proud of you."

She closes her eyes, "I'm sorry-"

"For what? For getting a scholarship to Louisville? Proving you have brains and beauty?"

Santana lets the compliments wash over her. Finally admitting, "for being… gay, Papi. I'm sorry. I know that people have been saying things… and… Abuela won't even…"

"My mother's older brother was gay, Santana. He committed suicide."

Santana blinks in confusions because, seriously, what the fuck?

"No one in our family ever accepted him and look what happened, he haunts us every day. I have heard worse things from racists than from the bigots here in Lima Heights. And the world is changing, I mean, Brittany is a nice girl and her parents… accept you, don't they? People love tearing somebody down, it makes them feel better about themselves."

She knows this, she's done this herself when she was so mad at the world for making her have all of those feelings inside... God, she really is a terrible, terrible person.

"Do they think I care more for their opinion than I do my own daughter? No, Santana, never. I just want you to be happy… but, maybe you should take some kind of boxing classes or martial arts, Santana, get some fighting spirit in you."

Santana smiles, "if you say so."

They park in their driveway and her father chuckles, "I do! One more thing… don't you ever apologize for being this way again. I'm a doctor, I paid for an education that taught me this is not a disease or something that can be cured. You were born this way, mija."

Their first question when she came out to them had been, 'are you sure?' and she was so fucking sure and devastated about the commercial that they hugged her. Then they took her out to dinner and just… talked. Her father told her the same thing then that he did now: how in medical school he had learnt that homosexuality was not a disease, not something people could just stop. Her mother, also, had confided that her favourite television characters were always gay.

Brittany had told her on more than one occasion that the real her was the most awesome, ever since ninth grade when Santana stared at Brittany's post-puberty boobs too long. Even the dumbass Finn Hudson who outed her told her that she was more awesome as a lesbian than she was as the superhot girl he managed to lose his virginity to. But maybe that's more because she managed to make him feel utter crap and a used toilet… which made her feel kind of bad.

Somehow, none of that compared to what her father just said. Probably because now she was finally starting to accept herself.

And one thing was finally certain. She would take that scholarship to Louisville, she would wave her pom-poms, and she would study her ass off.

OOO

Brittany S. Pierce's dad was Dutch and her mom was Irish. At least, that was what they said their great-grandparents were back in the pioneer days, so really the two of them considered themselves 'just plain old white Americans' when she asked. She's been to Ireland and the Netherlands and can't pick one she likes more, which is totally how she feel about her parents. And Santana's boobs. Those are the kinds of things you can't love more than the other, she loves her mom and dad equally and, okay, sometimes she favours Santana's right boob because it went through that brief scare in 2010 of having breast cancer (but the summer surgery Santana liked to pretend was just a boob job fixed that and Brittany didn't want the other boob to feel neglected either).

"So like, it's Multicultural week," Brittany is telling her Student Council (she honestly doesn't know any of their names) because since it's her second year as Class President she's actually trying to do things. Plus, doing things is the best way to forget how lonely she feels with Santana off at University. "Since my roots are equal parts Dutch and Irish, I'm having a Keg-party at my house this Friday and serving ontbijtkoek. Spread the word that to be invited, everybody has to wear something of their ethnicity."

The halls of McKinley are swarming with various ethnic outfits, though Brittany is a little annoyed Blaine wears Scottish Garb instead of Hobbit things, she still hands him an invite to her party. Principal Figgins wears his Traditional Indian clothing with such pride and decides not to have a re-election for Senior Class President because of how successful Brittany is in involving the student body.

Brittany isn't really surprised. She's always been popular and a trend-setter. Rumour has it a bunch of kids worship her so much they want to repeat their senior years too.

She's happy all week, until Santana texts her Friday and apologizes for not being able to make it to her genius multicultural party, which doubly sucks because she had been drinking and was horny too. Santana's coach apparently wants them to make up for a horrible Friday afternoon routine by practicing all day Saturday so Santana won't be in Lima for another twenty-four hours.

Brittany drinks more than she usually does and sobs about it on Sam's shoulder. Cuddling him makes her feel a little better, and on Saturday Santana brings her some flowers and thing are back to normal.

Brittany isn't stupid though. Not having Santana around is getting harder every weekend and it's a new dynamic to their relationship which has always previously sailed smoothly because the distance hadn't existed before.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but distance can sometimes make the heart wander.

OOO

TBC